Veterans Day

These profiles & photos are taken from Zinn Education Project’s Facebook Page. Like this page to receive This Day in History updates!

Here is a Veterans Day tribute to a group of Veterans we seldom hear about, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. From the U.S. alone, 2,800 people volunteered to defend the republic and fight fascism in Spain beginning in 1936, including nurse Salaria Kea pictured here. This is a key story for students studying WWII. As historian Paul Ortiz commented: “Salaria Kea: a true American hero. Fought against Facism and Nazism in Spain long before the official outbreak of World War II. Most Europeans and sunshine patriots in the U.S. were fine with Facism and Nazism as long as it was aimed primarily at the Ethiopians or the Anarchists in Spain. Had the nation heeded Salaria Kea, Langston Hughes, and other early freedom fighters, WWII may have been avoided.” Learn more from the invaluable photo book on the brigade here: http://bit.ly/Q6sMxq Learn more about Kea, including how she met Langston Hughes in Spain and was captured by Franco’s forces and Germans, here: http://bit.ly/19dgFBi

We remember on Veterans Day: Aug. 13, 1955,Lamar Smith (activist), 63-year-old farmer and WWI veteran, was shot dead in cold blood on the crowded courthouse lawn in Brookhaven, Mississippi, for urging blacks to vote. No one was prosecuted. His murder is one of those listed in the 1955 NAACP pamphlet, “M is for Mississippi and Murder”:http://bit.ly/14JcF05 Read more: http://bit.ly/NmLyit

Photo: An early photo of Lamar Smith and his wife Annie Clark Smith/collection of Mary Byrd Markham.

On this Veterans Day we remember Medgar Evers who returned from active duty in WWII to be turned away from the polls when he tried to vote. He dedicated himself to fighting for voting rights; investigating race-based murders of African Americans including Emmett Louis Till, Rev. George W. Lee, and more as NAACP field secretary; organizing NAACP Youth Councils; supporting James Meredith’s right to attend Ole Miss; and more until he was murdered in June of 1963, leaving behind his wife and three young children. Learn more about his life and legacy: http://bit.ly/11eWCQ4

Photo: Tougaloo College Archives

Berlin Wall

Today you read a brief article on the Berlin Wall. November 9th was the 25th anniversary of the start of the wall coming down. Yesterday, CBS Sunday Morning had a brief segment on the wall: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/25-years-after-the-berlin-wall-fell/

Watch the video or do your own research and reply to this post with a fact you learned about the Cold War. What questions do you have about this time in history?

Women’s Right to Vote

We’ll talk about political rights – including voting – throughout the semester. Women in the United States didn’t have the right to vote until 1920 with the passing of the 19th amendment to the Constitution. It’s fascinating to see some of the materials printed fighting AGAINST women’s right to vote, like this pamphlet published in the 1910s:

The reasons state:

BECAUSE 90% of the women either do not want it, or do not care.

BECAUSE it means competition of women with men instead of co-operation.

BECAUSE 80% of the women eligible to vote are married and can only double or annul their husband’s votes.

BECAUSE it can be of no benefit commensurate with the additional expense involved.

BECAUSE in some States more voting women than voting men will place the Government under petticoat rule.

BECAUSE it is unwise to risk the good we already have for the evil which may occur.

Read more about the pamphlet and where it came from in this The Atlantic article: http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/11/vote-no-on-womens-suffrage-bizarre-reasons-for-not-letting-women-vote/264639/ 

Think About It: What do you think about the reasons given above? Why do you think people believed these reasons for being against women voting? Leave a comment!

Welcome! Introductions for Social Studies Cohort

Welcome to the GED Cohort’s Social Studies class blog. We’ll use this page for class discussion and as an easy way to communicate resources and questions. Please save this website as a favorite on your home computer or smartphone if you have one.

Also, please leave a brief comment introducing yourself to the class. Just give your name, a place in the world you’re interested in learning more about, and anything else you’d like your classmates to know about you.

I’ll start…

My name is Diana Brace and I’d love to learn more about the violence in Mexico. I’ve read a bit about the art and culture surrounding gangs and death and would like to investigate this more. (I found this article by Alma Guillermoprieto enlightening.) I think my students should know that I work hard and love to listen and learn about others’ lives and perspectives.