War Is a Racket, 2022

Major General Smedley D. Butler [1881-1940], who at his death was the most highly decorated U.S. Marine in history, published the anti-war essay, "War Is a Racket," in 1935. Though the examples and expenditures he cites have been far surpassed in the intervening decades, his fundamental points remain salient yet today. The essay can be read online via the Internet Archive.

The broadside above was letterpress printed by the Common Curator at the Iowa City Press Co-op.

Resistance Revival Chorus: "All You Fascists Bound to Lose"

The Resistance Revival Chorus has just released their debut album, "This Joy," on Righteous Babe Records. The album, available both on vinyl and digitally, features Rhiannon Giddens on Woody Guthrie's 1942 anthem, "All You Fascists Bound To Lose."

Memorial Day 2020

Of related interest, see the earlier Memorial Day post, A Living Service Flag, which features a large-scale formation (or living) photograph depicting the service flag of the U.S. Armed Forces. The photograph was produced circa 1918 by Arthur Mole and John Thomas, and entailed the complex staging of thousands of soldiers at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas.

A Student Free Speech Landmark: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District (1969)

Fifty years ago today, on February 24, 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark decision held that First Amendment free speech rights applied to students in public schools. The case, Tinker et al. v. Des Moines Independent School District et al., 393 U.S. 503 (1969), was decided by a 7-2 vote, with Justice Abe Fortas delivering the majority opinion of the Court; Justices Hugo Black and John M. Harlan II each wrote dissenting opinions.

At issue was the right of several students to wear black armbands in protest against the Vietnam War and to support the Christmas truce called for by Senator Robert F. Kennedy in December 1965. The students included four members of the Tinker family (John, 15; Mary Beth, 13; Hope, 11; and Paul, 8) and Christopher Eckhardt, 16, who wore black armbands at their respective schools in the Des Moines Independent School District. Mary Beth Tinker and Eckhardt were suspended on December 16, and John Tinker on December 17. The controversy lead the Iowa Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union to support the suspended students, and after losing in U.S. District Court, the case was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court, where attorney Dan L. Johnston argued for the petitioners on November 12, 1968.

In his opinion, Justice Fortas observed that:

"First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. This has been the unmistakable holding of this Court for almost 50 years."

Fortas articulated further that:

"In order for the State in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint. Certainly where there is no finding and no showing that engaging in the forbidden conduct would 'materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school,' the prohibition cannot be sustained."

The standard of material and substantial disruption has subsequently become known as the Tinker Test in determining free speech rights for students.

Pictured to the right are Mary Beth and John with armbands, circa March 4, 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear their case. The armbands originally worn in protest were simple strips of black cloth, unadorned with peace symbols, as shown below by Mary Beth in a photo from December 1965.

The Tinkers have ever since remained strong advocates for free speech and civil liberties, particularly for the young. Mary Beth and John, along with other Tinker family members, guests, and students, are featured in the video above that commemorates the 50th anniversary of their landmark case. The event was held at the State Historical Museum in Des Moines on February 22, 2019, and aired on Iowa Public Television.

The Peace Sign at Sixty

Now nearly universally recognized as a symbol of peace, the above logo (sans "60," of course) was designed by George Holtom in February 1958 to support the cause of nuclear disarmament. Varying accounts exist regarding its precise origins, but it was quickly adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the U.K., and has been used by countless millions in various contexts ever since.

The Sesquicentennial of W.E.B. Du Bois' Birth

Civil rights advocate, scholar, educator, and global activist, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born 150 years ago on February 23, 1868, and died August 27, 1963.

Among his many outstanding contributions were his roles in founding, in 1905, the Niagara Movement, an African American group of scholars and professionals that challenged racial discrimination, and in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was also the founder and editor of The Crisis, which was the NAACP's monthly magazine.

Du Bois earned his doctorate from Harvard in 1895, the first African American to ever do so. His dissertation, "The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870," was the inaugural publication of the Harvard Historical Series. In 1899, he published a major sociological work called The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. Du Bois authored many other works over the course of his career, notable among them, The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (1903) and Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (1935).

As a global citizen, Du Bois was long committed to Pan-Africanism. He attended the First Pan-African Conference in London in 1900, and later organized a series of Pan-African congresses around the world. In 1961, at the invitation of its president, Du Bois received citizenship in Ghana, where he worked as director of the new Encyclopedia Africana, which was devoted to the African diaspora; he died in Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95.

For additional information on the life and work of Du Bois, check out the online guide to resources held by the Library of Congress. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has a very substantial collection, the W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999, containing nearly 100,000 digital items. Other resources include the W.E.B. Du Bois National Historic Site in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where Du Bois was born and raised, and the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, where an instrumental meeting of the Niagara Movement took place at Storer College in 1906.

Note: The photograph above was taken by Cornelius Marion Battey on May 31, 1919, and is in the collections of the Library of Congress.

Res Ipsa Loquitur: The Thing Speaks for Itself

The Bicentennial of Frederick Douglass' Birth

Born into slavery 200 years ago, on February 14, 1818, Frederick Douglass represents one of the most consequential figures in American history. His life's work as an abolitionist, social reformer, orator, author, publisher, and statesman are without parallel.

To learn more about Douglass, there are a number of significant research collections to explore. The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress contains approximately 7,400 items, with the bulk of the material dating from 1862 to 1865. Many of Douglass' early writings were destroyed when his house in Rochester, New York, burned in 1872.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has created a digital edition of the Frederick Douglass Papers, and at the University of Rochester, the Frederick Douglass Institute, in conjunction with the Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections, is seeking to digitize all of the Douglass-related materials at the University Library. The National Archives has deep collections in African American history generally.

The National Park Service maintains the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, which preserves and interprets Cedar Hill, where Douglass lived from 1877 till his death in 1895 at age 77. The Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Community has a number of online resources that are also of interest.

Note: The photograph above was taken by George Francis Schreiber on April 26, 1870, and is in the collections of the Library of Congress.

Celebrating the JFK Centennial: A Strategy of Peace

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the U.S., was born 100 years ago today on May 29, 1917. The video above is an excerpt from Kennedy's speech, "A Strategy of Peace," delivered at American University in Washington, D.C. on June 10, 1963 [transcript]. In his address, Kennedy exhorts:

Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable--that mankind is doomed--that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.

We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade--therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable--and we believe they can do it again. 

Kennedy further observes:

So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. 

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum offers countless resources related to Kennedy's life and legacy. The JFK Centennial website provides additional information on events and programming related to the 100th anniversary of Kennedy's birth.