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Tag: slavery

  • Parker vows, ‘We will not allow anyone to erase our history,’ following President’s House lawsuit ruling

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    Mayor Cherelle Parker reacted to the city’s recent legal win against the federal government in a video Tuesday, issuing a rare, albeit indirect, critique of the Trump administration.

    In a recorded statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, Parker praised the court’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction that requires federal officials to restore the exhibit on slavery at the President’s House at Independence National Historical Park, pending further litigation. U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe wrote in a 40-page decision released Monday that the displays, which federal parks workers stripped from the site on Jan. 22, must be returned unaltered.

    RELATED: Slavery exhibit at President’s House must be restored by Trump administration, judge orders

    Parker referenced the decision in her video, thanking Rufe for acknowledging the city’s right to “mutual agreement” with the National Parks Service regarding changes to the exhibit. She also directly quoted the judge’s assertion that a federal agency “cannot arbitrarily decide what is true, based on its own whims.” 

    Toward the end of the video, the mayor linked the city’s pride to its acknowledgement of “all of our history and all of our truth, no matter how painful it may be.”

    “We will not allow anyone to erase our history,” said Parker, who wore sweatshirt with the name of her alma mater, Lincoln University, in the clip.

    The mayor did not name the president in her message, but her comments and lawsuit are some of her most direct actions yet against the Trump administration. While the Democratic mayors of some cities have sharply criticized the federal government since Donald Trump resumed office, Parker has largely stayed silent. As the president threatened sanctuary cities, she even stepped away from the label, branding Philadelphia a “welcoming city” instead.

    Throughout the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the University of Pennsylvania, Parker also avoided joining the conflict as the federal government cut off hundreds of millions in research funding and threatened to revoke student visas and the immigration statuses of some college employees. Parker has a master’s degree in public administration from Penn, and the university is the largest private employer in Philadelphia.

    The President’s House exhibit tells the stories of nine enslaved people, brought to Philadelphia by President George Washington. It was removed following a federal review of signage at public parks and monuments for “divisive narratives.”

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    Kristin Hunt

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  • Coerced Colorado prison labor amounts to involuntary servitude, judge rules

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    Colorado Department of Corrections officials forced inmates to work prison jobs through coercion that ultimately amounted to involuntary servitude, a Denver judge ruled Friday.

    The state’s prisons unconstitutionally coerced labor by levying severe punishments — including solitary confinement — against prisoners who refused to work, Denver District Court Judge Sarah Wallace found in the 61-page ruling.

    “By creating a framework where failure to work triggers a sequence of restrictions that culminate in a more restrictive ‘custody level’ and physical isolation, CDOC has established a system of compulsion that overrides the voluntariness of the (prisoners’) labor,” Wallace wrote.

    The ruling comes out of a 2022 lawsuit in which state prisoners claimed the Department of Corrections’ approach to prison labor amounted to involuntary servitude or slavery, which Colorado voters outlawed in 2018 via Amendment A.

    The lawsuit, which went to trial in October, was brought by Towards Justice, a nonprofit law firm headed by David Seligman, a candidate in the 2026 race for Colorado attorney general.

    Prisoners in Colorado are expected to work prison jobs, which include food preparation, janitorial services and other positions within their facilities. They are paid well below minimum wage for the work.  They can choose not to work, but doing so is a disciplinary infraction for which prisoners are punished, according to court filings.

    State attorneys argued during the October trial that prisoners’ labor was voluntary, and that punishments for failing to work, while “uncomfortable,” did not rise to the level of coercion legally required to constitute involuntary servitude.

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  • What ICE Should Have Learned from the Fugitive Slave Act

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    During the tumultuous period that preceded the Civil War, the United States passed a series of bills that came to be collectively known as the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise allowed for California’s entry into the Union as a free state, and outlawed the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in the District of Columbia. The most controversial element of the legislation, however, was the Fugitive Slave Act. Article IV of the Constitution already required that an enslaved person who escaped into a free state be returned to bondage, but the 1850 law created a federal bureaucracy to facilitate it. As the historian Andrew Delbanco notes in his book “The War Before the War,” a history of the national conflict over fugitive slaves, the Compromise “was meant to be a remedy and a salve, but it turned out to be an incendiary event that lit the fuse that led to civil war.”

    The law was heavily weighted, in that it offered a fee of ten dollars to magistrates who ruled that an individual should be returned to slavery, but only five to those who ruled that the person should remain free. Even more controversially, it charged federal commissioners with enforcing the law, and they worked with loosely regulated agents, who made it their own business to track down fugitives and return them to slavery. These so-deemed slave catchers had a long reputation for conducting rogue operations. As Delbanco notes, “Even free black people in the North—including those who had never been enslaved—found their lives infused with the terror of being seized and deported on the pretext that they had once belonged to someone in the South.” Given that as many as a hundred thousand people escaped slavery and found refuge in free states in the nineteenth century, fugitives represented a population residing illegally within largely sympathetic communities—a fact that incensed hard-liners on the slavery issue. Seeking a middle ground, Senator Henry Clay, of Kentucky, who introduced the Compromise, imagined that the law would placate irate Southerners who fumed at the monetary losses that escaped slaves represented, but few lawmakers foresaw the impact that it would have in the North.

    Even in the free states, attitudes toward slavery were complicated. A raft of economic, social, and religious dynamics had resulted in the abolition or prohibition of slavery, but that did not automatically mean that the entire population favored racial equality or abolition in general. (When Northern states began abolishing slavery after the American Revolution, many slaveholders opted to sell their chattel to buyers in the South rather than manumit them.) At the same time, the Fugitive Slave Act replaced the more complicated questions about the institution with a single, less complicated one: Were Northerners prepared to watch their neighbors, many of whom had lived in their communities for years, be violently removed from their homes or grabbed off the streets? For many, the answer was no.

    Attempted enforcement of the law met with immediate resistance. In 1851, an armed mob surrounded a group of agents led by a slaveholder, Edward Gorsuch, in Christiana, Pennsylvania, who were attempting to return four fugitives to his farm, in Maryland; Gorsuch was shot and killed. The four, along with others who participated in the standoff, escaped, and some reached Canada with the assistance of Frederick Douglass. In Syracuse, New York, Oberlin, Ohio, and other cities, crowds swarmed jails where captured fugitives were held in other successful efforts to free them, at the risk of their own prosecution. (In 1854, fifty thousand people filled the streets of Boston, a center of abolitionist resistance, to protest against returning Anthony Burns, a Black man who had escaped from slavery in Virginia, to that state. (When that effort failed, a group privately purchased Burns’s freedom and facilitated his return to Massachusetts.)

    The significance of this history is twofold. The Fugitive Slave Act was rhetorically useful for a certain element of the political class, but for most people it took an issue that they may have felt ambivalent about—or hadn’t much thought about at all—and gave them a direct, visceral reason to feel very strongly about it. Slavery might have been an abstract national concern, but the fate of a neighbor, whom people may have depended upon as a part of their community, was very much a personal one. Something akin to that reaction is occurring in communities across the U.S. now, as social-media feeds fill with images of children being harassed by ICE agents as they leave school and of a five-year-old boy being detained, and of adults being shoved to the ground and pepper-sprayed or pulled from their cars after agents smash the windows. The Fugitive Slave Act is remembered by historians for its ironic effect: designed as a means of cooling the simmering regional tensions over slavery, the law effectively made it the most contentious issue facing the nation. It pushed Americans toward the realization that the nation was bound in what William Seward later termed an “irrepressible conflict.”

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    Jelani Cobb

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  • Contributor: California’s place in enslaved people’s struggle for freedom

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    In one version of U.S. history, California is a place where slavery was prohibited from the founding, in the 1849 state constitution, and where that ban was reaffirmed by the state’s ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. In another telling, it was a place that had ended the practice some 30 years earlier — when it was part of Mexico.

    Despite being on the periphery of the Spanish empire and Mexico before becoming part of the United States, California had an important place in the larger struggle by enslaved people for their freedom. California connects Mexican and U.S. history while also serving as a reminder that there are few corners of the Western Hemisphere that are untouched by the legacy of slavery.

    The story of the rise and fall of African enslavement is often presented as a national story in the United States — and a mostly Southern one — rather than as the hemispheric phenomenon that it was. Enslaved Africans could be found as far south as Chile and Argentina all the way up to Canada. Likewise, the end of slavery was not solely brought about by the Civil War in the U.S., but also by centuries of resistance through rebellions, wars, sabotage and self-emancipation, across the entire Americas. This, too, was part of California’s story.

    After the Spanish toppled the Mexica empire in 1521, they wasted little time bringing captive Africans to the place they called New Spain — a vast territory that would later expand to the north to include New Mexico and California. By the 1530s there were reports of conspiracies to revolt, as well as the establishment of colonies by escapees from slavery. The leader of one such community, Gaspar Yanga, forced Spanish authorities to recognize its autonomy, after troops failed to vanquish him in 1608. This land outside of Veracruz became the first free Black town in Mexico, today known as Yanga. It was a significant victory at a time when an estimated 130,000 Africans were brought to New Spain, resulting in one of the highest African slave populations in the 17th century Americas.

    However, by the 18th century the center of enslavement had shifted farther north, toward the sugar plantations of the Caribbean, and the numbers dropped in Mexico. In addition, there was still Indigenous labor in Mexico, which was often exploited. This was also the case in the lands that would become California, as well as New Mexico, where indentured and often “detribalized” Indigenous people, known as genízaros, were often forced into a servitude that often bore more than a passing resemblance to slavery.

    In 1829, president of a now-independent Mexico, Vicente Guerrero, who was of partial African descent, abolished slavery. This triggered an immediate outcry in the Texas territory, which was largely populated by slave-owning immigrants from the U.S. By 1836 Texas was independent, and slavery in Mexico was officially finished the following year. Now Mexico became a land of possible refuge for people fleeing enslavement in Texas or nearby places such as Louisiana. It was far closer than the Underground Railroad leading to the northern states or Canada. Historian Alice Baumgartner has estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 enslaved people escaped to Mexico from the U.S.

    However, this potential zone of freedom was significantly reduced by the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. In the aftermath of that conflict, 51% of Mexico was ceded to the United States. This included New Mexico, which had been part of Spain’s empire since the early 1600s, and California, which was colonized in 1769. Ultimately, the entire territory would form the states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

    People in the lands ceded from Mexico were forced to confront the issue of slavery anew as part of the U.S. Gold miners were racing to California, and some were from the South, bringing enslaved people to work on their claims. By the time of statehood in 1850, according to one estimate, there had been around 500 to 1,500 enslaved people brought to California, their status obscured even after the state constitution was enacted. Although the shadow of Southern slavery stalked California, some people managed to find freedom in those early years. However, in 1852, California enacted a Fugitive Slave Law, which applied to people who were brought before statehood and led to many being sent back to the plantations of the South. The Utah and New Mexico territories — which would not become states until 1896 and 1912 — passed slave codes, which permitted slavery and were meant to regulate the treatment of people in servitude or bondage, both Black and Native Americans.

    Farther south, however, most of the new republics of Spanish America had ended their involvement with the slave trade and implemented gradual emancipation measures as early as 1811, and with final abolition in place by the mid-1850s. Had California remained part of Mexico, it would have been in this larger, earlier wave of abolition, rather than seeing the continuation or return of enslavement.

    Slavery shaped the Americas for four centuries, blighting the entire hemisphere. The long struggle to dismantle it did not happen only in the U.S. or only in the South; in fact, in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Brazil it continued for decades after the U.S. Civil War. Simple narratives such as “California banned slavery at its founding” and “slavery ended in 1865” obscure much of its connection to this larger story. What happened to California illuminates the unevenness of abolition and the many false promises of freedom. It also serves as a reminder of the need for a wider lens when thinking about enslavement and freedom throughout the Americas today.

    Carrie Gibson is the author of the forthcoming “The Great Resistance: The 400-Year Fight to End Slavery in the Americas” and of “El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America.”

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    Carrie Gibson

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  • A beginner’s guide to Kwanzaa

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    Kwanzaa has become a nationally recognized celebration of African culture and community in the United States since its founding in 1966, and also is celebrated in countries with large African descendant populations. The holiday, which serves as a nationwide communal event reinforcing self-determination and unity in the face of oppression, spans seven days from the day after Christmas through New Year’s Day. It is observed in large, city-sponsored events as well as in smaller communities and homes across the nation. Kwanzaa has grown in popularity in the decades since its founding and is celebrated by 3% of the country, according to a 2019 AP-NORC survey. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all released statements commemorating the holiday, and in 1997, the U.S. Postal Service began issuing Kwanzaa stamps. It is not recognized as a federal holiday. Kwanzaa emerged during the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s as a way to reconnect Black communities in the U.S. with important African cultural traditions that were severed by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It also promotes unity and liberation.”It was also shaped by that defining decade of fierce strivings and struggles for freedom, justice and associated goods waged by Africans and other peoples of color all over the world in the 1960s,” Maulana Karenga, the holiday’s founder, wrote in his annual Kwanzaa address in 2023. “Kwanzaa thus came into being, grounded itself and grew as an act of freedom, an instrument of freedom, a celebration of freedom and a practice of freedom.”Karenga, an African American author, activist and professor, founded Kwanzaa following the Watts Riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion, in Los Angeles in 1965.Karenga described Kwanzaa as a “political-motivator holiday” in an interview with Henry Lewis Gates Jr. for PBS. “The idea is for African and African descended people to come together around family, community and culture so we can be in spaces where, in Dr. Karenga’s words, we feel fully African and fully human at the same time,” said Janine Bell, president and artistic director at the Elegba Folklore Society in Richmond, Virginia. Many people who observe Kwanzaa, which is a secular holiday, celebrate it alongside religious festivals such as Christmas. People of any faith, race or ethnic background can participate.The name Kwanzaa derives from “mutanda ya kwanza,” a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits” or “first harvest.” The final “a” was added to the name to accommodate the seven children present at the first Kwanzaa, each of whom was given a letter to represent.The holiday is governed by seven principles, known collectively as the Nguzo Saba, and a different principle is celebrated each day: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith). The Nguzo Saba is represented by a candleholder with seven candles called a kinara. Each night, one of those candles is lit. The candles are the same colors as the Kwanzaa flag: Black representing the people, red their struggle and green their hope.Large Kwanzaa celebrations happen across the country every year in cities including Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. These events often feature storytellers, music and dance. The holiday is also observed in individual homes, often focusing on children because they are key to the survival of culture and the development of community. This concept of children and the future they embody is often represented symbolically by corn.”The intention is that it’s 365 (days a year),” Bell said. “The need for the principles and the strengthening value of the principles don’t go away on January 2nd.”Family celebrations also involve giving gifts and sharing African American and Pan African foods, culminating in the Karamu, a feast featuring dishes from across the African diaspora. Typical meals include staples of Southern cuisine like sweet potato pie or popular dishes from Africa like jollof rice. Activities over the seven days are geared toward reaffirming community bonds, commemorating the past and recommitting to important African cultural ideals. This can include dancing, reading poetry, honoring ancestors and the daily lighting of the kinara.

    Kwanzaa has become a nationally recognized celebration of African culture and community in the United States since its founding in 1966, and also is celebrated in countries with large African descendant populations.

    The holiday, which serves as a nationwide communal event reinforcing self-determination and unity in the face of oppression, spans seven days from the day after Christmas through New Year’s Day. It is observed in large, city-sponsored events as well as in smaller communities and homes across the nation.

    Kwanzaa has grown in popularity in the decades since its founding and is celebrated by 3% of the country, according to a 2019 AP-NORC survey. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all released statements commemorating the holiday, and in 1997, the U.S. Postal Service began issuing Kwanzaa stamps. It is not recognized as a federal holiday.

    Kwanzaa emerged during the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s as a way to reconnect Black communities in the U.S. with important African cultural traditions that were severed by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It also promotes unity and liberation.

    “It was also shaped by that defining decade of fierce strivings and struggles for freedom, justice and associated goods waged by Africans and other peoples of color all over the world in the 1960s,” Maulana Karenga, the holiday’s founder, wrote in his annual Kwanzaa address in 2023. “Kwanzaa thus came into being, grounded itself and grew as an act of freedom, an instrument of freedom, a celebration of freedom and a practice of freedom.”

    Karenga, an African American author, activist and professor, founded Kwanzaa following the Watts Riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion, in Los Angeles in 1965.

    Karenga described Kwanzaa as a “political-motivator holiday” in an interview with Henry Lewis Gates Jr. for PBS.

    “The idea is for African and African descended people to come together around family, community and culture so we can be in spaces where, in Dr. Karenga’s words, we feel fully African and fully human at the same time,” said Janine Bell, president and artistic director at the Elegba Folklore Society in Richmond, Virginia.

    Many people who observe Kwanzaa, which is a secular holiday, celebrate it alongside religious festivals such as Christmas. People of any faith, race or ethnic background can participate.

    The name Kwanzaa derives from “mutanda ya kwanza,” a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits” or “first harvest.” The final “a” was added to the name to accommodate the seven children present at the first Kwanzaa, each of whom was given a letter to represent.

    The holiday is governed by seven principles, known collectively as the Nguzo Saba, and a different principle is celebrated each day: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith).

    The Nguzo Saba is represented by a candleholder with seven candles called a kinara. Each night, one of those candles is lit. The candles are the same colors as the Kwanzaa flag: Black representing the people, red their struggle and green their hope.

    Large Kwanzaa celebrations happen across the country every year in cities including Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. These events often feature storytellers, music and dance.

    The holiday is also observed in individual homes, often focusing on children because they are key to the survival of culture and the development of community. This concept of children and the future they embody is often represented symbolically by corn.

    “The intention is that it’s 365 (days a year),” Bell said. “The need for the principles and the strengthening value of the principles don’t go away on January 2nd.”

    Family celebrations also involve giving gifts and sharing African American and Pan African foods, culminating in the Karamu, a feast featuring dishes from across the African diaspora. Typical meals include staples of Southern cuisine like sweet potato pie or popular dishes from Africa like jollof rice.

    Activities over the seven days are geared toward reaffirming community bonds, commemorating the past and recommitting to important African cultural ideals. This can include dancing, reading poetry, honoring ancestors and the daily lighting of the kinara.

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  • Maryland considering slavery reparations: What to know

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    The Maryland House voted on Tuesday to override a veto imposed by Democratic Governor Wes Moore and to set up a commission to consider reparations for slavery.

    Why It Matters

    Maryland could follow in the footsteps of several other cities and states in the U.S. that have sought to address their legacy of slavery and discrimination.

    But proposals for programs that would benefit descendants of slaves at large are sensitive, especially at a time when the administration of President Donald Trump has been dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government.

    What To Know

    Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor, had vetoed the bill to set up the commission in May, saying there had been enough study on the legacy of slavery and it was time to “focus on the work itself” to address it.

    However, state Democratic legislators, who control both chambers of the legislature, decided that a commission was needed to examine reparations.

    “This topic isn’t easy, but, again, without formal study, reparations risk being dismissed as symbolic or unconstitutional, regardless of moral merit,” State Senator Charles Sydnor said.

    The legislation passed on Tuesday calls for the Maryland Reparations Commission to “study and make recommendations relating to appropriate benefits to be made to individuals whose ancestors were enslaved in the State or were impacted by certain inequitable government policies.” 

    According to the legislation, the types of benefits appropriate for reparations could include: statements of apology; monetary compensation; property tax rebates; social service assistance; licensing and permit fee waivers and reimbursement; down payment assistance for the purchase of residential real property; business incentives; child care; debt forgiveness and higher education tuition payment waivers and reimbursement.

    Moore, the nation’s only Black governor, said that while he disagrees with the legislature’s decision, he is “eager to move forward in partnership on the work of repair that we all agree is an urgent and pressing need.”

    “I believe the time for action is now – and we must continue moving forward with the work of repair immediately,” Moore said in a statement. “That mission is especially vital given the immediate and ongoing effects of this federal administration on our constituents, including communities that have been historically left behind.”

    What People are Saying

    Maryland’s Legislative Black Caucus, in a statement: “At a time of growing attacks on diversity and equity, today’s action reaffirms our shared commitment to truth-telling, accountability, and meaningful progress for Black Marylanders.”

    What Happens Next

    The legislation requires the commission to submit a preliminary report by January 1, 2027, and a final report of its findings and recommendations by November 1 of that year.

    This article uses reporting by the Associated Press.

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  • History Happenings: Oct. 18, 2025

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    On this day in 1799, A. March informed readers that he had “Elegant Prints of the Washington Family.” Included were his Excellency George Washington, Lady Mary Washington, her two grandchildren and an enslaved man, William “Billy” Lee, a confidential servant…

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  • Commentary: McCarthyism in a MAGA hat? Trump’s campus deal sounds familiar to her

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    Bettina Aptheker was a 20-year-old sophomore at UC Berkeley when she climbed on top of a police car, barefoot so she wouldn’t damage it, and helped start the Free Speech Movement.

    “Power concedes nothing without a demand,” she told a crowd gathered in Sproul Plaza on that October Thursday in 1964, quoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

    She was blinded by the lights of the television cameras, but the students roared back approval, and “their energy just sort of went through my whole body,” she told me.

    Berkeley, as Aptheker describes it, was still caught in the tail end of the McCarthyism of the 1950s, when the 1st Amendment was almost felled by fear of government reprisals. Days earlier, administrators had passed rules that cracked down on political speech on campus.

    Aptheker and other students had planned a peaceful protest, only to have police roll up and arrest a graduate student named Jack Weinberg, a lanky guy with floppy hair and a mustache who had spent the summer working for the civil rights movement.

    Well-versed in those non-violent methods that were finally winning a bit of equality for Black Americans, hundreds of students sat down around the cruiser, remaining there more than 30 hours — while hecklers threw eggs and cigarette butts and police massed at the periphery — before the protesters successfully negotiated with the university to restore free speech on campus.

    History was made, and the Free Speech Movement born through the most American of traits — courage, passion and the invincibility of youth.

    “You can’t imagine something like that happening today,” Aptheker said of their success. “It was a different time period, but it feels very similar to the kind of repression that’s going on now.”

    Under the standards President Trump is pushing on the University of Southern California and eight other institutions, Aptheker would likely be arrested, using “lawful force if necessary,” as his 10-page “compact for academic excellence” requires. And the protest of the students would crushed by policies that would demand “civility” over freedom.

    If you somehow missed his latest attack on higher education, the Trump administration sent this compact to USC and eight other institutions Thursday, asking them to acquiesce to a list of demands in return for the carrot of front-of-the-line access to federal grants and benefits.

    While voluntary, the agreement threatens strongman-style, that institutions of higher education are “free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forgo federal benefits.”

    That’s the stick, the loss of federal funding. UCLA, Berkeley and California’s other public universities can tell you what it feels like to get thumped with it.

    “It’s intended to roll back any of the gains we’ve made,” Aptheker said of Trump’s policies. “No university should make any kind of deal with him.”

    The greatest problem with this nefarious pact is that much of it sounds on the surface to be reasonable, if not desirable. My favorite part: A demand that the sky-high tuition of signatory universities be frozen for five years.

    USC tuition currently comes in at close to $70,000 a year without housing. What normal parent thinks that sounds doable?

    Even the parts about protests sound, on the surface, no big deal.

    “Truth-seeking is a core function of institutions of higher education. Fulfilling this mission requires maintaining a vibrant marketplace of ideas where different views can be explored, debated, and challenged,” the document reads. “Signatories acknowledge that the freedom to debate requires conditions of civility.”

    Civility like taking your shoes off before climbing on a police car, right?

    As with all things Trump, though, the devil isn’t even in the details. It’s right there in black and white. The agreement requires civility, Trump style. That includes abolishing anything that could “delay or disrupt class instruction,” which is pretty much every protest, with or without footwear.

    Any university that signs on also would be agreeing to “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”

    So no more talking bad about far-right ideas, folks. That’s belittling to our racists, misogynists, Christian nationalists and conservative snowflakes of all persuasions. Take, for example, the increasingly popular conservative idea that slavery was actually good for Black people, or at least not that bad.

    Florida famously adopted educational standards in 2023 that argue slavery helped Black people learn useful skills. In another especially egregious example from the conservative educational nonprofit PragerU, a video for kids about Christoper Columbus has the explorer arguing, “Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don’t see the problem.”

    And of course, Trump is busy purging the Smithsonian of any hints that slavery was a stain on our history.

    Would it be violating Trump’s civility standards for a Black history professor to belittle such ideas as unserious and bonkers? What about debates in a feminism class that discuss Charlie Kirk’s comment that a good reason for women to go to college is to find a husband?

    Or what about an environmental science class that teaches accurately that climate change denial is unscientific, and that it was at best anti-intellectual when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently referred to efforts to save the planet as “crap”? Would that be uncivil and belittling to conservatives?

    Belittle is a tiny word with big reach. I worry that entire academic departments could be felled by it, and certainly professors of certain persuasions.

    Aptheker, now 81, went on to become just the sort of professor Trump would likely loathe, teaching about freedom and inclusivity at UC Santa Cruz for decades. It was there that I first heard her lecture. I was a mixed-race kid who had been the target of more than one racial slur growing up, but I had never heard my personal experiences put into the larger context of being a person of color or a woman.

    Listening to Aptheker and professors like her, I learned not only how to see my life within the broader fabric of society, but learned how collective action has improved conditions for the most vulnerable among us, decade after decade.

    It is ultimately this knowledge that Trump wants to crush — that while power concedes nothing without a demand, collective demands work because they are a power of their own.

    Even more than silencing students or smashing protests, Trump’s compact seeks to purge this truth, and those who hold it, from the system. Signing this so-called deal isn’t just a betrayal of students, it’s a betrayal of the mission of every university worth its tuition, and a betrayal of the values that uphold our democracy.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom has rightfully threatened to withhold state funding from any California university that signs, writing on social media that the Golden State “will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom.”

    Of course, some universities will sign it willingly. University of Texas called it an “honor” to be asked. There will always be those who collaborate in their own demise.

    But authoritarians live with the constant fear that people like Aptheker will teach a new generation their hard-won lessons, will open their minds to bold ideas and will question old realities that are not as unbreakable as they might appear. Universities, far from assuaging that constant fear, should fight to make it a reality.

    Anything less belittles the very point of a university education.

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    Anita Chabria

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  • ‘You Bitch!’ Leslie Jones Schools Donald Trump On Slavery

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    The former “Saturday Night Live” star loudly and hilariously skewered the president for downplaying the slave trade.

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  • U.S. comic Tim Dillon says Saudi Arabia fired him from comedy festival over jokes about slavery

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    American stand-up comedian Tim Dillon says he has been dropped from the bill of Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival because of remarks he made about the country’s alleged use of forced labor.

    Dillon was one of many high-profile American comedians set to perform at what organizers have promised will be the “world’s largest comedy festival,” in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, starting on Friday.

    Among the other big names set to perform are Bill Burr, Dave Chapelle and Kevin Hart.

    In an episode of his podcast The Tim Dillon Show released online on Sept. 20, the comedian said he had been “fired” from the festival because of jokes he had previously made referencing the alleged use of forced labor in the conservative Islamic kingdom.

    Comedian Tim Dillon revealed on his podcast that he had been dropped from the roster of comedians performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival

    Tim Dillon/Youtube


    “They heard what you said about them having slaves,” Dillon recalled his manager telling him in a previous conversation, in the podcast. “They didn’t like that.”

    “I addressed it in a funny way, and they fired me,” he said. “I certainly wasn’t gonna show up in your country and insult the people that are paying me the money.”

    The remarks referenced were part of a previous podcast episode, aired on Aug. 30, in which Dillon repeatedly joked about alleged slavery in Saudi Arabia, and his decision to accept a reported payment of $375,000 for his performance at the Riyadh festival.

    CBS News has not been able to independently verify that figure, and representatives of Dillon have not responded to requests for comment on his contract with the Saudi government-run festival, or his apparent removal from it.

    Publicists for Bill Burr, Mark Normand, Kevin Hart, Sebastian Maniscalco, Dave Chapelle, Louis C.K., Whitney Cummings, Tom Segura, Andrew Schulz and Jim Jeffries — all of whom are on the bill for the festival — have also not responded to previous CBS News requests for comment.

    riyadh-comedy-festival.jpg

    A screengrab from the website for the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia shows some of the Western comedians set to perform at the event, which is scheduled for Sept. 26 through Oct. 9, 2025.

    Riyadh Comedy Festival


    The comedy festival will be the latest in a string of major sporting and cultural events in Saudi Arabia, which critics say are part of a concerted effort to deflect attention from human rights issues in the kingdom.  

    One of the most high-profile examples was in 2021, with the launch of LIV Golf, a golf league that saw seasoned professionals defect from the famed PGA Tour in exchange for highly profitable contracts.

    Joey Shea, a researcher for the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch organization alleged to CBS News the comedy festival was a “deliberate effort to whitewash the country’s human rights record and deflect from the egregious abuses that continue to happen inside of the country.”

    Shea told CBS News the Western comedians should use their platform to draw attention to Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record, and avoid being “complicit in covering up the abuses of a repressive regime.”

    CBS News asked Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on HRW’s assertions, but has not received a response.

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  • From Charlie Kirk to Supreme Court backlash, Civil War historians see modern parallels

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    Professor Kevin Waite had just finished a seminar on the run-up to the American Civil War on Friday morning when a student cautiously raised her hand.

    “Can I ask about the Charlie Kirk situation?” she said in Waite’s classroom at the University of Texas at Dallas.

    The student, he said, wondered whether recent events carried any echoes of the past. Hyperbolic comparisons between modern political conflict and the horrific bloodshed of past centuries have previously been the stuff of doomsday prepper threads on Reddit, but this week’s shooting made it a mainstream topic of conversation.

    While cautioning that the country is nowhere near as fractured as it was when the Civil War erupted, Waite and other scholars of the period say they do increasingly see parallels.

    “Our current political moment is really resonating with the 1850s,” the historian said.

    He and other scholars note similarities between the deployment of troops to American cities, widespread disillusionment with the Supreme Court, and spasms of political violence — especially from disaffected young men.

    “What we call polarization, they called sectionalism, and in the 1850s there was a growing sense that the sections of the country were pulling apart,” said Matthew Pinsker of Dickinson University.

    Even before Kirk’s alleged assassin was publicly identified as a 22-year-old who left antifascist messages, President Trump blamed the shooting on “radical left political violence.”

    Conservative influencers amplified the rhetoric, with Trump ally Laura Loomer posting on X, “More people will be murdered if the Left isn’t crushed with the power of the state.”

    Violence was far more organized and widespread in the late 1850s, historians caution. Congressmen regularly pulled knives and pistols on one another. Mobs brawled in the streets over the Fugitive Slave Law. Radical abolitionist John Brown and his sons hacked five men to death with swords.

    But some aspects of modern politics are worryingly similar, scholars said.

    “What almost scares me more than the violence itself is the reaction to it,” Waite said. “It was paranoia, the perception that this violence was unstoppable, that really sent the nation spiraling toward Civil War in 1860 and ’61.”

    Top of mind for Waite was the paramilitary political movement known as the Wide Awakes, hundreds of thousands of of torch-toting, black-capped abolitionist youths who took to the street out of frustration with their Republican representatives.

    “There was this perception that antislavery Republicans hadn’t been sufficiently aggressive,” Waite said. Wide Awakes, he said, believed “that it was the slaveholders that were really pushing their agenda much more forcefully, much more violently, and antislavery [politicians] couldn’t just sit down and take it anymore.”

    Most Democratic politicians of the era were fighting to expand slavery to the Western territories, extend federal power to claw back people who’d escaped it, and enshrine slaveholders rights to travel freely with those they held in bondage.

    The Wide Awakes struck terror in their hearts.

    “For their political opponents, it was a really scary spectacle,” Waite said. “Any time a cotton gin burned down in the South, they pointed to the Wide Awakes and other more radical antislavery Northerners and said, ‘This is arson.’”

    For Waite, the Wide Awakes can be compared to an antebellum antifa, while the paramilitaries of the South were more like modern Proud Boys.

    “The South was highly militarized,” he said. “Every adult white man was part of a local militia. It was like a social club, so it was easy to take these local militias and turn them into anti-abolitionist defense units.”

    Still, incursions by abolitionists into the South were rare. Incursions by slave powers into the North were common, and routinely enforced by armed soldiers.

    Legal scholars have already noted striking similarities between Trump’s use of the military to aid his mass deportation effort. The Trump administration has leaned on constitutional maneuvers used to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act — a divisive law that empowered slave catchers from the South to make arrests in Northern states — in legal arguments to justify the use of troops in immigration enforcement.

    “I argue it was the fugitive crisis, more than the territorial crisis, that drove the coming of the Civil War,” Pinsker said. “The resistance in the North essentially made the Fugitive Slave Law dead-letter. They broke the enforcement of that law through legal, political and sometimes protest resistance.”

    Many Northern states had passed “personal liberty laws” to prevent Black people from being snatched off the streets and returned to slavery in the South — a move Waite and others compare to sanctuary laws across the country today.

    “The attempt to uphold these personal liberty laws and simultaneously the government’s attempts to take these Black fugitives led to violence, and to perceptions that the so-called slave-power was the aggressor,” Waite said.

    By the late 1850s, Northerners were equally fed up with the Supreme Court, which under Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was seen as a rubber stamp for slaveholders’ goals.

    “The Supreme Court in the 1850s was dominated by Southerners, mostly Southern Democrats, and they were pro-slavery,” said Michael J. Birkner of Gettysburg University. “I think the Dred Scott case and the court being on one side is absolutely a parallel with today.”

    The Dred Scott decision, which ruled Black people ineligible for American citizenship, is widely taught in schools.

    But far fewer Americans know about the Lemmon case, a New York legal battle that could have effectively legalized slavery in all 50 states had the Taney court heard it before the war broke out in 1861.

    “Slaveholders were eager to get that case before Taney, because that would have nationalized slavery,” Waite said.

    Despite the similarities, scholars say that there is nothing inevitable about armed conflict, and that the imperative now is to bring the political temperature down.

    “Donald Trump has not been offering that message with the clarity it needs,” Pinsker said. “He says he’s a big fan of Lincoln, but now is the moment for him to remember what Lincoln stood for.”

    When it comes to parallels with America’s deadliest conflict, “there’s only one lesson,” the historian said.

    “We do not want another civil war,” Pinsker said. “That’s the only message that matters.”

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    Sonja Sharp

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  • Trump is wrong: Smithsonian does feature success, brightness

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    WASHINGTON — Just days after taking over Washington, D.C., law enforcement, President Donald Trump criticized one of the district’s preeminent tourist attractions: the Smithsonian Institution.

    The Smithsonian, founded in 1846, is a federally chartered network of 21 museums, 21 libraries, 14 education and research centers and a zoo, many with prime locations on the National Mall. The institution is celebrated for its free admission. 

    According to Trump, though, the Smithsonian is “the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’” 

    “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Aug. 19. 

    This followed Trump’s other efforts to review and alter some of the museum’s exhibits, including by executive order.

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    On Aug. 12, the White House sent a letter to Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie G. Bunch saying it will conduct a “a comprehensive internal review of selected Smithsonian museums and exhibitions,” ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary next year. 

    Trump’s depiction misrepresents the Smithsonian museums’ expansiveness and their portrayal of U.S. history. It was also a departure from 2017 comments he made about the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in which he called it “a beautiful tribute to so many American heroes.”

    “I’m deeply proud that we now have a museum that honors the millions of African American men and women who built our national heritage, especially when it comes to faith, culture and the unbreakable American spirit,” he said at the time.

    Slavery lasted more than 200 years and involved millions of people enslaved over generations. Its violence, brutality and complexities are reflected in Smithsonian museum exhibits. But the museums, which also address science, art and technology, are filled with many celebrations of American achievement, patriotism, success and innovation — including many of the most popular exhibits.

    PolitiFact reporters toured three of the most visited Smithsonian museums the day after Trump’s comments.

    The White House did not respond to an inquiry for this article.

    Black Americans’ success on display

    Trump’s concern that the museums discuss only “how bad slavery was” could be directed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It opened in 2016 and unabashedly details slavery’s horrors. But it includes much more. 

    A walk through the museum’s six levels reveals its overwhelming focus on Black Americans’ resilience, strength and success.

    The top two floors celebrate Black Americans’ achievement and cultural influence.

    Musician and rock & roll pioneer Chuck Berry’s red Cadillac Eldorado. (Grace Abels / PolitiFact) 

    Rooms are packed with memorabilia from iconic Black musicians: the Oscar De La Renta gown Whitney Houston wore while performing “The Greatest Love of All” in New York in 1986, Prince’s lavender suit, Chuck Berry’s red Cadillac Eldorado, and Louis Armstrong’s custom-made trumpet. Another top floor wing focuses on Black Americans’ legacy in film, television and theater, highlighting stars such as Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey and Paul Robeson. Another wing celebrates Black athletes including Jackie Robinson, Muhammed Ali and Serena Williams. 

    An exhibit displaying photos of Black Americans successful in television, film, comedy, theater and dance. (Grace Abels / PolitiFact) 

    The exhibits don’t ignore racism and segregation’s influence on their lives and careers, but often focus on how their work opened doors, defied stereotypes and helped dismantle oppressive systems. 

    Statue of Jesse Owens, track and field athlete and record-setting gold medalist at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. (Grace Abels / PolitiFact) 

    A third-floor exhibit titled “Making a Way Out of No Way,” also highlights Black Americans’ accomplishments. It includes a section on Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who ran for president and served as the U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary during Trump’s first term. 

    An exhibit featuring hospital scrubs and other items belonging to Dr. Ben Carson. (Grace Abels / PolitiFact) 

    Trump praised Carson’s inclusion in the exhibit during his 2017 visit, and called out other featured figures —”heroes like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks, the Greensboro students, and the African American Medal of Honor recipients, among so many other really incredible heroes,” he said.


    The National Museum of African American History and Culture is also popular: It     tied for fourth in attendance among Smithsonian properties in 2024, with 1.6 million visitors.

    The museums focus on patriotism 

    Smithsonian museums are also chock full of patriotic items and exhibits celebrating American culture.

    A centerpiece of the National Museum of American History — the second-most visited Smithsonian property, with 2.1 million visitors in 2024 — is the battle-scarred flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The museum describes it as “a national treasure.” 

    The Star Spangled Banner from the War of 1812 that inspired the national anthem at the National Museum of American History. (Louis Jacobson / PolitiFact)

    A marble statue of President George Washington towers over visitors, and the exhibit on the American Revolution cheers the “common men” who made it possible. 

    One of the museum’s most popular exhibits is the collection of first ladies’ inaugural gowns. Visitors can purchase red-white-and-blue jewelry in the main level gift shop.

    The first ladies’ inaugural gown exhibit at the National Museum of American History. (Louis Jacobson / PolitiFact)

    Patriotism also runs deep through the American history museum’s extensive military exhibit. It includes musket-toting mannequins, field cannons, large paintings of Civil War battles and World War II victory newspaper headlines. The exhibit includes both a picture of a whipped slave and a Confederate battle flag, and it ends at a room honoring recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for military service.

    The National Air and Space Museum is similarly patriotic. The museum — the Smithsonian’s third-most popular, with 1.9 million visitors in 2024 — marks the United States’ leading role in reaching outer space. 

    A NASA spacesuit at the National Air and Space Museum. (Louis Jacobson / PolitiFact)

     

    As for “brightness,” it’s hard to ignore the nonpartisan pop culture icons at the American history museum, from Kermit the Frog to “Star Wars” droids and basketball legend Michael Jordan.

    Muppets at an exhibit on popular culture at the National Museum of American History. (Louis Jacobson / PolitiFact)

    Exhibits highlight American innovation and future technology

    Both the American history and air and space museums honor American innovation and achievement. The air and space museum’s most famous exhibits include the Wright Brothers’ airplane, the “Spirit of St. Louis,” which Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic, and relics from the many U.S. missions to the moon.

    The American history museum devotes a hall to “invention and innovation” and another to achievements in business, which notes the successes of Gilded Age business titans like the Rockefellers and Carnegies while acknowledging that their excesses prompted political reforms. 

    By nature, museums are largely backward-looking, but one can also find some peeks into the future. The air and space museum includes a capsule from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, while another section ponders how the space sector can help improve agriculture. The future plays a major role in the Smithsonian’s strategic plan, which is titled “Smithsonian 2027: Our Shared Future”

    “Woke-ism” vs. nuance

    Given his political agenda on gender identity and climate change, some exhibits might meet Trump’s description of “woke.” 

    At the American history museum, a display on the ground floor says, “The struggle for equal opportunity in sports began long before Title IX became law in 1972. And it continues today as transgender, nonbinary, and cisgender female athletes demand equality. Where does the fight for fair play in sports go from here?” (Trump has sought to enforce a policy to ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports in schools.)

    The National Air and Space Museum includes an exhibit titled, “Aerospace and Our Changing Environment” that casts climate change as a “global threat,” something most scientists agree with but which many in Trump’s administration have cast doubt upon.

    Both museums highlighted contributions by Americans of varying ethnic and racial backgrounds, and the American history museum frequently offered captions that were translated into Spanish.

    However, the museums largely approach American identity with nuance, rooted in fundamental national texts like the U.S. Constitution.      

    One section of the American history museum — titled “Many Voices, One Nation,” a name that echoes the national motto “E Pluribus Unum,” or “From many, one” — says, “As the population grew, the people who lived in the United States found ways to work out, or negotiate, what it meant to be American. That negotiation continues.”

    Another section, on the American experiment in democracy, ends with a direct quote from the Declaration of Independence.

    An exhibit on Thomas Jefferson at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Grace Abels / PolitiFact)

    In the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Thomas Jefferson’s liberating words from the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” are emblazoned on the wall while a bronze statue of him stands in front of bricks carved with the names of the 609 men and women he enslaved — including his own children.

    Our ruling

    Trump said the Smithsonian Institution has “Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

    The Smithsonian seeks to tell the full, complicated story of the U.S., including slavery.

    Visits to three of the Smithsonian 21 museums make clear that Trump’s view that its museums dwell only on the negative is wrong. 

    The National Museum of African American History and Culture spends much of its focus on Black Americans’ gains since slavery’s end. The National Museum of American History features key patriotic items from history, the military and pop culture. And the National Air and Space Museum is a monument to American technological ingenuity and global — and interplanetary — achievements.

    We rate the statement Pants on Fire.

    PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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  • Racist Text Messages Referencing Slavery Raise Alarms In Multiple States And Prompt Investigations – KXL

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Racist text messages invoking slavery raised alarm across the country this week after they were sent to Black men, women and students, including middle schoolers, prompting inquiries by the FBI and other agencies.

    The messages, sent anonymously, were reported in several states, including New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. They generally used a similar tone but varied in wording.

    Some instructed the recipient to show up at an address at a particular time “with your belongings,” while others didn’t include a location. Some of them mentioned the incoming presidential administration.

    It wasn’t yet clear who was behind the messages and there was no comprehensive list of where they were sent, but high school and college students were among the recipients.

    The FBI said it was in touch with the Justice Department on the messages, and the Federal Communications Commission said it was investigating the texts “alongside federal and state law enforcement.” The Ohio Attorney General’s office also said it was looking into the matter.

    Tasha Dunham of Lodi, California, said her 16-year-old daughter showed her one of the messages Wednesday evening before her basketball practice.

    The text not only used her daughter’s name, but it directed her to report to a “plantation” in North Carolina, where Dunham said they’ve never lived. When they looked up the address, it was the location of a museum.

    “It was very disturbing,” Dunham said. “Everybody’s just trying to figure out what does this all mean for me? So, I definitely had a lot of fear and concern.”

    Her daughter initially thought it was a prank, but emotions are high following Tuesday’s presidential election. Dunham and her family thought it could be more nefarious and reported it to local law enforcement.

    “I wasn’t in slavery. My mother wasn’t in slavery. But we’re a couple of generations away. So, when you think about how brutal and awful slavery was for our people, it’s awful and concerning,” Dunham said.

    About six middle school students in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, received the messages too, said Megan Shafer, acting superintendent of the Lower Merion School District.

    “The racist nature of these text messages is extremely disturbing, made even more so by the fact that children have been targeted,” she wrote in a letter to parents.

    Students at some major universities, including Clemson in South Carolina and the University of Alabama, said they received the messages. The Clemson Police Department said in a statement that it had been notified of the “deplorable racially motivated text and email messages” and encouraged anyone who received one to report it.

    Fisk University, a historically Black university in Nashville, Tennessee, issued a statement calling the messages that targeted some of its students “deeply unsettling.” It urged calm and assured students that the texts likely were from bots or malicious actors with “no real intentions or credibility.”

    Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chapel said Black students who are members of the organization’s Missouri State University chapter received texts citing Trump’s win and calling them out by name as being “selected to pick cotton” next Tuesday. Chapel said police in the southeastern Missouri city of Springfield, home of the university, have been notified.

    “It points to a well-organized and resourced group that has decided to target Americans on our home soil based on the color of our skin,” Chapel said in a statement.

    Nick Ludlum, a senior vice president for the wireless industry trade group CTIA, said: “Wireless providers are aware of these threatening spam messages and are aggressively working to block them and the numbers that they are coming from.”

    David Brody, director of the Digital Justice Initiative at The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that they aren’t sure who is behind the messages but estimated they had been sent to more than 10 states, including most Southern states, Maryland, Oklahoma and even the District of Columbia. The district’s Metropolitan Police force said in a statement that its intelligence unit was investigating the origins of the message.

    Brody said a number of civil rights laws can be applied to hate-related incidents. The leaders of several other civil rights organizations condemned the messages, including Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who said, “Hate speech has no place in the South or our nation.”

    “The threat — and the mention of slavery in 2024 — is not only deeply disturbing, but perpetuates a legacy of evil that dates back to before the Jim Crow era, and now seeks to prevent Black Americans from enjoying the same freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. “These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized.”

    ____

    Associated Press reporter Summer Ballentine contributed to this report from Jefferson City, Missouri.

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    Jordan Vawter

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  • Trump Suggests Abraham Lincoln Should’ve Let the South Keep a Little Slavery

    Trump Suggests Abraham Lincoln Should’ve Let the South Keep a Little Slavery

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    Donald Trump appeared on Fox News this morning, where, during a characteristically bizarre interview, he suggested Abraham Lincoln could have avoided the Civil War by cutting a deal with the South—which, as a reminder, wanted slavery to remain legal.

    Asked by a 10-year-old who his favorite president was when he was “little,” Trump began by saying he “liked Ronald Reagan.” (Note: Trump was 34 when Reagan first took office, and 42 when he left.) Then he turned to Lincoln, who he believes was a great president—but could’ve been better if he’d “settled” the Civil War.

    “Great presidents?” Trump said. “Lincoln was probably a great president, although I’ve always said, why wasn’t that settled? You know, I’m a guy that—it doesn’t make sense we had a Civil War…. You’d almost say, like, why wasn’t that [settled]? As an example, Ukraine would have never happened, and Russia, if I were president. Israel would have never happened; October 7 would have never happened, as you know.”

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    It’s not exactly clear what Trump thinks Lincoln should have done to “settle” the dispute between the North and the South, the latter of which seceded from the Union largely because it wanted to keep enslaving people. Does Trump think Abe should have come to the negotiating table, Art of the Deal–style, and let the South keep some slaves? Because that’s what it sounds like.

    As for the idea that “Ukraine would have never happened…if I were president,” or October 7 for that matter, these are claims that he has repeatedly made with zero evidence to back them up. He did suggest on Thursday, though, that he would end the war in Ukraine by siding with Russia, bizarrely claiming that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy “let that war start.” (In fact, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.)

    Elsewhere in Trump’s sit-down with Fox, he claimed that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “very much into women’s health,” that Kamala Harris is “a low-IQ person,” and that in a Harris presidency, “you won’t have any cows anymore.”

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  • Voters consider ban on forced labor aimed at protecting prisoners

    Voters consider ban on forced labor aimed at protecting prisoners

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California and Nevada voters will decide in November whether to ban forced prison labor by removing language from their state constitutions rooted in the legacy of chattel slavery.

    The measures aim to protect incarcerated people from being forced to work under the threat of punishment in the states, where it is not uncommon for prisoners to be paid less than $1 an hour to fight fires, clean prison cells, make license plates or do yard work at cemeteries.

    Nevada incarcerates about 10,000 people. All prisoners in the state are required to work or be in vocational training for 40 hours each week, unless they have a medical exemption. Some of them make as little as 35 cents hourly.

    Voters will weigh the proposals during one of the most historic elections in modern history, said Jamilia Land, an advocate with the Abolish Slavery National Network who has spent years trying to get the California measure passed.

    “California, as well as Nevada, has an opportunity to end legalized, constitutional slavery within our states, in its entirety, while at the same time we have the first Black woman running for president,” she said of Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic bid as the first Black and Asian American woman to earn a major party’s nomination for the nation’s highest office.

    Several other states such as Colorado, Alabama and Tennessee have in recent years done away with exceptions for slavery and involuntary servitude, though the changes were not immediate. In Colorado — the first state to get rid of an exception for slavery from its constitution in 2018 — incarcerated people alleged in a lawsuit filed in 2022 against the corrections department that they had still been forced to work.

    “What it did do — it created a constitutional right for a whole class of people that didn’t previously exist,” said Kamau Allen, a co-founder of the Abolish Slavery National Network who advocated for the Colorado measure.

    Nevada’s proposal aims to abolish from the constitution both slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. California’s constitution was changed in the 1970s to remove an exemption for slavery, but the involuntary servitude exception remains on the books.

    Wildland firefighting is among the most sought-after prison work programs in Nevada. Those eligible for the program are paid around $24 per day.

    “There are a lot of people who are incarcerated that want to do meaningful work. Now are they treated fairly? No,” said Chris Peterson, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which supports the measure. “They’re getting paid pennies on the hour, where other people get paid dollars, to do incredibly dangerous work.”

    Peterson pointed to a state law that created a modified workers’ compensation program for incarcerated people who are injured on the job. Under that program, the amount awarded is based on the person’s average monthly wage when the injury occurred.

    In 2016, Darrell White, an injured prison firefighter who filed a claim under the modified program, learned he would receive a monthly disability payment of “$22.30 for a daily rate of $0.50.” By then, White already had been freed from prison, but he was left unable to work for months while he recovered from surgery to repair his fractured finger, which required physical therapy.

    White sued the state prison system and Division of Forestry, saying his disability payments should have been calculated based on the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 at the time. The case went all the way up to the Nevada Supreme Court, which rejected his appeal, saying it remained an “open question” whether Nevada prisoners were constitutionally entitled to minimum wage compensation.

    “It should be obvious that it is patently unfair to pay Mr. White $0.50 per day,” his lawyer, Travis Barrick, wrote in the appeal, adding that White’s needs while incarcerated were minimal compared to his needs after his release, including housing and utilities, food and transportation. “It is inconceivable that he could meet these needs on $0.50 per day.”

    The California state Senate rejected a previous version of the proposal in 2022 after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration cited concerns about the cost if the state had to start paying all prisoners the minimum wage.

    Newsom signed a law earlier this year that would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to create a voluntary work program. The agency would set wages for people incarcerated in state prisons under the law. But the law would only take effect if voters approve the forced labor ban.

    The law and accompanying measure will give incarcerated people more of an opportunity for rehabilitation through therapy or education instead of being forced to work, said California Assemblymember Lori Wilson, a Democrat representing Solano County who authored this year’s proposal.

    Wilson suffered from trauma growing up in a household with dysfunction and abuse, she said. She was able to work through her trauma by going to therapy. But her brother, who did not get the same help, instead ended up in prison, she said.

    “It’s just a tale of two stories of what happens when someone who has been traumatized, has anger issues and gets the rehabilitative work that they need to — what they could do with their life,” Wilson said.

    Yannick Ortega, a formerly incarcerated woman who now works at an addiction recovery center in Fresno, California, was forced to work various jobs during the first half of her time serving 20 years in prison for a murder conviction, she said.

    “When you are sentenced to prison, that is the punishment,” said Ortega, who later became a certified paralegal and substance abuse counselor by pursuing her education while working in prison. “You’re away from having the freedom to do anything on your own accord.”

    ___

    Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @ sophieadanna

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  • Newsom signs formal apology for California’s role in slavery

    Newsom signs formal apology for California’s role in slavery

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    Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a formal apology for California’s role in slavery and legacy of racism against Black people as part of a series of reparations bills he approved Thursday.

    “The State of California accepts responsibility for the role we played in promoting, facilitating, and permitting the institution of slavery, as well as its enduring legacy of persistent racial disparities,” Newsom said in a statement. “Building on decades of work, California is now taking another important step forward in recognizing the grave injustices of the past — and making amends for the harms caused.”

    Though California banned slavery in its 1849 Constitution, the state had no laws that made it a crime to keep someone enslaved or require that they be freed, which allowed slavery to continue. A disproportionate representation of white Southerners with pro-slavery views also held office in the Legislature, state court system and in its congressional delegation.

    Assembly Bill 3089, which requires the state to issue a formal apology, also mandates that the California install a plaque memorializing the apology in the state Capitol. Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), who introduced the bill, called it a “monumental achievement.”

    “Healing can only begin with an apology,” Jones-Sawyer said in a statement. “The State of California acknowledges its past actions and is taking this bold step to correct them, recognizing its role in hindering the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness for Black individuals through racially motivated punitive laws.”

    Despite the bill signings, advocates for reparations have criticized the governor and Democratic lawmakers for making meager progress on its “first in the nation” effort to study, propose and adopt remedies to atone for slavery that began in 2020.

    After a state task force spent two years developing recommendations for the Legislature, the California Legislative Black Caucus announced a package of priority bills in January focused largely on enacting policy changes in education, healthcare and criminal justice, while omitting cash payments in light of the state’s financial troubles.

    Advocates for reparations have criticized Newsom and Democratic lawmakers for making meager progress on the issue.

    (Laurel Rosenhall / Los Angeles Times)

    Newsom also signed bills to provide new oversight of book bans in California prisons, require that grocery stores and pharmacies give written notice at least 45 days before closing, expand a state law prohibiting discrimination based on hairstyle to include youth sports and to try to increase and track participation in career training education among Black and low-income students, among other legislation.

    But the governor took heat when the Legislature refused to take up other bills for a vote that would have created a California American Freedmen Affairs Agency and established a Fund for Reparations and Reparative Justice to pay for and carry out reparations policies approved by lawmakers.

    A day before signing the legislation issuing a formal apology, Newsom vetoed two other reparations bills. One sought to begin the process of reversing racially motivated land and property seizures under the Freedman Affairs agency that lawmakers declined to approve. The other would have expanded Medi-Cal coverage, pending federal approval, to include benefits for medically supported food and nutrition.

    “This bill would result in significant and ongoing general fund costs for the Medi-Cal program that are not included in the budget,” Newsom wrote in his veto statement.

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    Taryn Luna

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  • NYC bills propose sign marking Wall Street as first slave market, along with reparations study

    NYC bills propose sign marking Wall Street as first slave market, along with reparations study

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    New York City lawmakers approved legislation Thursday to study the city’s significant role in slavery and consider reparations to descendants of enslaved people.

    If signed into law, the package of bills passed by the City Council would follow in the footsteps of several other municipalities across the U.S. that have sought ways to address the country’s dark history, as well as a separate New York state commission that began working this year.

    New York fully abolished slavery in 1827. But businesses, including the predecessors of some modern banks, continued to benefit financially from the slave trade — likely up until 1866. The lawmakers behind the proposals noted that the harms caused by the institution are still felt by Black Americans today.

    “The reparations movement is often misunderstood as merely a call for compensation,” Council Member Farah Louis, a Democrat who sponsored one of the bills, told the City Council on Thursday. She explained that systemic forms of oppression are still impacting people through redlining, environmental racism and services in predominantly Black neighborhoods that are underfunded.

    The bills still need to be signed by Democratic Mayor Eric Adams. City Hall signaled his support in a statement calling the legislation “another crucial step towards addressing systemic inequities, fostering reconciliation, and creating a more just and equitable future for all New Yorkers.”

    The bills would direct the city’s Commission on Racial Equity to suggest remedies to the legacy of slavery, including reparations. It would also create a truth and reconciliation process to establish historical facts about slavery in the state.

    One of the proposals would also require that the city install an informational sign on Wall Street in Manhattan to mark the site of New York’s first slave market, which operated between 1711 and 1762. A sign was placed nearby in 2015, but Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said its location is inaccurate.

    The commission would work with the existing state commission, which is also considering the possibility of reparations. A report from the state panel, which held its first public meeting in late July, is expected in early 2025. The city effort wouldn’t need to produce recommendations until 2027.

    The city’s commission was created out of a 2021 racial justice initiative during then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, which also recommended the city track data on the cost of living and add a commitment to remedy “past and continuing harms” to the city charter’s preamble.

    “Your call and your ancestors’ call for reparations had not gone unheard,” Linda Tigani, executive director of the racial equity commission, said at a news conference ahead of the council vote.

    A financial impact analysis of the bills estimated that the studies would cost $2.5 million.

    New York is the latest city to study reparations. Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a notorious massacre of Black residents took place in 1921, announced a similar commission last month.

    Evanston, Illinois, became the first city to offer reparations to Black residents and their descendants in 2021, including distributing some payments of $25,000 in 2023, according to PBS. The eligibility was based on harm suffered as a result of the city’s discriminatory housing policies or practices.

    San Francisco approved reparations in February, but the mayor later cut the funds, saying that reparations should instead be carried out by the federal government. California budgeted $12 million for a reparations program that included helping Black residents research their ancestry, but it was defeated in the state’s Legislature this month.

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    The Associated Press

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  • No, the Electoral College Is Not a Relic of Slavery

    No, the Electoral College Is Not a Relic of Slavery

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    Magog the Ogre, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

    By Alex Xenos for RealClearPolitics

    Consistent with federalist principles, the Constitution gives the states control over our presidential elections, providing a check on majoritarianism.

    Since the 2000 presidential election, the left has worked to undermine the legitimacy of the Electoral College, labeling it a relic of slavery. No doubt, if Donald Trump returns to the White House while again losing the popular vote, these attacks will be renewed with fervor. In fact, it has already begun as commentators denounce the undemocratic nature of the system. Just last month, the New York Times published a piece trashing the Constitution and asserting that the Electoral College’s only purpose was to protect slavery. These critiques are based on misconceptions and hostility toward the very structure of our Constitution.

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    The History

    Our method of electing the president came about through compromise. The framers agreed upon a system that ensured the states had a say in choosing the president. The Constitution gives each state a share of electors, and the states decide for themselves how to select those electors.

    At the time of the constitutional convention, popular elections would have favored the North because the North’s population of free persons would have outstripped the South’s. This dynamic is why the South pushed for a system that proportioned the electoral vote based on population, including slaves.

    But nothing in the Electoral College system inherently favored slavery. You could have had an Electoral College system that did not count slaves as part of the population for the purpose of distributing electors. Thus, it was the counting of slaves in proportioning electors via the infamous two-thirds clause that protected slavery.

    In fact, even if slavery had never existed, the states would never have agreed to a method of electing the president that stripped them of having a say in the matter. Protecting state sovereignty and ensuring less populous states had influence were key features of the compromise. Therefore, slavery may have been one of several reasons for the compromise, but it certainly was not the reason.

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    The Merits

    The way state delegations elect the chief executive may have been the product of compromise, but that does not detract from the merits of the system, which include geographic representation and respect for state sovereignty. This is true even if you believe the Electoral College is a part of slavery’s legacy.

    In a national election, in a country as large and diverse as ours, representation based on geographic segments of the population is far superior to the mob rule of a purely popular vote. We are not a monolithic society. Life and perspectives vary based on location. This is especially true when you consider the differences between state governments, which attract different types of people.

    America is an enormous nation, and a system based solely on the popular vote would allow densely populated cities to dominate. This dynamic is particularly problematic when one considers that urban populations often want to impose their culture and policy preferences on others, whereas rural populations generally want to be left alone. Just think about how Democrats want virtually everything to be regulated nationally by the feds.

    But regardless of this left-versus-right paradigm, it is simply better to give the different geographic elements of the nation and the states a voice on national matters to somewhat lessen the ability of the majority to steamroll political minorities.

    Furthermore, as much as the left would love to abolish the states, there is no United States without the states themselves. Our federalist system allows for better representation of different segments of our population and, therefore, allows for better governance. The states, as separate sovereigns, must have a say in who becomes president.

    The Electoral College also affects the politics of presidential campaigns. Candidates are forced to consider the respective views held in different states, particularly of those voters in the less partisan swing states. This political circumstance has a way of diffusing power and lessening the focus on densely populated cities, allowing for perspectives outside of the urban thought bubble to participate.

    Another popular attack on the Electoral College is that it is undemocratic. But American government was never meant to be based on democracy. Rather, democracy was meant to be a component, albeit an important one, of our constitutional republic. The protection of liberty and the rights of individuals are far more important than the ability of the majority to impose their will.

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    Moreover, the president is not even supposed to be a representative of the people in our constitutional system. That is what the House of Representatives is for. Thus, the argument against the Electoral College is an argument not just against our Constitution’s federalist principles but against the Constitution’s separation of powers as well.

    Our Electoral College system might not be perfect, but it is far better than an election by direct popular vote, which disregards our federalist principles.

    Alex Xenos is an attorney and a Young Voices contributor. His writing has appeared in the Boston Herald, The American Spectator, DC Journal, and NH Journal, among other publications. Follow him on X @AMXenos.

    Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

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    RealClearWire

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  • North Shore to host Juneteenth celebrations

    North Shore to host Juneteenth celebrations

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    North Shore communities will commemorate Juneteenth next week with flag raisings and celebrations.

    Swampscott, Marblehead, Peabody, Beverly, Lynn, Hamilton and Wenham kicked off the holiday this week with flag raisings at their city and town halls.

    Held each June 19, the federal holiday commemorates the official end to slavery in the United States, when on June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform more than 250,000 enslaved people of their freedom — two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

    The red, white and blue Juneteenth flag will be raised June 17 in Danvers. Starting at 2 p.m. outside Town Hall, Danvers is scheduled to host its fourth annual Juneteenth celebration featuring singing, poetry and an address by Northshore Juneteenth Association founder Nicole McClain. The event will be followed by a dialogue and viewing of a documentary about Race Amity Day at the Gordon room of the Peabody Institute Library.

    The flag will be raised in Salem’s Riley Plaza at noon June 18 during the city’s Juneteenth Jam that runs from noon-5 p.m. that day.

    Community members can take part in a public reading of Frederick Douglass’s speech, “The Meaning Of The Fourth Of July For The Negro,” led by McClain.

    Games, activities, crafts, face painting, music and food from Ray Adea’s will be available following the flag raising. Salem Historical Tours will give a free Black history walking tour of Salem starting at 2 p.m. from Riley Plaza.

    The tour is expected to last 90 minutes. Participants can sign up on a first-come, first-serve basis the day of the event.

    At 8:30 p.m., the Salem Common Neighborhood Association will host a free screening of Disney’s 2018 hit “Black Panther” at the Common.

    Salem received a grant from Mass Humanities to expand its annual Juneteenth flag raising into this year’s event, in collaboration with the North Shore Juneteenth Association, the city said in a statement.

    “Thanks to the work from members of the mayor’s office staff along with the consultation of North Shore Juneteenth, this year’s ceremony will be thoughtful, fun, and allow our community to come together to celebrate,” Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo said in the prepared statement.

    In Beverly, The Cabot Theatre will host a free screening of Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s new film, “Origin,” at 7 p.m. on June 18. A community conversation about the film will be hosted at The Cabot the next day at 7 p.m.

    The event is sponsored by the First Baptist Church of Beverly. Visit https://tinyurl.com/cabotorigin to register.

    Then, on Friday, June 21, Doreen Wade of Salem United Inc. and McClain will launch their inaugural racial communication forum, “Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Modern Day Feelings of Racism and Inequity.” The public discussion will start at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the National Parks Service, Salem Armory Visitor Center, 2 New Liberty St. in Salem.

    Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com

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    By Caroline Enos | Staff Writer

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  • Why a Fairfax Co. man is advocating to change the name of Burke – WTOP News

    Why a Fairfax Co. man is advocating to change the name of Burke – WTOP News

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    David Martosko is advocating to change the name of the Virginia town Burke to Fenton after discovering the town’s namesake, Silas Burke, owned a boy named Fenton.

    A document recording Silas Burke’s purchase of “one negro boy Fenton” for $206.(Courtesy David Martosko)

    As part of his work with a makerspace in Fairfax County, Virginia, David Martosko was asked to make a poster for a Juneteenth picnic last year.

    That prompted him to wonder what Northern Virginia residents do to celebrate Juneteenth. So, he started researching various things about the African American community in Burke, where he lives. He kept coming across the name Silas Burke, and ultimately learned the town is named after the 19th century slaveholder.

    Now, Martosko is leading an effort to change the name of the town from Burke to “Fenton.” Fenton was one of several children Burke owned, and the first one he bought, Martosko said.

    “At the end of the exercise, I said, ‘I’ve discovered too many just awful things for me to just say well, that’s interesting, and I’m not going to do anything about it,’” Martosko told WTOP.

    While researching more about Burke, Martosko learned Burke oversaw slave auctions while he was a judge and school board member. Burke owned 14 people when he died, Martosko said, and at the time of the 1850 census, there were nine children at his house recorded as enslaved.

    An auction notice published in the Alexandria Gazette on Nov. 9, 1840, advertising “Negroes For Sale.” At the bottom, Silas Burke is referenced as the man to contact for information.

    Many people, Martosko said, are unaware of Burke’s past. Even the local historical society told him that “Silas Burke was sort of an enigma to them.”

    Because Burke isn’t incorporated under Virginia’s laws, Martosko is going to have to petition the U.S. Board of Geographic Names to make the change. Before then, though, he’s hosting public meetings about the possible name switch. The first meeting is scheduled in less than two weeks, he said.

    Martosko has also met with local and state lawmakers, and “nobody has told me this is a bad idea.”

    After the public sessions, Martosko said he will “write the official proposal in a way that I think reflects what the community thinks. It’s not just me. This is not about me. This is about my neighbors and friends, all of whom I believe act on their consciences.”

    Burke’s name also appears on 15 streets, several shopping centers, public parks, churches and residential developments, Martosko said. However, he’s focusing on changing just the town’s name for now.

    “What I want to happen is for some kids to say, ‘Hey Dad, we live in Fenton. How come all these things are named Burke? Oh, let me tell you,’” Martosko said. “The juxtaposition creates teachable moments, and that’s the whole point.”

    Changing the name to Fenton, Martosko said, “is absolutely perfect, because we’re forced to face the truth, that not all the slaves were adults who could run away. Not all slaves were men and women. A lot of them were boys and girls.”

    More information about Martosko’s efforts is available online.

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Scott Gelman

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