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Race and Membership in American History: the Eugenics Movement
Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. Brookline, Massachusetts Eugenicstextfinal.qxp 11/6/2006 10:05 AM Page 2 For permission to reproduce the following photographs, posters, and charts in this book, grateful acknowledgement is made to the following: Cover: “Mixed Types of Uncivilized Peoples” from Truman State University. (Image #1028 from Cold Spring Harbor Eugenics Archive, http://www.eugenics archive.org/eugenics/). Fitter Family Contest winners, Kansas State Fair, from American Philosophical Society (image #94 at http://www.amphilsoc.org/ library/guides/eugenics.htm). Ellis Island image from the Library of Congress. Petrus Camper’s illustration of “facial angles” from The Works of the Late Professor Camper by Thomas Cogan, M.D., London: Dilly, 1794. Inside: p. 45: The Works of the Late Professor Camper by Thomas Cogan, M.D., London: Dilly, 1794. 51: “Observations on the Size of the Brain in Various Races and Families of Man” by Samuel Morton. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. 4, 1849. 74: The American Philosophical Society. 77: Heredity in Relation to Eugenics, Charles Davenport. New York: Henry Holt &Co., 1911. 99: Special Collections and Preservation Division, Chicago Public Library. 116: The Missouri Historical Society. 119: The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882; John Singer Sargent, American (1856-1925). Oil on canvas; 87 3/8 x 87 5/8 in. (221.9 x 222.6 cm.). Gift of Mary Louisa Boit, Julia Overing Boit, Jane Hubbard Boit, and Florence D. Boit in memory of their father, Edward Darley Boit, 19.124. -
The Struggle of the Brownsville NAACP to Secure the Right to Vote
In the Absence of Governmental Protection The Struggle of the Brownsville NAACP to Secure the Right to Vote Heather Catherwood, Northeastern University School of Law ’12 Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Clinic May 2012 (working document) 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Black Voting in Brownsville, June, 1940 III. Kidnapping, Exile and Murder The Kidnapping and Exile of Elisha Davis The Murder of Elbert Williams IV. Legal Action The Federal Investigation Closing the Federal Case Ten Year Later: “It is much too late.” V. Alternative Remedies, Restorative Justice VI. Conclusion 2 I. Introduction “If Elbert Williams is not avenged, if Elisha Davis, Rev. Buster Walker and the other refugees dare not return to their homes, just because they sought to exercise their right to vote, then democracy has no meaning, is a grim and empty fiction, is a terrible jest.”1 During the 2012 presidential election, issues of race and voter participation, which proved so volatile in 1940s Brownsville, Tennessee returned to the political agenda once more. A number of states enacted measures purportedly to minimize voter fraud that could also decrease participation of voters of color.2 While the tools states employ to suppress votes of color have changed over time, the underlying motivations to deter black vote participation have been a longstanding part of this nation’s history. Today, the US Justice Department stands poised to strike unlawful state measures under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. However, it was a very different Justice Department in 1940 and a far weaker system of federal civil rights laws. -
The Attorney General's Ninth Annual Report to Congress Pursuant to The
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S NINTH ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS PURSUANT TO THE EMMETT TILL UNSOLVED CIVIL RIGHTS CRIME ACT OF 2007 AND THIRD ANNUALREPORT TO CONGRESS PURSUANT TO THE EMMETT TILL UNSOLVEDCIVIL RIGHTS CRIMES REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2016 March 1, 2021 INTRODUCTION This is the ninth annual Report (Report) submitted to Congress pursuant to the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of2007 (Till Act or Act), 1 as well as the third Report submitted pursuant to the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016 (Reauthorization Act). 2 This Report includes information about the Department of Justice's (Department) activities in the time period since the eighth Till Act Report, and second Reauthorization Report, which was dated June 2019. Section I of this Report summarizes the historical efforts of the Department to prosecute cases involving racial violence and describes the genesis of its Cold Case Int~~ative. It also provides an overview ofthe factual and legal challenges that federal prosecutors face in their "efforts to secure justice in unsolved Civil Rights-era homicides. Section II ofthe Report presents the progress made since the last Report. It includes a chart ofthe progress made on cases reported under the initial Till Act and under the Reauthorization Act. Section III of the Report provides a brief overview of the cases the Department has closed or referred for preliminary investigation since its last Report. Case closing memoranda written by Department attorneys are available on the Department's website: https://www.justice.gov/crt/civil-rights-division-emmett till-act-cold-ca e-clo ing-memoranda. -
Mississippi Freedom Summer: Compromising Safety in the Midst of Conflict
Mississippi Freedom Summer: Compromising Safety in the Midst of Conflict Chu-Yin Weng and Joanna Chen Junior Division Group Documentary Process Paper Word Count: 494 This year, we started school by learning about the Civil Rights Movement in our social studies class. We were fascinated by the events that happened during this time of discrimination and segregation, and saddened by the violence and intimidation used by many to oppress African Americans and deny them their Constitutional rights. When we learned about the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964, we were inspired and shocked that there were many people who were willing to compromise their personal safety during this conflict in order to achieve political equality for African Americans in Mississippi. To learn more, we read the book, The Freedom Summer Murders, by Don Mitchell. The story of these volunteers remained with us, and when this year’s theme of “Conflict and Compromise” was introduced, we thought that the topic was a perfect match and a great opportunity for us to learn more. This is also a meaningful topic because of the current state of race relations in America. Though much progress has been made, events over the last few years, including a 2013 Supreme Court decision that could impact voting rights, show the nation still has a way to go toward achieving full racial equality. In addition to reading The Freedom Summer Murders, we used many databases and research tools provided by our school to gather more information. We also used various websites and documentaries, such as PBS American Experience, Library Of Congress, and Eyes on the Prize. -
FROM MOMENTSTO a MOVEMENT Advancing Civil Rights Through Economic Opportunity
FROM MOMENTSTO A MOVEMENT Advancing Civil Rights through Economic Opportunity 2020 IMPACT REPORT “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and TABLE OF CONTENTS the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This was the promise that all men, yes, Black men as well as Moments Moments that Moments Moments Moments Moments that Build a Saved Small that Shaped that Changed in Healthcare of Esperanza white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of Movement Businesses Policy Banking History happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned…But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice 3 6 12 14 20 23 is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So, we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us Moments HOPE Exists to Moments in Moments in Moments in Moments on upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.” in Consumer Close the Racial Homeownership Education Partnership Campus Lending Wealth Gap ― Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. August 28, 1963 27 29 32 36 39 43 Moments of 2020 Corporate Transformation Financials Governance 46 50 56 The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., includes “The Stone of Hope,” a sculpture of Dr. King created by artist Lei Yixin. MOMENTS THAT BUILD A MOVEMENT 2020 was a year of American reckoning. -
Emmett Till & the Modernization of Law
Saint Louis University School of Law Scholarship Commons All Faculty Scholarship 2009 The ioleV nt Bear it Away: Emmett iT ll & the Modernization of Law Enforcement in Mississippi Anders Walker Saint Louis University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/faculty Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Criminal Law Commons, and the Supreme Court of the United States Commons Recommended Citation Walker, Anders, The ioV lent Bear it Away: Emmett iT ll & the Modernization of Law Enforcement in Mississippi (October 27, 2008). San Diego Law Review, Vol. 46, p. 459, 2009. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY EMMETT TILL & THE MODERNIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT IN MISSISSIPPI ∗ ANDERS WALKER ABSTRACT Few racially motivated crimes have left a more lasting imprint on American memory than the death of Emmett Till. Yet, even as Till’s murder in Mississippi in 1955 has come to be remembered as a catalyst for the civil rights movement, it contributed to something else as well. Precisely because it came on the heels of the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Till’s death convinced Mississippi Governor James P. Coleman that certain aspects of the state’s handling of racial matters had to change. Afraid that popular outrage over racial violence might encourage federal intervention in the region, Coleman removed power from local sheriffs, expanded state police, and modernized the state’s criminal justice apparatus in order to reduce the chance of further racial violence in the state. -
Civil Rights and Working-Class Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1941-1
ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: “JIM CROW, YANKEE STYLE”: CIVIL RIGHTS AND WORKING-CLASS POTTSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, 1941-1969. Matthew G. Washington, Doctor of Philosophy, May 2019. Dissertation Chair: David Taft Terry, Ph.D. Department of History, Geography, and Museum Studies Between 1941 and 1969, activists in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a small working- class borough in Montgomery County, organized and conducted African-American civil rights work. Through the efforts of organizations like the Pottstown NAACP, YMCA, Pottstown Civic League, and the Pottstown Committee on Human Relations, African American and white civil rights activists coordinated such black-centered activism. Also important to these efforts toward combating racial inequality was the advocacy of the town’s major newspaper, the Pottstown Mercury. Although Pottstown, which sits approximately forty miles to the northwest of Philadelphia, was not a large city, this dissertation will demonstrate that it served as an important locale of civil rights activism all the same. Indeed, Pottstown activists’ work and influence even had national impact. By conceptualizing Pottstown as such, this dissertation strays from a dominant interpretive approach utilized by scholarship that examines civil rights work in the twentieth-century urban North. Generally speaking, these studies have stressed large northern cities as the principal centers of civil rights activism. Yet, as this dissertation asserts, if Pottstown never exceeded 27,000 residents from 1941 to 1969, like other small locales in the North, its impact on the nation’s civil rights history was outsized. “JIM CROW, YANKEE STYLE”: CIVIL RIGHTS AND WORKING-CLASS POTTSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, 1941-1969. by Matthew G. Washington A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY May 2019 ii “JIM CROW, YANKEE STYLE”: CIVIL RIGHTS AND WORKING-CLASS POTTSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, 1941-1969. -
Us Department of Justice
u.s. Department of Justice Office of Legislat ive Affairs Oflice of the Assistant Attorney Ge neral Washil1grull. D.C 20530 NOV 09 2012 The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr. President of the Senate Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Mr. President: Pursuant to the Emmett Ti ll Unsolved Civil Ri ghts Cri mes Act of2007 (P.L. 110-3 44), we are pleased to transmit to you a report to Congress on the Department 's activities regarding civil rights era homicides. Please do not hesi tate to contact this office if we may be of additional assistance regarding thi s or any other matter. Sincerely, Jct:.Le~ Acting Assistant Attorney General Enclosure u.s. Department of Justice Office of Legislative Affairs Offi!.:e o f the Assistant Allomey Gl:m:nll Wushingtoll. /J,e. 10530 NOV 09 2012 The Honorable Harry Reid Majority Leader United States Senate Washington, D.c' 20510 Dear Mr. Leader: Pursuanllo the Emmett Ti ll Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act of2007 (P.L. 110-344), we are pleased to transmit to you a report to Congress on the Department's activities regarding civil rights era homicides. Please do not hesi tate to contact this office if we may be of additional assistance regarding this or any other matter. Sincerely, JJ:;A::el~ Acting Assistant Attorney General Enclosure U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legislat ive Affairs Onice of the A ssi~ t a nt /llIome) Genel'lll Wos/tmgtQrI. J) C 10530 NOV 09 lOll The Honorable Mitch McConnell Minority Leader United States Senate Washington, D.C. -
Elisha Davis (Deceased) Elbert Williams (Deceased) Jack Adams (Deceased) – Victims CIVIL RIGHTS
CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION Notice to Close File File No. 144-72-2287 September 4, 2018 Date To: Chief, Criminal Section Re: Samuel “Tip” Hunter (Deceased) Albert Mann (Deceased) Ed Lee (Deceased) Brownsville, Tennessee – Subjects Elisha Davis (Deceased) Elbert Williams (Deceased) Jack Adams (Deceased) – Victims CIVIL RIGHTS Case Synopsis On June 20, 1940, Elbert Williams and Thomas Davis, both African-American men who were members of the NAACP in Brownsville, Tennessee, were abducted from their homes by Sheriff Samuel “Tip” Hunter, taken to the local jail, and questioned about the NAACP’s activities. Thomas Davis was released from jail into a waiting mob, but escaped unharmed. Williams’s body was discovered three days later, on June 23, 1940, in the Hatchie River. Just a few days before Williams and Thomas Davis were abducted, Thomas’s brother Elisha Davis had been abducted from his home by Sheriff Hunter, Police Officer Charles Reed, and a mob of white men. Elisha Davis was taken to a nearby river where he was questioned about the NAACP’s activities and told he would be killed unless he left town, which he did immediately. Another African-American man, Jack Adams, was brought to the river at the same time that Elisha Davis was threatened, but Adams was released unharmed. The men subject to abduction were all either founding members, or suspected members, of the recently-formed NAACP chapter in Brownsville. Chapter members had begun voter-registration efforts in the African- American community just a few months before the abductions began. A federal investigation began immediately after Elbert Williams’ death but was closed in 1942 without convening a federal grand jury. -
With Determination and Fortitude We Come to Vote: Black Organization and Resistance to Voter Suppression in Mississippi
WITH DETERMINATION AND FORTITUDE 195 With Determination and Fortitude We Come to Vote: Black Organization and Resistance to Voter Suppression in Mississippi by Michael Vinson Williams On July 2, 1946, brothers Medgar and Charles Evers, along with four friends, decided they would vote in their hometown of Decatur, Missis- sippi. Both brothers had registered without incident but when the men returned to cast their ballots they were met by a mob of armed whites. The confrontation grew in intensity with each step toward the polling place. After a few nerve-racking moments of yelling and shoving, the Evers group retreated, but the harassment did not end. Medgar Evers recalled that while they were walking away some of the whites followed them and that one man in a 1941 Ford “leaned out with a shotgun, keep- ing a bead on us all the time and we just had to walk slowly and wait for him to kill us …. They didn’t kill us but they didn’t end it, either.” The African American men went home, retrieved guns of their own, and returned to the polling station but decided to leave the weapons in the car. The white mob again prevented them from entering the voting precinct, and the would-be voters gave up.1 1 This article makes use of the many newspaper clippings catalogued in the Allen Eugene Cox Papers housed at the Mitchell Memorial Library Special Collections Department at Mississippi State University (Starkville) and the Trumpauer (Joan Harris) Civil Rights Scrapbooks Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson, Mississippi. -
Mississippi's Unknown Murder, Undated
\. Jerry Dalluth approx. 2,000 !'lords Box 9036 - station B • Atlanta, Georgia 30314 bi>~ °6~ ~ :Jco"'O f ..,\:, h .r"c.J .;... NI,i,J S " ..,¼ 71( ,s V'~ Vl.o=t),..,~ IIS i.aJ . Mis 11111s 1 pp1 1 s t:Tnknow.nMurder by H. Julian Bond and U:erry DeMuth 'Ille cmmtry well knows of tbe slaying of Misaiseippi Negro James Cheney. fie was ldll,sd with two 'llh.ite New Yorkers, Michael Scl'fflerner and A.ndrew Goodman, and tn\lS his death co11ld not be ignored, 'lhe previous ye1U", the nation co~ld not ignore the slaying of 'ledgar Evers outside hls .rackaon, i11asissippi, hom.e, Z,,ers, a11 state head o the llatrl.onal Assoc;i.at"i,on for the Advancem•nt of Colored teople, was automatically a public figure, 13\\t the shoj;gun slaying of another Mississippi Negro, one who never 11sat-in 11 or led e prot1.,st march or even tri"d to register to vote, lies remained \lnknow~ 'lhe quiet man was Louis Allen, -44, of Liberty, 1n the southwest oorner of the state. Re was a logger and father of 'our children and had Uved end worked near h;l,s home all of his lire. '!hat life came to an end on January 31, 1964, r 2 In southwest W.ss1ss1pp1 a Negro doesn• t have to "sit-in" to irritate white folks. Just the fact of his blacknes1t 1s enough of en irri tant,for this section of the state is Misais sippi I s :nost violent and repressive. -
Entry List Information Provided by Student Online Registration and Does Not Reflect Last Minute Changes
Entry List Entry List Information Provided by Student Online Registration and Does Not Reflect Last Minute Changes Junior Paper Round 1 Building: Hornbake Room: 0108 Time Entry # Affiliate Title Students Teacher School 10:00 am 10001 IA The Partition of India: Conflict or Compromise? Adam Pandian Cindy Bauer Indianola Middle School 10:15 am 10002 AK Mass Panic: The Postwar Comic Book Crisis Claire Wilkerson Adam Johnson Romig Middle School 10:30 am 10003 DC Functions of Reconstructive Justice: A Case of Meyer Leff Amy Trenkle Deal MS Apartheid and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa 10:45 am 10004 NE The Nuremberg Trials to End a Conflict William Funke Roxann Penfield Lourdes Central Catholic School 11:00 am 10005 SC Edwards V. South Carolina: A Case of Conflict and Roshni Nandwani Tamara Pendleton Forestbrook Middle Compromise 11:15 am 10006 VT The Green Mountain Parkway: Conflict and Katie Kelley Susan Guilmette St. Paul's Catholic School Compromise over the Future of Vermont 11:30 am 10007 NH The Battle of Midway: The Turning Point in the Zachary Egan Chris Soule Paul Elementary School Pacific Theatre 11:45 am 10008 HI Gideon v. Wainwright: The Unfulfilled Promise of Amy Denis Kacey Martin Aiea Intermediate School Indigent Defendants' Rights 12:00 pm 10009 PA The Christmas Truce of 1914: Peace Brought by Drew Cohen Marian Gibfried St. Peter's School Soldiers, Not Governments 12:15 pm 10010 MN The Wilderness Act of 1964 Grace Philippon Catie Jacobs Twin Cities German Immersion School Paper Junior Paper Round 1 Building: Hornbake Room: 0125 Time Entry # Affiliate Title Students Teacher School 10:00 am 10011 AS Bloody Mary: A Catholic Who Refused To Liualevaiosina Chloe-Mari Tiana Trepanier Manumalo Academy - Compromise Leiato Elementary 10:15 am 10012 MS The Conflicts and Compromises of Lucy Maud Corgan Elliott Carolyn Spiller Central School Montgomery 10:30 am 10013 MN A Great Compromise: The Sherman Plan Saves the Lucy Phelan Phil Hohl Cyber Village Academy Constitutional Convention of 1787 10:45 am 10014 MI Gerald R.