Category Archives: History

From both famous and infamous, Mesa Cemetery holds history both for the city and the country.

MESA, Ariz. Over sections of green grass, surrounded by fencing, Vic Linoff searches for the next plot.

"It's a thrill," Linoff, a historian, said.

He's walking through Mesa's Cemetery, full of history, not just for the city, but the country too.

"Every one of these people had lives and some were ordinary, some were extraordinary," Linoff said.

Linoff sees the cemetery differently than some might, maybe because of those who stay here.

"There are over 38,000 permanent residents," Linoff said with a smile. "Not winter visitors, permanent residents."

Linoff said that's nearly the population of Sun City.

The cemetery is technically full, Linoff said, but it's been expanded and more land has been recently acquired by the City of Mesa to keep expanding.

One of those 38,000 includes Waylon Jennings, the legendary musician who pioneered the outlaw movement in country music.

"Usually you can spot it because it's probably the most visited grave in the cemetery," Linoff said.

Jennings' black stone grave marker, with a picture of his smiling face, stands out from the others in its row. It's larger, and one of the more decorated ones in the row.

On this particular day, the marker has flowers and a can of beer, along with coins left by people who've stopped by.

It's not the only grave of someone well-known in the city's cemetery.

"In the confines of this cemetery is one of the most infamous people in US history," Linoff said.

Linoff is referring to the grave of Ernesto Miranda, of Miranda Rights.

Even though in June, the Supreme Court ruled police officers can't be sued if they don't properly tell people under arrest of those rights.

"That resulted in a major change in which the way arrests were made," Linoff said, referring to the original Supreme Court case.

In between their graves, lie many who most passing by may not know.

"Every one of these headstones tells some story," Linoff said.

But their graves and stories are still equally important. Among them, include Dr. Lucious Alston, an African American doctor who lived in the Washington-Escobedo neighborhood.

"He was practicing medicine when there was significant segregation in the city," Linoff said.

Others, hold special plaques, marking those who spent 177 days aboard the Brooklyn Pioneer and survived. The ship made the trek from the east coast to the west coast.

"They got blown off course, almost to Africa, had to go all the way around South America," Linoff said.

Their graves lie in the older portion of the cemetery. It's easier to spot with actual headstones versus grave markers.

Some of the graves in the cemetery weren't even originally buried at the current location off of Center Street and Brown Road.

The first location of Mesa's cemetery was built just south of there at Center Street and University Drive in 1183. But Linoff said the smallpox outbreak gave evidence that the city would need more room to bury people.

Linoff said Native Americans were hired to dig up those graves at the original site and move them to the current cemetery in 1891.

Still, others have graves that go unmarked. Like Alexander McPherson's grave.

"He was the first African-American that we know of to take residency within the city limits," Linoff said.

The limits of the cemetery hold children, mothers, fathers and good Mesa High School football players.

"There's so many sad stories in the cemetery, this is one of the saddest," Linoff said, standing in front of a dark-colored headstone.

Zedo Ishikawa was just 17 years old when he died. Linoff said he accidentally shot himself while trying to separate a pair of fighting dogs.

As he was dying, he left a final message for his teammates.

"Tell the boys to 'carry on', and 'carry on' has been a rallying cry of Mesa High ever since," Linoff said.

It's those who've passed, impacting those now present in Mesa.

"It's representative of the population we have today," Linoff said.

Linoff is also part of the group that helps give tours of the Mesa Cemetery each October, highlighting even more of the graves that lie there.

For 2022, the Mesa Historical Museum will hold its cemetery tours on October 22 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. More information can be found here.

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'Every one of these headstones tells some story': From local to nationwide, Mesa Cemetery holds history of community around it - 12news.com KPNX

Verdes (she/they) is a queer, nonbinary dyke. She is the board president of Lambda Archives of San Diego and lives in Normal Heights.

The significance of knowing our history as queer people is that the past helps us to make sense of the present and who we are as a community. We should expect, and welcome, that people with different lived experiences dont always see the past the same way. We all use history to make meaning of our sense of identity and the role that our lives and actions play in our collective history. Its important to recognize the difference between memory and history. Memory is something that we own. History is something to be interpreted (and reinterpreted) as time goes on.

Many recognize the Stonewall Uprising, for example, as the start of our modern LGBTQ+ movement. The Stonewall Uprising occurred in response to state-sanctioned violence where the queer community fought back against police raids at the Stonewall Inn in New York City over five days in June 1969. Although it was clearly a significant historical event, there are many other well-documented events where similar raids and subsequent riots took place, thereby quashing the narrative that Stonewall was the genesis of the modern LGBTQ+ movement. Chief among these other incidents are the Pepper Hill Club Raid, Baltimore, 1955; the Coopers Do-Nuts Raid, Los Angeles, 1959; the Black Nite Brawl, Milwaukee, 1961; the Comptons Cafeteria Raid, San Francisco, 1966; and the Black Cat Raid, Los Angeles, 1967.

In June 1970, gay rights activists marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising with a march on Central Park the first LGBT Pride parade. Similar events began to develop and continue throughout the world to this day. In San Diego, our first permitted Pride did not occur until 1975, but the local gay rights movement had experienced a boost in momentum in the years leading up to what would eventually become our annual Pride parade and festival. Locally, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was started by Jess Jessop, widely known as one of the key figures in the fight for our modern LGBTQ+ movement. Jessop, who was a student at San Diego State University at the time, started the San Diego GLF to explicitly serve gay students.

The GLFs focus expanded and, in 1973, it formed the Gay Information Center hotline, which would eventually become the San Diego LGBTQ Community Center. The following year, the center held a Stonewall Anniversary yard sale and potluck in an effort to fundraise for the fledgling LGBTQ center. This event is the backdrop of one of the most contentious aspects of our local history surrounding Pride, with some arguing that there was a spontaneous march in 1974 that many recognize as the first Pride in San Diego while others insist that the first Pride technically occurred (with the proper permits) in 1975.

Before Pride became its own nonprofit and had a board of directors, ad hoc committees would meet to plan Pride parades and rallies and eventually added a festival. Thanks to the efforts of Christine Kehoe, Neil Good and other community members, San Diego Pride hired its first ever executive director, which then led to Pride becoming its own nonprofit in 1994. Like any other worthwhile effort, it took community muscle and organizing for the organization and our movement to become what it is today.

The heated disagreement that often happens with regard to our local history is significant because it demonstrates how important it is for all of us to solidify our place within the narrative that becomes our shared history. The point is not to discredit the advances made during the Stonewall Uprising or to discredit those who claim to have marched in the first San Diego Pride March in 1974. The point is to recognize and celebrate that our queer movement, both locally, nationally and globally is, and has always been, made up of the efforts of many.

We are all a part of the fabric that makes up our collective history. This includes every memory weaved together every year during Pride. It includes the way that leather daddies, dykes on bikes and the pansexual community march alongside each other during the parade. It includes the way that our elders and transgender youth coexist at the festival. Pride is made up of all of our efforts, big and small, and although our history is shared, our individual memories at each and every Pride are ours to keep and carry with us.

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Opinion: Knowing the history of San Diego Pride helps us make sense of who we are as a community - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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The NY Giants have seen several players with immense talent come and go over the years. Linebacker is no exception, as this position has arguably seen the most talent during the Giants history.

In the greater aspect of the NFL, likely no other teams historic linebackers compare to that of Big Blue. Especially towards the top of the list.In order to, in our opinion, accurately put into order the top 10 linebackers of all time, there will be multiple different factors that come into consideration.

Something to keep in mind is that the NFL did not officially start tracking tackles until 1994, and sacks until 1982. With this some players have their tackles listed by official sites online, and others dont. However, that doesnt take anything away from the guys on our list. Here are the 10 best linebackers in NY Giants history:

While Brian Kelley, who posted eight sacks and 15 interceptions in 143 games, may be the most forgotten of the famous crunch bunch, he was still a nightmare on the field during his time. Despite not having any tackles recorded on official sites, older NY Giants fans will tell you just how great Kelley was.

After being selected in the 14th round of the 1973 NFL Draft, Kelley would not see the field that much in his first fall, only starting in six games. However, things would only go up hill for the 22 year old. After his sophomore season in the NFL, Kelley would start in every game he played in for the remainder of his career.

Kelley was a part of the legendary crunch bunch linebacker core. This featured some of the other players on this list whom of which we will not spoil.Despite never making a Pro Bowl or winning a Super Bowl, Kelley was a very special talent.

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Ranking the Top 10 linebackers in NY Giants history - GMEN HQ

BLOOMINGTON Most visitors to the McLean County Museum of Historyare there either to experience the architecture of the former courthouse or explore the local history documented within, including the area's ties to Abraham Lincoln.

But once they reach the main floor and begin to look up, another key historic space is visible but not accessible to the general public. The clocktower dome towers above the downtown Bloomington skyline;inside the museum, the rotunda rises over 100 feet in the center of the building and is finished at the top with a painting said to represent peace and prosperity.

The clocktower dome above the McLean County Museum of History formerly the county's courthouse also appears as part of the county symbol.

Museum officials last week agreed to give a tour of the dome interior to Pantagraph journalists as part of a new series, "Off Limits," that seeks to offer a glimpse into places that are typically restricted.

That's not to say that you couldn't get a peek inside the dome yourself. Museum staff offer tours as an incentive for small groups or individuals who have either won a prize in a raffle or raised money for another nonprofit.

Jeff Woodard, director of marketing and community relations, said he'll bring prospective staff members up during the interview process.

A view from inside the dome of the McLean County Museum of History.

Maybe 10 or 20 years from now, when they might even have their own kids, people will look from a distance and see this dome and theyll never look at this building the same again," he said.

Keeping county time

The museum inhabits the former McLean County Courthouse, which was built between 1900 and 1903 after the Great Fire of June 1900. In the 1960s, it was determined that the courthouse was not large enough to support all the courtrooms, government offices and employees based there.

Instead of razing and replacing the building with something newer, the courthouse was preserved, and the Mclean County Historical Society entered an agreement with the county to be a tenant of the building in 1991.

Jeff Woodard, director of marketing and community relations, speaks about the history of the dome that sits atop the McLean County Museum of History. Behind him, the signatures of former staff members and other visitors can be seen on the walls.

Inside the dome itself, names from past workers, local officials and residents line the brick walls holding up the four individual sides of the clocktower. The original "brain" of the clock sits off to the side, while the new digital system moves the hands each minute, Woodard said.

A bell and a clock were both key parts of historical McLean County courthouse buildings. The county's third courthouse the immediate predecessor to the building that now houses the history museum was built in 1868 and in service by 1871, when a bell was added to summon parties to court sessions. A clock was installed in the tower in 1878, and it was decided that the bell would toll every hour and half-hour.

In those days, the county's clock provided an important standard for its residents.

A view of the McLean County Museum of History, looking down from above.

Greg Koos, executive director emeritus at the museum, said the whole notion of having public time can be foreign concept to most, but at the time, county leaders were proud of their ability to provide a precise time to all.

For example, the board of supervisors of McLean County would set their watches to the courthouse clock, and they would bring that back to Saybrook or Arrowsmith or wherever they were from as an official county time, Koos said.

Jeff Woodard, director of marketing and community relations, walks around a narrow way to get to the interior of the dome of the McLean County Museum of History.

Preserving that piece is important to us and I think for the community as part of the overall architecture of the building; then theres a sonic component which is the bell, Koos said. The unique voice of that bell has been part of the sonic environment of downtown Bloomington since 1868.

Records said the original clock in the current history museum building was a Johnson Pneumatic Time System that would release a gallon of water every 60 seconds, creating air pressure that moved the clock hands forward.

In August 1959, lightning struck the dome, stopping the clocks at 3:39 a.m. Starting in the 1970s, the clocks didn't work reliably, and by the 1990s they didn't work at all. New driver motors were installed in 2000.

In the mid-2000s, the museum undertook extensive restoration efforts that saw the dome clad in new copper. In 2005, close to 400 residents gathered in the old courthouse to hear the bell ring for the first time in 50 years, according to museum records.

The rotunda rises over 100 feet in the center of the building and is finished at the top with an allegorical painting representing peace and prosperity.

Today, the bell no longer rings on the hour and half-hour, but can be rung on special occasions.

Koos said he worked in the history museum for 30 years, but never ran out of aspects to marvel at.

Every day there was a new way of looking at what was there, Koos said. I recall walking to work and coming on a foggy day and seeing this beautiful stone building gently unfolding itself in a deep fog. Theres just so many different ways to experience it, and it was an ever-changing opportunity to see something new.

Gathering place

In many ways, the former courthouse still remains at the heart of the county. The silhouette of the dome appears on the official McLean County symbol. A variety of community groups host events inside the building, and demonstrations of all kinds frequently take place in the plaza outside.

This door leads to a closer view of the dome at the McLean County Museum of History.

Museum Executive Director Julie Emig said one of her main goals was to get word out that the museum is not just a place to access stories and history, but a space for the community to use for events, meetings and dialogue.

Whatever the issue, whatever the topic, people come here to gather and we just ask that they give us a heads up, Emig said. I always keep the county (government) in the loop about anything thats happening because they own the building and as long as people are gathered peacefully and all of that, we love hosting for whoever needs a space.

During the month of June, the museum hung Pride flags donated by a community member off the railing of the rotunda. Currently, the Bloomington Public Library is hosting most of its programs there as the library is under construction, Emig said.

As for tours of the clocktower dome, Emig said it is something they offer as an incentive for small groups or individuals who have either won a prize in a raffle or have raised money for another nonprofit but only if the groups or individuals are physically abled to do so.

Jeff Woodard, director of marketing and community relations, speaks about the history of the McLean County Museum of History.

Another goal is to continue to partner with all religious organizations in the community and really amplify holidays that significant to them and use the dome as a centerpiece for rotating displays while providing background information, Emig said. Were really committed to revamping our entrance so its much more of a welcoming place, turning it into a plaza, making the entrance more of a centerpiece and creating more space for people to gather. All of that should really ratchet up what it is we want to communicate about what's underneath the dome.

For Woodard, the memory of first coming to the museum as a volunteer in 2000 is crystallized.

He walked in the front entrance, which was on the east side of the building on Main Street at the time, walked up the stairs to first floor and looked up.

I was just shocked because Im just a big fan of architecture and was hooked on it, but to come up here and actually see this space from the inside and see the mechanical working and all the craftsmanship that goes into it. Thats what it means to me, Woodard said.

And then have the ability to just continue to do that for people, offer that authentic experience and totally engage the public," he said. "This is the center of the county and you cant get any more central than this.

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Off Limits: Explore the dome at the McLean County Museum of History - The Pantagraph

Through far-reaching military conquests and benevolent rule, Cyrus the Great transformed a small group of semi-nomadic tribes into the mighty Persian Empire, the ancient world's first superpower,in less than 15 years.

Cyrus the Great (second from left), on a horse-drawn chariot, as he is driven into the city of Ecbatana

Photo by Science Source/Photo Researchers History/Getty Images

Born around 600 B.C., the founder of the First Persian Empire(also known as the Achaemenid Empire)belonged to the semi-nomadic Pasargadae tribe, which raised sheep, goats and cattle in the southwest of present-day Iran. Little is definitively known about the youth or lineage of Cyrus the Great (also known as Cyrus II) except that he was part of the Achaemenid royal family through either birth or marriage.

Five years after ascending to the throne in 558 B.C. as a vassal king of the Median Empire (which controlled most of present-day Iran), Cyrus united the chiefs of other Persian tribes and led a rebellion against the Median king Astyages. With the aid of the a defecting Median general, Cyrus defeatedAstyages'forces at the Battle of Pasargadae and seized the capital of Ecbatana in 550 B.C.

The once-subjugated Persians had become the conquerors. Rather than seeking vengeance, however, as ruler Cyrus demonstratedclemency and restraint. He bestowed a princely retirement upon Astyages, kept Ecbatana intact as his summer capital and gave Median nobles high positions in his court and army. But his mercy had its limits: He hadAstyages'son-in-law and grandchildren killed because he saw them as threats to his power.

The ascendancy of Cyrus troubled Croesus, the king of Lydia, which occupied the western half of present-day Turkey. As he contemplated an attack on the rising power of now-neighboring Persia, Croesus dispatched a messenger to consult the Greek Oracle at Delphi. If Croesus goes to war, he will destroy a great empire, the medium to the gods was said to have reported.

Buoyed by the divine message, Croesus led a huge army across the Halys River and attacked the Persians in 547 B.C. After an indecisive battle, Cyrus surprised the retreating Lydian forces by following them through the wintertime cold toward the capital of Sardis.

With his Persian forces outnumbered in the decisive Battle of Thymbra, Harpagus, thedefecting Median general,mounted cavalrymen on the armys baggage camels and placed them at the front of the battle line. The stench of the camels so repelled the charging Lydian horses that they bolted from the battlefield.Retreating inside the walls of Sardis, the Lydians eventually surrendered after a Persian siege.

The oracles words to Croesus had proven true. An empire had been destroyedbut it was his.

As with the Medes, Cyrus adopted a conciliatory approach to the Lydians. He kept the treasury at Sardis and brought Croesus into his court. He permitted local cultures, religions and laws to be maintained, which helped him gain the loyalty of his new subjects. Cyrus was able to quickly assimilate or take over the existing administrative structures of the places he conquered, often leaving local elites in place, says John W. I. Lee, a professor of history at University of California, Santa Barbara.

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The Persian kings leniency was hardly absolute, however. When the aristocrats in charge of the Lydian treasury revolted, Cyrus had the rebels executed and their followers enslaved. The general Harpagus followed the conquest of Lydia by brutally laying siege to Greek settlements in Ionia, forcing many to migrate to Italy and abandon entire cities.

There is a lot of myth-making, both ancient and modern, about Cyrus as a benevolent ruler, Lee says. While Cyrus was certainly tolerant of local customs and religions and although he worked with local elites, contemporary documents such as cuneiform tablets show that the Persian Empire, like all empires, was focused on extracting wealth and labor powerincluding through slaveryfrom the people it conquered.

The siege of Babylon by Cyrus the Great

Print by Gilbert. Photo by Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images

As the Persian Empire grew, its military strengthened. Cyrus developed an elite corps of mounted warriors who were skilled at shooting arrows on horseback and deployed war chariots with blades attached to the wheels. His troops seem to have been highly motivated and well trained, and Cyrus himself appears to have been an inspirational leader, Lee says. He seems to have been able to move his armies more rapidly than enemies anticipated, even during winter.

After his army vanquished territories east of Persia, Cyrus set his sights on conquering the last remaining major power in the west of Asiathe Neo-Babylonian Empire.

In 539 B.C., Persian forces invaded the wealthy, fertile empire and routed the Babylonian army to seize the strategic cityof Opison the Tigris River. A week later, the Persian army reached the walls of Babylon, the ancient worlds largest city, and seized it without a fight.

According to the Cyrus Cylinder, a barrel-shaped piece of clay with Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions that was unearthed in 1879, the Persian king triumphantly entered Babylon in peace, amidst joy and jubilation.

Shortly after Babylons fall, Cyrus liberated the Babylonian Jews who had been forced into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar II after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem 50 years earlier. Released from their Babylonian exile, many returned to their spiritual home in Jerusalem.The Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament extols Cyrus as being anointed by God to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor.

With the conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire sprawled from the Aegean Sea in the west to the Indus River in the east.Cyrus had created one of thelargest empiresthe ancient worldhad ever seen and was able to boast (per the Cyrus Cylinder): I am Cyrus, king of the universe.

Little is known about the death of Cyrus, which occurred around 529 B.C. By some accounts, he died of a battlefield wound during a military campaign on the empires eastern frontier. His body was returned to Pasargadae, placed in a gold sarcophagus and laid to rest in an immense stone tomb oriented toward the rising sun.

Cyrus was succeeded by his son, Cambyses II, who continued to spread the boundaries of the empire by conquering another ancient civilization in Egypt. The Persian Empire remained prosperous and stable for two centuries until it fell in 330 B.C. to the armies of Alexander the Great.

WATCH: Engineering an Empire on HISTORY Vault

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How Cyrus the Great Turned Ancient Persia Into a Superpower - History

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, June 20th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. Im Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And Im Mary Reichard. This month marks the 100th anniversary of a promotional radio broadcast that launched the first Christian radio ministry. Heres Paul Butler with this weeks WORLD History Book.

SOUND: TELEGRAPH MORSE CODE

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Wireless telegraphy had been around since before World War I. But radio broadcasting as we know it today began in 1920 with radio station KDKA.

SOUND: KDKA ELECTION RESULTS REENACTMENT

All over the country,hobbyists bought radio sets and began tuning in to the broadcast stations popping up across the country. But many in the church werent so sure.

JAMES SNYDER: The church did not trust radio.

James Snyder is a biographer and pastor:

JAMES SNYDER: You know, Satan is the prince and power of the air, radio goes through airwaves. So radio is the devil's instrument.

Another concern for Christians at the time continues to this day

MARK WARD: Well, this is something that there's so much secular entertainment on it

Mark Ward, Sr. is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Houston-Victoria.

MARK WARD: and we don't want to participate in a medium that is so secularized and worldly.

But in June 1922, a well-known Chicago minister named Paul Rader was preparing for an evangelistic tent meeting.

MARK WARD: Being the promoter par excellence that he was, he was looking for any opportunity to be able to promote the work. And..he was invited by the mayor of Chicagoto come and broadcast from a radio station that the mayor was sponsoring.

So on June 17th, 1922, Paul Rader arrives atChicago City hall with his brass quartet in tow. They mount the stairs and head to the roof. The studio is little more than a lean-to filled with wires and tubesand a microphone made from an old telephone receiver.

MARK WARD: The clock ticked down, it was time for the broadcast. And the brass quartet was in this little pinboard studio on the roof of Chicago City Hall. And the engineer shoves the phone through and says play.

MUSIC FROM THE QUARTET

After the quartet finishes, Paul Rader grabs the mic and begins to speak. Tom McElroy reenacted the moment for the 2003 documentary Save Them: The Life of Paul Rader.

TOM MCELROY/PAUL RADER: One hundred thousand sinners within the sound of my voice today must be saved. The world is drifting. Crime rules and the temporal officials are blamed when religion and religion onlynon-sectarian, un-quibbling, undogmatic religion will bring the peace you pray for.

A photographer from The Chicago Daily News snaps a photo of the moment and runs it over to the paper for the evening publication. Rader and the team joke that all of Chicago must have heard them not because of the broadcast, but for how loudly they were instructed tospeak and play in order for the equipment to pick them up. Historian Larry Eskridge:

LARRY ESKRIDGE: And Rader was rather surprised when all this happened, the response from people in the Chicago area. It really stunned him that this obscure little gadget could reach that many people.

Raders 1922 tent meeting was so successful that it soon became a permanent, active evangelistic center on Chicagos near North side: The Chicago Gospel Tabernacle.

Over the next few years Rader made guest appearances on various Chicago radio stations. When he discovered that the mayors station didnt broadcast on Sundays he offered to buy the whole day. Soon they built a studio in the tabernacle and began broadcasting 14 hours each weekend.

LARRY ESKRIDGE: They came up with programs for young boys called the Radio Rangers, they came up with a program for young girls, the Aerial Girls, and he also came up with a program called the Sunshine Hour, which was targeted sort of for shut ins and the bedridden folks and it intersperse snippets of poetry with comforting Bible passages and hymns played by one of the keyboardist on the tabernacles mighty Wurlitzer.

A few years later Rader and his broadcast team even had a network, daily morning program that aired on CBS:

AUDIO: Good morning Breakfast Brigade! Paul Raders Revielle Hour greets the host of early morning risers throughout America and Canada once again with refreshing music and message...

LARRY ESKRIDGE: What Rader seem to be bring to the table for radio was it he had the gift to be able to speak conversationally, and in an intimate fashion to folks that really made him seem like a friend.

RADER: Now will you sing around the table this morning?Many of you listening in bed...

LARRY ESKRIDGE:And he sort of envisioned, you may be sitting across the table from him, maybe you've got your Bibles open or just sharing a cup of coffee, and he's talking to you one on one as a friend or a neighbor.

Paul Raders broadcast ministry coincided with the great depression.

Farmers had crops that they couldnt sell and people across the region were suffering. So Rader transformed his tabernacle once againthis timeinto a major food distribution centercanning beans, cabbage, and any other produce he could get ahold of. Radio got the word out.

But as the recession dragged on, Raders broadcast initiatives were eventually unsustainable and he had to shut them down. He died just a few year later in 1938but not before transforming how Christians saw the media. Once again, biographer and pastor James Snyder:

JAMES SNYDER: There should be a connection between the broadcast and the listeners. So his idea of radio was it's another way to connect with peopleAnd so in that sense, I believe that that Paul Rader really invented Christian radio and really set the standard of what Christian Broadcasting ought to be about.

Thats this weeks WORLD History Book. Im Paul Butler.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.

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History Book - An evangelist takes to the airwaves - WORLD News Group

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In 2010, historian Julian E. Zelizer edited an anthology of historical essays assessing the two terms ofGeorge W. Bush, who at that point had been out of office for a little more than a year. The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment was split into a dozen chapters, each written by a different historian and focused on a specific aspect of the Bush years: Iraq, the financial crisis, culture wars, and more. After Barack Obama left office, Zelizer edited another volume again billing it as a first draft of history. For as long as the series has been around, Zelizer and his contributors have used the 21st-century presidency as a window into the social and political upheavals of the mid-to-late-20th century. The collapse of the New Deal coalition and the aftershocks of the Reagan Revolution are consistent themes.

This time, theres an interesting wrinkle. Historians arent dealing with a discrete eight-year period with Donald Trump (as they were with Bush and Obama) but with an as yet unsettled bubble. Are we still in the Trump era? Maybe. No one knows whatll happen in 2024 whether were living through the intermission of a presidency that could stretch until 2029. The main concern underpinning the Trump edition, then, is the utility of writing such a contemporary history. Far from being a liability, contemporary historians argue, an understanding of the passions of a time can endow a writer with a set of questions inaccessible to posterity. Besides, any history of Trump will reflect and sublimate the anxieties of the time in which its written.

The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment includes 19 essays ranging from Trumps China policy to white supremacy, impeachment, and the pandemic. Among the standouts are Michael Kazins essay on the Democratic Party, Nicole Hemmer on the Trumpification of conservative media, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on Black Lives Matter and movement politics.

To justify the mission of his series, Zelizer cites a famous essay by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. The increase in the velocity of history means, among other things, that the present becomes the past more swiftly than ever before, Schlesinger wrote in a 1967 article for The Atlantic, reflecting on the proliferation of books on the Kennedy years. Unlike with retrospectives on Bush and Obama, Zelizer argues that its urgent for historians to fight Trumps duplicity with their research. Its hard to disagree even if their work might not reach a Trumpian readership. The alternative is to write nothing, to kick back and watch as Trump starts campaigning next year. If he runs again, the periodization might change, but for now, it makes sense to view his 2016 presidential campaign and single term as a unit. In keeping with Zelizers previous editions, this collection extends Trumps story, tracing antecedents such as Bush-era anti-American sentiment, 1990s nativism, Nixons dtente with China, and the social movements of the 1960s. The endgame isnt to arrive at anything so facile as Trumps legacy, Zelizer says, but to figure out how best to tell the story, to talk it over with each other, to start doing the never-ending work of historiography.

Trump, ready to burnish his achievements and potentially position himself for another run, met with the books contributors on Zoom last summer. Calling in from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, he ticked off a list of hobby horses: NATO, NAFTA, the plague or whatever you want to call it, the USS Gerald R. Ford. Then he took questions about his ideology, his relationship with the FBI, and on and on. After the meeting, Trump sent a thank-you note, but the predictable kicker, of course, came at a press conference days later, when he said people writing books about him are often bad people who write whatever comes to their mind or fits their agenda. It has nothing to do with facts or reality.

Most historians in this collection simultaneously understand Trump to be a product of the era, not the cause but someone who had the capacity to break with our politics in fundamental ways, Zelizer writes. In this book, Trump is neither a gilded autocrat nor an inept clown, but he still emerges as a transformational politician. As Nicole Hemmer persuasively notes in her essay, Remade in His Image: How Trump Transformed Right-Wing Media, the schism between the MAGA and Never Trump camps was both an affective mutation and a culmination. Hemmer cites Fox anchor Laura Ingrahams book Billionaires at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Reagan to Trump, in which Trumps win is portrayed as the fulfillment of the Reagan Revolution. Shared iconography and showmanship represented both a callback to a Republican tradition and a break from the past.

Elsewhere, Zelizer interrogates the assumption that such a thing as a Trumpian GOP even exists. He takes a more complicated tack in suggesting that Trump departed from norms while pursuing many of the partys long-term political objectives: the disassembly of the welfare state, deregulation, and tax cuts for the rich. Which is why it should come as no surprise that operatives like Mitch McConnell have never really abandoned Trump and will fill in the bubble beside his name should he win the nomination again.

Michael Kazins essay about the Democratic Party and the rise of its progressive faction is a welcome addition. He argues that the party apparatuss resistance was ineffectual and that Democrats have been most competitive when they articulated a broadly egalitarian economic vision in the 20th century before Bill Clintons Third Way pivot. While Kazin nods to the reformist corners of the post-2016 party, I wish contributors would have lingered more on the extra-partisan elements of the Trump years that is, activists oppositional posture toward both major political parties. United in their hatred of a system personified by a figure with a once-in-a-lifetime ick factor, many feminist, Black, anti-finance, climate, and other activists became socialists en masse. Of course, they largely remained locked out of power. Though many workers embedded themselves in the institutional Democratic Party, their influence is more far-reaching than electoral politics. The mainstreaming of mutual aid during the pandemic is one example. For young people, socialism made legible an ethos of care something like Martin Luther King Jr.s network of mutuality, within which whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. These Trump-era political awakenings have spurred unionization drives everywhere from tony Manhattan media companies to Amazon warehouses and Starbucks franchises. The word socialism doesnt appear in the book very often (except to modify Bernie Sanders). Recounting the Democratic Partys post-2016 conflicts, Kazin writes that the party faced an identity crisis: If left unresolved, the argument made it more difficult to express in vivid terms what Democrats actually stood for and how they planned to implement that vision. For socialists in the Trump years, this was exactly the snag: the moderate old guard was visionless and stood for nothing in particular.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor contributes the most useful essay about social movements, linking the uprisings following George Floyds murder in 2020 to the political and business elites abuse of workers particularly since the collapse of the New Deal coalition. These were new protests largely rising out of the catastrophic consequences of nearly five decades of denying the materiality of racial discrimination through the steady erosion of the infrastructure to oversee the implementation of civil rights legislation and the undoing of the social welfare state, she writes. Its a necessary corrective to the corporate co-optation of anti-racist language, which obscures the fact that fights against racial inequality are fights against social inequality. With American billionaires profiting $2 trillion since the start of the pandemic, it could be said that one of Trumps final acts in office was an unconscionable wealth transfer that, regardless of whether hes elected again, well have to work aggressively to solve.

If theres a through-line in Zelizers series, its that the past is always in flux and will look different depending on what a writer chooses to foreground. Trump, with potential ambitions for seeking a second term, seemed eager to influence how historians saw the past, Zelizer writes. Even if Trump doesnt run for president in 2024, he and others will keep trying to confect their little mythologies, and someone will need to counter them with evidence. And even if this feels like fruitless work, easily discarded by propagandists or quickly rendered quaint by the increase in the velocity of history, as Schlesinger wrote, its still always essential.

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How Do You Write a History of the Trump Era While We're Still in It? - New York Magazine

Since opening in 2017, Kalima DeSuzes Crown Heights bookstore and coffee shop Cafe con Libros has become a beloved haven for readersin particular Black and Afro-Latinx womenlooking for a space to dive into the very best that intersectional feminist literature has to offer. And thanks to her background working to combat racism and gender-based violence for nearly 20 years, there are few people better equipped than DeSuze to offer a reading list that spans both the checkered history and the irrepressible joy of Juneteenth.

For DeSuze, its this balance between knowledge of the past and hope for the future that guides both her daily work at the bookstore and the books she selected as essential reading for the holiday. Of course, theyre all written by, for, and about Black women, and told through different kinds of stories, whether fiction or non-fiction, DeSuze explains. But I wanted to think about the actual meaning of Juneteenth, from the history around it to the ways in which Black folks and in particular Black women have moved through it, through culture, through activism, through our hair, even, which can be a point of both resistance and joy.

And as for DeSuzes own Juneteenth celebrations this weekend? On Sunday, Im actually going to relax and my staff are off to do whatever they want to do, says DeSuze. My way of celebrating is just by relaxing, really, as I dont always have the opportunity to slow down. I think with these big holidays that celebrate Black joy, it often feels like theres an expectation that we always have to be doing something. But sometimes, especially for Black women, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to allow for a sense of comfort and relaxation and restoration. So Im going to offer myself that to the best of my ability this weekend.

Here, find DeSuzes picks for the best books to read this Juneteenthand beyondspanning everything from political histories to cookbooks.

This book has all the facts, but there are also so many personal stories interwoven into that history. Sometimes you read something and it feels completely cerebral, or like an exercise. But hearing all these personal stories in this book, it becomes an exercise of the heart and soul. I think thats why this book feels so important to meits all the intimate details that are included in that broader history.

We Are Here: Visionaries of Color Transforming the Art World

This is a beautiful art book by Jasmine Hernandez about Black and brown trans and gender non-conforming creatives. I think everybody has their different ways of defining Juneteenth, but a huge thing for me is that its about freedom and its about liberation. Its about being able to come into your own autonomy and define your own life, and I think that this book allows for that. Its an artistic display of the ways in which Black and brown people, and especially young people, are coming into their own and commanding and demanding their future.

This is my always book, and I include it on pretty much every reading list I do. Its about the ethics we need to liveotherwise, wed just be consumed. Based on what we just went through with the shooting in Buffalo, and then in Uvalde, you get consumed and overwhelmed by the question of: What is going to take to make change happen? All About Love always keeps me on course and keeps me focused.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

This really needs to be basic, required reading. These are stories written by some of the top writers and thinkers of our generation about the transatlantic slave trade, from 1619 all the way up, to a point where people can really understand that this is the pretext for Juneteenth. This is the origin of those celebrations, and you have to understand that in order to understand why it's so important.

Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter

Veronica Chambers is an extremely talented Black writer and journalist at the New York Times, and here, she chronicles the history of the Black Lives Matter movement through photographs and conversations. This is an opportunity for people to engage with the Black Lives Matter movement from a different perspective, and to really sit with these stories. It reinforces why Juneteenth is so important by illustrating that were still fighting for freedomfreedom from police violence, state-sanctioned violence, healthcare, childcare, the most basic stuff. Its another way of celebrating the folks who are fighting to move that pain into power.

Its a book about love, activism, and empowerment, but its also about the ways in which Laetitia Ky uses hair as a place of political activism and pushback. I think that thats very powerful, because historically, a lot of energyboth negative and positive, but mostly negativefor Black women has been wrapped up in our hair. We just had to pass a law [the CROWN act, first passed in California in 2019, was recently passed in the House] that says we cant be discriminated against for wearing our natural hair, which is crazy. How are we still having that conversation? So its a celebration and also a display of resistance about what we as Black women choose to do with our hair, whether its considered acceptable or not.

Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo

Zora Neale has an incredible history, and this was one of the last pieces of her work, where shes talking about slavery and shes talking about the South with all of these very interesting anthropological stories. I thought this would be great to include because she has such a command over folklore, and this very mythical, magical way of talking about Black life, especially in the vernacular that they used back then. It adds a different layer and a texture to the way we understand these stories.

Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island

I really wanted to add a cookbook, because there is so much history and politics in Black food, and I feel like when we do these kinds of reading lists, we dont always acknowledge that, even when it feels so important. If you look at the history of Southern Black cuisine, it is rooted in the history of slavery. But more than that, its about celebrating the Gullah Geechee culture, because they are all people of African descent who have maintained their language, their culture, their art, and their way of life, right there on those islands. Its representative of that spirit of resistance and persistence that underpins Juneteenth.

Daughters of the Dust: A Novel

In my humble opinion, Julie Dash has never got the respect that she deserves. Again, this is set on the Geechee islands about this family of women who are beautiful mystics, and the ways in which they try to survive and keep their family alive on that island is the most beautiful story. It followed the film she made that is equally beautiful, but it tells a very specific story to the island and to the history of those people from a Black female perspective.

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race

This is a response to James Baldwins The Fire Next Time written by a new generation of thought producers on race and racism in the United States of America. There are gendered aspects of it, too, because its also about the ways in which intersectional identities have very different experiences. Baldwins The Fire Next Time is a book that I think everybody should readeven to this day, it still astounds to mebut then to have a new generation talk about it and engage with it all over again, it chronicles how far weve come, how much further we have to go, and how the fight looks different now. I dont think its just a response to The Fire Next Time, I think its in dialogue with Baldwin. Theres no disagreement therethey are truly, genuinely in dialogue.

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Kalima DeSuzes Juneteenth Reading List Is About Both History and Hope - Vogue

KINDERHOOK The Persons of Color Cemetery serves as a silent reminder of this Columbia County towns past, and the hard-working, lesser-known non-white population that helped shape it. Formerly known by residents as a slaves cemetery, the remains of an estimated 500 African Americans, enslaved and freed persons alike, were laid to rest on a quarter-acre of land in the village during the mid-1800s.

For years this burial ground laid fallow and forgotten in an overgrown section of Rothermel Park. Its weathered headstones, hidden by tall grass and weeds, were visited occasionally by children chasing a stray ball that escaped the adjacent baseball field. It was rediscovered only a few years ago, thanks to the stalwart research efforts of former Kinderhook historian Ruth Piwonka, who led to an investigation into the history of the cemetery and its acceptance to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Ruth Piwonka was my mentor, said Kate Johnson, appointed village historian last fall after Piwonkas passing. The Persons of Color Cemetery is an important community touchstone. I relate to it emotionally and intellectually as a historian and someone who grew up here. This is a very important piece of our community history.

Before it was a cemetery, this small parcel of land belonged to Irish immigrant John Rogers, who set aside a quarter-acre of his own land as a cemetery for the people of colour In November 1815. The first U.S. census of 1790 recorded 4,661 persons in the township of Kinderhook, 730 Heads of Families and a total of 638 slaves.

The interpretive sign at the cemetery reads: By about 1875 the cemetery was filled; more than 500 persons are estimated to be interred here. It was closed that year, with coffin upon coffin as stated by Edward A. Collier in his 1914 book, A History of Old Kinderhook. This estimate of 500 internments in a quarter-acre plot (which is 10,980 square feet) allows for 21 square feet per burial (about 3 feet wide by 7 feet long), with children having smaller plots.

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At Saturdays Juneteenth Celebration in Rothermel Park, Elena Mosley, founder and director of operations and Unite Education and Cultural Arts Center, along with members of the Kuumba Dance and Drum Academy in Hudson, encouraged onlookers to join the drum circle and later proceed across the field to lay a wreath at the cemetery with Reverend Kim Singletary, the first woman to Pastor the Payne AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church in Chatham.

At Saturdays Juneteenth Celebration in Rothermel Park, Elena Mosley, founder and director of operations and Unite Education and Cultural Arts Center, along with members of the Kuumba Dance and Drum Academy in Hudson, encouraged onlookers to join the drum circle and later proceed across the field to lay a wreath at the cemetery with Reverend Kim Singletary, the first woman to Pastor the Payne AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church in Chatham.

The interpretive sign at the Persons of Color Cemetery.

The Persons of Color Cemetery was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Archaeologists from the New York State Museum conducted a ground-penetrating radar survey at the burial ground in November 2017. Preliminary findings seemed to echo Collier's earlier comment, showing a large number of interments, many clustered together, burial on top of burial. The findings are still being calculated.

Before the cemetery was rededicated in May 2017, an archaeological dig to place the interpretive sign at the site exposed a small bone fragment. Found at a depth of only 20 centimeters, it appeared to be a rib, likely that of a small child. The excavation was halted, the bone was left in place, and a more appropriate location was found for the signposts.

The largest gravestone is crafted with a low relief carving in the form of a tulip. Inscribed are the words: The journey of the just is blessed; a tribute of respect erected by the ladies of Kinderhook. This tribute was bestowed upon Isabel Legget, who died in 1854 at the age of 77. The reason for the tribute remains a mystery.

Of the existing gravestones, three belong to adults. Eight stones etched with poetic remembrances mark the deaths of children. What caused their deaths is unknown.

Of the existing gravestones, three belong to adults. Eight stones etched with poetic remembrances mark the deaths of children. What caused their deaths is still unknown.

The largest gravestone is crafted with a low relief carving in the form of a tulip. Inscribed are the words: The journey of the just is blessed; a tribute of respect erected by the ladies of Kinderhook. This tribute was bestowed upon Isabel Legget who died in 1854 at the age of 77. The reason for the tribute remains a mystery.

Forced illiteracy among enslaved persons and a lack of written documents account for why most of the regions Black history from that time period is missing.

Johnson said the cemeterys current location, once part of Rogers backyard and now the village park, is meaningful, in that its part of the everyday lives of people who live in Kinderhook and those who come, even to do something as commonplace as play baseball. Its where people can see it and reflect upon it.

A documentary on the cemetery, Brought to Light: Unearthing the History of an African-American Cemetery in Kinderhook, NY, is available on DVD and Blu-ray. The Persons of Color Cemetery is a historic point of interest on the villages walking and bicycling tour.

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Black history remembered at Kinderhook Persons of Color Cemetery - Times Union

Last year, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth the newest federal holiday. The day, June 19, marks the date in 1865 when the last enslaved people in America were finally freed.

Renowned Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. told CBS News that marking the day as a holiday was a long time coming.

"Juneteenth was not embraced as a national Black holiday for a long, long time," Gates said. "But it was kept alive by Black people in Texas. And that's what's so sweet about it. Our people have been hungry for holidays. Hungry for traditions. Hungry for stories about Black history."

By day, Gates is a professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. By night, he's the host and producer of the PBS genealogy show "Finding Your Roots," along with countless documentaries on Black history.

He broke down the three biggest historical moments in freeing those who were enslaved:

"The Emancipation Proclamation, signed on January 1, 1863, Juneteenth, June 19, 1865, and then finally, the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865 which is what finally and ultimately abolished the institution of slavery," Gates said.

When asked why the name Juneteenth caught on, he explained, "One of the reasons that I think Juneteenth stuck is that we're all charmed by the poetic brilliance of the name, 'Juneteenth.' What better name for June 19 could there possibly be? It's great, it's fetching, you know? It's catchy."

Gates said there is also a bit of fiction around that day in 1865, when, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Gordon Granger issued general order no. 3 to free the enslaved Black people of Galveston, Texas.

"Well, we were raised to think that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, right? The problem is that the Emancipation Proclamation, in and of itself, didn't have the power to free anybody," he said. "It only applied to enslaved people in the Confederacy, and it can only be enforced if Union troops had captured territory in the South, in the Confederacy."

Gates said it's believed only 500,000 out of 3.9 million enslaved men and women were freed due to the Emancipation Proclamation. He explained that the Civil War didn't end when Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865 which is why it took longer to get word out.

"So Texas finally surrenders to the Union on June 2. Gordon Granger comes, and on June 19 in Galveston, he issues the Emancipation Proclamation. Because now, the Union Army is in possession of the territory. So that's the true story," Gates said.

He detailed why many historians believe that enslaved people in Texas knew about the Emancipation Proclamation before it had been issued there.

"One is because of the proverbial 'grapevine.' So there was this miraculous way for enslaved people to communicate plantation to plantation and state to state," Gates said. "But the second factor is that because Texas was removed from the main action of the Civil War, many slaveholders moved to Texas for safety. And they took their enslaved people with them."

Gates also stressed the significance of the era that came after Juneteenth, which saw the ratification of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and Reconstruction Acts.

"This was the first concentration of Black power," Gates said. "In the summer of 1867, 80% of all eligible Black men, who were formerly enslaved in the South, registered to vote. And in 1868, they actually voted. Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency, so you could reasonably say that Black men had elected a president of the United States."

Back in Galveston, the formerly enslaved began marking their freedom with a celebration in 1866. Gates told CBS News that, as far as he's concerned, the details of Juneteenth are less important than the power of its message.

"Juneteenth is one of the first holidays that Black people created on their own. And of the holidays that they created in slavery times, Juneteenth is the one that survived and is now a national holiday," he said. "For a country built upon the love of freedom, any manifestation of the enjoyment of freedom should be celebrated by all our country. Let's hope for that day."

This story was produced by the CBS News Race and Culture Unit.

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"Hungry for stories about Black history": Henry Louis Gates Jr. breaks down the significance and history of Juneteenth - CBS News