“Ladies and gentlemen believe me when I say that it makes me profoundly happy...it makes my heart swell with pride to see in this beautiful audience tonight, salt and pepper...I mean by that colored and white brothers mingling.”1 Josephine Baker, famed exotic dancer, gave a powerful homecoming speech to St. Louis, on February 3, 1952, stating how proud she was to see a mixed audience of...
One morning in 1951, students at Augustana College in Rock Island were met with an unusual site: a set of stairs off 7th avenue that led up to the iconic academic building Old Main had a sign stretching across the top of it, reading “Crazy Connie’s Used Cars.” Accompanying the sign on the grassy lawn were several cars, all with for-sale signs. At least twelve male students at Augustana took...
Over one thousand women gathered in Worchester, Massachusetts, for a Women's Rights Convention in October 1851. "Wit, humor, truth, poetry, absurdity, and misdemeanor madness, were all component parts of the proceedings and speeches," wrote a journalist for the Daily Alabama Journal. Among the speakers were E. Oakes Smith, Abby Kelly Foster, and Lucretia Mott. The journalist observed...
In view of the fact that the Board of Trustees at its annual meeting, February 24-28, 1951, passed a resolution directing the President to reduce the faculty according to a set of principles.”[1] On Tuesday April 17, 1951 at 7:30 pm, the Executive Committee, Board of Trustees of Rollins College held a meeting with the student body to discuss the Wagner Affair. According to the Minutes...
On May 4th, 1952, readers of The Florence Times opened the newspaper and flipped through the pages to find various political advertisements. One such ad asked readers to vote in the Democratic Primary for Annie Lola Price to replace herself as a judge on the Alabama Court of Appeals. The ad featured a small picture of the lady herself, as well as a short description of Judge Price’s accomplishments....
“The group asked him to outlaw the Ku Klux Klan, but while repeating his longstanding opposition to the organization, the Governor said it did not appear constitutionally possible to abolish it.” On January 10, 1952 The New York Times reported that Governor Warren of Tallahassee, Florida announced that he was increasing the reward for the finding and conviction of the murderers...
The 1950-51 academic year was one of turmoil at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. The previously peaceful liberal arts school was rocked by a scandal concerning the young President Paul Wagner. This incident, which came to be known as the Wagner Affair, led to one of very few cases of student activism in the 1950s. It was brought about by Paul Wagner’s increasing disregard for the democratic...
In a secret meeting with the Republican frontrunner Robert A. Taft, General Dwight D. Eisenhower made an offer to him. If Taft backed away from his isolationist stance and supported the internationalist wing of the Republican Party, Eisenhower promised he would not challenge him for the nomination. Taft declined Eisenhower’s offer, saying it would go against his conscience to do so.
At...
H. S. Chamberlain had a problem on his plate back in the mid-twentieth century. Everyone sought cheap labor in the steel and coal industries, but feared employing certain groups of people because of their behavior. Blacks treated with trepidation were the majority of workers in these industries. For the most part, blacks saw nothing but discrimination and fell under the watchful eyes of white...
On November 2, 1943 Ralph W. Crego was elected into office as Mayor of Lansing in Michigan’s capital city. He would serve the City of Lansing for almost two decades until he was finally defeated in the election of 1961. During the long span of his eighteen years serving the city, Mayor Crego led Lansing through the 1940s and 50s - a period of urban renewal in the United States. Crego’s daughter,...