John Brown’s Body
This week in 1859, John Brown and his small band of abolitionists took the arsenal in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Howard Zinn explained his importance: “John Brown, more than any other white American, devoted his life, and finally sacrificed it, on behalf of freedom for the slave. His plan, impossible and courageous, was to seize the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia with a band of black and white abolitionists and set off a revolt of slaves throughout the South. The plan failed. Some of his men, including two of his own sons, were killed. John Brown was wounded, captured, sentenced…
Happy Birthday, Shirley Chisholm!
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm would be 89 today. Chisholm was the very first African-American woman in the United States Congress. Born November 30th, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York to Caribbean parents, one from British Guiana and another from Cuba, Shirley became not only the first Black Congresswoman but also the first Black Presidential candidate for the Democratic or Republican Party. Congresswoman Chisholm was re-elected six more times, until her retirement in 1983. Unfortunately this awesome states-woman, person, American passed away in 2005. But luckily we have a good amount of video of her. Here’s one of my favorites from the Visionary…