September 25, 1957: Little Rock Central High School is integrated.
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in the monumental case Brown v. Board of Education that separate but equal facilities are “inherently unequal”, setting down the legal foundation for the end of de jure segregation. The actual integration of schools, however, would not be achieved by a simple court ruling.
Three years after the Brown v. Board decision, nine black students (a group known as the Little Rock Nine) attempted to enroll in Central High after the Little Rock School District completed its plan for the integration of its schools. Although the school board of Little Rock agreed to comply with the decisions of the federal courts, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, reportedly a moderate who adopted a more hardline position to win the support of staunch segregationists, ordered the state National Guard to block the students from entering the high school; they were accompanied by crowds of protesters, who jeered the students as they attempted to attend school. Elizabeth Eckford (pictured in the bottom photograph in one of many iconic images of the Civil Rights movement), who was fifteen at the time, describes a moment as she walked through the chaos:
I tried to see a friendly face somewhere in the crowd—someone who maybe could help. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again, she spat on me.
Grace Lorch, a white teacher who attempted to protect Eckford from the crowd, later faced bomb threats and harassment because of her actions. Lorch was one of the two white individuals who attempted to help Eckford, the other being Benjamin Fine, a reporter for The New York Times.
Governor Faubus, when asked about the conflict between the state and Federal authorities, replied that he was not defying Federal court orders but merely “carrying out [his] obligation to preserve the peace”. The school remained blocked by troops until the mayor of Little Rock requested assistance from President Eisenhower, who placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and sent Army troops to escort the students to school (Executive Order 10730). On September 25, the Little Rock Nine were admitted to the high school. But even after their admittance, they faced a constant stream of verbal and even physical abuse - one girl had acid thrown in her face; another was expelled after fighting back against her abusers.
Juxtaposing Vietnam’s incredible past and present.
Vietnamese photographer Khánh Hmoong combines visuals from two eras within one frame. By holding a superimposed photograph from the past over his chosen landscape, Hmoong merges two periods of time, juxtaposing their similarities and differences. Each photograph is meticulously aligned within its original destination, exposing the changes that have occurred in the area. The effects of time are visible through the environment’s shift in architecture, the people’s fashion choices, and the transformation in transportation - whether it be a modernization from horses to vehicles or simply from dated automotive models to modern design.
Regardless of location, comparing the past and present through images is always a fascinating look at history and change. Hmoong’s series reveals so much about the history of Vietnam without words and actually makes the viewer want to learn more.
Via My Modern Met.
Rare Photographs of Chinese Women from the 1800sThe captions for these photographs are cringe-worthy. Even the title is cringe-worthy. “Rare” is a word that art auction houses use to ascribe monetary worth to objects.
Hardly any information is given on the photographer (John Thomson) and context is erased in favor of insipid observations, like this:
In this photograph from 1868, the bound feet of a Chinese woman are juxtaposed with a normal, unbound foot. The difference is incredible. The tiny shoe propped up against the wall looks like it was made for a small child, not a full-grown woman. Westerners in China, not least missionaries, criticized the custom. However, in response to such censure from one doctor, a correspondent living in Hangchow wrote, “I think the charge of this custom taking away ‘much from the enjoyment of life’ is somewhat overdrawn. Here in Hangchow the majority of women are small-footed, and certainly do not appear to be so wretchedly situated as the Dr. [Kerr] makes them to be.”
Footbinding, by the way, is not a practice that should be attributed to all Chinese women. The Manchu ruling class explicitly forbade footbinding amongst Manchu women, as it significantly inhibited their equestrian lifestyle. Instead, to imitate the “swaying” walking movement from having “lotus” (not lily) feet, Manchu women wore shoes like these.
While it’s true that the life of Chinese women has been characterized by interiority, it’s hardly opaque, as this website seems to think (“Without a time machine, all we can really do is look at mementos of the era, like these photographs, and wonder at what was.”). Ha ha, no. Just because information cannot be found immediately by googling it or searching for it on Wikipedia, does not mean that no information exists. It’s called looking at historical sources and academic scholarship.
FYI if the picture is a postcard, it’s hardly “rare.” Rather, it would have been one of many constructed images of the East that would have been purchased by tourists and disseminated in the West as authentic pictures from the Orient.
Last but not least, these photographs are not “from the 1800s.” They are all from the late 1800s, the late Qing period, when the empire was in decline and Western powers at the height of their colonial ambitions. The circumstances that some of these photographs were taken in were not candid and innocent.
If the lives of women during the Qing period in China are of actual interest to you (beyond a grotesque surface-level fascination with footbinding), Dorothy Ko’s recent book on footbinding, Charlotte Furth’s career-long investigation of gender and body in China are good places to start. James Cahill’s recent book on depictions of women in vernacular painting in the High Qing period will also be quite informative. Finally, the Bixia Yuanjun cult (Our Lady of Mount Tai) will also provide perspective on female agency and power during the Ming to Qing period.
Of course, there is plenty more information out there, and you’ll be able to find all that (and more) in the bibliographies of any academic book on the subject (by this, I mean a book that is published through a university press). They will all almost certainly reference a significant portion of previous scholarship on the subject. While scholarship on the late 19th-early 20th century period of Chinese history is not nearly as saturated as it could be (due to the general chaotic nature of the period), a lot of great research is being done on the subject now. Just look at all these dissertations!
Do not engage in meaningless speculation under the guise of genuine interest. It is intellectually lazy, and actually, just reflects how uninterested you are in the subject. And stop with the Oppressed Other Women rhetoric, it’s embarrassing.
Assyrian star planisphere found in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (reigned 668-627 BCE) at Nineveh.
The function of this unique 13-cm diameter clay tablet, in which the principal constellations are positioned in eight sectors, is disputed but the texts and drawings appear to be astro-magical in nature.
Currently located at the British Museum, London.
There are few things in the world more depressing than the knowledge that a 65 year-old Somali gynecologist has bigger balls than you could ever hope to achieve even if you gave yourself steroid collagen injections to the scrotum every night and set up an induction port that allowed you to inflate them with an air pump like a basketball or those high-top sneakers from the early 90s.
Meet Hawa Abdi. A woman who has never raised her fist in anger against another human being, but also one who could perform three C-sections on dirt-poor women, wash her hands, then go straight outside, stare down an army of gun-toting hardcore fanatical Somali militiamen, and with four words send them running for their lives on a light-speed rainbow of shame and self-loathing without even blinking. A woman once appropriately described once as “one part Mother Teresa, one part Rambo.”
Somebody make a movie about this woman.
Oh my Frick. DUDE. oAo Movie, yes. I would watch that.
Guys - please click here to donate to the Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation. I just did!
she better win that fucking Nobel twice over
bad. ass.
INSPIRATIONAL
A 2500 year old mummy that had some amazing tattoos.
WHAT.
NO FUCKING WAY.
ah
World Battleground, 1000 years of war in 5 minutes
This animation shows all important battles that took place over the last ten centuries. The sizes of the explosions and labels are proportional to the number of casualties. The music is “Ride Of The Valkyries” by Richard Wagner. The data comes from the wikipedia article, List of Battles.
Most of the activity seems to happen in Europe, this is because the english wikipedia was used.Holy shit Europe
Holy crap world war 1 & 2
damn europe calm your shit
Fun in the Sun, 1920s (via Una Bella Vita)
Last Words
Ted Bundy - “I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends.”
Serial Killer Ted Bundy confessed to killing 30 women between 1974 and 1979 in Washington, Colorado, Florida and Utah. His total number of victims is unknown and is estimated to run over 100.
Aileen Wuornos - “I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back like Independence Day, with Jesus June 6. Like the movie, big mother ship and all, I’ll be back.”
In 1989 and 1990, Wuornos robbed, shot and killed at least 6 men.
John Wayne Gacy - “Kiss my ass.”
John Wayne Gacy was convicted of the rape and murder of 33 men between 1972 and 1978. He was known as the Killer Clown.
James French - “Hey fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrow’s paper? ‘French fries’!”
French murdered is cellmate in order to be executed instead of serving a life sentence.
Carl Panzram - “Hurry up, you Hoosier bastard, I could kill ten men while you’re fooling around!”
Panzram confessed to killing 22 people and having sodomized over 1,000 males.
Jeffrey Dahmer - “I don’t care if I live or die. Go ahead and kill me.”
Dahmer murdered 17 males between 1978 and 1991. His murders included rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism.
Peter Kurten - “Tell me, after my head has been chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck? That would be a pleasure to end all pleasures.”
Kurten was convicted of killing 9 people but his estimated number of victims could be over 60.
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. This is fascinating…especially the last one
Warrior’s surcoat (jinbaori)
19th century, Edo period, Japan
Brushed wool, silk brocade, silk with silver-leaf paper supplementary weft patterning, silk chirimen, silk cord, stencil-dyed leather, and gilded leather
The jewish barber’s speech from The Great Dictator (1940). A poor jewish barber looks just like the bad dictator and is mistaken for him. He uses his chance to deliver a speech to the people disguised as the Dictator. A speech of love and kindness.
Chaplin managed to create one of the most beautiful and epic speeches of all time in the end scene of The Great Dictator. This was also Chaplin’s first true talking picture and his best grossing film ever. This film and speech has also great significance because it was delivered just before the WW2 broke loose.
Stairs in medieval fortifications were constructed to contain trick or stumble steps. These were steps that had different rise height or thread depth from the rest and would cause anyone running up the stairs to stumble or fall, so slowing down the attackers’ progress.
also: they were usually small enough that only one person could go up at a time and it gave right-handed people an advantage while fighting off any attackers with a sword.
