The delusional narcissism of self-regarding and self-described deep thinking “intellectual” of the far Right, Dinesh D’Souza, knows no bounds—here is today’s tweet comparing himself to MLK:
Honoring Dr. Du Bois
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tonight we assemble here to pay tribute to one of the most remarkable men of our time. Dr. Du Bois was not only an intellectual giant exploring the frontiers of knowledge, he was in the first place a teacher. He would have wanted his life to teach us something about our tasks of emancipation. One idea he insistently taught was that black people have been kept in oppression and deprivation by a poisonous fog of lies that depicted them as inferior, born deficient and deservedly doomed to servitude to the grave. So assiduously has this poison been injected into the mind of America that its disease has infected not only whites but many Negroes. So long as the lie was believed the brutality and criminality of conduct toward the Negro was easy for the conscience to bear. The twisted logic ran if the black man was inferior he was not oppressed-his place in society was appropriate to his meager talent and intellect. Dr. Du Bois recognized that the keystone in the arch of oppression was the myth of inferiority and he dedicated his brilliant talents to demolish it. There could scarcely be a more suitable person for such a monumental task. First of all he was himself unsurpassed as an intellect and he was a Negro. But beyond this he was passionately proud to be black and finally he had not only genius and pride but he had the indomitable fighting spirit of the valiant.
To pursue his mission, Dr. Du Bois gave up the substantial privileges a highly educated Negro enjoyed living in the North. Though he held degrees from Harvard and the University of Berlin, though he had more academic credentials than most Americans, black or white, he moved South where a majority of Negroes then lived. He deliberately chose to share their daily abuse and humiliation. He could have offered himself to the white rulers and exacted substantial tribute for selling his genius. There were few like him, Negro or white. He could have amassed riches and honors and lived in material splendor and applause from the powerful and important men of his time. Instead, he lived part of his creative life in the South-most of it in modest means and some of it in poverty, and he died in exile, praised sparingly and in many circles ignored.
But he was an exile only to the land of his birth. He died at home in Africa among his cherished ancestors, and he was ignored by a pathetically ignorant America but not by history.
History cannot ignore W. E. B. Du Bois. Because history has to reflect truth and Dr. Du Bois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths. His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill this immense void. The degree to which he succeeded discloses the great dimensions of the man.
Yet he had more than a void to fill. He had to deal with the army of white propagandists – the myth-makers of Negro history. Dr. Du Bois took them all on in battle. It would be impossible to sketch the whole range of his intellectual contributions. Back in the nineteenth century he laid out a program of 100 years of study of problems affecting American Negroes and worked tirelessly to implement it.
Long before sociology was a science he was pioneering in the field of social study of Negro life and completed works on health, education, employment, urban conditions, and religion. This was at a time when scientific inquiry of Negro life was so unbelievably neglected that only a single university in the entire nation had such a program, and it was funded with $5,000 for a year’s work.
Against such odds Dr. Du Bois produced two enduring classics before the twentieth century. His Suppression of the African Slave-Trade, written in 1896, is Volume I in the Harvard Historical Studies. His study The Philadelphia Negro, completed in 1899, is still used today. Illustrating the painstaking quality of his scientific method, to do this work Dr. Du Bois personally visited and interviewed 5,000 people.
He soon realized that studies would never adequately be pursued nor changes realized without the mass involvement of Negroes. The scholar then became an organizer and with others founded the NAACP. At the same time he became aware that the expansion of imperialism was a threat to the emergence of Africa. He recognized the importance of the bonds between American Negroes and the land of their ancestors, and he extended his activities to African affairs. After World War I he called Pan-African Congresses in 1919, 1921, and 1923, alarming imperialists in all countries and disconcerting Negro moderates in America who were afraid of this restless, militant, black genius.
Returning to the United States from abroad, he found his pioneering agitation for Negro studies was bearing fruit and a beginning was made to broaden Negro higher education. He threw himself into the task of raising the intellectual level of this work. Much later, in 1940, he participated in the establishment of the first Negro scholarly publication,Phylon. At the same time he stimulated Negro colleges to collaborate through annual conferences to increase their effectiveness and elevate the quality of their academic studies. But these activities, enough to be the life work for ten men, were far from the sum of his achievements. In the six years between 1935 and 1941 he produced the monumental seven-hundred-page volume on Black Reconstruction in America, at the same time writing many articles and essays. Black Reconstruction was six years in writing but was thirty- three years in preparation. On its publication, one critic said: “It crowns the long, unselfish and brilliant career of Dr. Du Bois. It is comparable in clarity, originality and importance to the Beards’ Rise of American Civilization.” The New York Times said, “It is beyond question the most painstaking and thorough study ever made of the Negroes’ part in Reconstruction,” and the New York Herald Tribune proclaimed it “a solid history of the period, an economic treatise, a philosophical discussion, a poem, a work of art all rolled into one.”
To understand why his study of the Reconstruction was a monumental achievement it is necessary to see it in context. White historians had for a century crudely distorted the Negro’s role in the Reconstruction years. It was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history, and the stakes were high. The Reconstruction was a period in which black men had a small measure of freedom of action. If, as white historians tell it, Negroes wallowed in corruption, opportunism, displayed spectacular stupidity, were wanton, evil, and ignorant, their case was made. They would have proved that freedom was dangerous in the hands of inferior beings. One generation after another of Americans were assiduously taught these falsehoods, and the collective mind of America became poisoned with racism and stunted with myths.
Dr. Du Bois confronted this powerful structure of historical distortion and dismantled it. He virtually, before anyone else and more than anyone else, demolished the lies about Negroes in their most important and creative period of history. The truths he revealed are not yet the property of all Americans but they have been recorded and arm us for our contemporary battles.
In Black Reconstruction Dr. Du Bois dealt with the almost universally accepted concept that civilization virtually collapsed in the South during Reconstruction because Negroes had a measure of political power. Dr. Du Bois marshalled irrefutable evidence that, far from collapsing, the Southern economy was recovering in these years. Within five years the cotton crop had been restored, and in the succeeding five years had exceeded pre-war levels. At the same time other economic activity had ascended so rapidly the rebirth of the South was almost completed.
Beyond this he restored to light the most luminous achievement of the Reconstruction-it brought free public education into existence not only for the benefit of the Negro, but it opened school doors to the poor whites. He documented the substantial body of legislation that was socially so useful it was retained into the twentieth century even though the Negroes who helped to write it were brutally disenfranchised and driven from political life. He revealed that, far from being the tragic era white historians described, it was the only period in which democracy existed in the South. This stunning fact was the reason the history books had to lie because to tell the truth would have acknowledged the Negroes’ capacity to govern and fitness to build a finer nation in a creative relationship with poor whites.
With the completion of his book Black Reconstruction, despite its towering contributions, despite his advanced age, Dr. Du Bois was still not ready to accept a deserved rest in peaceful retirement. His dedication to freedom drove him on as relentlessly in his seventies as it did in his twenties. He had already encompassed three careers. Beginning as a pioneer sociologist, he had become an activist to further mass organization. The activist had then transformed himself into an historian. By the middle of the twentieth century, when imperialism and war arose once more to imperil humanity, he became a peace leader. He served as chairman of the Peace Information Bureau and, like the Rev. William Sloane Coffin and Dr. Benjamin Spock of today, he found himself indicted by the government and harried by reactionaries. Undaunted by obstacles and repression, with his characteristic fortitude he fought on. Finally in 1961 with Ghana’s independence established, an opportunity opened to begin the writing of an African Encyclopedia, and in his ninety third year he emigrated to Ghana to begin new intellectual labors. In 1963 death finally came to this most remarkable man.
It is axiomatic that he will be remembered for his scholarly contributions and organizational attainments. These monuments are imperishable. But there were human qualities less immediately visible that are no less imperishable.
Dr. Du Bois was a man possessed of priceless dedication to his people. The vast accumulation of achievement and public recognition were not for him pathways to personal affluence and a diffusion of identity. Whatever else he was, with his multitude of careers and professional titles, he was first and always a black man. He used his richness of talent as a trust for his people. He saw that Negroes were robbed of so many things decisive to their existence that the theft of their history seemed only a small part of their losses. But Dr. Du Bois knew that to lose one’s history is to lose one’s self-understanding and with it the roots for pride. This drove him to become a historian of Negro life, and the combination of his unique zeal and intellect rescued for all of us a heritage whose loss would have profoundly impoverished us.
Dr. Du Bois the man needs to be remembered today when despair is all too prevalent. In the years he lived and fought, there was far more justification for frustration and hopelessness, and yet his faith in his people never wavered. His love and faith in Negroes permeate every sentence of his writings and every act of his life. Without these deeply rooted emotions his work would have been arid and abstract. With them his deeds were a passionate storm that swept the filth of falsehood from the pages of established history.
He symbolized in his being his pride in the black man. He did not apologize for being black and, because of it, handicapped. Instead he attacked the oppressor for the crime of stunting black men. He confronted the establishment as a model of militant manhood and integrity. He defied them and, though they heaped venom and scorn on him, his powerful voice was never stilled.
And yet, with all his pride and spirit he did not make a mystique out of blackness. He was proud of his people, not because their color endowed them with some vague greatness but because their concrete achievements in struggle had advanced humanity, and he saw and loved progressive humanity in all its hues, black, white, yellow, red, and brown.
Above all he did not content himself with hurling invectives for emotional release and then to retire into smug, passive satisfaction. History had taught him it is not enough for people to be angry-the supreme task is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force. It was never possible to know where the scholar Du Bois ended and the organizer Du Bois began. The two qualities in him were a single, unified force. This life style of Dr. Du Bois is the most important quality this generation of Negroes needs to emulate.
The educated Negro who is not really part of us and the angry militant who fails to organize us have nothing in common with Dr. Du Bois. He exemplified black power in achievement and he organized black power in action. It was no abstract slogan to him.
We cannot talk of Dr. Du Bois without recognizing that he was a radical all of his life. Some people would like to ignore the fact that he was a Communist in his later years. It is worth noting that Abraham Lincoln warmly welcomed the support of Karl Marx during the Civil War and corresponded with him freely. In contemporary life the Englishspeaking world has no difficulty with the fact that Sean O’Casey was a literary giant of the twentieth century and a Communist or that Pablo Neruda is generally considered the greatest living poet though he also served in the Chilean Senate as a Communist. It is time to cease muting the fact that Dr. Du Bois was a genius and chose to be a Communist. Our irrational, obsessive anti-communism has led us into too many quagmires to be retained as if it were a mode of scientific thinking.
In closing, it would be well to remind white America of its debt to Dr. Du Bois. When they corrupted Negro history they distorted American history, because Negroes are too big a part of the building of this nation to be written out of it without destroying scientific history. White America, drenched with lies about Negroes, has lived too long in a fog of ignorance. Dr. Du Bois gave them a gift of truth for which they should eternally be indebted to him.
Negroes have heavy tasks today. We were partially liberated and then re-enslaved. We have to fight again on old battlefields, but our confidence is greater, our vision is clearer, and our ultimate victory surer because of the contributions a militant, passionate black giant left behind him.
Dr. Du Bois has left us but he has not died. The spirit of freedom is not buried in the grave of the valiant. He will be with us when we go to Washington in April to demand our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We have to go to Washington because they have declared an armistice in the war on poverty while squandering billions to expand a senseless, cruel, unjust war in Vietnam. We will go there, we will demand to be heard, and we will stay until the administration responds. If this means forcible repression of our movement, we will confront it, for we have done this before. If this means scorn or ridicule, we will embrace it, for that is what America’s poor now receive. If it means jail, we accept it willingly, for the millions of poor already are imprisoned by exploitation and discrimination.
Dr. Du Bois would be in the front ranks of the peace movement today. He would readily see the parallel between American support of the corrupt and despised Thieu-Ky regime and Northern support to the Southern slave masters in 1876. The CIA scarcely exaggerates, indeed it is surprisingly honest, when it calculates for Congress that the war in Vietnam can persist for one hundred years. People deprived of their freedom do not give up—Negroes have been fighting more than a hundred years, and even if the date of full emancipation is uncertain, what is explicitly certain is that the struggle for it will endure.
In conclusion let me say that Dr. Du Bois’ greatest virtue was his committed empathy with all the oppressed and his divine dissatisfaction with all forms of injustice. Today we are still challenged to be dissatisfied. Let us be dissatisfied until every man can have food and material necessities for his body, culture and education for his mind, freedom and until rat-infested, vermin-filled slums will be a thing of a dark past and every family will have a decent, sanitary house in which to live. Let us be dissatisfied until the empty stomachs of Mississippi are filled and the idle industries of Appalachia are revitalized. Let us be dissatisfied until brotherhood is no longer a meaningless word at the end of a prayer but the first order of business on every legislative agenda. Let us be dissatisfied until our brother of the Third World- Asia, Africa, and Latin America-will no longer be the victim of imperialist exploitation, but will be lifted from the long night of poverty, illiteracy, and disease. Let us be dissatisfied until this pending cosmic elegy will be transformed into a creative psalm of peace and “justice will roll down like waters from a mighty stream.”
The Centennial Address delivered by Nobel Laureate Dr. Martin Luther King at Carnegie Hall in New York City, February 23, 1968. The occasion was the International Cultural Evening sponsored by FREEDOMWAYS Magazine on the 100th birthday of Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois and launching an “International Year” (1968) honoring his life and works.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BERNARDINE DOHRN!! January 12, 1942
Jane Addams, socialist, feminist, lesbian, pacifist, was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, shortly after J. Edgar Hoover, the G-man whose PR skills, political opportunism, and instinct for personal survival outstripped any of his alleged crime-fighting abilities, had called her “the most dangerous woman in America.” Fifty years later, still at the helm of the vast criminal enterprise he’d created, J. Edgar Hoover bestowed that same honor on my partner Bernardine Dohrn—the most dangerous woman in America.
The only time Hoover and I ever agreed!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, sweet, brilliant, brave companera!
WOW!!! Arrests and citations by New York City police are down 90% because the crypto-fascist PBA leader Patrick Lynch (Namefreak alert!) dictated that only “essential” arrests would be made—this is in protest of the Mayor offering generous praise to the cops while noting that excessive police violence against African Americans (Sean Bell, Eric Garner and more) is real and must be addressed. Mild. OK, so Lynch orders cops to turn their backs on the Mayor and many do, and to only make essential arrests (90% reduction!). Clearly NY should lay off 90% of the cops right now to avoid frivolous arrests, and as Chris Rock tweeted, teach the cops to turn their backs when they see Black folks doing nothing.
Assata Shakur : An Open Letter To The Media
Dec 23, 2014
My name is Assata Shakur, and I am a 20th century escaped slave.
Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than
to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that
dominate the US government’s policy towards people of color. I am an
ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since
I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S.
government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not
a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in
various struggles: the black liberation movement, the student rights
movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I joined the
Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black Panther Party had become the
number one organization targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program.
Because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of black
people, J. Edgar Hoover called it “greatest threat to the internal
security of the country” and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and
In 1978, my case was one of many cases bought before the United Nations
Organization in a petition filed by the National Conference of Black
Lawyers, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression,
and the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, exposing
the existence of political prisoners in the United States, their
political persecution, and the cruel and inhuman treatment they receive
in US prisons. According to the report:
“The FBI and the New York Police Department in particular, charged and
accused Assata Shakur of participating in attacks on law enforcement
personnel and widely circulated such charges and accusations among
police agencies and units. The FBI and the NYPD further charged her as
being a leader of the Black Liberation Army which the government and
its respective agencies described as an organization engaged in the
shooting of police officers.
This description of the Black Liberation Army and the accusation of
Assata Shakur’s relationship to it was widely circulated by government
agents among police agencies and units. As a result of these activities
by the government, Ms. Shakur became a hunted person; posters in police
precincts and banks described her as being involved in serious criminal
activities; she was highlighted on the FBI’s most wanted list; and to
police at all levels she became a ‘shoot-to-kill’ target.”
I was falsely accused in six different “criminal cases” and in all six
of these cases I was eventually acquitted or the charges were
dismissed. The fact that I was acquitted or that the charges were
dismissed, did not mean that I received justice in the courts, that was
certainly not the case. It only meant that the “evidence” presented
against me was so flimsy and false that my innocence became evident.
This political persecution was part and parcel of the government’s
policy of eliminating political opponents by charging them with crimes
and arresting them with no regard to the factual basis of such charges.
On May 2, 1973 I, along with Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were
stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike, supposedly for a “faulty tail
light.” Sundiata Acoli got out of the car to determine why we were
stopped. Zayd and I remained in the car. State trooper Harper then came
to the car, opened the door and began to question us. Because we were
black, and riding in a car with Vermont license plates, he claimed he
became “suspicious.” He then drew his gun, pointed it at us, and told
us to put our hands up in the air, in front of us, where he could see
them. I complied and in a split second, there was a sound that came
from outside the car, there was a sudden movement, and I was shot once
with my arms held up in the air, and then once again from the back.
Zayd Malik Shakur was later killed, trooper Werner Foerster was killed,
and even though trooper Harper admitted that he shot and killed Zayd
Malik Shakur, under the New Jersey felony murder law, I was charged
with killing both Zayd Malik Shakur, who was my closest friend and
comrade, and charged in the death of trooper Foerster. Never in my life
have I felt such grief. Zayd had vowed to protect me, and to help me to
get to a safe place, and it was clear that he had lost his life, trying
to protect both me and Sundiata. Although he was also unarmed, and the
gun that killed trooper Foerster was found under Zayd’s leg, Sundiata
Acoli, who was captured later, was also charged with both deaths.
Neither Sundiata Acoli nor I ever received a fair trial We were both
convicted in the news media way before our trials. No news media was
ever permitted to interview us, although the New Jersey police and the
FBI fed stories to the press on a daily basis. In 1977, I was convicted
by an all- white jury and sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison.
In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison, and knowing that I
would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by
committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my
case, and who were also extremely fearful for my life.
The U.S. Senate’s 1976 Church Commission report on intelligence
operations inside the USA, revealed that “The FBI has attempted
covertly to influence the public’s perception of persons and
organizations by disseminating derogatory information to the press,
either anonymously or through “friendly” news contacts.” This same
policy is evidently still very much in effect today.
On December 24, 1997, The New Jersey State called a press conference to
announce that New Jersey State Police had written a letter to Pope John
Paul II asking him to intervene on their behalf and to aid in having me
extradited back to New Jersey prisons. The New Jersey State Police
refused to make their letter public. Knowing that they had probably
totally distorted the facts, and attempted to get the Pope to do the
devils work in the name of religion, I decided to write the Pope to
inform him about the reality of’ “justice” for black people in the
State of New Jersey and in the United States. (See attached Letter to
In January of 1998, during the pope’s visit to Cuba, I agreed to do an
interview with NBC journalist Ralph Penza around my letter to the Pope,
about my experiences in New Jersey court system, and about the changes
I saw in the United States and it’s treatment of Black people in the
last 25 years. I agreed to do this interview because I saw this secret
letter to the Pope as a vicious, vulgar, publicity maneuver on the part
of the New Jersey State Police, and as a cynical attempt to manipulate
Pope John Paul II. I have lived in Cuba for many years, and was
completely out of touch with the sensationalist, dishonest, nature of
the establishment media today. It is worse today than it was 30 years
After years of being victimized by the “establishment” media it was
naive of me to hope that I might finally get the opportunity to tell
“my side of the story.” Instead of an interview with me, what took
place was a “staged media event” in three parts, full of distortions,
inaccuracies and outright lies. NBC purposely misrepresented the facts.
Not only did NBC spend thousands of dollars promoting this “exclusive
interview series” on NBC, they also spent a great deal of money
advertising this “exclusive interview” on black radio stations and also
placed notices in local newspapers.
Like most poor and oppressed people in the United States, I do not have
a voice. Black people, poor people in the U.S. have no real freedom of
speech, no real freedom of expression and very little freedom of the
press. The black press and the progressive media has historically
played an essential role in the struggle for social justice. We need to
continue and to expand that tradition. We need to create media outlets
that help to educate our people and our children, and not annihilate
their minds. I am only one woman.
I own no TV stations, or Radio Stations or Newspapers. But I feel that
people need to be educated as to what is going on, and to understand
the connection between the news media and the instruments of repression
in Amerika. All I have is my voice, my spirit and the will to tell the
truth. But I sincerely ask, those of you in the Black media, those of
you in the progressive media, those of you who believe in true
freedom, to publish this statement and to let people know what is
happening. We have no voice, so you must be the voice of the voiceless.
Free all Political Prisoners, I send you Love and Revolutionary
Greetings From Cuba, One of the Largest, Most Resistant and Most
Courageous Palenques (Maroon Camps) That has ever existed on the Face
of this Planet.
Cuba es en mi corazon!
I’m astonished and relieved and moved.
It’s terrific when imperial arrogance is pushed back.
A victory in the name of patience, irony, hope and struggle.
And a long time coming.
(see my Facebook re: Assata Shakur


Lillie, a 125-pound end on the first ragtag USC team, said: “The only available opposition was a club team which carried the name of Alliance. Our first game was November 14, 1888, right at the university and we won by a score of 16-0.
“In those days a touchdown scored four points, with the play which now corresponds to the conversion after touchdown adding two more points. A field goal scored five points, a safety scored two. “The second game against Alliance was played more than two months later on January 19, 1889, uptown on a vacant field bordered by Grand, Hope, Eighth and Ninth streets. The club team had improved considerably and we managed to score only a single touchdown to win, 4-0.”
Frank Suffel and Henry H. Goddard were playing coaches for this first team which was literally put together by quarterback Arthur Carroll. He volunteered to make the pants for the team. Appropriately, Carroll later became a tailor in Riverside.
The growth of USC and its football program coincides with the growth of Los Angeles, which had been founded only 99 years before the cornerstone was laid at the university in 1880 in an uncultivated mustard field. At the time, Los Angeles still retained characteristics of its earlier pueblo days.
American football at the turn of the century was a combination of rugby, soccer and pure mayhem. The rules provided for a playing field of 110 yards in length, exclusive of the end zones, and games were played in 45-minute halves with a 10-minute intermission. Intentional tackling below the waist, a fundamental and coached procedure now, was judged a foul then, just like unnecessary roughness.
USC fielded another team in 1889 (without a coach) and encountered its first collegiate opponent, St. Vincent’s, now known as Loyola Marymount. The Methodists or Wesleyans (the name Trojans would come later) thrashed St. Vincent’s, 40-0, and then beat a Pasadena club team which featured the dreaded Flying Wedge, 26-0.
So far, so good. A pair of two-game seasons and USC was undefeated, untied and unscored upon. Then, because of student apathy and some financial problems, USC didn’t have a team in 1890. A pattern developed in which USC, still coachless, would play a one to four-game schedule—without much success—until 1897 when Lewis Freeman became the school’s first non-playing coach. Not only did he outfit the team in sharp, new uniforms—turtle-necked shirts with “USC” inscribed on the front, knee-length pants and ankle-high shoes—he produced a winning team with a then-representative schedule.
USC, under Freeman, won five of its six games, losing only to the San Diego YMCA, 18-0. Freeman then moved on, but the Methodists continued their winning ways, recording a 5-1-1 record in 1898—losing to and being tied by Los Angeles High School.
It was during the late 1890s and the early 1900s that USC developed a rivalry with neighboring Occidental and Pomona, the early stand-ins for Notre Dame, California and Stanford.
The year 1904 marked the arrival of Harvey Holmes, the first salaried USC coach. He stayed four years, compiled a record of 19 wins, five losses and three ties and expanded USC’s schedule to 10 games in 1905, including a first meeting with Stanford. USC lost that game, 16-0, as one of the West Coast’s most prestigious rivalries began. The teams wouldn’t meet again in football until 1918.
Major college teams do not schedule too many “breathers” today because of financial considerations. But USC wasn’t thinking of the gate when it padded its 6-3-1 record in 1905 with victories over the likes of the National Guard, Whittier Reform and the Alumni.
USC continued to play football in 1908 under coach Bill Traeger. In 1909 and 1910 the team was under a coach who was to become famous in another sport. Dean Bartlett Cromwell was called the “Maker of Champions” during his 40 years at USC—track and field champions, that is. A legendary figure in track and field, Cromwell’s teams won 12 NCAA titles, including nine in a row (1935-1943).
As a football coach, Cromwell had only modest success with 3-1-2 and 7-0-1 records in 1909 and 1910 and later a three-year record of 11-7-3 when he served as USC’s football coach from 1916 through 1918.
Between Cromwell’s first and second terms as football coach (along with a two-year tenure by Ralph Glaze, 1914-15), USC decided to move up in class athletically.
Rugby, as played by California and Stanford, was USC’s game in 1911 and a school spokesman said, “We are looking for a foothold on an athletic ladder that will carry us, we hope, to a level of competition to the proportion of our ambitious, restless, growing young institution.”
The results were disastrous. USC was badly outclassed for three years (1911-13) by more experienced rugby teams. It suffered financial reverses as well.
But all was not lost in this departure from American football. The Methodist school that was founded in a mustard field got a nickname that would identify it and its students and alumni glamorously for years to come.
Nicknames were popular in the early 1900s, but the school didn’t care much to be called Methodists or Wesleyans. So Owen R. Bird, a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, came up with a nickname that was to endure.
It was Bird’s belief that “owing to the terrific handicaps under which the athletes, coaches and managers of the university were laboring and against the overwhelming odds of larger and better equipped rivals, the name ‘Trojan’ suitably fitted the players.”
When USC began playing football again in 1914, it also resumed its relationship with Occidental and Pomona. But the Trojans wanted to be known beyond the limited confines of Bovard Field so they began to schedule “big-time” foes such as St. Mary’s, Oregon and California.
USC split with California in 1915, winning, 28-10, and losing 23-21. Another traditional series was inaugurated.
World War I put a damper on USC’s athletic ambitions and Troy played a restricted schedule from 1917 through 1919.
USC had some outstanding players during its formative years, athletes such as Elwin Caley (whose 107-yard punt return in 1902 on a 110-yard field still stands as a school record), Hal Paulin, Arthur Hill, Roy Allan, Court Decius, Fred Kelly, Fred Teschke, Rabbit Malette, Tank Campbell, Turk Hunter, Dan McMillan and Herb Jones. But the Trojans wouldn’t become nationally recognized in football until the 1920s.
Elmer "Gloomy Gus" Henderson has the best winning percentage, 45-7 (.865), of any coach in USC’s history. More importantly, Henderson, in his six seasons at the school (1919-1924), achieved national recognition for USC and established the format for successful teams of the future. Under Henderson, USC recorded some historic firsts:
- Appearing in the 1923 Rose Bowl and beating Penn State, 14-3.
- Winning 10 games in a season twice, along with an undefeated season in 1920.
- Moving out of Bovard Field, where a turnaway crowd would be 10,000, to play in the vast Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where crowds of 70,000 would become routine for Trojan games.
Henderson was the first USC coach to recruit aggressively and he persuaded talented Southern California athletes to stay home and attend USC rather than to pursue their education at California or Stanford.
He also was an on-the-field innovator. His spread formations were copied by coaches and some elements of his offense are used today by college teams and the NFL.
“Gloomy Gus” was a well-known cartoon character of the era and Henderson was saddled with that nickname by Los Angeles Times sportswriter, Paul Lowry, because of the way he poor-mouthed the Trojans’ prospects before a game.
USC had a 4-1 record in 1919, went undefeated in 1920 and was 10-1 in 1921 and again in 1922, two seasons in which the Trojans outscored their opposition, 598 to 83.
USC had a 6-2 record in 1923 which included the first football game ever to be played in the Coliseum—a 23-7 win over Pomona on October 6—and a later Coliseum game, a 13-7 loss to Cal that attracted 72,000 fans and sent a signal to Easterners that West Coast football had really caught on.
Henderson had a 9-2 record in his last season at USC in 1924, a year that featured intersectional games with Syracuse and Missouri, both of which the Trojans won.
During his tenure at USC, Henderson recruited and developed such outstanding players as Chet Dolley, Harold Galloway, Johnny Leadingham, Charley Dean, Roy (Bullet) Baker, Gordon Campbell, Andy Toolen, Lowell Lindley, Hobo Kincaid, Indian Newman, Hobbs Adams, Hayden Phythian, Holley Adams, Norman Anderson, Otto Anderson, Johnny Hawkins, Hank Lefebvre, Eddie Leahy, Manuel Laraneta, Butter Gorrell, Jeff Cravath and Leo Calland.
Two of Henderson’s sophomores on the 1924 squad, guard Brice Taylor and quarterback Mort Kaer, would later become USC’s first All-Americans. Henderson is credited with recruiting Morley Drury, who would become known as the “Noblest Trojan of Them All.”
Despite his record, Henderson was fired after the 1924 season, some said because he went 0-5 against California during his tenure.
- Early Years (1888-1924)
- Thundering Herd (1925-1940)
- Forties & Fifties (1941-1959)
- Glory Years, Part I (1960-1975)
- Glory Years, Part II (1976-1982)
- Wilderness Years (1983-2001)
- Return to Glory (2002-present)
(Much of the material on the page is adapted from Mal Florence's 1980 book about USC’s football history, “The Trojan Heritage.”)


The Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Merced in Matatalaib, Tarlac City is the only Marian Shrine in the Diocese of Tarlac that has a 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗕𝗢𝗡𝗗 with a Papal Basilica.
On September 8, 2021, the said Shrine got a blessing in the form of a spiritual bond to One of the 4 Major Basilica in Rome, the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the oldest church in the world that is dedicated to Our Lady.
Exactly a year ago today, the Formal Declaration of the bond was led by Most. Rev. Enrique V. Macaraeg, D.D., Bishop of Tarlac in the Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy in Matatalaib.
Because of this spiritual connection, anybody who visits the Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Nuestra Señora de La Merced will always be granted the same graces and indulgences that are granted to visitors to the Papal Basilica in Rome, Italy.
𝘔𝘪𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘪 𝘤𝘢 𝘋𝘪𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘤!
𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘨𝘶𝘥 𝘺𝘢 𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘪𝘰𝘴!
𝘓𝘶𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘢 𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘝𝘪𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯!


The City of Eureka is located in West St. Louis County, just west of the Meramec River, along Interstate 44, about 40 minutes southwest of Downtown St Louis. The population of Eureka has steadily increased over the last two decades. The city was incorporated in 1954.
The residents of the community are served by the Rockwood School District. Students living in Eureka will attend Eureka High School and LaSalle Springs Middle School. The elementary schools that serve Eureka are Blevins Elementary School, Eureka Elementary School and Geggie Elementary School which students attend according to their address.
Eureka Days, an annual festival, is held in September in Downtown Eureka and Lions Park. There is a parade, fireworks, carnival type rides, entertainment, a classic car show, contests, food, a beer garden, games and lots more.
The City of Eureka maintains 9 parks with a total of 164 acres of parkland. Those parks feature playgrounds, athletic fields football and soccer, fields for baseball, handball courts, basketball courts, sand volleyball courts, pavilions, fishing lakes, 9-hole disc golf course and more. A future Eureka Recreational Center is currently being developed and will include a gymnasium, fitness area, meeting rooms, and more. Construction is planned to begin in 2012. Other recreational opportunities in or near Eureka are Six Flags amusement park and Hurricane Harbor, Greensfelder County Park, Rockwoods Reservation, several private and public golf courses, Hidden Valley Ski Resort, Route 66 State Park, the Meramec River for boating and fishing, the Endangered Wolf Center and West Tyson Park.
The Missouri Pacific Railroad came through the area of Eureka in 1853. Five years later in 1858, the village of Eureka was platted around the railroad line, which eventually included the St Louis & San Francisco line as well. Central Avenue, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Streets, all part of Historic Downtown Eureka today, were laid out. By 1890 there were about 100 homes, two churches, a US Post Office, two all important blacksmiths, a saloon, a district school at the corner of 4th and Virginia and several other businesses all located in the village. Today many of those original buildings remain and are occupied by antique and specialty shops, of which Eureka is well known.
Eureka has two St. Louis County Landmarks. The first is Deep Springs Farm. It was built about 1875 and is incorporated into the hotel located on Allenton Six Flags Road. The hotel uses the stone walls of the farm's 19th century barns as part of the "charm" of the building. The other landmark is the Augustine Farm on Augustine Road that was built by Captain Edward Augustine in 1865.
Eureka Missouri City Hall
100 City Hall Drive
Eureka, MO 63025


The Crimmins Law Firm was established in 2016. Prior to that time, the firm was previously known as Bennett, Crimmins & Livingston and had been located at 704 Central Avenue since 1979. The predecessor firm was founded by the late Herbert R. Bennett, who began practicing law in 1948 and eventually joined the late Paul McCarville as a partner in a law practice. After Paul McCarville's death in 1979, Herb Bennett, who may have been better known as a community leader in the Fort Dodge area, continued to practice law for more than 50 years. In 1987, Mark R. Crimmins joined the firm that now bears his name.
The firm is proud to serve many of the same clients that Herb Bennett worked with in the 1960's and 1970's and credits these long-term relationships to its hard work, compassion, and integrity. Today, the firm continues to provide a variety of legal services to clients in the Fort Dodge area and throughout Iowa.
We are located in downtown Fort Dodge on the corner of First Avenue North and North Seventh Street.
The building in which our office is situated was previously the manufacturing plant of Mulroney Manufacturing Company, in the early part of the 20th century. After extensive renovation work by Leo Stucky throughout the building, the Crimmins & Kehm Law Firm moved into the offices on the first floor of the building.
Many of the walls in the office display pictures of the 20th century manufacturing operation. Also, in addition to many of the building's architectural features, the original walk-in safe that was used by Mulroney Manufacturing remains intact and is preserved in the office.


The South African Krugerrand is one of the most prestigious and actively traded gold bullion coin in different parts of the world. Ever since the South African Mint started manufacturing Silver and Gold Krugerrand, it has gone on to surpass many coins out there. But how well do you know this iconic coin? If you have been asking yourself this question then you have definitely come to the right place. In this post, we are going to examine 4 facts about the Krugerrand you probably knew nothing about.
The First Gold Krugerrand Coin Was Minted in 1967
You probably did not know this but the first Krugerrand Gold coin was first released by the South African Mint in July 1967. This was at a time of great political turmoil and uncertainty including the Cold War, the Vietnam Conflict and Richard Nixon ending the Gold Standard. After all these happenings, South Africa decided to strike its own gold coin thus leading to the release of the first in 1967.
It Has a Chequered Past
South Africa suffered economic sanctions during the 1970s and 1980s due to its policy on apartheid. Therefore, buying Krugerrands was viewed as an approval of the practice and hence some Western countries, Great Britain included, decided to make the Krugerrand an illegal import. Ever since the end of apartheid, South Africa increased the production of the Krugerrand making it one of the most highly respected gold coins in existence today.
It is a Legal Tender Coin
While releasing the Gold Krugerrand, the South African Mint had the intention of making it the country’s money. It was actually meant for use both locally and internationally with the 1oz Krugerrand bearing a face value of 1 Rand. The coins value emanates from the value of the pure gold contained within it. To make it even better, the Krugerrand was the first coin to not feature a currency denomination on the obverse or reverse.
It is Recognized Worldwide
The silver Krugerrand can be traded virtually anywhere in the world at any particular time. Actually, millions of ounces of gold have been used in the minting of Gold Krugerrand making it one of the most traded gold bullion coins in the world. Having a remarkable history, the South African Krugerrand is surely a dependable gold coin and hence you can try it out even when having a different metal investment portfolio.


WELCOME TO PETRA MOON VILLAGE
The land and buildings of Petra Moon Village have a long association with the Nawafleh tribe,
Petra and the surrounding countryside.
The site was settled by members of the Nawafleh tribe in the late 1800s, and the villagers used
the abundant stones to build their houses and establish a village. Over the years the village
expanded and the surrounding land was terraced and planted with many fruit and olive trees.
As Wadi Musa developed and expanded so the villagers moved into the town, finally abandoning
the site in 1975.
Subsequently the village was developed into a hotel complex. At that time the Department of
Antiquities carried out several investigations to establish the early history of the site and to
ensure any archaeological features were preserved.
These investigations showed that the earliest remains dated back to the Iron II (Edomite) period
but also indications of the Early and Middle Bronze Age. The site appears to show that the main
occupation started in the Nabatean period – first century BC – and that it has been occupied up
to the present with only a few periods of non habitation. The construction of the buildings in the
1800s reflected a building tradition that had started back in the first century BC. The use of
terraces helped support the buildings and gave the villagers the agricultural land to grow fruit
and olive trees. During the excavations a number of olive presses were found from various
periods, together with remains of hydraulic installations, water channels and a water tank
Today the hotel is under new management by the members of Nawafleh family who also own the
Petra Moon Hotel. From the hotel you can look across the valley and see the terraces built all
those years ago by the family’s ancestors and which today still provide fruit and olives for the
area. All of the buildings on the site are the originals built in the 1800s and brought up to date to
reflect the needs of today’ traveller.
We wish you a pleasant stay.


When the settlement Perštejn exactly rose is not known up to now, its origins however refers to the castle Perštejn, whose name it was given. First record about the castle dates back to the year 1344 and it might be assumed that the settlement originated soon thereafter as lords of the castle were involved in fast settlement of the area around the castle. From the year 1431 there are records available about several buildings, lying in the area of today´s Perštejn, a pub and a mill are concerned, first known report on the village dates as back as 1468.
Name of the village has undergone a number of changes, in the past Perštejn was mentioned as Purstein, its popular name was Peršta, in the German original literature it is called Luftkurort – climatic spa, resort, or also Meran of the Ore Mountains.
We know unfortunately very little on the oldest history of Perštejna, as all documents and memorial books had been lost in the time of disasters which hit the chateau of Klášterec in the years 1639 and 1784. For certain we can say that in times when first inhabitants came to settle Perštejn part of local land had belonged to inhabitants of the near villages Černýš, Rájov and Ondřejov. Also mining and manufacture of iron, first iron hammers are known from the year 1352 already.
In the early 16th century the castle Perštejn became dilapidated, which had impact on living around the castle, this adverse period didn´t take long. As early as 1540 there is a hammer recorded in the village, in 1577 here was also a blast furnace and Perštejn thus began to be considered as one of ironworks ceentres of the Ore Mountains. However not only iron ore had been mined here, it was also silver. Due to rumours on local silver mines one company opened here in 1870 one local half-filled up gallery, in which was indeed found ore containing silver. Due to too high costs needed for mining recovery the works were stopped.
At the end of the 16th century predominated the Protestant faith around Perštejn (and even at Perštejn itself). In Boča, to the parish of which also inhabitants of Perštejn belonged, lived Kryštof of Fictum, owner of the Klášterec dominion, to which those times had belonged also Perštejn. He was also Protestant and during the Estates Uprising he was one of its leaders. He died during uprising, he was however condamned to loss of his fortune after the defeat in the battle at the White Mount. In 1623 a new holder of the dominion of Klášterec became Kryštof Šimon Thun. He was a Catholic and promoted forcible recatholization in his dominion. The pastor of Boča as well as a local teacher both had to leave and Perštejn, together with Černýš, Rájov and Údolíčko were assigned to the parish of Klášterec.
In the following years the Thirty Years´War ravaged causing wreak havoc at Perštejn. In the years 1633, 1634, 1639, 1642 and 1645 the village was repeatedly assaulted by Swedish soldiers, who were looting and plundering, a lot of houses burnt down here and a great number of Protestants left due to war hardships. After the war there were no large farms here any more, also the local hammer was destroyed during the war.
There lived also one of the most significant families of Pernštejn who could thank their lucky stars that they hadn´t nearly been touched by the Thirty Years´War, which meant disaster for the whole village. The family Schoffel is concerned. The Schoffels owned those days a few mills, a pub favoured from 1649 by inheritance with many privileges and they were also allowed to bake bread and rolls for hammerers, slaught cattle and hold a smithy.
The life at Perštejn began after the war to get slowly back on the rails, activities in business and building arrived again, cattle breeding spread out, Schoffel´s mill was considerably larger – it had 4 wheels – and in addition to Perštejn itself there milled other 6 villages. Since mid 17th century ironworks was the most important Perštejn´s enterprise. It included also two bar hammers and ore and slag crushing plant. Ore was supplied here from the mines Klášterecká Jesen, Údolíčko, Mýtinky and above all from Slečna in Mezilesí. In 1743 ironworks was extended by a hammer for manufacture of nail making iron.
At Eastern 1680 broke out a country uprising in Klášterec dominion. Therein took part also Kryštof Schoffel´s son Jiří, probably because the manorial nobility hadn´t given him the right to all father´s rights and privileges after his death in 1675. The uprising was supressed by the troops dispatched from Žatec, and Jiří Schoffel was condamned to death and forfeiture of the pub. He managed to escape in time, he lost however his property.
In addition to the part of Perštejn also the upper part of the valley above Perštejn called Finkelstein began to come alive. About early of the 18th century Kristián Vetter, K. Schoffel´s son-in-law built here a paperwork with a few buildings and 4 pulp-mills. Nearly at the same time with this „lower paperworks“ the manorial nobility built s.c. „upper paperworks“ in the building no. 20. Having burnt down in 1756 the lower paperworks has never been recovered for fear that two paperworks wouldn´t be able to earn their living. The upper paperworks was by manorial nobility in 1722 handed over to Josef Hergl. He was allowed to set up, at his own expenses, another three pulp-mills to existing five ones. He had however to provide manufacture of high quality paper and to provide manorial nobility with amount as required by it and for more at actual low price.
This new field of manufacture brought much benefit for the village. Until 1732 the village had missed a church, people thus had to go to church as far as to Klášterec. In 1724 had the paperworks owner built a chapel near his house, consecrated to St. Joseph, he fitted it with all kinds of church outfit and a bell and a priest from Klášterec had celebrated the Mass there since 1732. In 1773 hired out Hergl´s heirs the paperworks, which was already fitted with a new hollander, to Jan Frass of Vejprty. There was also a pulp-mill by the paperworks for manufacture of linseed oil those days, run by Ignác Schoffel. In 1798 the paperworks had to be sld to František Dick, miller from Vejprty.
In 1784 there was built a wire plant on lower paperworks´site of a fire, called „upper plant“. It was built by the family Grunda, one of the richest Perštejn´s families. It was this wire plant´s duty to intake iron only from the manor ironworks without disturbing operation of the mill in Lužný (through retaining of water). The Grundas held the wire plant until 1825, when they sold it toVáclav Plach of Lužný.
By end of the 18th century the chapel was too small due to increasing number of population, it was in addition for majority of parishioners too far to get there. There was therefore built up a temporary wood little church in the village in 1788. In July in the same year there was set up a cemetery in the manor field, cancelled as late as in the early 60ies of the 20th century. As it soon came evident the church construction hadn´t been solid enough, it was derisively called „perštejn´s shed for sheep“, its state was such bad that in a short time it was in danger of falling down. Thus a new church had to be built up. This was finished in 1797 and consecrated to St. Vendelín.
The school of Perštejn rose under Maria Theresia. The lessons first took place in an old chateau mill and then followed other, the same unsuitable sites.In 1787 the first permanent teacher was established here, there wasn´t however any school building yet. Situation wwent on to be worse, e.g. in 1793 even 98 children had to move closer together into one room. In 1801 there was at last built up first own school building here. Even this one proved soon unsufficient and it had to be rebuilt.
Beginning of the 19th century is in Perštejn characterized through building. It concerned construction of a number of new houses, in 1802 a new pub was built up called „Zum Eisenhammer“ (at the Hammers´) – today there is situated a library. Also a new road was constructed between Karlovy Vary and Teplice.
Consumption of wood in ironworks was too high those days and the plant was getting unprofitable. In the years 1815 – 1827 ironworks was leased to the businessman of Prague Gruss, then taken over by manorial nobility again. They were doing their best to recover the ironworks – in1832 the earl Thun had the old blast furnace pulled down and built a new one, all turned however useless. Although in 1840 about 50 persons were still employed here, and 1000 centners forgeable iron and 500 cast iron were manufactured here (centner = approx. 50 kg), the local foundry, where boilers, stove plates, rails and the like were manufactured, had an excellent reputation, costs were however continuously rising, until the lower ironworks turned at last into the sawmill and manufacture of shingles. Remaining plants of the ironworks were in 1864 sold to an independent lord of Riese-Stallburg. This tried to cut costs replacing wood with brown coal, he had however failed and works in the ironworks were completely brought to an end. The main hammer turned into an armament workshop.
It was not only the ironworks, who faced problems. Also the lower wire plant had twice changed its manufacture until it burned down in 1848 and turned after 1854 to a mill. The same hit also the hammer for manufacture of barrels. Either the paperworks didn´t do well, its operation had to be limited. In 1862 it was sold to the brothers Kuhnel, who completely remade the whole operation and thus recovered the manufacture. It resulted in manufacture for export.
In 1850 villages became self-governing units. In the following period the village should have turned out better due to this change, it was however on the contrary. Hard times arrived in Perštejn due to decline of main businesses and bobbin lacemaking, bringing living for a number of families. Even some deaths of hunger took place here. And in addition inhabitants of Perštejn began to be tormented by frequent natural disasters. For example in 1850 lightning struck a rock and a piece split off the rock fell down on the house no 59... The most destructive consequences for the village resulted from frequent floods. The worst one was likely to have been on 27th May 1868, by a terrible rainstorm brooks burst their banks. Connection to settlements in the mountains got cut off and the brook from Rájov mounded up such an amount of stones that it made up a dike. The brook from Vykmanov couldn´t resist it and changed its direction. It blew off any barrier on its way. People couldn´t but escape up the hills and wait what will follow…
These bad times had fortunately not taken long. New businesses soon began to set up in Perštejn providing job options again. It was a new paperworks in the house no. 20, producing filter papers, manufacture was opened by the firm making cork stoppers, in 1885 there was established Rossner´s carton factory, making variety of etuis, boxes of chocolates, cassettes for chemists, jewellers, perfumeries and for cutleries. Also mouth organs and strings were made here. The factory had its own printing works and joinery and exported to Sweden and Norway. In 1886 Josef Brunner opened manufacture of wood articles and slates.
Also extension of the railway from Prague through Chomutov up to Cheb helped develop the local industry. The line was put into operation on October 9 1871, and so was a post office opened in Perštejn in the same year.
Along with development of industry in towns people of towns came to be interested in nature. Perštejn thus became a popular resort, especially after a mineral water spring had been discovered by a manorial sawmill.
As the end of the 19th century also an early 20th century was very successful for Perštejn. As early as in 1900 Ludvík Breitfeld bought a small plant for posaments (?), which had well functioned here since 1864, he modernized it, installed a steam engine, used a water stream found near here to drive two turbines and he had his own power supply. Braids, laces, fringe, tapes and threads made of rayon were made here. In 1906 Hermann Pickart´s firm was transferred from Dubí u Teplic to Perštejn. In this location it´s name was „First Perštejn factory for manufacture of saws and tools“ and began its work in the house no 20, bought by Pickart together with manufacture of paper. As early as in 1917 he sold these buildings and moved the whole enterprise to Okounov. The paperwork was then taken over by the Kuhnels again. Since 1911 there was another firm in Perštejn, making saws and wood-cutting tools. Its owners were brothers Alten. This firm built up a new building in 1924, later used as Sokol club. The trade mark of the firm – a hunter´s hut – itś available to see even these days on this building. In 1919 there was set up another firm in the village - Eduard Roscher, manufacture of tools and punch and threads cutters.
In Perštrejn there were these days established some clubs, such as a monetary institute, voluntary firemen club, Male choir (part of which was also female choir), gymnastics club, whose salon orchestra gave concerts ans theatre performances and Krušnohorský club Perštejn. The local school was 5-class one, together with an extension traders course for students aged 15 to18 years and one class of Czech school, although there lived only few Czechs here.
There were established some more enterprises in the village after World War I:: Franz Knitel – manufacture of quilts, Wilhelm Placht – stove-fitting, pottery and manufacture of cookers, Josef Schoffl – sawmill, Marie Tschochnerová – sawmill and manufacture of shingles. All these firms managed to survive even the World War II. In addition there were here 6 small plants: Anton Frank – manufacture of braids, Franz Gamisch – manufacture and sale of gingerbreads and sweets, Artur Guiber – manufacture of spirits, Hugo Hirsch – trade and manufacture of braids, Wenzel Salzer – joinery and wood-cutting machines workshop and Eduard Ziener – manufacture of trimmings of natural materials. These plants are however not mentioned any more after World War II..
Such as everywhere around Czechia also in Perštejn relationships between Czech and german population began to get worse in mid 30ies. The nearer to the year 1938, the more strained situation there was in the village. In the May election in 1938 GermanSdP gained 27 out of 30 seats in the local council, there came to slight conflicts and incidents between Czechs and Germans …On September 30 1938 came Munich followed by occupation of the Sudeten by German troops. The war was inexorably near. On October 3 1938 Perštejn was occupied by the German Army.
First the Germans thought that things would go better again. Even some plans came true, to which there were no money in the times of the world crisis in the 30ies. A new water mains from Údolíčko was set up, a local pond behind old ironworks was drained and a modern bathing pool began to be built on its place, also a cemetery established in 1930 was extended…War consequences had reached soon even here. Men went away to the front, their positions were replaced with women, called up from Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and even from the UdSSR and later also war prisoners to do forced labour in Nazi Germany. For example only in agriculture worked about 40 Poles and Russians. Duty to work concerned even 80-year citizens and not reporting for work was punished. Later on evacuees from the East began to come here followed at last by refugees from the east front. They were about 2000. In addition to these troubles and shortage of goods Perštejn was not touched too much by war. Though in 1944 fell here a few bombs, these however didn´t cause any damage. Continual shelling of the railway and road from Karlovy Vary constituted a certain threat for the village by end of the war, however no harm resulted therefrom for the village. On December 16 1943 an American fighter of the type Mustang crashed near Perštejn. His pilot, lieutenant Wilson burnt to death in the plane. He was burried on the cemetery of Perštejn and later his mortal remains were brought to the cemetery of Olšany in Prague. His war memorial was unveiled in the village in the early 90ies.
After World War II had finished German population was evacuated. Unless Czech settlers began to come here since as early as in May, Perštejn would be nearly depopulated. Local enterprises got by most under national government and some relatively successfully went on in their activities. Thie however resulted in complete putting off their operation or they were taken over by firms from inland. For example Breitfeld was thus incorporated into the national enterprise Spojené továrny na stuhy Dobruška, the paperworks as well as Rossner into Západočeské papírny Plzeň etc. This impacts nearly wound up enterprises in Perštejn, only the paperworks and „breitfeld“ survived, even though first as a military laundry and military clothes, linen and shoewear repairs. Since mid 50ies the factory was taken over by producers´cooperative VKUS Teplice and since then up to now they have made sleeping bags and ready-made clothing.
Soon after liberation local life began to recover – three Czech school classes were opened, a Czech fire brigade was established, Sokol, Skaut, theatre unit „Hraničář“ and also a cooperative enterprise Včela was opened. In October 1945 a permanent garrison was allocated in Perštejn. Boom in sports activities took place in the 50ies. There took place e.g. a regional championship in football, table tennis, volleyball, TJ Spartak followed up to Sokol tradition.
Demolitions of old, inconvenient or empty houses took place in the 60ies. The 70ies were quiet in Perštejn, without any distinctive involvments in everyday life, changes related to considerable progress weren´t brought until end of the 80ies. There were built a number of new beautiful villas, House of services here and in the years 1992 – 1996 installation of gas was performed. Perštejn became a significant holday area again. Although status of mainframe villages expired in 1990, Perštejn substantially remained a mainframe village with its parts Černýš, Lužný, Ondřejov, Rájov, Údolíčko and Vykmanov.
In 1992 there was established a district department of police of the CR here, this year Perštejn accepted the programme „Obnova vesnice“ (recovery of th village). In 1993 it became part of Ore Mountains information centre, in September this year there was opened a new bridge across the Perštejn valley, due to which traffic and ecological stress of the lower part of Perštejn was considerably limited. In 1997 the village was awarded with a green ribbon for care for a green area in the competition „Vesnice roku“ (the village of the year).
Perštejn has gone through great changes recently. There rose new restaurants and boarding houses here, number of shops and services has extended, mailing service and sale of food and magazines moved away into a new business and service centre, there is in addition a nice sports ground with tennis courts, one of the most attractive bathing pools around district with bungalows for lodging summer guests … Since 1993 local school has had a new facade, whose colour treatment was designed by children themselves. In 1996 a unique biological STP was put into operation. Redevelopment of the St. Vendelín church is under planning for the future, in its rooms should be established a museum of declined villages of the district. Below the hotel and the restaurant Formule should in addition be created a commemoration grove, where there were placed big stones between trees and paths, similar to menhirs, provided with names of each ara of declined villages.
Perštejn is today a well looking, very promissingly developing village representing for many people from broad surroundings a site to enjoy relax and holiday.
Referrences: Bílek, J., Jangl, L., Urban,J. Dějiny hornictví na Chomutovsku
Binterová, Z. Perštejn a okolí. Chomutov 1999
Chytilův Místopis Československé republiky. Praha 1930
Kotyška, V. Úplný místopisný slovník Království českého. Praha 1895
Urban, J. F. Potulky Kadaňskem II, III. 1935, 1936


For the characters that didn't get much playing time.
Technical Fairy, First Class
Private Snafu was a black and white instructional cartoon made during WWII and was primarily show to soldiers. In this cartoon the dim witted Private Snafu would learn about different aspects of warfare and the military, while being lectured and guided through situations by one Technical Fairy, First Class, a butch militarily competent fairy with a wand and cigar. This fairy's tour of duty ended when victory over the enemy was achieved in 1945.


Join the Movement - Center for Civil and Human Rights
My team already had a campaign concept in place by the time I started working with them, but they still needed a digital component to help sell the idea in. That's when I came up with this digital quiz that helps link motivated museum-goers to the civil or human rights leader they are most like, while connecting them to social causes they can get involved with in their community.
Banners and social posts guide people to the quiz.
The campaign concept:
Many social movements, past and present, have started as protests, petitions and sit-ins. Today, you can also join a movement with a simple hashtag and a click. Mirroring the Civil Rights Museum in Atlanta — an interactive space where history is told through the technology of the present — we played with the idea of bringing social media into historical moments to inspire more people to visit the museum and join a movement after their visit.
AD: Francisco Vargas
Designer: Ashley Roden


The Military Order of the World Wars is a national patriotic organization of American Military Officers, Warrant Officers, Flight Officers and their descendants of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the United States Public Health Service (USPHS). It includes active, reserve component, retired, or former service members.
In 1918, General of the Armies, John J. Pershing, led the American Expeditionary Forces to Europe to engage the Central Powers and aid the Allies. From what he saw in Europe and in the United States, he became concerned about the lack or patriotism and further the lack of leadership training for the future leaders of the United States. For these reasons, Gen. Pershing petitioned the United States Congress to authorize by Statute an organization which would go forward to accomplish these goals. As a result by statutory authority, The Military Order of the World Wars was founded.
General Pershing asked his Commissioned Officers and Warrant Officers to join the Military Order when they left active duty and continue to serve our Country and their Communities as a unified group. However, he specifically prohibited the Military Order from participating in Politics or Lobbying Efforts as an organization. He considered service to the Country more important, and he directed that the Military Order would be a service organization only with the motto “It is nobler to serve, than to be served.” Because the Military Order works behind the scenes, it does not receive much publicity and is not well known.
Since the founding of the Military Order, thousands of Officers and Hereditary Companions have joined rank to work with Police Departments, Firefighter Departments, Youth Leadership Conferences, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, ROTC units and assist Veterans transition into civilian life.
The Military Order is always looking for more former or retired Commissioned Officers, Warrant Officers or the Descendants of these Officers to carry on the necessary work which Gen. Pershing envisioned


Parishes are the place where God's people meet Jesus in word and sacrament and come in touch with the source of the church's life. Communities of Salt. U.S. Bishops' Pastoral Letter of 1993. In 1938, 18 people formed Holy Ghost Parish. The celebration of the first Mass in the mission church (now our chapel) was on Christmas Day 1939, and it was dedicated on Pentecost, May 11, 1940. The newspaper described it as:
“The little church situated on Bohicket road, 14 miles from the Bishop’s house on Broad Street. The Presbyterian church is on the same road…directly across from the new Catholic church.” Ironically, the newspaper gave two sets of directions to the church, one over the “Stono river bridge” and the other over the “John’s Island bridge…passing on the way the John’s Island high school.” The article also credited, “the voluntary labor of about 30 Catholic men of Charleston, most of them members of the Knights of Columbus, who for several months, worked nights and on Saturday on the construction.”
As various parishes were established West of the Ashley, the mission on Johns Island came under the supervision of first, Blessed Sacrament Parish in 1944 and then Nativity Parish in 1958. On September 7th 1967, our current Holy Spirit Parish was established.
Growth within the parish continued, especially with the development of Kiawah and Seabrook Island resort communities. The number of parishioners increased and equally important, the parish became a “church away from home” for many tourists attracted to the resort areas. In 1978, a new social hall/church and rectory were constructed. The growth continues today, but more importantly, Holy Spirit Parish continues to have an ever-expanding role in the growth and welfare of the community that it serves on the islands. The most important of these activities is the Holy Spirit Quality of Life Program that reaches out to the community with both material and spiritual endeavors. The accomplishments of the program are a tribute to the dedication and direction of the pastors, and the support provided by the parish and the many visitors who worship with the parish. Holy Spirit Parish represents much more than a physical facility. It is a viable and loving parish dedicated to the community that it serves on these wonderful islands – Johns, Wadmalaw, Kiawah, and Seabrook.
The new Holy Spirit Church building is now complete and is located on thirty-seven acres that belonged to the Diocese of Charleston and is four miles south of the present church. The property bordered by wetlands has several large trees and a large pond. At a groundbreaking ceremony, Bishop Robert J. Baker and Father James Parker blessed the site on May 27th, 2002. Parishioners, visiting Priests, and the Knights of Columbus, in full regalia were present as well as the Kiawah Men’s Chorus who sang. Construction soon began. Steel pilings and girders have given shape to a 1,000 seat church for the families of the area and visitors from all over the United States and the world.


Retornei lá em 2011 e continua com a mesma qualidade e continua sendo muito delicioso
Hoje , dia 09/10/2012 recebi esta mensagem de sua sobrinha neta - Ines di Lellio sobre a história do restaurante IL Vero Alfredo, o qual fiquei muito emocionado e que agradeço de coração a mensagem enviada em meu e-mail , em inglês, originalmente e traduzida por mim ao final da página:
HISTORY OF ALFREDO DI LELIO CREATOR OF “FETTUCCINE ALL’ALFREDO”
With reference of your article we have the pleasure to tell you the history of our grandfather Alfredo Di Lelio, creator of “fettuccine all’Alfredo” (recipe in the world known).
Alfredo di Lelio opened the restaurant "Alfredo" in 1914 in a street in central Rome, after leaving his first restaurant run by his mother Angelina in Piazza Rosa (Piazza disappeared in 1910 following the construction of the Galleria Colonna / Sordi). In this local spread the fame, first to Rome and then in the world, of "fettuccine all'Alfredo".
In 1943, during the war, Di Lelio gave the local to his collaborators.
In 1950 Alfredo Di Lelio decided to reopen with his son Armando his restaurant “Il Vero Alfredo” in Rome, Piazza Augusto Imperatore n.30, which is now managed by his nephews Alfredo (same name of grandfather) and Ines (the same name of his grandmother, wife of Alfredo Di Lelio, who were dedicated to the noodles).
See also the site of “Il Vero Alfredo” http://www.alfredo-roma.it/).
We must clarify that other restaurants "Alfredo" in Rome do not belong to the family tradition of "Il Vero Alfredo" in Rome.
We inform that the restaurant “Il Vero Alfredo” is in the registry of “Historic Shops of Excellence” of the City of Rome Capitale.
We inform you that the restaurant "Alfredo di Roma" of Salvador de Bahia is linked to our restaurant in Rome.
Best regards Alfredo e Ines Di Lelio
Fazendo Fettucine alla Alfredo, sendo preparado por mim, no Bar do Elias......


Welcome to the Mother Lode Chapter
|Who We Are
|The Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) are direct descendants of those patriots that achieved
the independence of the American people. The objectives of our organization are intended to perpetuate a more profound
reverence for the principles of the government founded by our forefathers.
|The Purpose of Our Society
The SAR is a historical, educational, and patriotic United States 501(c)3 non-profit organization that seeks to maintain and extend:
We do this by perpetuating the stories of patriotism, courage, sacrifice, tragedy, and triumph of the men who achieved the
independence of the American people in the belief that these stories are universal ones of man's eternal struggle against
tyranny, relevant to all time, and will inspire and strengthen each succeeding generation as it too is called upon to defend
our freedoms on the battlefield and in our public institutions. Preserve the memory of those whose service and sacrifice
during the American Revolution secured independence for the American people.
- the institutions of American freedom
- an appreciation for true patriotism
- a respect for our national symbols
- the value of American citizenship
- the unifying force of e pluribus unum that has created, from the people of many nations, one nation and one people.
- Unite and promote fellowship among their descendants.
- Inspire them and the Community with a more profound reverence for the principles of the government founded by our forefathers.
- Encourage historical research in relation to the American Revolution.
- Maintain and extend the institutions of American freedom, an appreciation for true patriotism, a respect for our national symbols, and the value of American citizenship.
- Promote the purposes expressed in the preamble of the Constitution.
Mother Lode Chapter meetings Meetings are the 4th Tuesday of each month, at 6:30 PM at Denny’s Restaurant, 3446 Coach Ln, Cameron Park, CA (come at 6:00PM if ordering meal)


Great FallsElementary School
Listed on the National Register of Historic place and perhaps one of Fairfax County's most unique and rare examples of an historic home, circa 1828, is this stately Cornwell Farm's residence of antebellum plantation architecture with a Flemish bond brick facade and exceptional craftsmanship. Updated kitchen, baths, main level laundry. Located just minutes from the quaint village of Great Falls along Georgetown Pike. This beautiful landmark retains its rural setting on a 2+/- sprawling acres of land. Property is Sold AS IS! Swimming Pool does not convey. Photos are from Previous Listing. Home Is currently is not staged!


You Won’t Find This In History Books: Racist Postcards from the 1950’s
Disbelief. Embarrassment. Anger.
That’s the order of emotions I experienced when I came across these postcards. I was in an antique shop in Cannon Falls, a small town in Minnesota. My husband and I spent a weekend there at a quaint bed-and-breakfast. I collect books that are over 100 years old, so I love searching through used books to find items for my collection. These racist images stood out on a shelf crowded with otherwise generic prints such as vintage Pepsi ads, newspapers, publications and promotional materials.
When they first caught my eye, I felt uneasy. It took several seconds before I could even bring myself to pick them up. Eventually the shock wore off and a wave of embarrassment came over me. As a black woman, I was saddened to see such a negative representation of black people. Suddenly I had the urge to hide them before anybody else could set eyes on them.
Quickly, anger displaced my embarrassment.
I was angry that these representations and messages were meant to be amusing. Likewise, I was angry that people decided to make a profit by publishing images that disparaged black people:
- Someone came up with the concept to create a series of cards
- The publisher invested money in the project.
- An artist did the design work.
- A worker ran the printing presses to publish them.
- A store owner made them accessible for sale.
- And someone bought them.
Clearly these weren’t just racist drawings made for a private collection. That would be bad enough, but an entire company was behind these images. Even more, there was a society amenable to accepting them.
Neither of these racist postcards published by the Tichnor brothers of Boston, MA, are date stamped. Similar images though have publish dates between 1945 and 1955. In other words, they appeared well after slavery ended but right before the slow fizzle of Jim Crow laws. An article, penned by historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explains the idea behind these images:
As W.E.B. Du Bois put it, “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” How was the genie of freedom and equality forced back into the bottle of segregation and second-class citizenship? How was it that the emancipated were “moved back again toward slavery” after only a few years “in the sun”?
It turns out the assault was double-barreled: first through a series of Jim Crow laws and court rulings that effectively reversed or neutralized the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and the 14th and 15th Amendments (guaranteeing equal protection under the law and outlawing race-based voting discrimination, respectively), and second (and almost simultaneously) through the astonishingly wide distribution of a massive mountain of negative Sambo images, which were intended to naturalize the image of the black person as sub-human and in doing so justify and subliminally reinforce the perverted logic of the separate and unequal system of Jim Crow itself. The assault was devastatingly effective and brilliantly evil.
Of course I bought the postcards. I wanted to make sure this part of our history wouldn’t be forgotten.
Before making this discovery at that antique store, I knew about Jim Crow laws and segregation. Furthermore, I had seen images of Al Jolson, actors in black face, and minstrel shows. However I had never seen anything like these postcards. It reminded me that we exclude so much from American history books and lessons. We’re satisfied to a degree with learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. during Black History Month. And we settle for a watered down history of the Civil Rights Movement. Almost all lessons regarding slavery center around the Civil War. The callousness of treating people like beasts of burden, the crushing events and consequence of the slave trade, and the economics of slavery are downplayed. Undoubtedly, I find these postcards repugnant. At the same time, it’s more disturbing to think of how we neglect this part of our history.
Just one generation ago, people produced, sold, purchased, and sent these postcards through the mail. My mother and father came into this world in the 1950’s. My mother, born and raised in Philadelphia, was teased about her dark skin. Meanwhile, my father grew up in Alabama, not too far from Mobile. He remembers “colored only” signs over bathrooms and water fountains. They lived hundreds of miles apart, and yet both experienced racial bias and discrimination. It would be foolish to think that their experiences in no way colored their view of themselves in the world. Views that no doubt, influenced how they raised their children.
People who say racism is no longer an issue perhaps fail to consider how remnants from the past affect us now. It’s similar to telling someone who watched their grandmother die from cancer years ago, that that event has no substantive influence because they themselves aren’t suffering from cancer now. That line of thinking is insensitive and ignorant.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. -Marcus Garvey.
We need to be grounded in our own history. Otherwise we are easily swayed and lulled to sleep by whitewashed and suspiciously biased accounts of history.
Bottom Line: We need to get woke.


On the anniversary of the Keating Five scandal that got Sen. John McCain into trouble and spurred his interest in campaign finance reform, we've put together a little video reminding the Senator of the hot water he was in, his past commitment to reform, and the letter we've written (which you can sign!) asking him to pledge to enact full public financing of federal campaigns if he is elected President.
From our press release marking the anniversary, a brief recap of the Keating Five story:
On April 2, 1987, Senator McCain joined four other U.S. Senators and federal regulators in former Sen. Dennis DeConcini’s (D-AZ) office at Room 328 of the Hart Senate Office Building. During the meeting, the senators, soon to be named the Keating Five, tried to intimidate regulators on Charles Keating Jr.’s behalf. Keating ran a real estate business in McCain’s home state of Arizona and a savings and loan in California. The businessman and his associates donated $112,000 to McCain’s campaigns. McCain also took nine trips at Keating’s expense, including three to the Bahamas, that he did not disclose until after the investigation was underway.
Ultimately, the federal government seized the company, leaving American taxpayers responsible for a $2.8 billion bailout, and 21,000 seniors lost their savings.


Sale-New Listing-"Dynasty" Carved Chinese Jade Bangle Bracelet 53mm (NJ-CARV-31-53)
Carved in the old Dynasty style, this Chinese jade bangle bracelet is simple and elegant. Size is 53 mm inside diameter, 10mm thick. Very well polished, smooth to the touch. This style was often worn by Dynasty men who wanted a more substantial heavier, but also comfortable to wear jade bangle bracelet. Photos taken in natural outdoor lighting at different angles. Each slightly different.
Genuine and natural Chinese jade used for centuries in China and Asia. Made by Ying Yu Jade carver in China, who buys the jade stone from the mine and carves unique jade bangles for JBB.