The First of the Katyn Massacres Occurs: a Series of Mass Executions of 22,000 Polish Nationals Carried out from April-May by USSR
The Katyn massacre was a series of mass executions of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the Soviet secret police. The massacre was prompted by NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all captive members of the Polish Officer Corps, dated 5 March 1940, approved by the Soviet Politburo, including its leader, Joseph Stalin. The number of victims is estimated ...
Kate Smith Debuts ‘God Bless America’ on Armistice Day on TV and Radio throughout America
Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank, so he set it aside. The lyrics at that time included the line "Make her victorious on land and foam, God bless America..." as well as "Stand beside her and guide her to the right with the light from ...
Did Hitler Really Snub Black Olympic Athelete, Jesse Owens, at the 1936 Olympics?
It has long been regarded as the greatest sporting snub in history - when Adolf Hitler stormed out of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin because Germany had been humiliated by a black man. The moment was 1936 and an incredible American athlete called Jesse Owens had just run his way to the first of four gold medals in the 100 metres. Hitler, who had shaken hands ...
Margaret Sanger Opens the First Legal Birth Control Clinic in Harlem, NY
In 1929, 10 years before Sanger created the Negro Project, the American Birth Control League laid the groundwork for a clinic in Harlem, a largely black section of New York City. It was the dawn of the Great Depression, and for blacks that meant double the misery. Blacks faced harsher conditions of desperation and privation because of widespread racial prejudice and discrimination. From the ABCL’s perspective, ...
Tulsa Race Riots of 1921: 26 Blacks, 10 Whites Killed, Greenwood Commercial District Destroyed
The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In what some historians have called “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history,” residents and businesses of Tulsa’s predominantly Black Greenwood District were attacked on the ground and from the air by mobs of Whites angered by the financial prosperity of the residents of what ...
Governor Louis Hart Signs the ‘Alien Land Bill’ and a second “Prevention of Procreation” Statute
The 1921 session of the Washington State Legislature is not considered one of its most admirable. Lawmakers that year bestowed the state's official imprimatur on racism, xenophobia, and eugenics. Governor Louis Hart had a busy March 8, signing the Alien Land Bill and a second "Prevention of Procreation" statute. The former barred non-white immigrants from buying, owning, or leasing land in the state and mandated confiscation without compensation of any ...
The Palmer Raids Biggest Raid
Americans woke up to discover just how little their own government regarded the cherished Bill of Rights. During the night, some 4,000 of their fellow citizens were rounded up and jailed for what amounted, in most cases, to no good reason at all and no due process, either. Welcome to the story of the Palmer Raids, named for their instigator, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Though largely ...
In Contrast to Campaign Promises The Newly Inaugurated Wilson Administration Began Government-wide Segregation of Work Places, Rest Rooms and Lunch Rooms
During Woodrow Wilson’s 1912 presidential campaign, he promised African Americans advancement. He stated, “Should I become President of the United States, [Negroes] [sic] may count upon me for absolute fair dealing and for everything by which I could assist in advancing the interests of their race in the United States.”(1) Believing in his promise, many African Americans broke their affiliation with the Republican Party and voted ...
“The Melting Pot” Play Opens in Washington DC: a Propaganda Play to Incite Racial Tension
We have all heard of the term ‘Melting Pot’, it means the mixing of different races and cultures into one monolithic group forming the ‘New World and the New Man’. The term was popularized in 1908 by a play called ‘The Melting Pot’ written by the British born Jewish Zionist Israel Zangwill, his parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. "The Melting Pot" opened in Washington DC ...
The Brownsville Raid of 1906: The Incident of the Black Soldiers of the 25th Infantry at Fort Brown, Texas
When the black soldiers of the 25th Infantry moved into Fort Brown, Texas, they arrived in a place that had already had problems with the presence of armed troops in its midst. Several sections of the town resented the soldiers’s presence and openly expressed their hostility. The soldiers were subjected to racial slurs and taunts, and received biased or surly hospitality from the white businesses. Customs ...
