The Holocaust, Days of Rememberance

 What is Days of Remembrance?

The U.S. Congress established Days of Remembrance as the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust and created the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a permanent living memorial to the victims. This year, Holocaust Remembrance week is May 1 through May 8, 2011. The Museum designated “Justice and Accountability in the Face of Genocide: What Have We Learned?” as the theme for the 2011 observance. In accordance with its congressional mandate, the Museum is responsible for leading the nation in commemorating Days of Remembrance and for encouraging appropriate observances throughout the United States. The United States Holaucaust Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/



What is the Holocaust? Who are we remembering?

The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi
Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims—six million were murdered; Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war,and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi Germany.

Why is Days of Remembrance observed in the United States?

In 1980, Congress unanimously passed legislation to establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which oversees the Museum. The Council, which succeeded the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, was charged with carrying out the following recommendations:

• That a living memorial be established to honor the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and to ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust will be taught in perpetuity

• That an educational foundation be established to stimulate and support research in the teaching of the Holocaust.

• That a Committee on Conscience be established that would collect information on and alert the national
conscience regarding reports of actual or potential outbreaks of genocide throughout the world.

• That a national day of remembrance of victims of the Holocaust be established in perpetuity and be held annually.

The Days of Remmberance 2011 Theme: What Have We Learned?    http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor/years/detail.php?content=2011&lang=

Scottsboro Boys Play - West Coast,

Picture taken at Lyceum Theater, New York.

"Scottsboro Boys" play, west coast...The Old Globe - Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, San Diego-April 22-June 3, 2012 and American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco-June 19-July 15, 2012. http://www.playbill.com/news/article/150561-California-Bookings-of-Scottsboro-Boys-Confirmed-Seattle-Boston-Chicago-Being-Eyed  The article states: "The Scottsboro Boys tells the true story of nine black youths accused of raping two white women in the Depression-era South." The play "tells the true story," says the "Playbill" article, but their meaning of a "true story" is certainly different from my meaning of a true story.

The play is a modern minstrel depiction of one of the most tragic events in American legal history. The "Scottsboro Boys" play minstrel production does not tell the "true story" of this event which lasted for 45 years within the American justice system and destroyed the lives of the nine youths - beginning in March of 1931 and ending with the Pardon of Clarence Norris, "The Last of the Scottsboro Boys" in October 1976.

The "Scottsboro Boys" play is controversial in a positive way, it brings to light the historical significance of the Scottsboro Boys Trials. It cannot depict the sacrifice of African Americans subjected to a system of Jim Crow racial injustice nor depict the the sacrifice of blacks and whites united in a cause to see justice served. The play should spark an educational curiosity in the minds of the attendees and others to make an inquiry into the reality of Jim Crow Era America and why we can not afford to repeat the past mistakes of our history.

I wish all involved in the "Scottsboro Boys" play the best of luck in your west coast endeavor.

For the record: Cinco de Mayo is not about independence or Mexico - A U.S. Civil War Connection?

For the record: Cinco de Mayo is not about independence or Mexico  "Sigh. Every year we go through this insanity. Cinco de Mayo is not the Independence Day of Mexico nor is the celebration even really about Mexico! Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican American celebration with an emphasis on the American part." A Civil War connection?  Click on the above link or the link after this sentence for more of the story, by Bella de la Tierra, Senior Correspondent, "MarioWire." http://www.mariowire.com/blog/2011/05/05/cinco-de-mayo-not-independence-mexico/?sms_ss=blogger&at_xt=4dc2bbf27368b5ea%2C0

"In 1862, the United States was in the middle of a civil war. All the South needed was a strong exterior ally and its strengthened cause might have permanently split the United States. A possible exterior ally was closer than Abraham Lincoln liked, as the French Army under Gen. Laurencez was making its way through Mexico." PBS story - http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/history/timeline/10.html More on Cinco de Mayo from UCLA:  http://www.clnet.ucla.edu/cinco.html

Historical Event at The Jackson County Alabama Courthouse, Advancements of a Nation and People, History of the Scottsboro Boys Trials - 1931 - 2011 - 80 Years of History

 Jackson County Courthouse as it appeared in 1931, "Corbis" photo courtesy of Steve Kennamer, taken in April 1933.

 The Scottsboro defendants in Scottsboro behind the old Jackson County Jail under guard by the Alabama National Guard. Photo April 1931, The Progressive Age.

Rare photo of inside the courtroom at the Jackson County Courthouse,Jury Venire, April 1931. Photo Courtesy of Steve Kennamer.

Friday, March 25th, 2011, 10:00AM, a ceremony began surrounding the bench of Judge A.E. Hawkins, the racist Jackson County Circuit Court Judge whose rulings resulted in one of the most heinous miscarriages of justice in our nations history, "The Scottsboro Boys Trials." 

80 years to the day of the arrest of the Scottsboro defendants, 9 young men caught in the struggle of the Great Depression and a cultural war of racial discrimination and legal injustice of Jim Crow America. March the 25th 1931 began one of the most tragic events in American legal and cultural history lasting 45 years when Governor George Wallace of Alabama pardoned the last Scottsboro defendants, Clarence Norris in October of 1976. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm

Why you may ask is this a historical occasion, the Honorable Victoria Roberts, Presiding Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, a Black Woman. Judge Roberts sat behind the "bench" which Judge A.E. Hawkins presided in the "Scottsboro Boys" trials and told the story of the "Scottsboro Boys" trials and what the case represents to United States Jurisprudence today.

 This ceremony celebrates the advancements and achievements of Race Relations in Scottsboro, Alabama and our nation, it celebrates and memorializes the sacrifices of the young 9 Scottsboro defendants, it celebrates and memorializes the sacrifices of those who gave their lives so that Civil Rights and Racial Equality is the rule of our laws instead of the exception, it celebrates education and justice as a tool to overcome racial prejudice. Story from the Daily Sentinel:  http://thedailysentinel.com/news/article_0b87f4d4-5729-11e0-94e8-001cc4c03286.html

A plaque exists on the south side of the Jackson County Courthouse Square telling a short story of the trials. This was the back of the program dedication ceremony describing the plaque. Click on the image for an expanded view.

 This week, April 4 thru April 8 2011, 80 years after the same days of 1931,  marks the conviction and death sentence of Clarence Norris and Charlie Weems in their trial; Haywood Patterson's trial, sentenced to death; Andy Wright, Willie Roberson, Ozie Powell, Olen Montgomery and Eugene Williams trial, sentenced to death.

Roy Wright, alleged to be age 12 ( Evidence at the Decatur trials demonstrated he was 13, a juvenile at arrest.) was tried as an adult in a seperate trial, the jury could not reach a verdict due to his youth, a hung jury by one vote.  http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/sb_acct.html

One day I pray and hope that we as a nation may be able to accept and judge all people based on their personal character, not the color of their skin or cultural background related to race, creed, sex or religious preference. Unfortunately, as a nation and culture we are not to that point at this time in our history but we have made advancements thru the sacrifices of a few. We as a people and nation have further to travel in the most deadly of wars, the "Culture War" for the souls of our citizens.


May God grant us the power to overcome racial prejudice. Education is the key to overcoming the ignorance of racial prejudice. Education is what the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center represents, it is our mission and represents our future. As history goes, the story has just begun,