HARLEM PERSON: "This is still Harlem and this is still a private thoroughfare, cracker." (II-23)
Thoroughfare -- a road, passageway, or street
References at the end:
YOUNGER BROTHER: Emiliano Zapata
Before Emilio Zapata was a peasant revolutionary, he was a young peasant in Morelos. His family was "well-off" in the sense that they owned land and were not slaves on a sugarcane plantation. In 1909, he was elected mayor of the small town of Anenecuilco and began defending his neighbors land. When the law system turned against him, he gathered armed peasants and vigilantly took the land back by force. During the Mexican Revolution he was instrumental in continuing for land and liberty and anyone who interfered with his Plan of Ayala, heading the Liberation Army of the South, and for bringing down the corrupt dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. On April 10, 1919, he was tricked into meeting with a general who wanted to "switch sides." The meeting was a trap and Zapata was killed upon arrival.
EMMA GOLDMAN: World War I, deportation of Emma Goldman
The first World War was a huge conflict between all non-polar continents between July 28, 1914 and November 11, 1918. Over eight million people lost their lives. The war was divided between two major power blocks: the Entente Powers (the "allies"-- Britain, France, Russia, later the US, and even later Italy) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Turkey, etc.). Although many perceived "war" to "banished," European politics were at odds and nations found themselves in a fierce arms race, in which many believed war was inevitable. At a peak of tension, the war began when the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian activist. Austria declared war on Serbia, Russia allied with Serbia, so Germany (allying with Austria) then declared war on Russia.. All on July 28. Within days, Germany swung through Belgium and both France and Britain also declared war on Germany. When the US got involved in 1915, women began taking over men's roles in the workplace.
World War I was remembered for its stagnant trench warfare and massive lost of lives in failed attacks. Russia grew to be militarily unstable, soon resulting in the Revolutions of 1917 and the emergence of the socialist party. Germany attempted to redirect manpower, but with vast unrest at home and the impending threat of US forces, Germany resigned to the Armistice and were the last Central power to surrender. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which only later seemed to cause more problems. Germany was left in debt and despair and were blamed by the majority for the war. Generally regarded as a "pointless tragedy," deadly innovations on the battlefield including machine guns, poison gas, tanks, and aerial warfare led World War I to be massive rather than "over by Christmas" as predicted.
"Though she was not a pacifist, Emma Goldman insisted on the anarchist principle that the state has no right to make war. She believed that most modern wars were fought on behalf of capitalists at the expense of the working class, and that the draft was a form of illegitimate coercion. Although Goldman knew federal government officials had been looking for grounds to deport her for years, she pressed on with her antiwar activities. Within weeks of America's entry into World War I, she helped launch the No-Conscription League to encourage conscientious objectors and spoke repeatedly against the draft, attracting eight thousand people to one meeting. Predictably, the government responded, arresting Emma Goldman and her comrade Alexander Berkman on June 15, 1917. Charged with conspiring against the draft, they were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison with the possibility of deportation at the end of their term. After an unsuccessful appeal to the Supreme Court, Goldman began serving her term at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. On September 27, 1919, Emma was released, only to be re-arrested shortly afterward by the young J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Justice Department's General Intelligence Division. Hoover advanced his career by implementing to the fullest extent possible the government's plan to deport all foreign-born radicals. Writing the briefs and presenting the case against Goldman himself, Hoover persuaded the courts to deny Goldman's citizenship claims and to deport her."
This mugshot was taken of Emma Goldman in 1901 when she was wrongly accused for the assassination of President William McKinley. Click HERE to read Emma Goldman's Statement at the federal hearing in re-deportation. The previous exert was taken from the same website.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON: his funeral, Tuskegee Institute
Photos from Booker T. Washington's funeral which President Wilson and the first lady attended.
Booker T. Washington was hired to teach in The Tuskegee Negro Normal institute in 1888. He was able to borrow money from the Hampton Agricultural Institute and bought an abandoned plantation to build his own school. He taught a broad education, emphasizing on practical skills including carpentry, farming, brickmaking, cabinetmaking, etc so that students were able to most literally help build the school, rising at five in the morning and finishing their work at nine-thirty at night. The Tuskegee Institute today is a National Historical Landmark known today to include Tuskegee University, Washington's home and grave, and monuments dedicated to Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver and their achievements.
HARRY HOUDINI: hanging over Times Square, Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassination
This is Houdini, most literally hanging over a clock tower in Time Square.
The Archduke Franz Ferdinand was heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire. At 1:15pm on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, he and his wife were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a nineteen year old Slav nationalist and member associated with Young Bosnia and the Black Hand. The couple survived a previous attempt when a grenade was thrown at his passing car; he was said to have shouted to local officials, "So you welcome your guests with bombs!" They insisted on visiting a hospital but when their driver took a wrong turn, Princip spotted and shot at them. He first shot the Duke's wife Sophie in the abdomen and then Ferdinand in the jugular. He begged his wife to live for their children and by the time his men realized they would need scissors to open his jacket, it was too late. Austro-Hungary blamed Serbia, declared war, and thus began World War I.
FATHER: Lusitania torpedoed by a U-boat off the SW coast of Ireland; 1200 men, women, and children lost lives
The Lusitania sailed on May 1st 1915 from New York bound for Liverpool. The German Embassy publicized that any ship that sailed into the "European War Zone" was a potential target for German submarines. Some newspapers printed the warning directly next to the Cunard Liner’s list of departure dates. Regardless, the Lusitania was packed with passengers because many thought that a luxury liner was simply not a legitimate target as it had no military value. Off the Irish coast, at 1:40pm on May 7th, the Lusitania was spotted by U20. The first torpedo was fired at 2:09pm. The Lusitania took eighteen minutes to sink. The speed and the angle of sinking made it extremely difficult to launch life boats and the first one that did get into the water spilled its occupants into the sea. 1,153 passengers and crew drowned; 128 of them were Americans. There was understandable anger throughout America and Great Britain. The sinking of the Lusitania was thought to have made a major impact on America and World War One, but America did not join the war for another two years.
