History

Veterans Day

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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

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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?