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From: Brumar896/3/2023 10:30:50 AM
of 570
 
California's earliest Black settlers bought land only for it to be stolen. Their descendants want it back.

Curtis Bunn
Sat, June 3, 2023

It had been nine months since Yolanda Tylu Owens unearthed her ancestors’ history by researching her family tree. But one evening, quietly sitting at the foot of her bed in her home in Sacramento, California, an idea flashed in her mind.

“It was like my ancestors spoke to me,” Owens said. “It was so out of the blue. But it was clear: I should search to see if my great-great-great-grandfather had any land.”

She scrambled for her laptop. Within minutes, she had to sit back in her chair to process what she had learned.

“It was there, plain as day,” Owens said. “There were four deeds in his name. He owned land.”

And not just anywhere, but in Napa, California, America’s best known wine-growing region, replete with its symbols of wealth and beauty. Three of the deeds showed her ancestor Edward Hatton owned prime real estate on Main Street in downtown Napa. A fourth deed covered 209 acres in the nearby mountains.

Owens’ discovery — both that her ancestor owned land and that it was most likely taken away — highlights one component of the state’s effort to consider paying reparations to Black Californians.



The document showing that land was granted to Yolanda Owens' great-great-grandfather Edward Hatton, at the site where that property was seized in Napa, Calif., in May. (Marissa Leshnov for NBC News)
California’s founding involved the often violent acquisition and theft of land from Native people, including an 1851 order from the state’s first governor that “a war of extermination” would be waged until “the Indian race becomes extinct,” according to the Los Angeles Times. While California was not officially a slave state, it welcomed bringing in enslaved Africans to work and dig for gold. In many cases those men were able to buy their freedom from the gold they found and, in a short period, purchase land and build what could have been generational wealth.

That their land was taken away from them — or that the landowners were forced to flee because of violent acts — crystallizes the dilemma and the arduous pursuit some Black families face in the reverberations of California’s reparations efforts for the harms slavery inflicted on Black residents of the state.

The stolen land could be worth millions, and the families’ efforts to reacquire it as the rightful heirs are steadfast. They view getting the land not only as a chance to earn financial compensation, but also as a matter of principle. The reversion of stolen land is likely to be one of many recommendations the California reparations task force will make by July 1. But some families are taking the lead on their own fate.

“No one’s going to do it for us,” Owens said.



Left and right: a locked gate at the site where Owen's family owned land in Napa's nearby mountains, with flowers growing on the other side of a gate. Center: Owens at one of the sites on Main Street in downtown Napa. (Marissa Leshnov for NBC News)
To Owens and others, the bottom line is clear: Their ancestors’ land was unjustly taken from them, and they want it back.

“There are not a whole lot of stories like this, because the priority of enslaved Blacks who were brought to California was to get away,” said Jean Pfaelzer, the author of the book “California, A Slave State.” “These men were brought out, but their families were still held hostage on the plantations. So it was much more about finding jobs or starting a business so they could make enough money to buy their families.

“But there were some bold, ambitious Black people who did buy land. And in many cases their land was taken away from them, often in heartbreaking ways.”

Here are the stories of three Black families who are grappling with legacies of seized land and lost generational wealth.

The Hatton family, NapaEdward Hatton migrated from Norfolk, Virginia, to Napa in the mid-1850s with other formerly enslaved people. He became a 49er, a gold miner. His son Joseph and grandson Edward followed suit and earned their places as respected Black men in Northern California.

The eldest Hatton became the first Black barber in Napa and a gold-mine owner.

Owens found documents that indicated Hatton owned the three lots in downtown Napa, where a park and Sept. 11 memorial now rests, she said. She acquired the papers from the Napa County clerk’s office for the lots downtown that show the land remains in Edward Hatton’s name.



Yolanda Owens on land that was seized from her great-great-great-grandfather. The property is now a Sept. 11 memorial in downtown Napa, Calif., in May. (Marissa Leshnov for NBC News)
“It has not been bought or sold,” she said. Napa officials did not find any other deeds on the property.

As for the large piece of land in the outskirts of Napa, Owens said the Hattons bought the 209 acres for $1,500 in February 1885. According to her research from various documents and news clippings, white people wanted the land, and in 1893, a white woman claimed the Hattons had defaulted on a $400 payment. The land was later put up for auction at a court hearing at which the Hattons were not present. The woman bought it and then sold it to the county treasurer at the price she had paid for it.

“The treasurer, who had already owned other large parts of that mountain, put the land in her own name, and that was that,” Owens said. “They stole it.”

Soon, an upscale restaurant the Hattons owned, The Arcade, was burned down, Owens said, and her ancestors fled Napa.

Thomas Mitchell, a Boston College Law School professor, said that once Black people began to acquire land after having been enslaved, it was considered the norm in the years following the end of slavery for that land to be seized without provocation or justifiable reasons, “for it was considered better and higher economic use of the property.”

The practice underscored “that notion that we had to accept that Black people’s lives are just not that important,” said Thomas, a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. “Their property ownership, their communities are not as important. They should be at the ready to have their rights sacrificed for the ‘greater good.’”

In 1867, Edward Hatton wrote a letter to the editor of The Elevator, a defunct local Black newspaper, that said, in part: “Why should we of this State be treated with so much injustice? Are we not as intelligent as any class of the community, and are we not taxed as well as others? Why this distinction? I think it is time we should be doing something for ourselves.”



“The treasurer, who had already owned other large parts of that mountain, put the land in her own name, and that was that,” Owens said. “They stole it.” (Marissa Leshnov for NBC News)
The Blue family, SacramentoLes Robinson had to leave a family cookout to compose himself. A cousin told him to look up an ancestor on his phone — Daniel Blue. Robinson had never heard of him, but a search revealed the longtime pastor in the Sacramento area, who was integral to the region’s Black community. Robinson learned that his great-great-grandfather was brought to Sacramento in 1849 as an enslaved man from Kentucky by John Daugherty, the son of his enslaver.

Blue, 53 at the time, worked as a gold miner and discovered enough gold to buy his freedom and become an entrepreneur, opening a dry cleaners and starting a church in his home and later a stand-alone structure. That church — St. Andrews AME Church — was founded in 1850, and it remains the West Coast’s oldest continuous African Methodist Episcopal congregation. Blue also started a school for Black, Latino, Asian American and Native American children.

And he bought property. Lots of it — 60 acres, according to Robinson, including nine blocks in Sacramento, California’s capital, documents show.

On that property today, Robinson said, stands the California Railroad Museum, the Amtrak Station, Sacramento RailYard, the courthouse and the Sacramento County jail.

But the question looms: “What happened to the property? We don’t know,” Robinson said. He said his research told a familiar, unnerving story — that the property was taken.



Les Robinson and Daniel Blue. (Courtesy Les Robinson)
“I’ve been told that it was taken because the railroad needed that land to complete the transcontinental connection,” Robinson said. “So he basically was booted out.”

And burned out, as intimidation by whites who did not welcome freed Blacks turned violent. Part of the school was burned down and rebuilt before eventually it closed years later. Blue’s house was burned in 1869. There was a failed attempt to burn down the church, too, Robinson said.

Mitchell said the seizing of property — by citizens, law enforcement or the government — comes with an additional injustice beyond stunting generational wealth: It destroys culture and history.

“Whether you’re talking about Harlem or southwest Georgia, there’s often an erasure of important culture and history,” Mitchell said.

Much of what Robinson and others in his family have discovered is documented in newspaper articles and other periodicals, which makes it frustrating for Robinson that he cannot locate deeds or ownership documentation. They have not yet presented their findings to state or local officials yet, preferring to do more research and hear what the reparations task force has to say about seized land. But they are clear about what happened.

“It was obviously taken,” Robinson said. “He was a smart man. He wouldn’t give away 60-plus acres of land.” Robinson is working on a book about his ancestor that sums up what having the land returned to him and his family would mean. Yes, he wants the land for its financial value, but also for its sentimental value. Robinson, who founded a church in 1999, said the revelations about his ancestor resonate in a tangible way. Looking back and seeing what his ancestor accomplished, “I see parallels in our life — even not having ever known him,” he said. “When I found him, I met him — and we have the same spirit. I am doing what he would want me to do.”

The Burgess family, Coloma, CaliforniaIt was “exhausting” for Jon Burgess when he learned that an ancestor had been the hangman in the 1800s in Coloma, a small community about 55 miles northeast of Sacramento, where his family lineage traces.

“That’s not something you want to see, and it floored me for two days,” Burgess said.

It was the price of digging into his family’s history. Burgess and twin brother Matthew have been floored for the last five years for another reason: In the family Bible, where many Black families used to document significant moments of family members’ lives, Burgess discovered that his great-great-great grandfather Rufus Burgess was one of the state’s first gold miners and that he built wealth and bought land in California at the end of slavery intent on its staying in the family for future generations.



Jon and Matthew Burgess with their family bible. (Courtesy Jon and Matthew Burgess)
Using eminent domain, the city seized much of the 420 acres, Burgess said. Much of the land he wants to reclaim is Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma.

Burgess has testified before the California reparations task force, posted short videos on Instagram about his family findings to educate followers and connected with Gov. Gavin Newsom about the subject. “I’m just trying to get people to empathize with the fact that we had an inheritance that was supposed to remain in our family for years per those deeds. And yet it was stripped away,” he said.

Burgess possesses the deed to the land, documentation he believes that when it is properly reviewed will stand up in court, particularly because there is no record of his ancestor’s selling the land, he said.

“If we didn’t have the deed, it would just be another story,” said Burgess, a firefighter. “But we do. And the deeds can certainly tell a very different story.”

What’s next for reparationsThe story for all these families is unfinished. They hope their gathered documentation will yield a result similar to that of Bruce’s Beach in Southern California, where Los Angeles County seized land in Manhattan Beach purchased in 1912 by a Black couple, Charles and Willa Bruce. White residents led a petition to have their resort for Black people condemned in 1927 and turned into a park. It was returned to the Bruce family last year. The family sold it back to the county for $20 million.

The cases are not parallel to that of Bruce’s Beach, but it elicits hope for these descendants, especially as California considers reparations in such an aggressive manner.

Burgess’ case has been acknowledged by the California task force as similarly valid to that of Bruce’s Beach, and may be included in its final report and list of recommendations, which will be issued to the Legislature at the end of June.

“Land and property are things that my pioneer ancestors did not sell or take for granted, because they knew the value, coming from slave plantations’ making others wealthy for generations — all behind land,” Burgess said. “Generational wealth means my family and descendants would have the same if not more than the Bogle family, Veercamp family, Gallagher family, Del Monte family and a host of others who came here with nothing prior to 1870 and were left to prosper — but also allowed equal protection by the laws.”

California's earliest Black settlers bought land only for it to be stolen. Their descendants want it back. (yahoo.com)

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From: Brumar897/7/2023 7:31:48 AM
of 570
 
Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland


#OTD in 1844 – Anti-Irish, anti-Catholic Nativists riot in Philadelphia against the increasing influence of the Catholic Church and the influx of Irish immigrants. At least fifteen people die in the rioting. Read more t.co



Plunkitt_of_Tammany_Hall

The immediate cause of the riots was that Bible reading was a requirement in the public schools, and the Catholic bishop of Philadelphia had asked that Catholic students be allowed to read Catholic bibles instead of the King James Version. The Protestant majority of the city was outraged, and thought the appropriate response to this request was to burn Catholic churches. The church on the right side of the picture is St. Philip Neri on Queen Street being successfully defended by the state militia. Unfortunately, St. Augustine's on North 4th Street had already been burned to the ground.

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From: Brumar897/8/2023 2:48:52 PM
of 570
 
1956 - not so long ago:

1956: Nat King Cole, big name entertainer, was not allowed to stay in or eat in the LV casino he entertained in

(1) CALL TO ACTIVISM on Twitter: "What a great story. Nat King Cole was an enormously popular crooner, earning $4,500 a week in Las Vegas in 1956. He headlined at the whites-only Thunderbird Hotel, where he wasn't allowed to venture beyond the showroom and the cook's resting area behind the kitchen. Cole's road… https://t.co/WMvgOCo4RR%22 / Twitter

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From: Brumar898/21/2023 9:06:54 AM
of 570
 
@four4thefire

"Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel–not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God." -W.E.B DuBois, 1928

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From: Brumar899/29/2023 4:54:05 PM
of 570
 

The 1st American cowboys may have been enslaved Africans, DNA evidence suggests

By Kristina Killgrove
published about 10 hours ago

DNA from cattle suggests some of the first cowboys in the Americas were enslaved Africans, who herded cows that were brought with them on slave ships.



Enslaved Africans may have been some of the first cowboys in the Americas. (Image credit: Octavio Campos Salles / Alamy)

Some of the first cowboys in the Americas may have been enslaved Africans, who helped cattle ranches there thrive thanks to the herding practices they brought with them, a new study of cattle bones and teeth suggests.

Cows did not exist in the Americas prior to the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus, who brought the animals with him when he established a Spanish colony on Hispaniola, the large Caribbean island that includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The original herds in the Americas, scholars have long suggested, came from European stock from the Spanish-held Canary Islands off the African coast. In the Americas, they quickly multiplied, and their offspring were sent to regions such as Mexico, Panama and Colombia.

But the new DNA research muddies this traditional understanding. Instead, some of the first cattle in the Americas were imported directly from Africa, likely on slave ships.

A cow tooth specimen found in Bellas Artes in Mexico revealed a lineage rare in Europe. Cows were likely imported directly from Africa in the first half of the 17th century. (Image credit: Nicolas Delsol)In a paper published Aug. 1 in the journal Scientific Reports, Nicolas Delsol, a postdoctoral associate at the Florida Museum of Natural History who specializes in zooarchaeology, and his team analyzed the DNA of 21 cattle from five archaeological sites dating to the 16th to 18th centuries.

Consistent with the traditional picture, seven of the earliest cattle samples, coming from the site of Puerto Real in Haiti and dating to around 1500 to 1550, had similar maternal DNA, which tied their origins broadly to Europe.

But one specimen from a site called Bellas Artes in Mexico revealed a lineage that is particularly rare in Europe and likely means it was imported directly from Africa in the first half of the 17th century.

"This finding supports recent trends in the history of slavery and the central role of African enslaved workers in the implementation of cattle ranching," Delsol told Live Science in an email.

This diagram shows the genetic makeup of post-Columbian cattle and their chronological evolution. (Image credit: Nicolas Delsol)As cattle ranching grew in the 16th-century Americas, it eclipsed the small-scale version that was popular in Spain and Portugal at the time. This has led historians to suggest that slave traders targeted West Africans from herding communities and kidnapped them along with their cattle. Once in the Americas, these skilled ranchers may have invented practices such as lassoing cattle from special saddles.

The new research demonstrates the importance of Africans and their cattle to Spanish trade networks, Tanya Peres, a zooarchaeologist at Florida State University who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email. "Without the enslaved labor of the knowledgeable and capable African herders," she said, "it is possible that the Spanish cattle ranching industry would not have been as successful as it was."

The combination of a good environment, large expanses of available land and skilled African ranchers almost certainly led to the expansion of cattle ranching in the Caribbean, Mexico and the southern United States, Delsol said — an idea he is expanding into the forthcoming book "Cattle in the Postcolumbian Americas."

"I would like to see them grow the dataset to include sites in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina," Peres said. "If cattle were being imported into these areas — which certainly they were early on — it would be interesting to see how they are related to the cattle in these three areas of early Spanish colonialism."

Ancient DNA reveals some cattle were imported directly to the Americas from Africa | Live Science

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From: Brumar8910/9/2023 10:40:13 AM
of 570
 

First Columbus Day was a response to the lynching of 11 Sicilian immigrants by New Orleans vigilantes (msn.com)


The story of Columbus Day was written with the blood of 11 Sicilian immigrants, who were savagely lynched by an angry mob in New Orleans in 1891.

"Most of them had been shot through the brain," The New York Times reported in a front-page story on March 15, 1891, the day after the mass murders.

The bodies of several victims "were laid out in a row ... and made a horrible sight as they lay weltering in blood and brains."

The same publication also published an editorial that seemingly celebrated the vigilantes: "These sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins … are to us a pest without mitigations," the editorial said in part.

Yet domestic outrage and international pressure helped turn the horrific murders in 1891 into a powerful testament to the importance of multicultural tolerance in an immigrant nation.

"Those who orchestrated and carried out the lynching went free, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Italian governments," Basil Russo, president of the Italian Sons and Daughters of America (ISDA), reported in 2022.

"To help resolve the issue and curry favor with Italian American voters, U.S. President Benjamin Harrison held the first national Columbus Day celebration in 1892, 400 years after the navigator’s historic discovery of North America," Russo also said.

Russo's group, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has undertaken an "aggressive" effort in recent years, he told Fox News Digital ahead of this year's Columbus Day, to challenge the factually suspect woke narrative of the holiday and to fight the cancel-culture mob attempting to tear down statues of Christopher Columbus, a daring Italian explorer who reshaped world history.

The ISDA's effort includes several lawsuits, educational campaigns and even a demand that The Times retract and apologize for its congratulatory coverage of the savage murders.

An armed, angry mob, numbering as many as 10,000 vigilantes, stormed Parish Prison on March 14, 1891.




Assault to the prisons of New Orleans and the lynching of 11 detainees — Italian Americans who were held responsible for the killing of David C. Hennessy, police chief in town, March 14, 1891. SeM/Universal Images Group via Getty Images© SeM/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

They chased off cops "under a fire of mud and stones," smashed the prison doors with a massive wood beam and dragged out an unconfirmed number of men who were Italian and Sicilian immigrants.

The mob was seeking revenge for the murder a year earlier of the city’s police chief, David Hennessy Jr.

He reportedly uttered a highly offensive racial epithet toward the Italians in his last breaths, pointing a finger at the city’s burgeoning Sicilian immigrant community.

So many Sicilian immigrants flooded New Orleans in the years before that it became known as Little Palermo.

One lynching victim identified as "Polizzi" — most likely a street vendor named Emmanuele Polizzi — was shot in his cell before he was savaged by the mob.

"He was not killed outright and in order to satisfy the people outside who were crazy to know what was going on within, he was dragged down the stairs and through the doorway by which the crowd had entered," The Times reported of the carnage.

"A rope was provided and tied around his neck and the people pulled him up to the crossbars. Not satisfied he was dead, a score of men took aim at him and poured a volley of shot into him …"

Three of the men lynched by the mob were tried in the murder of Hennessy and acquitted; cases against two other victims ended in mistrial, according to the ISDA. Four other men were charged in Hennessy's murder and also acquitted, according to other reports.




A statue of Christoper Columbus was erected in Manhattan on Oct. 13, 1892. The towering New York City landmark stands at the intersection of Broadway and West 59th Street outside the southwest corner of Central Park, the area now known as Columbus Circle. The Columbus Day holiday, and Columbus statues, have faced growing challenges from officials in recent years. Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital© Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital

Each man was returned to prison despite the lack of conviction, apparently part of a conspiracy to seek justice by other means, allegedly supported by local and state political leaders.

The conspirators acted fearlessly, announcing the gathering point in New Orleans newspapers, as The Times reported the following day.

"All good citizens are invited to attend a mass meeting on Saturday, March 14, at 10 o’clock a.m. at Clay Statue to remedy the failure of justice in the Hennessy case," the announcement read. "Come prepared for action."

The Times account of the murders was posted under the headline: "Chief Hennessy avenged," followed by a sub-headline proclaiming the guilt of the un-convicted victims.

Wrote Russo of the ISDA last year, "The horror of that night shocked the world, but today one will be hard-pressed to find the story in high school or college textbooks."

He told Fox News Digital this week, "We look at Columbus Day as a symbol of the strength and motivation we needed to overcome these obstacles and become assimilated into American society."




The Parish Prison, New Orleans, where 11 Italian and Sicilian immigrants were lynched by a mob on March 14, 1891. Hulton Archive/Getty Images© Hulton Archive/Getty Images

"It was established to help make Americans more accepting of immigrants. The Columbus controversy today has united all Italian American organizations."

Christopher Columbus gave the citizens of the United States a real historical figure from Italy whom they universally agreed was foundational to the events that led to the creation of the world’s first constitutional republic — and the first nation built upon universal ideals and the rule of law, rather than race, ethnicity or language and rule by force.

As part of the group's effort to challenge the growing cancel-culture efforts to rewrite Columbus Day, ISDA attorney Michael Santo told Fox News Digital that he hand-delivered 30 packages to New York Times counsel in 2019.

The letter asked that the paper retract, explain and apologize for its 1891 coverage.

The letter from ISDA cited "the long lingering ramifications and the stain that the lynching left on the national Italian American community."




David C. Hennessy the New Orleans chief of police, 1897. Hennessy's murder in 1890 was blamed on Sicilian immigrants, 11 of whom were lynched by a mob seeking revenge in 1891. Their murders helped lead to the creation of a national Columbus Day celebration in 1892. Creator: Unknown. Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images© Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images

Santo said he did not receive a response.

In October 2019, five months after the letters were delivered, Brent Staples, a member of The Times editorial board, did write a lengthy feature under the headline "How Italians became 'white.'" It addressed the lynchings.

The feature acknowledged and even quoted some of the publication's most racists statements in 1891 about the lynchings.

"Our own rattlesnakes are as good citizens as they," the paper wrote in 1891, as quoted by Staples. The Times added in its editorial from that year: "Lynch law was the only course open to the people of New Orleans to stay the issue of a new license to the Mafia to continue its bloody practices."

New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades wrote on Sunday in a statement to Fox News Digital in response to a query on the topic, "Brent’s editorial makes it clear that we do not hide from past lapses. Instead," she added, "we cover them unflinchingly for our readers."

Leaders in Washington, D.C., appear to have taken notice of the Columbus Day origin story.

The Biden administration has mentioned the New Orleans murders in its Columbus Day proclamations each of the past two years.




A mob smashed down the doors of a New Orleans prison in 1891 to kill 11 Sicilian immigrants. The outrage that this caused led to the first Columbus Day holiday in 1892. SeM/Universal Images Group; and MANDEL NGAN/AFP, both via Getty Images© SeM/Universal Images Group; and MANDEL NGAN/AFP, both via Getty Images

"In 1891, 11 Italian Americans were murdered in one of the largest mass lynchings in our Nation’s history," the White House wrote in a statement on Friday.

"In the wake of this horrific attack, President Benjamin Harrison established Columbus Day in 1892. For so many people across our country, that first Columbus Day was a way to honor the lives that had been lost and to celebrate the hope, possibilities, and ingenuity Italian Americans have contributed to our country since before the birth of our republic."

Russo of the ISDA summed up what he said is the feeling of Italian-Americans across the country today.

"Don't take away our statues and don't take away our holiday," he told Fox News Digital.

===============================================

1891 New Orleans lynchings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1891 New Orleans lynchingsLocationDateTarget
Attack type
DeathsPerpetrators

Rioters breaking into Parish Prison, as illustrated in History of the United States (1912, Scribner)
New Orleans, Louisiana
March 14, 1891
Italian American suspects of the murder of David Hennessy
Xenophobic attack [1]
11
Leaders: William Parkerson, Walter Denegre, James D. Houston, and John C. Wickliffe; participants included John M. Parker and Walter C. Flower


The 1891 New Orleans lynchings were the murders of 11 Italian Americans and Italian immigrants in New Orleans by a mob for their alleged role in the murder of police chief David Hennessy after some of them had been acquitted at trial. It was the largest single mass lynching in American history. [2] [3] [note 1] Most of the lynching victims accused in the murder had been rounded up and charged due to their Italian ethnicity. [6]

The lynching took place on March 14, the day after the trial of nine of the nineteen men indicted in Hennessy's murder. Six of these defendants were acquitted, and a mistrial was declared for the remaining three because the jury failed to agree on their verdicts. There was a widespread belief in the city that Italian-American organized crime was responsible for the killing of the police chief, in a period of anti-Italian sentiment and rising crime. Italian-American voters were also known to prefer the scandal plagued city political machine to the new Reform Democrat Mayor, whose own role in inciting the violence that followed may well have been an attempt to misuse government power for the repression of his political opponents.

Believing the jury had been fixed, a mob broke into the jail where the men were being held and killed eleven of the prisoners, most by shooting. The mob outside the jail numbered in the thousands and included some of the city's most prominent citizens. American press coverage of the event was largely congratulatory, and those responsible for the lynching were never charged.

The incident had serious national repercussions. The Italian consul Pasquale Corte in New Orleans registered a protest and left the city in May 1891 at his government's direction. The New York Times published his lengthy statement charging city politicians with responsibility for the lynching of the Italians. [7] Italy cut off diplomatic relations with the United States, sparking rumors of war. Increased anti-Italian sentiment led to calls for restrictions on immigration. The word " Mafia" entered the American lexicon, and the awareness of the Italian mafioso became established in the popular imagination of Americans.

The lynchings were the subject of the 1999 HBO film Vendetta, starring Christopher Walken. The film is based on a 1977 history book of the same name by Richard Gambino.

Background[ edit]

Anti-Italian sentiment in New Orleans[ edit]In late 19th-century America, there was a growing number of Italians, who had been brought in by the business community to replace black labor. Sugar planters, in particular, sought workers who were more efficient than former slaves; they hired immigrant recruiters to bring Italians to southern Louisiana. In the 1890s, thousands of Italians were arriving in New Orleans each year. Many settled in the French Quarter, which by the early 20th century had a section known as "Little Sicily." [8] Furthermore, during the whole of the 19th century and well into the 20th, Italian immigrants to the United States were often referred to as " White niggers". [9]

In a letter responding to an inquiry about immigration in New Orleans, Mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare expressed the common anti-Italian prejudice, complaining that the city had become attractive to "...the worst classes of Europe: Southern Italians and Sicilians...the most idle, vicious, and worthless people among us." He claimed they were "filthy in their persons and homes" and blamed them for the spread of disease, concluding that they were "without courage, honor, truth, pride, religion, or any quality that goes to make a good citizen.". [8]

( What would Trump have said about them? )

According to Humbert Nelli, Mayor Shakspeare had been elected as a Reform Democrat with the backing of a Louisiana Republican Party that had grown increasingly powerless since the end of the Reconstruction era. Both Mayor Shakspeare and the Republicans, however, were united in opposition to the city's corrupt and scandal plagued political machine, which was called the Regular Democratic Organization and remained firmly supported by the city's Italian-American voters. According to Nelli, this may well have been the real reason for the Mayor's outspoken anti-Italianism.

Assassination of David Hennessy[ edit] Artist's conception of Hennessy's murder. "Scene of the Assassination", The Mascot, New Orleans, 1890.On the evening of October 15, 1890, New Orleans police chief David Hennessy was shot by several gunmen as he walked home from work. Hennessy returned fire and chased his attackers before collapsing. When asked who had shot him, Hennessy reportedly whispered to Captain William O'Connor, " dagos" (a derogatory term for Italians and others of Mediterranean heritage). Hennessy was awake in the hospital for several hours after the shooting, and spoke to friends, but did not name the shooters. The next day complications set in and he died. [10] [11]

There had been an ongoing feud between the Provenzano and Mantranga [note 2] families, who were business rivals on the New Orleans waterfront. Hennessy had put several of the Provenzanos in prison, and their appeal trial was coming up. According to some reports, Hennessy had been planning to offer new evidence at the trial that would clear the Provenzanos and implicate the Mantrangas. If true, this would mean that the Mantrangas, and not the Provenzanos, had a motive for the murder. [12] A policeman who was a friend of Hennessy's later testified that Hennessy had told him he had no such plans. [13] In any case, it was widely believed that Hennessy's killers were Italian. Local papers such as the Times-Democrat and the Daily Picayune freely blamed "Dagoes" for the murder. [14]

Investigation[ edit]The murder was quickly followed by mass arrests of local Italians. Mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare (according to the Picayune) told the police to "scour the whole neighborhood. Arrest every Italian you come across." Within 24 hours, 45 people had been arrested. [15] By some accounts, as many as 250 Italians were rounded up. [16] Most were eventually released for lack of evidence. [17] Local Italians were afraid to leave their homes for several days after the murder, but eventually the furor died down and they returned to work. [14]

Nineteen men were ultimately charged with the murder or as accessories and held without bail in the Parish Prison. These included Charles Mantranga, who was charged with plotting the murder, and several of the Mantrangas' friends and workers. Pietro Monasterio, a shoemaker, was arrested because he lived across the street from where Hennessy was standing when he was shot.(The assassins had allegedly laid in Monasterio's shop awaiting to attack Chief Hennessey on his way home.) Antonio Marchesi, a fruit peddler, was arrested because he was a friend of Monasterio's and "was known to frequent his shoe shop." [18] Emmanuele Polizzi was arrested when a policeman identified him as one of the men he had seen running from the scene of the crime. [17]

A few days after Hennessy's death, Mayor Shakspeare gave a speech declaring that Hennessy had been "the victim of Sicilian vengeance" and calling upon the citizenry to "teach these people a lesson they will not forget." [19] He appointed a Committee of Fifty to investigate "the existence of secret societies or bands of oath-bound assassins...and to devise necessary means and the most effectual and speedy measures for the uprooting and total annihilation" of any such organizations. [17] On October 23, the committee published an open letter to the Italian community encouraging them to expose the criminals amongst them anonymously.

The letter ended on a menacing note:

We hope this appeal will be met by you in the same spirit in which we issue it, and that this community will not be driven to harsh and stringent methods outside of the law, which may involve the innocent and guilty alike...Upon you and your willingness to give information depends which of these courses shall be pursued. [20]

The letter was signed by the committee's chairman, Edgar H. Farrar, who later served as president of the American Bar Association. [21] Other prominent members of the Committee included General Algernon S. Badger, Judge Robert C. Davey, politician Walter C. Flower, Colonel James Lewis, and architect Thomas Sully. [22]

The Committee of Fifty hired two private detectives to pose as prisoners and try to get the defendants to talk about the murder. Apparently the detectives did not obtain any useful information, because they were not asked to testify at the trial. Only Polizzi, who appeared to be mentally ill, said anything to incriminate himself, and his confession was deemed inadmissible. [23]

Meanwhile, the defendants were subject to extremely negative pretrial publicity. [24] Across the country, newspapers ran headlines such as "Vast Mafia in New Orleans" and "1,100 Dago Criminals". [25]

Several shotguns were found near the scene of the crime. One was a muzzle-loading shotgun,of a type which was widely used throughout the American South, but which the New Orleans Police Department claimed was a lupara, a "favorite" weapon of the Sicilian Mafia. Another shotgun found at the scene had a hinged stock. Local newspapers alleged that the guns were imported from Sicily; in reality, they had been manufactured by the W. Richards Company. [26] [15]

Spurred to action by the popular accounts of Hennessy's murder, a 29-year-old newspaper salesman named Thomas Duffy walked into the prison on October 17, 1890, sought out Antonio Scaffidi, whom he had heard was a suspect, and shot him in the neck with a revolver. Scaffidi survived the attack, only to be lynched a few months later. Duffy was eventually convicted of assault and sentenced to six months in prison. [27] [28]

Murder trial[ edit]A trial for nine of the suspects began on February 16, 1891, and concluded on March 13, 1891, with Judge Joshua G. Baker presiding. [29] The defendants were represented by Lionel Adams of the law firm Adams and O'Malley, and the state by Orleans Parish district attorney Charles A. Luzenberg. Jury selection was a time-consuming process: Hundreds of prospective jurors were rejected before 12 people were found who were not opposed to capital punishment, were not openly prejudiced against Italians, and were not of Italian descent themselves. [30] [31]

Much of the evidence presented at trial was weak or contradictory. The murder had taken place on a poorly lit street on a damp night, [32] in a notoriously corrupt city, [12] [33] and the eyewitness testimony was unreliable. Suspects were identified by witnesses who had not seen their faces, but only their clothing. Captain Bill O'Connor, the witness who claimed to have heard Hennessy blame "Dagoes" for the assassination, was not called to testify. There were numerous other discrepancies and improprieties. At one point, two employees of the defense law firm were arrested for attempting to bribe prospective jurors. [34] Afterward, when federal district attorney William Grant looked into the case, he reported that the evidence against the men was "exceedingly unsatisfactory" and inconclusive. He could find no evidence linking any of the lynched men to the Mafia, or to any attempts to bribe the jury. [35] The bribery charges were eventually dismissed. [36]

Mantranga and another man, Bastian Incardona, were found not guilty by directed verdict, as no evidence had been presented against them. The jury declared four of the defendants not guilty, and asked the judge to declare a mistrial for the other three, as they could not agree on a verdict. [37] The six who were acquitted were not released, but were held pending an additional charge of "lying in wait" with intent to commit murder. Luzenberg admitted that without a murder conviction, he would be forced to drop the "lying in wait" charges. But all nineteen men were returned to the prison—a decision which would prove fatal for some of them. [38] [39]

The jurors were given the option to leave by a side door, but chose to walk out the front door and face the angry crowd. Several defended their decision to reporters, arguing that they had "reasonable doubt" and had done what they thought was right. [39] Some were harassed, threatened, fired from their jobs, and otherwise penalized for failing to convict the Italians. [40]

Incitement[ edit] William S. Parkerson inciting the mob. Harper's Weekly, March 28, 1891.A group of about 150 people, calling themselves the Committee on Safety (referring to the Revolutionary War era), met that evening to plan their response. The following morning an ad appeared in local newspapers calling for a mass meeting at the statue of Henry Clay, near the prison. Citizens were told to "come prepared for action." [38]

The Daily States editorialized:

Rise, people of New Orleans! Alien hands of oath-bound assassins have set the blot of a martyr's blood upon your vaunted civilization! Your laws, in the very Temple of Justice, have been bought off, and suborners have caused to be turned loose upon your streets the midnight murderers of David C. Hennessy, in whose premature grave the very majesty of our American law lies buried with his mangled corpse — the corpse of him who in life was the representative, the conservator of your peace and dignity. [41]

As thousands of demonstrators gathered near the Parish Prison, Pasquale Corte, the Italian consul in New Orleans, sought the help of Louisiana governor Francis T. Nicholls to prevent an outbreak of violence. The governor declined to take any action without a request from Mayor Shakspeare, who had gone out to breakfast and could not be reached. [42] Meanwhile, at the Clay statue, attorney William S. Parkerson was exhorting the people of New Orleans to "set aside the verdict of that infamous jury, every one of whom is a perjurer and a scoundrel." [43] When the speech was over, the multi-racial crowd [44] [45] [46] marched to the prison, chanting, "We want the Dagoes." [47]

Lynching[ edit] Rioters outside Parish Prison
Lynchings were not uncommon in the United States and the Tuskegee Institute recorded the lynchings of 3,446 blacks and 1,297 whites between 1882 and 1968, with the peak occurring in the 1890s. [48] Inside the prison, as the mob was breaking down the door with a battering ram, prison warden Lemuel Davis let the 19 Italian prisoners out of their cells and told them to hide as best they could. [49]

Although the thousands of demonstrators outside for the lynching were a spontaneous outburst, the killings were carried out by a relatively small, disciplined "execution squad" within the mob, led by Parkerson and three other city leaders: Walter Denegre, lawyer; James D. Houston, politician and businessman; and John C. Wickliffe, editor of the New Delta newspaper. [29] [50] Other members of the lynch mob included John M. Parker, who was elected as Louisiana's 37th governor, and Walter C. Flower, who was elected as the 44th mayor of New Orleans. [51] [52]

The mentally ill Polizzi was hauled outside, hanged from a lamppost, and shot. Antonio Bagnetto, a fruit peddler, was hanged from a tree and shot. Nine others were shot or clubbed to death inside the prison. [16] The bullet-riddled bodies of Polizzi and Bagnetto were left hanging for hours. [53] [47]

Victims[ edit]The following people were lynched: [54]

  • Antonio Bagnetto, fruit peddler: Tried and acquitted.
  • James Caruso, stevedore: Not tried.
  • Loreto Comitis, tinsmith: Not tried.
  • Rocco Geraci, stevedore: Not tried.
  • Joseph Macheca, American-born former blockade runner, fruit importer, and political boss of the New Orleans Italian-American community for the Regular Democratic Organization: Tried and acquitted.
  • Antonio Marchesi, fruit peddler: Tried and acquitted.
  • Pietro Monasterio, cobbler: Mistrial.
  • Emmanuele Polizzi, street vendor: Mistrial.
  • Frank Romero, ward heeler for the Regular Democratic Organization: Not tried.
  • Antonio Scaffidi, fruit peddler: Mistrial.
  • Charles Traina, rice plantation laborer: Not tried.
The following people managed to escape lynching by hiding inside the prison:

  • John Caruso, stevedore: Not tried.
  • Bastian Incardona, laborer: Tried and acquitted.
  • Gaspare Marchesi, 14, son of Antonio Marchesi: Tried and acquitted.
  • Charles Mantranga, labor manager: Tried and acquitted.
  • Peter Natali, laborer: Not tried.
  • Charles Pietza (or Pietzo), grocer: Not tried.
  • Charles Patorno, merchant: Not tried.
  • Salvatore Sinceri, stevedore: Not tried.
The court and district attorney set the survivors free after the lynching, and dropped the charges against the men who had not yet been tried. [55]

Only one of the lynching victims, Polizzi, had a police record in the U.S., having reportedly cut a man with a knife in Austin, Texas, several years earlier. Two others had police records in Italy: Geraci had been accused of murder and had fled before he could be tried, and Comitz had been convicted of theft. [56] Incardona was wanted in Italy as a petty criminal. [57]

Three of the men—Comitz, Monasterio, and Traina—had not applied for U.S. citizenship and could still be considered Italian subjects. [58]

All of those lynched were Sicilian immigrants except for Macheca, a Louisiana native of Sicilian descent, and Comitz, who was from the Rome area. Shortly after Hennessy's death, the Daily States informed readers that the suspects were "a villainous looking set" and described their appearance in ethnic terms, concluding, "They are not Italians, but Sicilians." [59]

Most anti-Italianism in the United States was directed at Southern Italians, particularly Sicilians, who were often considered to be more racially suspect. The U.S. Bureau of Immigration reinforced this distinction, following the Italian practice of classifying Northern and Southern Italians as two different races. [60] However, even though on a legal level both Northern and Southern Italians were considered to be white, [61] between 1890 and 1910, Sicilian-Americans made up less than 4 percent of the white male population, yet were roughly 40 percent of the white victims of Southern lynch mobs. Before that, many white victims were Irish Catholics. Sicilians in the South often had menial positions, working on construction of levees and railroads, and as farm workers. [62]

Macheca's personal history, however, is more complex. He was born in 1843 to Sicilian parents in Louisiana, and adopted and raised by a Maltese man named Macheca. During the American Civil War, he served in the Confederate States Army. In 1868, either Macheca or his adoptive father led a group of Sicilians in a violent, anti-black demonstration. [63] Although not a member of the White League, as a Captain of the 1st Louisiana Infantry Regiment, Macheca fought in the Battle of Liberty Place on the same side as the Crescent City White League in 1874. Macheca was also the leader of a crew of Sicilian immigrants called, "The Innocents". Depending on the source, "The Innocents" were either a White Supremacist street gang employed by the Regular Democratic Organization to commit voter intimidation and murder, [64] the beginning of the New Orleans crime family, or security guards hired to protect Macheca and his various businesses. [65] The racial politics are further complicated by the involvement in the 1891 riot of a large number of African-American lynchers. [66] For example, Colonel James Lewis, a member of the elite Committee of Fifty, was a mixed-race African-American man who had been an officer in the Louisiana Native Guard and leader of the New Orleans Republican Party. [67] In fact, Lewis was one of the signatories of a letter to the Italian community, urging people to inform the Committee of Fifty about the suspects, and threatening extrajudicial action. [68]

Aftermath[ edit]Press coverage[ edit] Cartoon that appeared in Puck on March 25, 1891.American newspaper accounts at the time were largely sympathetic to the lynchers, and anti-Italian in tone. [69] [70] [71] The victims were presumed to have been involved with the Mafia, a criminal organisation that dealt in theft, terror and murder, and therefore deserving of their fate. A New York Times headline announced, "Chief Hennessy Avenged...Italian Murderers Shot Down". [46] A Times editorial the next day vilified Sicilians in general:

These sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins, who have transported to this country the lawless passions, the cut-throat practices, and the oath-bound societies of their native country, are to us a pest without mitigation. Our own rattlesnakes are as good citizens as they...Lynch law was the only course open to the people of New Orleans. [72]

Many commentators offered a pro forma condemnation of vigilantism before ultimately blaming the victims and defending the lynchers. [71] [73] Massachusetts representative Henry Cabot Lodge, for example, claimed to deplore the mob's behavior, and then proceeded to justify it while proposing new restrictions on Italian immigration. [74] Even the London Times expressed approval. [75]

Not all editors were convinced of the mob's innocence. The Charleston News and Courier argued that murder by vigilantes was no more acceptable than any other kind. The St. Louis Republic wrote that the men were killed "on proof of being 'dagoes' and on the merest suspicion of being guilty of any other crime." [75] Some Northern newspapers also condemned the lynchings. Many others, however, implicitly or explicitly condoned them. [76] A Boston Globe front-page headline read, "STILETTO RULE: New Orleans Arose to Meet the Curse." [77] Boston was another industrial city that had been receiving many immigrants from Southern Italy.

Following strong protests by the Italian government and the Italian-American community, the press eventually became less supportive of the lynchers. [69] [78]

Criminal charges[ edit]A grand jury convened on March 17, 1891, to investigate the lynching. Judge Robert H. Marr, who presided over the jury, was a longtime personal friend of several of the lynch mob participants. [79] On May 5, 1891, the grand jury published a report concluding that several jurors in the Hennessy case had been bribed to acquit the Italians. No proof was offered and no criminal charges were pursued.

The grand jury claimed that it could not identify the participants in the lynching. In the same report, the lynching was described as a "gathering" of "several thousands of the first, best, and even the most law-abiding, of the citizens of this city." No one was indicted. [80] Only Thomas Duffy, the newspaper salesman who had shot Scaffidi in October, was penalized. Duffy was serving time in the Parish Prison at the time of the lynching. [81]

After the Hennessy case, at least eight more men of Italian descent were lynched in Louisiana during the 1890s. In each case, as was typical of lynchings, local authorities claimed to be unable to identify anyone involved and never prosecuted anyone for the murders. [82]

Political repercussions[ edit]The incident strained relations between the United States and Italy. The Italian consul Pasquale Corte left New Orleans in late May 1891 and the New York Times published his statement accusing the city politicians of responsibility for the lynchings. [7] The Italian government demanded that the lynch mob be brought to justice and that reparations be paid to the dead men's families. When the U.S. declined to prosecute the mob leaders, Italy recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest. [83] The U.S. followed suit, recalling its legation from Rome. Diplomatic relations remained at an impasse for over a year, and there were rumors of a declaration of war on America as a result of the murders. As part of a wider effort to ease tensions with Italy and placate Italian Americans, President Benjamin Harrison declared the first nationwide celebration of Columbus Day in 1892, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Italian explorer's landing in the New World. [84]

( Was Benjamin Harrison "woke?" )

When President Harrison agreed to pay a $25,000 indemnity to the victims' families, Congress tried unsuccessfully to intervene against the reparations, accusing him of "unconstitutional executive usurpation of Congressional powers". [85] The United States paid $2,211.90 to each family of the eleven victims.

The contrasting American and Italian attitudes toward the lynchings are perhaps best summarized by Theodore Roosevelt's comment. Roosevelt, then serving on the United States Civil Service Commission, wrote to his sister Anna Roosevelt Cowles on March 21, 1891:

Monday we dined at the Camerons; various dago diplomats were present, all much wrought up by the lynching of the Italians in New Orleans. Personally I think it rather a good thing, and said so. [86]

( The guy whose face is on a mountain in SD. )

The incident has been mostly forgotten in the U.S., relegated to the footnotes of American history texts. However, it is more widely known in Italy. [87] [24]

Mayor Shakspeare was narrowly defeated for reelection in 1892 by Regular Democratic Organization candidate John Fitzpatrick. The Italian-American vote, which remained even more firmly on the political machine's side for decades after the lynchings, was a decisive factor in Mayor Shakspeare's defeat. [88] Gaspare Marchesi, the boy who survived by hiding in the prison while his father was lynched, was awarded $5,000 in damages in 1893 after successfully suing the city of New Orleans. [36]

The death of Hennessy became a rallying cry for law enforcement and nativists to halt the immigration of Italians into America. [89] In an influential essay, Henry Cabot Lodge pointed out that "the paupers and criminals of Europe" were "pouring into the United States" and proposed a literacy test to weed out the least desirable immigrants. [90]

The Hennessy case introduced the word "Mafia" to the American public. [91] It first made widely known the now-familiar image of the Italian-American mafioso. Journalists of the time used the word "Mafia" loosely, to sell newspapers, often linking the crimes of individual Italians to organized crime when no evidence of such a connection existed for that particular crime. [92] [93] [94] After the lynching, newspapers circulated wild rumors that thousands of Italian Americans were plotting to attack New Orleans, and were wrecking railroads in New York and Chicago. [76] The press reported that the defense lawyers in the Hennessy case were paid by the Mafia, when Italian-language newspapers in cities across the country had raised funds for the men's legal defense. [95] Soon historians were applying the "Mafia" label retroactively to crimes committed by Italians in the past. [96]

For decades after the lynching, New Orleans children of other ethnicities would taunt Italian Americans with the phrase, "Who killa de chief?" [97]

Books and films[ edit]For the better part of a century, most historians relied on contemporary newspaper accounts as their primary sources of information about the lynching, seldom questioning the guilt of the lynched men or the popular assumption that Hennessy's murder was a contract killing by the New Orleans crime family. In the 1970s, two studies by Italian Americans historians challenged the prevailing view. [98] [99] [100]

Humbert Nelli, a professor of history at the University of Kentucky, examined the Hennessy case in a chapter of The Business of Crime (1976). Nelli demonstrated that the evidence against the defendants was weak, and argued that the murder was too poorly planned and amateurish to have been a Mafia hit. [101] In a chapter on crime in New Orleans, he claims that although crime flourished among the city's Southern Italians at the time, it could not accurately be attributed to mafiosi. [102]

In Vendetta: The True Story of the Largest Lynching in U.S. History(1977), [note 3] Richard Gambino, a professor at City University of New York, raised numerous questions about the investigation and trial, and proposes an alternative theory about Hennessy's murder. Among other things, Gambino notes that Hennessy had a "colorful" past that provided any number of possible motives to be subject to murder, none of which the police chose to investigate. He also notes that shortly after the lynching, the city passed an ordinance giving control of all New Orleans dock work to the newly formed Louisiana Construction and Improvement Corporation, a business headed by several of the lynch mob leaders. Italian waterfront merchants and workers, who had been making remarkable economic progress up to then, were thus eliminated as competitors. [103]

The 1999 HBO movie Vendetta, starring Christopher Walken and directed by Nicholas Meyer, is based on Gambino's book. [104] It portrays Macheca and several of the other lynched men as innocent victims. It is narrated by the character of Gaspare Marchesi, the boy who escaped being lynched by hiding in the prison.

Reviewers have criticized Gambino's language as sensational and partisan while acknowledging the book's merits. [105] [106] [107] Writing in the Journal of American History in 1977, Raymond Nussbaum (an alumnus of Tulane University) suggested that historians looking for a balanced account of the lynching look elsewhere. [67] In a film review that appeared in the same journal in 2000, Clive Webb calls the movie a "compelling portrait of prejudice" and recommends that historians consult the book for more information. [104]

The lynching is discussed in the 2004 documentary, Linciati: Lynchings of Italians in America, directed by M. Heather Hartley. [87] Lynchings of Italians are also mentioned in various documentaries on the Italian-American experience.

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From: Brumar893/9/2024 8:30:35 AM
of 570
 
When Julia Roberts Was Born, Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Paid the Hospital Bill

The Roberts family had previously welcomed the Kings’ children to their theater school

Jacquelyne Germain

Staff Contributor

November 1, 2022

Civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King in 1964 AFP via Getty Images

While most people probably know Julia Roberts, they may not know about her unlikely connection to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

But when the actress turned 55 last week, the story started recirculating and quickly went viral.

“Martin Luther King Jr paying for her birth is still a little known fact that sends me,” Twitter account @turnandstomp posted on October 21. (The account followed up the next day: “Correction: He and Coretta both paid!”) On October 28, consultant Zara Rahim retweeted the post, adding a video clip of Roberts speaking with journalist Gayle King at an event earlier this year.

“My parents had a theater school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers Workshop,” Roberts said at the event. “And one day Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids. And my mom was like, ‘Sure, come on over.’” After that, the two families formed a friendship.

In 1967, Julia Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia. And when her parents, Walter and Betty Roberts, couldn’t afford to pay the bill, the Kings stepped in, the actress said. “They helped us out of a jam.”

While the story is currently making headlines, Julia Roberts’ relationship with the Kings has been discussed before, writes the Washington Post’sSydney Page. In a 2001 CNN special, the Kings’ oldest child, Yolanda King, spoke about her experience at the Roberts’ theater school. She said that all of the children got along well, and that she learned a lot from the Roberts family.

“Mr. Roberts was so imposing,” she said. “I loved him, but I was also a little intimidated by him, too. I mean, he taught me so much—he and Mrs. Roberts—about the work, and just about living and being really open, grabbing life and making the best of it.”


..............

When Julia Roberts Was Born, Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Paid the Hospital Bill | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

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From: Brumar894/2/2024 1:57:57 PM
of 570
 
5 Myths About the American Civil War People Need to Stop Believing Are True (msn.com)
Three of them covered below:

FALSE: Robert E. Lee didn't own slaves or support slavery
In the years following the American Civil War, significant effort was made to portray Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as a heroic figure of moral virtue. This narrative included assertions that he opposed slavery and didn't personally own slaves.

The historical evidence contradicts this portrayal. In 1857, Lee's wife inherited 189 enslaved people upon the death of her father, George Washington Parke Curtis, according to his will. The document stipulated the slaves be freed five years after Curtis' death. Records indicate Lee sold several of the individuals to settle debts and took legal action to prevent the emancipation of others.

Lee may have been described as paternalistic toward his slaves, but this doesn't alter the fundamental reality of his ownership of them. Civil War historian Eric Foner elaborates on this in an article published in The New York Times, saying, "He was not a pro-slavery ideologue. But I think equally important is that, unlike some White Southerners, he never spoke out against slavery."

................

FALSE: The Confederate Army was made up of volunteers

Another claim is that all soldiers within the Confederate Army had volunteered for service. This is so ingrained in our minds that the sports teams at the University of Tennessee are nicknamed the "Volunteers." This is untrue, despite the majority of troops volunteering to join the fight. Knowing that many soldiers would be needed for the war, the Confederate Army began a conscription program.

Between 1862-64, the Confederate government passed a number of conscription acts geared toward ensuring the Army had enough men to win the war. They initially made it so that all White men between the ages of 18 and 35 were to serve three years in the military. This range eventually widened to include those who were between 17 and 50 years old. What's more, they were to serve in the military for an unlimited amount of time.

Like many conscription programs, the wealthy were favored. Any man who owned more than 20 slaves was exempt from the draft, so they could manage their property. Wealthy men also had the choice to hire a substitute to serve in the Army for them. While this created resentment among those who were hired, the poor had little choice but to go to war.

...........

FALSE: States' rights were the cause of the war

One of the main arguments from Confederate apologists is that the cause of the conflict was not slavery. They frequently argue that the cause was states' rights, and that the Union infringed upon the South's right to continue owning slaves, despite there being no bills put forth to end the practice. Unfortunately for them, this argument doesn't hold much weight.

There was furious debate in the two decades leading up to the Civil War, regarding the practice of slavery, and, for the South, Lincoln's election was a bridge too far.

When the Confederates formed their own government, their constitution made it so that slavery could only be ruled upon at the federal level and not by individual states. One passage, in particular, stood out, reading, "No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed."

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From: Brumar897/5/2024 6:14:12 PM
of 570
 
Hedy Lamarr, often proclaimed “the most beautiful woman in the world.” The 26-yr-old Lamarr was thriving in Hollywood when, in September 1940, Nazi U-boats hunted down & sank a cruise ship trying to evacuate 90 British schoolchildren to Canada. 77 drowned in the bleak north Atlantic. Lamarr, a Jewish immigrant from Nazi-occupied Austria, who had been making America her home since 1938, was outraged. She fought back by applying her engineering skills to development of a sonar sub-locator used in the Atlantic for the benefit of the Allies. The principles of her work are now incorporated into modern Wi-Fi, CDMA and Bluetooth technology, and this work led to her to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.


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From: Snowshoe7/16/2024 7:48:16 PM
of 570
 
Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world, and not much was different for Civil War soldiers of the 19th Century. Join historian Douglas Ullman, Jr. as he details the consumption of coffee and its substitutes in Union and Confederate camps from 1861-1865.


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