Women’s history is American history. Black history is American history. Asian history is American history. Native American history is undoubtedly American history. So what is this crap they are teaching in schools as American history? Read more here. What should be taught? Read what the American Historical Association thinks here.
6888TH CENTRAL POSTAL DIRECTORY BATTALION
According to Kimberly Guise, the National WWII Museum senior curator, more than 3.3 billion pieces of mail went through military postal services to reach the front during 1945 alone. The sheer abundance of mail and a reported shortage of qualified postal officers to sort it led to a massive backlog of letters and packages, some of which were mailed up to three years prior. (more)
An army unit known as the “Six Triple Eight” had a specific mission in World War II: to sort and clear a two-year backlog of mail for Americans stationed in Europe. Between the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Red Cross and uniformed civilian specialists, that amounted to seven million people waiting for mail.
And the responsibility to deliver all of it fell on the shoulders of 855 African-American women.
(more)
The Codebreaker
Based on the book The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies, The Codebreaker reveals the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst whose painstaking work to decode thousands of messages for the U.S. government would send infamous gangsters to prison in the 1930s and bring down a massive, near-invisible Nazi spy ring in WWII.
A few historical events which might not be taught today:
- 1863 New York Draft riots
- 1513 Spanish exploration and colonization of the New World
- Republic of Franklin 1784-1789
- 1820 West Virginia Coal Wars
- 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
- The 1918 influenza epidemic
- 1878 Henrietta Wood wins restitution
- 1958 Onion futures trading ban
- Virginia Hall, WWII hero
- 1855 Elizabeth Jennings Graham
- 1871 Los Angeles Chinese Massacre
- Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676
- The Stonewall uprising of 1969.
- The Red Summer of 1919
- The Carolina Gold Rush of 1799
The Final Fight for Black Sailors Known as the ‘Philadelphia 15’
Just over a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, 15 sailors assigned to the U.S.S. Philadelphia wrote a letter to a Black newspaper detailing the abuse and indignities they had faced on the warship solely because of the color of their skin. or daring to speak out, a few of the men were jailed and all of them were kicked out of the Navy with discharges that forever labeled them as unfit to serve. The plight of the group, which became known as “the Philadelphia 15,” faded from public attention as World War II erupted. (more)
WOMAN-OWNED BOOKSTORES TO SHOP
Don’t let mammoth/online booksellers put our independent, women-owned bookstores out of business.
- Papercuts, Boston
- Parnassus Books, Nashville
- Semicolon, Chicago
- Broadway Books, Portland
- BookWoman, Austin
- Medu Bookstore, Atlanta
- People Get Ready, New Haven
- Turning Page Bookshop, Goose Creek, SC (Charleston)
- Enda’s Booktique, Duncanville, TX
Shop Black-Owned Bookstores
Don’t let mammoth and online booksellers put our independent, black-owned bookstores out of business.
- 127 Black-Owned Bookstores in America
- 10 Black-owned bookstores
- Bookstores in the United States that Specialize in Black Literature
- 50 Black-Owned Independent Bookstores
- 149 Black-Owned Book Stores in the United States
- 22 Black-Owned Bookstores You Can Order From Online
Reading Lists for Children and Adults
Remember, we’re being eliminated from public school curricula and libraries, so do your part. Educate a child (or an adult) today!
- 20 Must-Read Children’s Books By Black Authors
- Best Children’s Books by Black Authors
- Black History Month Reading List
- Top 100 Recommended African-American Children’s Books
- Here Are The 50 Must-Read Black Children’s And Young Adult Books Of The Past 50 Years
- Children’s books by black authors (from Amazon.com)
- CBL List of Recommended Books by Black Authors
- 70 Must-Read Books by Black Authors in 2023
- Cookbooks by black authors (Amazon.com)
- Black Literature – Past, Present and Future