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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years

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THE CUCKOO CLOCK CONSPIRACY

January 13, 1951

“The Cuckoo Clock Conspiracy” (aka ”The Cuckoo Clock”) is episode #114 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on January 13, 1951.

This was the 16th episode of the third season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND. There were 31 new episodes, with the season ending on March 31, 1951.

Synopsis ~ Liz bought George's Christmas present, a cuckoo clock, with a rubber check, and now she needs to figure out a way to make good on it so the store owner won't repossess the clock.

Parts of this script concerning the cuckoo clock where later used in “The Kleptomaniac” (ILL S1;E27), filmed on March 7, 1952, and first aired on April 14, 1952.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz, a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) does not appear in this episode, but his character is mentioned.

GUEST CAST

Hans Conried (Mr. Haskell, the Jeweler) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). He then appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973.

GeGe Pearson (Mrs. Haskell, the Jeweler’s Wife / Miss Russell, George’s Secretary) did two other episodes of “My Favorite Husband.” She will play a New York City tourist in “Lucy Visits Grauman’s” (ILL S5;E1) in 1955. She did the episode with her husband, Hal Gerard. The two actors were married in real-life. In 1956 the couple returned to CBS to appear in the same episode of “Damon Runyon Theatre.” She is perhaps best remembered as the voice of Crusader Rabbit. The couple died just a year apart in 1975 and 1976.

June Foray (Marie, the Beautician) was born June Lucille Forer in 1917 and was best known as the voice of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Cindy Lou Who, Witch Hazel in the Bugs Bunny cartoons, Granny in the Tweety Bird cartoons, and many, many others. She provided the bark of Fred the dog on Season 6 of “I Love Lucy.”

Ken Christy (Police Officer) later played the detective investigating the new tenants in “Oil Wells” (S3;E18) and will play the dock agent who directs Lucy to the helicopter that lowers her onto the deck of the S.S. Constitution in “Bon Voyage” (S5;E13). Christy was also featured on the TV series "Meet Corliss Archer” on CBS.

THE EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Cooper’s, it’s morning. George is at breakfast. Liz is in the kitchen talking to Katie the Maid.”

Liz compliments Katie with the goal of getting a loan of $14.95. She explains that she bought George a cuckoo clock for Christmas using a check with no money in the account. To prevent George from finding out, Liz wrote the check on an account at another bank - one where she hasn’t got an account - and could face jail.

In the dining room, Liz cuddles up to George with the same compliments she used on Katie! They smooch. George realizes that Liz is buttering him up for money. Liz directly asks George for a loan of $15 but banker George reminds her that borrowing money is a slippery slope into debt.

LIZ: “Look, Dale Carnegie, I need the money.”

Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) was the developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. He was the author of the best-sellers How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), as well as several other books.

George reminds Liz that she made a New Year’s resolution to pay him $25 if she went over budget, so in giving her the loan, she would actually owe him $40! Liz tells him to forget the whole deal - she will find the money elsewhere.

At the beauty salon, Liz asks beautician Marie (Gege Pearson) where to find Iris Atterbury. Iris is having a mud pack which cracks upon hearing Liz wants a loan. She was just getting ready to ask Liz for a loan, too. It seems that Rudolph and George stated the new year on an economy wave.

LIZ: “I guess it’s in the air. Darn those Russians, anyway.”

In 1950 and well into early 1951, the US Government committed to what was known as an ‘economy wave’ in order to save money that might be used for civil defense and bolstering European strength during the cold war with Russia. This economy wave extended to all facets of American business, including Hollywood, so it would have been a topic familiar to the writers of “My Favorite Husband” in early January 1951.

Liz explains her dilemma to Iris, who suggests she phone the jeweler and ask him to hold the check a few days. Liz thinks it is worth a try and calls Mr. Haskell (Hans Conried), who declines to hold the check a moment longer. Liz turns on the tears. Mrs. Haskell (Gege Pearson) gets on the line - she’s unsympathetic to tears. Liz and Iris rush off to get the clock out of George’s office before it is repossessed!

Wilbur Hatch’s play-off music is “As Time Goes By” written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. It became famous when it was featured in the 1942 Warner Brothers film Casablanca performed by Dooley Wilson as Sam (”Play it again, Sam.”) The song was likely chosen to tie-in with the episode’s clock theme.

End of Part One

Announcer Bob LeMond does a live commercial, giving a recipe for a quick dessert using Jell-O.

Part Two

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers once again, Liz is speeding to George’s office to make off with the cuckoo clock before Mr. Haskell, the jeweler, arrives to repossess it. Meanwhile, George Cooper in his office is just going out to lunch.”

George asks his secretary, Miss Russell (Gege Pearson), to wind the cuckoo clock while he is out. After George leaves, she tries, but overwinds it. She takes it to Haskell’s to be fixed while George is out to lunch.

Liz and Iris arrive and can’t find George, Miss Russell, or the cuckoo clock. They assume that Mr. Haskell has gotten there first and repossessed the clock! They head towards Mr. Haskell’s Jewelry Shop.

There they see the clock in the window! Mr. Haskell explains that the clock in the window isn’t hers, but one just like it. He is a nervous wreck, thanks to a busy Christmas season. Liz still thinks that the window clock is hers, but Mr. Haskell insists it isn’t and won’t give it to her unless she pays for it. She and Iris leave in a huff.

Outside they scheme to get what they think is their clock back. Liz will divert Mr. Haskell while Iris sneaks the clock out of the store. Iris is scared, but reluctantly agrees. A whistle will be the signal that Mr. Haskell isn’t looking.

Liz tells him she is shopping for Mr. Atterbury, who wants to buy his wife a present. Deciding on a diamond, a clueless Liz guesses that she wants 200 carats! When Mr. Haskell whistles at the high carat-count, Iris mistakes it for the signal and tries to come in! Liz blocks the door! When Haskell goes to the back room for a diamond, Liz suddenly realizes she doesn’t known how to whistle, so calls to the back room asking him to repeat it for her! Iris gets in and out just as...

MR. HASKELL (returning to the shop): “Would you like me to whistle a chorus of “Come to the Stable, Mabel”? LIZ: “No, thanks! Well, I’ll be running along now! Bye!”

Liz dashes out of the shop and hides the cuckoo clock under her coat!

At the bank, Liz is greeted by Miss Russell, who tells her George isn’t back from lunch yet. They are shocked to discover that the cuckoo clock is back on the wall. They realize they have stolen Mr. Haskell’s new clock and must return it before he notices it is gone.

They arrive at the Haskell’s and find a Policeman (Ken Christy) there. Liz quickly hides the clock under her coat, but it continually ‘cuckoos’ loudly in the presence of the officer! Just as she’s about to be arrested for theft, Liz settles the matter by writing Mr. Haskell a post-dated check for January 20th - 1953!

Lucille Ball could not have known it at the time, but one day earlier, on January 19, 1953, she gave birth to her son, Desi Jr. and on the same evening, Lucy Ricardo gave birth to Little Ricky. On January 20, 1953, headlines like the one above dominated the nation’s newspapers.

End of Episode!

Bob LeMond does another live Jell-O commercial and reminds listeners to look for their ads in leading January magazines.

[Oops! While announcing the episode’s credits, Bob LeMond mistakenly says “Hans Conried played by Mr. Haskell” instead of the other way around. There is background laughter by the other cast members and LeMond starts to laugh a bit while finishing his announcements.]

ANNOUNCER: “Be sure to watch for Lucille Ball as a would-be cosmetics dealer in her latest picture ‘The Fuller Brush Girl’.”

#Lucille Ball #My Favorite Husband #Richard Denning #Bea Benadaret #Ruth Perrott #Gege Pearson #Hans Conried #Ken Christy #June Foray #The Fuller Brush Girl #Dale Carnegie #Cuckoo Clock #I Love Lucy #CBS #Radio #Jello #Casablanca #Economy Wave #As Time Goes By

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syerraffxiv · 5 years

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I write like...

Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American novelist and screenwriter.

In 1932, at age forty-four, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published just seven full novels during his lifetime (though an eighth in progress at his death was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but Playback have been realized into motion pictures, some several times. In the year before he died, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature, and is considered by many to be a founder, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers, of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. His protagonist, Philip Marlowe, along with Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective," both having been played on screen by Humphrey Bogart, whom many considered to be the quintessential Marlowe.

Take the test >here<.

Tagged by: @herd-of-halla Tagging: @loosenedchains, @gatheredfates, @siyoh-mari, @zurri-xiv, @shroudwayman, @the-false-ser-toes, @resistance-ranger, @meandering-mind, @gaggle-of-dorks-ffxiv, @ballade-du-mage, @locke-rinannis, and anyone else who would like!

#ooc #writing style #quiz #i actually like chandler's writing #this is pretty cool

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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How Many Democrats Vs Republicans In America

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-many-democrats-vs-republicans-in-america/

How Many Democrats Vs Republicans In America

Facts About Us Political Independents

Democrats vs Republicans Explained In 5 Minutes! | US Politics Summary Narrated By Barbara Njau

Partisan divides in the United States are as wide as theyve ever been in the modern political era. But what about the large share of Americans who identify as independents?

A recent Pew Research Center report took a detailed look at these Americans. Among other things, it illustrated that independents have lower levels of political participation and are demographically different from those who affiliate with a party and that their views are often as divided as those of self-identified partisans.

Here are six facts about political independents:

1Nearly four-in-ten U.S. adults identify as politically independent, but most lean toward one of the two major parties. Only 7% of Americans overall dont express a partisan leaning, while 13% lean toward the Republican Party and 17% lean toward the Democratic Party.

2Independents who lean to one of the two parties are often much closer to partisans in their views than they are to independents who lean to the other party. For example, while 34% of independents as a whole said they approved of the way Donald Trump was handling his job as president in a , the gap between independents who lean to the GOP and those who lean to the Democratic Party was nearly as wide as the gap between Republicans and Democrats .

In a survey last fall, clear majorities of Democrats , Democratic-leaning independents and Republican-leaning independents favored marijuana legalization, but Republicans were divided .

Recent Polling From Gallup Finds 50 Percent Of In Addition More Poll Respondents Than Ever Before62 Percentsay That Republicans And Democrats Do There Is No Room In The Us For A Third Party At The National/topdown/mass Level

Noted for expanding the federal government and battling big business, teddy roosevelt was a republican before forming the progressive party later in his career. Also has several smaller political parties known as third parties. Senators should not have term limits. There are more democrats than republicans in congress b. Executives of americas large public companies have long played a role in public policy by advising leaders of both parties but those corporate chieftains themselves are far more likely to be republicans than democrats, a new study shows. Most contentious issues in the united states and thats of abortion a liberal would view this as a the liberal point of view is yes we have a very unequal society theres a lot of discrimination race should be considered military and likewise you could find republicans who similarly have a mix of viewpoints. Even more than their republican counterparts, highly educated democrats tend to live in exclusively democratic enclaves. It said in a statement that once. It was, however, a divided party. The main purpose of this initial analysis will be. Conservative democrats, have more in common with republicans than liberal democrats. Start studying democrat vs republican. Weve heard it over and over:

Red States Outnumber Blue States

In February 2016, Gallup reported that for the first time since Gallup started tracking, red states now outnumber blue states.

In 2008, 35 states leaned Democratic and this number is down to only 14 now. In the same time, the number of Republican leaning states rose from 5 to 20. Gallup determined 16 states to be competitive, i.e., they leaned toward neither party. Wyoming, Idaho and Utah were the most Republican states, while states that leaned the most Democratic were Vermont, Hawaii and Rhode Island.

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Origins Of The Color Scheme

The colors red and blue are also featured on the United States flag. Traditional political mapmakers, at least throughout the 20th century, had used blue to represent the modern-day Republicans, as well as the earlier Federalist Party. This may have been a holdover from the Civil War, during which the predominantly Republican north was considered “blue”. However, at that time, a maker of widely-sold maps accompanied them with blue pencils in order to mark Confederate force movements, while red was for the union.

Later, in the 1888 presidential election, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison used maps that coded blue for the Republicans, the color perceived to represent the Union and “Lincoln‘s Party”, and red for the Democrats. The parties themselves had no official colors, with candidates variously using either or both of the national color palette of red and blue .

List Of Current United States Governors

The following is a list of current governors of U.S. states and territories.

In the United States, a governor is the chief executive officer of a state or a territory. The partisan affiliations of American governors are close to being even among the fifty states. As of January 2021, there are 23 states with Democratic governors and 27 states with Republican governors. Additionally, three U.S. territories have Democratic governors, while one has a Republican governor. Pedro Pierluisi of Puerto Rico is a member of the New Progressive Party, although he is also affiliated with the Democratic Party.

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C Republicans Vs Democrats

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

It seemed like Bill Clinton had everything going for him. He defeated an incumbent President and became the first Democrat to win the White House since Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford. He had a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate to work with him.

One of the first major initiatives he began was health care reform. Many Americans were concerned about spiraling medical costs. Medicare did not cover prescription drugs and only paid a portion of health care costs. Over 20 million Americans had no health insurance whatsoever. Clinton assembled a task force to study the problem and assigned his wife Hillary to head the committee. She became the most politically active first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eventually Clinton presented a plan to limit costs and insure each American citizen to the Congress. Powerful interest groups representing doctors and insurance companies opposed Clinton. Many in the Congress thought the program too costly. Conservatives compared the plan to socialized medicine. Despite a “friendly” Democratic Congress, the Clintons’ proposal was defeated.

The Democrats had controlled the House of Representatives since 1954. Many Republicans had gotten used to acting like an opposition party. When the votes were counted, Republicans outscored Democrats in House seats 230-205. Gingrich was rewarded for his efforts by being named Speaker of the House.

A Plurality Believe History Will Judge Trump As A The Worst President Ever; Less Than A Quarter Of Young Americans Want Trump To Play A Key Role In The Future Of Republican Politics; Young Republicans Are Divided

Thirty percent of young Americans believe that history will judge Donald Trump as the worst president ever. Overall, 26% give the 45th president positive marks , while 54% give Trump negative marks ; 11% believe he will go down as an average president.

Twenty-two percent of young Americans surveyed agree with the statement, I want Donald Trump to play a key role in the future of Republican politics, 58% disagreed, and 19% neither agreed nor disagreed. Among young Republicans, 56% agreed while 22% disagreed, and 21% were neutral. Only 61% of those who voted for Trump in the 2020 general indicated their desire for him to remain active in the GOP.

If they had to choose, 42% of young Republicans consider themselves supporters of the Republican party, and not Donald Trump. A quarter indicated they are Trump supporters first, 24% said they support both.

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At Least 60 Afghans And 13 Us Service Members Killed By Suicide Bombers And Gunmen Outside Kabul Airport: Us Officials

Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. At least 60 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops were killed, Afghan and U.S. officials said.

What Is The Difference Between Republicans And Democrats

Democrats vs Republicans – Which Brain is Better?

Republicans and Democrats are the two main and historically the largest political parties in the US and, after every election, hold the majority seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the highest number of Governors. Though both the parties mean well for the US citizens, they have distinct differences that manifest in their comments, decisions, and history. These differences are mainly ideological, political, social, and economic paths to making the US successful and the world a better place for all. Differences between the two parties that are covered in this article rely on the majority position though individual politicians may have varied preferences.

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Map 1 And Table : Party Registration Totals By State July 2018

Democrats no longer control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or for that matter most of the governorships or state legislatures. But they still maintain a toehold in the political process with their edge in the realm of voter registration. At least that is the case in the 31 states and the District of Columbia that register voters by political party. As of this month, 13 of these states boast a Democratic plurality in registered voters, compared to eight states where there is a Republican plurality. In the other 10 states, there are more registered independents than either Democrats or Republicans, with Democrats out-registering the Republicans in six of these states and the GOP with more voters than the Democrats in the other four. They are indicated in the chart as I or I. Nationally, four out of every 10 registered voters in party registration states are Democrats, with slightly less than three out of every 10 registered as Republicans or independents. Overall, the current Democratic advantage over Republicans in the party registration states approaches 12 million.

Recent party registration numbers used here are from state election websites and are based on totals compiled in early July 2018. Registration data are as of the following months: October 2016 ; February 2017 ; November 2017 ; January 2018 ; March 2018 ; April 2018 ; May 2018 ; June 2018 ; and July 2018 .

Where Do Trump And Biden Stand On Key Issues

Reuters: Brian Snyder/AP: Julio Cortez

The key issues grappling the country can be broken down into five main categories: coronavirus, health care, foreign policy, immigration and criminal justice.

This year, a big focus of the election has been the coronavirus pandemic, which could be a deciding factor in how people vote, as the country’s contentious healthcare system struggles to cope.

The average healthcare costs for COVID-19 treatment is up to $US30,000 , an Americas Health Insurance Plans 2020 study has found.

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Religious Affiliation And Party Identification

White evangelical Protestants remain one of the most reliably Republican groups of voters, and the GOPs advantage among this segment of the population has continued to grow in recent years: 77% of white evangelical voters lean toward or identify with the Republican Party, while just 18% have a Democratic orientation.

White mainline Protestant voters are more divided in their political identities. As has been the case for the last several years, a narrow majority affiliates with or leans to the GOP, while 41% lean toward or identify with the Democratic Party.

Black Protestant voters remain solidly Democratic in their partisan loyalties. Almost nine-in-ten lean toward or identify with the Democratic Party.

Overall, Catholic voters are roughly evenly split between the share who identify with or lean to the Republican and Democratic parties. But white Catholics and Hispanic Catholics diverge politically.

White Catholic voters now are more Republican than Democratic . While the partisan balance among white Catholic voters is little changed in recent years, this group was more evenly divided in their partisan loyalties about a decade ago.

Hispanic Catholics, who represent a growing share of the Catholic population in the U.S., are substantially more Democratic in their orientation .

While Mormon voters remain a solidly Republican group , in recent years Mormons have been less likely to identify as Republican than in the past.

Poring Over Party Registration

This is not the best of times for the Democratic Party. No White House; no Senate; no House of Representatives; and a clear minority of governorships and state legislatures in their possession. Yet the Democrats approach this falls midterm elections with an advantage in one key aspect of the political process their strength in states where voters register by party.

Altogether, there are 31 states with party registration; in the others, such as Virginia, voters register without reference to party. Among the party registration states are some of the nations most populous: California, New York, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Arizona, and Massachusetts.

The basic facts: In 19 states and the District, there are more registered Democrats than Republicans. In 12 states, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats. In aggregate, 40% of all voters in party registration states are Democrats, 29% are Republicans, and 28% are independents. Nationally, the Democratic advantage in the party registration states approaches 12 million.

Still, Republican Donald Trump found a route to victory in 2016 that went through the party registration states. He scored a near sweep of those where there were more Republicans than Democrats, winning 11 of the 12, while also taking six of the 19 states where there were more Democrats than Republicans a group that included the pivotal battleground states of Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

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Corruption By The Numbers: Republicans Versus Democrats

Although I often use materials Ive read in journals and other publications as the starting point for blog posts, I rarely reproduce an entire article or commentary. When I received the following analysis in an email, however, I asked for permission to do just that.

There is a widespread impression that Democrats are less upstanding and law-abiding than Republicans. That may be a side effect of the excessive public piety affected by so many Republican officeholders, or the belief that a willingness to compromise on matters of policy signifies a corrupt wheeler/dealer mentality.

Until I read this, my own impression had been that there isnt much difference between the parties when it comes to bad behavior, so I was pretty surprised by this data.

Here it is, unaltered:

Wow. Just wow.

Democratic Drama That Might Matter

Meanwhile, in Washington, there was some drama on Capitol Hill last night.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and centrist House Democrats, locked in a standoff over the order the House should vote on bills, failed to reach a resolution by sundown as the two sides remained at odds over how to proceed after a series of meetings, NBCs Sahil Kapur writes.

The group of centrist Democrats object to Pelosi’s plan to begin work on the budget measure and to wait to pass the infrastructure bill.

But since this infrastructure-reconciliation effort by Democrats is going to continue to play out through the fall, were not getting worked up about a procedural ideological standoff in late August. At least right now.

Its kind of like the equivalent of a preseason NFL game. It could matter. Or it might not.

Its still really early.

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Which Party Is The Party Of The 1 Percent

First, both parties receive substantial support. Much of it comes from registered voters who make $100K+ annually. However, Democrats actually come out ahead when it comes to fundraising for campaigns. In many cases, Democrats have been able to raise twice as much in private political contributions. But what about outside of politicians? Does that mean Democrats are the wealthier party? Which American families are wealthier? Republicans or Democrats?

Honestly, it is probably Republicans. When it comes down to it, the richest families in America tend to donate to Republican candidates. Forbes reported out of the 50 richest families in the United States, 28 donate to Republican candidates. Another seven donate to Democrats. Additionally, 15 of the richest families in the U.S. donate to both parties.

List Of Presidents Of The United States

Democrats Vs Republicans | What is the difference between Democrats and Republicans?

The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term by the American people through the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

Since the office was established in 1789, 45 people have served in 46 presidencies. The first president, George Washington, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College; one, Grover Cleveland, served two non-consecutive terms and is therefore counted as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States .

There are five living former presidents. The most recent to die was George H. W. Bush, on November 30, 2018.

The presidency of William Henry Harrison, who died 31 days after taking office in 1841, was the shortest in American history. Franklin D. Roosevelt served the longest, over twelve years, before dying early in his fourth term in 1945. He is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. Since the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1951, no person may be elected president more than twice, and no one who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected may be elected more than once.

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wgrommel · 4 years

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Family Bible

Here I offer a description of a family Bible that was given to me many years ago. It belonged to my father's family; the first event recorded in it is the marriage of my great-grandparents in 1881.

The Bible itself is interesting for two reasons. First, I'm pretty sure it was published in Louisville, Ky., presumably c. 1875. (The title page has been lost, but I recall seeing it years ago and being surprised that it was published in Louisville rather than, say, New York or Nashville.) Second, although it is the King James Version, it includes the Apocrypha or deuterocanonical books such as Ecclesiasticus — unusual for a Protestant Bible. The cover is 12 5/8" high and 9 5/8" wide (32.2 cm × 24.3 cm); the pages, 11½" H × 9 5/16" W. The book is about 4 1/8" thick. The accompanying pictures show the book and a typical page.

Bibles of this era are usually of interest for their genealogical information, so let's get to that. The first page after the Apocrypha records the marriage of George H. Rommel and Sophie Haager on January 12, 1881.

On the next page we have the marriages of their children:

Elsie May Rommel to Robt. Elmer Hickey — Nov. 25, 1914 Albert J. Rommel to Omea C. Irvine, June 14, 1916 John R. Rommel to Helen R. Rietze, Oct. 25, 1916 Will. D. Rommel to Louise Schaarschmidt, Nov. 26, 1917 [my grandparents] Ruth Caroline Rommel to Walter W. Wilhoit, Feb. 28, 1925 Clarence J. Rommel to Betty Ray Hart, Sept. 20, 1930 [I was told that Clarence bore a strong resemblance to the Desert Fox himself, Erwin Rommel] George Harry Rommel to Mary Hanafee, Aug. 17, 1936

At this point there is a heading in my father's hand saying “marriages of grandchildren”, which is probably correct except for Elsie's second marriage.

John L. Rommel Jr. to Sherrill Wagner, Sept. 6, 1941 Alla Irvine Rommel to Joseph Gordon, December 1941 Alla R. Gordon to James McConathy, Sept. 1, 1945 Elsie R. Hickey to Louis B. Elliott, May 22, 1948 [Elsie's second marriage. Elsie and Louie were still alive when I was a boy, and I fondly remember going to visit them. Louie played the harmonica for us, quite well. He was also noted for having good teeth; he allegedly brushed his teeth five times a day. Elsie was a tough bird and lived to 95.] Geo. Irvine Rommel to Marilyn Dayton, June 1948 Robert Malcolm Rommel to Doris Ann Frick, Aug. 28, 1948 Ralph Haager Rommel to Mattie Hoskins, April 28, 1951 William Houghton Rommel to Ann Hayes, Mar. 19, 1955 [my parents; my mother's name reads “Anne Phylis”, but she detests the name Phyllis and has never used it]

The next page shows the births of George H. and Sophie's children:

William D. Rommel Born Nov. 28, 1881 John L. Rommel Born Nov. 28, 1881 Robert H. Rommel Born May 3, 1883 George Harry Rommel Born Nov. 18, 1884 Julius Albert Rommel Born Sep. 12, 1886 Louis Edward Rommel Sep. 6, 1888 Elsie May Rommel June 30, 1891 Clarence Jos. Rommel Feb. 6, 1893 Ruth Caroline Rommel Feb. 26, 1895

The next page shows deaths:

Louis Edward Rommel, Feb. 1, 1901, 3 pm Robert Haager Rommel, April 16, 1929, 11 am (Father) George H. Rommel, Oct. 22, 1933, 2:30 pm (Mother) Sophia Haager Rommel, Dec. 14, 1935, 10:30 am Robert Elmer Hickey, July 12, 1937, 11 am Walter W. Wilhoit, April 7, 1940, 7:45 am Lt. Joseph Gordon (airplane accident in Australia), April 1942 Clarence Joseph Rommel, April 19, 1944, 2:30 am Omea Irvine Rommel (wife of A.J.R.), May 9, 1945, 5 am Betty Hart Rommel (wife of C.J.R.), June 26, 1947, 6 pm Infant son of Alla and James McConathy, Dec. 13, 1947, at birth Mary Hanafee Rommel (wife of George Harry), July 25, 1949, 9:30 pm Julius Albert Rommel, March 23, 1952, 6:45 pm William D. [Daniel] Rommel, August 29, 1955, 1:30 am Ruth Caroline Rommel Wilhoyte, July 5, 1961, 7 pm [I suppose Wilhoyte is a variant spelling of Wilhoit.] Phyllis Jane Rommel – daughter of William D. and Louise S. Rommel, September 24, 1963, 4:30 pm John L. Rommel Louise S. Rommel, wife of Wm. D. Rommel [my grandmother, whom I remember dimly; this must have been around 1968] George Harry Rommel, Sept. 16, 1972 Louis B. Elliott [Nov. 5, 1972] [Elsie is not shown, but she died on Jan. 26, 1987]

The next page, headed "Memoranda", contains the births of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Billy Houghton, son of W. D. Rommel, born February 5th 1919 [my father] John Larabee Jr., son of J. L. Rommel, born August 30th 1919 Alla Irvine, daughter of A. J. Rommel, born December 25th 1919 Ralph Haagar, son of W. D. Rommel, born April 15th 1921 George Irvine, son of A. J. Rommel, born May 24th 1921 Phylis Jane, daughter of W. D. Rommel, April 21, 1923 Robert Malcolm, son of W. D. Rommel, April 1, 1927 [great-grandchildren:] Susan Stuart, daughter of John Larabee Jr., August 2, 1944 Infant son, at birth, of Alla and James McConathy, Dec. 13, 1947 Mary Leigh, daughter of John and Sherril Rommel, Jan. 16, 1948 Lylar Dayton, daughter of Geo. Irvine & Marilyn, April 25, 1949 Lucinda Omea, daughter of Alla Irvine Rommel & James McConathy, Sept. 8, 1949 Karen Louise, daughter of Ralph Haagar & Mattie Rommel, Jan. 27, 1952 Park Heaton, son of Geo. Irvine & Marilyn, March 14, 1952, 11 pm Jane Mitchell McConathy, daughter of James & Alla McConathy, May 9, 1954, Henderson, Ky. Deirdre Alla McConathy, Oct. 8, 1954 Cathrine Ann Rommel daughter of Ralph & Mattie Rommel, May 17, 1953

The next and final page continues the list of great-grandchildren.

Ralph Gregory Rommel, son of Ralph H. & Mattie H., August 25, 1957 Robert Wilhoit Rommel, son of Robert M. & Doris F. Rommel, Sept. 12, 1957 William Geoffrey Rommel, son of William H. & Ann H. Rommel, May 1, 1959 [hey, that's me] George Evan Hayes Rommel, son of William H. & Ann H. Rommel, March 31, 1962 Melissa Kaye Rommel, daughter of Ralph H. & Mattie H., April 1st, 1962 Harry Louis Rommel, son of William H. & Ann H. Rommel, Dec. 11, 1971 Stephen Daniel Rommel, son of William H. & Ann H. Rommel, January 22, 1974

#genealogy #Bible #heirloom

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moosekateer13 · 5 years

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I write like..

About Raymond Chandler

Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American novelist and screenwriter.

I write like website

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macrolit · 3 years

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As for “literature of expression” and “literature of escape” — this is critics’ jargon, a use of abstract words as if they had absolute meanings. Everything written with vitality expresses that vitality: there are no dull subjects, only dull minds.

Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist

#raymond chandler #the simple art of murder #literature #escapism #expression #vitality #minds #quotes #quote #birthday #july 23 #b. 23 July 1888 #it's his birthday

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thronesteam2-blog · 5 years

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The Simon Bing, Jr. House - 21 West 88th Street

After being brutally maltreated, the Bing house still manages to hint at its former charm.

In 1888 developer William H Stafford began construction of a row of four 19-foot wide homes on West 88th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Architect Henry Davidson blended Romanesque Revival with the more whimsical Queen Anne style, then threw in a touch of Flemish Renaissance Revival for good measure. The balanced A-B-B-A row was flanked by homes with elaborate, pedimented entrances and Flemish gables. The center, mirror image pair featured clustered columns with shared Romanesque capitals at the first and third floors. In between they shared a large projecting bay with an arched pediment.

A tax photo reveals the still-intact row and its grab bag of architectural elements. Note that No. 23 (left) and 19 retain retain their wonderful stained glass transoms over the parlor windows. photograph via the NYC Dept of Taxation and Information Services.

Two of the houses, Nos. 21 and 17 were purchased by Spencer Aldrich, apparently as an investment. On February 26, 1895 Aldrich and his wife, Elizabeth, sold No. 21 to Simon Bing, Jr. The purchase price was kept private; however Bing's $20,250 mortgage--around $625,000 today--gives a hint. Bing was the partner of Jacob August in the clothing firm August, Bing & Co. He and his wife, Louisa, had two sons, Alexander M., who was a junior at New York City College at the time, and Leo S. Bing. Sadly, Simon would not live to enjoy his new residence for long. One month after purchasing the house, on March 24, 1895, the 56-year old died. His funeral was held at Temple Beth-El on Fifth Avenue and 76th Street on March 27. Simon's unmarried brother, David, who was also a cloak manufacturer, moved into the house, no doubt to help his widowed sister-in-law with finances and other issues. When David left the house on October 23, 1899 he was nattily dressed. The family remembered he had on a tan overcoat, a black cutaway suit and a black derby hat. There was nothing out of the ordinary when he departed; but this time he did not return. Three days later Leo went to the police. The Sun reported "He could not suggest any reason for his disappearance, which alarmed the family. Mr. Bing is 56 years old, rather undersized, with a pale face, gray hair and moustache and black eyes." The police sent out "an alarm" with his description. Whether he was found or not is unclear; there seem to have been no follow-up reports and his name no longer appeared at this address. Having jointly inherited the 88th Street house, Leo and Alexander transferred title to their mother on January 24, 1902. Although both had earned law degrees, they joined forces as real estate developers, forming the firm of Bing & Bing. Before the outbreak of World War I it would be recognized as one of the most influential and important apartment building developers in the city. Louisa Bing remained in the house only two more years. She sold it on June 29, 1904 to Thomas W. Jones. Like the Bing brothers, he was a partner with Louis M. Jones in real estate development. He and his wife had a daughter, Bertha. Jones's stature in real estate circles was evidenced when he became involved in a massive deal in 1910 with, among others, Frank N. Hoffstot, president of the Pressed Steel Car Company. Jones's commission on the complicated transaction, which included properties in New York City and Philadelphia, was $36,000--or about $982,000 today. In reporting on aspects of the deal the New York Times on August 6, 1910 referred to Jones as a "New York millionaire." On March 7, 1912 the New York Herald announced "In a setting of pink roses and palms at Delmonico's last night Miss Bertha Jones, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jones of 21 West Eighty-eighth street, was married to Mr. I. James von Sholly." The article noted "Mr. von Sholly and his wife leave to-day for the West Indies." Four years later The Sun reported that Jones had rented the 88th Street house "for a long term of years." His tenant was Theodore Van Yorx, a widely-recognized voice coach. He established his studio here, advertising in The New York Clipper on August 26, 1916 in a single line: "The Singing and Speaking Voice. Theo. Van Yorx, 21 W. 88th St., New York." The Music News said of him, "Mr. Van Yorx's very broad experience in the professional and teaching field eminently fit him for teaching and make his training and his suggestions invaluable...For many years Mr. Van Yorx was one of American's foremost tenors in the concert, oratorio, recital and church choir fields." Van Yorx would have to move on in 1920 when Jones sold the house to Blanche Blosveren, who almost immediately resold it in October to Dr. Bernard Sour and his wife, the former Adele Somborn. The title was put in Adele's name. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1870, Sour received his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1893. During World War I he served as an examining physician for the draft board. He and Adele had married in 1904 and had two sons, Robert and George. The population of the house unexpectedly--and bizarrely-- grew by one seven months after the couple moved in. On May 19, 1921 The New York Herald reported that broker Percy Heineman "is ignored in the will of his wife, Lucille." If Heineman was shocked to discover he had been cut out of his wife's estate, the Sours were even more so to find that they had inherited a daughter. The newspaper wrote "The guardianship of their eight-year-old daughter, Bella, is confided to 'my friend,' Dr. Bernard Sour of 21 West Eighty-eighth street, to whom is made also a bequest of $20,000." "Dr. Sour was surprised at learning of the bequests and his guardianship. He said he had known the Heinemans a number of years, but not very intimately, and could shed no light on the difficulties that led to the odd provisions in Mrs. Heineman's will," reported the Herald. Sour's portion of the sizable estate would be equal to more than a quarter of a million dollars today. Little Bella received the rest. The brothers enjoyed a privileged upbringing and top level schooling. George Bernard Sour graduated from Princeton in 1930. His engagement to Natalie H. Machol was announced on July 28, 1933. The Sours sold No. 21 in July of 1937. Bernard and Adele moved to an apartment at No. 112 Park Avenue where the doctor died of a heart attack at the age of 71 four years later. In 1963 No. 19 next door was demolished by the Franklin School, to be replaced by a featureless gray box. In doing so the No. 21 lost its visual balance and the sliced-in-half bay looked awkward at best. In the meantime, the house was converted to four apartments.

The carnage had only begun. In February 2017 the former Bing house was sold for $11.65 million to be absorbed by the Dwight School. A massive renovation was announced to internally combine three houses on 88th Street--Nos. 17 through 21--and three more on West 89th Street, Nos 18 through 22. The Bing has was totally gutted. While the charming facade, albeit without its matching twin, survives, there is nothing else left. Department of Buildings documents explain flatly "retained for Historical Purposes Only." photographs by the author

Source: http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-simon-bing-jr-house-21-west-88th.html

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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genderrise3-blog · 5 years

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Charming Bedfellows--Nos. 14 and 16 St. Nicholas Place

The wooden shingles of the second floor are a latter renovation, sometime after 1938. The boxy green entrance to No. 14 was originally an airy open porch.

The district of northern Manhattan which would become known as Sugar Hill was expected by many to be the city's next exclusive residential neighborhood. Both freestanding residences and rowhouses rose in the 1880's which would house well-to-do families. James Montieth cleverly created a hybrid of the two. A Sugar Hill resident himself (he lived on St. Nicholas Avenue at 154th Street), he acquired the properties at Nos. 14 and 16 St. Nicholas Place and laid plans for two upscale homes. Perhaps to make the most efficient use of the plots and wring out the most floor space as possible, he directed architect William Grinnell to design connected houses fashioned to appear nearly as one. The result was a fairy tale delight. Completed in 1884, the Queen Anne style houses featured all the architectural bells and whistles expected in the style--asymmetric lines, a mixture of materials and colors, and a riot of shapes and angles. The two-story and attic structures sat on bases of rough cut schist--a highly unusual choice for the style. No. 14 stole the spotlight with its corner tower and bulbous onion dome. The stucco-covered and half-timbered gable at the side tied into the more prominent example of No. 16.

The gable of No. 16 was originally stucco faced and included Tudor half-timbering.

That house featured a projecting bay supported by a shallow wooden entrance porch. The Tudor-style gable boasted elaborate half-timbering. The two dwellings shared a wide box dormer and their chimneys marked the separation line. When the houses were completed U.S. District Attorney William Dorsheimer and his wife, Isabella, lived in Washington D. C. But on February 4, 1886 he wrote a letter of resignation to President Grover Cleveland. The couple moved to New York where Dorscheimer died in the spring of 1888. An advertisement in the New-York Tribune on March 20, 1892 apparently caught the eye of Isabella P. Dorsheimer. It offered "the 2-1/2 story stone and frame house, No. 14 St. Nicholas Place...adjoining the residence of James A. Bailey. The above property is in the choicest and most desirable residence locality in the city of New-York." Isabella leased the home from the Montieth family and was listed (as "widow") at the address at least through 1894. On May 21, 1896 James Montieth's heirs sold No. 14 to Thomas Alexander, who paid $25,000 for the house, or just over $770,000 today. He immediately transferred title to his wife, the former Annie Newton. The couple had three children, Marion, Arthur Douglas and Nelson. Alexander had begun working for the Federal Government as an office boy in 1867 at the age of 13. On New Year's Day 1887 he was appointed commissioner and deputy clerk of the United States District Court, in which position he acted "as cashier of the admiralty branch of the district court," according to the New-York Tribune. By the time he purchased the St. Nicholas Place home, his responsibilities had greatly increased. He now oversaw all bankruptcy cases and Federal felonies. On April 29, 1896, for instance, The Sun reported that "Henry J. Butler, a letter carrier attached to Station A, was brought before Commissioner Thomas Alexander yesterday afternoon...on a charge of having stolen letters containing money." Like all moneyed families, the Alexanders closed their Manhattan house during the summer. While they were gone during the summer of 1899 there was a break in. The Sun reported that Thomas Alexander, "upon visiting his home at 14 St. Nicholas place, for the first time in six weeks, the house having been closed for the summer, he found that it had been entered and every room showed traces of having been carefully searched." The intruders took nothing, but were evidently searching for something in particular. "They had opened every drawer and searched every cranny, and apparently every scrap of correspondence had been read over."

Between the topmost tower windows pierced panels create stylized sunflowers, an important motif in the Queen Anne style.

Frustrated, the burglars now focused on Alexander's office. On August 26 The Sun entitled an article "Alexander's Curious Visitors," and noted "Sometime between Saturday noon and Monday morning some person pried open two drawers of the cashier's desk in the clerk's office of the United States District Court in the postoffice building. Commissioner Thomas Alexander is clerk of the court." Once again the thieves went away empty handed. "The lock of one drawer was forced off and fell into the drawer and the clutch of the other was forced back into the lock." In the meantime, No. 16 had originally been sold to the family of Leonard B. Smith. Smith was a partner in the tea and coffee firm of Eppens, Smith & Wiemann at No. 267 Washington Street. In 1896, the same year that the Alexanders moved into No. 14, Smith leased the residence to the Augustus R. Adams family.

Adams was an attorney and member of the law firm Adams & Hahn at No. 76 Williams Street. His son, Robert Allison Adams, was enrolled in the "classical" courses at New York City College at the time. On May 13, 1902 Augustus died at the age of 60. His funeral was held in the house three days later. Leonard Smith and his wife sold the 32-foot wide house to Emma Reiner in 1905. The Adams family continued to lease under their new landlord. While moneyed New Yorkers routinely spent weeks or months abroad every year, the Alexander family stayed relatively close to home. Thomas Alexander commuted to their summer residence on the weekends, most likely spending weeknights at his club. But on February 23, 1907 The Sun reported that the Commissioner would be taking his "first vacation since 1898." The two-week visit to London, said the article, "will be the Commissioner's first real holiday since 1898. Ever since the bankruptcy law went into effect that year the Commissioner, who is also clerk of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, has never for a single day been a hundred miles away from his office or beyond reach by telephone." In 1912 the Alexanders began construction of a new summer house in Harriman, New York, overlooking the Ramapo Mountains. While construction proceeded, the family leased a house nearby. On the night of July 9, according to The Sun, Thomas "started with his two sons to visit the new home, and in the darkness stumbled into a well that has been sunk about fourteen feet. His cries for aid brought his sons, who were a little distance away, and they saw that other help was needed." One of the boys rushed to a neighbor who brought his automobile across the field. He had the foresight to bring along a wicker chair. In the meantime, a call was made to Dr. Rhullison who lived about six miles away. Using the automobile lights to illuminate the well, the men carefully dropped packing crates into the hole until they could clamber down. The chair was lowered and Alexander was carried up. The 58-year-old had suffered three broken ribs, but nothing more serious was evident. What the country doctor did not perceive was that, in fact, his skull was fractured. Alexander lingered in the Harriman house for two weeks. He died of heart failure on July 24 as a result of his injuries. Alexander's estate was valued at about $1.7 million in today's dollars, the bulk of which was bequeathed to Annie. The family continued to live in the St. Nicholas Place house and at Briarton, the new Harriman estate. Following the expected mourning period, the Alexander family reappeared among society. On June 24, 1916 Marion was married at Briarton to Charles Meding. She was given away by her brother, Arthur. The Sun reported "Two hundred guests came out from New York by automobile." After the Adams family had leased No. 16 for two decades, on September 13, 1917 Robert A. Adams purchased it through his father's estate. The family's focus, however, was no doubt mostly concentrated on Arthur's well being. Five months earlier the United States had entered World War I and Arthur enlisted in the Army. He was sent overseas as part of the American Expeditionary Force in France with the rank of First Lieutenant where he held the position of Chief Ordnance Officer. But on June 4, 1917 The Sun reported that he had been "to-day honorably discharged from the camp for physical disability."

1st Lt. Arthur Douglas Alexander was a Columbia-educated attorney. photo via Columbia University Roll of Honor

While overseas Arthur had contracted tuberculosis. He continued his military service in the States until after the Armistice. On March 28, 1919 the Columbia Alumni News reported that he "has been discharged from the service and may be addressed at 14 St. Nicholas Place, New York City." Less than a month later, on April 21, Arthur died in the St. Nicholas Place house of the disease. In January 1921 Columbia University announced the establishment of The Arthur D. Alexander Memorial Cup to be presented annually at the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball Championship.

On April 1, 1925 an advertisement in The New York Times announced the liquidation of the real estate of Thomas Alexander. Included was No. 14 St. Nicholas Place, described as a "splendid home; exceptionally fine views."

No. 16 was vacant in 1938, its windows boarded up and a plank fence protecting it from invaders. Note the elaborate Tudor gable. from the collection of the New York Public Library

No. 16 had been sold three times by now, yet was still a single-family house. By the mid 1940's it was home to Dr. Alma Mary Haskins and her husband, James Egert Allen. Almas was the only Black woman practicing podiatry in the city at the time. Born in Newport News, Virginia, Haskins received her medical degree from New York University and had served as president of the New York County Society of Podiatrists in 1927 through 1929. James E. Allen was born in 1896 in Greenwood, South Carolina. He had been an educated in the New York public school system since 1926. Additionally, he was a community advocate, civil rights activist and author. An active promoter of African American studies, he was the first president of the New York City Branch of the NAACP. The esteem in which the community held Dr. Haskins was evidenced in a comment in The New York Age on February 26, 1949. "Send fancy get-well cards to Dr. Alma Mary Haskins who is better after suffering from a severe attack of sciatica."

Both houses managed to survive the 20th century as single family homes, although in 2003 No. 14 was converted to apartments--one each on the first and second floors, and two on the third. A rediscovery of the Sugar Hill neighborhood at around the same time resulted in the careful preservation of Nos. 14 and 16. They are the oldest surviving structures in the Sugar Hill Historic District.

photographs by the author

Source: http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2019/05/charming-bedfellows-nos-14-and-16-st.html

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years

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PIANO & VIOLIN LESSONS

January 14, 1949

“Piano and Violin Lessons” (aka “Professor Krausmeyer's Talent Scouts”) is episode #26 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on January 14, 1949 on the Armed Forces Radio Network.

Synopsis ~ Liz takes up the piano to win a radio talent contest. To get even, George starts playing the violin. Who will win?

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benadaret was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

REGULAR CAST

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Announcer Bob LeMond is not heard in this episode as it is part of the American Forces Network and has a different announcer.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) and Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) had not yet joined the cast as regular characters.

GUEST CAST

Hans Conried (Professor Krausemeyer) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). He then appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973. He died in 1982 at age 64.

Conried uses a German accent for the role. Professor Krausmeyer is likely the inspiration for Professor Gitterman on “The Lucy Show.”

A character named Esther Weiss, a young cymbal player, makes a brief appearance voiced by an uncredited performer.

EPISODE

George is in the attic looking for his decoy ducks and has found a stack of old National Geographic magazines.

National Geographic magazine started publishing in 1888 and became one of the most widely-read magazines of all time. They specialized in science, geography, history, and world culture. The magazine is known for its distinctive appearance: a thick square-bound glossy format with a yellow rectangular border and its use of dramatic photography. It was not uncommon for readers to collect and store them, as George has.

George finds the magazines fascinating, but Liz is bored, except for the car ads from 20 years ago.

LIZ (reading): “New Cadillac: $1,100.”

The Cadillac Automobile Company was established in 1902, named after French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who founded Detroit in 1701. The brand became associated with luxury cars, a reputation it still has today. On a 1954 episode of “I Love Lucy” Fred Mertz bought a rundown 1923 Cadillac convertible for the gang’s trip to California, much to the dismay of the other passengers. Even though he only paid $300, Fred was swindled!

George admires the features of the cars in the ad, rhapsodizing about the isinglass windows, the retractable top, tires that took 60lbs of pressure, but all Liz can think of is the rumble seat!

A rumble seat was an additional padded passenger seat that popped up from the rear of the vehicle, usually just big enough for two. This led it to becoming synonymous with romantic trysts! Liz definitely has that in mind.

Liz reveals that the decoy ducks George was originally searching for were used for target practice at the charity bazaar shooting gallery. Liz wants to throw away George’s workout equipment, like his barbells. George can’t even lift them off the floor! George insists she sell her old piano. Liz plays him a few bars, but George reveals that she is using the player piano, not playing it herself.

A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano, containing a mechanism that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home in the late 19th and early 20th century. Sales peaked in 1924, then declined due to the advent of phonograph recordings and radio. The stock market crash of 1929 virtually wiped out production

Liz insists that she can also play all by herself and offers to play “Glow Worm” although George wants to hear “The Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in B Flat Minor”. Liz starts to play and all that comes out is an out-of-tune rendition of “Glow Worm.”

“The Glow-Worm” is a song from Paul Lincke’s 1902 operetta Lysistrata. The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B♭ minor was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between November 1874 and February 1875. On “I Love Lucy”, Lucy Ricardo found her old saxophone in the attic, much the way Liz finds her old piano. Like Liz, all Lucy can play is “Glow Worm” even when asked to play something else!

Liz has the piano moved down to the living room, and asks Katie the Maid to clean it up. Liz tells her she has arranged to take piano lessons to prove something to George. Although it has just been tuned, Liz’s rendition of “Glow Worm” is just as out-of-key as ever! Liz is waiting for her childhood piano instructor, Professor Krausmeyer (Hans Conried), to arrive. When he gets there they reminisce about how all she could ever play was “Glow Worm.” Even back then, Liz claimed the piano was out-of-tune.

PROFESSOR: “Nobody is hopeless. I can teach anybody to play the piano who has only three qualifications: a left hand, a right hand, and five dollars an hour.”

The Professor entices her to take five lessons a week so that she can appear on his radio talent contest. Liz agrees! Three days later, Liz is practicing “Swannee River” for the talent show. George and Katie lament her non-stop practicing. Katie claims they even got a telegram asking her to stop, signed “The Friends of Stephen Foster”!

“Swanee River” aka “Old Folks at Home” was written by Stephen Foster in 1851. Lucille Ball attempts to play “Swanee River” on the banjo in “Carol + 2″ in 1966. In “World’s Greatest Grandma” (1986), an un-aired episode of “Life With Lucy” Lucy Barker’s son-in-law Ted sings “Swanee River” while Lucy does a few clumsy shuffle steps.

George tries to get her to stop, but she refuses. George goes to see Professor Krausmeyer. George is no sooner in the door when the Professor says he has the hands of an artists. When George says he used to play the violin a little, the Professor urges him to try playing the one in his studio, declaring him to be the next Jascha Heifitz.

Jascha Heifetz (1901-87, inset photo) is considered to be the greatest violinist of all time. In “Lucy and Jack Benny’s Biography” (HL S3;E11) in 1970, Lucy plays Jack Benny’s mother, getting a call from Jascha Heifetz’s mother, about their sons’ violin playing!

The Professor enters George in the contest as well, just to teach Liz a lesson. At home, it is George’s violin versus Liz’s piano, with a defensive Katie playing the harmonica in retaliation. George tells Liz that he’s also going to be in the contest. Liz bets him $100 that she will win.

To foil him, Liz glues his strings together. Before bedtime, Liz puts on her protective gloves, but George has filled them with quick drying glue! Laying out their clothes for the contest, George hides her new dress - as well as the rest of her clothing. Liz locks him in the bathroom and tries to find something to wear to the contest.

At the radio station, Liz shows up wearing one of George’s suits. Professor Krausmeyer doesn’t recognize her. George suddenly arrives wearing one of Liz’s sun dresses. They argue about who will play first and end up playing simultaneously: Liz’s “Swanee River” on the piano at the same time as George’s “Humoresques” on the violin.

In “Bullfight Dance” (ILL S4;E23), Ricky proposes he and Lucy do a counterpoint of “Humoresques”, a piano composition by Antonín Dvořák written in 1894 and “Swanee River”. Ricky decides Lucy can’t handle the complexity of the piece and decides to switch the act to a matador routine.

The Professor declares that they both have won for best duet! The prize is six months lessons with Professor Krausmeyer!

In bed that night, Liz wakes up George angrily to chide him for smooching Betty Grable in her dream. He says that he was dreaming, too! In his dream she was dancing with Gregory Peck - while he was smooching with Betty Grable!

Betty Grable (1916-73) was one of Hollywood’s biggest starlets. At the time of this episode, her film When My Baby Smiles at Me was in cinemas. She would appear with her second husband Harry James on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” In 1958. Gregory Peck (1916-2003) was one of Hollywood’s most distinguished leading men. His film Yellow Sky had premiered just three weeks earlier.

Liz smacks him hard and says “Goodnight, George!”

#My Favorite Husband #Lucille Ball #Richard Denning #Ruth Perrott #Hans Conried #Glow Worm #Betty Grable #Gregory Peck #Cadillac #National Geographic #Old Folks at Home #Swanee River #Humoresques #Jascha Heifitz #Pianola #Here's Lucy #I Love Lucy #radio #Rumble Seat

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ultragappy · 7 years

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Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was a British-American novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. His works have often been regarded as forerunning noir and mystery novels as his unique art art style and flair made his books eye-catching, and sell well.

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blackkudos · 7 years

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W. E. B. DuBois

William Edward Burghardt "W. E. B." Du Bois (pronounced /duːˈbɔɪz/ doo-BOYZ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. After completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. Du Bois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Du Bois rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T. Washington which provided that Southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite. He referred to this group as the Talented Tenth and believed that African Americans needed the chances for advanced education to develop its leadership.

Racism was the main target of Du Bois's polemics, and he strongly protested against lynching, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination in education and employment. His cause included people of color everywhere, particularly Africans and Asians in colonies. He was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to fight for independence of African colonies from European powers. Du Bois made several trips to Europe, Africa and Asia. After World War I, he surveyed the experiences of American black soldiers in France and documented widespread bigotry in the United States military.

Du Bois was a prolific author. His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, was a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus Black Reconstruction in America challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era. He wrote one of the first scientific treatises in the field of American sociology, and he published three autobiographies, each of which contains insightful essays on sociology, politics and history. In his role as editor of the NAACP's journal The Crisis, he published many influential pieces. Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life. He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament. The United States' Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death.

Early life

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to Alfred and Mary Silvina (née Burghardt) Du Bois. Mary Silvina Burghardt's family was part of the very small free black population of Great Barrington and had long owned land in the state. She was descended from Dutch, African and English ancestors. William Du Bois's maternal great-great-grandfather was Tom Burghardt, a slave (born in West Africa around 1730), who was held by the Dutch colonist Conraed Burghardt. Tom briefly served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, which may have been how he gained his freedom during the 18th century. His son Jack Burghardt was the father of Othello Burghardt, who was the father of Mary Silvina Burghardt.

William Du Bois's paternal great-grandfather was James Du Bois of Poughkeepsie, New York, an ethnic French-American who fathered several children with slave mistresses. One of James' mixed-race sons was Alexander. He traveled and worked in Haiti, where he fathered a son, Alfred, with a mistress. Alexander returned to Connecticut, leaving Alfred in Haiti with his mother.

Sometime before 1860, Alfred Du Bois emigrated to the United States, settling in Massachusetts. He married Mary Silvina Burghardt on February 5, 1867, in Housatonic. Alfred left Mary in 1870, two years after their son William was born. Mary Burghardt Du Bois moved with her son back to her parents' house in Great Barrington until he was five. She worked to support her family (receiving some assistance from her brother and neighbors), until she suffered a stroke in the early 1880s. She died in 1885.

Great Barrington had a majority European American community, who treated Du Bois generally well. He attended the local integrated public school and played with white schoolmates. As an adult, he wrote about racism which he felt as a fatherless child and the experience of being a minority in the town. But, teachers recognized his ability and encouraged his intellectual pursuits, and his rewarding experience with academic studies led him to believe that he could use his knowledge to empower African Americans. Du Bois graduated from the town's Searles High School. When Du Bois decided to attend college, the congregation of his childhood church, the First Congregational Church of Great Barrington, raised the money for his tuition.

University education

Relying on money donated by neighbors, Du Bois attended Fisk University, a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1885 to 1888. His travel to and residency in the South was Du Bois's first experience with Southern racism, which at the time encompassed Jim Crow laws, bigotry, suppression of black voting, and lynchings; the lattermost reached a peak in the next decade. After receiving a bachelor's degree from Fisk, he attended Harvard College (which did not accept course credits from Fisk) from 1888 to 1890, where he was strongly influenced by his professor William James, prominent in American philosophy. Du Bois paid his way through three years at Harvard with money from summer jobs, an inheritance, scholarships, and loans from friends. In 1890, Harvard awarded Du Bois his second bachelor's degree, cum laude, in history. In 1891, Du Bois received a scholarship to attend the sociology graduate school at Harvard.

In 1892, Du Bois received a fellowship from the John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen to attend the University of Berlin for graduate work. While a student in Berlin, he traveled extensively throughout Europe. He came of age intellectually in the German capital, while studying with some of that nation's most prominent social scientists, including Gustav von Schmoller, Adolph Wagner, and Heinrich von Treitschke. After returning from Europe, Du Bois completed his graduate studies; in 1895 he was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Wilberforce and Philadelphia

In the summer of 1894, Du Bois received several job offers, including one from the prestigious Tuskegee Institute; he accepted a teaching job at Wilberforce University in Ohio. At Wilberforce, Du Bois was strongly influenced by Alexander Crummell, who believed that ideas and morals are necessary tools to effect social change. While at Wilberforce, Du Bois married Nina Gomer, one of his students, on May 12, 1896.

After two years at Wilberforce, Du Bois accepted a one-year research job from the University of Pennsylvania as an "assistant in sociology" in the summer of 1896. He performed sociological field research in Philadelphia's African-American neighborhoods, which formed the foundation for his landmark study, The Philadelphia Negro, published in 1899 while he was teaching at Atlanta University. It was the first case study of a black community in the United States. By the 1890s, Philadelphia's black neighborhoods had a negative reputation in terms of crime, poverty, and mortality. Du Bois's book undermined the stereotypes with experimental evidence, and shaped his approach to segregation and its negative impact on black lives and reputations. The results led Du Bois to realize that racial integration was the key to democratic equality in American cities.

While taking part in the American Negro Academy (ANA) in 1897, Du Bois presented a paper in which he rejected Frederick Douglass's plea for black Americans to integrate into white society. He wrote: "we are Negroes, members of a vast historic race that from the very dawn of creation has slept, but half awakening in the dark forests of its African fatherland". In the August 1897 issue of Atlantic Monthly, Du Bois published "Strivings of the Negro People", his first work aimed at the general public, in which he enlarged upon his thesis that African Americans should embrace their African heritage while contributing to American society.

Atlanta University

In July 1897, Du Bois left Philadelphia and took a professorship in history and economics at the historically black Atlanta University in Georgia. His first major academic work was his book The Philadelphia Negro (1899), a detailed and comprehensive sociological study of the African-American people of Philadelphia, based on the field work he did in 1896–1897. The work was a breakthrough in scholarship, because it was the first scientific study of African Americans and a major contribution to early scientific sociology in the U.S. In the study, Du Bois coined the phrase "the submerged tenth" to describe the black underclass. Later in 1903 he popularized the term, the "Talented Tenth", applied to society's elite class. Du Bois's terminology reflected his opinion that the elite of a nation, both black and white, was critical to achievements in culture and progress. Du Bois wrote in this period in a dismissive way of the underclass, describing them as "lazy" or "unreliable", but he – in contrast to other scholars – he attributed many of their societal problems to the ravages of slavery.

Du Bois's output at Atlanta University was prodigious, in spite of a limited budget: He produced numerous social science papers and annually hosted the Atlanta Conference of Negro Problems. Du Bois also received grants from the U.S. government to prepare reports about African-American workforce and culture. His students considered him to be a brilliant, but aloof and strict, teacher.

First Pan-African Conference

In 1900 Du Bois attended the First Pan-African Conference, held in London from July 23 to 25. (This was just prior to the Paris Exhibition of 1900 "in order to allow tourists of African descent to attend both events.") It was organized by men from the Caribbean: Haitians Anténor Firmin and Bénito Sylvain and Trinidadian barrister Henry Sylvester Williams. Du Bois played a leading role, drafting a letter ("Address to the Nations of the World") to European leaders appealing to them to struggle against racism, to grant colonies in Africa and the West Indies the right to self-government and to demand political and other rights for African Americans. By this time, southern states were passing new laws and constitutions to disfranchise most African Americans, an exclusion from the political system that lasted into the 1960s.

At the conclusion of the conference, delegates unanimously adopted the "Address to the Nations of the World", and sent it to various heads of state where people of African descent were living and suffering oppression. The address implored the United States and the imperial European nations to "acknowledge and protect the rights of people of African descent" and to respect the integrity and independence of "the free Negro States of Abyssinia, Liberia, Haiti, etc." It was signed by Bishop Alexander Walters (President of the Pan-African Association), the Canadian Rev. Henry B. Brown (Vice-President), Williams (General Secretary) and Du Bois (Chairman of the Committee on the Address). The address included Du Bois's observation, "The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the colour-line." He used this again three years later in the "Forethought" of his book, The Souls of Black Folk (1903).

Booker T. Washington and the Atlanta Compromise

In the first decade of the new century, Du Bois emerged as a spokesperson for his race, second only to Booker T. Washington. Washington was the director of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and wielded tremendous influence within the African-American and white communities. Washington was the architect of the Atlanta Compromise, an unwritten deal he struck in 1895 with Southern white leaders who dominated state governments after Reconstruction. Essentially the agreement provided that Southern blacks, who lived overwhelmingly in rural communities, would submit to the current discrimination, segregation, disenfranchisement, and non-unionized employment; that Southern whites would permit blacks to receive a basic education, some economic opportunities, and justice within the legal system; and that Northern whites would invest in Southern enterprises and fund black educational charities.

Despite initially sending congratulations to Washington for his Atlanta Exposition Speech, Du Bois later came to oppose Washington's plan, along with many other African Americans, including Archibald H. Grimke, Kelly Miller, James Weldon Johnson and Paul Laurence Dunbar – representatives of the class of educated blacks that Du Bois would later call the "talented tenth". Du Bois felt that African Americans should fight for equal rights and higher opportunities, rather than passively submit to the segregation and discrimination of Washington's Atlanta Compromise.

Du Bois was inspired to greater activism by the lynching of Sam Hose, which occurred near Atlanta in 1899. Hose was tortured, burned and hung by a mob of two thousand whites. When walking through Atlanta to discuss the lynching with newspaper editor Joel Chandler Harris, Du Bois encountered Hose's burned knuckles in a storefront display. The episode stunned Du Bois, and he resolved that "one could not be a calm cool, and detached scientist while Negroes were lynched, murdered, and starved." Du Bois realized that "the cure wasn't simply telling people the truth, it was inducing them to act on the truth."

In 1901, Du Bois wrote a review critical of Washington's autobiography Up from Slavery, which he later expanded and published to a wider audience as the essay "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others" in The Souls of Black Folk. Later in life, Du Bois regretted having been critical of Washington in those essays. One of the contrasts between the two leaders was their approach to education: Washington felt that African-American schools should focus primarily on industrial education topics such as agricultural and mechanical skills, to prepare southern blacks for the opportunities in the rural areas where most lived. Du Bois felt that black schools should focus more on liberal arts and academic curriculum (including the classics, arts, and humanities), because liberal arts were required to develop a leadership elite. However, as sociologist E. Franklin Frazier and economists Gunnar Myrdal and Thomas Sowell have argued, such disagreement over education was a minor point of difference between Washington and Du Bois; both men acknowledged the importance of the form of education that the other emphasized. Sowell has also argued that, despite genuine disagreements between the two leaders, the supposed animosity between Washington and Du Bois actually formed among their followers, not between Washington and Du Bois themselves. Du Bois himself also made this observation in an interview published in the The Atlantic Monthly in November 1965.

Niagara Movement

In 1905, Du Bois and several other African-American civil rights activists – including Fredrick L. McGhee, Jesse Max Barber and William Monroe Trotter – met in Canada, near Niagara Falls. There they wrote a declaration of principles opposing the Atlanta Compromise, and incorporated as the Niagara Movement in 1906. Du Bois and the other "Niagarites" wanted to publicize their ideals to other African Americans, but most black periodicals were owned by publishers sympathetic to Washington. Du Bois bought a printing press and started publishing Moon Illustrated Weekly in December 1905. It was the first African-American illustrated weekly, and Du Bois used it to attack Washington's positions, but the magazine lasted only for about eight months. Du Bois soon founded and edited another vehicle for his polemics, The Horizon: A Journal of the Color Line, which debuted in 1907. Freeman H. M. Murray and Lafayette M. Hershaw served as The Horizon's co-editors.

The Niagarites held a second conference in August 1906, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown's birth, at the West Virginia site of Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Reverdy C. Ransom spoke and addressed the fact that Washington's primary goal was to prepare blacks for employment in their current society: "Today, two classes of Negroes, [...] are standing at the parting of the ways. The one counsels patient submission to our present humiliations and degradations; [...] The other class believe that it should not submit to being humiliated, degraded, and remanded to an inferior place [...] it does not believe in bartering its manhood for the sake of gain."

The Souls of Black Folk

In an effort to portray the genius and humanity of the black race, Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk (1903), a collection of 14 essays. James Weldon Johnson said the book's effect on African Americans was comparable to that of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The introduction famously proclaimed that "[...] the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line." Each chapter begins with two epigraphs – one from a white poet, and one from a black spiritual – to demonstrate intellectual and cultural parity between black and white cultures. A major theme of the work was the double consciousness faced by African Americans: Being both American and black. This was a unique identity which, according to Du Bois, had been a handicap in the past, but could be a strength in the future: "Henceforth, the destiny of the race could be conceived as leading neither to assimilation nor separatism but to proud, enduring hyphenation."

Jonathon S. Kahn in Divine Discontent: The Religious Imagination of Du Bois shows how Du Bois in his The Souls of Black Folk, represents an exemplary text of pragmatic religious naturalism. On page 12 Kahn writes: "Du Bois needs to be understood as an African American pragmatic religious naturalist. By this I mean that, like Du Bois the American traditional pragmatic religious naturalism, which runs through William James, George Santayana and John Dewey, seeks religion without metaphysical foundations." Kahn's interpretation of religious naturalism is very broad but he relates it to specific thinkers. Du Bois's anti-metaphysical viewpoint places him in the sphere of religious naturalism as typified by William James and others.

Racial violence

Two calamities in the autumn of 1906 shocked African Americans, and contributed to strengthening support for Du Bois's struggle for civil rights to prevail over Booker T. Washington's accommodationism. First, President Teddy Roosevelt dishonorably discharged 167 black soldiers because they were accused of crimes as a result of the Brownsville Affair. Many of the discharged soldiers had served for 20 years and were near retirement. Second, in September, riots broke out in Atlanta, precipitated by unfounded allegations of black men assaulting white women. This was a catalyst for racial tensions based on a job shortage and employers playing black workers against white workers. Ten thousand whites rampaged through Atlanta, beating every black person they could find, resulting in over 25 deaths. In the aftermath of the 1906 violence, Du Bois urged blacks to withdraw their support from the Republican Party, because Republicans Roosevelt and William Howard Taft did not sufficiently support blacks. Most African Americans had been loyal to the Republican Party since the time of Abraham Lincoln.

Du Bois wrote the essay, "A Litany at Atlanta", which asserted that the riot demonstrated that the Atlanta Compromise was a failure. Despite upholding their end of the bargain, blacks had failed to receive legal justice in the South. Historian David Lewis has written that the Compromise no longer held because white patrician planters, who took a paternalistic role, had been replaced by aggressive businessmen who were willing to pit blacks against whites. These two calamities were watershed events for the African-American community, marking the ascendancy of Du Bois's vision of equal rights.

Academic work

In addition to writing editorials, Du Bois continued to produce scholarly work at Atlanta University. In 1909, after five years of effort, he published a biography of abolitionist John Brown. It contained many insights, but also contained some factual errors. The work was strongly criticized by The Nation, which was owned by Oswald Villard, who was writing his own, competing biography of John Brown. Du Bois's work was largely ignored by white scholars. After publishing a piece in Collier's magazine warning of the end of "white supremacy", Du Bois had difficulty getting pieces accepted by major periodicals. But he did continue to publish columns regularly in The Horizon magazine.

Du Bois was the first African American invited by the American Historical Association (AHA) to present a paper at their annual conference. He read his paper, Reconstruction and Its Benefits, to an astounded audience at the AHA's December 1909 conference. The paper went against the mainstream historical view, promoted by the Dunning School of scholars at Columbia University, that Reconstruction was a disaster, caused by the ineptitude and sloth of blacks. To the contrary, Du Bois asserted that the brief period of African-American leadership in the South accomplished three important goals : democracy, free public schools, and new social welfare legislation. He asserted that it was the federal government's failure to manage the Freedmen's Bureau, to distribute land, and to establish an educational system, that doomed African-American prospects in the South. When Du Bois submitted the paper for publication a few months later in the American Historical Review, he asked that the word Negro be capitalized. The editor, J. Franklin Jameson, refused, and published the paper without the capitalization. The paper was mostly ignored by white historians. Du Bois later developed his paper as his ground-breaking 1935 book, Black Reconstruction, which marshaled extensive facts to support his assertions. The AHA did not invite another African-American speaker until 1940.

NAACP era

In May 1909, Du Bois attended the National Negro Conference in New York. The meeting led to the creation of the National Negro Committee, chaired by Oswald Villard, and dedicated to campaigning for civil rights, equal voting rights, and equal educational opportunities. The following spring, in 1910, at the second National Negro Conference, the attendees created the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). At Du Bois's suggestion, the word "colored", rather than "black", was used to include "dark skinned people everywhere." Dozens of civil rights supporters, black and white, participated in the founding, but most executive officers were white, including Mary Ovington, Charles Edward Russell, William English Walling, and its first president Moorfield Storey.

The Crisis

NAACP leaders offered Du Bois the position of Director of Publicity and Research. He accepted the job in the summer of 1910, and moved to New York after resigning from Atlanta University. His primary duty was editing the NAACP's monthly magazine, which he named The Crisis. The first issue appeared in November 1910, and Du Bois pronounced that its aim was to set out "those facts and arguments which show the danger of race prejudice, particularly as manifested today toward colored people." The journal was phenomenally successful, and its circulation would reach 100,000 in 1920. Typical articles in the early editions included one that inveighed against the dishonesty and parochialism of black churches, and one that discussed the Afrocentric origins of Egyptian civilization.

An important Du Bois editorial from 1911 helped initiate a nationwide push to induce the Federal government to outlaw lynching. Du Bois, employing the sarcasm he frequently used, commented on a lynching in Pennsylvania: "The point is he was black. Blackness must be punished. Blackness is the crime of crimes [...] It is therefore necessary, as every white scoundrel in the nation knows, to let slip no opportunity of punishing this crime of crimes. Of course if possible, the pretext should be great and overwhelming – some awful stunning crime, made even more horrible by the reporters' imagination. Failing this, mere murder, arson, barn burning or impudence may do."

The Crisis carried editorials by Du Bois that supported the ideals of unionized labor but excoriated the racism demonstrated by its leaders, who systematically excluded blacks from membership. Du Bois also supported the principles of the Socialist Party (he was briefly a member of the party from 1910 to 1912), but he denounced the racism demonstrated by some socialist leaders. Frustrated by Republican president Taft's failure to address widespread lynching, Du Bois endorsed Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential race, in exchange for Wilson's promise to support black causes.

Throughout his writings, Du Bois supported women's rights, but he found it difficult to publicly endorse the women's right-to-vote movement because leaders of the suffragism movement refused to support his fight against racial injustice. A Crisis editorial from 1913 broached the taboo subject of interracial marriage: Although Du Bois generally expected persons to marry within their race, he viewed the problem as a women's rights issue, because laws prohibited white men from marrying black women. Du Bois wrote "[anti-miscegenation] laws leave the colored girls absolutely helpless for the lust of white men. It reduces colored women in the eyes of the law to the position of dogs. As low as the white girl falls, she can compel her seducer to marry her [...] We must kill [anti-miscegenation laws] not because we are anxious to marry the white men's sisters, but because we are determined that white men will leave our sisters alone."

During the years 1915 and 1916, some leaders of the NAACP – disturbed by financial losses at The Crisis, and worried about the inflammatory rhetoric of some of its essays – attempted to oust Du Bois from his editorial position. Du Bois and his supporters prevailed, and he continued in his role as editor. In a 1919 column titled "The True Brownies", he announced the creation of The Brownies' Book, the first magazine published for African-American children and youth, which he founded with Augustus Granville Dill and Jessie Redmon Fauset.

Historian and author

The 1910s were a productive time for Du Bois. In 1911 he attended the First Universal Races Congress in London and he published his first novel, The Quest of the Silver Fleece. Two years later, Du Bois wrote, produced, and directed a pageant for the stage, The Star of Ethiopia. In 1915, Du Bois published The Negro, a general history of black Africans, and the first of its kind in English. The book rebutted claims of African inferiority, and would come to serve as the basis of much Afrocentric historiography in the 20th century. The Negro predicted unity and solidarity for colored people around the world, and it influenced many who supported the Pan-African movement.

In 1915, Atlantic Monthly carried an essay by Du Bois, "The African Roots of the War", which consolidated Du Bois's ideas on capitalism and race. In it, he argued that the scramble for Africa was at the root of World War I. He also anticipated later Communist doctrine, by suggesting that wealthy capitalists had pacified white workers by giving them just enough wealth to prevent them from revolting, and by threatening them with competition by the lower-cost labor of colored workers.

Combating racism

Du Bois used his influential role in the NAACP to oppose a variety of racist incidents. When the silent film The Birth of a Nation premiered in 1915, Du Bois and the NAACP led the fight to ban the movie, because of its racist portrayal of blacks as brutish and lustful. The fight was not successful, and possibly contributed to the film's fame, but the publicity drew many new supporters to the NAACP.

The private sector was not the only source of racism: under President Wilson, the plight of African Americans in government jobs suffered. Many federal agencies adopted whites-only employment practices, the Army excluded blacks from officer ranks, and the immigration service prohibited the immigration of persons of African ancestry. Du Bois wrote an editorial in 1914 deploring the dismissal of blacks from federal posts, and he supported William Monroe Trotter when Trotter brusquely confronted Wilson about Wilson's failure to fulfill his campaign promise of justice for blacks.

The Crisis continued to wage a campaign against lynching. In 1915, it published an article with a year-by-year tabulation of 2,732 lynchings from 1884 to 1914. The April 1916 edition covered the group lynching of six African Americans in Lee County, Georgia. Later in 1916, the "Waco Horror" article covered the lynching of Jesse Washington, a mentally impaired 17-year-old African American. The article broke new ground by utilizing undercover reporting to expose the conduct of local whites in Waco, Texas.

The early 20th century was the era of the Great Migration of blacks from the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest and West. Du Bois wrote an editorial supporting the Great Migration, because he felt it would help blacks escape Southern racism, find economic opportunities, and assimilate into American society.

Also in the 1910s the American eugenics movement was in its infancy, and many leading eugenicists were openly racist, defining Blacks as "a lower race". Du Bois opposed this view as an unscientific aberration, but still maintained the basic principle of eugenics: That different persons have different inborn characteristics that make them more or less suited for specific kinds of employment, and that by encouraging the most talented members of all races to procreate would better the "stocks" of humanity.

World War I

As the United States prepared to enter World War I in 1917, Du Bois's colleague in the NAACP, Joel Spingarn, established a camp to train African Americans to serve as officers in the United States military. The camp was controversial, because some whites felt that blacks were not qualified to be officers, and some blacks felt that African Americans should not participate in what they considered a white man's war. Du Bois supported Spingarn's training camp, but was disappointed when the Army forcibly retired one of its few black officers, Charles Young, on a pretense of ill health. The Army agreed to create 1,000 officer positions for blacks, but insisted that 250 come from enlisted men, conditioned to taking orders from whites, rather than from independent-minded blacks that came from the camp. Over 700,000 blacks enlisted on the first day of the draft, but were subject to discriminatory conditions which prompted vocal protests from Du Bois.

After the East St. Louis Riot occurred in the summer of 1917, Du Bois traveled to St. Louis to report on the riots. Between 40 and 250 African Americans were massacred by whites, primarily due to resentment caused by St. Louis industry hiring blacks to replace striking white workers. Du Bois's reporting resulted in an article "The Massacre of East St. Louis", published in the September issue of The Crisis, which contained photographs and interviews detailing the violence. Historian David Levering Lewis concluded that Du Bois distorted some of the facts in order to increase the propaganda value of the article. To publicly demonstrate the black community's outrage over the St Louis riot, Du Bois organized the Silent Parade, a march of around 9,000 African Americans down New York's Fifth avenue, the first parade of its kind in New York, and the second instance of blacks publicly demonstrating for civil rights.

The Houston riot of 1917 disturbed Du Bois and was a major setback to efforts to permit African Americans to become military officers. The riot began after Houston police arrested and beat two black soldiers; in response, over 100 black soldiers took to the streets of Houston and killed 16 whites. A military court martial was held, and 19 of the soldiers were hung, and 67 others were imprisoned. In spite of the Houston riot, Du Bois and others successfully pressed the Army to accept the officers trained at Spingarn's camp, resulting in over 600 black officers joining the Army in October 1917.

Federal officials, concerned about subversive viewpoints expressed by NAACP leaders, attempted to frighten the NAACP by threatening it with investigations. Du Bois was not intimidated, and in 1918 he predicted that World War I would lead to an overthrow of the European colonial system and to the "liberation" of colored people worldwide – in China, in India, and especially in America. NAACP chairman Joel Spingarn was enthusiastic about the war, and he persuaded Du Bois to consider an officer's commission in the Army, contingent on Du Bois writing an editorial repudiating his anti-war stance. Du Bois accepted this bargain and wrote the pro-war "Close Ranks" editorial in June 1918 and soon thereafter he received a commission in the Army. Many black leaders, who wanted to leverage the war to gain civil rights for African Americans, criticized Du Bois for his sudden reversal. Southern officers in Du Bois's unit objected to his presence, and his commission was withdrawn.

After the war

When the war ended, Du Bois traveled to Europe in 1919 to attend the first Pan-African Congress and to interview African-American soldiers for a planned book on their experiences in World War I. He was trailed by U.S. agents who were searching for evidence of treasonous activities. Du Bois discovered that the vast majority of black American soldiers were relegated to menial labor as stevedores and laborers. Some units were armed, and one in particular, the 92nd Division (the Buffalo soldiers), engaged in combat. Du Bois discovered widespread racism in the Army, and concluded that the Army command discouraged African Americans from joining the Army, discredited the accomplishments of black soldiers, and promoted bigotry.

After returning from Europe, Du Bois was more determined than ever to gain equal rights for African Americans. Black soldiers returning from overseas felt a new sense of power and worth, and were representative of an emerging attitude referred to as the New Negro. In the editorial "Returning Soldiers" he wrote: "But, by the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if, now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land." Many blacks moved to northern cities in search of work, and some northern white workers resented the competition. This labor strife was one of the causes of the Red Summer of 1919, a horrific series of race riots across America, in which over 300 African Americans were killed in over 30 cities. Du Bois documented the atrocities in the pages of The Crisis, culminating in the December publication of a gruesome photograph of a lynching that occurred during the Omaha, Nebraska race riot.

The most egregious episode during the Red Summer was a vicious attack on blacks in Elaine, Arkansas, in which nearly 200 blacks were murdered. Reports coming out of the South blamed the blacks, alleging that they were conspiring to take over the government. Infuriated with the distortions, Du Bois published a letter in the New York World, claiming that the only crime the black sharecroppers had committed was daring to challenge their white landlords by hiring an attorney to investigate contractual irregularities. Over 60 of the surviving blacks were arrested and tried for conspiracy, in the case known as Moore v. Dempsey. Du Bois rallied blacks across America to raise funds for the legal defense, which, six years later, resulted in a Supreme Court victory authored by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Although the victory had little immediate impact on justice for blacks in the South, it marked the first time the Federal government used the 14th amendment guarantee of due process to prevent states from shielding mob violence.

In 1920, Du Bois published Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil, the first of three autobiographies he would write. The "veil" was that which covered colored people around the world. In the book, he hoped to lift the veil and show white readers what life was like behind the veil, and how it distorted the viewpoints of those looking through it – in both directions. The book contained Du Bois's feminist essay, "The Damnation of Women", which was a tribute to the dignity and worth of women, particularly black women.

Concerned that textbooks used by African-American children ignored black history and culture, Du Bois created a monthly children's magazine, The Brownies' Book. Initially published in 1920, it was aimed at black children, who Du Bois called "the children of the sun."

Pan-Africanism and Marcus Garvey

Du Bois traveled to Europe in 1921 to attend the second Pan-African Congress. The assembled black leaders from around the world issued the London Resolutions and established a Pan-African Association headquarters in Paris. Under Du Bois's guidance, the resolutions insisted on racial equality, and that Africa be ruled by Africans (not, as in the 1919 congress, with the consent of Africans). Du Bois restated the resolutions of the congress in his Manifesto To the League of Nations, which implored the newly formed League of Nations to address labor issues and to appoint Africans to key posts. The League took little action on the requests.

Another important African American leader of the 1920s was Marcus Garvey, promoter of the Back-to-Africa movement and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Garvey denounced Du Bois's efforts to achieve equality through integration, and instead endorsed racial separatism. Du Bois initially supported the concept of Garvey's Black Star Line, a shipping company that was intended to facilitate commerce within the African diaspora. But Du Bois later became concerned that Garvey was threatening the NAACP's efforts, leading Du Bois to describe him as fraudulent and reckless. Responding to Garvey's slogan "Africa for the Africans" slogan, Du Bois said that he supported that concept, but denounced Garvey's intention that Africa be ruled by African Americans.

Du Bois wrote a series of articles in The Crisis between 1922 and 1924, attacking Garvey's movement, calling him the "most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America and the world." Du Bois and Garvey never made a serious attempt to collaborate, and their dispute was partly rooted in the desire of their respective organizations (NAACP and UNIA) to capture a larger portion of the available philanthropic funding.

Harvard's decision to ban blacks from its dormitories in 1921 was decried by Du Bois as an instance of a broad effort in the U.S. to renew "the Anglo-Saxon cult; the worship of the Nordic totem, the disfranchisement of Negro, Jew, Irishman, Italian, Hungarian, Asiatic and South Sea Islander – the world rule of Nordic white through brute force." When Du Bois sailed for Europe in 1923 for the third Pan-African Congress, the circulation of The Crisis had declined to 60,000 from its World War I high of 100,000, but it remained the preeminent periodical of the civil rights movement. President Coolidge designated Du Bois an "Envoy Extraordinary" to Liberia and – after the third congress concluded – Du Bois rode a German freighter from the Canary Islands to Africa, visiting Liberia, Sierra Leone and Senegal.

Harlem Renaissance

Du Bois frequently promoted African-American artistic creativity in his writings, and when the Harlem Renaissance emerged in the mid-1920s, his article "A Negro Art Renaissance" celebrated the end of the long hiatus of blacks from creative endeavors. His enthusiasm for the Harlem Renaissance waned as he came to believe that many whites visited Harlem for voyeurism, not for genuine appreciation of black art. Du Bois insisted that artists recognize their moral responsibilities, writing that "a black artist is first of all a black artist." He was also concerned that black artists were not using their art to promote black causes, saying "I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda." By the end of 1926, he stopped employing The Crisis to support the arts.

Socialism

When Du Bois became editor of the Crisis magazine in 1911, he joined the Socialist Party of America on the advice of NAACP founders Mary Ovington, William English Walling and Charles Edward Russell. However, he supported the Democrat Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential campaign, a breach of the rules, and was forced to resign from the Socialist Party. Du Bois remained: "convinced that socialism was an excellent way of life, but I thought it might be reached by various methods."

Nine years after the 1917 Russian Revolution, Du Bois extended a trip to Europe to include a visit to the Soviet Union. Du Bois was struck by the poverty and disorganization he encountered in the Soviet Union, yet was impressed by the intense labors of the officials and by the recognition given to workers. Although Du Bois was not yet familiar with the communist theories of Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin, he concluded that socialism may be a better path towards racial equality than capitalism.

Although Du Bois generally endorsed socialist principles, his politics were strictly pragmatic: In 1929, Du Bois endorsed Democrat Jimmy Walker for mayor of New York, rather than the socialist Norman Thomas, believing that Walker could do more immediate good for blacks, even though Thomas' platform was more consistent with Du Bois's views. Throughout the 1920s, Du Bois and the NAACP shifted support back and forth between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, induced by promises from the candidates to fight lynchings, improve working conditions, or support voting rights in the South; invariably, the candidates failed to deliver on their promises.

A rivalry emerged in 1931 between the NAACP and the Communist Party, when the Communists responded quickly and effectively to support the Scottsboro Boys, nine African-American youth arrested in 1931 in Alabama for rape. Du Bois and the NAACP felt that the case would not be beneficial to their cause, so they chose to let the Communist Party organize the defense efforts. Du Bois was impressed with the vast amount of publicity and funds the Communists devoted to the partially successful defense effort, and he came to suspect that the Communists were attempting to present their party to African Americans as a better solution than the NAACP. Responding to criticisms of the NAACP from the Communist Party, Du Bois wrote articles condemning the party, claiming that it unfairly attacked the NAACP, and that it failed to fully appreciate racism in the United States. The Communist leaders, in turn, accused Du Bois of being a "class enemy", and claimed that the NAACP leadership was an isolated elite, disconnected from the working-class blacks they ostensibly fought for.

Return to Atlanta

Du Bois did not have a good working relationship with Walter Francis White, president of the NAACP since 1931. That conflict, combined with the financial stresses of the Great Depression, precipitated a power struggle over The Crisis. Du Bois, concerned that his position as editor would be eliminated, resigned his job at The Crisis and accepted an academic position at Atlanta University in early 1933. The rift with the NAACP grew larger in 1934 when Du Bois reversed his stance on segregation, stating that "separate but equal" was an acceptable goal for African Americans. The NAACP leadership was stunned, and asked Du Bois to retract his statement, but he refused, and the dispute led to Du Bois's resignation from the NAACP.

After arriving at his new professorship in Atlanta, Du Bois wrote a series of articles generally supportive of Marxism. He was not a strong proponent of labor unions or the Communist Party, but he felt that Marx's scientific explanation of society and the economy were useful for explaining the situation of African Americans in the United States. Marx's atheism also struck a chord with Du Bois, who routinely criticized black churches for dulling blacks' sensitivity to racism. In his 1933 writings, Du Bois embraced socialism, but asserted that "[c]olored labor has no common ground with white labor", a controversial position that was rooted in Du Bois's dislike of American labor unions, which had systematically excluded blacks for decades. Du Bois did not support the Communist Party in the U.S. and did not vote for their candidate in the 1932 presidential election, in spite of an African American on their ticket.

Black Reconstruction in America

Back in the world of academia, Du Bois was able to resume his study of Reconstruction, the topic of the 1910 paper that he presented to the American Historical Association. In 1935, he published his magnum opus, Black Reconstruction in America. The book presented the thesis, in the words of the historian David Levering Lewis, that "black people, suddenly admitted to citizenship in an environment of feral hostility, displayed admirable volition and intelligence as well as the indolence and ignorance inherent in three centuries of bondage." Du Bois documented how black people were central figures in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, and also showed how they made alliances with white politicians. He provided evidence that the coalition governments established public education in the South, and many needed social service programs. The book also demonstrated the ways in which black emancipation – the crux of Reconstruction – promoted a radical restructuring of United States society, as well as how and why the country failed to continue support for civil rights for blacks in the aftermath of Reconstruction.

The book's thesis ran counter to the orthodox interpretation of Reconstruction maintained by white historians, and the book was virtually ignored by mainstream historians until the 1960s. Thereafter, however, it ignited a "revisionist" trend in the historiography of Reconstruction, which emphasized black people's search for freedom and the era's radical policy changes. By the 21st century, Black Reconstruction was widely perceived as "the foundational text of revisionist African American historiography."

In the final chapter of the book, "XIV. The Propaganda of History", Du Bois evokes his efforts at writing an article for the Encyclopædia Britannica on the "history of the American Negro". After the editors had cut all reference to Reconstruction, he insisted that the following note appear in the entry: "White historians have ascribed the faults and failures of Reconstruction to Negro ignorance and corruption. But the Negro insists that it was Negro loyalty and the Negro vote alone that restored the South to the Union; established the new democracy, both for white and black, and instituted the public schools." The editors refused and, so, Du Bois withdrew his article.

Projected encyclopedia

In 1932, Du Bois was selected by several philanthropies – including the Phelps-Stokes Fund, the Carnegie Corporation, and the General Education Board – to be the managing editor for a proposed Encyclopedia of the Negro, a work Du Bois had been contemplating for 30 years. After several years of planning and organizing, the philanthropies cancelled the project in 1938, because some board members believed that Du Bois was too biased to produce an objective encyclopedia.

Trip around the world

Du Bois took a trip around the world in 1936, which included visits to Nazi Germany, China and Japan. While in Germany, Du Bois remarked that he was treated with warmth and respect. After his return to the United States, he expressed his ambivalence about the Nazi regime. He admired how the Nazis had improved the German economy, but he was horrified by their treatment of the Jewish people, which he described as "an attack on civilization, comparable only to such horrors as the Spanish Inquisition and the African slave trade."

Following the 1905 Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War, Du Bois became impressed by the growing strength of Imperial Japan. He considered the victory of Japan over Tsarist Russia as an example of colored peoples defeating white peoples. A representative of Japan's "Negro Propaganda Operations" traveled to the United States during the 1920s and 1930s, meeting with Du Bois and giving him a positive impression of Imperial Japan's racial policies. In 1936, the Japanese ambassador arranged a trip to Japan for Du Bois and a small group of academics.

World War II

Du Bois opposed the U.S. intervention in World War II, particularly in the Pacific, because he believed that China and Japan were emerging from the clutches of white imperialists. He felt that the European Allies waging war against Japan was an opportunity for whites to reestablish their influence in Asia. He was deeply disappointed by the US government's plan for African Americans in the armed forces: Blacks were limited to 5.8% of the force, and there were to be no African-American combat units – virtually the same restrictions as in World War I. With blacks threatening to shift their support to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Republican opponent in the 1940 election, Roosevelt appointed a few blacks to leadership posts in the military. Dusk of Dawn, Du Bois's second autobiography, was published in 1940. The title refers to Du Bois's hope that African Americans were passing out of the darkness of racism into an era of greater equality. The work is part autobiography, part history, and part sociological treatise. Du Bois described the book as "the autobiography of a concept of race [...] elucidated and magnified and doubtless distorted in the thoughts and deeds which were mine [...] Thus for all time my life is significant for all lives of men."

In 1943, at the age of 76, Du Bois was abruptly fired from his position at Atlanta University by college president Rufus Clement. Many scholars expressed outrage, prompting Atlanta University to provide Du Bois with a lifelong pension and the title of professor emeritus. Arthur Spingarn remarked that Du Bois spent his time in Atlanta "battering his life out against ignorance, bigotry, intolerance and slothfulness, projecting ideas nobody but he understands, and raising hopes for change which may be comprehended in a hundred years."

Turning down job offers from Fisk and Howard, Du Bois re-joined the NAACP as director of the Department of Special Research. Surprising many NAACP leaders, Du Bois jumped into the job with vigor and determination. During the 10 years while Du Bois was away from the NAACP, its income had increased fourfold, and its membership had soared to 325,000 members.

Later life

United Nations

Du Bois was a member of the three-person delegation from the NAACP that attended the 1945 conference in San Francisco at which the United Nations was established. The NAACP delegation wanted the United Nations to endorse racial equality and to bring an end to the colonial era. To push the United Nations in that direction, Du Bois drafted a proposal that pronounced "[t]he colonial system of government [...] is undemocratic, socially dangerous and a main cause of wars". The NAACP proposal received support from China, Russia and India, but it was virtually ignored by the other major powers, and the NAACP proposals were not included in the United Nations charter.

After the United Nations conference, Du Bois published Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace, a book that attacked colonial empires and, in the words of one reviewer, "contains enough dynamite to blow up the whole vicious system whereby we have comforted our white souls and lined the pockets of generations of free-booting capitalists."

In late 1945, Du Bois attended the fifth, and final, Pan-African Congress, in Manchester, England. The congress was the most productive of the five congresses, and there Du Bois met Kwame Nkrumah, the future first president of Ghana who would later invite Du Bois to Africa.

Du Bois helped to submit petitions to the UN concerning discrimination against African Americans. These culminated in the report and petition called "We Charge Genocide", submitted in 1951 with the Civil Rights Congress. "We Charge Genocide" accuses the US of systematically sanctioning murders and inflicting harm against African Americans and therefore committing genocide.

Cold War

When the Cold War commenced in the mid-1940s, the NAACP distanced itself from Communists, lest its funding or reputation suffer. The NAACP redoubled their efforts in 1947 after Life magazine published a piece by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. claiming that the NAACP was heavily influenced by Communists. Ignoring the NAACP's desires, Du Bois continued to fraternize with communist sympathizers such as Paul Robeson, Howard Fast and Shirley Graham (his future second wife). Du Bois wrote "I am not a communist [...] On the other hand, I [...] believe [...] that Karl Marx [...] put his finger squarely upon our difficulties [...]". In 1946, Du Bois wrote articles giving his assessment of the Soviet Union; he did not embrace communism and he criticized its dictatorship. However, he felt that capitalism was responsible for poverty and racism, and felt that socialism was an alternative that might ameliorate those problems. The soviets explicitly rejected racial distinctions and class distinctions, leading Du Bois to conclude that the USSR was the "most hopeful country on earth." Du Bois's association with prominent communists made him a liability for the NAACP, especially since the FBI was starting to aggressively investigate communist sympathizers; so – by mutual agreement – he resigned from the NAACP for the second time in late 1948. After departing the NAACP, Du Bois started writing regularly for the leftist weekly newspaper the National Guardian, a relationship that would endure until 1961.

Peace activism

Du Bois was a lifelong anti-war activist, but his efforts became more pronounced after World War II. In 1949, Du Bois spoke at the Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace in New York: "I tell you, people of America, the dark world is on the move! It wants and will have Freedom, Autonomy and Equality. It will not be diverted in these fundamental rights by dialectical splitting of political hairs [...] Whites may, if they will, arm themselves for suicide. But the vast majority of the world's peoples will march on over them to freedom!"

In the spring of 1949, he spoke at World Congress of the Partisans of Peace in Paris, saying to the large crowd: "Leading this new colonial imperialism comes my own native land built by my father's toil and blood, the United States. The United States is a great nation; rich by grace of God and prosperous by the hard work of its humblest citizens [...] Drunk with power we are leading the world to hell in a new colonialism with the same old human slavery which once ruined us; and to a third World War which will ruin the world." Du Bois affiliated himself with a leftist organization, the National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions, and he traveled to Moscow as its representative to speak at the All-Soviet Peace Conference in late 1949.

McCarthyism and Trial

During the 1950s, the U.S. government's anti-communist McCarthyism campaign targeted Du Bois because of his socialist leanings. Historian Manning Marable characterizes the government's treatment of Du Bois as "ruthless repression" and a "political assassination".

The FBI began to compile a file on Du Bois in 1942, but the most aggressive government attack against Du Bois occurred in the early 1950s, as a consequence of Du Bois's opposition to nuclear weapons. In 1950 Du Bois became chairman of the newly created Peace Information Center (PIC), which worked to publicize the Stockholm Peace Appeal in the United States. The primary purpose of the appeal was to gather signatures on a petition, asking governments around the world to ban all nuclear weapons.

The U.S. Justice department alleged that the PIC was acting as an agent of a foreign state, and thus required the PIC to register with the federal government. Du Bois and other PIC leaders refused, and they were indicted for failure to register. After the indictment, some of Du Bois's associates distanced themselves from him, and the NAACP refused to issue a statement of support; but many labor figures and leftists – including Langston Hughes – supported Du Bois.

He was finally tried in 1951 represented by civil rights attorney Vito Marcantonio. The case was dismissed before the jury rendered a verdict as soon as the defense attorney told the judge that "Dr. Albert Einstein has offered to appear as character witness for Dr. Du Bois". Du Bois's memoir of the trial is In Battle for Peace. Even though Du Bois was not convicted, the government confiscated Du Bois's passport and withheld it for eight years.

Communism

Du Bois was bitterly disappointed that many of his colleagues – particularly the NAACP – did not support him during his 1951 PIC trial, whereas working class whites and blacks supported him enthusiastically. After the trial, Du Bois lived in Manhattan, writing and speaking, and continuing to associate primarily with leftist acquaintances. His primary concern was world peace, and he railed against military actions, such as the Korean War, which he viewed as efforts by imperialist whites to maintain colored people in a submissive state.

In 1950, at the age of 82, Du Bois ran for U.S. Senator from New York on the American Labor Party ticket and received about 200,000 votes, or 4% of the statewide total. Du Bois continued to believe that capitalism was the primary culprit responsible for the subjugation of colored people around the world, and therefore – although he recognized the faults of the Soviet Union – he continued to uphold communism as a possible solution to racial problems. In the words of biographer David Lewis, Du Bois did not endorse communism for its own sake, but did so because "the enemies of his enemies were his friends". The same ambiguity characterized Du Bois's opinions of Joseph Stalin: in 1940 he wrote disdainfully of the "Tyrant Stalin", but when Stalin died in 1953, Du Bois wrote a eulogy characterizing Stalin as "simple, calm, and courageous", and lauding him for being the "first [to] set Russia on the road to conquer race prejudice and make one nation out of its 140 groups without destroying their individuality".

The U.S. government prevented Du Bois from attending the 1955 Bandung conference in Indonesia. The conference was the culmination of 40 years of Du Bois's dreams – a meeting of 29 nations from Africa and Asia, many recently independent, representing most of the world's colored peoples. The conference celebrated their independence, as the nations began to assert their power as non-aligned nations during the cold war. In 1958, Du Bois regained his passport, and with his second wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois, he traveled around the world, visiting Russia and China. In both countries he was celebrated and given guided tours of the best aspects of communism. Du Bois later wrote approvingly of the conditions in both countries. He was 90 years old.

Du Bois became incensed in 1961 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 1950 McCarran Act, a key piece of McCarthyism legislation which required communists to register with the government. To demonstrate his outrage, he joined the Communist Party in October 1961, at the age of 93. Around that time, he wrote: "I believe in communism. I mean by communism, a planned way of life in the production of wealth and work designed for building a state whose object is the highest welfare of its people and not merely the profit of a part."

Death in Africa

Ghana invited Du Bois to Africa to participate in their independence celebration in 1957, but he was unable to attend because the U.S. government had confiscated his passport in 1951. By 1960 – the "Year of Africa" – Du Bois had recovered his passport, and was able to cross the Atlantic and celebrate the creation of the Republic of Ghana. Du Bois returned to Africa in late 1960 to attend the inauguration of Nnamdi Azikiwe as the first African governor of Nigeria.

While visiting Ghana in 1960, Du Bois spoke with its president about the creation of a new encyclopedia of the African diaspora, the Encyclopedia Africana. In early 1961, Ghana notified Du Bois that they had appropriated funds to support the encyclopedia project, and they invited Du Bois to come to Ghana and manage the project there. In October 1961, at the age of 93, Du Bois and his wife traveled to Ghana to take up residence and commence work on the encyclopedia. In early 1963, the United States refused to renew his passport, so he made the symbolic gesture of becoming a citizen of Ghana. While it is sometimes stated that he renounced his U.S. citizenship at that time, and he did state his intention to do so, Du Bois never actually did. His health declined during the two years he was in Ghana, and he died on August 27, 1963, in the capital of Accra at the age of 95. Du Bois was buried in Accra near his home, which is now the Du Bois Memorial Centre. A day after his death, at the March on Washington, speaker Roy Wilkins asked the hundreds of thousands of marchers to honor Du Bois with a moment of silence. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, embodying many of the reforms Du Bois had campaigned for his entire life, was enacted a year after his death.

Personal life

Du Bois was organized and disciplined: His lifelong regimen was to rise at 7:15, work until 5, eat dinner and read a newspaper until 7, then read or socialize until he was in bed, invariably before 10. He was a meticulous planner, and frequently mapped out his schedules and goals on large pieces of graph paper. Many acquaintances found him to be distant and aloof, and he insisted on being addressed as "Dr. Du Bois". Although he was not gregarious, he formed several close friendships with associates such as Charles Young, Paul Laurence Dunbar, John Hope and Mary White Ovington. His closest friend was Joel Spingarn – a white man – but Du Bois never accepted Spingarn's offer to be on a first name basis. Du Bois was something of a dandy – he dressed formally, carried a walking stick, and walked with an air of confidence and dignity. He was relatively short 5 feet 5.5 inches (166 cm) and always maintained a well-groomed mustache and goatee. He was a good singer and enjoyed playing tennis.

Du Bois was married twice, first to Nina Gomer (m. 1896, d. 1950), with whom he had two children, a son Burghardt (who died as an infant) and a daughter Yolande, who married Countee Cullen. As a widower, he married Shirley Graham (m. 1951, d. 1977), an author, playwright, composer and activist. She brought her son David Graham to the marriage. David grew close to Du Bois and took his stepfather's name; he also worked for African-American causes. The historian David Levering Lewis wrote that Du Bois engaged in several extramarital relationships. But the historian Raymond Wolters cast doubt on this, based on the lack of corroboration from Du Bois's alleged lovers.

Religion

Although Du Bois attended a New England Congregational church as a child, he abandoned organized religion while at Fisk College. As an adult, Du Bois described himself as agnostic or a freethinker, but at least one biographer concluded that Du Bois was virtually an atheist. However, another analyst of Du Bois's writings concluded that he had a religious voice, albeit radically different from other African-American religious voices of his era, and inaugurated a 20th-century spirituality to which Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Baldwin also belong.

When asked to lead public prayers, Du Bois would refuse. In his autobiography, Du Bois wrote: "When I became head of a department at Atlanta, the engagement was held up because again I balked at leading in prayer [...] I flatly refused again to join any church or sign any church creed. [...] I think the greatest gift of the Soviet Union to modern civilization was the dethronement of the clergy and the refusal to let religion be taught in the public schools." Du Bois accused American churches of being the most discriminatory of all institutions. He also provocatively linked African-American Christianity to indigenous African religions. Du Bois occasionally acknowledged the beneficial role religion played in African-American life – as the "basic rock" which served as an anchor for African-American communities – but in general disparaged African-American churches and clergy because he felt they did not support the goals of racial equality and hindered activists' efforts.

Although Du Bois was not personally religious, he infused his writings with religious symbology, and many contemporaries viewed him as a prophet. His 1904 prose poem, "Credo", was written in the style of a religious creed and widely read by the African-American community. Moreover, Du Bois, both in his own fiction and in stories published in The Crisis, often analogized lynchings of African Americans to Christ's crucifixion. Between 1920 and 1940, Du Bois shifted from overt black messiah symbolism to more subtle messianic language.

Honors

The NAACP awarded the Spingarn Medal to Du Bois in 1920.

Du Bois was awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize by the USSR in 1959.

The site of the house where Du Bois grew up in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

In 1992 the United States Postal Service honored Du Bois with his portrait on a postage stamp. A second stamp of face value 32¢ was issued on February 3, 1998 as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series.

In 1994, the main library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was named after Du Bois.

The Du Bois center at Northern Arizona University is named in his honor.

A dormitory was named after Du Bois at the University of Pennsylvania, where he conducted field research for his sociological study "The Philadelphia Negro".

A dormitory is named after Du Bois at Hampton University.

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience was inspired by and dedicated to Du Bois by its editors Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Humboldt University in Berlin hosts a series of lectures named in Du Bois's honor.

Scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Du Bois in his 2002 list of the 100 Greatest African Americans.

In 2005, Du Bois was honored with a medallion in The Extra Mile, Washington DC's memorial to important American volunteers.

The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church remembers Du Bois annually on August 3.

Du Bois was appointed Honorary Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012.

Wikipedia

#W. E. B. DuBois

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