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introvertguide · 3 years

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A Clockwork Orange (1971); AFI #70

The current movie under review is a well known but not often watched work from Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange (1971). It is one of the best known acting performances of Malcolm McDowell and it occurred very early on in his career. It turns out that McDowell plays a very good crazy. The movie was nominated for many of the major awards at the Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing) but didn’t win any because it went against The French Connection and Kubrick’s movie was so filled with explicit rape scenes that it was originally rated X. I am not one to judge a director’s vision, but it seems like the movie would have done a lot better without all the weird rape scenes. There is a lot of very beautiful cinematography as well, which makes the juxtaposition to the sex and violence all the more jarring. Let’s go over the plot and I will keep track of the violence:

SPOILER WARNING!!! THIS MOVIE PLOT IS ABOUT TO BE COMPLETELY SPOILED SO DON’T READ AHEAD UNTIL YOU HAVE SEEN IT ON YOUR OWN!!! UNLESS, OF COURSE, YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO KNOW AND REFERENCE THE MOVIE WITHOUT DEALING WITH ALL THE RAPE. IN THAT CASE, GO AHEAD AND READ AWAY!!!

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In a futuristic Britain, Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) is the leader of a gang of minions he calls "droogs": Georgie, Dim and Pete. One night, after getting intoxicated on drug-laden "milk-plus", they engage in an evening of "ultra-violence", which includes a fight with a rival gang who are busy raping a girl (weird sexual assault #1 and violence #1). They drive to the country home of writer Frank Alexander and trick his wife into letting them inside. They beat Alexander to the point of crippling him, and Alex rapes Alexander's wife while singing "Singin' in the Rain" (weird sexual assault #2 and violence #2; this scene was cut down in the US to get an R rating). The next day, while truant from school, Alex is approached by his probation officer, PR Deltoid, who is aware of Alex's activities and cautions him. He does it at Alex’s house while on his bed and Alex is just in his underwear and Deltoid socks Alex in the nuts. Alex goes out that day and meets two girls and brings them home to have fast forward sex with them simultaneously (weird sex but not assault).

Alex's droogs express discontent with petty crime and want more equality and high-yield thefts, but Alex asserts his authority by attacking them (violence #3). Later, Alex invades the home of a wealthy "cat-lady" and bludgeons her with a phallic sculpture while his droogs remain outside (violence #4). On hearing sirens, Alex tries to flee but Dim smashes a bottle in his face, stunning Alex and leaving him to be arrested. With Alex in custody, Deltoid gloats that the cat-lady died, making Alex a murderer. He is sentenced to fourteen years in prison. His entry into the prison is shown in painful detail including a strip search for drugs. This includes a guard checking Alex’s butthole for drugs (which was cut down for an R rating in the US).

Two years into the sentence, Alex eagerly takes up an offer to be a test subject for the Minister of the Interior's new Ludovico technique, an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals within two weeks. Alex is strapped to a chair, his eyes are clamped open and he is injected with drugs. He is then forced to watch films of sex and violence (weird sexual assault #3 and violence #5), some of which are accompanied by the music of his favorite composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. Alex becomes nauseated by the films and, fearing the technique will make him sick upon hearing Beethoven, begs for an end to the treatment.

Two weeks later, the Minister demonstrates Alex's rehabilitation to a gathering of officials. Alex is unable to fight back against an actor who taunts and attacks him (violence #6) and becomes ill wanting sex with a topless woman (attempted sexual assault?). The prison chaplain complains that Alex has been robbed of his free will; however, the Minister asserts that the Ludovico technique will cut crime and alleviate crowding in prisons.

Alex is released from jail, only to find that the police have sold his possessions as compensation to his victims and his parents have let out his room. Alex encounters an elderly vagrant whom he attacked years earlier, and the vagrant and his friends attack him. Alex is saved by two policemen but is shocked to find they are his former droogs Dim and Georgie. They drive him to the countryside, beat him up, and nearly drown him before abandoning him (violence #7). Alex barely makes it to the doorstep of a nearby home before collapsing.

Alex wakes up to find himself in the home of Mr. Alexander, who is now confined to a wheelchair. Alexander does not recognize Alex from the previous attack but knows of Alex and the Ludovico technique from the newspapers. He sees Alex as a political weapon and prepares to present him to his colleagues. While bathing, Alex breaks into "Singin' in the Rain", causing Alexander to realize that Alex was the person who assaulted his wife and him. With help from his colleagues, Alexander drugs Alex and locks him in an upstairs bedroom. He then plays Beethoven's Ninth Symphony loudly from the floor below. Unable to withstand the sickening pain, Alex attempts suicide by jumping out the window.

Alex wakes up in a hospital with broken bones. While being given a series of psychological tests, he finds that he no longer has aversions to violence and sex. The Minister arrives and apologizes to Alex. He offers to take care of Alex and get him a job in return for his co-operation with his election campaign and public relations counter offensive. As a sign of good will, the Minister brings in a stereo system playing Beethoven's Ninth. Alex then contemplates violence and has vivid thoughts of having sex with a woman in front of an approving crowd (weird sex), and thinks to himself, "I was cured, all right!"

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The book did not have as much of a downbeat ending as the film. There was a final chapter that explained that Alex had actually become cured and wasn’t obsessed with sex and violence. This final chapter was actually added after the book was published for American audiences and Kubrick, who lived in London, was unaware of it and didn’t include this in his movie. Upon being made aware of the new ending, he did not like it and ignored it completely. I think this was probably the right idea because it would have been a lot less memorable if it would have had a nice happy ending.

I find it interesting that the AFI has claimed this movie for America when it is clearly British. The movie is based on a well known British novel from a well known British author who was speaking out against American psychologists who were promoting behaviorism and cognitive behavioral therapy. The movie is set and filmed completely in London, England with an all British cast. The movie is also filled with artwork from famous British artists that were popular in 60s swinging London. The only claim America has is that it was not banned under the relatively new MPAA ratings, it was only heavily restricted with an X rating. England, however, stopped showing the movie because of the backlash from the religious right and the film was not available in the UK from 1973 to 1999.

I watched the unrated version with commentary by Malcolm McDowell and his insight made for a much more interesting watch. It became apparent that Kubrick did not care much about the safety of his actors. The director had a hard time getting the actresses being raped to exude the fear he wanted since they were impowered British art students and were legitimately having fun. Kubrick did not want fun, he wanted realistic assault and trauma, dragging out these scenes with dozens of takes. Malcolm McDowell was physically injured when his character was assaulted on stage during the Ludovico demonstration. He was also afraid for his safety when he was being drowned by his former droogs. Finally, McDowell’s cornea was scratched when they were wedged open for the conditioning scene and the actor was temporarily blinded for weeks.

It seems like I am being harsh on this movie and that I don’t like it, but I find it fascinating to the point that I have seen it a dozen times. The use of the false eyelashes on the top and bottom of only one eye gives Alex this look of having two sides. The use of blocking to show the allegiances of characters towards and against each other is directing along the lines of Orson Welles. The use of the music diegetically throughout that causes Alex’s condition is truly creative. McDowell was a great choice for the lead because his face is so expressive. I have not seen a better “happy angry” face with the exception of maybe Jack Nicolson. In so many ways, it truly is a great movie.

One reason for so many viewings is that I have seen this in some of my psychology courses, specifically in cognitive and behavioral classes. The whole Ludovico technique is supposed to malign the work of Watson and Skinner as reducing the reason behind one’s actions down to the environment, removing the idea of free will. When using behavioral therapy, do we just alter the stimulus and response so that a person has no choice but to obey? If so, is that taking away their freedom of choice thus making them less human? If a person simply chooses to be bad, is it their right to do so and they must face those consequences without outside influence forcing them to change? All very good questions that are brought up by this movie.

So does this film belong on the AFI top 100? I am going to say no. It is a British film in every way except for the director, so much so that this movie is ranked by the BFI. It was rejected in the UK for a long period of time while it became somewhat of a cult classic in the US, but this doesn’t make it an American film. It is worthy based on quality, but is disqualified by location. So would I recommend it? Well...no. I like the film and it is fascinating at a psychological level, but it is a lot of art for art’s sake without consideration for humanity. The message is horrifically bleak and the movie is very uncomfortable to watch at times, and most viewers don’t want to be challenged in that way. If you want a movie that will purposefully offend you and test your sensibilities, then give it a try. If you want a fun or funny movie with a happy ending, then this is most definitely not the movie for you.

#Stanley Kubrick #a clockwork orange #british film #academy award nominated #malcolm mcdowell #afi top 100 #psychology #behaviorism #introvert #introverts

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rapeculturerealities · 4 years

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MARTY GODDARD’S FIRST FLASH OF INSIGHT CAME IN 1972. It all started when she marched into a shabby townhouse on Halsted Street in Chicago to volunteer at a crisis hotline for teenagers.

Most of the other volunteers were hippies with scraggly manes and love beads. But not Marty Goddard. She tended to wear business clothes: a jacket with a modest skirt, pantyhose, low heels. She hid her eyes behind owlish glasses and kept her blond hair short. Not much makeup; maybe a plum lip. She was 31, divorced, with a mordant sense of humor. Her name was Martha, but everyone called her Marty. She liked hiding behind a man’s name. It was useful.

As a volunteer, Ms. Goddard lent a sympathetic ear to the troubled kids then called “runaway teenagers.” They were pregnant, homeless, suicidal, strung out. She was surprised to discover that many weren’t rebels who’d left home seeking adventure; they were victims who had fled sexual abuse. The phones were ringing with the news that kids didn’t feel safe around their own families. “I was just beside myself when I found the extent of the problem,” she later said.

She began to formulate questions that almost no one was asking back in the early ’70s: Why were so many predators getting away with it? And what would it take to stop them?

Ms. Goddard would go on to lead a campaign to treat sexual assault as a crime that could be investigated, rather than as a feminine delusion. She began a revolution in forensics by envisioning the first standardized rape kit, containing items like swabs and combs to gather evidence, and envelopes to seal it in. The kit is one of the most powerful tools ever invented to bring criminals to justice. And yet, you’ve never heard of Marty Goddard. In many ways she and her invention shared the same fate. They were enormously important and consistently overlooked.

I was infuriated when I read a few years ago about the hundreds of thousands of unexamined rape kits piled up in warehouses around the country. I had the same question that many did: How many rapists were walking free because this evidence had gone ignored?

Take for example, the case of Nathan Ford, who sexually assaulted a woman in 1995. Although a rape kit was submitted to the police, it went untested for 17 years.

During that time, he went on to assault 21 other people, before being convicted in 2006.

And I had another question: How could a tool as potentially powerful as the rape kit have come into existence in the first place? For nearly two decades, I’d been reporting on inventors, breakthroughs and the ways that new technologies can bring about social change. It seemed to me that the rape-kit system was an invention like no other. Can you think of any other technology designed to hold men accountable for brutalizing women?

As soon as I began to investigate the rape kit’s origins, however, I stumbled across a mystery. Most sources credited a Chicago police sergeant, Louis Vitullo, with developing the kit in the 1970s. But a few described the invention as a collaboration between Mr. Vitullo and an activist, Martha Goddard. Where was the truth? As so often happens in stories about rape, I found myself wondering whom to believe.

Mr. Vitullo died in 2006. Ms. Goddard, as far as I could tell, must still be alive — I couldn’t find any obituaries or gravestones that matched her name. An interview in 2003 placed her in Phoenix, and so I collected phone listings for Martha Goddard in Arizona and called them one after another. All those numbers had been disconnected.

Little did I know that I would have to hunt for six months before I finally solved the mystery. I would learn she had transformed the criminal-justice system, though her role has never been fully acknowledged. And I would also discover that Louis Vitullo — far from being the inventor of the rape kit — may have taken credit for Ms. Goddard’s genius and insisted that his name be put on the equipment.

I pieced together dozens of obscure marriage and death notices to try to find her family members; read through hundreds of newspaper articles to establish the timeline of events; and even hired a researcher to dig through an archive of Chicago police department files from the ’70s. Finally, I managed to speak to eight people who knew or worked with her. From these sources, and two oral-history tapes in which she told her life story, I cobbled together what happened.

Back in that Chicago crisis center, Marty Goddard encouraged teenagers to confide in her, and she began to realize just how many of them had been molested.

At the time, most people believed that sexual abuse of children was rare. One psychiatric textbook from the 1970s estimated that incest occurred in only about one in every million families, and claimed that it was often the fault of girls who initiated sex with their fathers. Meantime, it was still legal in every state in America for a husband to rape his wife. Sexual violence that happened within a family was not considered rape at all. A real rape was a “street rape.” It happened to women stupid enough to be in the wrong places at the wrong times.

In Chicago, rape seemed like some sort of natural disaster, no different from the arctic winds that could kill you if you wandered out in the winter without a coat. “Chicago was not a city you wanted to venture out into after dark,” wrote the activist Naomi Weisstein. “Rape was epidemic.” In 1973, an estimated 16,000 people were sexually assaulted in and around Chicago. Only a tenth of those attacks were reported to the police and fewer than a tenth of those cases went to trial; an infinitesimal fraction of perpetrators ended up in prison.

It was a time — much like our own — when millions of people felt that the police had failed them. Chicago was still reeling from the 1969 killing by the cops of Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, while he’d been sleeping in his own bed. The Chicago Police Department was notorious as a brutal, occupying force in black neighborhoods. Citizens’ groups were demanding review boards to reform officers’ behavior.

Amid all that, Ms. Goddard began asking questions that might seem so obvious to us today, but were radical in her own time: What if sexual assault could be investigated? What if you could prove it? What if, instead of a “she said” story, you could persuade a jury with scientific evidence?

A lot of men didn’t like her style. But Ray Wieboldt Jr., heir to a Chicago department-store fortune, did, and in 1972 she was hired as an executive at the Wieboldt Foundation, a charitable family fund that rained down money on progressive causes.

The Wieboldt name became her secret weapon. “I could say, ‘I’m Marty Goddard from the Wieboldt Foundation’ and people would just let me in their doors,” she recounted. And so she Wieboldt-ed her way in to meet with hospital managers and victims’ groups and began asking her relentless questions about rape.

Crime labs did not yet have the ability to test DNA; the first use of DNA forensics would not come until 1986, when British investigators used the technology to hunt down a murderer who raped his victims. But they could analyze pieces of glass, fingerprints, splatter patterns, firearms and fibers. Police investigators could find biological clues to help establish the identity of a suspect by, for instance, comparing blood types.

Ms. Goddard wanted to figure out why — even with all this evidence — no one seemed able to prove that a sexual assault had occurred. She learned that victims usually ended up in a hospital after an assault. The cops might dump a shivering, weeping woman in the emergency room and yell out, “We got a rape for you.” As they cared for the victim, the nurses might wash her off or throw away her bloody dress, inadvertently destroying evidence.

The cops didn’t seem to care. Instead, they would isolate the victim in a room and lob questions at her to try to determine whether she was lying. A Chicago police training manual from 1973 declared, “Many rape complaints are not legitimate,” and added, “It is unfortunate that many women will claim they have been raped in order to get revenge against an unfaithful lover or boyfriend with a roving eye.” Officers would routinely ask women what they’d been wearing, whether they’d provoked the attack by acting in a seductive manner, and whether they had enjoyed the sex. “An actual rape victim will generally give the impression of a person who has been dishonored,” according to the manual.

In the early days of forensic science, the 19th century, rape exams sought primarily to test the virtue of women. A doctor would be called in to examine a woman’s vagina and then report on her motives. Was she a trollop, a harlot, or a pure-hearted innocent who spoke the truth?

In 1868, a British publication, Reynolds’s Newspaper, reported on one such exam. The surgeon “gave such evidence as left no doubt that the prosecutrix could not have been so innocent as she had represented herself to be.” The magistrate “said no jury would convict on such evidence, and he should discharge the prisoner.”

In other words, sexual-assault forensics began as a system for men to decide what they felt about the victim — whether she deserved to be considered a “victim” at all. It had little to do with identifying a perpetrator or establishing what had actually happened.

Even in the 1970s, the forensic examination remained a formality, a kind of kabuki theater of scientific justice. The police officers wielded absolute power in the situation; they told the story; they assigned blame. And they didn’t want to give up that power.

Ms. Goddard’s insight was that the only fix for this dysfunctional system would be incontrovertible scientific proof, the same kind used in a robbery or attempted murder. The victim’s story should be supported with evidence from the crime lab to build a case that would convince juries. To get that evidence, she needed a device that would encourage the hospital staff members, the detectives and the lab technicians to collaborate with the victim. On the most basic level, Ms. Goddard realized, she had to find a mechanism that would protect the evidence from a system that was designed to destroy it.

EVEN AFTER MONTHS of searching for Marty Goddard, I hadn’t been able to find her, or even figure out the names of her family members. But I did manage to track down Cynthia Gehrie, an activist who’d been swept up in Ms. Goddard’s crusade.

The two women met at a gathering for anti-rape activists in 1973 and soon they were strategizing over lunches and dinners, notebooks by their plates. At the time, Ms. Gehrie worked a day job at the A.C.L.U.; she was so impressed by Ms. Goddard that she volunteered to be her sidekick as they figured out how to force men in power to reckon with the rape epidemic.

Their timing was excellent, because 1974 was the year that everything flipped in Chicago. Women who had once been ashamed were now speaking out.

In October, a delegation of suburban women gathered before the members of the Illinois General Assembly. One described how she’d tried to fend off a sexual attacker with a fireplace poker. After the assault, she had carefully saved the bent poker and handed this piece of evidence to police detectives. Then, she recounted through tears, the police returned the poker to her straightened out. The idiots thought she had wanted them to fix it.

A mother stood before the committee and said that her little girl had been molested on her way to kindergarten. The police were already familiar with the attacker, a pedophile who had infected at least one child with venereal disease. And yet he was roaming free.

A nurse at the meeting explained how medical staff handled rape cases — and in the middle of her testimony, announced, “I am a rape victim myself.”

A few days later, about 70 women from a group called Chicago Legal Action for Women, CLAW for short, flooded into the office of State’s Attorney Bernard Carey, and plastered the walls with messages like “Wanted: Bernard Carey for Aiding and Abetting Rapists.”

The rape problem had suddenly become Mr. Carey’s problem, and he desperately needed to look as if he had an answer.

A movement was beginning — an awakening, like #MeToo. The fact that many of these activists were well-off white women forced politicians to pay attention. Black women in Chicago's poorest neighborhoods were most at risk of sexual violence, but their stories rarely made it into the newspapers, and rape was all too often portrayed as an affliction of the suburbs. Throughout her career, Ms. Goddard would wrestle with this disparity and try to overcome it. In 1982 she told an Illinois state legislative committee that “the lack of services on the South and West Sides of Chicago where a majority of our black victims reside” was “totally disgraceful.”

Now, though, in the early 1970s, she had just one obsession. She was determined to convince Bernard Carey that the problem could be solved, if he only had the will to do it. One day she showed up unannounced at his office and to her surprise, he welcomed her in. “I don’t know what the answer is,” he told her. But he had a new plan: He was going to let women like Ms. Goddard help figure out the rape problem for themselves. He appointed her and Ms. Gehrie to a citizens’ advisory panel on rape. Their mission: to investigate the failures in policing and suggest sweeping reforms.

Marty Goddard finally had what she wanted: permission to get inside the police departments.

With her new investigative powers, she headed to the Chicago crime lab building to ask police officers what was going wrong. Years later, she described what she had learned there in the oral history tapes. The cops blamed hospital workers, saying: “We don’t get hair. We don’t get fingernail scrapings.” The slides weren’t labeled, and they’d been “rubber-banded” together so that they contaminated one another. “So there goes that. It’s worthless,” the detectives told her.

The problem, she realized, was that no one had bothered to tell the nurses and doctors how to collect evidence properly.

What if hospitals could be stocked with easy-to-use forensic tools that would encourage medics, detectives and lab technicians to collaborate instead of pointing fingers? Gradually, these concepts solidified into an object: a kit stocked with swabs, vials and instructions.

Somewhere along the way, Ms. Goddard had befriended Rudy Nimocks, an African-American police officer who had handled incest cases and been horrified by what he’d seen. Ms. Goddard and Ms. Gehrie described Mr. Nimocks as a mentor. (He would be in his 90s now; I made multiple attempts to reach him without success.) According to several sources, Mr. Nimocks warned Ms. Goddard to proceed carefully. He told her that she should take care not to challenge the men in the crime lab directly. And he said that she’d need Sgt. Louis Vitullo, the head of the microscope unit, on her side.

Sergeant Vitullo was a scruffy cop-scientist, with a lab coat pulled hastily over his rumpled shirt and the pale, haunted look of a man who spent hours peering at murder weapons.

One day, Ms. Goddard found Sergeant Vitullo at his desk, introduced herself, and presented him with a written description of the rape-kit system. She must have been blindsided by what happened next.

“He screamed at her,” according to Ms. Gehrie. “He told her she had no business getting involved with this and that what she was talking about was crazy. She was wasting his time. He didn’t want to hear about this anymore.” Ms. Gerhie said Ms. Goddard called her minutes later to vent about being thrown out of Sergeant Vitullo’s office.

“Well, that didn’t go so well!” Ms. Goddard said wryly.

As far as Ms. Goddard knew at that moment, the rape-kit idea had just been killed off.

INVENTION, ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN — these are not just technical feats. They are political acts. The inventor offers us a magical new ability that can be wonderful or terrifying: to halt disease, to map the ocean floor, to replace a human worker with a machine, or to kill enemies more efficiently. And those magical abilities create winners and losers. The Harvard professor Sheila Jasanoff has observed that technology “rules us much as laws do.”

When it comes to sexual assault, there are many inventions I can think of that help men get away with it — from the date-rape drug to “stalkerware” software. More striking is how few inventions, how little technology and design, has been devoted to keeping women safe.

Think about our public spaces, and how much they reinforce the power of men. If you grew up as a girl, you were taught to map out potential sexual attacks when you walked through any city. A hidden doorway, an empty subway platform, a pedestrian bridge with high walls — such places pulse with threat.

In my high-school driving class, the instructor lectured us about the dangers that lurked in empty parking lots. “Ladies, you don’t want to be fumbling in your purse if someone jumps out of the bushes,” he said, and suggested that we hold the car keys in one hand as we hurried to the car. Even as a teenager, I remember thinking how crazy this sounded. If there were rapists lurking everywhere, couldn’t the grownups do something about that?

I learned that the streets did not belong to me. Nor did the stairwells or the empty laundry rooms at midnight. I still remember the sense of defeat my first week as a college student on a pastoral Connecticut campus in the 1980s. I’d been aching to explore its tantalizing forests and hidden ponds. But then the freshman girls were herded into a lecture hall, and the head of public safety told us that if we wanted to walk from one building to another at night, we should first call the escort service that squired females around and protected them from rape.

“No way!” I thought.

And yet, at that time I was struggling to understand — and forgive myself for — having been molested as a small child. And though I never did use the campus escort service, I also never felt that the campus was mine.

But this is not how it has to be. It’s entirely possible to create public spaces and tools for everyone. Our environment and technology can foster a sense of equality and pluralism.

At the same time that Marty Goddard was trying to reinvent forensic technology, the disabled community was radically transforming the design of cities by pushing to make streets and buildings wheelchair-accessible. A wheelchair ramp does more than just allow someone to roll into a building; it also sends out a message that the people in those wheelchairs are important and worthy of dignity. This is the power of invention.

You can see why the idea of a rape kit might have been offensive to Sergeant Vitullo and other police officers. Like many of the great technological ideas, this one blasted through the assumptions of the day: that nurses were too stupid to collect forensic evidence; that women who “cried rape” were usually lying; and that evidence didn’t really matter when it came to rape, because rape was impossible to prove.

Now here was this proposal for a cardboard box packed with tools that would allow anyone to perform police work.

Despite his original reaction, Sergeant Vitullo mulled over Ms. Goddard’s idea. He must have found it intriguing. He studied the plans she’d shown him. And he began to see the sense in it all.

One day, Ms. Gehrie told me, Sergeant Vitullo called up Ms. Goddard and said, “I’ve got something to show you.” When Ms. Goddard arrived in his office, Ms. Gehrie recalled, “he handed her a full model of the kit with all the items enclosed.” Sergeant Vitullo had assembled a prototype for the rape kit and added a few flourishes of his own. And now, apparently, he regarded himself as its inventor.

Another friend of Ms. Goddard’s confirmed this story. Mary Sladek Dreiser, who met Ms. Goddard in 1980, told me that Ms. Goddard always praised Sergeant Vitullo in public. But in private, she described him as a petty tyrant who would “only go along with the kit if it were named after him.”

The rape-kit idea was presented to the public as a collaboration between the state attorney’s office and the police department, with men running both sides...

..and little credit given to the women who had pushed for reform. Ms. Goddard agreed to this, Ms. Gehrie said, because she saw that it was the only way to make the rape kit happen

In the mid-1970s, while still at the Wieboldt Foundation, Ms. Goddard began working nights and weekends to found a nonprofit group called the Citizens Committee for Victim Assistance. The group filed a trademark for the Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit in 1978, ensuring that her creation would be branded with a man’s name. For years afterward, the newspapers called the rape kit the “Vitullo kit.” When he died in 2006, an obituary headline celebrated him as the “Man Who Invented the Rape Kit.” His wife, Betty, quoted in the obituary, said that her husband was “proud” of the rape kit “but he didn’t get any royalties for it.” The obituary hailed Mr. Vitullo as a pioneer in a new form of evidence collection that transformed the criminal-justice system. There was no mention of Ms. Goddard.

Even if her name wasn’t on it, Ms. Goddard finally had permission to start a citywide rape-kit system. What she didn’t have was any money to create the kits, distribute them, or train nurses to use them. She had to raise all those funds through her nonprofit group, which represented survivors of sex crimes.

This seems strange. After all, state governments covered the cost of running homicide evidence through the crime lab, so why should sexual assault be any different?

And yet it was. And it still is.

Money problems have always haunted the rape-kit system. Testing a rape kit is expensive; today it costs $1,000 to $1,500. Except in the highest-profile cases, police departments have often pleaded underfunding, and let the kits pile up. That’s why victims themselves have had to bankroll crime labs. In the past decade, groups like the Joyful Heart Foundation have helped raise millions of dollars to test rape kits. The money sometimes comes from bake sales, Etsy crafts and feminist comedy nights.

Fundraising was even harder in the 1970s, however, when most foundations wouldn’t give money to a project with “rape” or “sex” in its title. And so Ms. Goddard had to resort to finding money wherever she could. This is where Hugh Hefner enters the story.

Chicago was built on soft-core porn, and Mr. Hefner was one of the city’s most prominent moguls. Men in suits sidled into his clubhouses for three-martini lunches, celebrities swanned into his mansion for glittering fund-raisers, and a blazing “Playboy” sign scalded the downtown skyline.

Mr. Hefner regarded the women’s liberation movement as a sister cause to his own effort to free men from shame and guilt. And so his philanthropic Playboy Foundation showered money on feminist causes. In the early 1970s, for example, the Playboy fortune provided the seed money for the A.C.L.U. Women’s Rights Project, which was co-founded by a little-known lawyer named Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In the mid-1970s, Ms. Goddard applied to Playboy for a $10,000 grant (the equivalent of about $50,000 today) to start a rape-kit system. And she got it.

Her collaboration with the Playboy Foundation turned out to be a surprisingly ideal one, in large part because Ms. Goddard had a friend on the inside: Margaret Pokorny (then known as Margaret Standish). Ms. Pokorny brainstormed all kinds of ways to support the project that went beyond the big check. For instance, she recruited Playboy’s graphics designers to create the packaging for the kit. And when Ms. Goddard needed volunteers to assemble the kits, Ms. Pokorny came up with a creative solution: old ladies.

“I’ve got this great idea, Marty,” Ms. Goddard recalled Ms. Pokorny saying. “Everybody just loves the Playboy bunny and these older women, they want something to do.” So one day a horde of them showed up in the Playboy offices, swilling free coffee as they assembled sexual-assault evidence kits.

In 1978, Marty Goddard delivered the first standardized rape kit to around 25 hospitals in the Chicago area for use in a pilot program she had designed — “the first program of its type in the nation,” according to a newspaper article.

The kits cost $2.50 each and contained test tubes, slides and packaging materials to protect the specimens from mixing; a comb for collecting hair and fiber; sterile nail clippers; and a bag for the victim’s clothing. There was a card for the victim, giving her information about where to seek counseling and further medical services.

The New York Times, which described the initiative as a collaboration between Mr. Vitullo and Ms. Goddard, said that the “innocuous looking” box “could be a powerful new weapon in the conviction of rapists.” The Times noted that one of the most important features of the system was deceptively low-tech: “Forms for the doctor and the police officers involved are included, as are sealing tape and a pencil for writing on the slides. Anyone who handles the box must put his or her signature on printed spaces on the kit’s cover.” There would be a paper trail that showed how the evidence had traveled from the victim’s body to the crime lab.

By the end of 1979, nearly 3,000 kits had been turned over to crime labs. One of them had been submitted by a bus driver who’d been abducted and raped by 28-year-old William Johnson. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison, and the Vitullo Evidence Kit was credited with winning the day in court.

By now, Ms. Goddard’s friend Rudy Nimocks had been promoted to head the sex homicide department. He told The Chicago Tribune that the new system had improved evidence collection. But perhaps more important, the kit worked magic in the courtroom. “In addition to the kits being very practical,” he said, “we find that it impresses the jurors when you have a uniform set of criteria in the collection of evidence.”

In other words, the rape kit, with its official blue-and-white packaging and its stamps and seals, functioned as a theatrical prop as well as a scientific tool. The woman in the witness box, weeping as she recounted how her husband tried to kill her, could sound to a judge and jury like a greedy little opportunist. But then a crime-lab technician would take the stand and show them the ripped dress, the semen stains, the blood. When a scientist in a lab coat affirmed the story, it seemed true.

Ms. Goddard had invented not just the kit, but a new way of thinking about prosecuting rape. Now, when a victim testified, she no longer did so alone. Doctors, nurses and forensic scientists backed up her version of the events — and the kit itself became a character in the trials. It, too, became a witness.

That’s another reason Ms. Goddard may have been willing to trademark her idea under Sergeant Vitullo’s name. It was as if in order to invent, she also had to disappear. The rape kit simply never would have had traction if a woman with no scientific credentials had been known as its sole inventor. It had to come from a man.

The word “technology” is part of the problem. It’s a synonym for “stuff that men do.” As the historian Autumn Stanley pointed out, a revised history of technology taking into account women’s contributions would include all sorts of “unimportant” inventions like baby cribs, menstrual pads and food preservation techniques. Sometimes the only way that women could navigate this world was to let a white man in a lab coat become the face of their radical ideas, while they themselves shrank into the background.

During World War II, for instance, a team of six “girls” figured out how to operate the world’s first all-purpose electronic digital computer, called the ENIAC. In 1946, one of them, Betty Holberton, stayed up half the night to ensure that the computer would ace its debut in front of the newspaper cameras. And yet she and the others were treated like switchboard operators, mere helpers to the male engineers. Ms. Holberton went on to invent and design many of the essential tools of computing during the 1950s and ’60s almost invisibly, while her male colleagues were celebrated as geniuses of the age.

Ms. Goddard, certainly, had mastered the art of vanishing. Her friends and collaborators from the 1970s had lost touch with her, and were just as flummoxed by her disappearance as I was. But they remembered her in vivid, disconnected flashes. I often felt that I was spying on her through keyholes into other people’s minds.

“She made miniature rooms,” Margaret Pokorny said, describing how Ms. Goddard spent hours with tweezers and tiny brushes constructing fairy-tale interiors inside of boxes. The rooms were scattered all around Ms. Goddard’s apartment, as if a dollhouse had been dissected.

From Cynthia Gehrie, I learned why Ms. Goddard might have been so driven to escape into Lilliputian fantasies. Ms. Gehrie told me that in the late 1970s, her friend had flown to a resort in Hawaii for a vacation and returned to Chicago a different, and broken, person. “I was raped,” Ms. Goddard had told Ms. Gehrie, pouring out a harrowing account of how a man had abducted her.

“He drove her to a remote location,” Ms. Gehrie said. “He taunted her with the knife. She told him she would do whatever he wanted. Finally, he drove her back to the resort. She was astonished when he let her go.” Ms. Gehrie can’t remember whether Ms. Goddard reported the rape to the police, but she’s always wondered if her friend’s prominence as a victims-rights advocate had made her a target. The attacker had won her trust, Ms. Goddard said, by pretending to be a supporter of her cause.

In one obscure interview I found, Ms. Goddard herself mentioned that rape and the scars it left on her body. And, she said, the attacker had infected her with herpes.

I was heartbroken for her, and more determined to find her than ever. By now she had become “Marty” to me — I could think of her only as a friend. I surmised, from the string of addresses she’d left behind, that she had been spiraling into poverty. She would have been 79. Was anyone caring for her? I felt less and less like a journalist chasing down a story. What I really wanted was to save Marty Goddard before it was too late.

Through the 1980s, Ms. Goddard kept fighting for the rape-kit system despite her growing exhaustion. It was “one incident by one incident by one incident,” she said later. “Imagine how many years it took us to go from state’s attorney to state’s attorney to cop to detective to deputy to doctor to pediatrician to nurse to nurse practitioner” and train each person who interacted with the victim and the rape kit. “I felt I had to save the world, and I was going to start with Chicago and move to Cook County and move to the rest of the state. And there was something in the back of my mind that said, ‘Gee, maybe the circumstances will be such that at some time I can go beyond the borders of Illinois.’”

She was right. In 1982, New York City adopted Ms. Goddard’s system because “its effectiveness was demonstrated in Chicago,” according to The New York Times. Within a few years, the city had amassed thousands of sealed kits containing evidence, and the system was putting rapists in prison.

Ms. Goddard had envisioned a kind of internet of forensics at a time when the internet itself was in its infancy. The idea was to standardize practices in crime labs everywhere and encourage police departments to share data to catch perpetrators who might cross county and state lines. And she had personal reasons for grinding away at the problem, for making it her obsessive mission. The man who had brutalized her in Hawaii still walked free. She knew this because she’d seen him, she told a friend at the time.

She had been walking to the attorney general’s office in downtown Chicago when her attacker materialized out of the crowd and locked eyes with her. It must have been a waking nightmare. Had he been stalking her? Had it been a chance encounter?

I don’t know. She was under an extraordinary amount of stress; maybe she was mistaken. I am working from fragments — from bits and pieces of her friends’ memories. What I do know is that Ms. Goddard began to drink; that she depended now on cheap sherry to dull the pain. She was dragging herself from city to city, evangelizing for the rape kit, sleeping in dive motels, giving everything she had until there was nothing left.

In 1984, the F.B.I. held a conference at its training center in Quantico, Va. Expert criminologists flew in to discuss a new system that would detect the serial killers and rapists operating across state lines. But to the dismay of Ms. Goddard, who attended the conference, the country’s top lawmen demonstrated little empathy for victims.

“So, this one man gets up,” a professor known as an expert in sex crimes, Ms. Goddard remembered later. The professor flashed slides on the screen, a twisted parade of naked female corpses. He made little effort to protect the identities of the dead women. Ms. Goddard was horrified at the way he “couldn’t wait to show the bite marks on the breasts” of one victim, as if to share his titillation with the audience.

That kind of attitude might have gone unremarked at a police convention, but there were lawyers, victims’ advocates and nurses at this conference and they “didn’t appreciate it.” Just as dismaying, this so-called expert described “interrogating” women who’d been raped, as if they were the criminals.

“I went nuts,” Ms. Goddard said. She gripped the arms of her chair, “saying to myself: ‘Calm down. Don’t say anything.’”

AFTER THE PRESENTATION, Ms. Goddard approached one of the organizers and said, “Something’s wrong here, and I really object.” Working on the fly, Ms. Goddard gave a presentation about her pilot project in Chicago, explaining how the rape-kit system worked. Afterward, “two guys from the Department of Justice” approached her and asked her to replicate her program all around the country. She was finally given enough funding to travel to more than a dozen different states and help start up pilot programs.

“I don’t know how my cat survived,” she said of those years. “I was gone all the time.”

She was tired out. And “so many people were downright insulting.” They’d ask her why she was an authority on forensics: “Are you a cop? An attorney?” Ms. Goddard was drinking heavily. She began to step away from her prominent role in criminal justice. She moved to Texas, and then Arizona. And finally she faded from public view so thoroughly that I believe she must have decided to disappear.

Her friend and former colleague Mary Dreiser kept in touch. But one day in about 2006 or 2007, Ms. Dreiser was distressed to dial Ms. Goddard’s number and discover it had been disconnected. Ms. Dreiser’s husband, a lawyer, asked a detective to find Ms. Goddard. She turned up in a mobile-home park in Arizona. “She was happy I had tracked her down,” Ms. Dreiser said.

By the time I started searching for Ms. Goddard a decade later, she had moved out of that trailer and her most recent listing suggested she lived in a dumpy apartment building alongside a Phoenix highway. That phone, too, had been disconnected, so I’d assumed that she had moved on once again, perhaps to a nursing home. But just in case, I called up the building’s management office and asked if the people there could tell me anything about Marty Goddard.

“Unfortunately, I can’t,” said the woman who answered the phone. There were rules about protecting the privacy of residents.

But rules are meant to be broken. So I called back. “Listen,” I said, “just hear me out.”

I then plied the woman in the management office with a brief — and, I hoped, heart-melting — tribute to Ms. Goddard’s genius and her sacrifices.

It worked. “OK,” she said, “let me check into it.” Hours later, she called me back. Marty Goddard had indeed lived in their apartment building, she said, then paused.

“And I’m very sorry to tell you that she passed away.”

The news walloped me. Ms. Goddard had died in 2015, at the age of 74, but there had been no obituary. No announcement. I’d searched for pictures of headstones, remembrances, funeral announcements, and I’d found nothing. This woman who had done so much for the rest of us. How could this be?

Paradoxically, at the same time as Ms. Goddard was fading from sight, her name no longer in the papers, the advent of DNA forensics was giving the rape kit a new kind of superpower.

In 1988, a court ordered Victor Lopez, a 42-year-old repeat felon accused of violent attacks, to submit to a blood draw. He would be the first defendant in New York State to be linked to a crime through DNA analysis — and the case would prove the dazzling effectiveness of this new tool. The DNA test showed a strong match between Mr. Lopez’s blood and the semen collected from one of his victims. Mr. Lopez was convicted of three sexual assaults and sentenced to 100 years in prison. One juror, John Bischoff, told The New York Times that “the DNA was kind of a sealer on the thing. You can’t really argue with science.”

When Ms. Goddard began her work, crime labs could establish only a fuzzy connection between a suspect’s blood and the swabs inside the kit — for instance, by showing that the blood type was a match. But now, DNA markers could reveal the path of a perpetrator as he left his semen or blood at multiple crime scenes.

Starting in 2003, several women across the country accused a man named Nathan Loebe of sexual assault, but those accusations had never stuck.

After the Tucson police received a grant to test a backlog of rape kits, they discovered that DNA from several of the kits matched Mr. Loebe. Rape-kit evidence revealed the pattern of his attacks, and last year he was sentenced to 274 years in prison, including for 12 counts of sexual assault.

But DNA testing was expensive. Compounding that problem was the sheer success of the rape kit system: Victims now felt encouraged to report their assaults and submit to exams, which meant that police departments were flooded with evidence.

And so, just as the rape-kit system began to succeed, police departments strangled it. They began hiding away thousands of untested rape kits deemed too expensive to process.

New York was among the first cities to set up a rape-kit system, and almost immediately it fell behind in processing. It amassed a huge backlog — 16,000 untested kits by the year 2000. The women (and some men) who submitted to rubber-gloved exams did so because they hoped against hope that the police might actually catch a perpetrator. Little did they know that their evidence could be thrown in a warehouse — or even in a trash can.

In 2000, Paul Ferrara, the director of Virginia’s crime lab, said that backlogs were growing all around the country and “cost lives.” The year before, the Virginia Beach police had had to release a rape suspect because potentially incriminating DNA couldn’t be processed quickly enough, and the suspect went on to murder a woman.

It is striking how much Ms. Goddard’s trajectory mirrored that of her invention. In the early 1990s, just when she might have risen to national prominence, she drifted south. She retired, though she was only in her early 50s, and eked out a living with some help from friends. By the 2000s, she had sobered up and spent her days clipping newspapers, tracking the issues that she most cared about. And then — this part hurts my heart — she pursued a degree in forensics at a local community college.

Ms. Goddard had founded sexual-assault forensics, and yet she now lacked any of the bona fides required to be recognized as an expert. Nothing came of her studies, and she never really worked again. Ms. Goddard herself had been warehoused.

I know all of this because just a few months ago, I finally cracked the case of why and how she disappeared, thanks to some clues I found in the announcement of her brief 1966 marriage in a Michigan newspaper. Working through a chain of obituaries and phone records and small newspaper items, I tracked down a number for Scott Goddard, who I thought must be Marty Goddard’s nephew.

One day I cold-called him and left a message. It turned out that he was the right Scott Goddard. His father had died in a freak accident in 1980, and after that, his aunt became like a second mother to him. “When I was 9 or 10 years old, she took me to the Grand Canyon. And I remained close with her for her entire life,” Mr. Goddard said.

He told me that his aunt — who’d always been so busy, so engaged — had turned into a hermit in the 2000s. She withdrew into her trailer in the mobile-home park, with her newspaper clippings fluttering everywhere, surrounded by the miniature model rooms she still loved to build. She was vanishing, shrinking down to nothing.

“When she passed, I inherited about 50 boxes of stuff,” he said, including a tiny toy chest filled with dolls for the doll children to play with.

He told me that when he was a boy, his aunt had taken him through the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago — a place she visited many times. Here they had lost themselves in those perfect shadow boxes, peering into, say, a Georgian dining room with crystal wine glasses, like fragments of diamonds, arranged on a silver tray. Beyond the chandelier and the French windows, a painted garden beckoned, with a lily pond and trees wilting in the summer heat, and paths you could follow into even stranger dreamscapes. You could imagine opening up one of the postage-stamp-sized books to hear the crack of its gold-leaf spine and read the secrets contained in its mouse-print text.

I can’t tell you what drove Marty Goddard into her dioramas. People around her tended to believe she wanted to escape into her imagination. But I think maybe she was exploring the dark magic of ordinary things, the way the most forgettable object can be converted into evidence. Some underwear, a pack of cigarettes, the note scrawled on the scrap of paper — how strange it is that any of these furnishings of your life could one day be used to reconstruct your own assault or murder. I wonder if she was building tiny crime scenes peppered with clues, if somehow she was leaving a message about what had happened to her.

Mr. Goddard told me that about 2010, “depression started to set in,” and his aunt became a furious alcoholic. Her once steel-trap mind wandered. Worse, she raged and accused, believed friends plotted to kill her. “In the last few years, she alienated most of her family and friends,” he said.

THE RAPE KIT WASN’T DOING SO WELL EITHER. In 2009, investigators toured an abandoned parking garage that the Detroit police had appropriated for storage and where officers had been dumping evidence for decades. In the dank building, with pigeons fluttering over their head, the investigators wandered past a blood-stained sofa and a bucket full of bullets and shells. In one of the parking bays, they found the rape kits — what would turn out to be a trove of 11,000, most of which had never been tested. Some of the kits had been collected as far back as 1980. The victims ranged in age from 90 to one month old.

It wasn’t just Detroit. Investigators in cities around the country had begun to open up their own warehouses, and they too discovered towers of untested rape kits.

By 2015, the backlog of untested rape kits in the United States had grown to an estimated 400,000.

In 2016, the Justice Department announced a new sexual assault kit initiative and $45 million to tackle the backlog. More than 25 states have committed to testing warehoused evidence. Despite the government funding, the cost of these initiatives still largely fell on women’s groups and the victims themselves, who organized dinner parties, Facebook charity drives and comedy shows.

So far, the efforts have paid off. Five states and the District of Columbia have cleared their backlogs. Testing thousands of kits has led to a bonanza of DNA identifications and hundreds of convictions. Scientists are also using rape-kit data to show that there are more serial rapists than we ever suspected. In one study of rape kits in the Cleveland area, researchers found that more than half of them were connected to other cases.

In other words, when a victim decides to go to all the trouble of driving to an emergency room and submitting to a rape-kit exam, it’s because she believes that her attacker will rape someone else. And quite often, she’s right.

When Ms. Goddard died, she asked that her ashes be thrown to the winds in Sedona, Ariz., along the red cliffs. Old friends like Cynthia Gehrie and Margaret Pokorny didn’t even know she was gone. She left behind those boxes of tiny furniture. And, also, a nationwide forensics system that might never have existed but for her.

Writing this, I dreamed of one day seeing one of the original kits displayed in the Smithsonian, among the parade of great American inventions. Mary Dreiser told me she might have saved one of the kits distributed in 1980. I asked her to hunt for it, and there it was, in the back of a closet, yellowed after decades in storage. The kit was emblazoned with the logo of a female face, as if to declare that this — among all the man-made objects in the world — had been created by and for women.

Today, a new generation of inventors are figuring out how to speed up the testing of rape-kit DNA, to improve the design of the kits, and to draw new insights from sexual-assault analytics. This story of feminist technology is still unfolding. Half a century after Marty Goddard answered the calls of teenage rape victims, survivors and their advocates are assembling a vast net of evidence, and it is tightening, ever so slowly, around the perpetrators.

#history #rape kits #goddard

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abbottikeler · 3 years

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The Ikelers: A Family Chronicle, 1753-2018 (Part II)

The Second Generation: from Eichler to Ikeler and Agler

The second generation, Hieronymus’ three sons and the younger Wilhelm, his brother’s only child, naturally divide into two half-generations, since the older boys were born ten years or more before their younger brother and first cousin. Though all of them must have spoken more fluent English than their parents, the personalities of the older two were primarily influenced by the trauma of displacement from German culture and the even greater trauma of indenture in their childhood, while the younger two grew up free-born, in a rising tide of political rebellion and open warfare. One sign of the difference is in their choice of wives: the older two married the daughters of fellow German immigrants—in Conrad’s case, a girl with the same Christian name as his uncle’s wife—while the younger boys chose daughters of English settlers. Moreover, Conrad and the elder Wilhelm reached manhood and sired their first children under relatively secure British rule in 1770, whereas Jerome and his young cousin Wilhelm attained their majority under an entirely new, indigenous government. The disparity of influences is manifest particularly in the behavior of Wilhelm and his much younger brother Jerome: the former sided with the English during the war and was locally known as “William the Loyalist,” while Jerome caught the nomadic spirit of the restless new nation, migrating briefly to Pennsylvania and then pushing westward into the frontier, eventually settling in what is now Iowa. Here, another caveat. Since, of the four children of Hieronymus and his brother Conrad, I am descended from the elder Wilhelm, I have not undertaken any extensive research into the other three lines. Suffice it to say that since Wilhelm’s elder brother had only daughters, all born in New Jersey with their maiden surname changed to Ikeler, pursuit of his descendants, though difficult, would have to begin there. The descendants of his cousin Wilhelm (all eight of his children born with the surname Agler) might be more difficult to trace since I can provide no information beyond their names, their dates of birth, and their wives’ names. Jerome’s descendants, which I’ve included in the accompanying tree down to his grandson James, would probably be the easiest for someone in that branch of the Agler line to research. Even for Wilhelm’s elder and younger brothers, I have only the sketchiest additional evidence. Conrad was apparently widowed in New Jersey sometime after the war and, according to Pennsylvania tax records from 1805 and 1808, spent his last years on 100 acres of land offered him by Wilhelm on adjacent land in Columbia County—dying, most probably, at 57 or 58 in 1806. Jerome also spent some time near his brother Wilhelm in Pennsylvania, where his wife Rebecca gave birth to their first child, Daniel, in 1802. Shortly thereafter they picked up stakes and traveled further west, settling eventually on the far side of the Mississippi. To be clear, for the rest of this narrative, I’ll be focusing exclusively on Wilhelm and the direct line of his descendants that leads to my own and my brother’s immediate family. The most important question to ask about this second generation of German-Americans is why each of the four men, born with the surname “Eichler,” chose to change it, either to “Ikeler” or “Agler.” The answer to that question lies with Hieronymus’ second son, Wilhelm, and to a lesser extent, Wilhelm’s uncle Conrad. As early as 1773, Wilhelm, being a second son, moved away from his parents and his elder brother to his own farm in Sussex County, a day’s ride north and closer to Belvidere and the Delaware River. He appears in a contemporary census as “Wm Ekler,” a resident of Oxford Township. More important perhaps, he joined a different Lutheran congregation and baptized his remaining children there—in the St. James or Straw Church near modern day Phillipsburg. Many members of that church, both English and German, were fiercely committed to British rule—a marked difference from the Oldwick congregation whose pastors in the immediate pre-war period agitated openly for the revolutionary cause. Once war commenced, perhaps emboldened by an uncle in the British infantry, Wilhelm openly declared himself a loyalist. Even for a simple citizen farmer like Wilhelm, such a political stance quickly became untenable. In 1778, the New Jersey revolutionary authorities empowered themselves to seize the property of all loyalists and their dependents, effectively bankrupting them and driving them underground or out of the colony. In a newspaper notice published on 10 December 1778, “William Eikler” is included in a list of 63 loyalists whose properties are to be seized immediately following the first of March, 1779. The notice is signed by William Bond and George Warne, Commissioners for the County of Sussex. At this point in their lives, Wilhelm and his wife, Maria Elisabeth (nee Bengert), had three living children—Andrew, 6; Barnabus, 4; William, 1, and another on the way. What did they do? Where did they go? With currently available information, it’s impossible to settle those questions definitively, but a review of circumstantial evidence suggests the likeliest answers. Public record of the Wilhelm Eichler family disappears entirely for the next 13 years, returning first with notice of the marriage of Wilhelm’s first and third sons in New Jersey in the early and mid-1790s; then with the marriage of his only daughter, Elizabeth, to William Welliver in Jerseytown, Pennsylvania in 1797; and finally with the reappearance of Wilhelm himself (now William Ikeler) on the list of members of the Derry Episcopal and Lutheran Church in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1798. Thereafter, until his death in 1808, William and all four of his children appear in numerous tax records and deeds of sale as land owners in Greenwood Township and neighboring Mt. Pleasant, several miles north of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Whatever happened to Wilhelm in the intervening years, it appears his wife and children remained in New Jersey at least until the mid-1790s, probably with Elizabeth’s parents or with Hieronymus and Wilhelm’s older brother, Conrad, on the original family farm. Wilhelm’s younger brother, uneasy with a sibling declared persona non gratia and an uncle serving in the British army, apparently decided it prudent to reach his majority under the surname “Agler”--quite distinct from the suddenly notorious “Eichler”—an improvisation his young cousin Wilhelm adopted as well. But what of the fugitive, bankrupt Wilhelm? There is no evidence he escaped to Canada either during or after the war—only that 19 years after his worldly goods in New Jersey were confiscated he resurfaced as a modest farmer with a local church affiliation not far from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in 1798. Fortunately, there is a weight of circumstantial evidence to suggest a plausible answer to his whereabouts in the interim. Among his contemporaries in the congregation of the St. James “Straw” Church in New Jersey was one Daniel Welliver, recently returned from three years on the Pennsylvania frontier. He had ventured into that unsettled territory in 1775 to reconnoiter the land granted his grandfather by William Penn, and deeded to him and his cousin in 1749. After three years, and much tension with the local native-Americans, he heeded the warning of a friendly tribe to get out before things turned violent. He returned to New Jersey in 1778. A short time later the Whitmayer family, who had been his near neighbors on the frontier, was indeed attacked, most of them murdered and the rest kidnapped. Daniel was undaunted, however. He had been impressed by the fertility of the land, the proximity of fresh creeks for irrigation and fishing, and a large navigable waterway nearby (the upper Susquehanna). Once a treaty had been negotiated in 1780, pacifying the local native-Americans, he brought his young family back to that promising country some 100 miles west northwest of Sussex County. Where he and his cousin Adam established their farms came to be known as Jerseytown, since most of those who settled there were his neighbors and friends from the New Jersey colony. William Baillie, in a recent study of modern day Madison Township, PA, which includes Jerseytown, describes its early inhabitants as a mix of English and Germans, many of them loyalists who were tolerated by their neighbors and felt relatively safe, on the frontier, from pursuit by the revolutionary authorities. The coincidence of Wilhelm’s looming fugitive status in 1779 and Daniel’s fortuitous return to the same congregation with news of a promising new place to settle, suggests an escape to the Pennsylvania frontier may have been discussed between them. Further, the fact that Daniel married his eldest son, William, to Wilhelm’s only daughter in that very place 18 years later—thus confirming close ties between the men—allows us to posit a likely answer to Wilhelm’s whereabouts during the missing years. Moreover, if we presume Wilhelm left for what would become Jerseytown either in 1779 or 1780 and worked as a paid laborer on Daniel’s farm until it was safe in the late 1790s to resurface as an independent land owner and acknowledged church member, it would explain a number of puzzling phenomena in the last half of his life. Question: Why did his wife give birth to no more children after 1779 though she was still in her late twenties when her daughter was born? Answer: As in the cases of indentured service a generation before, she and her husband were almost certainly apart—she in New Jersey and he in Pennsylvania for a period of at least 15 years. Q. Why in the late 90s did he belong to a congregation that was a half-day’s buggy ride away from his Greenwood farm? A. Because it was near Jerseytown where he had been living and working since 1780. Q. Why does he resurface as “William Ikeler” in all documents after 1797? A. Because he wished to evade identification as the loyalist Wilhelm Eichler, but, feeling relatively safe from detection in another state, he also wanted to keep the English pronunciation of his surname as close to the German as possible. Q. How was it possible for him to afford a 300-acre farm and a large “log house and barn” in Greenwood according to the 1802 tax records? A. He purchased it with a fraction of his saved wages from working for Daniel Welliver. Q. How was it possible for him to own an additional 350 acres and distribute that land among his two married sons, Andrew and William, and his older brother Conrad—according to the 1805 tax records? A. He purchased that land with “450 pieces of gold or silver” from John Hubley, another Greenwood farmer, on May 15, 1804, according to a deed held by his great grandson, I.B. Ikeler, and published in the Bloomsburg newspaper on December 6, 1908. Q. But how did he come to have such a store of hard currency? A. It was probably the remainder of his hoarded, 15-plus years of wages earned on the Welliver farm and earmarked as a nest egg for his wife and children when it was safe for them to join him in Pennsylvania. Q. What other evidence is there, besides their membership in the same New Jersey church and the marriage of his daughter to Daniel’s son, of a close, mutually beneficial relationship between Wilhelm Eichler and Daniel Welliver? A. When Wilhelm’s estate was divided in November, 1810, the largest portion of land was given not to his sons or his wife, but to his son-in-law, William Welliver. Daniel’s son (already with a sizable holding from his own father) received an additional 245 acres of Ikeler land, but the 1811 tax records show Wilhelm’s own dependents got much less: Andrew (son): 130 acres plus log cabin Barnabus (son): 35 acres William (son): 180 acres plus log cabin Elizabeth (his widow): 60 acres, plus log house and barn A further indication of the tight friendship between the Ikelers and the Wellivers from the 1780s onward is the note, both in the will and the tax records, of their farm properties abutting each other on several sides. So it seems that like his father, who had to start over twice to establish his independence (from tenant farming in Germany and indentured service in the British colonies), Wilhelm had to make two new beginnings of his own: first as a second son and small farmer in colonial New Jersey, and once again, after financial ruin and years of enforced separation from his wife and family, as a U.S. citizen on the frontier of rural America. Did he curse the fate that had robbed him of his own land and compelled him for so long to till another man’s fields? Or did Wilhelm, through those years away from his loved ones, and always fearful of discovery by government agents, steel himself with an old German adage: aller Anfang ist schwer—every beginning is hard?

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constantviewings · 4 years

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The TV Show Trials - Inside No. 9

Inside No. 9 is a British black comedy anthology series that first aired in 2014. It is written by Reese Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. Each 30-minute episode is a self-contained story with new characters and a new setting, and all star both Pemberton and Shearsmith.

12 Days of Christine

When Christine brings Adam home from a costume party, her life begins to unravel. Her happiness slowly turns to sorrow.

It’s only fitting that this episode is the most popular as it is what introduced me to this entire series. This episode is phenomenal and I really enjoyed it, even though I knew the entire plot going into it. Shearsmith and Pemberton where really smart in placing the elements of the conclusion throughout the entire episode for you to piece together at the end.

Rating: 5

The Devil of Christmas

In a film within the episode, The Devonshires arrive at the alpine chalet for a holiday. The caretaker, Klaus, tells them about a local legend of Krampus, the Devil of Christmas. Meanwhile, the film’s director provides audio commentary.

I really like the production of this episode, with it being shot entirely on equipment from the 70s, but I have issues with the ending. The ending, and the twist, feel unceremoniously tacked onto the third act and come out of nowhere, which left me confused and unaware of how to feel.

Rating: 3

Cold Comfort

Andy takes a job at Comfort Support Line’s call center, a helpline for the lonely and desperate. Will he be able to cope with the emotional stress after he becomes the target of a stalker?

The choice of having this all shown through security cameras is fantastic, as you can watch camera-by-camera as a character does something and provides visual interest to otherwise standard framing methods. The story is also pretty good with the twist being satisfying, but it doesn’t make much sense in the context of the characters.

Rating: 3

The Riddle of the Sphinx

Nina breaks into the office of Cambridge Professor Nigel Quires, who publishes cryptic crosswords in the student newspaper as “The Sphynx”. Squires proceeds to teach Nina how to solve cryptic crosswords using the next day’s puzzle.

This is my favourite of the episodes that I watched. I’m a big fan of ‘double twists’ where a character thinks they’ve won, but they’ve actually lost everything and that happens twice in this episode.

Rating: 5

Tom and Gerri

Tom is a frustrated primary school teacher and aspiring author. One night, a homeless man named Migg returns Tom’s lost wallet, and Migg ends up living with Tom, to the frustration of Tom’s girlfriend Gerri. Tom’s life changes dramatically as a result.

This episode doesn’t stand out to me like any of the others, it’s reasonably enjoyable but didn’t leave a lasting impression.

Rating: 2

The Bill

A group of friends go out for tapas at Number Nine after a day of golfing; but tempers escalate quickly when they can’t agrees on how to settle the bill. Who will pay the ultimate price?

I’m going to be completely transparent, the bickering between the four main characters is extremely grading and I was over it ten minutes into the episode; but I’m interpreting that as fantastic writing. I also think they could have been a bit more inventive with the ‘No. 9’ element of this episode by having it take place at table nine instead of the restaurant “Number Nine”. Despite those two less than stellar elements, the final twist almost makes the thirty minutes of grading bickering worth it.

Rating: 3

La Couchette

A group of passengers in carriage nine on a train from France try to get some sleep, but the compartment quickly fills up and the possibility of sleep dwindles away. Then one of the passengers suddenly dies.

Similar to Tom and Gerri, I could take or leave this episode. It’s not that it’s particularly bad, it just isn’t particularly good or memorable. In a hypothetical situation where you can only choose five episodes of Inside No. 9, this one wouldn’t make the cut unfortunately.

Rating: 3

Once Removed

According to the Holes and Rahe Stress Scale, the three most stressful experienced in life are the death of a spouse, divorce and imprisonment. Moving house is only 32nd on the list. But anything could happen in the last ten minutes inside no 9.

I’ll be honest, most of the points for this episodes rating can be chalked up to its unique story structure where it jumps back in ten minute intervals whenever the plot catches up. Other than that, I found this episode quite standard.

Rating: 3

To Have and To Hold

When Adrian’s career as a wedding photographer starts to get in the way of his own marriage, his wife Harriet is determined to find out why.

This episode is somewhat mediocre, until the twist rears its head and then it’s all uphill from there.

Rating: 4

Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room

It’s been 30 years since Northern double-act Len and Tommy last appeared on stage together. Then Tommy walked out on Len, and that was curtains for Cheese and Crackers. Until now – and one last gig in front of an invited audience.

This episode hits different, the entire episode (apart from maybe a minute) is just Shearsmith and Pemberton doing old, outdated skit comedy and it’s fantastic.

Rating: 4

Thinking Out Loud

Inside house no. 9, seven extremely disparate characters share their stories with a camera, their fats inevitably, inextricably, and unknowingly set for a head-on collision.

I’ll be completely honest and say that I was let down with this episode. Every time a new character was introduced I was piecing together the ways in which they could be connected to the others, only for them to all be split personalities. While I can’t comment on the accuracy of the portrayal of DID, it still felt stereotypical as a narrative device.

Rating: 3

And the Winner Is…

We join jury no. 9 of a television awards company as they decide on who is going to win the Best Actress award. But only one of the eight actresses can be chosen.

This episode was a little bit, dare I say it, uninspired? While it stars an impressive cast, it doesn’t make up for the lacklustre story. Maybe you need to know more about the industry to get it…

Rating: 2

Zanzibar

Strangely-farcical goings-on are in store for a group of unwitting guests, who have all booked adjoining rooms on the ninth floor of the Zanzibar hotel in London. This episode’s dialogue is written entirely in iambic pentameter.

On top of all taking place in a single hallway, this episode has another gimmick in that it is all performed in iambic pentameter which adds a unique charm to an otherwise unimpressive story.

Rating: 4

The Harrowing

In this horror comedy with a grim twist, a teenage girl is hired to housesit a gothic mansion, but it appears that there are scary things going on inside no 9.

I’ll give them this much, they tried something different. Did it work out? Not for me. Though Shearsmith singing Lord of the Dance flung me back into catholic school mass…

Rating: 2

Sardines

Rebecca and Jeremy hold their engagement party as Rebecca’s family mansion. The guests play a game of sardines, and as Rebecca’s friends and family are packed into a wardrobe, secrets are gradually revealed, leading to a dark and sinister discovery.

Like the 12 Days of Christine, I cheated slightly with this episode. This was the first episode I ever watched of Inside No. 9 and is the whole reason I am reviewing the show. This was my third time watching the episode, and it’s still just as good as the first two.

Rating: 5

(Bonus Episode) Dead Line

When Arthur finds an old mobile phone in his local graveyard, he makes the mistake of trying to contact the owner. But some mysteries are best left unsolved, and as Halloween draws near Arthur is plunged into a nightmare of his own making.

The plot description above isn’t exactly what the episode entails, because this is the live broadcast Halloween special from 2018 where they faked the whole thing going wrong. While it doesn’t have the same effect watching it on a laptop two years after the fact, if you can put that aside and fully immerse yourself into believing what they want you to, it’s still amazing.

Rating: 5

Did I like it? Most of the episodes, yes.

Will I continue watching? God yes, thank god it’s been renewed for two more seasons…

#The TV Show Trials #Inside No 9

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insanityclause · 5 years

Text

A story from Southwest Review

It’s quite long so I don’t know if you can post - but I think you’ll like it:

Tom Hiddleston and the Puerto Rican Widow

Milán, Tony Báez.Southwest Review; Dallas Vol. 103, Iss. 4, (2018): 351.

She’s four foot eight and the world wants to rule her with its ways, putting all of its weight on her, but sometimes she strikes right back with her tiny iron fist, in her own ways.

She’s been through a lot. The loss of her parents, albeit both at ripe old ages. The loss of her husband, seventy years old but who by looking at him seemed to be in the prime of his life. A terrifying hurricane, named after her. She’s been through her share of those, but this one, she says, you have never seen anything like this one and she hopes she never does again. She says on occasion that she only believes in electricity because she sees the lights are on. That entire ordeal she spent praying with others, praying hard. Never seen anything like it. Nunca, she says. In this case, it took three months for her to believe in electricity again.

Don’t get me wrong. She has a relatively comfortable life. She went to college and did her time as a professional in the Puerto Rico Department of Labor. Her husband was a truck driver for Nabisco for about thirty years and made some great moves, although he could have had some beachfront property if not for her and her tiny iron fist. Oh, he usually did his thing, but in this case he, too, obeyed. And no beachfront property.

Her daughter, who works different shifts at a hospital, moved in with her after a long stint in New Jersey. They get along and they fight, but she’s not alone in that way. She has a merchant marine son in Florida and another one who’s a music teacher nearby, and grandchildren near and far, who come to visit or who talk to her when they can, and she’s happy to see them and to hear from them.

I used to have long, long conversations with her, weekdays after coming home from high school, in the kitchen as she cooked. I can still smell the chicken fricassee and the sopón and even the corned beef, which, incredibly, I have come to miss-explain that one. But I am the farthest away now. The conversations are still long and involved but they take place over the phone now.

Still, she has to cope. She says that she hated it, becoming a senior citizen, listening to advertising on the radio, on television, ads directed at her when at first she didn’t realize that they were directed at her. When she first realized it, she didn’t like it. She really didn’t like it at all. She couldn’t believe, when

she matched her age to the ages they were talking about, that she fit in the category. But that was in the beginning. Now she says that she has gotten used to it and will take it for all it’s worth. She takes the discounts and she cuts in line. Anybody has a problem with it, they can take her senior citizen attitude and deal with it. She’s earned it. Give her what’s hers, get out of the way, and don’t give her no lip.

She has to pass the time, and she does what she can. She can be reclusive, but she still drives. She’ll go to Walmart. She sews and she has done a few paintings. She reads the newspapers from front page to back, except for the sports, I’m guessing. She can read the papers for hours at a time, and does-sometimes the entire morning or the whole afternoon. She listens to the radio, a lot of politics and gossip. She turns on the radio and listens to the fools bickering, sometimes an entire morning or the whole afternoon. She watches television and now she talks back to it, to the people being stupid inside of it, in their own lives, I’ve seen it, once when I was visiting, that she talks to the television and to the people there, almost as if they can hear her but they won’t take her advice, the fools, the idiots, listen to me, she says, leave him, she tells them, don’t let him treat you that way, she tells them, don’t do that to your life, she says, whatever it may be, whatever people may be going through, pick the thing that is ruining their lives, and she has advice for all of them and she tells them through the television screen but they don’t ever listen. Sometimes they really should. If only they could. She keeps telling them, I know it.

And she watches movies.

My mother loves movies the same way that I love movies. She used to go to the movie theaters very often, when we were all a lot younger, and then often, with her husband, but then, after, she very rarely goes and so she watches her movies on the television. She still enjoys movies very much, especially crime movies, and we discuss them, voices on the phone, as often as we can. She has questions about endings, hates it when the endings are not black and white, clear like Hitchcock’s, hates it when they get too cute, when they don’t just wrap things up like she knows they should.

Did he die or didn’t he?

Did they stay together or didn’t they?

Why didn’t they show him dead or alive, then?

Why didn’t they just kiss, then?

She doesn’t like that. She doesn’t like that at all. Sometimes, I start to explain, filmmakers want to-

Whatever, she says. Why don’t they just finish it so that it’s clear?!

Tienes razón. You’re right. She’s right, and why shouldn’t she be? She loves movies and she’s the audience.

This new thing, though, and it’s been going on for months, was brought on by a miniseries. I’m always saying that I don’t have the time and so I don’t watch, but this here miniseries I had to find the time to sit down and watch all six episodes with my wife. My mother made me. On account of the muchacho-the leading man.

One night on the phone she says that she had started to watch this thing. Happenstance.

The Night Manager, she says. The muchacho is an actor by the name of Tom Jí-dels-ton.

Name of Tom Hiddleston.

Ay, qué hombre, she says. What a man, this Tom Hiddleston.

I know who he is, I say. British, such and such, this and that. He’s good, he’s real good.

Pero qué hombre, she says.

Sí, I know who he is, good actor. Seen him in some things, like him, so what about … ?

Tom Hi-ddles-ton, she says, picking up on the pronunciation, trying to perfect it. Like she’s perfecting his name, in her mind, in her lips.

Hiddles-ton, she says.

Yes, I know. He-

Well, she says, he’s the night manager.

The way she says night manager …

That’s him, she says. He’s the night manager in this miniseries that I started to watch, he’s the muchacho.

I’m about to say something else but by this point I finally realize that this is not the usual involved but casual conversation about movies or any of their related subjects, that this is involved but doesn’t sound casual. It sounds … it sounds … It’s like something that maybe a son doesn’t want to hear his mother talking about but I sense that it’s too late, that she’s enthralled somehow, and I won’t hang up, it’s my mother, and maybe I want to hang up but it’s my mother, and her voice comes up here through the phone again and except for my occasional interruption it’s almost all her from there.

Bueno, she says, this Mr. Tom Hiddleston is not like any of the others. Well, he is and he isn’t. He’s not a doll like Rock Hudson. That was an incredible looking man, Rock Hudson. Tom Hiddleston is not good looking in that way, not a perfect mold of a man, but there is something …

Paul Newman, I say. I once wrote a poem about Paul Newman’s eyes on account of her. So she’s been infatuated before but I don’t want to think about it too much.

Oh, sí, Paul Newman. Those eyes. Tan azules. So blue. It’s a shame artists should have to get old. It’s not fair, she says.

Huh.

But … Tom Hiddleston’s eyes are not like that, they’re not so … but, the thing is, they are … they are … he is … ay … no sé …

Struggling for words? My mother? A son doesn’t want to hear any more sometimes, but the conversations have always been long and honest and fairly unbridled and I remember that it’s mostly all her and I won’t hang up. This Mr. Hiddleston is not like the others.

No, she says, not like Rock Hudson or Paul Newman. He’s good looking, very good looking, but just different. Sometimes, she says, I think his face might be a little different looking, maybe it’s the British in him, but then again I just look at him in this miniseries and I just can’t stop looking at him. You have to watch this miniseries.

I don’t have the time.

He’s so … You can just tell he’s a nice man. The way he looks, the way he looks at people, the way he shows concern for this woman he’s involved with, and he’s trying to help her. You have to watch it. The way he …

Please don’t say the way he looks at me. She doesn’t. She continues for a little longer and I have to go and we hang up but the next time we talk the thread of her infatuation is picked up again, I pick it up as she unspools it and I wrap it up into a knot and then into a ball on this side of the line, wondering what to do with it, just holding it in my brain, as if I could hold it with my hands, my ears wide open, my mouth half-open, saying things, agreeing with her, listening, but also giving her information, which feels like fanning the flames.

He’s done other things, I say.

¿Ah, sí?

Sí. He’s Loki in that Thor movie.

The superhéroe movie?

Right.

Which one is Loki?

El malo. The bad guy.

Oh.

He has long hair in that one.

Haven’t seen it. Don’t much care for superhéroes. But I’ll check it out now.

If I find a cheap DVD, I’ll send it to you. And then I tell her that as I find some of his other movies I’ll be sure to send them to her. Plays a vampire in one. Plays F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gets it on with his own sister and ends up as a ghost in another-del Toro movie.

¡Fantástico! she says.

This goes on for days, every time I talk to her, and then for weeks and now for months. Every time I call, it seems that she has either just finished the miniseries again or that she is again in the middle of it, episode three, or four … Seven times, she says at some point, then nine times, then she loses count and I stop asking, or I stop asking because she loses count, I don’t know what that man has done to me, is doing to me, she keeps saying, can’t stop looking at him. Vieja pero no pendeja. Old but not stupid-kind of. I still have good taste, she says.

He’s been dating a very famous singer, I inform her. I tell her who it is and she doesn’t know her and she has my sister look her up on the internet. My mother takes a look and says that the young woman has good taste.

I say, Wait till you see him in uniform, in a Spielberg movie, the one about the horse. I tell her that I didn’t recognize him at first and warn her that he comes to a bad end but that I thought he was great.

Send it, send it!

I’ll find it on DVD. Wait until you see him in uniform.

Ay, sí, mijo.

There’s an old photograph of my father in uniform hanging on a wall in their house and I wonder what he would have thought about all of this, being that he was the jealous type. Then again, there was a time when, in his old age, he really took to telenovelas. My mother says that when they came on, the ones that he was really into, you couldn’t bother him for anything, that it was like someone was going to give him a test after each episode, that he was always there and right on time and it was like he was hypnotized. Some of those women in those telenovelas are gorgeous, and God only knows what this old fool’s thinking about, she would say. Maybe she thinks of that and figures it’s her turn, or I figure it’s her turn. I wonder what he would say …

Mr. Hiddleston is in the new King Kong movie, I say, trying to stay on the subject but trying to change my own train of thought.

Oh, but the muchacho in that one is King Kong, she says.

Yes, but it looks like Hiddleston is playing it very macho, a lot of action.

I’ll see it.

And he also plays Hank Williams in another film. I have to explain who Hank Williams is.

He must have a beautiful singing voice, she says, and by he of course she means Hiddleston. This guy can do no wrong.

To finally change the subject while at the same time trying to stay on the same subject, I mention Tom Hardy and she knows who he is, really liked him in that movie The Drop. She says, He looked muy zángano in that movie, I didn’t get it at first, but then I realized that was the way he wanted to play it, because in the end he’s really not dumb at all, that must have been exactly what he wanted to do, what a portrayal, tremendo actor, great actor. And then she says, But he’s not Tom.

Tom really must have a beautiful singing voice, she says, coming back to him after a while, and it’s like she’s talking to herself. Over here, I stare at the phone for a moment and I’m sure my mouth is open and the jaw is just hanging there. A matter of time until I start referring to him as Tom, too.

I saw him in this fantasy-ish movie, a kinda strange …

That’s not my thing, she says, that ciencia ficción, with all those aviones flying around.

There are no planes flying around in this one, really, and then I tell her, and I don’t know why, talk about fanning the flames, that they show him naked, everything but the pipí.

It doesn’t take her a second-¡Pues échala pa acá! Send it over, then! she says.

But it takes three months for her to believe in electricity again and when it finally happens the first thing she does is start the miniseries again, to get her fix of Tom. I keep trying to find some more of his things, even the Shakespeare stuff from England, but I must admit I’m taking it slow, maybe for fear that they will see my mother even less, or anymore, as she has become more reclusive than usual.

And I guess, with me, a sort of resignation has set in. I wonder if it’s natural. Tom comes up in conversation just about as often as family members do. I suspect he’s become a constant presence in her life. Not a dominating, forceful entity. More like a benevolent being somewhere out there, completely outside of my mother’s world and yet intertwined perfectly with her current existence. A son might hate to admit this, a thing that Freud or Jung may have a thing or two to say about, and that I would hate to think would have my father turning in his grave, or maybe not, for he, also, is a benevolent being: Tom has been good for my mother, has been good to my mother. An artist who, through his craft and image, with his ethereal presence, makes the relatively comfortable yet difficult life of a septuagenarian Puerto Rican widow more passable. That’s got to be all good.

A son can’t be, or shouldn’t be, jealous of that. N or should he feel guilty for being an enabler.

A departed husband could be, but maybe shouldn’t be, jealous of that, even if he was the jealous type. But he was his own man and he can decide later on, or not decide at all, even if only in my conscience, how he feels about it.

And-and I don’t see it coming yet-there is always the possibility of a kind of divorce for these two, for my mother and Tom. She sure loves movies and she watches a lot of them, and someone else might come along. Not that I wish that. Whatever or whoever makes my mother pass the time more pleasantly in this son of a bitch of a world, and this is an optimist saying that here, I’m all for it. Any son must be all for it.

In the meantime, to each mother her own, and rightfully so. And, a Puerto Rican widow’s got to cope, Tom. She always has, and she always will. ?

Sidebar

Tony Báez Milán is a bilingual writer and film director. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he spent fifteen years in Los Angeles and is now living in southwestern Pennsylvania with his family. He is the author of several novels and short story collections, and his work has appeared in numerous publications. Among other films, he wrote and directed the award-winning feature Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis.

Word count: 3031

Note: Thanks for the submission @stuffstuff1757! This is fantastic.

#submission #stuffstuff1757 #Tom Hiddleston

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dweemeister · 4 years

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Be Water (2020)

With American professional sports largely sidelined due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN has found itself with few events to air. In response, the network pushed several documentaries to air earlier than scheduled – most notably the ten-part series The Last Dance on the 1998 NBA Finals-winning Chicago Bulls team (the series, controversially, was made in conjunction with Michael Jordan’s production company). Premiering last January at the Sundance Film Festival and later picked up by ESPN as part of its long-running 30 for 30 series of sport stories, Bao Nguyen’s Be Water initially does not seem to fit within the scope of 30 for 30. This is a sanitized documentary on Bruce Lee, the Hong Kong-American martial artist best known for four internationally acclaimed films – The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972), and Enter the Dragon (1973) – completed shortly before his accidental, tragic death. But Be Water treats Lee as a sort of crossover figure: understanding of cinema and television’s power, an admirer of the likes of Muhammad Ali, but a martial arts practitioner first and foremost.

Bruce Lee is someone that I hypothesize many Westerners have heard about. But their knowledge about his martial arts philosophies is probably consigned to motivational quotes posted on social media feeds shorn of context; and it is likely that few have seen any of his films (for the record, of Lee’s films, I have only seen Enter the Dragon in its entirety despite having family members who relish kung fu cinema). Be Water – which relies on interviews (all heard, new and otherwise, off-screen alongside archival footage) with Bruce Lee’s family, friends, and business partners – is an ideal entry point for Bruce Lee novices if the viewer can withstand the film’s nonlinear structure in its opening half-hour. For Lee’s ardent fans, Nguyen’s documentary does not contain revelations of character or career that they are not already familiar with.

Born in San Francisco in 1940 and raised in Hong Kong as a son of a towering figure of Cantonese opera, Lee took roles as a child actor in Hong Kong’s movie industry. When not working in a movie studio or in school, Lee – a self-described “punk… looking for fights,” – led a gang of child delinquents named the Junction Street Eight Tigers. After a ghastly beatdown, his parents suggested he learn martial arts. The sixteen-year-old Bruce studied Wing Chun (“kung fu”/ “gung fu” is a Cantonese umbrella term for Chinese martial arts) with the famed master Ip Man. Ip personally taught less than a dozen students, with Lee his most famous pupil.

Be Water is silent about why Lee joined a street gang and why, as a teenager, he would find the thrill of violence so gratifying. As the son of a wealthy and well-connected father, is there something the young Bruce wanted that could not be provided by wealth or family? A part of his violent childhood stems from the reality (unmentioned by the film) that some of his bullies were English – Hong Kong was a British Overseas Territory (a designation held today by places such as Bermuda, the Falkland Islands, and Gibraltar) from 1841 to 1997. Did his early experience with white racism inform how he would later approach college life and the entertainment industry in the United States? The racism that Lee faced was not exclusive to America, and Nguyen treats Hong Kong like a cultural haven for Lee – even though, for his childhood self, it could be anything but. Hong Kong in the post-World War II years before the British handover was a contradictory place that embodied – as Lee himself would through films – a merger of Western and Eastern values. In Be Water’s first half, the Hong Kong that educated Lee and gave him child actors’ work is present, but not the one that pummeled and haunted him.

Targeted by a Hong Kong triad, Lee’s parents sent him to live with his older sister in San Francisco in 1959. Later that year, he moved to Seattle, started his own martial arts academy (teaching Jun Fan Gung Fu, his own hybrid creation), and enrolled at the University of Washington in 1961. In Seattle, Bruce Lee found friends and students representing a patchwork of America’s diversity, including his future wife Linda Emery. The two married as many states (not including Washington state) kept anti-miscegenation laws, soon deemed unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court, in their books. In contrast to the portrayal of the Hong Kong of Lee’s childhood and teenage years, Nguyen’s documentary finds its voice as Lee is in America.

Be Water is most fascinating when Lee must contend with racism – something that ESPN, as an entity, has been loath to discuss no matter the sport they cover. When we hear about Lee’s desire to introduce Chinese culture through his martial arts pedagogy, it is juxtaposed with his social awareness and revulsion towards widely-held stereotypes of Asians. Footage of Bruce Lee’s blissful family life and his controlled, masterful physicality is intercut with Fu Manchu-bearded villains from poorly-conceived serial films and Mickey Rooney’s performance as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). Through most of Hollywood history, Asian males have been emasculated, “r”-mangling speakers who have never been the center of a film’s attention, embodying a villainous “yellow peril”, and too often portrayed by white actors in yellowface.

While playing the sidekick Kato on ABC’s The Green Hornet, Lee’s insistence to the writers to give the character more dialogue (the capable Kato is a silent character in the early episodes) runs into resistance. After auditioning for the lead of ABC’s Kung Fu, we learn, through an executive’s interview, that Bruce Lee is rejected for David Carradine because of his accent supposedly being too difficult for American audiences to understand. Be Water, showcasing Bruce Lee’s private frustration and the testimonies of his friends and executives about American film and television’s scruples towards Asian actors and characters, draws an unflattering portrait of the past and present Hollywood. Perhaps that racism is not as explicit nowadays, but it persists on American screens small and large. These practices and perceptions that shape the industry push away Asian actors from breaking through in Hollywood; Lee was fortunate enough to have the moral support of Golden Harvest producer Raymond Chow in order to make his career-defining films in Hong Kong (including Lee’s global blockbuster, Enter the Dragon).

Nguyen’s film spends more time on Lee’s film and television career than one might expect from an ESPN-aired product, but the film shares some sporting insight. That we learn of Lee’s sporting and political admiration for the outspoken Cassius Clay (who changed his name to Muhammad Ali after his conversion to Islam) is profound. Lee studied Ali’s mobility through repeatedly watching footage of his bouts, noting how the boxer would move in ways benefitting his fighting style. Some clever intercutting between Lee and Ali displaying their talents in their respective arenas reinforces Be Water’s credentials for sporting interest. One sees their personalities emerge through their athleticism – whether for moviegoers or fans of combat sports.

Bruce Lee’s personality – confident (sometimes to excess) and winsome – attracts the camera’s attention. Whether that camera produces a still photograph, home movies, or commercial film, that star power (a term Lee would bristle at) is evident. It has contributed to his posthumous mythos that the film – made in conjunction with his estate, down to the fact that his daughter, Shannon Lee, narrates her father’s diary entries – sustains. In that respect, Be Water suffers from the same problems that plagued ESPN’s The Last Dance (a great television series, but a poor documentary).

Nguyen, upon reaching moments when he could pull back the curtain’s rungs, elects to preserve that mythos. Lee’s fiery personality – borne from his childhood and the racism he endured in America and Hong Kong – is never examined, along with any of his personal indiscretions. Any introspection that Lee engaged in when he sacrificed his dreams to open martial arts schools across the United States in favor of a film/television career is ignored. Be Water even disregards the differences in cross-Pacific perceptions about Lee – of whom a Hong Kong newspaper once derided as, “the ultimate Mid-Pacific Man”. This may be an American production, but Lee’s Hong Kong years are integral to understanding his appeal and there is not enough effort here to delve into those formative years. Nguyen is on the cusp of remarking on Asian-American belonging – of not being “enough” of one or the other – but leaves that thesis incomplete.

Those who have never had the pleasure of watching Bruce Lee in a film or even in his famous 1965 screen test might want to start with Be Water. For those more knowledgeable in martial arts and/or kung fu cinema, if you do not mind being in Bruce Lee’s magnetic presence – albeit posthumous and through a screen – for 104 minutes, Bao Nguyen’s film is worth seeking. As for myself, fitting into neither of those two categories I have drawn up, this will help me prioritize Bruce Lee’s filmography whenever the opportunities become available to view the rest of his films.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, click here.

#Be Water #Bao Nguyen #Bruce Lee #30 for 30 #kung fu cinema #ESPN #Raymond Chow #My Movie Odyssey

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katahnisharma · 6 years

Text

the press tour | t.h. [1]

Pairing: Tom Holland x New Actress!Reader

Word Count: 2.2 K

Warnings: none i think?

Summary: You’re a new, inexperienced actress plucked from the obscurity of everyday life to play the lead in the reboot of a famous British Jane Austen novel, and Tom Holland just so happens to be playing your love interest. Of course, love is inevitable. But will it end in love?

A/N: i can guarantee that there will be a rap battle and cute interviews in the future :) also i know you can’t be nominated for an oscar before the movie comes out but bear with me I will explain lol

masterlist || series masterlist | playlist

“Five seconds and you’re on Y/N!”

Your head shot up from scrolling through your text messages. Your ever efficient and sweet personal assistant was standing in front of you, her clipboard and phone at the ready. “Thanks, Bailey. I’m ready to go, just gimme a sec.” She smiled and nodded, watching to see if you needed any help as you smoothed down the pleats on your gorgeous pale blue Emilia Wickstead dress. You felt infinitely powerful in it, which was a good thing because on the inside? You were a nervous wreck. Acting had never been a career you considered after high school. The only times where you had ever acted were in your elementary school plays. Even then, you usually got cast as the side characters, which usually meant the living props like talking tree # 4. Your only main role had been as John Adams’ wife in the fourth grade, and even then you had been given a whopping total of two lines. Then you were told to stand by little Timmy, who was playing John Adams, and “look pretty”. So suffice to say, acting had been a strangely sad experience up until a couple of months ago, when you had somehow landed the role of Emma Woodhouse in the reboot of Jane Austen’s famous novel. You hadn’t even meant to audition, you’d gone alone just to see the process. But after you went inside, you were wrangled by a very enthusiastic man to “read” for the part. And before you could even fathom what had happened, the casting directors voted unanimously. You had to be their Emma Woodhouse. And since then, the past couple months had been a crazy, exciting whirlwind. When everything had fallen into place regarding your new role, they told you that your co-star, your Mr. Knightley, would be the Tom Holland. You even remembered being escorted to the film production office when they told you.

“Excuse me, who now?” You very nearly spit out your coffee, placing it carefully next to you after your hands started to shake from shock. “You mean…Tom Holland from Spider-Man?!” “That’s the one. Great guy, even better actor. I’ve got teen daughters and they pointed me out to him, and I had to admit the kid was good. So we reached out and that was that. He wanted in.” The director shrugged, watching you begin to process that you would have to act alongside one of the most talented actors you’d ever seen on screen. “Oh, is this about the fact that you think you can’t act?” “I know I can’t act. Or at least, not like he can. I’m going to make such a fool of myself, I can feel it. And I’m never wrong about these things.” You were so busy trying to figure out the most effective way to cut and run that you almost didn’t feel the slight tap on your shoulder. “I highly doubt that, for the record. I’m not as good as everyone says, I swear!” You turned around slowly, recognizing the English accent. There was Tom Holland, not more than 10 inches away from you, giving you the widest grin. His eyes searched yours for a sign of friendliness, and he laughed as your eyes widened in response. “Oh my god, hi….. I’m Y/N Y/L/N” You stuttered, shooting up from your chair to extend a hand. “Mr. O’Hanlon didn’t even mention-“ But Mr. O’Hanlon was gone, so now it was just the two of you. You and Tom Holland. “I told him not to, I wanted to come surprise you, I guess? Is that weird? It’s probably weird, I dunno. I just thought it might be better if we met without being awkwardly “sent” to each other.” He took your hand with a smile, shaking it warmly as you felt your cheeks flush. “Oh no, that’s not weird! Actually, that makes a lot of sense. I think this is better.” You smiled back, taking your seat again as Tom pulled another chair from behind to sit next to you. “So, did I hear that you’ve never done this before?” You shifted uncomfortably at his words, tucking a strand of loose hair behind your ear. “Because from what I saw in your audition tape, I never would’ve guessed! Thought you were doing this for a long time or something.” “Oh, no definitely not! Never done this before, unless you count the weird elementary school plays. Wait, you really thought I’d gone to acting school?” Your walls immediately crumble, as your mouth turns into a satisfied grin. Tom starts to let his walls down too. You definitely were not what he had expected. “Why, does that make you feel validated?” He asked with a shit-eating grin, deciding to try another joke. “Never would have pegged you as someone who needed that.” “Wellllll, that’s where you’d be wrong. I love the praise. I’m a diva that way.” You chuckled, watching him return the action. You liked his laugh, it was husky but still light and happy. He took out his phone, shot off a quick text, and turned back to you immediately. “You know, I think it’s time we had lunch together, yeah?” For a minute, you weren’t sure you had heard him right, but when he kept looking at you for an answer, you realized that he did, in fact, want to have lunch with you of his own volition. You nodded enthusiastically, throwing caution to the wind as you accepted his boldly offered hand. Both of you smiling at each other and talking non-stop, you went out for your first ever lunch together. Since that day, you and Tom had been the co-stars that the world swooned over. The two of you had perfect chemistry in the movie, and fans were, of course, shipping you right and left. When the movie was released to the critics a week ago, you and Tom had been shocked by the magnitude of the reviews. Every single important newspaper and critic had given you glowing remarks. There was even talk of you being nominated for an Oscar. “This is so crazy! This is my first ever movie, and I’m nominated with people like Claire Foy and Emma Stone for a freaking Oscar!” You squealed, hugging a nearby pillow to your chest as Tom and Harrison laughed at your antics from the kitchen. The three of you were hanging out that day in between the pre-release interviews. “I did tell you that you’d be amazing, didn’t I? So where’s my prize for being correct as usual?” Tom brought you a Coke and sat down next to you, grinning as you rolled your eyes. You popped the tab and took a sip, placing it on the coaster Harrison had very carefully placed on the table. “Shut up, I knew I’d be good. I just said that I wouldn’t so you’d validate me, remember?” You burst out laughing as Tom snatched the pillow from you and proceeded to smack you with it. “You’re the worst, Y/N. Stop using my lines on me, get your own!” He teased, finally stopping when he thought you were finally beaten. But just when Tom stopping hitting you with the pillow, you grabbed your own and smacked him so hard he fell on his back. Tom looked up at you and smiled while trying to dodge your blows by holding your wrists in place. “Give it up! You’ve lost!” You pant, now inches away from Tom’s face. You could see his beautiful brown eyes look up at you, and his lips parted to reveal that stupid grin that always made your heart surge. You had basically memorized every bit of his face by now, and you resisted the urge to reach down and touch his features. You had to remind yourself that you were just best friends and co-stars, nothing else. “Darling, I never lose.” The pet name made you blush as Tom grabbed your waist and swung you on your back. “Hey, cut it out! Those pillows are new, idiots!” You and Tom broke away shyly, as Harrison ran into the room and took all the pillows from the couch. “Honestly, were you two raised in a barn?” Harrison gingerly piled all the pillows in one corner and then looked back and noticed how the two of you had suddenly become very quiet around each other. “Did I just interrupt something?” Your eyes widened in alarm, but Tom answered first. “What the hell are you talking about, you div?” You exhaled slightly, feeling relieved that he had come to your rescue, but also a little disappointed by how easily the sentence had rolled off his tongue. Yet another confirmation that the pining was one-sided. “We were just having a pillow fight, but since you’re so testy we promise never to use your precious pillows ever again.” Tom added, with a confidence you only wished you had if you were caught with your foot in your mouth. “My bad then.” Harrison switched on the TV and found an episode of Love Island, and everything appeared to be back to normal. But it wasn’t. You saw Harrison smile slightly from the other side of the room, and you knew he suspected something. You saw in that subtle expression that he wasn’t convinced by your silent denial of his accusation. Fast-forward to the present, and here you were, about to go into your first press tour interview together. Bailey opened the door for you and you walked onto the set stage, seeing Tom there, smirking at you from his seat. “What?” You rolled your eyes, watching his own trail your body’s path to the seat next to him. “Is there something in my hair or...” Tom shook his head, but the faint expression remained on his lips. “No, you just look pretty, that’s all.” You nearly choked on the air, trying so hard to keep it together. Plenty of guys compliment girls all the time, it meant nothing. “You always do, but this looks really good on you.” The wind was basically knocked out of you, and the words you were trying to form were not coming out. “Uh-um, thanks Tom!” Your voice came out at least a decibel higher and you wanted to sink into the floor when he looked at you and smirked. Of course he took some weird pleasure satisfaction in your total awkwardness. He always grinned at you when you did.

“You need to relax, Y/N. It’s going to be okay, love!” You turned your head to look anxiously for the host, who was currently chatting with the cameraman. “Hey, darling, focus on me! That might make you less nervous. You’re not nervous with me.”

You laughed and gave him a shove, which made him pull you in for a quick hug. Honestly, it wasn’t the interview that was making you nervous. It was the prospect of doing it with Tom, who you most certainly had feelings for. You’d tried for weeks to play it off like the feelings weren’t real, lying to yourself over and over again. You never wanted to be the girl who fell so in love with a man they couldn’t have that their hearts broke for years.

On the bright side, you had time to snap out of it when the host of the interview finally came over to introduce herself. She was tall and so sweet, but when she really looked over at you, she nearly fainted.

“Oh my god, you’re actually here! In front of me! Wow, I just…. I’m such an enormous fan. You’re amazing!” She gushed, nervously tucking her hair behind her ear and fiddling with her phone case. You were so taken aback by what she said, but you managed to find your smile.

“Wow, thank you so much! That means so much, you have no idea! I can’t even believe I have fans, honestly.” Tom gently smiled at you both, finding it adorable that you still couldn’t believe how much people adored you. That was just you, he thought. You were always humble, no matter how much attention you got.

“Ready to roll in ten seconds!” the cameraman called out from behind her. She gave you another quick smile and took her seat in front of you both, her questions at the ready. Tom leaned over and whispered in your ear.

“You excited?” You took a deep breath and shook your head back a little. Tom noticed your actions and resisted the urge to hold your hand, just so he could touch you.

“You know what? I think I am.” You looked at Tom and then the interviewer.

“Let’s do it!”

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THE PRESS TOUR TAGLIST: @notes-from-my-journal @lovelyspidey @peterspanish @musicandbokkslovingweirdo @kaylzjordan @puffedgill

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1baddmouthcrown · 6 years

Text

1900 Booker T. Washington founds the National Negro Business League.

Washington publishes his first autobiography “The Story of my life and work” editor of the New York Age Timothy Thomas Fortune.

October Washington attends the White House for dinner with President Theodore Rosevelt.

Du Bois attends the First Pan-African Conference in London and drafts letter ”Address to the Nations of the World” to the European heads of states.

Seay becomes a qualified educator and begins teaching in the Mayan village of Xcalak in Mexico.

1901 January 22 Queen Victoria passes away and Edward VII becomes King.

Garvey becomes apprentice to printer Alfred ‘Cap’ Burrowes in his native parish of Saint Ann.

Du Bois with his wife Nina and daughter Yolande ca. 1901

Washington publishes his second autobiography “Up From Slavery”.

Washington recieves honorary decorate from Dartmouth College.

Du Bois writes a critical review of WashingtonsUp From Slavery biography.

Queen Victoria passes away and Edward VII assessees to the throne.

1902 Vladmir Lenin publishes his “What is to Be Done” book.

Ras Makonnen travels to France and England.

Earnest Alfred Wallace Budge makes his first excavations at the city of Meroe.

1903 Du Bois publishes his 14 essay book The Souls of Black Folk containing his “Mr. Booker T Washington and others” essay.

Garvey leaves school after completing the 6th standard employed as compositor in the printery of Alfred E Burrows and company.

August The Second Party Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party takes place.

1904 Garvey relocates from his native parish of Saint Ann 25 miles away to Alfred Borrows print branch in Port Maria, Saint Mary.

1905 Garvey moves to Smith Village in Kingston at 13 Pink Lane, begins working for P. A. Benjamin and exceeds to the position of foreman.

April The Third Party Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party is held in London.

November 1 Tafari at 13 years old is appointed Dejazmatch of Gara Mullata by his Father Ras Makonnen.

Washington receives President Roosevelt at Tuskegee Institute.

December Du Bois purchases printing press and publishes the first African American Illustrated Weekly “The Moon”.

Budge makes more excavations at Meroe.

1906 January 23 Washington gives speech at Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary Lecture Carnegie Hall in New York City.

March 21 Tafari’s Dad Ras Makonnen dies in the city of Qullebi and is buried in the church of St. Michael in Harar which he founded.

April The Fourth Unification Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party is held at Folkets Hus, Nada Bantorget, Stockholm.

May 9 Dejazmatch Tafari is given Ras Darge’s governorate of Sallale and his older brother Dejazmatch Yelma son of Wayzaro Assallafatch, Empress Taitu’s niece, their father’s governorate of Harar.

Du Bois and American Civil Rights activists meet in Canada and write declaration opposing Washington’s Atlanta Compromise and form the Niagara Movement.

August The Second Niagara conference commemorating the 100th anniversary of the abolitionist John Brown’s birth, is held in West Virginia at Harpers Ferry where Brown’s raid on the federal armory took place in 18.

gubernatorial election M. Hoke Smith Democratic primary nomination campaign to defranchize black voters in Georgia.

September 22 Saturday Afternoon rioting begins in Atlanta. Newspapers in Atlanta report four separate cases of alleged rapes on white women by black men, whites take to the streets and begin attacking blacks, by midnight 10, 000 whites in the Five Points section of downtown.

10 p.m. The first three dead are reported some people are hospitalized with five deaths, three of those being that of black women.

Governor Joseph M. Terrell eight companies of the Fifth Infantry and one battery of light artillery.

African American Alonzo Horndon’s barber shop is attacked, black men are killed on the steps of the U. S. Post Office and inside the Marion Hotel, a mob attack the center of black business’s at Decatur Street, mobs attack at Peters Street and neighborhoods.

3 a.m. to 5 a.m. Heavy rain

6 a.m. Militia deployed in

The Le Petit journal of Paris. Black men and black women were thrown from trolley cars, assaulted with clubs and pelted with stones.

The New York Times reports 25 to 30 black men and women dead.

September 23 Sunday Hundreds of Blacks flee the city.

A group of armed black men meet in Brownsville near Clark University to talk about the rioting, three companies of militia are sent to Brownsville, an officer is killed in the ensuing shootout and 250 blacks are disarmed and arrested.

Du Bois publishes his “A Litany at Atlanta” essay criticizing Washington’s Atlanta Compromise.

1907 Hubert Harrison begins working at the United States Post Office.

January 14 Jamaica earthquake.

Garvey elected vice president of the compositors branch of the Kingston Typographical Union organised as affiliate #98 of International Typographical Union of American Federation of Labour.

Du Bois publishes his The Horizon: A Journal of the Color Line.

Philadelphia Quaker Anna T Jeanes donates 1 milion dollars to Washington for elementary schools for Negro children in the South.

October 10 Tafari’s brother Yelma dies, Dejazmatch Baltcha is given governorate of Harar.

Budge publishes the record of his excavations at Meroe in his book The Egyptian Sudan, Its History and Monuments.

1908 March 18 Garveys Mother Sarah Richards passes away at age 56.

April 4 Tafari is given part of the governorship of Sidamo.

November 28 Garvey participates in Jamaica print worker strike.

Du Bois attends the Fourth Niagara conference.

1909 Washington tours southern Virginia and West Virginia.

May Du Bois attends the First National Negro Conference in New York where the National Negro Committee is created chaired by Oswald Villard and also publishes his biography of abolitionist John Brown who raid Harpers Ferry Western Virginia.

August-September Garvey supports Jacob Warcham's election to the city council in Kingston and speaks at political meetings on behalf of H. A. I. Simpson in the general election.

German Orientalist Dr. Carl Bezold and the Bavarian Royal Academy publish their edition of the Ethiopic manuscript the Book of the Glory of Kings/the Kebra Negast with a German translation.

December Du Bois attends the American Historical Association where he reads his Reconstruction and its Benefits and has it published in the American Historical Review.

1910 Du Bois attends the Second National Negro Conference Committee where the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is created and he becomes Director of Publicity and Research of its monthly magazine the Crisis.

Harrison writes two letters to the New York Sun critical of Washington which cost him his job at the United States Post Office.

March 3 Dejazmatch Tafari is finally given governorate of Harar.

March S.A.G. "Sandy" Cox forms the National Club of Jamaica.

April 20 Garvey is elected first assistant secretary along with apprentice tailor Wilfred Domingo, second assistant secretary of the National Club assisting with its fortnightly journal “Our Own” and also co publish “The Struggling Mass” pamphlet.

May 6 Edward VII passes away and George V assessees to the throne.

May 18 The legislative council suspend Cox for making Ill founded charges against certain public officers.

July 16 The Artisans and Labourers Union informs United Fruit Company that it intends to take August 1 Emancipation day in the British West Indies as a holiday from work.

August 1 5, 000 Jamaican's stage an Emancipation Day demonstration in Limon, Costa Rica and Garvey is 1 of 15 contestants in an all island elocution competition held at Collegiate Hall in Kingston where he protests the judges decision.

Garvey enrolls for elocution lessons with Bahamian born Dr. Robert J Love.

October Garvey travels to Costa Rica where his maternal uncle Henry Richards finds him employment as a time keeper on a Banana plantation in Limon.

November Over 700 workers recruited by the United Fruit Company in St. Kitts and Nevis arrive in Limon aboard a dangerously overcrowded vessel and are sent to outlying farms, where they face extremely unhealthy conditions. The workers return to Limon and refuse to return to work, they also demand that the British vice consul at Limon seek redress from the company. For 3 weeks the firm stand of the St. Kitts workers continues to generate the strong support of the Jamaican community.

November 17 Cox wins St. Thomas seat in the legislative council by large.

November Du Bois edits and publishes the first issue of The Crisis.

December Joseph Nathan, the leader of St. Kitts workers, is deported from Limon, signaling the end of the banana workers strike. Shorty after his expulsion and return to St. Kitts he helps to launch the labor movement in the Leeward Islands and assumes leadership of the Garvey movement in St. Kitts.

The leadership of the Artisans and Labourers Union collapses and is replaced by more militant members of the rank and file, but the new leaders are eventually deported from Limon.

Garvey publishes three issues of his Watchman journal named after George William Gordon’s journal the Watchman inspired by Psalm 127.

1851 October 8 The first case of Cholera is in Port Royal.

October 11 The first fatal of Cholera in the parish of Kingston.

40, 000 people in Jamaican die from Cholera part of the second Pandemic according to the Statistical Report of the Epedemic Cholera in Jamaica published in 1852 by John Parkin.

1864 crops are destroyed by floods in Jamaica effected by cholera and smallpox followed by a two year drought.

1865 Dr. Edward Underhill secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society in Great Britain writes a letter to the colonial office in London, the Governor of Jamaica John Eyre Underhill parish of Saint Ann petition Queen Victoria for land.

August A Baptist deacon, the Right Excellent Paul Bogle ordained by Sir George William Gordon, leads a 45 mile walk from Stony Gut in the parish of St. Thomas to Spanish town in the parish of St. Catherine, the then capital of Jamaica, to petition the Governor.

October 7 A man by the name of James Geoghegon creates a disturbance in Morant Bay court house during the trail of a man having charges brought against him for trespassing on an inactive sugar plantation, the police try to arrest Geoghegon, the obstruct and begin to fight with the police and the court house issues a warrant for those including Bogle.

October 11 Bogle leads hundreds to the court house, the confrontation between the group and the militia begins with the group attacking the militia with sticks and stones, the militia shoot and kill members of the group and at the end of this confrontation 25 people had been killed.

The parish goes into unrest, Eyre declares martial law and sends government troops led by Brigadier General Alexander Nelson to bring Bogle and those involved to the court to be tried and convicted, the militia kill innocent men, women and children totalling 439 dead, 354 people are arrested, tried and executed, some several hundred who are flogged and sentenced, the soldiers also burn thousands of homes.

Eyre has Gordon who he believes to have made the matter worse arrested in Kingston and brought to Morant Bay where he is tried under martial law, convicted and executed.

October 21 Gordon is tried and charged with high treason by Lieutenant Herbert Brand.

October 23 Gordon and Paul’s brother William are hanged.

1866 Eyre is criticized for his handling of the situation.

John Stuard Mills forms the Jamaica Committee which British Liberals.

The Committee present its cases against Brand and British Army Officer Brigadier Abercromby Nelson to the Central Criminal Court but the grand jury decline to certify these cases.

August Eyre returns to Britain.

September Thomas Carclyle forms the Eyre Defense and Aid committee.

The indictment against Eyre fails on the count that he lives in Market Drayton outside the jurisdiction of court, the council of the committee, Barrister James Fitz James Stephen travels to Market Drayton but fails to convince the Justices to endorse his case against Eyre.

The Jamaica Committee asks the Attorney-General to certify the criminal information against Eyre but are rebuffed.

Eyre moves to London.

The magistrate at Bow Street Police Court decline to arrest Eyre due to the failure of the cases brought against Brand and Nelson.

The prosecutors are successful in their application to the Queen's Bench for a writ of mandamus justified by the Criminal Jurisdiction Act 1802.

The case is presented to The Queen's Bench but its grand jury decline to find a true bill of indictment, and Eyre is freed of criminal pursuit.

1911 Harrison becomes Americas leading black socialist at the Socialist Party of America.

March Garvey in Costa Rica becomes editor of the daily newspaper La Nacionale, he writes a letter critical of the editor of the West Indian newspaper, The Times/El Tiempo, setting off protracted controversy between the two papers and later travels to Colon, Panama.

April Garvey launches a subscription for a "Coronation Fund" to celebrate the coronation of King George V, to be held on June 22.

June 7 Cox is unseated from legislative council.

June 10 Garvey resigns as head of the coronation committee organized by him and agrees to merge with the "official" coronation committee chaired by the Anglican archdeacon of Limon.

June 13 Following the demise of the Artisans and Labourers Union, a wave of intense religious revivalism sweeps over Limon. The Times weekly newspaper complains of the "vile practices which gave stirred the town during the past month the like of which has never been known in the previous history of Port Limon"

June 14 Just prior to his departure from Limon aboard the S. S. Cartago, Garvey is apprehended and escorted ashore, allegedly for unpaid debts to various creditors, including unpaid wages to the staff of La Nacion.

July 26 Du Bois attends the First Universal Race Congress in London with Sir Sydney Olivier Governor of Jamaica and Harry Johnston of the Royal Geographical Society among its attendees, joins the Socialist Party of America and publishes his “Quest of the Silver Fleece” novel.

July 31 Tafari at age 20 marries Wayzaro Manan in church ceremony.

August-September Garvey visits British Honduras gives elocution concert.

Randolph moves to New York City and studies Social Science at City College.

Cox is reelected to the legislative council at the general Election petition is fieled against Cox by Henry Cork.

1912 February 7 Edward Wilmot Blydenauthor of Christianity, Isalm and the Negro Race passes away in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Harrison campaigns for Eugene V. Debs founder of the Industrial Workers of the World, as presidential candidate, writes the Negro and Socialism for the socialist newspaper the New York Call as well as the socialist monthly the International Socialist Review, founds the Colored Socialist Club and speaks at Broad and Wall Street in front of the New York stock exchange in Manhattan.

Du Bois is forced to resign from the Socialist Party of America for breaching its rules by supporting the Democrat Woodrow Wilson in presidential campaign.

Garvey sails to London where he attends evening classes at Birkbeck College.

August Garveys sister, Indiana, joins him in London.

Julius Rosenwald begins serving on the board of directors of Tuskegee Institute.

Mc Kay publishes his “Songs of Jamaica” as well as his “Constab Ballads” for which in the same year he is awarded the Jamaican Institute of Arts and Sciences, Musgrave Medal.

1913 January 1 Du Bois and New York State Commission attend the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, his "The Peoples of the People and Their Gift to Man" (later renamed The Star of Ethiopia) Pageant is performed Emancipation Proclamation.

Candice the Queen of Ethiopia has also been identified with the Kandake’s of the Kingdom of Kush whilst it was centered at the city of Meroe because of the King Taharqa the Kingdom of Kush whilst it was previously centered at Napata in Nubia prior to Meroe Taharqa in the bible is mentioned as being the King of Ethiopia having assisted Hezekiah King of Judah in conflict with the Assyrians.

And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. 2 Kings 19:9-10/Isaiah 37:9-10

674 BC Taharqa defeats the Assyrian Emperor Sennacherib at Eltekeh.

Sennacherib then defeats Taharqa.

671 BC The Assyrian Emperor Esarhaddon captures Memphis with Taharqa fleeing to in the south, takes members of the royal family as prisoners at his capital Nineveh in Assyria and places Libyan Necho I as the first of the Twenty Sixth Dynasty at Sais.

Esarhaddon on his return to Assyria erects a Stele his Stele of Nahor el Kalb and his Victory Stele at Zincirle Hayok which shows Taharqa's son Ushankhuru taken as a prisoner by the Assyrians.

Esaehaddon dies in Palestine on the way to Egypt, his son Emperor Ashurbanipal defeats Taharqa who flees to the city of Thebes, where he dies in 664 BC and is buried in Nuri, North Sudan.

The Kingdom of Kush was centered at Napata in Nubia since the time of Alara who attacked Egypt, then Kashta who extended Kushite rule to Elephantine and Thebes in upper Egypt. His successor Taharqa's Dad, Piye, invaded and conquered Egypt.

Tefnakht of Sais forms a coalition with Kings of the Delta region, persuades Piye’s ally Nimlot King of the city of Hermopolis and Herakleopolis King Peftjauawybast.

Piye army invade middle and lower Egypt Thebes Opet fesitival detailed on his victory stele at Gabel Barkal found in the Amun temple.

Piye in retaliation then relieves Herakleopolis, conquers Hermopolis after five month siege, Delta Kings of Leontopolis and Tanis.

Taharqa was succeeded by a son of his predecessor, Shabaka, Tantamani who defeated and killed Necho, and also took Thebes, which the Assyrians then retook from him.

Meroe was ruled by Kandakes from Shanakdakhete in 177 BCE to Lahideamani in 314 CE. The Mereotic city MusawwaratesSufra on the island of Meroe in the modern day Butana region was named by the Achaenid Persian King Cambyses after his sister.

Alexander the great romance by Pseudo Callisthenes.

A stele Geez of a King of the Aksumites and the Omerites/Himyar found in Meroe also provides evidence of the presence of Aksum in Meroe from the 4th century Christian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia.

February 25 July Hubert participates in the Industrial Workers of the World Paterson, New Jersey Silk Strike. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is arrested on the first day of the strike for. William D. “Big Bill” Haywood helps to create create strike committee.

Patrick L. Quin.

Randolph marries Widow Mrs Lucille Campbell Green, Howard University graduate.

May Chief Alfred Charles Sam AkyemAbuakwa sells shares for his Akim Trading Company in Texas, Oklahoma.

June 7 The pageant of the Paterson Strike is performed at Madison Square Garden.

Garvey begins working for Dusé Mohamed Ali as messenger and handyman at his African Times and Orient Review office on 158 Fleet Street.

October Garveys “British West Indies in the Mirror of Civilization: History making by Colonial Negroes” essay is published in the African Times and Orient Review.

Garvey travels to Scotland.

Garvey granted month long readers pass to the British Museum library, where he reads Blyden’s “Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race” as well as Washington’s autobiography Up from Slavery.

6 new small schools in rural Alabama funded by Rosenwald as part of Washington's project are built and opened.

July 20 Garvey founds the Universal Negro Improvement Association at 12 Orange Street, Kingston and holds the first UNIA meeting.

August 4 Great Britain declare war on Germany.

August Garvey meets Amy Ashwood at the Queen Street Baptist Literary and Debating Society.

Ashwood secures the property at 20 Orange Street, Kingston with her Dad's money and with Garvey establishes it as the new location of the UNIA headquarters.

August Sam’s ship the S. S. Liberia, the German steamer, Curityba, sets sail for Gambia with sixty trained men and a cargo of lumber, cement, lime, flour, agricultural implements, and household goods.

September 4 Garvey writes to appeal to Washington for support and Washington invites him to visit.

October 31 Ashwood recites Paul Lawrence Dunbars “The Lover and the Moon” at Collegiate Hall UNIA meeting.

Tsar Nicholas II makes his October manifesto.

November 12 Garvey and UNIA delegates inspect Hope Farm.

The Russian army invade Germany.

Mckay moves to the U. S. and begins attending Washington’s Tuskegee Institute.

December Sam and immigrants arrive at their destination in Bathurst, Gambia (present day Banjul) and also travel to Freetown, Sierra Leone.

1914 After 10 years of construction, the first vessel passes through the 52 mile Panama Canal waterway, in the course of the American led construction, some 5, 000 workers, most of them West Indian, perished.

May 29 Garvey now visits the Colonial Office in London requesting financial assistance to return to Jamaica.

May 31 Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards is born.

June 17 Garvey leaves England aboard the S. S. Trent to Jamaica.

June Garvey's article "The Evolution of Latter Day Slaves: Jamaica, A Country of Black and White," is published in the Tourist: A Literary and Anti Slavery Journal, published by the Anti Slavery Society in England.

July 20 The first meeting of the UNIA and ACL is held, along with the election of officers, in Kingston, Jamaica.

July 8 Garvey arrives in Jamaica.

August 4 Great Britain declares war on Germany.

August 15 The Panama Canal is officially opened to traffic. The majority of West Indian workers chose to remain in Panama despite deteriorating working conditions and oppressive discriminatory policies.

August 28 The Colonial Office communicates the West Indian desire to send a military contingent overseas; the War Office immediately rejects the offer on the grounds that black's are required for local defense purposes and to maintain order locally.

August In Antigua, Robert and James Brown return to the island from New York; the brothers become engaged in organising the Antiguan working class.

September 8 Garvey writes to letter Washington appealing for support.

December 14 British Arny Council informs the Colonial Office that it does not consider West Indian troops suitable for service in Egypt or West Africa and offers to accept a West Indian contingent to serve as a peacekeeping force in captured territories of West Africa, causing public anger in the West Indies.

1915 Sam and immigrants arrive at Saltpond on the Gold Coast present day Ghana.

Harrison publishes his own version of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden.” entitled “The Black Man’s Burden.”

February Garvey wins first place in elocution contest at Collegiate Hall for his recital of “Catham on the American war of independence.”

April 12 Garvey writes to Bascungoth informing of his to America and requesting his assistance.

May 17 The UNIA Reading Room in Kingston is opened.

Du Bois publishes his “The Negro” book, his “The African Roots of the War” essay in the Atlantic Monthly and article numbering 2, 732 lynching’s from 1884 to 1914 in the Crisis as well as fights with the NAACP to band “The Birth of a Nation” film for its portrayal of black men.

Russia Tsar Nicholas assumes Commander in Chief.

September 8 Dr Leo Pink, Jamaican dentist writes letter to the Daily Chronicle requesting an accounting of UNIA funds.

October 11 Monday, 13 Wednesday and 15 Friday Du Bois’s “The Star of Ethiopia” pageant of the history of the Negro Race from 50,000 B.C to 20th century written, produced, and directed by Du Bois himself, presented by the Horizon Guild and the National Pageant and Dramatic Association is performed at the American League Ball Park in Washington D. C. to commemorate the 13th amendment.

October 15 Leonard Percival Howell witnesses the murder of his neighbor by her Husband, his parents refuse to let him testify as a witness, Howell travels to Panama.

November 15 Washington collapses in New York diagnosed with Brights disease dies of Hypertension.

November 22 Garvey delivers address on life and walk of the late Washington at special UNIA memorial meeting.

1916 February 29 Robert Russa Moton, newly appointed principle of Tuskegee Institute, on his visit to Jamaica, receives lengthy

March 7 Garvey departs from Jamaica to New York on the S. S. Tallac.

March 23 Garvey arrives in New York.

April issue of the Crisis magazine article covers the lynching of six in Lee County, Georgia.

April 25 Garvey heads to the NAACP offices at 25 695th Avenue in search of Du Bois.

Garvey visits the Tabernacle Church of Billy Sunday at Broadway and 168th Street.

May 9 Garvey holds his first public lecture in New York City at St Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery where he becomes overwhelmed whilst speaking and falls off the stage.

Garvey 38 state tour.

May 16, 18 and 20 8 P. M. Du Bois’s “The Star of Ethiopia” portrayed by 1010 Actors in Costume 53 Musical Numbers Full Brass Band is performed at the 100th General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church held in the CONVENTION HALL BROAD AND ALLEGHANY AVENUE, Philadelphia. Lucien B. Watkins publishes his “The Star of Ethiopia” poem.

Meroe geographically was known to the Greeks as Ethiopia, according to the Greek historian Herodotus who lived during the 5th century BC Meroe had the reputation of being the mother city of the Ethiopians. Candice the Queen of Ethiopia has also been identified with the Kandake’s of the Kingdom of Kush whilst it was centered at the city of Meroe because of the King Taharqa the Kingdom of Kush whilst it was previously centered at Napata in Nubia prior to Meroe Taharqa in the bible is mentioned as being the King of Ethiopia having assisted Hezekiah King of Judah in conflict with the Assyrians. And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. 2 Kings 19:9-10/Isaiah 37:9-10

Egyptian Pharaoh Taharqa's pyramid at Nuri.

And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea. Acts 8:27-40 674 BC Taharqa defeats the Assyrian Emperor Sennacherib at Eltekeh. Sennacherib then defeats Taharqa. 671 BC The Assyrian Emperor Esarhaddon captures Memphis with Taharqa fleeing to in the south, takes members of the royal family as prisoners at his capital Nineveh in Assyria and places Libyan Necho I as the first of the Twenty Sixth Dynasty at Sais. Esarhaddon on his return to Assyria erects a Stele his Stele of Nahor el Kalb and his Victory Stele at Zincirle Hayok which shows Taharqa's son Ushankhuru taken as a prisoner by the Assyrians. Esaehaddon dies in Palestine on the way to Egypt, his son Emperor Ashurbanipal defeats Taharqa who flees to the city of Thebes, where he dies in 664 BC and is buried in Nuri, North Sudan. The Kingdom of Kush was centered at Napata in Nubia since the time of Alara who attacked Egypt, then Kashta who extended Kushite rule to Elephantine and Thebes in upper Egypt. His successor Taharqa's Dad, Piye, invaded and conquered Egypt.

Pharaoh Piye's pyramid at El-Kurru.

Tefnakht of Sais forms a coalition with Kings of the Delta region, persuades Piye’s ally Nimlot King of the city of Hermopolis and Herakleopolis King Peftjauawybast. Piye army invade middle and lower Egypt Thebes Opet fesitival detailed on his victory stele at Gabel Barkal found in the Amun temple. Piye in retaliation then relieves Herakleopolis, conquers Hermopolis after five month siege, Delta Kings of Leontopolis and Tanis. Taharqa was succeeded by a son of his predecessor, Shabaka, Tantamani who defeated and killed Necho, and also took Thebes, which the Assyrians then retook from him. Meroe was ruled by Kandakes from Shanakdakhete in 177 BCE to Lahideamani in 314 CE. The Mereotic city MusawwaratesSufra on the island of Meroe in the modern day Butana region was named by the Achaenid Persian King Cambyses after his sister. Alexander the great romance by Pseudo Callisthenes. A stele Geez of a King of the Aksumites and the Omerites/Himyar found in Meroe also provides evidence of the presence of Aksum in Meroe from the 4th century Christian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia.

June issue of the Crisis in “Waco Horror” article covers the lynching of mentally impaired 17 year old Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas.

September 27 the day of the feast of Masqal, nobles, army, the Archbishop Abuna Mettewos, Etchage Walda Giyorgis and priests assemble at Palace disposing of Emperor Lij Iyasu of Ethiopia and proclaim Zawditu his aunty, Menelik’s daughter as Empress with her cousin DejazmatchTafari assuming the rank of Ras, Crown Prince and hier to the throne as well as Regent Plenipotentiary.

Randolph and Chandler Owen drop out of college and jointing the Socialist Party.

December Russia Grigori Rasputin murdered by Prince Yusopor.

1917 January Randolph and Owen publish the Headwaiters and Sidewaiters Society of Greater New York’s monthly magazine the Hotel Messenger.

January 30 The UUU is registered as a friendly society in Barbados.

Garvey's "West Indies in the Mirror of Truth," article is published in Chicago in the Champion Magazine.

February 11 Sunday Zewditu is anointed with the oil of kingship by Abuna Mettewos with Tafari previously Dejazmatch assuming the rank of Ras, Crown Prince, hier to the throne and Regent Plenipotentiary.

Garvey along with 13 others form the Harlem, New York branch of the UNIA becoming its first members.

Randolph who had stepped down from his stepladder in Harlem to let Garvey speak earlier in the year founds the Messenger monthly magazine with Owen, Randolph also becomes President and Executive Secretary of the Independent Political Council.

March 25 Garvey speak on “The Negroes of the West Indies, after 78 years of Emancipation.” With a general talk on the world position of the race.at the Big Bethel African Methodist Espicopal Church Corner Auburn Avenue and Butler Street in Georgia, Atlanta.

the handbill reads BIG MASS MEETING A CALL TO THE COLORED CITIZENS OF ATLANTA GEOGRIA To Hear the Great West Indian Negro Leader HON. MARCUS GARVEY President of the Universal Negro Improvement Association of Jamaica, West Indies. Big Bethel A.M.E. Church Corner Auburn Avenue and Butler Street SUNDAY AFTERNOON, AT 2 O’CLOCK MARCH 25, 1917 He brings a message of inspiration to the 12,000,000 of our people in this country. SUBJECT: “The Negroes of the West Indies, after 78 years of Emancipation.” With a general talk on the world position of the race. An orator of exceptional force, Professor Garvey has spoken to packed audience’s in England, New York, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinatti, Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville and other cities. He has travelled to the principal countries of Europe, and was the first Negro to speak to the Veterans’ Club of London, England. This is the only chance to hear a great man who has taken his message before the world. COME OUT EARLY TO SECURE SEATS. It is worth travelling 1,000 miles to hear.

March Tsar Nicholas II resigns.

April 26 'Mayor Fred W. Moflman arrived in the city on a trip from St. Louis. In New Orleans he was met by Mayor Behrman and the New Orleans Board of Trade. For months the Farmers of Louisiana were frightened out of their wits over the everyday migration of Negroes from great farming centers of the State. They wrote to the papers, they appealed to the Governor, the Mayor and the Legislature and the Board of Trade to stop the Negroes going away, but up to the 26th of April nothing was done to stop the people excepting the Railway Companies promising to use certain restraint on the rush of people obtaining passages on the trains by Railway orders sent to them from the North. At this time Mayor Mollman arrived and the Farmers and Board of Trade met him and asked his help in discouraging the Negroes from going North and especially to East St. Louis. In an interview given out to the New Orleans press he said that the Negroes from the South were reaching St. Louis at the rate of 2,000 per week, and that they were creating a problem there. He said that some of the largest industries in the country were established in East St. Louis and there were strikes for the last few months. He believed the labor conditions in East St. Louis were responsible for the number of Negro laborers going to that city. When the strikes started, he said, United States District Judge Wright issued an injunction restraining the strikers from intimidating the laborers who took their places. This order prevented uprisings and riots. "Conditions are very bad in East St. Louis," he said, "because many plants are suffering for the want of labor. However, our city is growing and we have a population of 85,000 persons. During 1916 we gained 1,600 in population." His interview did not make pleasant reading for the Farmers and others interested in labor in New Orleans and Louisiana so that the very next day he appeared at the Board of Trade where he met the Farmers and others and in discussing the labor exodus with them, he promised that he would do all he could to discourage Negroes from Louisiana going into East St. Louis as the city did not want them. His interview on the first day was an encouragement to the Negroes to go to East St. Louis, as there was work for them, owing to the inability of the various plants to get labor. On the second day when he was approached he said East St. Louis did not want the Negroes, and he then promised to do all in his power to prevent them going there. His remarks to the people whom he met were published under big headlines in the News papers, so that the Negroes could read that they were not wanted in East St. Louis, but that did not deter the blackmen of Louisiana who were looking for better opportunities in the land of their birth going about the country looking for better conditions than the South offered with lynching and Jim Crowism. The Negroes still continued their migration North. The Mayor of East St. Louis returned to the city after making his promise to the Farmers, Board of Trade and others who were interested in Negro labor.'

April 27 Friday Mayor Mollman appeals before the Board of Trade where he makes his statement of promise

April Lenin returns to Russia from exile in Switzerland and later also flees to Finland.

The United States enter WWI.

May 4

May 5 The New Orleans Board of trade elects Mr. M. J. Sanders its president, and Mr. W. P. Ross as delegates to attend a transportation conference at St. Louis to be held on May 8-9.

May 8-9 The transportation conference is held at St. Louis at which several prominent men interested in the labor condition of the South were present as messrs.

May 28 East St. Louis. White employees of the Aluminium Ore Company vote for labor strike, the Company employ hundreds of blacks, 3, 000 white men begin rioting.

Crowds of white men after leaving the city council stopped street cars and dragged Negroes off and beat them.

May 29 Night 3 Negroes and 2 white men are shot. An investigation of the affair resulted in the finding that labor agents had induced Negroes to come from the South.

Governor Frank Orren Lowden summonds the National Guard subdue to riot.

'One thing I do no[w?] know; the first riot started on May 28 after a conference of labor leaders with Mayor Mollman. On that day, May 28, crowds of white men after leaving the City Council stopped street cars and dragged Negroes off and beat them. Then the night following three Negroes and two white men were shot. An investigation of the affair resulted in the finding that labor agents had induced Negroes to come from the South. I can hardly see the relevance of such a report with the dragging of men from cars and shooting them. The City authorities did nothing to demonstrate to the unreasonable labor leaders that they would be firmly dealt with should they maltreat and kill black men. No threat was offered to these men because Mayor Mollman himself had promised to do all he could to drive the Negroes out of East St. Louis, and to instill fear in the hearts of the people in the South so as to prevent them coming North. On the 29th of May, a day after the first disturbance, and when three Negro men had been killed, Mayor Mollman sent a dispatch to Governor Pleasant of Louisiana advising the Negroes of Louisiana to remain away from East St. Louis. This news item from the "Call" of May 31 which I will read will speak for itself.

May Garvey returns to New York from his speaking tour.

Harrison founds the Liberty League and Voice newspaper.

June 12 Harrison and Garvey speak at Harrisons Liberty League of Negro Americans meeting to petition the government again lynchings and disenfranchisement at the African Methodist Espicopa lBethal Church on 52-60 West 132ND.

The handbill which also details Chandler Owen as one of the speakers reads STOP LYNCHING AND DISFRANCHISEMENT IN THE LAND WHICH WE LOVE AND MAKE THE SOUTH “SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY” A Mass Meeting OF COLORED CITIZENS WILL BE HELD AT BETHEL CHURCH, 52-60 West 132ND Street On TUESDAY, JUNE 12th, at 8 P. M. UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE LIBERTY LEAGUE of Negro-Americans To take steps to uproot these two evils and “to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” IF YOU BELIEVE IN NEGRO MANHOOD IF YOU BELIEVE IN NEGRO WOMANHOOD IF YOU LOVE YOUR COUNTRY IF YOU LOVE YOUR RACE The meeting will be addressed by MR. HUBERT H. HARRISON MR. CHANDLER OWENS REV. DR. CLAYTON POWELL other prominent ministers and laymen.

June 15 The United States congress pass the Espionage Act of 1917.

July Race riot in East Saint Louis, Illinois, on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from St. Louis, Missouri.

The East St. Louis Riot, or rather massacre, of Monday [July] 2nd, will go down in history as one of the bloodiest outrages against mankind for which any class of people could be held guilty. (Hear! hear.) This is no time for fine words, but a time to lift one's voice against the savagery of a people who claim to be the dispensers of democracy. (cheers) I do not know what special meaning the people who slaughtered the Negroes of East. St. Louis have for democracy of which they are the custodians, but I do know that it has no literal meaning for me as used and applied by these same lawless people. (hear! hear!). America, that has been ringing the bells of the world, proclaiming to the nations and the peoples thereof that she has democracy to give to all and sundry, America that has denounced Germany for the deportations of the Belgians into Germany, America that has arraigned Turkey at the bar of public opinion and public justice against the massacres of the Armenians, has herself no satisfaction to give 12,000,000 of her own citizens except the satisfaction of a farcical inquiry that will end where it begun, over the brutal murder of men, women and children for no other reason than that they are black people seeking an industrial chance in a country that they have laboured for three hundred years to make great. (cheers)'. Garvey “The conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots” July 8.

White men in a Ford drive by and fire shots at blacks, an hour later a journalist and two police men also drive by in a Ford, blacks open fire on car killing one officer, thousand of whites begin rioting.

An example of what the guardsmen encountered, and themselves enjoyed, was the beating of colored women by white girls. This sort of thing was common. It resulted in the death of several Negro women. Six girls, according to the report pursued a colored girl around the main railway station. A mob formed behind the girls who were screaming frantic epithets at the terrified black girl. "Send them back to Africa." "Kill them all." "Lynch them," shouted the young amazons. Suddenly the crowd swept from the trail of the girl. A yell then arose. "There is one." It was a Negro walking on the railroad track. Before he realized his peril he was killed. Half a dozen pistols cracked and the man dropped without a chance to run. (groans) Two white girls, neither more than 17 years old, the report said, were cheered when they dragged a colored girl from a street car, removed her slippers and beat senseless with the sharp wooden heels. Some reports said black women were stripped by white women for the amusement of the crowd. (Cries of shame!). Garvey “The conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots” July 8.

The National Guard do nothing.

Congressional Investigating Committee reports 39 blacks and 9 whites dead, although more accurately hundreds more are believed to have died, 6 thousand blacks are left homeless after their neighborhood burned.

The NAACP reports 100-200 deaths. Ida B Wells reports in the Chicago Defender 40-150 dead.

The Southern Railway Company warehouse is burned with 100 car loads of merchandise leaving them at an estimated loss of $525, 000. White owned theatre $100, 000 as well as 44 freight cars and 312 houses, with a concluded estimate of $400, 000 property damage.

July 4 The Anti Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society demands that the postwar reconstruction of Africa recognize the interests and wishes of the native inhabitants; the resolution is forwarded to the representatives of the Allied and Neutral powers.

July 8 Garvey makes his “The conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots” speech at Lafayette Hall in Harlem, this speech is also printed and distributed in pamphlet form.

July 28 Du Bois and NAACP organise and lead the “Silent March” of 10,000 Negro New Yorkers down Fifth Avenue to protest the East St. Louis race riot, Du Bois travels to St. Louis to report on the riots and receives commission in army.

July Public debate intensifies in the West Indies regarding the denial if military commissions due to color prejudice, increasing apathy and resistance to military recruitment in the region.

August 3 The Committee on Rules and House of Representatives 65th Congress issue hearing for the riots at St. Clair Country court, 10 white defendants and 24 others, Dentist Dr.LeRoy Bundy is charged with inciting riot.

August 10 Lenin arrives at Helsinki where he hides away in safe houses belonging to Bolshevik sympathisers.

September Du Bois in the Crisis publishes his “The Massacre of East St. Louis" article.

September Army Order #1/1918 institutes a 50℅ pay increase throughout the British Army, but excludes members of the BWIR.

October 16 Lenin returns to Russia.

November 2 The British cabinet issues the Balfour Declaration, supporting the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

November 6 (October 24th/25th) Bolshevik Marxist majority of the Russian Social Democratic Party founded by Lenin seize power in Petrograd.

December In British Guiana, Hubert Crichlow leads a campaign for a general wage increase.

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unknownpoliticalobject · 6 years

Text

There is no Brexit deal to be made with the UK and here is why.

There are now 6 weeks remaining for the UK and EU to come to some kind of Brexit arrangement, but so far the UK has not put forward a single workable concept. So lets take a moment and have an objective look at what the UK has proposed, because facts matter!

The Chequers Deal is violating international law and trade agreements

Still discussed at length in UK media, where it is unloved by Brexiteers and Remainers a like, it really was dead before arrival as the EU has turned the proposal categorically down. And unless you read exclusively British newspapers, nobody outside the UK has ever given it a chance to working. A position that never changed, despite May still beating this dead horse.

But this is not because the EU wants to punish the UK, it is because the EU’s hands are tied by international law. So lets have a look at the facts why the Chequers deal will never happen:

Giving the EU’s financial market a special status is illegal under WTO MFN rule. See: https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact2_e.htm

1. Most-favoured-nation (MFN): treating other people equally Under the WTO agreements, countries cannot normally discriminate between their trading partners. Grant someone a special favour (such as a lower customs duty rate for one of their products) and you have to do the same for all other WTO members.

This principle is known as most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment (see box). It is so important that it is the first article of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which governs trade in goods. MFN is also a priority in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) (Article 2) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (Article 4)

The four freedoms are inseparable. As defined in the Lisbon Treaty “Protocol (No 27) on the internal market and competition”. They are contributed to be largely responsible for the success of the Single Market, much more important to almost all remaining EU member states than UK market access, and nothing anybody would want to sacrifice. However, even if there was political will to change this, and I can not stress enough that there isn’t, it would require a change to the Lisbon Treaty. Thanks to the Irish population, who refused to ratify it if any future change would not also require a peoples vote. This means that the EU would need to hold a referendum, and the UK government would need to convince the population of all remaining member states to vote in a law that would give the UK more rights than themselves. The chances of that to happen are zero.

The Irish border. While there are no requirements under WTO membership to control a border, there are ones that require members to keep an accurate record about imports and exports and their quantities. (See TRQs.) This is effectively impossible without a hard border. The UK seems to have been made aware of this earlier in 2018 and has seeked legal advice: Published by the Times on the 28th of August https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wto-can-t-force-britain-to-create-an-irish-border-z6v8p5629

“The World Trade Organisation has no immediate formal sanctions at its disposal if the British decide not to impose customs checks on the Irish border in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a leading trade expert has said.”

Just ignoring unconformable rules is an interesting take on international trade with almost immediate repercussions. But for this to work it would also require the Republic of Ireland and the EU to also break these treaties. And they will not.

All comprehensive Free Trade Agreements contain clauses that if one of the signatures is giving another nation a deal that is better, the other signature must also get that deal or can veto it. This makes perfect sense if you think about it for moment. Most FTAs are really about regulatory alignments as much as anything else. So if nation A is doing a deal with nation B, and nation B than makes a deal with nation C, that has for example much lower wages then A or B, nation C could use nation B to import its goods into A, circumventing any measures put in place by A to protect its workforce. Keeping this in mind, given what the UK is asking from the EU, countries like Japan, Canada or New Zealand could veto the Chequers deal. And who do you think the EU will priorities? Japans market alone is twice the size of the UK.

Don’t believe me, read yourself, see CETA chapter 30: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ceta/ceta-chapter-by-chapter/

What about the WTO option, a.k.a. No Deal?

That is also impossible, this time due to the sovereign British Parliament. Who has recently passed the following act:

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 - Section 10/(2)/(b)

create or facilitate border arrangements between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after exit day which feature physical infrastructure, including border posts, or checks and controls, that did not exist before exit day and are not in accordance with an agreement between the United Kingdom and the EU. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/16/section/10/enacted

The bill received Royal Assent on 26 June 2018.

So the same problem as above applies to the inner Irish border. And even if the UK is willing to break international law, the EU certainly isn’t. This is why the EU is now insisting on getting the backstop implemented above everything else.

Also keep in mind that just like Canada, Japan, New Zealand, etc ... can veto any EU-UK trade deal, so can the EU veto a potential Japan-UK trade deal. And given the Brexiteers rhetoric about slashing health, wage an environmental standards post Brexit, the EU will almost certainly be forced to do so, in order to protect its consumers.

Interesting side note, this option is referred within the EU as the North Korean Model. Take a guess why.

“CETA+++” and the land of the unicorns

As the deadline draws closer, this pipe dream seem to have resurfaced from the land of the dead. It is so absurd that I, or anybody else outside the UK, finds it hard to even take it serious. - Let me explain why.

A comprehensive FTA, like CETA or the Japan style deal, has always been seen as the only solution that doesn't violate the UK red lines. But a "+++" option was ruled out from the start and given that these types of agreements usually take 10 year to negotiate, a "CETA-" was the only option on the table.

The reasons for that are very similar to the ones highlighted under the "Chequers proposal" above. Not only can countries and trade blocks like the African Union, Canada, Japan ... etc review and veto any such deals, but all existing free trade agreements contain a clause like the WTO MFN. This means the moment you give one country, or block, a better deal, you also need to renegotiate all existing FTAs to give them the same conditions. (Read for yourself.) Given that the EU has currently trade deals with 2/3 of the planet, we would be talking about completely renegotiation world trade within the next 6 weeks!

I can not stress out how unrealistic this is.

On top of that, UK's number one red line - no more foreigners - or Freedom of Movement as the EU calls it, is one of the corner stones of any comprehensive FTA that includes services. And services currently account for 80% of the UK economy. (Again, read for yourself.)

And this isn't a new trend. When the EU and India started to negotiate about an FTA in 2010, take a guess which member state vetoed it because they were afraid of brown people.

So who do you think is now restarted negotiations, and guess who is still demanding visa free travel as central demand on even a scaled down trade deal?

Visa leniency central to post-Brexit trade with India: UK business body

“The Confederation of British Industry said the Theresa May government needs to recognise the strong links between people and trade as the UK forges new economic relationships on the world stage after Brexit.” https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/visa-leniency-central-to-post-brexit-trade-with-india-uk-business-body/story-v0CYWSwVzkYR8qhsFiUfsK.html

So in conclusion, the chances of a "CETA+++" deal can be best summed up with "there are no unicorns". Sorry, if that news comes as a shock to you.

The EU does not actually negotiate a trade deal with the UK.

On the 29th of March 2017, the UK has triggered Article 50. The EU is seeing this as a legal exercise. They are removing its institutions from the UK (EMA moved to Amsterdam, EBA to Paris, GMSC to Madrid). On top of that they have to find a way to divide up shared assets and deal with personal, libalities and the Irish border issue on behave of the Republic of Ireland.

But renegotiating the 759 treaties is not part of that process. Most arrangements could have been made before triggering Article 50, some will have to wait till after.

Under Section 3 of Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisabon it says; See: http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty/treaty-on-European-union-and-comments/title-6-final-provisions/137-article-50.html

3. The Treaties shall cease to apply to the State in question from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification referred to in paragraph 2, unless the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend this period.

The EU is under no obligation to give the UK any deal.

So what realistic options does the UK have at this point?

The EU was always very clear that the UK has all feasible options available. And that has never changed.

Only the UK’s own red lines and Westminster Parliament have rule out all of them.

If the UK is willing to compromise on their arbitrary red lines, the following options are still possible based on what has been ratified so far:

The UK can remain a full member of the EU.

Stay in both the customs union and the single market or at least aligned to them. The main external objection to this is from other EEA members who believe the UK would destroy it just as a stepping stone. If sufficient guarantees could be made to ensure this is the end station for the UK, it should be possible to come to some EEA arrangement.

Extend the Article 50 deadline and negotiate a “CETA” like deal plus custom union membership. We are not talking about “+++”, but a standard FTA comparable to the existing ones. This would be the death of London as a financial hub and probably destroy most of the UK’s service industry.

Breaking up the United Kingdom. That way England, Wales and Scotland, if they so wish to, can form rest Britain and can do a clean break from the EU and effectively world trade. Northern Ireland and overseas territories plus Gibraltar would be free to set up their own arrangements, freed of English rules and red lines.

This is it. I honestly can’t think of any more solutions than these. If you can, please let me know and I will update this post.

#Brexit #WTO #UK #Hard Brexit #StandUp4Brexit #Leave Now #EU27 #Scotland #england #Northern Ireland

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iosluck393 · 2 years

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