audio by artist hana georg

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It is said that Pocahontas died in Gravesend, England. Well let's take a moment to correct Disney's portrayal of Pocahontas. Her real name was Matoaka and she was the daughter of a Powhattan Chief; she would have been about 10 at the time it is said that she “rescued” the English man John Smith. Pocahontas was later captured, married off to a man named John Rolph, and transported to England where she was used as propaganda to support the English colonies in Virginia. She died of disease in England at the age of 21.

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Today is the beginning of a new year, on some calendars at least, and it seems to be a very Revolutionary day!

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A play "The Drag: A homosexual comedy in 3 acts" first opened up in Bridgeport, New Jersey. Written by the audacious Mae West, this production drew a lot of controversy and was strictly banned from Broadway in NY. For inspiration, Mae West frequented the most popular gay cabaret in Greenwich Village, auditioning those same Drag Queens for her play. West considered sexual expression to be a basic human right, and she was also and early advocate of gay and transgender rights.

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The Bear River Massacre occurred around present day Utah. Three years before this, a group of Shoshoni, under chief Bear Hunter, were forced off of their land by Mormon Farmers. When the young men of the tribe retaliated against the white settlers, American armed troops were called on to punish the Shoshoni. The Shoshoni fought back until their ammunition ran out, at which point American soldiers rushed them and began shooting. About 250 Shoshoni were slain, their women were raped, and American soldiers used axes to bash in the heads of already injured women and children.

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Carmen Conde died in Madrid, Spain. Conde, more commonly known as Florentina, was born in 1970, and was an amazing poet and activist. During the Spanish Revolution, she joined the 'Mujeres Libres' which was a group of women fighting for both women's liberation and an Anarchist revolution. With 'Mujeres Libres' Florentina did a lot of work in the community and gave lectures on how to merge the struggle against women's oppression with the struggle against capitalism.

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Malcolm X was assassinated. He was just about to deliver a speech In the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan when a man came forward from the crowd, shooting him in the chest with a shotgun. Malcolm X was a powerful civil rights and human rights leader in America, who associated himself with the Nation of Islam until right before his death. While the Nation of Islam is believed to be behind his assassination, Malcolm X’s radical race politics definitely intimidated a number people.

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F.W. Woolworth opened his very fist five-&-dime store in Utica, New York. As the Woolworth Company spread, the stores began to incorporate lunch counters, serving food and drinks to the public. In the South, segregated Woolworth lunch counters became very significant in the Civil Rights Movement. The Greensboro Sit-In in 1960, which took place at a Woolworth lunch counter, ignited a huge movement of Sit-Ins and Boycotts all over the South.

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The dead body of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash was found. Anna Mae was a prominent member of the American Indian Movement. It is generally believed that she was executed by other AIM members who were convinced that she was an informant for the FBI. One thing is certain, the murder of Anna Mae Aquash was a direct result of the tactics used by the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program, which regularly used "disinformation" and lies to plant suspicions and divide the American Indian Movement. Using these tactics, the FBI wiped out many amazing revolutionaries through murder and imprisonment.

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Illinois passed a law stating that no black person from another state was allowed to stay in their state for more than ten days. If they were caught, they were to be arrested, and either subject to a $50 fine, or temporarily auctioned into forced labor. These laws, known as “Black Laws” were extremely common in the Southern States, and the state of Illinois had particularly harsh tactics. Although it entered the Union as a free state in 1818, slavery had existed there for almost 100 years and continued to exist for a long time.

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The Southeast Asian country of Laos was under severe attack by South Vietnam and the US, who encouraged and supported this invasion. Presenting a huge threat to American War Interests, Laos played a key role in the Vietnam War. This war, commonly known as the Secret War turned Laos into one of the most manipulated and exploited battlegrounds used between America and North Vietnam. The war left Laos in a political disaster. Also, the Laotians who were recruited to help the US, became despised in Laos, and the US left them at the end of the war in a very bad situation.

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New Jersey became the last Northern state to abolish slavery. Actually, the legislation called for the “Gradual Abolition of Slavery” and it aimed to phase slavery out over a 25-year period. The act ironically granted financial benefits to slave owners. In the years since, New Jersey has built itself a rather bad reputation as far as racial discrimination and police brutality goes. The New Jersey State Troopers are often accused of targeted racial profiling and violent tactics. The names Assata Shakur, Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli come to mind.

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The US battleship Maine exploded and sank killing 260 Americans. At the time of the explosion, The Maine was in the Caribbean protecting US interests in Cuba. By claiming that the Spanish intentionally blew up their ship, The US was able to initiate the Spanish-American war, in which they acquired Puerto Rico, Guam & the Philippines. Additionally, America’s new presence in the Pacific enabled their conquest of Hawaii that same year. It was later determined that the USS Maine sank due to an accidental fire. What a financially convenient accident.

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President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. These four little numbers sentenced some 120,000 people of Japanese descent to a harsh life in American concentration camps. Apparently because of Pearl Harbor, all persons of Japanese decent were potential spies. More than 2/3 of those who were captured were American citizens and at least half of them were children. By the end of the WWII, only ten people were actually convicted of spying for Japan, all of who were white. Talk about racial profiling!

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American Movie Studio executives agreed to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies. The Office of War Information was a US Government agency created during World War II, who controlled the release of war news for domestic use. An overseas branch was also established and launched huge propaganda campaigns globally. Through its creation and distribution of radio series, newsreels, photographs, and government-approved Hollywood films, the OWI essentially had the power to manipulate public opinion.

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Writer and poet Angelina Weld Grimke was born to a white mother and a black father. Due to racial tensions Grimke's mother left their family, and from the time that Angelina was 7 years old, she was raised by her father and his family in Boston. Throughout her life, Angelina Grimke published many literary pieces from poetry to short stories. A lot of Grimke's work is based on her experience as a biracial woman in America, and also on the isolation she felt as a lesbian woman in the late 1800's.

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The last Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc was assassinated. When Cuauhtémoc came to power 5 years earlier, the Spanish had already begun their conquest of the Americas. The Aztec Empire fought the Spanish off for as long as they could, but in 1521, Emperor Cuauhtemoc was forced to surrender to Hernan Cortes. Four years later, Cortes took Cuauhtemoc to Honduras where he ordered him to be hung. Spanish Colonization of the Americas continued and the indigenous people, once conquered, were often exploited and murdered.

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Today, February 1 is the beginning of Black history month. Back in 1926, a man named Carter Woodson fought hard to get a national week of recognition for African-American History. Woodson saw this as an opportunity to raise the consciousness of both the black communities and the white communities about the culture and the struggle of persons of African descent in the "New World". Although there has been legitimate critique on the way America handles Black History Month, Woodson's struggle was to institutionalize the study of Afro-American and African societies and cultures in a world where they were largely ignored.

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Four members of the Black Liberation Army were arrested for alleged terrorist activity. Their suspected plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty was uncovered by a young black Police Officer who was used to infiltrate the group. The Black Liberation Army emerged as a radical political group attempting to directly confront oppressive conditions in the Black Community. Groups like this were constantly attacked by law enforcement and FBI agents in an operation known as The Counter Intelligence Program, or COINTELPRO. This method has dismantled many radical groups and movements in the US.

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The front page of The San Francisco Chronicle read quote, “The Japanese Invasion: The Problem of the Hour.” This article was the first in a series used to fire up the Anti-Japanese movement, encouraging California to take legal action against Japanese Immigrants and laborers in America. White Supremacist groups continued to campaign in the West and the outcome was the Gentlemen’s Agreement, which greatly restricted Japanese Immigration. Discriminatory practices continued and continue to plague people of Japanese decent in America.

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The Seattle General Strike of 1919 began. The Shipyard workers strike expanded into the General Strike of about 65,000 individuals from several supporting unions. This strike was sparked after the workers union mistakenly received a telegram revealing that the US Government played a role in the refusal to increase their wages. The radicalized workers in Seattle, Washington, took over the city for a week, closing down Seattle's capitalist industries. They even set up an alternative to the police force, which was unarmed and forbade the use of force, and get this, the Crime Rate went way down.

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On this day, February 8, in 1911, the Boy Scouts of America's official purpose was incorporated into the organization. It involved education, character building, responsibility, good citizenship, and physical fitness. All innocent enough, but what wasn't outright stated here was the Boy Scouts extremist religious expectations and homophobic beliefs. Since they were founded, 3 children have been ejected for not believing in God, and 1 was expelled for being gay. Possibly just a coincidence, But about half of congress were once Boy Scouts, Mr. Bush was one, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and about 8 other US Presidents.

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Black activist Marcus Garvey arrived in America, from Jamaica. Marcus Garvey was an amazing leader who’s ultimate mission was to unite people of African ancestry. He had the remarkable ability to gather widespread support and organize mass political and social movements. He also helped form the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Jamaica, which later branched out to the U.S. and attracted millions of members. As well as public speaking, Marcus Garvey used his skills as a printer to publish his ideas, using media as an important way to build his movement.

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The Battle of Waireka began. This battle was part of The First Taranaki War, which was a land conflict that broke out between the indigenous Maori people and the British Settlers in New Zealand. Although the British were badly defeated in this war, this victory for the Maori was only a small part of the larger New Zealand Land Wars, in which huge areas of land were stolen from the Maori. A treaty signed back in 1840 had guaranteed Maori tribes undisturbed possession of their lands, but the British had more military power, and obviously more greed. You know their M.O.: only honor a treaty while its convenient for you.

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Mexican forces surrendered at Veracruz and the U.S. flag was raised. American troops then continued to march inland, eventually capturing Mexico City and ending the 2-year Mexican-American war. America then established the Rio Grande River as the U.S.-Mexican border, and in the process gained control of Texas, California, Nevada, Utah as well as parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Although the Mexicans living in these territories were offered citizenship, they continued to face widespread oppression.

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The United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. Although Americans initially saw little economic opportunity in Alaska, it didn’t take long for settlements to develop. Indigenous people were not recognized as citizens of the new Alaskan territory. They couldn’t vote, speak their native languages, or even enter the same facilities as the whites. Indigenous youth were often forced into the ‘Bureau of Indian Affair’ Schools, which are some of the most racist and Eurocentric institutions in existence.

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The American Government issued an apology to Nazi Germany for a derogatory statement that Mayor LaGuardia made about Adolph Hitler. Earlier that year, in a speech, the New York Mayor referred to Hitler as a "brown-shirted fanatic". LaGuardia openly showed his objection to Germany's presence at the upcoming New York World's Fair. He encouraged the creation of a special pavilion for Germany, called "a chamber of horrors." Mayor LaGuardia is one of the most outspoken politicians that the US has seen, and he was a very early critic of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Regime.

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The Supreme Court issued their decision on Dred Scott vs. Sandford. The Dred Scott decision ruled that people of African descent, whether they were enslaved or not, could never be citizens of the United States. This was a huge setback to the rights of African Americans considering that some black men in five of the original states had been full voting citizens since the Declaration of Independence. The decision ended up strengthening Northern opposition to slavery and encouraged secessionist elements in the South. This court case contributed to much of the Pre-Civil War tension.

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Police kill 4 strikers at a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Also known as the River Rouge Massacre, the Dearborn police fired into the crowd of 3000, killing 4 and wounding at least 50. Henry Ford's factories had a well-deserved reputation for brutality and violence. Ford also had a secret police that closely watched employees, infiltrated union meetings, and stifled all radical activism before it could become organized resistance.

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Close to a thousand Moro women, children and men lay dead on the ground of Bud Dajo in the Philippines, massacred by the American Military. Only 6 Moro rebels survived this First Battle of Bud Dajo. The Philippine-American war began after the US purchased the Philippines from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American war in 1898. This was despite the fact that the Philippines had just declared independence from Spain. The First Philippine Republic fiercely resisted American colonization until their defeat in 1902. The Philippines were not granted independence until 1946.

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The Spanish Crown finally abolished slavery in Puerto Rico. Somehow it made sense to them to compensate slave owners with money and require enslaved peoples to work for 3 more years. Unfortunately freedom was short-lived and Puerto Rico became U.S. territory after the Spanish-American war of 1898. Political participation by indigenous peoples was restricted, and after a 1917 act making every Puerto Rican a citizen of the United States, many Puerto Ricans were drafted into the armed forces where they endured the severe discrimination that was rampant in the US.

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General Carleton, commander of the Department of New Mexico, wrote an insightful letter to a fellow General regarding the recent surrender of the Navajo people. The letter proclaimed, quote, “they found it was their destiny, too, as it had been that of tribe after tribe, to give way to the insatiable progress of our race, they threw down their arms, and have come to us with confidence in our magnanimity.” Talk about a perfect example of white supremacy and sense of entitlement. And they teach us that manifest destiny was a noble concept?

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Four Puerto Rican Nationalists stormed the US House of representatives under the leadership of Lolita Lebron. Upon reaching the visitor's gallery above the House chamber, Lebron stood up and shouted "Viva Puerto Rico Libre!," unfurled a Puerto Rican flag, and then the group proceeded to fire automatic pistols towards the ceiling. No one was killed during the act, which was carried out on the anniversary of a 1917 law making Puerto Ricans US citizens. Lebron's mission was to bring world attention to Puerto Rico's struggle for independence.

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The New Jewel Movement began in Grenada when Maurice Bishop successfully overthrew the harsh dictatorship of Prime Minister Eric Gairy. The New Jewel Movement aligned itself with the socialist governments of the Soviet Union and Cuba and was highly influenced by the Black Power Movement. It prioritized strengthening the military, causing the US to label Grenada as a threat. While the movement had its limitations, it greatly improved social and economic conditions in Grenada. Another military coup overthrew the New Jewel Movement 4 years later, leading to political turmoil and extensive foreign intervention.

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Eli Whitney patented the Cotton Gin. The Cotton Gin, a machine that quickly separated cotton from the seeds inside, greatly sped up cotton production and increased demand for the plant. As a result, the African slave trade in America, which had been losing popularity, saw a resurgence and the slave population increased by millions. Although Whitney is given credit for the invention of the Cotton Gin, there is evidence that the true inventor was actually a slave. Slaves, who were not even considered full human-beings, had no rights to patents.

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Los Angeles Radio station, 93 KHJ, was raided by the police, when their popular morning show host played Donny Osmond’s song “Puppy Love” nonstop for an hour and a half. Listeners became concerned that the radio station had been taken over; the confused LAPD officers responded quickly, but left without making any arrests. Although this particular raid wasn’t an attack on free speech, there have been many other radio station raids in American history, most of which were politically motivated and involved corrupt government officials trying to squash community resistance.

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A hurricane ripped through the coast of Samoa, destroying U.S., British, and German vessels that were fighting for control over Samoan land and selfishly fueling the Samoan civil war. Samoa was considered valuable for its prime location in the South Pacific Ocean. Although this massive storm ended the military conflict, the Berlin Conference later split the Samoan Islands into two parts, giving one to Germany and one to the U.S. Britain gave up Samoa in return for Fiji and some of the Melanesian territories. Believe it or not, it’s a common practice for Europe and the US to divide and claim land as if it were a piece of pie or something. Despite the fact that people already live there.

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Rioting erupted in the streets of Harlem after the residents discovered yet another incident of vicious police brutality. Most of those killed, injured and arrested during the riot were black citizens. This riot reflected deeper issues in New York City's black community, such as the high unemployment rate, horrible housing conditions and high rate of mortality and illness. This is not to mention the police's track record of discrimination and brutality towards Harlem's black population. Well there goes the myth of equality in the North.

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The Platt Amendment was passed, granting the US rights to the Cuban naval base, Guantanamo Bay. U.S. troops had occupied Cuba since the Spanish-American War in 1898, and the Amendment was a condition of US withdrawal. The amendment also stated that Cuba could not transfer land to any power other than the US, it authorized US intervention in Cuban affairs, and it prohibited Cuba from negotiating treaties with any other country. The Platt Amendment included many other oppressive restrictions both politically and economically.

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The Dutch East India Company was established by a group of Dutch merchants and independent trading companies. Marking the beginning of their 21-year monopoly over the spice trade in East Asia, they forcefully colonized any territory they desired and often enslaved the indigenous people. Many countries like Indonesia and South Africa are still struggling to recover from the Company’s oppressive, destructive and violent legacy.

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The United States Naturalization Law of 1790 went into effect. This act provided the first guidelines for granting U.S. citizenship. One of these guidelines specified that citizens must be ‘free white people,’ excluding Native Americans, indentured servants, slaves, free African-Americans, and later Asian Americans. It is legislation like this that has historically allowed groups of marginalized white people, such as Irish and Italian-Americans, to reap the benefits of whiteness, while simultaneously maintaining the oppression of people-of-color.

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The first National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference was held. This conference gave way to a document called, El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan, which laid out the cultural, social, and political ideas and goals of the Chicano Movement. The Chicano Movement was born from the Mexican-American community who organized and resisted ‘economic slavery, political exploitation, ethnic and cultural psychological destruction and denial of civil and human rights’. Wouldn’t that make you want to fight, too?

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The men who lead the Amistad slave revolt were freed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Amistad was a Spanish slave ship carrying 49 slaves who revolted and took over the ship. Instead of navigating back to the coast of Africa, their ship mistakenly wound up in U.S. waters where they were re-captured by the US warship Washington. A group of American abolitionists took an interest in their case, which made it to the Supreme Court. The 35 surviving men were eventually allowed to return to their homeland.

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Ponce De Leon became the first European to land on the coast of Florida, immediately claiming the land as Spain’s. The word “discovery” is commonly used to describe this event, the same way it is said that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. In reality, aside from the fact that there were already people living on these lands, there is also evidence of African voyages to the Americas long before Columbus. So why do our history books leave this out? Some say history is a matter of perspective, but I think it is a matter of power as well – the power to decide what is written into history and what is omitted.

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The TV Guide published its very first issue, and by the 1960’s, had become the most popular magazine in this country. TV Guide is currently owned by Gemstar TV Guide International, which is partially owned by News Corporation. Now, News Corporation is the huge Media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch. Other things owned by News Corp. include The New York Post, all FOX networks, the National Geographic Channel, Myspace, and the list goes on. So if Rupert Murdoch, or one of the other 5 major media outlets, is thinking it…Hey, chances are, you are too.

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A popular blackface minstrel show in New York called Bryant’s Minstrels debuted the song “I wish I was in Dixie Land,” which promoted the idea that enslaved black people were happy, content, and actually longed to be on plantations. The song became an instant hit, especially in the South where it gave voice to the pre-civil war sentiments of Southern whites. Just two years later, the Dixie song became the battle hymn of the Southern Confederacy as they marched into the Civil War to defend the institution of slavery.

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The Mayflower left the Plymouth colony where it had landed one year earlier, in order to return to England. The English had begun the colonization of North America in the 1580’s by building small colonies along the Atlantic coast, including the successful Jamestown Settlement that was founded in 1607. Because the agricultural economies of these early colonies demanded large labor forces, white settlers first used enslaved Native Americans and European Indentured servants. Over time, the labor of enslaved Africans proved to be the most economical and the development of chattel slavery began.

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The Black Hawk War began after members of the Sauk and Fox tribes made their yearly migration across the Mississippi River. The US had forbidden these tribes to return East of the River, claiming that they had given up their land rights in the treaty of 1804. In reality, the treaty had been signed by four members of the tribes who did not even have the authority to sign away land. Although the Sauk and Fox people insisted that this treaty was false, they were defeated in the war and forced to comply anyway. Funny how the US rarely honors treaties with Native Americans, and yet they enforced this illegitimate one that granted them land.

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The Journey of Reconciliation began, which later became the model for the famous Freedom Rides. The Journey of Reconciliation consisted of 16 men, 8 black and 8 white, who traveled in an integrated fashion by bus and train from Washington DC to Louisville, Kentucky. This journey was an organized stand against the violent and racist segregationist policies of the South. It was also boldly testing a recent Supreme Court decision banning racial segregation in interstate travel. During the rides, 12 of the men were arrested, and although the NAACP had promised to represent them, they unexpectedly backed out.

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Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and killed after the Mexican Government placed a bounty on his head. Zapata was a leader in the Mexican Revolution and general of the Liberation Army of the South. The majority of his followers were indigenous peasants, and he fought tirelessly for redistribution of agricultural land and communal land rights for Mexico’s indigenous population. Zapata drafted the Plan de Ayala, which proclaimed the Zapatista demands for land, liberty, and justice. The revolutionary ‘Zapatista Army of National Liberation’ in Chiapas, Mexico was named in Zapata’s honor.

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Albert Einstein revealed his theory of relativity to the world. While Einstein is credited as the most brilliant man on earth, his involvement with social and political issues goes unnoted. Einstein publicly criticized the Nazi movement and stated his reservations about European intervention in Arab and Jewish relations. He also opposed the making and testing of nuclear bombs and expressed his hatred of the military system. Einstein also played an important role in the American Civil Rights movement of 1940. I wonder how all that got left out of the history books?

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The threat of white mob violence in Colfax, Louisiana drove hundreds of the black population into the local courthouse to seek refuge. The next day political and racial tensions climaxed as an armed mob of over 300 whites surrounded the courthouse and fired relentlessly. Over one hundred black people were violently murdered by the mob, many of who were Ku Klux Klan members. When police and Federal troops arrived, only 9 were arrested in connection with the Colfax Massacre, and each of those nine were charged with the murder of only one man.

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The Amritsar Massacre occurred in Northwestern India, lasting only 10 minutes but claiming thousands of lives. A group of about 10,000 men, women and children had gathered to celebrate a Sikh religious festival when a British General Reginald Dyer arrived unannounced, and without warning ordered fifty of his men to open fire on the crowd. The soldiers fired continuously for about 10 minutes, using over 1600 rounds. Somewhere between one and two thousand Indian people were killed and thousands more were injured. This massacre was a response to resistance in India against British colonial control.

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“The Capitulations of Santa Fe” was signed by Queen Isabel of Spain, authorizing and financing Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas. Since then, Columbus has become quite a popular historical figure. So what’s all the hype for? He’s only responsible for committing acts of genocide and colonizing the “new world.” Oh yeah, that did kind of spark the idea of a global market system, conveniently setting an example for the rest of Europe to begin their own economic domination over the world. Okay, so I get it now, global capitalism, exploitative labor, and riches. No wonder Columbus is considered a hero by Europe and the US.

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” which addresses the public criticisms made by the white church on the Non-violent Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King explains that active resistance is necessary because the oppressors will never voluntarily give-up their power and hand freedom over to the oppressed. King then suggests that white moderates are more dangerous than white supremacists, because white supremacists do not hide their racism and can easily be identified as the enemy, whereas white moderates claim to be allies, and yet stifle racial justice with their lack of commitment and definitive action.

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A huge earthquake shook San Francisco, destroying much of the city. While the National Guard is praised for its heroic relief efforts, few know about the excessive brutality it used to persecute the Chinese-American population in the aftermath of the earthquake. Additionally, the city also forcibly evacuated Chinatown in order to gain control of the real estate. This natural disaster allowed businessmen and politicians to profit while reorganizing political structures in their favor, revealing the severe power imbalances between the rich and the poor, and whites and non-whites. And then, almost a century later, there was Katrina.

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The Bay of Pigs invasion came to a humiliating end for the American government. The invasion was planned and financed by the US under President Kennedy, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolutionary regime. The CIA trained anti-Castro Cuban exiles for the attack and attempted to make it appear as an internal Cuban conflict, but the web of lies created by the US to mask their involvement quickly unraveled. The Bay of Pigs invasion failed miserably, with US losses including the capture of the Cuban exiles and the death of four American pilots.

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English politician Enoch Powell made his very controversial ‘Rivers of Blood Speech’. This speech, which he made right as the Race Relations Bill was going through Parliament, expressed the xenophobic and racist views that were common among Britain’s conservative population. He suggested that Britain’s white population was superior to immigrants and non-whites, and that white citizens had a moral right to discriminate on the grounds of race. Ironically, much of Britain’s non-white and immigrant populations had been recruited as laborers from former British colonies.

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The Boston Latin School opened in Boston, Massachusetts, becoming the very first public school in America. The school was originally founded to educate the sons of wealthy New England families. Since then, public education has evolved into a huge institution; unfortunately filled with inequalities. And it doesn’t take a magnifying glass to see that public schools in working-class neighborhoods and communities of color are severely lacking in budget dollars and resources. Would I be wrong to say that America’s public education system is actually designed to maintain the status-quo?

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Political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was born. Mumia was a member of the Black Panther Party, a supporter of the radical MOVE community, and active in the Association of Black Journalists. In 1982, he was convicted of shooting a police officer and sentenced to death in what his supporters labeled an outrageously unfair trial. Despite many appeals and an abundance of evidence supporting his innocence, he remains on death row. While in prison, Mumia Abu-Jamal continues his amazing work as a journalist, passionately exposing injustices and speaking out against police brutality and the prison industrial complex.

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The Lewis and Clark expedition reached the junction of the Missouri and the Yellow Stone River, in what is now North Dakota. They had set out about a year earlier to evaluate the land and explore the Missouri river in search of a trade route to the Pacific Ocean. Early on in their journey, Lewis and Clark were joined by a white translator and his Shoshone wife, Sacajawea, who was sold to him at a young age. Sacajewea played a crucial role in the expedition. Unfortunately, there are many romanticized fabrications about Sacajawea’s life and her contributions are often manipulated to represent “Indian” compliance with colonialism.

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The Battle of Sand Butte occurred in what is now Oregon, marking a small victory for the Modoc against the US army. The Modoc War began in 1872 when members of the Modoc tribe resisted the displacement caused by the influx of white settlers and refused to stay on a reservation. Although the Modoc won many of the battles throughout the Modoc war, they were ultimately forced to surrender in 1873, and four of their leaders were hung. Ironically, the elimination of native resistance is a defining tactic in the development of this "free" country.

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Los Angeles police murdered Nation of Islam member Ronald Stokes in cold blood. Armed police units then raided the Nation of Islam Mosque in Los Angeles, shooting at least six unarmed Muslims and beating many others for no reason. The FBI labeled the Nation of Islam a threat, claiming that members had ties to communism and the black liberation movement. Police training manuals portrayed Nation of Islam members as militant and psychotic in their hatred of Caucasians, conveniently turning them into justifiable targets for police brutality.

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George Washington took the oath of office, becoming the first elected President of the United States. Washington was a celebrated hero of the Revolutionary War, and he constan