Posts Tagged ‘abolition’
And then there were none
The formerly local Washington Post… Say it ain’t so! But, sadly, the Washington Post‘s wonderful Petula Dvorak has just published her final Metro column. In it she recounts several of…
Read MoreRighting a Wrong in Harpers Ferry
In recent long-delayed acknowledgement of our own dark past, many Confederate monuments have been taken down throughout the South and in border states. Though there are some resisters (“fine people…
Read More“Ain’t No Back to a Merry Go-Round”
“Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round,” from a poem by Langston Hughes, is a new documentary that tells the all-but-forgotten story of the fight 65 years ago to desegregate Glen…
Read MoreJuneteenth: A Time to Read and Reflect
Juneteenth – June 19th — became a federal holiday in 2021. It marks the date in 1865 when the enslaved people in Texas were officially informed of their freedom 2…
Read MoreIn February 1859, A Fateful Meeting on the Road to Harpers Ferry
February looms large in the story of Five for Freedom: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army, my contribution to the canon of the famous abolitionist who led 18…
Read MoreWhat’s Up With December 2?
What is it about December 2? Well, on this day in history: Britney Spears was born in 1981. The movie classic “Casablanca” was released in 1941.The Ford Model A was…
Read MoreShields Green: He Went with the Old Man
“I think I’ll go with the old man.” With these words, on Aug. 21, 1859, Shields Green sealed his fate. The “old man” was John Brown, and Green was a…
Read MoreHarriet Newby’s “One Bright Hope”
“I want you to buy me as soon as possible, for if you do not get me some body else will,” Harriet, an enslaved house servant, wrote on this day…
Read MoreNo place for old men
The elderly Black gentleman in a suit jacket, high neck collar and overcoat approached the front steps to the Tastee Diner in downtown Silver Spring the other Wednesday afternoon, on…
Read MoreOsborne Anderson was a dad!
Osborne Perry Anderson, the sole survivor who wrote the only insider account of John Brown’s Oct. 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry — to seize the federal arsenal and incite a…
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