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Things about United States History I did not learn about from my K-12 stint in the American Public Education System and had to learn about elsewhere.
A thread I will be updating for the rest of my life.
A thread I will be updating for the rest of my life.
Special Item: It wasn't history then, should have been news.
When Philly PD dropped a bomb onto a residential building in 1985 - the MOVE Bombing.
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/05/13/406243272/im-from-philly-30-years-later-im-still-trying-to-make-sense-of-the-move-bombing
I heard no news about it in CA (wouldn't learn about it for years) but I sure did hear about Waco in 1993.
When Philly PD dropped a bomb onto a residential building in 1985 - the MOVE Bombing.
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/05/13/406243272/im-from-philly-30-years-later-im-still-trying-to-make-sense-of-the-move-bombing
I heard no news about it in CA (wouldn't learn about it for years) but I sure did hear about Waco in 1993.
1921: The Tulsa Race Massacre aka The Tulsa Race Riot
When white mobs attacked the Greenwood District in Tulsa - then called "Black Wall Street" and home to a thriving and prosperous Black community - inciting violence and murder and burned it all down. https://www.tulsa2021.org/
When white mobs attacked the Greenwood District in Tulsa - then called "Black Wall Street" and home to a thriving and prosperous Black community - inciting violence and murder and burned it all down. https://www.tulsa2021.org/
Partial Credit to K-12 - barely.
I learned about Japanese-American "Internment" from Dad well before I learned about anything WWII in school so maybe I had impossibly high standards, but on the other hand, it got a single fucking paragraph in our CA State-Approved textbooks.
I learned about Japanese-American "Internment" from Dad well before I learned about anything WWII in school so maybe I had impossibly high standards, but on the other hand, it got a single fucking paragraph in our CA State-Approved textbooks.
Also, nobody mentioned how the US "arranged" for Latin American countries to deport their ethnic Japanese to the US for incarceration in the same Camps. At least Dad got a symbolic $20K in reparations w/ an apology letter in 1990 - they got $5K with theirs in 1998.
You'd think the circumstances that led to the first time SCOTUS applied "Strict Scrutiny" (however improperly) in a case would have merited more attention in US History - but Nope!
Also, I don't remember any of this in the AP US History Curriculum when I took it in 1992/1993.
Also, I don't remember any of this in the AP US History Curriculum when I took it in 1992/1993.
Okay, I went off a bit, but family history impacts, you know? More updates queued up for when I get another chance.
Tangent: We learned about the 1943 LA "Zoot Suit Riots" - clashes between American servicemen stationed or passing through the area and Mexican-American youth - in high school or maybe elementary school. I think that got a hell of a lot more than a paragraph than Internment. 
Violence/conflict between 2 groups of Americans with only passing examination of the reasons for it, but just enough to cast doubt on Mexican-American's legitimacy as Patriotic Americans™? Paragraphs!Examining US Gov't racism? Examining The Trail of Tears? Meh. 1 ¶.
Yeah, maybe don't focus so much on "Mexican-American youth of the day wore suits that used too much fabric", maybe focus more on social tensions on the American homefront and on the battlefield.
Right, lets talk about Eminent Fucking Domain. That's what got me started on this twitter thread rampage.
By now, you've read a bit (or a lot) on Japanese-American Internment during WWII.
Ever notice that there are bunch of Chinatowns but few Japantown or Little Tokyo enclaves/areas?
Ever notice that there are bunch of Chinatowns but few Japantown or Little Tokyo enclaves/areas?
Most were on the West Coast where many Japanese immigrants settled in the US, were told where they could/could not live or start a business, and tried to make a go of things in their new home.
"Redlining" might apply here.
"Redlining" might apply here.
Up till 1942, there were over 40 Japantowns/Little Tokyos.
Then Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the US entered WWII, & FDR signed EO9066 basically telling all of Japanese ancestry to leave the West Coast ... or be moved.
And every single Japantown/Little Tokyo gone.
Then Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the US entered WWII, & FDR signed EO9066 basically telling all of Japanese ancestry to leave the West Coast ... or be moved.
And every single Japantown/Little Tokyo gone.
Before I get too far, EO9066 also applied to Koreans, Taiwanese, and a couple of other nations I've lost in my notes here.
Why? Because Imperial Japan had occupied them.
Back to eminent domain - I swear, I'm getting there.
Why? Because Imperial Japan had occupied them.
Back to eminent domain - I swear, I'm getting there.
After WWII, many who had been moved by the US Gov't into "Internment" Camps (Prisons) moved back to the West Coast to try to rebuild everything that they had lost. Homes, businesses, lives, (many priceless family possessions were looted from "Sealed Govt Storage").
And they did.
And they did.
In LA, by 1950, Buddhist temples, Japanese language newspapers, businesses, home, lives had been reestablished in very much the same neighborhood that the Japanese-American population had been in before 1942. Okay, so far, so good.
But LAPD wanted a new Headquarters building - and it needed to be near LA City Hall.
So LA eminent domain'd blocks of real estate out of the then recovering Little Tokyo area to give LAPD their new Headquarters building - their Parker Center
So LA eminent domain'd blocks of real estate out of the then recovering Little Tokyo area to give LAPD their new Headquarters building - their Parker Center
The site of the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, the offices of the Rafu Shimpo newspaper, 100s of units of affordable housing, and several family-owned and community-serving businesses - taken away.
So LAPD could have a new HQ.
So LAPD could have a new HQ.
And not just a new HQ near LA City Hall. Nope.
They located Parker Center right between LA City Hall and what was left of Little Tokyo.
The symbolism of Little Tokyo cut off from City Hall doesn't end there.
They located Parker Center right between LA City Hall and what was left of Little Tokyo.
The symbolism of Little Tokyo cut off from City Hall doesn't end there.
They oriented the Parker Center, LAPD new HQ such that it not only cut off Little Tokyo from LA City Hall, it's front door faced City Hall while Little Tokyo got to view its fenced off ass-end.
Parker Center was demolished last year over the objections of preservationists that wanted preserve the building's architecture despite its "troubled history"
What, being a symbol of a brutally racist corrupt LAPD?
It's gone. Good Riddance.
Make it part of Little Tokyo again.
What, being a symbol of a brutally racist corrupt LAPD?
It's gone. Good Riddance.
Make it part of Little Tokyo again.
Gotta get back to work, but more (and worse) Ethnic Oppression via eminent domain coming up soon.
Dodger Stadium! The LA one - not the one in Brooklyn before O'Malley took the team to LA after he couldn't get the location he wanted to replace the existing stadium in Brooklyn back then.
Also, the tomes one could write about Robert Moses. But others better than I have already.
Also, the tomes one could write about Robert Moses. But others better than I have already.
By 1950, the area of LA known as Chavez Ravine had become home to a group of Mexican-American communities where they lived due to housing discrimination elsewhere in LA. Though poor, these communities were tight-knit and cohesive.
In the late 1940s the City of LA began attempts to develop the area for public housing - including buying up property via eminent domain - with funding assistance via the 1949 Federal Housing Act.
Elysian Park Heights it was to be called. Not great, but not ... terrible so far.
Elysian Park Heights it was to be called. Not great, but not ... terrible so far.
Only how were these payments made to residents? Very Shady!
Developers would come in, offer initial reasonable cash payments, then immediately start to offer less for following sales, creating a sense of panic among residents to sell faster lest they get left with nothing. Yeah.
Developers would come in, offer initial reasonable cash payments, then immediately start to offer less for following sales, creating a sense of panic among residents to sell faster lest they get left with nothing. Yeah.
Mid-1950s, a new LA mayor who was against public housing and both a City referendum and an agreement w/ the Fed Govt ending the project - *only IF* LA used the land for a "public purpose".
Chavez Ravine, now nearly empty save a few original residents. No developers wanted it.
Chavez Ravine, now nearly empty save a few original residents. No developers wanted it.
Here come the Dodgers and O'Malley. City of LA shows him one site that he declines, but Chavez Ravine piques his interest.
After politicking, a push for a Zoo as a more "public purpose", and another referendum (some 25K more votes would have stopped the stadium), Stadium wins.
After politicking, a push for a Zoo as a more "public purpose", and another referendum (some 25K more votes would have stopped the stadium), Stadium wins.
But there's still a handful of original residents still in Chavez Ravine.
The City evicted them, brought in the LA Sheriffs Department to do the dirty work. Some, including a war widow, were arrested.
The decade long struggle to keep their homes: The Battle of Chavez Ravine.
The City evicted them, brought in the LA Sheriffs Department to do the dirty work. Some, including a war widow, were arrested.
The decade long struggle to keep their homes: The Battle of Chavez Ravine.
The Dodgers got to have their new stadium.
The Mexican-American families forced, swindled, robbed of their homes - homes they had built in the only place they were allowed to live till kicked out for "Someone Else's Pet Project"? They got a fucking pittance.
The Mexican-American families forced, swindled, robbed of their homes - homes they had built in the only place they were allowed to live till kicked out for "Someone Else's Pet Project"? They got a fucking pittance.
I grew up watching LA Dodgers games on the TV or listening on the radio. Vin Scully's voice will forever be etched in my mind.
But after learning about this, I just stopped getting excited for them. Renovating the stadium? Good for you?
Will they put up a nice memorial plaque?
But after learning about this, I just stopped getting excited for them. Renovating the stadium? Good for you?
Will they put up a nice memorial plaque?
The Dodgers were hardly the worst offenders in this entire affair - the City of LA is who sold out Mexican American families there, redefined "Public Purpose" in a referendum, the Federal Gov't let LA do it, and then the Dodgers benefited from it.
If you do go to Dodgers Stadium for a game, think about all the Mexican-American families displaced to make that place possible for you to enjoy.
I take some trivial solace in knowing Jackie Robinson never played for the LA Dodgers, only the Brooklyn Dodgers.
I take some trivial solace in knowing Jackie Robinson never played for the LA Dodgers, only the Brooklyn Dodgers.
OK, last one for now. My notes are less organized (and this stuff pisses me off).
In 1825, Free Blacks founded a settlement in Manhattan. It's called Seneca Village and consists of ~5 acres near what we call Upper West Side, between what we now call 82d/89th Sts and 7th/9th Aves
In 1825, Free Blacks founded a settlement in Manhattan. It's called Seneca Village and consists of ~5 acres near what we call Upper West Side, between what we now call 82d/89th Sts and 7th/9th Aves
At peak, it had > 250 residents, schools, churches, cemeteries. There were Irish & German immigrants, other minorities. A thriving community that gave Free Blacks who lived there the opportunity to own property.
That meant that they could vote after 3 years w/ $250 of property.
That meant that they could vote after 3 years w/ $250 of property.
What happened to it though?
Look at those streets. 82nd to 89th St and 7th to 9th Ave.
That is right in the middle of the west side of modern day Central Park.
Look at those streets. 82nd to 89th St and 7th to 9th Ave.
That is right in the middle of the west side of modern day Central Park.
