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Jim Crow America: A Documentary History

Jim Crow America: A Documentary History
Catherine M. Lewis and J. Richard Lewis, eds.
University of Arkansas Press 2009
234 pp
Annotated Bibliography and Index

If slavery was the most pernicious chapter in American history, then Jim Crow is a close second. Defined as the legal, extralegal and customary separation of the black and white races, the system of Jim Crow successfully returned much of the United States, especially the eleven states of the Old Confederacy, back to slavery. It meant the loss of citizenship rights for African Americans, and was accompanied by crushing poverty and terrible hopelessness. A dual society allowed whites to retain financial, emotional and physical control over African Americans and was used to prop up the doctrine of white supremacy.

Bangkok burns after the Army crushes the Reds' barricades

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Red Shirt protesters allegedly set fire to 20 buildings on Wednesday (May 19) including luxury shopping malls, banks, the Stock Exchange and offices, after losing their stronghold when soldiers used armored personnel carriers to crush their barricades, ending their six-week-long occupation.

Supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), known as the Red Shirts, allegedly took revenge and became arsonists, causing smoke to billow above Bangkok's modern skyline and plunging this Southeast Asian capital into its worst security crisis in decades.

In response, the government clamped an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on Bangkok and 23 of Thailand's 76 other provinces.

Officials broadcast pleas on nationwide TV for the public to hunt down Reds who fled the barricades before the military assault.

Government offices were ordered shut for the rest of the week, and many businesses told staff not to return to work on Thursday (May 20).

Bangkok's rail service was also suspended.

A handful of Red Shirt leaders surrendered and were arrested. Others disappeared.

Let's get some terms straight

The age of space-solar energy: Innovation in the public interest

The industrial revolution has been driven for the past two centuries by the burning of hydrocarbons, first by coal in the Age of Steam, and then by oil and natural gas in the Age of Petroleum; however, as the flow of these fossil fuels slows down as demand goes up, ever-more-intrusive and massive extraction efforts increasingly threaten the progress of industrialization and the civilization it has produced.

The catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the latest and largest of hundreds of such ocean spills, and the recent methane gas explosion in Massey’s Montcoal mine was just another example of the continuing disasters, worldwide, which snuff out the lives of workers who labor in dangerous conditions to feed our fossil-fuel addiction. All around the planet we live upon, the quest for hydrocarbons is threatening the ability of humans to survive in the degrading environment and to govern their own corporate-dominated societies.

Getting smart about stupid communication

Reducing political discourse to advertising slogans loses almost everything of value. Without lengthy books that develop complex ideas, we'd be so lost we'd never produce a worthwhile bumper sticker. The notion that facts don't matter because only emotional appeals to "values" sway anyone is an absurd and arrogant over-simplification. And, yet, something is gained, as well, in producing powerful and catchy imagery and slogans that at least disrupt the way people think about things. Rewriting "Columbus discovered America" as "Columbus invaded America" does alter the entire story. The image of tiny activist boats going up against enormous whaling ships does reverse the imagery of heroic sailors battling a leviathan. "Support the troops, bring them home," is a useful slogan.

BP's nuke-powered liability cap

As BP destroys our priceless planet, its lawyers gear up to save the company from paying for the damage. The same will happen---only worse---with the next atomic reactor disaster.

By law, BP may be liable for only $75 million of the harm done by the Deepwater Horizon.

Ask yourself why the federal government would adopt legislation that limits the liability of an oil driller for the damage it does to us all.

Ask the same question---on another order of magnitude---about nuclear power plants.

Some lawmakers have tried to raise this cap so BP could be made to pay for the wounds they have not yet stopped inflicting.

By any calculation, BP did more than $75 million in harm during the first hour of this undersea gusher. That sum won't begin to cover even the legal fees, let alone the tangible damage to our only home.

Chevron's "crude" attempt to suppress free speech

Even as headlines and broadcast news are dominated by BP's fire-ravaged, sunken offshore rig and the ruptured well gushing a reported 210,000 gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico, there's another important story involving Big Oil and pollution -- one that shatters not only the environment but the essential First Amendment right of journalists to tell truth and shame the devil.

(Have you read, by the way, that after the surviving, dazed and frightened workers were evacuated from that burning platform, they were met by lawyers from the drilling giant Transocean with forms to sign stating they had not been injured and had no firsthand knowledge of what had happened?! So much for the corporate soul.)

But our story is about another petrochemical giant -- Chevron -- and a major threat to independent journalism. In New York last Thursday, Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered documentary producer and director Joe Berlinger to turn over to Chevron more than 600 hours of raw footage used to create a film titled Crude: The Real Price of Oil.

McChrystal: Beheadings of our allies simply to be expected

How can we stand to live in a country where this exchange is shown live on tv and nobody comments? REPORTER: [I]n Marja there are reports -- credible reports -- of intimidation and even beheading of local people who work with your forces. Is that your intelligence? And if so, does it worry you? GEN. MCCHRYSTAL: Yeah. It absolutely is things that we see. But it's absolutely predictable.

I'm sorry. If it is predictable that people who work with you are going to have their heads sliced off, STOP FUCKING DOING THAT KIND OF WORK. After all, the work you are doing consists primarily of BLOWING other people's heads off.

STOP IT.

NOW.

It's not your country. You're not welcome there. People who try to help you are seen as enemies of their country. They get their fucking heads cut off. And your puppet president thanks you on their behalf.

STOP IT.

NOW.

Reds' weapon of choice: Burning barricades

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Black smoke billows from burning tires in the streets, creating small volcanoes fed by angry Red Shirt protesters armed with Molotov cocktails, slingshots and fireworks against trained snipers and inexperienced troops.

Survival amid Bangkok's worsening chaos and violence is making many people increasingly nervous, as more Reds and other civilians are shot and fires blaze.

A flaming barricade of tires spread to a nearby convenience store on Sunday (May 16) along Rama 4 Road, burning it to charred wreckage despite efforts by Reds and residents to douse the fire.

Many people fear hard-line protesters might intentionally set luxury hotels, malls, condominiums and offices ablaze if the army attacks the Reds' central rally site at Ratchaprasong intersection, equivalent to New York's Times Square.

Those concerns, coupled with the danger widespread civilian casualties, has kept security forces from storming the Reds' heavily barricaded Ratchaprasong stronghold, preferring to surround its outer streets and try to starve protesters into submission.

Economic Power: Avoid Arizona and Boycott BP

Money is power. Each of us has it to varying degrees. Our challenge is to use our spending to advance worthy goals. Right now we see economic power being used against the state of Arizona because of the awful legislation recently passed that makes it all too easy for police there to seek proof of citizenship from virtually anyone they choose. Many groups and government entities have already cancelled conferences and other activities in Arizona, sending state and business leaders into a frizzy. They deserve to suffer as do the vast majority of Arizona citizens that supported the legislation. Every American that professes love and respect for the Constitution should avoid spending their tourism and other kinds of spending in Arizona.

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