Detroit Files Title Vi Complaint Against State
The powerless elected school board of Detroit has filed a Title Vi complaint against Governor Rick Snyder for discrimination against the children of Detroit.
The complaint documents the failure of state control of the Detroit public schools. For most of the past 16 years, the district has been controlled by the state. Deficits have grown, enrollment has plummeted, and the public school system is nearly destroyed.
The bottom line is that the state did nothing that succeeded in providing the children of Detroit equality of educational opportunity.
Read the complaint. It documents a history of neglect, experimentation, and destruction. The children were the victims.
Newly Digitized Hoover Presidential Documents
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, IA, was the final location for this year’s Primarily Teaching summer institutes. At the library, the workshop participants explored documents from Herbert Hoover’s time as the 31st President of the United States.
Proportion of Population Given Relief in May 1929, May 1930, and May 1931 in 13 Specified Cities (Based on Data from US Children’s Bureau), 1931. From the Collection HH-HOOVH: Herbert Hoover Papers.
Because the years of his presidency cover the beginning of the Great Depression, many of the documents digitized during Primarily Teaching relate to the rising unemployment rates, and the public works and relief efforts for the poor following the stock market crash of 1929.
With the onset of the Great Depression, concerned citizens from around the country sent Hoover letters on the destitution in their neighborhoods, often describing their own opinions on how America should…
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NCAAL9
Last week I attended the National Conference of African American Librarians.I don’t think I’m going to be able to explain my experience adequately – in part because I want to hold on to it longer – but if you look at #NCAAL9, you can get perspectives from the other attendees if what I say here isn’t enough.
The opening keynote speaker was Tukufu Zuberi who is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and is a host of History Detectives on PBS. He spoke about how important librarians/archivists are to preserving the past and understanding the present, the invisibility of African history, and a slew of other things.
One of the things I found difficult was choosing which sessions to attend. There were several that I wanted to go to but couldn’t because it was the same time as another session. I ended up focusing on the technology, diversity…
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Calling on the Vice President
John Wilkes Booth, the infamous assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was a busy man on the day of April 14, 1865. Just hours before the tragedy at Ford’s Theatre, Booth made a visit to the Washington, D.C., hotel where Vice President Andrew Johnson was staying. It is there that he left today’s spotlight document: a calling card. Historians are still debating over Booth’s rationale for leaving this card for the vice president.
John Wilkes Booth’s Calling Card, 4/14/1865. From the Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army). National Archives Identifier: 7873510
The handwritten card is signed J. Wilkes Booth, and contains the short message, “Don’t wish to disturb you. Are you at home?” In the original plans for April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was to be kidnapped and taken to Richmond as a means to demand resuming the prisoner exchanges between the Union and the Confederacy. But…
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Little Rock: White Supremacy Takes Over Again
This is the story of what is happening in Little Rock, Arkansas, told by a white parent with children in the public schools. Barclay Key is a professor of history at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock.
Little Rock has a special place in our nation’s history. In 1957, three years after the Brown decision declaring “separate but equal” schools unconstitutional, nine black students attempted to enroll in Central High School. Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the students from entering. The NAACP won a federal district court injunction against Governor Faubus. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged President Dwight D. Eisenhower to intervene. President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to protect the students and uphold the law.
Fast forward to to 2015. The schools of Little Rock are again under siege, different cast of characters. This it is about both race…
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The Purchase of Alaska
For today’s spotlight document we take a look at the treasury warrant used for the purchase of the 49th state. On August 1, 1868, this check was issued at the Sub-Treasury Building on New York’s Wall Street. It noted the transfer of $7,200,000.00 to the Russian Minister to the United States, Edouard de Stoeckl, who had negotiated the Alaska Purchase for the Russians.
Treasury Warrant in the Amount of $7.2 Million for the Purchase of Alaska, 8/1/1868. From the Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of the Treasury. National Archives Identifier: 301667
The Russian government had contacted the United States in 1866 to offer the Alaskan territories for sale. A year later, Secretary of State William H. Seward eagerly negotiated and purchased the land for American expansion. The agreed upon deal was that the United States would pay $7.2 million for Alaska—which for nearly 600,000 square miles…
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Lifelong Quest 
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