13 Olympic Controversies through the Years

When you begin to look into the number of Olympic controversies it’s a little surprising how many exist considering the purpose of the Olympic Games happens to be  goodwill, peace and reconciliation.

One of the most recent controversies caught my eye a few days ago….a controversy involving one of the most tragic events that have ever occurred during the Olympics…..the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes during the  Munich Games in 1972.  

Since that time the families of the slain athletes have tried in vain to get the International Olympic Committee to recognize the athletes who were killed during the opening ceremonies.
 

This year….the London Games……were no different.   This article from Sports Illustrated gives a little background and discusses the fight the families continue to lay at the feet of the International Olympic Committee.

Since the Sydney Games in 2000, Israel has organized a commemorative event , but the families think the International Olympic Committee should organize the event.

I see their point.  

One of the wives is quoted as saying, “They were killed on Olympic soil and the appropriate place to recognize them would be the Opening Ceremony.”

A ceremony held by the current International Olympic Committee was authorized by IOC President Count Jacues Rogge in the athlete’s village on the Monday before the opening ceremony…but the event was too low key and did not satisfy the families.

It would seem the Israeli controversy will continue until the families are satisfied.

I can’t say that I blame them.

Here are some other controversies through the years…..

2.  In 1908 the issue for the Olympics involved a flag flap.   The Grand Duchy of Finland had become independent from the Russian Empire, but was not allowed to fly the Finnish flag.  Also, Ireland participated in the games in the areas of field hockey and polo, but was not allowed to fly their own flag. 

3. American athlete Jim Thorpe was at the center of one of the controversies during the 1912 Olympics.    Once it was learned he had played professional minor league baseball he was stripped of his gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon.   As a show of solidarity the silver medalist in the decathlon, Hugo Wieslander, refused his medals when they were offered to him.   Thorpe’s medals were finally restored to his children in 1983.

4. The controversy in 1920 involved the place selected to hold the games.   Budapest had initially been chosen but due to the fact the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been a German ally in World War I, the International Olympic Committee transferred the games to Antwerp.   I wonder if the fact the IOC that year was heavily dominated by the French had anything to do with it.   Hmmm….

5. Making clicking noises to a horse was one of the controversies de jour in 1932.   Swedish equestrian Bertil Sandstrom won the silver in equestrian dressage, but was demoted because he had “clicked” encouragement to his horse.     Sandstrom argued unsuccessfully that his saddle made the noises.

6. The entire 1936 games held in Berlin could be deemed controversial since they were held in Berlin and are considered “Hitler’s Games”, however, one of the highlights included the French and Canadian Olympians and their salute during the opening ceremony.   It appeared to some they were giving the Nazi salute, but in actuality they were performing the Olympic salute, which is similar.  Both salutes are based on the Roman salute.

7. The 1948 Summer Olympics following World War II provided a little punishment for Germany and Japan as both countries were suspended from the Olympics.   The suspension would last until 1956.

8. Boycotts were the order of the day for the 1956 Summer Olympics.   A total of seven countries boycotted the games all for different reasons.   The Suez Crisis kept Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon out of the games, and France and the United Kingdom were upset after Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal.   The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland boycotted in protest of the Soviet Union because they had invaded Hungary, and the People’s Republic of China was upset that the Republic of China/Formosa was even allowed to compete.

9.. Apartheid kept South Africa from the games during the 1964 Summer Olympics.   The IOC would not lift the suspension until 1992.

10. The “Power to the People” Olympics better known as the 1968 Summer Games became controversial when Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed their “Power to the People” salute………..a raised fist…….during the United States anthem.   Both Smith and Carlos had won medals in the 200 meter race.

11. The 1976 Summer Olympic controversy involved the fencing portion of the pentathlon competition.   Soviet Boris Onischenko used an épée which had a pushbutton on the pommel.  When the button was activated it would cause the electronic scoring system to register a hit…..sometimes incorrectly.  The entire Soviet pentathlon team was disqualified.

12. The French version of “the finger” was at the heart of a controversy during the 1980 Summer Olympics.   Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz, a Polish pole vaulter, used the bras d'honneur gesture when he became upset with Soviet officials who he felt was cheating.   The officials were  opening the stadium doors during his attempts to allow a disturbing flow of wind.    The gesture he made created a huge scandal and he almost lost his medal.

13.  During the 2000 Summer Olympics a Chinese gymnast by the name of Dong Fangxiao had his bronze medal taken away in 2010.   It was discovered that at the time she competed she was only 14 years old…..the rules call for participants to be at least 16.  The US women’s team for 2000 moved up into third place and received bronze medals…..ten years later.

Now if you noticed at some point my list begins to just be about the Summer Olympics.    This doesn’t mean there only controversies during the hot summer.   

Hardly.

There were controversies in the Winter Olympics, too…..

Stay tuned…..I’ll try to get to those before the closing ceremonies for the London Olympics.

Fruithurst, Alabama....an Example for Boom and Bust

Boom and bust – basic social studies vocabulary words, right? 

Think about how you learned these words.   I would imagine you were taught about boom and bust during an exploration of the Gold Rush, right?

Most everyone is….and that’s my point. 

Are there other situations where the terms boom and bust could be used? 

Of course there are, and recently I stumbled across one that I found really interesting via a friend.  

Let’s examine Fruithurst, Alabama – a rural little hamlet near the Georgia border in Cleburne County.   As far as population goes most elementary schools have a larger student body than Fruithurst’s total population.  The 2000 census indicates the population tops out at a whopping 200 people. 

If we transported ourselves back to 1890 and the area where Fruithurst is located we might be lucky if we found 200 people. In fact, the area wasn’t even known as Fruithurst in 1890.   The area was first known as Summit Cut and later Zidonia (pronounced “Zildonee”) by Scotch-Irish farm families.

Things began to change, however, in 1894 when a company known as the Fruithurst Company bought up large holdings of land and many of Scotch-Irish moved on to other areas.    The company was formed by a group of Northern entrepreneurs who envisioned transforming a portion of Alabama’s piney woods into a winemaking region.

Yes!   A winemaking region.

Per Wayne Ruple who wrote the book Cleburne County the Northern businessmen had several goals, but the main one had to do with creating the second best vineyards in the world
.

Most of the investors were from the Chautauqua grape belt in New York state like Garrett Ryckman of Brocton Wine Cellars.   E.B. Hammitt & Co. promoted the land.   Per Thomas Pinney in A History of Wine in America:  From the Beginnings to Prohibition, the New Yorkers wanted to promote immigration to the area and to develop fruit growing through a cooperative scheme.

The town name – Fruithurst – came about through a contest the organizers held.   One woman was the lucky winner of $25 for coming up with the name.

Part of the scheme involved encouraging immigrants from Germany, Sweden and even Hungary.  Every man who bought ten acres of vineyard land was given a lot in the town, its location determined by the type of house he planned to build.

The developers laid out an ambitious “model city” with intricate diagonal streets instead of the usual checkerboard pattern.   Promoters planned everything….even where the flagpole would go…..and right behind the flagpole was the Fruithurst Inn, a large hotel built for $40,000.   The building had 3-stories, 80 rooms, a billiard room, bowling alley, and barber shop as well as central steam heat.

Virginia Voss Pope advises in Fruithurst, Alabama’s Vineyard Village…..Promoters and investors began to arrive so fast during this time that homes could not be constructed rapidly enough to meet the demand and many of these new arrivals had to be put up as borders.

It only took four years for Fruithurst to become a real boomtown with 800 residents from around the nation….many from Minnesota… and Europe per Ruple.  

Over 3,000 acres were planted with over 100 varieties of grapes. Various fruit trees were also planted including plum trees.   Several packinghouses were built and dozens of pickers were hired making thirty cents a day.

Ruple advises the yields were staggering.  One vineyard produced 8,324 pounds of grapes in a single year…..23,000 gallons of wine were produced in 1898.

It really looked like the Northern entrepreneurs had achieved their goal….making Fruithurst the location for the second best vineyards in the world ……..especially when a French winemaker called the Fruithurst product “the best wine [I have] seen in the South.”

However, the boom was not to last.

The vine market slumped, native vine diseases attacked the more familiar northern varieties, and a severe winter and national Prohibition helped close the wineries in 1919 per Ruple. 

The colonists found out they were selling their grapes to Northern markets at a loss, a lumber mill showed no profit, an excelsior mill and two wineries burned and most importantly state prohibition spelled the doom of the wine-making industry.  

Discouraged by these failures and unable to adapt themselves to changed economic conditions a general exodus began and eventually the property was liquidated at a sheriff’s sale.

This link takes you to page 41 of Wayne Ruple’s book….Cleburne County……where there are several pictures of the town during its heyday including homes, vineyards, and the Fruithurst Inn.   The pictures are very interesting to look at.

Over the last few years the vineyards are beginning to return to the South including the land around Fruithurst.......

I think it would be very interesting to focus on the Fruithurst story in the classroom due to the Prohibition angle as well.  Most students are taught about Prohibition as it related to the 1930s, but here in the South the years before and after the turn-of-the-century involved the Temperance Movement and Prohibition locally long before the national movement took hold.

Here Come the Mercer Brides!

Sometimes I wonder how much money I spent during my youth on magazines such as Tiger Beat and 16 Magazine.  It was the one way I could obtain all the pin-ups I wanted of my “favs” such as the Osmonds, David Cassidy, The Bay City Rollers and Rick Springfield.  

I actually made the switch from buying Matchbox cars with my allowance money to buying teen magazines a little early…..I was six. 

 Yes, that’s a little early to be reading a magazine written for giggly teenage girls, but then again…..I did have an older sister, and I wanted to do everything that she did. 

The other reason I began to buy the teen rags had to do with a special young man…..Bobby Sherman.

Oh….be still my heart.  

On September 25, 1968 Bobby Sherman entered my life and nothing was ever the same.  I’m sure he would tell you the same thing.    It was a telepathic “thing”, but he and I were going to be together forever.

Of court that date in 1968 coincides with the premiere date of the popular television show Here Come the Brides when it aired for the first time.   

All good things must come to an end though….and Bobby and I were no different.   Our relationship cooled quite a bit after the show was cancelled in 1970.  I went on to third grade and Bobby continued with guest appearances on a long list of television shows and a stab at a musical career.

During the Here Come the Brides stint Bobby Sherman played the adorable and stuttering Jeremy Bolt who along with his older brothers traveled from Seattle to Massachusetts in the 1860s to recruit brides for the lonely employees at their logging mill.

While many of the details regarding the television show was a complete Hollywood fabrication the premise of the show – lonely men in the Pacific Northwest needing brides – is based on a true story.

Asa Shinn Mercer

In 1864, Asa Shinn Mercer was the sole instructor and president of the Territorial University of Washington.  He was chosen primarily because he was the only college graduate for miles.

According to the Mercer Girls website  it was Asa’s idea, at a time when men out numbered women nine to one, to go east to seek ladies of quality and refinement to help balance the male/female ratio of the region.

Mercer devised a plan to head east to convince women to move to Seattle. 

Even now in the very lenient, very free 21^st century Mercer’s idea sounds a little harebrained – even scandalous to some.

Why on earth would a woman from a city like Boston or Lowell, Massachusetts want to travel across the country to Seattle – a rustic outpost where men were men and roughing it was the norm?

We could argue the women simply wanted to satisfy a sense of adventure, but refer back to the paragraph above where I introduce the name….Asa Shinn Mercer. 

What year was it?

1864.

What was going on?

Yes, you are correct – it was the last year of the Civil War. Many of the eligible men were gone and many women felt they had a life of spinsterhood ahead of them at a time when a woman’s identity was strongly evidenced through her husband and his name.  

During Mercer’s first trip back east he managed to convince ten women to return to Seattle with him.  All but two managed to marry fairly quickly once they reached Seattle.

The second trip was more problematic.   By this time Mercer’s plans had reached a wider audience with newspapers such as the New York Herald.   The paper reported the women would find themselves in brothels or married off to old men once they reached Seattle.  Mercer’s 500 prospects for the second trip quickly dwindled to 100.

However, that group of women is very important.  Today, long time inhabitants of Seattle can trace their family lines back to those very women who took a chance and helped settle the Pacific Northwest.

Please visit the Mercer Girls website where Peri Lane Muhich provides more in depth stories of these women.

Endangered Historic Places

For 25 years the National Trust for Historic Preservation has been alerting the general public regarding endangered historic places.  Approximately 230 “threatened one-of-a-kind-historic treasures” have been identified since 1988. 

Whether these sites are urban districts or rural landscapes, Native American landmarks,  20^th-century sports arenas, entire communities or single buildings, the list spotlights historic places across America that are threatened by neglect, insufficient funds, inappropriate development, or insensitive public policy.

The main website for this year’s list can be found here.

This year’s list includes a wide variety of places:

The Village of Zoar located in Zoar, Ohio….The historic Village of Zoar, home to nearly 200 residents, is protected from flooding by a levee built in the 1930s. Record floods in 2005, however, raised concern about the levee’s integrity. Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started a three-year study to assess the levee’s future. One of many alternatives under consideration is removing it entirely, which could require the relocation or demolition of 80% of this remarkable historic village. 

Bridges of Yosemite Valley within Yosemite National Park in California…..Can you actually believe there are plans to remove the beautiful bridges that span the Merced River?  The 

National Park Service is preparing a comprehensive management plan for the Merced River, which flows through the heart of Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, three historic Rustic Style bridges built in 1928 and 1932 are being considered for removal and face an uncertain future.

Malcom X – Ella Little Collins house in Boston Massachusetts….Built in 1874, this modest structure is the last known surviving boyhood home of Malcolm X. He shared the house with his half sister, Ella Little-Collins, whose son is the current owner. Largely vacant for over 30 years, plans are in development to rehabilitate and reuse the deteriorating property. In partnership with Historic Boston, Rodnell Collins dreams of preserving Malcolm X’s legacy by transforming the house into living quarters for graduate students who are studying African American history, social justice, or civil rights.

Historic Post Office Buildings… across the nation are endangered.   Last year, the U.S. Postal Service identified nearly 4,400 post offices – large and small – that it plans to study for closure. Unfortunately, city officials and local preservationists who identified new buyers or uses for endangered post offices often find themselves frustrated by a lack of information and guidance from the U.S. Postal Service…Local post office buildings have traditionally played an essential role in the lives of millions of Americans. Many are architecturally distinctive, prominently located, and cherished as civic icons in communities across the country. Unless the U.S. Postal Service establishes a clear, consistent process that follows federal preservation law when considering disposal of these buildings, a significant part of the nation’s architectural heritage will be at risk.

Joe Frazier's Gym in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania….Inside this modest, three-story brick building, Joe Frazier – a gold medal winner at the 1964 Olympics and later Heavyweight Champion of the World – trained for his victorious bout against Muhammad Ali. Today, the converted warehouse where Smokin’ Joe perfected his punch is home to a discount furniture store and two floors of vacant space. Despite growing interest in commemorating Frazier’s life (he died in 2011), the gym is unprotected; it enjoys no formal historic designation at the local or national level.

Ellis Island Hospital Complex….I know it’s hard to believe, but there are buildings on the island that have NOT been restored and are not open to the public.  Part of the Ellis Island National Monument, this mostly unused complex of buildings near the restored Immigration Museum once comprised the largest U.S. Public Health Service institution in the country. Today, few Americans realize that portions of Ellis Island are un-restored and off limits to visitors. The National Park Service stabilized the hospital structures here a decade ago, but millions of dollars still must be raised to rehabilitate the interiors of these historic buildings.

Sweet Auburn Historic District in Atlanta, Georgia…. is on the list due to “inappropriate development”. Since the district was added to the endangered list in 1992 the residential area of the district has seen  revitalization, but the commercial section has suffered.   Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, Sweet Auburn is a prime example of the flourishing segregated neighborhoods founded by African Americans during the Jim Crow era in the South. The neighborhood was home to countless businesses, congregations, and social organizations, and was the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. The house in which he was born still stands at 501 Auburn Avenue.

Terminal Island…found in the port of Los Angeles, California…..We see this all too often when historic structures are scheduled for destruction. Terminal Island played a vital role during WWI and WWII as a major shipbuilding center, and was the place where America’s tuna canning industry came of age. The island also played a key role in a tragic chapter of American history: In 1942, an entire Japanese-American community there was seen as a national threat; its residents were forcibly removed and imprisoned at the internment camp Manzanar.

Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch  located in North Dakota….Theodore Roosevelt hunted, ran cattle, and explored this expansive ranch in the rugged North Dakota Badlands in the late 19th century. It was here that the 26th president of the United States developed a deep appreciation for the American West and for conservation. Unfortunately, the serenity of the ranch, which lies on both sides of the Little Missouri River, is threatened by a proposed new road that would introduce a visual disruption, as well as traffic, noise, and dust.

Princeton Battlefield in Princeton, New Jersey…..This is a little hard to believe.   The site of George Washington’s victory is being threatened by a housing development.  A portion of the battle site, faces significant threats, including a 15-unit housing development for faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study. As proposed, the project would radically alter the integrity of a rare, intact battlefield.


Seriously?  


Faculty members in need of housing are threatening a major Revolutionary battlefield?!?

Texas Courthouses across the state of Texas….Texas courthouses helped establish a unique identity for each of the state’s counties, and 234 of the state’s 244 county-owned historic courthouses are still in active government use. Unfortunately, many – including some of the oldest and most architecturally distinguished – have fallen into disrepair due to inadequate funding and maintenance. 

Sell Those Textbooks!

I gave Dear Daughter some money last week to clean out a few closets upstairs......so I wouldn't have to.


She deposited three large containers with odds and ends at the bottom of the steps and announced she was done. 


 I said....."Oh, are those things to throw away?" 


She responded yes, but I was already ticking off things I could readily see as items I had paid for and might want to use again, so......instead of hauling the containers off to the street to the trash I sat down and went through the containers. 


 I made three piles.....keep, Goodwill, and trash. 


 Wouldn't you know it? The trash pile was the smallest, but Goodwill was fairly substantial. Most of the items in the keep pile were notebook binders and textbooks. Yes, she was going to throw away good....heavy....expensive textbooks.


 I decided I could sell them online, and this is what I found:



Via: Sell Back Your Book

The Atlas of True Names

One of the maps available from The Atlas of True Names

Take a look at the map I posted above.   Notice something strange?   This map is from The Atlas of True Names.

This site…..The Atlas of True Names…..is a truly unique resource.   The website states its purpose is to reveal the etymological roots, or original meanings, of the familiar terms on today’s maps of the World, Europe, the British Isles and the United States……The ‘True Names’ of 3000 cities, countries, rivers, oceans and mountain ranges are displayed on these four fascinating maps, each of which includes a comprehensive index of derivations.

You can read more about the site from The New York Times or from Spiegel Online.   Apparently these maps have been around since 2008, but I’m just now seeing them.   Yes, I know that’s hard to believe, but somehow I overlooked them.

You can order the maps here.

So, instead of me telling you how I would use them in the classroom……..what would you do?

A Quiet, Simple Life

There are many places I like.    There are a few I love.   Then there are those unique places that I fall in love with and could stay there forever.

Seaside, Florida is one of those places for me.

Seaside, Florida

The minute I enter the picturesque town I feel the creative energy.   I feel the friendliness of the town, and the Victorian charm draws me in.

A fantastic livable space....

It’s just an added bonus that sandy white beaches and the emerald water of the Gulf of Mexico are just mere steps away.

The town was developed in the late 1980s as a modern day Victorian town complete with narrow streets, white picket fences, and lots of pastel colors.   

Many of the dwellings are hidden in gnarled mangroves and magnolias.

Can I stay here forever?

Robert Davis – the man who developed Seaside – revolutionized the concept of town planning forevermore.    The development began as a parcel of 80 acres that Davis inherited from his grandfather.  Instead of wanting to build a vacation getaway and keep others away – as many would have done – Davis decided he wanted to build a town……an entire town.

One of the park area surrounded by shops and homes.

Davis based Seaside on the principles of New Urbanism which includes towns that are friendly to walkers, contain a variety of housing, and encourages many different types of jobs.

To tell you the truth the whole thing reminds me of sitting around with a bunch of friends when you were nine or ten and brainstorming some wild and crazy idea and setting off in a frenzy to make it a real thing, but in the case of Davis…..he really did make his dream a reality including touring small town after small town in Florida to grasp the concepts he wanted to reproduce at Seaside.  

This isn’t a place to have a vacation away from your life…..this is a place to make your life the vacation.

Seaside is filled with several interesting shops.

There are work places and creative places and one of the state’s first charter schools is located in Seaside.  There are places for sports, a spa, and a performance theater.

The building in the middle is in the center of Seaside....it's the post office.

Would I introduce a concept like Seaside to my students?  

Why of course I would.  I’d begin by showing them pictures from my Spring Break and move into the concept of New Urbanism and how Seaside fits the mold.   Then I would allow student brainstorm and let them draw up plans to recreate their town into a place where they could have a simple, beautiful life complete with drawings.  

I think it would a fun and thought provoking activity.

  

What about you?

Just take a gander at the website for the town.

  

Notice the motto……”A simple, beautiful life”.  

Isn’t that what everyone wants?   

A Topic for Discussion...Handicaps and Politics

When you stop for a moment and consider Franklin Delano Roosevelt you have to be amazed and filled with awe that a man who had suffered through such a tremendous physical tragedy as he did during the summer of 1921 was able to rise to the highest office in the land given prevailing opinions concerning the disabled at that time.

FDR contracted polio…or what was thought to be polio while on vacation and even though various cures never worked to restore his legs he also never accepted the fact his paralysis was permanent and constantly felt he was getting better.   Many state today his paralysis might have been from the effects of Guillain-Barre Syndrome and not Polio, but no matter the cause FDR was what our society deems as handicapped.

Yet, at the time of his death in 1945 and for years afterward very few Americans knew the full extent of FDR’s physical limitations.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt....one of three public photos showing him in his wheel chair

Once he entered the political fray again he was very careful not to allow the general public to see him in his wheel chair.    The picture I’ve shared here is only one of three that exist showing his chair.  He worked very hard at manufacturing a type of walk to appear as normal as possible.  Using iron braces on his legs he twisted his torso back and forth while using a cane for support.   FDR’s sons generally accompanied their farther on public appearances and walked by his side to support him.  His arrivals and departures from public events were orchestrated so that FDR was never seen getting in or out of his vehicle. 

By 1929, FDR was governor of New York….by 1932 he was running for President of the United States.

So, how was this done?   In a September, 1978 article in Reviews in American History dealing with  general opinions regarding the handicapped in years gone by P.K. Longmore advises handicapped people were kept at home, out of sight, and in back bedrooms by families who felt a mixture of embarrassment and shame in their presence.   It’s hard to fathom today, but it was true, and FDR knew this.  He didn’t want to appear weak or as H.G. Gallagher states in FDR’s Splendid Deception, “Those with disabilities were viewed as flawed in moral character as well as body.”

Knowing this FDR and his family as well as close supporters opted to hide his disability as much as possible, and the media allowed this.   It was a different time.   There was line drawn between someone’s personal life and their political one.   In fact, political cartoons actually showed FDR running, jumping, and even leaping, and many thought he actually could.

So, would it have been possible during the early half of the Twentieth Century for someone in a wheel chair to be elected to public office?    Obviously FDR thought it would be an issue for him.   It was a personal decision to obscure the fact as much as possible.  

But….paralyzed men were elected to public office during the 1920s including seats in our Congress.

Meet William D. Upshaw or “Earnest Willie” as folks in the Fifth Congressional District in Georgia knew him.    

William D. "Earnest Willie" Upshaw...

Yes, Congressman Upshaw is in a wheelchair.   At the age of 18 he fell on the crosspiece of a farm wagon and was paralyzed from the waist down until very late in his life.   I discovered Upshaw’s story while researching and writing about local history where I live.   You can read more about Upshaw’s entry into political life at my local history blog titled Every Now and Then here.

As I learned more about the Upshaw story I had to think about how interesting it would be to discuss with students how President Roosevelt  endured his handicap….how he decided to obscure his condition from the public while contrasting Congressman Upshaw who didn’t hide inability to walk at all….from anyone.   One of the most interesting facets to the story concerns both men as they both……yes, BOTH of them……ran for president in 1932.   Upshaw was a staunch Prohibitionist and was the candidate for the Prohibition Party.

The dynamic begs for examination, doesn’t it?    Two handicapped men running for president during an era when the disabled were shunned and kept out sight and many felt their morality was in question.  Upshaw chose to be out in the open…..while FDR didn’t. 

  

It should make for some interesting discussion in the classroom, don’t you think?

Bullets and Ballots

The song I’ve posted below isn’t as popular as Marvin Gaye’s hit “What’s Going On?”, but it is from the same album….the first of its kind for Motown…a concept album.





Gaye wrote the songs during a time of great depression when he isolated himself from the outside world.  This site explains....Through television news broadcasts, Gaye saw the racial, political, and social problems that were plaguing the world, manifestations from the explosion of political and social activism that took place during the late ‘60s. As he wallowed in his seclusion, Gaye read letters from his brother Frankie serving in the Vietnam War. They described the confusion and frustration he and other soldiers felt fighting in a war that had no just cause. Many black soldiers at the time felt doubly conflicted, drafted to fight and die for a country that refused to accept them because of the color of their skin. These observations, along with the loss of Tammi Terrell, motivated Gaye to question his role in the world and at Motown.

…The songs [from  the album] are told from the point of view of a black soldier returning home from fighting in a white man’s war. It is an unrecognizable America, filled with racial violence and uprisings, political strife and protests. The album is a question-inducing commentary about change, love, and hate.

The Vietnam War wasn’t the first war when soldiers came home to a changing landscape.  Many men and women returning from serving their country during World War II was met with changes as well….especially the solders from McMinn County, Tennessee
.

This site tells us….  In McMinn County, Tennessee, in the early 1940s, the question was not if you farmed, but where you farmed. Athens, the county seat, lay between Knoxville and Chattanooga along U.S. Highway 11, which wound its way through eastern Tennessee. This was the meeting place for farmers from all the surrounding communities. Traveling along narrow roads planted with signs urging them to “See Rock City” and “Get Right with God,” they would gather on Saturdays beneath the courthouse elms to discuss politics and crops. There were barely seven thousand people in Athens, and many of its streets were still unpaved. The two “big” cities some fifty miles away had not yet begun their inevitable expansion, and the farmers’ lives were simple and essentially unaffected by what they would have called the “modern world.” Many of them were without electricity. The land, their families, religion, politics, and the war dominated their talk and thoughts. They learned about God from the family Bible and in tiny chapels along yellow-dust roads. Their newspaper, the Daily Post-Athenian, told them something of politics and war, but since it chose to avoid intrigue or scandal, a story that smacked of both could be found only in the conversations of the folks who milled about the courthouse lawn on Saturdays.

During the Civil War, McMinn County favored the Union and it was strong Republican held community, but in the 1930s Tennessee began to fall under the control of Democratic bosses. To the west, in Shelby County, E.H. Crump, the Memphis mayor who had been ousted during his term for failing to enforce Prohibition, fathered what would become the state’s most powerful political machine. Crump eventually controlled most of Tennessee along with the governor’s office and a United States senator. In eastern Tennessee local and regional machines developed, which, lacking the sophistication and power of a Crump, relied on intimidation and violence to control their constituents.

In 1936 the system descended upon McMinn County in the person of one Paul Cantrell, the Democratic candidate for sheriff. Cantrell, who came from a family of money and influence in nearby Etowah, tied his campaign closely to the popularity of the Roosevelt administration and rode FDR’s coattails to victory over his Republican opponent.

As more and more of McMinn’s able-bodied men began to head off to war Cantrell was able to gain more power.  Cantrell was elected Sheriff in 1936, 1938, and 1940.  Then he decided to run for State Senate and was elected in 1942 and 1944.  His chief deputy, Pat Mansfield took Cantrell’s position as Sheriff.

Cantrell was able to get a bill passed through the state legislature redistricting the county from 23 voting precincts down to 12….basically eliminating any Republication opposition.  Voting machines were sold supposedly to save money, but basically it was done so that votes could be tampered with a little easier. 

There were continued charges of election fraud in the form of swapped ballot boxes and voter intimidation.  The Department of Justice investigated each election from 1940-44, but no action was taken. 
 

The sheriff’s department operated a fee system where they received a cut of the money for every person they booked, incarcerated and released.  Buses headed through the county would be pulled over….people were ticketed for drunkenness as a matter of habit….it didn’t matter if they were guilty or not.

The people felt they were powerless to fight Cantrell and his men. Cantrell had taken advantage of the fact that most of his opposition was away fighting the war.  McMinn citizens hoped once their soldiers returned home things would change.

Bill White, [a soldier] recalled coming home from overseas with mustering-out pay in his pocket: “There were several beer joints and honky-tonks around Athens; we were pretty wild; we started having trouble with the law enforcement at that time because they started making a habit of picking up GIs and fining them heavily for most anything—they were kind of making a racket out of it.

...At last the veterans chose to use the most basic right of the democracy for which they had gone to war: the right to vote. In the early months of 1946 they decided in secret meetings to field a slate of their own candidates for the August elections. In May they formed a nonpartisan political party.

Leading up to the election both sides made charges against the other and ultimately the powder keg erupted on Election Day.   Cantrell’s machine hired men from neighboring towns to “keep the peace”, but basically they were there to intimidate people as they walked around polling places with pistols and blackjacks.  As in past elections anyone who objected to anything were labeled as troublemakers.

Poll workers were attacked and one was thrown through a glass door. Before all was said and done 20 people would be hurt that day, 14 cars were overturned and burned, and the jail ended up being under siege for several hours by several townspeople/ex-soldiers. 

Just another Election Day, huh?

During the melee Cantrell and some of his men fled the town.   The next morning the twenty-five deputies attempting to hold the jail gave up and surrendered.   The story goes they were taken to the edge of town, stripped naked and told to keep walking.

Miraculously there had been no deaths. But on August 2 a page-one headline in The New York Times wrongly trumpeted the news: TENNESSEE SHERIFF is SLAIN IN PRIMARY DAY VIOLENCE. All day long reporters with cameras and notebooks poured into town to photograph, question, analyze, and write. And every newcomer passed the sign on Highway 11:  WELCOME TO ATHENS “The Friendly City”.

The “victory” of the veterans that night in August, 1946 appeared, at first, to have settled nothing. The national press was almost unanimous in condemning the action of the GIs. In an editorial perhaps best reflecting the ambivalence of a startled nation, The New York Times concluded: “Corruption, when and where it exists, demands reform, and even in the most corrupt and boss-ridden communities, there are peaceful means by which reform can be achieved. But there is no substitute, in a democracy, for orderly process.” The syndicated columnist Robert C. Ruark commented: “There is very little difference, essentially, between a vigilante and a member of a lynch mob, and if we are seeking an answer to crooked politics, the one that the Athens boys just propounded sure ain’t it.” Commonwealth cautiously compared the battle to the American Revolution, then went on to say that “nothing could be more dangerous both for our liberties and our welfare than the making of the McMinn County Revolution into a habit.”

On August 4 Pat Mansfield telegraphed his resignation as sheriff of McMinn County to Governor McCord and requested that Knox Henry fill his unexpired term, which would end on September 1. Henry was appointed immediately, and the next day State Rep. George Woods returned to the county under GI protection to convene the election commission and certify the election. A cheer rang out in the courthouse when Woods rose as the canvass ended and announced that Knox Henry was elected sheriff by a vote of 2,175 to 1,270. After their victory, GIs with machine guns waited for a Cantrell counterattack.

It never happened…….The Cantrell Machine in McMinn County had been quashed.

Henry Knox, the sheriff elected after the election 'war'

I guess my main point in bringing all this up is to say that it’s easy to think whatever issues our country is going through is something new….. wars, violence, racism, media spin, politics so polarized that nothing is done, conspiracy theories, conspiracy truths, talking heads spinning half-truths, being so busy thinking ahead to YOUR next point that you don’t HEAR the person across from you, and politicians so willing to hang on to the power of their office they are willing to make the so called solutions so convoluted that more chaos is created than solved.

Unfortunately, we haven’t learned from history, and our problems aren’t anything new…..we just have more outlets to throw the muck around instantly.

America is unrecognizable to me……

Just how polarized do things have to be before they get better?

What’s happening?