I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
The United States was officially neutral regarding World War I when, on July 30, 1916, German agents blew up the Black Tom railyard on land that is now part of Liberty State Park in New Jersey.
A blogger friend of mine, Francisco Cabrera, brought this event to my attention a couple of years ago. I had to admit that the Black Tom Explosion in New York City did not sound familiar to me. That was embarrassing!
In an effort to prevent the U.S. from sending munitions to England, spies and the men they recruited had packed two million pounds of explosives in train cars destined for the depot on Black Tom Island. Germany knew tons of munitions were shipped out of Black Tom Island to the Allies, and they apparently knew security there was lax.
Men sorting munitions shells at Black Tom Island railyard. Photo from the Library of Congress.
The 2:08 a.m. explosion and the second one a half hour later shattered thousands of windows in lower Manhattan and Jersey City, New Jersey. I found conflicting casualty reports while researching this post, but at least four people were killed, including an infant.
The Statue of Liberty was pock-marked by shrapnel. The damage to the statue made it necessary to close Lady Liberty’s torch to the public, and it is still closed today.
Property damages in New York and New Jersey were estimated at $20 million, which would be equal to $500 million today. Hundreds of rail cars were destroyed, included 87 filled with dynamite. Thirteen huge warehouses and six piers were destroyed as well as barges tied to the dock.
The explosion registered 5.5 on the Richter scale and was felt in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
As a result of the attack, Congress passed the Espionage Act and in 1917 passed the Sabotage Act. Both Acts gave the Bureau of Investigation oversight jurisdiction.
Although not the only act of sabotage by German upon the United States, the attack on Black Tom Island was instrumental in turning public opinion in the United States against Germany.
It was a different time. For instance, the Bureau of Investigation – the forerunner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) only had 260 employees. The FBI website states, “The most successful and experienced anti-sabotage investigators turned out to be the detectives of the New York Police Department’s Bomb Squad. Even so, the German agents who blew up Black Tom were not identified at the time.”
On July 6, 1921, The New York Times reported that Michael Kristoff, a non-citizen and immigrant from Slovakia who served in the U.S. Army in World War I had been arrested and was suspected of taking part in the attack. He had been recruited by a German intelligence operative. Kristoff admitted that he had worked with German agents by carrying suitcases and claimed that two guards at the Black Tom railyard were German agents.
Law enforcement agencies initially dismissed the possibility that it was instigated by Germany. It took lawyers years to pursue the attack for their clients before it was proven before the Mixed Claims Commission at The Hague in 1939 that Germany was behind the attack.
Germany was ordered to pay $50 million in damages but, of course, the Hitler regime did not pay. The case was renegotiated in the early 1950s, but it would be 1979 before the last reparations were made to claimants.
Janet
All history is local, but no history is just local
I’m old enough to remember very well July 20, 1969 – the day fifty-seven years ago that men walked on the moon for the first time. In fact, I was 16 years old and was keeping a journal. Our family was in southern Alabama visiting my brother and his young family.
Photo by Pedro Lastra on Unsplash
We were all excited to watch the television coverage of the event. Just by chance, last week I came across my 1969 journal. It was interesting and a bit comical to read a 16-year-old’s thoughts and reactions to various things. I was especially drawn to my entries from July of that year.
I was a real nerd when it came to following NASA and everything about the space program. It was an exciting time and stressful time. You will also notice that every week I took note of how many Americans were killed in the Vietnam War. Here’s a sampling from my journal:
Sunday, July 13, 1969
At 9:32 a.m., Wednesday, July 16, Apollo 11 will be launched from Cape Kennedy. My family will be on vacation in Alabama then, so Neil Armstrong will set foot on the moon at 1:17 a.m. Central Daylight Time. About 20 minutes later astronaut Aldrin will get out of “Eagle,” as the lunar module will be known. Astronaut Armstrong will be walking around on the moon for 2 hours and 40 minutes. It looks like I will be up until at least 4:00 a.m., Monday, July 21. After all, this is a once in a lifetime event. I imagine Queen Isabella would have stayed up all night when Christopher Columbus got to America, if she had had television to watch it on.
Something that puzzles me more than almost anything else is that some people are not interested at all in the space program.
4:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 16, 1969
What a day! Excitement is continually building up inside me! Blast-off of Apollo XI took place at 9:32 a.m. We watched the live TV coverage until about 11:30. NBC had live TV coverage until 1:10 p.m. About 12:30 it was “Go, for TLI!” (Go, for translunar injection!) Now the astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins are “coasting to the moon. Their speed dropped from more than 24,000 m.p.h. to 7,600 m.p.h. I can think of nothing to compare a spacecraft launch with.
I hope that someday I can witness a launch. There is such thrust that the ground trembles for miles. I would probably faint if I were really there.
At 4:00 this afternoon on the radio I heard that President Nixon has proclaimed Monday, July 21 as a National Holiday. Many nations of the world have already planned to do that. David Brinkley of NBC News reported that all countries of the world that have TVs, except maybe Russia and several others, will pick up the live TV transmission from the lunar surface Monday morning.
When Armstrong and Aldrin get out of the lunar module (“Eagle”) they will set up a TV camera, which will be on them all the time they’re on the moon. The three networks are going to have continuous coverage from noon Sunday until 6:00 p.m. Monday, Eastern Time. I don’t want to miss a thing!
6:00 p.m., July 16, 1969
25 million Americans saw the launch on TV. The space craft, rocket and all was 36 stories tall.
11:55 p.m., July 16, 1969
On the “Late News” we saw recorded TV pictures of Earth taken earlier this evening from Apollo XI. We got the pictures at 11:10.
11:50 p.m., Thursday, July 17, 1969
Bill Morrison of Harrisburg got our TV this afternoon to work on while we’re in Alabama. Marie and I went to Uncle Gene and Aunt Louise’s house tonight to watch the live TV transmission from Apollo XI, 150,000 miles from the earth, toward the moon. Pictures of Earth and inside the Apollo of the astronauts, their food cabinet, star chart, and instrument panels. We are getting up at 4:00 a.m. to drive to Andalusia, Alabama, so maybe I better use common sense and go to bed.
Announced today that in the week ending last Saturday, July 12, that 148 Americans were killed in Vietnam.
Friday, July 18, 1969
We saw about 15 minutes of an unscheduled TV transmission from Apollo XI. It was of “Buzz” Aldrin checking out things in the lunar module, and also of Mike Collins. Armstrong took the pictures.
Saturday, July 19, 1969
Apollo XI started orbiting the Moon today. Tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow afternoon Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin will land on the Moon – for the first time in history! – in the lunar module (LEM) which is called “Eagle.” The command module is called “Columbia.” I am so excited! I can’t wait for tomorrow!!
About 3:15 p.m., Sunday, July 20, 1969
Man is 4 minutes and 30 seconds from landing on the Moon for the first time! The descent engines were fired on “the Eagle” at T-12:00 (That’s T minus 12 minutes zero seconds.
“We’re on the Moon.” Armstrong and Aldrin had to drive “Eagle” manually a little; there were 2-foot boulders on the landing site. They got it over the rocks perfectly. They landed at 4:17:40 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. It was announced about 5:00 Central Time that the Moon walk will start at 9:00 Eastern Time tonight, instead of about 2:00 a.m. tomorrow.
7:50 p.m., Central Time, July 20, 1969
It is estimated that 500,000,000 people in the world are watching Apollo XI coverage on TV today!
8:45 p.m. Central Time, July 20, 1969
Newsman (NBC) David Brinkley just said that we have finally found a place where Americans can go where there will be no pickets holding signs saying “Get out of Vietnam” or “Yankee, Go Home!”
My three-year-old nephew is really interested in Apollo XI. He is full of questions that I can’t answer.
9:55 p.m. Central Time, July 20, 1969
Neil Armstrong is on the “porch” of “Eagle” and will soon start down the ladder.
We saw on Live TV man’s first step on the Moon. Armstrong’s first words: “One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” It’s really fantastic. The official time was 9:56 p.m. Central Daylight Time, when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the Moon.
About 10:15 “Buzz” Aldrin is on the ground now. He first said, “Beautiful! Beautiful! Magnificent desolation!”
One just said there is a tendency to go backwards, for the ground is soft.
10:25 They just unveiled the plaque and one read it to us. They’ve put up the U.S. flag. We are getting incredible TV pictures from the Moon. About 10:50 C. Time we heard and saw President Nixon talking to them and they talked back. This is truly unbelievable. Before talking to President Nixon they were running and hopping to see what the best way of movement was.
9:20 a.m. Central Time, Monday, July 21, 1969
We watched TV coverage of the first manned moon landing until 12:30 a.m.. It was about 12:10 when Aldrin and Armstrong had to get back into “Eagle.” It was so unbelievable! This morning on TV we are watching the moon walk again.
Lift-off from the Moon is at 12:51 p.m. today, Central Daylight Time.
Tuesday, noon, July 22, 1969
Yesterday watched some Apollo coverage and napped some.
Wednesday, July 23, 1969
Went to the NASA Testing Center near Bay St. Louis. Did not wait for the 10:00 tour.
Went to Michoud Assembly Facility of NASA at New Orleans. Just rode by it. Was a big building.
We had three great hours in the French Quarter in New Orleans, 11:00 until 2:00 P.M. today Enjoyed watching artists sitting on sidewalks painting portraits of people. Really saw a lot of talent. Beautiful “lace” balconies. Narrow, crowded streets. Saw some long-haired, wildly-dressed hippies. I would like to stay there for a week. We went to Preservation Hall – a place which at night has traditional Dixieland Jazz. I wanted to go back tonight. Crossed the Mississippi River twice. Big disappointment! Only ½ mile wide. Fancy bridges, but the river was really no big thing.
We got on the longest bridge in the world at 3:07. It was the 24-mile bridge over Lake Ponchartrain. Had to pay $1.00 toll. Got off the bridge at 3:30. Staying at “LaGrace” Western Motel in Hattiesburg tonight. Have a COLOR TV in the motel room! Bought July 25 edition of Life tonight. About Apollo XI.
11:10 A.M., Thursday, July 24, 1969
182 Americans were killed in the last week of fighting in Vietnam.
11:30 A.M. Coverage of the splashdown and recovery of Apollo XI is starting. Sure wish I could watch on TV. This is the only one this summer and we have to be on vacation. Apollo XI is now going more than 24,000 m.p.h. Before splashdown it will near 25,000 m.p.h.
When Apollo entered “blackout” it was going 24,630 m.p.h. There is no communication during “black-out.” We’re in Jones, Mississippi now, got off Interstate 59.
Apollo XI has been sighted by recovery ship, the USS Hornet. It streaked through the sky. The heat shield was something like 4,900 degrees F.
Splashdown! They’re in the water. We’re in Laural, Mississippi. Apollo XI is 9 miles from the Hornet. It is upside down. Will bob around like that until floatation collar is inflated and rights it. No radio contact, for antenna is under water… Two inflated bags on top of Apollo XI have turned it right-side up.
2:45 P.M. The Apollo XI crew are all fine!
Reading my 1969 journal brought back a lot of memories and reminded me how obsessed I was with writing down the exact time we were learning things about the Apollo XI mission.
Space travel today gets little publicity, so it must be difficult for the 16-year-olds today to imagine how exciting it was to watch the first landing on the moon. No one knew in advance how solid the moon’s surface would be. I remember we marveled at the little clouds of dust Armstrong and Aldrin’s boots kicked up as they more or less bounced as they took steps.
I always felt bad for Michael Collins. He had to just keep orbiting the moon while the other two astronauts got to land on it and run around on it.
Back in the day, there was what today would be called an urban legend that the moon was made of green cheese. People stopped saying that after July 20, 1969.
By the way, it was a big deal that our motel room in Hattiesburg, Mississippi had a color TV. We had a black-and-white TV at home, and so did our brother in Alabama.
Today’s blog post is in honor and memory of all those brave soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944 — 82 years ago today. I knew one of them – Mr. Ira Lee Taylor of Harrisburg, North Carolina, and was privileged to interview him in 2007 about his World War II experiences while I was writing a local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper. He was 93 years old.
I offer the following essay that I wrote in memory of Mr. Taylor:
“Memories of World War II”
His 93-year-old blue eyes were clear as his mind was sharp, though his back was bent and he relied on a walker to navigate inside his home. When I called and asked if I could interview him about his memories of World War II, he agreed without hesitation.
Born after the war, I was embarrassed by my ignorance of its details. It seemed that every year in school we started by studying Plymouth Rock and by the end of the year scarcely managed to get to Appomattox.
With pen in hand, I knocked on Mr. Taylor’s door. The only question I had in mind to ask him was, “What did you do in the war?” That question was enough for Mr. Taylor. Over the next several visits, he recounted in amazing chronological order the places he was sent and the things he saw, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt that forever changed his life. There was a reverence in his voice. We were treading on hallowed ground.
World War II Veteran and Harrisburg Mail Carrier, Ira Lee Taylor
Training for the war was thrilling and boring for a young man from a piedmont North Carolina community of fewer than 300 people. Although he had gone off to “State College” (now, North Carolina State University at Raleigh) and earned a degree in forestry, there was a naiveté about this army draftee that followed him through the battlefields of France, Belgium, and Germany. As he regaled me with his memories of the war, I sensed that many other recruits were as “wet behind the ears” as was Mr. Taylor. They shared a heavy responsibility and had in common the mindset, “You do what you have to do.” No self-pity in that generation!
It took 11 harrowing days for Mr. Taylor’s ship to cross the Atlantic along with other troop and liberty ships. German torpedoes picked off liberty ships on the perimeter of the convoy of more than 100 ships that transported and accompanied the U.S. Army 4th Division to England. The rough ocean made some men so seasick that they said if they survived the war they were going to stay in Europe.
Mr. Taylor recalled the training he got in England for the invasion of Normandy. He just didn’t know that was what he and thousands of others were being prepared for or when their skills would be put to the test. They were ordered to waterproof the trucks in the motor pool by packing something like Play-Doh around the sparkplugs and rigging up elbow pipes to the tailpipes that could carry exhaust up higher than the roof of the trucks in case the trucks were in deep water.
It was a time of “loose lips sink ships” and even journalists understood the necessity for complete secrecy of military plans and troop movements. The soldiers didn’t know much of what was going on in the war, but it wasn’t their business to know. It was their business to train, be ready, look out for one another, and follow orders.
The night before the scheduled invasion, the men of the 4th Division were briefed. They were told that they would make the landing on Normandy and it was expected that 80 percent of them would be killed in the process. They got halfway across the English Channel when a huge storm forced them to return to Plymouth, England.
Twenty-four hours later, Mr. Taylor was on one of the 499 vessels that took part in the invasion. Utah Beach was the code name of the speck of sand on the coast of France where he began his trek across continental Europe. “The beach was filled with black smoke, dust, dirt, and the smell of gunpowder. Boy, it smelled awful!” he said.
Another thing he mentioned that is not learned by reading a history book or watching a movie is the terrible smell of the fatigues the soldiers had to wear for the invasion and for the next several days. The fatigues were impregnated with chemicals to protect the soldiers in case they were gassed.
As Mr. Taylor’s narrative progressed through the war, he spoke of the ground quivering from the concussion of exploding bombs, booby-trapped bodies of American soldiers, countless nearly-impenetrable hedgerows, the French Resistance, foxholes, rumbling tanks, waves of blooming red poppies on Flanders Field, being surrounded at Bastogne in Belgium, The Battle for Huertgen Forest where the pine and fir trees in that beautiful forest were shirred off into matchsticks, shoe mines that would blow your foot off, the snow and cold of the Battle of the Bulge, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower walking up one day and talking to him like he was just another G.I., seeing the snow-capped Alps, and seeing lots of sights he had tried to forget.
Mr. Ira Lee Taylor of Harrisburg, North Carolina, with his framed military service medals
After a seven-day calm voyage back to the States during which the troops were treated to wonderful food and entertainment and sightings of whales and their waterspouts, the ship Mr. Taylor was on entered New York Harbor. Everyone rushed to one side of the ship to see the Statue of Liberty, but the ship started listing so badly that they were ordered to redistribute themselves on the deck.
Rewarded with a 30-day furlough, Mr. Taylor returned home to North Carolina where he got married and then boarded a bus bound for Camp Butner to be trained for the invasion of Japan. One of the men on the bus had a transistor radio over which came the announcement that Japan had surrendered and the war was over. That’s how close Mr. Taylor came to being shipped to Japan after what he had lived through in Europe.
The 4th Division suffered the third highest number of casualties of any United State military Division (22,600) in World War II. Mr. Taylor considered himself very fortunate to have come home alive. He delivered mail to my house for 32 years until he retired in 1980. It was only in 2007 that I learned that he had taken part in the largest military invasion in history.
If you want to read the whole story and other things I learned while writing the “Harrisburg, Did You Know?” local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper, look for my books, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Book 2 on Amazon and at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, North Carolina.
Janet
All history is local, but no history is just local.
Every year on May 20 or sometime that week I blog about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. It was signed on May 20, 1775 – a full year before the national declaration.
Unfortunately, the original copy was lost when John McKnitt Alexander’s house burned. The writers and signers got together after the fire and reconstructed the document from memory.
Since the original copy was lost, there are naysayers today. I don’t know what their motives are, but they insist on seeing the original in order to believe it existed. A newspaper account in the Raleigh Register on April 30, 1819 does not suffice as proof for them.
There has never been any love lost between Raleigh – the State Capital – and Charlotte (in Mecklenburg County), so I find it surprising that a Raleigh newspaper ever acknowledged the document. For a newspaper in Raleigh – of all places – to do so only indicates to me a level of certification.
May 20, 1775 was added to the North Carolina state flag in 1861, so there must have been a high degree of belief that the document was real. Again, with the historical seat of power in North Carolina being in the eastern part of the state, the legislators would not have been quick to given Mecklenburg County any credit on the state flag.
Here is the wording of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, as it was recreated after being lost in a fire, and as it is found in The Hornet’s Nest: The Story of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, by LeGette Blythe and Charles Raven Brockmann, published in 1961:
That whosoever directly or indirectly abetted or in any way, form or manner countenanced the unchartered & dangerous invasion of our rights as claimed by G. Britain is an enemy to this County – to America & to the inherent & inaliable rights of man.
We the Citizens of Mecklenburg County do hereby desolve the political bands which have connected us to the Mother Country & hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown & abjure all political connection, contract or association with that nation who have wantonly trampled on our rights & liberties & inhumanely shed the innocent blood of American patriots at Lexington.
We do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people – are & of right ought to be a sovereign & self-governing association, under the control of no power other than that of our God & the general government of the congress, to the maintainence of which independence civil & religious we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual cooperation, our lives, our fortunes & our most sacred honor.
As we now acknowledge the existence & control of no law or legal officers, civil or military, within this County, we do hereby ordain & adopt as a rule of life, all, each & every of our former laws – wherein nevertheless the crown of great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein.
It is also further decreed that all, each & every military officer in this County is hereby reinstated in his former command & authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present of this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz, a Justice of the peace in the character of a “Committee-man” to issue process, hear & determine all matters of controversy according to sd. Adopted laws – to preserve peace, union & harmony in sd. County & to use every exertion to spread the love of country & fire of freedom throughout American until a more general & organized government be established in this province. A selection from the members present shall constitute a Committee of public safety for sd. County.
That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by express to the President of the Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, to be laid before that body.
Ephraim Brevard
Hezekiah J. Balch
John Phifer
James Harris
William Kennon
John Foard
Richard Barry
Henry Downs
Ezra Alexander
Charles Alexander
Zaccheus Wilson
Waightstill Avery
Benjamin Patton
Matthew McClure
Neil Morrison
Robert Irwin
John Flennegin
David Reese
William Graham
John Queary
Hezekiah Alexander
Adam Alexander
John Davidson
Richard Harris
Thomas Polk
Abraham Alexander
John McKnitt Alexander
Recreation of the May 20, 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence
Captain James Jack rode horseback from Charlotte to Philadelphia to deliver a copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and a copy of the May 31, 1775 Mecklenburg Resolves to the Second Continental Congress. It is disputed that he made it to Philadelphia with the Declaration, but he did get there with the Mecklenburg Resolves.
Archibald and Maggie Sellers McCurdy lived in the part of Mecklenburg County that became Cabarrus County in 1792. Mr. McCurdy stood on the steps of the Mecklenburg County courthouse in Charlotte on May 20, 1775 and heard the declaration read.
He came home and told his wife, Maggie, that they needed to make a list – perhaps written, perhaps mental – of all the people in the community that they could trust. The community was dominated by patriots, but they needed to evaluate which of their neighbors and associates could be trusted in the coming inevitable war for independence.
I wrote a story about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and the McCurdy’s, “Whom Can We Trust?” and included it in my book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories.
My book is available in paperback and e-book on Amazon, and the paperback is available sometimes at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC.
Janet
All history is local, but no history is just local
Plessy v. Ferguson is one of those landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases we would like to forget. Put it behind us. Consider it ancient history from the 19th century.
Not so fast.
We have something to learn from Plessy v. Ferguson today, 130 years after the ruling.
Background
To refresh your memory from history or political science class, Homer Plessy was a man of mixed race. That meant, under the law in the United States, he was considered Black. Though reportedly seven-eighths white, he was not permitted to ride in a “whites-only” railroad car in New Orleans. The Louisiana State Legislature had passed a Separate Car Act in 1890. That law required separation train cars for white and Black passengers.
In 1891, a group of Black men in New Orleans formed “Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law.” Bolstered by a May 15, 1892 ruling by the Louisiana State Supreme Court in favor of the Pullman Company, the Committee decided to test the law in interstate travel. On June 7, 1892, Mr. Plessy purposely took a seat in a whites-only rail car on the East Louisiana Railroad to test the law.
What happened to Mr. Plessy
Mr. Plessy was arrested for boarding a “whites-only” train car. His defenders in court argued that the Separate Car Act of 1890 violated the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Section 1, 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
When Mr. Plessy’s case went to District Court, the judge was John H. Ferguson. Judge Ferguson denied a request to dismiss the case and then ruled that the Louisiana Separate Car Act of 1890 was constitutional because the State had the authority to regular public accommodations.
The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision, and Mr. Plessy took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Surely, that august body would see that the Louisiana law was unjust, discriminatory, and unconstitutional.
After all, the 13th Amendment had abolished slavery in the United States in 1865, and Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1866, not only extended citizenship to former slaves but also state, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Mr. Plessy and his lawyers maintained that the Separate Car Act on 1890 was unconstitutional under the last phrase in Section 1 of the 14th Amendment.
Section 1, 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
The ruling
In a 7-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on May 18, 1896, that the State law in Louisiana was constitutional because it provided “separation but equal” accommodations for white and Black passengers.
That famous “separate but equal” wording is what took the United States down a terrible road of discrimination for the next 70 years.
It paved the way for “Jim Crow” laws. It made racial segregation in public education, in public conveyances, restaurants, lodging, etc. lawful.
The “separate but equal” doctrine stood until the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case in 1954 and the Civil Rights Acts in the 1960s. (The Brown v. Board of Education ruling, ironically, was handed done in a 9-0 decision on May 17, 1954, just one day shy of the anniversary of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.)
We all know now that “separate but equal” was never equal; it was just separate. That doctrine became the umbrella and shield for untold acts of discrimination and violence until the late 1960s.
Who cast the dissenting vote?
Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan was the lone dissenter in the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. Although he came from a slave-holding family in Kentucky, Justice Harlan often cast the dissenting vote in civil rights cases that went before the U.S. Supreme Court. He sat on the Court from 1877 until 1911.
Lessons to be learned from Plessy v. Ferguson in 2026
If I had penned this blog post a couple of years ago, it probably would have ended there. Just a nice little history lesson. Just the facts of the case and the final ruling.
But I’m writing this in mid-May 2026, and that 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case has taken on a whole new significance.
As in 1896, in 2026 we have a U.S. Supreme Court majority who tend to be constitutional textualists or literalists, meaning they usually view the Constitution and laws as the people at the time of a law’s enactment would have interpreted it and not necessarily taking into account the spirit of the law.
In my six years of studying political science in college, I was taught to study the time and letter of the law but to look for the spirit of the law.
I offer a current example of how some people now want to interpret the 14th Amendment as applying only to the people who had been slaves prior to and during the American Civil War. They argue that the 14th Amendment does not grant citizenship to everyone who just happens to be born in the United States. They don’t want the 14th Amendment to apply to the children of undocumented immigrants. Trust me. We have not heard the last of that argument.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially dismantled the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a result, state legislators are falling all over each other to redraw Congressional District boundaries. They feel emboldened to eliminate majority Black or Democrat districts before this November’s mid-term elections.
This is history repeating itself. The hurried gerrymandering and shifting of Congression District lines in 2026 is in many ways a mirror image of the Jim Crow laws of the late 1800s.
Why is it that we don’t learn from history? Or perhaps a more accurate question is “Why do we only learn how to repeat the harmful things from our history?”
The Roberts court is taking us down a road of easier corruption in politics (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 2010), less accountability for the U.S. President (Trump v. United States, 2024), and an attempted erasure of all the progress our country made in racial relations and equality in the 60 years following the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Louisiana v. Callais, April 29, 2026).
The racial discrimination the U.S. Supreme Court is fomenting by its Louisiana v. Callais decision a couple of weeks ago is far-reaching and should send chills done the spine of every American.
The lesson for us to learn from the last 16 years of U.S. Supreme court decisions, un-checked Presidential powers, and a U.S. Congress that acts more like a lap dog than a co-equal branch of the federal government is that our rights and the “guarantees” we have in our laws and U.S. Constitution are no more secure than the paper they are written on.
Every week I learn that more protected federal lands set aside generations ago for wildlife and the preservation of the natural world are being trashed by our own elected officials. It’s being done quietly, of course, because they don’t want us to know. If they were proud of what they’re doing, they’d be making grand announcements.
I assumed the East Wing of the White House would be there forever. I assumed national parks and wildlife refuges were permanently protected.
The U.S. Constitution is a living and breathing document. It will always be up for discussion, debate, and amending. That’s the beauty of it, but it also makes it fragile and vulnerable to the whims of Presidents and others who wish to test it.
The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution
Democracy is more fragile than I realized.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
The free press is under attack in the United States. President Trump and his followers never miss an opportunity to criticize journalists. Trump delights in telling falsehoods about specific news organizations, and one of his favorite pastimes is to publicly say nasty things to female reporters.
If you take time to watch his press conferences, speeches, and interviews, you know what I’m talking about.
We have not in my 73 years had any other U.S. President who had a personal vendetta against the free press. His contempt for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is frightening to those of us who treasure freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
To mark World Press Freedom Day tomorrow, I will give just two examples of what we were made aware of this week thanks to the free press.
Defense Department Drone Deal
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Defense is going to purchase drones from a company owned by Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump.
You did not get that information from The White House or from the U.S. Department of Defense.
You got it from a free press.
1,000-Year-old UNESCO Site Damaged by Department of Homeland Security
The Washington Post reported that a bulldozer cut a 60-foot swath out of a 200-foot Native American archeological treasure on Friday, April 24, 2026.
Did The White House report it? Did the U.S. Department of Homeland Security report it?
No, the free press reported it.
The priceless site in in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) treasure that was partially destroyed was an etching in the desert sand known as an intaglio.
At least 1,000 years ago, ancestors of the Hia-ced O’odham Indigenous People scraped down to white soil under the desert sand to create a 200-foot long etching of a fish.
Thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issuing waivers for the construction of Trump’s border wall, the Trump Administration does not have to abide by the federal laws protecting the environment or sacred Indigenous sites while building the wall.
Now, thanks to those waivers and a President’s administration devoid of respect for history, nature, or indigenous peoples, a 60-foot swath has been ripped through the etching as the construction of the Trump wall between the United States and Mexico continues at the rate of three miles per week.
The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior. An anonymous employee of that department confirmed to The Washington Post that the damage had been done by the Department of Homeland Security.
The Tohono O’odham Nation was able to prevent the first Trump Administration from building the wall across its reservation. They were able to protect the intaglio and a sacred burial site then, but that protection has been ignored by the second Trump Administration.
Archaeologist Rick Martynec, who has studied the site over the last 20 years, reported that the Refuge had been in discussions with the Department of Homeland Security to make sure the intaglio was not damaged. When he visited the site a couple of weeks ago, he saw stakes in place that marked the boundaries of the etching.
Various people and groups were actively working to make sure the Department of Homeland Security did not destroy the site, but it was all to no avail.
And we would not know it if not for the free press.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
It was on April 6, 1917, that the United States entered World War I. As with World War II, the United States was slow to enter the fray. The war had begun in the summer of 1914. By the time the war ended in 1919, 28 nations on five continents were involved. The United States tried to remain neutral.
In my blog post today, I offer a condensed and simplified explanation of the timing and reasons why the United States eventually got involved in World War I.
When the war broke out in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson asked Americans to be “impartial in thought as well as action.” That was not easy for the 32 million Americans who were born in Europe or were first-generation children of immigrants.
Neutrality gave the United States an economic advantage as it could continue to trade with countries on both sides of the war. But as time progressed, a naval blockade of the North Atlantic by Great Britain and Germany’s retaliation with submarines made trade increasingly difficult.
The Lusitania. Photo from Library of Congress website
On May 7, 1915, Germany torpedoed the British Cunard ocean liner Lusitania, and 128 American passengers were killed. Germany promised to stop putting Americans in harm’s way on the seas to try to gain America’s favor. The Sussex Pledge, made in May 1916 after Germany torpedoed the French ship Sussex on March 24, 1916, injuring several Americans, held for a while.
President Wilson tried to broker peace negotiations in 1915 and 1916, to no avail, as he proposed “peace without victory.” On January 31, 1917, Germany announced it was renewing total submarine warfare against merchant shipping around Great Britain and in the Mediterranean Sea. Germany thought this would bring the defeat of Great Britain and its Allies before the United States could respond.
Wilson, however, used a 1797 statute that allowed the U.S. President to arm the merchant fleet.
The last straw for the United States was when British intelligence intercepted a message, which became known as the Zimmerman note, in which German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman proposed that Mexico should join Germany if the United States joined the war on the side of the Allies.
The deal Germany offered Mexico was that it would help Mexico regain what had become New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona in the United States! The Zimmerman Note also suggested that Japan should join Germany and the Central Powers in the war.
President Wilson called on Congress to convene in a special session on April 2, 1917. The House of Representatives approved a resolution to enter the war on April 4, and the Senate followed suit on April 6, thus entering the United States into World War I on the side of Great Britain and the Allies.
Let this be a history lesson for leaders within the government of the United States of America for how, step-by-step, world wars begin.
Hurricane Helene Recovery Update
It has been a month or so since I gave an update on Hurricane Helene recovery in North Carolina. Yes, even though that hurricane blasted through the mountains in western North Carolina more than 18 months ago, recovery continues.
NC Landslide Mapping: WCNC TV Channel 36 in Charlotte did a news segment on March 9, 2026 about NC Landslide Mapping. This is an early warning system for landslide alerts. In 2011, due to state budget restraints, the program was stopped. Although restarted in 2018, some counties in the mountainous western part of NC are not mapped.
The remaining counties need to be mapped and the counties already done need to be updated since the numerous landslides due to Hurricane Helene. Geologists map prior landslides because prior landslides predict future landslides – not when they will happen, but that they will happen. People can look at the data to help them make more informed decisions before purchasing land. NC will have a Landslide Awareness Week this summer.
Lake Lure, NC: During Hurricane Helene, Lake Lure (the lake itself, from which the Town of Lake Lure takes its name) was filled with storm debris. The recovery process has been overwhelming and tedious, but 18 months after the historic flooding caused by Helene, the lake is on the verge of reopening. Quoting from The Town of Lake Lure Facebook page from March 25, 2026: “The Town of Lake Lure, NC is pleased to report that the lake level has reached approximately 986.2 feet Mean Sea Level (MSL)—just 4.3 feet below full pond (990.5 MSL). These photos highlight the steady progression of refilling the lake, captured from the east edge of Morse Park facing the main channel.
Lake Lure, as seen from the top of Chimney Rock in North Carolina
“Crews from the North Carolina State Mission Assigned Recovery Task (SMART) Program continue working around the lake, removing remaining debris and helping restore the shoreline. To date, they have cleared more than 800 cubic yards of debris, and their efforts are ongoing.
“Additionally, work is taking place at the Washburn Marina – rebuilding the floating boardwalk and marina docks, constructing the marina tour boat docks, and fueling station, and building a new marina building to serve the public.
“These final steps mark meaningful progress as we move closer to reopening Lake Lure.”
US-64: On March 31, it was reported that one lane of US-64 is now open between Chimney Rock and Bat Cave, NC. It is hoped that the new highway, much of which had to literally be rebuilt along a new route after Hurricane Helene’s record-setting rainfall moved the Rocky Broad River, will be open by Memorial Day.
Restoration of The Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina continues, with completion scheduled for late in 2026. Heavy construction equipment will be traveling on open sections of the Parkway between US-70 at Asheville (Milepost 382.5) and Mount Mitchell State Park (NC-128 at Milepost 355.3) to access landslide repair locations beginning today, April 6, 2026. Motorists should expect delays behind slow-moving heavy construction vehicles.
Visitors to hiking trails along the Parkway are advised to continue to use caution as all restoration work has not been completed.
Rebuilding of Interstate 40: It goes without saying that the rebuilding of I-40 in North Carolina in the Pigeon River Gorge just east of the Tennessee line is an ongoing project of massive proportions. Portions of the highway collapsed, and some sections completely disappeared during Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Since March 1, 2025, there is just one lane open in each direction with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour. The latest estimates I’ve heard indicate completion of the project in late 2028.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
It was on this date 156 years ago that African American men were given the right to vote when the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
Section 1 of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
You might be surprised to know that it was the Republicans who pushed for this amendment. Yes, the same party which today turns itself into a pretzel dreaming up ways to make it more difficult for citizens to vote is the party that fought to give black American men the right to vote in 1870. The irony!
The 15th Amendment did not address the fact that women of any skin color did not have the right to vote.
Section 1 of the 15th Amendment states: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude–.”
Although ratified in 1870, it would take the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before many black people were registered to vote. Laws varied by state and state legislatures – much like today – resorted to creative ways and wording in laws to restrict voting rights.
Popular opinion is that it was only southern states that restricted voting to white people, so I decided to do a little research into state laws prior to 1870. (Keep in mind that women were not given the right to vote by the U.S. Constitution until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.)
I wanted to know if black men were allowed to vote in states outside the South before passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870. Out of curiosity, I randomly looked at New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
In the State of New York, there was a mish-mash of voting rights for black men. In the 1820’s it was unlawful for a black person who did not own property valued at $250 or more to vote. Slave owners along the Hudson River (yes, even New Yorkers owned slaves!) did not let their slaves vote. Some black men in the state’s cities were able to vote.
Although the “Black Laws” in the state of Ohio were repealed in 1849, African Americans were still not allowed to vote. An informative article about the history of laws regarding African Americans in Ohio can be found here: https://eji.org/news/ohios-black-laws/.
What about Pennsylvania? Quoting from “The Disenfranchisement of Black Pennsylvanians in the 1838 State Constitution: Racism, Politics, or Economics? – A Statistical Analysis,” by David A. Latzko of Pennsylvania State University’s York campus, as found at https//:tupjournals.temple.edu: “In 1838, Pennsylvania’s voters approved a state constitution that restricted the right to vote to ‘white freemen.’ Blacks had voted for many years in some parts of the state, but under the new constitution Pennsylvania’s black males could no longer vote.”
I found the following information on https://libguides.njstatelib.org/votesforwomen/timeline: In 1807, a new law restricting voting was passed by the New Jersey General Assembly: “Whereas doubts have been raised, and Great diversities in practice obtained through-out the state in regard to the admission of aliens, females and persons of color, or negroes to vote in elections… Sec. 1. Be it enacted …That … no person shall vote in any state or county election… unless such person be a free, white, male … of the age of twenty-one years, worth fifty pounds proclamation money….”
New Jersey adopted a new State Constitution in 1844, and people of color were still not allowed to vote.
In the decades after the ratification of the 15th Amendment, racists in various states passed laws to make it hard for minorities to vote. Such things as poll taxes and literacy tests were codified.
This was still in the decades of Reconstruction following the Civil War. Most of the former slaves had not been allowed to learn how to read or write, so the passage of literacy laws was a not-so-subtle way to prevent many black people from voting.
My conclusion is that people of color have been discriminated against in every state in the United States of America. Our nation has a long and sorted history of dividing ourselves based on the color of our skin.
It is that 250-year history that has brought us to 2026 – a year in which the U.S. Constitution gives all citizens — regardless of skin color or gender – the right to vote. But women and people of color must remain vigilant in every State to guard our right to vote.
In 2026, various State legislatures and even the United States Congress are working behind the scenes as well as blatantly in public to make it more difficult for all citizens to exercise their right to vote. The so-called SAVE America Act is currently being batted back and forth between the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.
A segment of our society has been convinced by Conservatives that there is rampant voting by undocumented immigrants. Under the guise of putting an end to that problem — which has been proven not to exist — through passage of the SAVE America Act the Conservatives in Congress are working very hard to codify wording that will once again make it more difficult for many women and many people of color to vote.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. White men in America continue to be afraid of losing their power. It is a history much older and more widespread than the United States of America.
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
Today is World Storytelling Day. I recently learned about this day’s designation, and it led me to do a little research.
Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash
As a fiction writer, one of the hats I wear is storytelling, but I do not qualify or see myself as a storyteller – not in the true storytelling sense of the word.
Storytelling is an art form. It is a skill, and it is a gift. It is not an instrument in my toolbox. I would love to be a good storyteller, but I am not.
If called upon to tell a story, I will stammer, break out in the sweat, and present my audience with a lot of silent time. Unless those are attributes that a storyteller wants to incorporate into their presentation to enhance the experience for their audience, those behaviors have no place in storytelling.
The National Storytelling Network (https://storynet.org/) defines storytelling as follows: “Storytelling is the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination.”
Taking the definition a step further, the National Storytelling Network explains that, “Storytelling involves a two-way interaction between a storyteller and one or more listeners. The responses of the listeners influence the telling of the story. In fact, storytelling emerges from the interaction and cooperative, coordinated efforts of teller and audience.”
See? Storytelling is technically a whole different thing than writing fiction. The fiction writer rarely gets feedback from the audience before publication unless you count the responses given by beta readers.
Even that feedback does not meet the definition of storytelling. Storytelling is in the moment. The feedback is instantaneous and the storyteller feeds off the energy and emotions of the audience.
Storytelling also often involves hand motions and variations in volume and tone. I can use an occasional exclamation point in writing fiction. I can use words to convey such states as happiness, despair, or surprise, but the storyteller has an advantage over me there. They can demonstrate mood and state of mind through facial expression, volume and tone of voice, and body language.
When I think of a good storyteller, I think of someone who holds my attention in their hand. Their storytelling puts me on the edge of my seat and immerses me in another world.
That’s what a fiction writer strives to do, but without the real-time interaction between the writer and the reader, I believe that level of give-and-take is not possible.
The National Storytelling Network’s website lists five components of storytelling: It “…is interactive,” it “uses words” (including sign language), it “uses actions,” it “presents a story,” and it “encourages the active imagination of the listeners.” I invite you to visit the website for more details.
There is a calendar of events on the website, in case you want to look for storyteller performances and storytelling festivals in your area. Incidentally, in case you live in the Fairfax, Virginia area, a four-day Women’s Storytelling Festival began there yesterday.
The Patchwork Storytelling Guild is hosting a storytelling festival on Sunday in Philadelphia.
The Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival is coming up on April 10-11 in Hiawassee. If you are interested but cannot attend in person, tickets for online listening are available. (Go to http://gamountainstoryfest.org for more information.)
According to https://calendarcute.com, the theme for the 2026 World Storytelling Day is “Light in the Dark.” Storytellers are encouraged to offer stories of “hope, wisdom, and human connection into moments of uncertainty, difficulty, or fear” in connection with this year’s celebration.
“The theme was chosen collaboratively by the global storytelling community…. At the narrative level, it refers to story archetypes that feature illumination – characters or communities who bring clarity, warmth, or guidance to situations of darkness or confusion.”
I did not know where today’s topic would take me, but now I will start looking for a storytelling event in my area!
Janet
The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.
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