“Once they get to know me, they’ll see I’m okay”
We know the story. Part of it, anyways. It was 1957, three years after the United States Supreme Court ruled that ‘separate but equal’ public schools were inherently unequal. The…
That Can’t Be Legal
It was a New Deal program that promoted old-fashioned housing discrimination and caused lasting damage to individuals and urban neighborhoods. The 1934 National Housing Act revived the nation’s struggling construction…
They Didn’t Have Four Hours
It could have been the greatest rescue in maritime history. Immediately upon receiving the distress signal, Captain Arthur Rostron ordered his ship to race to the aid of the stricken…
Six Who Served
On President’s Day, let’s take a moment to remember the six American presidents who also served in the U. S. Navy. Of the 45 men who have been president of…
The Only Woman in the Room
Beate Sirota was a 22-year-old language expert working for the Allied occupation authorities in Tokyo in 1946 when she wrote one of the most important paragraphs in Japanese history. One…
“When you teach a man to hate…”
Robert F. Kennedy was born on this date (November 20) in 1925. His career in public service lasted less than 20 years, and included no significant legislative or policy accomplishments,…
“Because we remembered and they forgot…”
The Trail of Tears just wasn’t enough. When Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, they created a ‘legal’ justification for the abrogation of countless treaties the government had…
Noahquageshik
Overlooking the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids is a bronze statue of Chief Noahquageshik of the Ottawa Anishinable tribe. If the chief were here today, he might recognize the…
Victor Hugo Green and the Green Book
“There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal rights…
A Box of Chocolates
Like a Foggy Bottom Forrest Gump, American diplomat Joseph C. Grew inadvertently found himself at the very center of two of the most consequential foreign policy efforts in the nation’s…
Ulysses S. Grant and the Ku Klux Klan
He didn’t free the slaves, but he offered them a glimpse of a better future. Ulysses S. Grant, who served as president from 1869-1877, is best known as the Union…
Failures of U.S. Intelligence During the Korean War
The Korean War is notable for two of the most significant intelligence failures in U.S. military history: the failure to anticipate the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950…