#virginia v

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[mournfulroses]

Virginia Woolf, from The Complete Works; “Carlyle’s House and Other Sketches,”

[actressposts]

Virginia Madson

[cinematicnomad]

i did my civic duty and voted early yesterday ✌️

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

The push and pull between white supremacist rule and a multi-cultural United States is nothing new. But on Friday we saw a first in our nation’s history: A school board voted to restore the name of three Confederate generals to their public schools.  That’s right, in 2024, the right is naming schools after people who fought and killed to preserve both chattel slavery and white supremacy. This is just the latest salvo in the GOP’s campaign to move America backwards to before the Civil Rights movement.

This jaw-dropping event happened on Friday, when the Shenandoah County School Board in Virginia voted 5-1 to reinstate the names Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School to honor Confederate Generals Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby. This vote to celebrate the traitors who killed US soldiers in the hope of maintaining the barbarism known as chattel slavery was led by the conservative group Coalition for Better Schools. Now the school board will spend an estimated six figures in tax dollars to send a message that this area of Virginia is a place where white supremacy rules. This action is all part of the right’s response to the racial reckoning that was kicked off in the United States after the brutal murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed. In fact, the names of these Virginia schools were changed in that very period.   But this is not simply a “reinstatement” of Confederate names. Rather this is a manifestation of the white right’s desperate efforts to maintain control in the face of changing America. After all, this is exactly what white supremacists did in the past when they felt challenged.

As a reminder, the greatest number of Confederate statutes were erected in the early 1900’s spearheaded by United Daughters of the Confederacy as Jim Crow laws were being enacted across the South.  These racist laws and the Confederate memorials were part of a scheme to both celebrate and preserve white supremacy. The next spike in Confederate monuments came from 1940’s to 1960’s. Why then nearly 100 years after the Civil War? Simple, these statutes were built in reaction to the Civil Rights movement to send a message that white power still ruled that area. It’s no coincidence that in 1956, Georgia redesigned its state flag to include the Confederate battle flag and in 1962, South Carolina placed the Confederate battle flag atop its capitol building. 

When it comes to schools being named after traitors who took up arms against the United States of America to fight for the Confederacy, want to guess when the biggest wave of that occurred? Was it shortly after The Civil War? Nope, it was following the landmark US Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 which ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.  Between that 1954 court decision and 1970, our nation saw the largest spike in schools being after those who fought to defend slavery. In fact, the schools at issue in Virginia were opened in that time frame, with Stonewall Jackson high school opening in 1960. That’s right. The naming of these Virginia schools was part of the backlash to the Civil Rights movement and Brown v. Board of Education. The white officials in that area of Virginia at the time wanted to ensure that people knew white power still reigned supreme.

Dean Obeidallah gets to the point as usual. The renaming of a pair of schools in Shenandoah County, Virginia by reinstating the name of the pre-2020 names of the schools named after three treasonous Confederates (Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Turner Ashby) is a middle finger to common sense and a win for white supremacist values.

[x-heesy]

VIRGINIA TURBETT

documentation of the chaotic emergence of British subculture in the 70s

Virginia Turbett photographed punks, rockers, mods, skinnies and New Romantics.

Here comes Johnny Yen again

With the liquor and drugs and the flesh machine

He's gonna do another striptease

Hey man, where'd you get that lotion?

I've been hurting since I bought the gimmick

Something called love

Yeah, something called love

Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens

Well, I'm just a modern guy

Of course, I've had it in the ear before

'Cause of a lust for life

'Cause of a lust for life

I'm worth a million in prizes

With my torture film, drive a GTO

Wear a uniform, all on a government loan

I'm worth a million in prizes

Yeah, I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk

No more beating my brains

No more beating my brains

With the liquor and drugs

With the liquor and drugs

Well, I am just a modern guy

Of course, I've had it in the ear before

'Cause of a lust for life (lust for life)

'Cause of a lust for life

I got a lust for life

I got a lust for life

Oh, lust for life

Oh, lust for life

A lust for life

I got a lust for life

I got a lust for life

Well, I am just a modern guy

Of course, I've had it in the ear before

'Cause of a lust for life

'Cause of a lust for life

Well, here comes Johnny Yen again

With the liquor and drugs, and the flesh machine

I know he's gonna do another striptease

Hey man, where'd you get that lotion?

Your skin starts itching once you buy the gimmick

About something called love

Oh, love, love, love

Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens

Well, I am just a modern guy

Of course, I've heard it in the ear before

'Cause of a lust for life (lust for life)

'Cause of a lust for life (lust for life)

I got a lust for life

Yeah, lust for life

I got a lust for life

Oh, lust for life

I got a lust for life

Yeah, a lust for life

I got a lust for life

A lust for life

Lust for life

Lust for life

A lust for life (lust for life)

Lust For Life by Iggy Pop

[deadhandmaiden]

v.c. andrews cover girl icons

[tomorrowusa]

Tuesday is Election Day in many parts of the US.

VOTE! 🗳 🇺🇸

A number of sites provide you with an opportunity to see who is on your ballot and what issues are being contested. They don't include an actual image of your ballot but they do let you know what's on it.

VOTE411 Voter Guide

Sample Ballot Lookup - Ballotpedia

Vote Informed on the Entire Ballot - BallotReady

Of course check the site of your local election authority. In some places it's the county clerk and in others it's a board of elections. The elections mentioned in this post are a small number of those around the US on November 7th.

Because of the GOP SCOTUS overturning of Roe v. Wade, state legislatures now determine whether a state supports reproductive freedom or not. State governments have been badly neglected by liberals for decades — and that situation needs to end.

Both chambers of the state legislature in Virginia are up for election on Tuesday. If both fall under Republican control then the state will join the rest of the South in restricting abortion.

Virginia is not the only state having elections for its state officials.

STATES HOLDING ELECTIONS FOR STATE LEGISLATURE

Virginia

New Jersey

Mississippi

Louisiana

STATES HOLDING ELECTIONS FOR GOVERNOR

Kentucky

Louisiana

Mississippi

There are numerous municipal elections, special elections, ballot measures, and constitutional amendments to be decided on Tuesday.

The biggie is the Ohio constitutional amendment on reproductive freedom. Voters in Ohio have the opportunity to overturn the gerrymandered Ohio Republican legislature's ban on abortion. Vote YES on Ohio Issue 1.

A very local but important contest is the special legislative election in New Hampshire to fill a vacancy in Hillsborough County District 3 (in the Nashua area). Right now Republicans have a one seat advantage in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. If Democrat Paige Beauchemin wins this seat then Republicans will be forced to share power with Democrats in the chamber.

Good candidates for federal office often emerge from state and local government. Before he was elected to the US Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served several terms in the Illinois legislature.

There is no such thing as an unimportant election.

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

My name is Elizabeth Voorhorst, and I am a new writing intern for Special Collections this semester. It is a pleasure to share this space, as I am excited to delve into the vast sea of books that Special Collections makes a home for.

I am an English major, with a focus on creative writing. Because of this, my time spent in Special Collections will be focused predominantly on fairy tales and folklore, perhaps dipping into mythology when curiosity and inspiration strikes hardest.

For this week, I wanted to focus on black creators and their works for Black History Month. Because my pride and passion is folklore and fairy tales, I thought it would be fun to take a look at what we have in our collection and share it with you!

Retellings are always enjoyable, as you get to see the way writers recreate and offer their own flare and heritage to the story. One such story is The Girl Who Spun Gold, a retelling of the German classic fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin. This retelling was written by Virginia Hamilton (1932-2002) and illustrated by Leo Dillon (1933-2012) and Diane Dillon (1933- ).The book was published 1n 2000 by Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

The story is about a West Indian girl named Quashiba, whose mother lies to Big King that she is able to spin golden thread. The King takes Quashiba as his queen, expecting her to fill whole rooms with golden fabrics and finery, which of course she would be unable to do. However, she meets a creature who offers to help, but demands that in three days she must guess his name correctly or be bound to him forever.

Quashiba is now able to fulfill the King’s continuous demands, but is unable to guess the name of her helper, until the King reveals to her that he ran across a strange creature in the woods who was dancing and singing a song that included his name, Lit’mahn Bittyun. So, on the final night, after the room is filled with fabrics and wondrous goods, Quashiba plays dumb for the first two guesses, and on the last guess she gives him his full name and he explodes into a confetti of golden specks. The King repents his greed, but only after three years and a day does Quashiba reconcile with him.

The absolutely stunning illustrations for The Girl Who Spun Gold were made using a four-color process with gold as a fifth color. The Dillons comment on the painting process, stating:

Knowing the difficulty of painting with metallic paint as well as the difficulty of reproducing gold, we still chose to use it, for the story itself revolved around the concept of gold. The art was done with acrylic paint on acetate, over-painted with gold paint. The gold borders were created using gold leaf.

The book was printed on one-hundred-pound Nymolla Matte paper, and each illustration was spot-varnished.  Color separations were made by Digicon Imaging Inc., Buffalo, New York, and the book was printed and bound by Tien Wah Press, Singapore, with production supervision by Angela Biola and Alison Forner. Along with Leo & Diane Dillon, the book was also designed with help from Kathleen Westray.

View more work by African American artists.

View more posts concerning African Americans.

View more Staff Picks.

- Elizabeth V., Special Collections Undergraduate Writing Intern

[queertea33]

If you live in Virginia and haven't voted yet.Make sure right now you're voting rights haven't been messed with.There are more then one voting scheme going on in different places around the world right now.And Virginia is an example of one of them going on currently.

[thedisablednaturalist]

literally they not only want to repeal gay marriage rights, but also INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE RIGHTS. They have brought it up countless times. They want to go back to the Jim fucking Crow laws so they can have more "pure white babies" and have a reason to put more innocent black folks in jail.

If trump wins I'm getting my uterus removed, fuck your white baby anti-choice fantasy.

[todaysdocument]

Marriage license for Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter, June 2, 1958. 

Their arrest and conviction for violating Virginia’s law against interracial marriage led to the SCOTUS ruling that laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional. 

Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States

Series: Civil Case Files

File Unit: No. 4138 (Civil Action) Richard Perry Loving, et ux. v. the Commonwealth of Virginia, et al.

Transcription: 

No. 420276

[centered] Marriage License [/centered]

To Reverend John L. Henry

   authorized to celebrate marriages in the District of Columbia, GREETING:

You are hereby authorized to celebrate the rites of marriage between

Richard Perry Loving, of Passing, Virginia

AND

Mildred Delores Jeter, of Passing, Virginia

and having done so, you are commanded to make return of the same to the Clerk's Office of the United States District

Court for the District of Columbia within TEN days, under a penalty of $50 for default therein.

[right side] WITNESS my hand and seal of said Court, this 2nd

day of June, anno Domini 1958

HARRY M. HULL, Clerk.

By [signature] Maude R Rynes

Deputy Clerk [/right side]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No. 420276                          [ul]  RETURN [/ul]

I, Reverend John L. Henry

who have been duly authorized to celebrate the rites of marriage in the District of Columbia, do hereby certify that, by

authority of license of corresponding number herewith, I solemnized the marriage of

Richard Perry Loving and Mildred Delores Jeter

named therein, on the 2nd day of June, 1958, at 748 Princeton Place, N.W.

in said District.

FPI ERO-8.19.57.10M.7208       6/4/58 ewg                 Rev. John L. Henry

[plumbob-pudding]

As Oliver stared down at the ring for the umpteenth time, he heard someone walk into the kitchen. He hoped to god it was someone else, he'd even take Connie but as luck would have it, it was Cata.

"What have you got there?" she asked. Oliver could hear the smirk in her voice; she had definitely seen the ring. Well, he thought to himself, this was finally his moment.

Oliver beckoned her over and squashed down all his nerves. He smiled his brightest most charming smile, knelt on one knee and asked the question.

Cata stood silent for a while and shame began to envelope Oliver.

"We can go to Oasis Springs, I hear they'll say yes to a marriage licence there and I know it's not the Church and I haven't much but-"

Cata cut him off with a kiss, "Of course I'll marry you, I've been waiting ages for you to finally ask."

Hearing that Oliver immediately made plans to hire a wagon to Oasis Springs where Cata could finally become his wife.

[kemetic-dreams]

Anthony Johnson (c. 1600 – 1670) was a man known for achieving wealth in the early 17th-century Colony of Virginia. Born in Angola, he was one of the first African Americans whose right to own a slave for life was recognized by the Virginia courts. Held as an indentured servant in 1621, he earned his freedom after several years, and was granted land by the colony.

He later became a tobacco farmer in Maryland. He attained great wealth after completing his term as an indentured servant, and has been referred to as "'the African patriarch' of the first community of Negro property owners in America"

In the early 1620s, Portuguese slave traders captured the man who would later be known as Anthony Johnson in Portuguese Angola, named him António, and sold him into the Atlantic slave trade. António was bought by a colonist in Virginia. As an indentured servant, António worked for a merchant at the Virginia Company. He was also received into the Roman Catholic Church

He sailed to Virginia in 1621 aboard the James. The Virginia Muster (census) of 1624 lists his name as "Antonio not given," recorded as "a Negro" in the "notes" column. Historians have some dispute as to whether this was the same António later known as Anthony Johnson, as the census lists several men named "Antonio Johnson was sold as an indentured servant to a white planter named Bennet to work on his Virginia tobacco farm. (Slave laws were not passed until 1661 in Virginia; prior to that date, Africans were not officially considered to be slaves)

Such workers typically worked under a limited indenture contract for four to seven years to pay off their passage, room, board, lodging, and freedom dues. In the early colonial years, most Africans in the Thirteen Colonies were held under such contracts of limited indentured servitude. With the exception of those indentured for life, they were released after a contracted period. Those who managed to survive their period of indenture would receive land and equipment after their contracts expired or were bought out. Most white laborers in this period also came to the colony as indentured servants.

António changed his name to Anthony Johnson. He first entered the legal record as an unindentured man when he purchased a calf in 1647.

Johnson was granted a large plot of farmland by the colonial government after he paid off his indentured contract by his labor. On July 24, 1651, he acquired 250 acres (100 ha) of land under the headright system by buying the contracts of five indentured servants, one of whom was his son, Richard Johnson. The headright system worked in such a way that if a man were to bring indentured servants over to the colonies (in this particular case, Johnson brought the five servants), he was owed 50 acres a "head", or servant. 

The land was located on the Great Naswattock Creek, which flowed into the Pungoteague River in Northampton County, Virginia.

With his own indentured servants, Johnson ran his own tobacco farm. In fact, one of those servants, John Casor, would later become one of the first African men to be declared indentured for life.

Though Casor was the first person who was declared a slave in a civil case, there were both black and white indentured servants sentenced to lifetime servitude before him. Many historians describe indentured servant John Punch as the first documented slave (or slave for life) in America, as punishment for escaping his captors in 1640. It is considered one of the first legal cases to make a racial distinction between black and white indentured servants

                        Significance of Casor lawsuit

The Casor lawsuit demonstrates the culture and mentality of planters in the mid-17th century. Individuals made assumptions about the society of Northampton County and their place in it. According to historians T.H. Brean and Stephen Innes, Casor believed he could form a stronger relationship with his patron Robert Parker than Anthony Johnson had formed over the years with his patrons. Casor considered the dispute to be a matter of patron-client relationship, and this wrongful assumption resulted in his losing his case in court and having the ruling against him. Johnson knew that the local justices shared his basic belief in the sanctity of property. The judge sided with Johnson, although in future legal issues, race played a larger role.

The Casor lawsuit was an example of how difficult it was for Africans who were indentured servants to prevent being reduced to slavery. Most Africans could not read and had almost no knowledge of the English language. Planters found it easy to force them into slavery by refusing to acknowledge the completion of their indentured contracts. This is what happened in Johnson v. Parker. Although two white planters confirmed that Casor had completed his indentured contract with Johnson, the court still ruled in Johnson's favor.

In this early period, free blacks enjoyed "relative equality" with the white community. About 20% of free black Virginians owned their own homes. In 1662 the Virginia Colony passed a law that children in the colony were born with the social status of their mother, according to the Roman principle of partus sequitur ventrem. This meant that the children of slave women were born into slavery, even if their fathers were free, European, Christian, and white. This was a reversal of English common law, which held that the children of English subjects took the status of their father. The Virginian colonial government expressed the opinion that since Africans were not Christians, common law could not and did not apply to them

[accursedrainbow]

worsh your face

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joan McCarter at Daily Kos:

The Supreme Court’s MAGA majority has produced some of the most dangerous rulings in the history of the institution this session, not only declaring that presidents could be king but also that federal courts—not administrative agencies—should get the final say on all federal policy.  Democrats are fighting to stop that. Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren and 10 fellow senators introduced legislation this week to overturn the court ruling that usurped the power of federal agencies. And not a moment too soon, because conservative activists were preparing for this ruling even before it came down, ready to flood the courts with challenges to the environmental regulations that affect just about every aspect of our lives.

In fact, a group of red-state attorneys general have already asked for an emergency ruling from the Supreme Court to block new Environmental Protection Agency rules intended to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The rules would require that coal and natural gas power plants either cut or capture their pollution by 90% before 2032.  This is exactly why Warren and her colleagues are fighting.  “Right-wing extremist judges and politicians in the pockets of Big Oil shouldn’t have free rein to block basic pollution regulations,” Warren told Daily Kos Thursday, in response to the conservative-backed challenge to EPA rules. “Congress needs to make clear that scientists, not corporate interests, should write environmental rules.” That’s what the proposed legislation, sponsored in the House by Pramila Jayapal, would do. It would restore and codify the decades-long Supreme Court precedent that the Trump-packed court overturned this year, putting the experts in our federal agencies back in charge of protecting everything from our air and water to our food and medicines. 

Glad to see Democrats like Elizabeth Warren take the fight to the MAGA Majority on SCOTUS by proposing legislation to overturn the disastrous Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo ruling that significantly altered regulatory powers.