The article, “Robert Kennedy Seen Undecided,” published in the New York Times on April 26, 1964 showcased both the tremendous interest and lack of information on the intentions of both Kennedy and Johnson. New York Times reporter Wallace Turner wrote, “The other surviving brother in the family, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts has told his friends that he doubts seriously if Robert...
In 1963, the Detroit City Plan Commission prepared an informational bulletin to provide the public with “a ready reference to Detroit’s program of redevelopment”, and an explanation of their large aims to remove blighted areas from the city and replace them with “sound [and] logical development”. It first started with a brief history of urban renewal in Detroit, classifying urban renewal...
The story of Detroit’s "food desert" and urban abandonment is a common one in todays media, but as the story of the construction of the Union Produce Terminal in 1963 shows these are by no means new problems. In 1963 a city planning and urban renewal company called Parkins, Rogers, & Associates issued a feasibility survey for a wholesale food distribution center located in what was then referred...
Mississippi Burning
Murder is what it all boiled down to. In the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, three civil rights workers were viciously slaughtered in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Mississippi Burning is a 1988 crime drama film depicting the events of the heinous crime.
In order to fully understand the weight...
“I mean what law can you pass to do anything about police power in the community of Birmingham? There is nothing we can do. The fact of the matter is that Birmingham is in worse shape than any other city in the United States and it’s been that way for a year and a half.” John F. Kennedy gave this statement on May 4, 1963 to twenty members of the organization, Americans...
On August 06, 1964, The New York Times reported an expression of “grief and hope” by Andrew Goodman’s family to the public at a news conference. Andrew Goodman, the dead civil rights worker killed near Philadelphia, Mississippi, had been working on a voter registration drive in Meridan, Mississippi. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goodman, ensured the public their pain, although...
In late 1964, the California Nursery Company was getting ready to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary. The Vallejo Adobe had been moved onto the grounds of the nursery and was restored to be used as a meeting room. There were big plans to expand, and construction was beginning on a new section of the nursery. The California Nursery Company was one of the most successful and well-known...
Due to a growing need for mental health services, Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital was built by the United States Congress as a result of the Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation Act of 1852. The Institution opened in Washington, DC in 1855 as the “Government Hospital for the Insane”. A prominent leader in the mental health field, Dorthea Dix, lobbied for the construction of the facility and founded...
The Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) was a group of experts who advised President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. National Security Action Memorandum 196 established the ExComm to ensure effective decision making during the crisis. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. stated that it was during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis when the world came closest to nuclear...
All men may be created equal but they are remembered differently. In contrast to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, August Willich was not a celebrity of the Civil War. He was a Prussian political refugee and an aristocrat with an unapologetic communistic political leaning. Willch’s communistic nature generated his pre-war nickname, “Reddest of the Red.” Yet, his tremendous contributions...