They received scarlet letters

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Tuesday June 21, 2011 · 6:16 AM PDT

2011/06/21 · 06:16

Never begun a diary that way. Never felt the cause or reason. I ... don't often get diary ideas from diaries.

So go read that other diary first. If you read it when it came out, read it again. It will give you or re-place you in the proper context for this diary.

iampunha

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Monday June 20, 2011 · 6:16 AM PDT

2011/06/20 · 06:16

You will forgive me, or not, if I think Avery Brundage was one of the more disgusting men this country has ever produced who rose to any manner of prominence. He did not have the moral authority to scoop dog shit, but he led the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Or maybe you will argue, "He was typical of his time. We can't blame him for thinking what he thought."

You will forgive me, or not, if I don't give a shit how some of people of his day thought. Escaping the philosophical errors of one's day is doable; one only has to question them and discover they are baseless.

And Avery Brundage, of all people, had the opportunities and missed them as if proudly so.

But I am getting ahead of myself. For this diary is about three men, and Avery Brundage qualifies on the biological level, not the honor level.

iampunha

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Sunday June 19, 2011 · 6:17 AM PDT

2011/06/19 · 06:17

The war had ended.

Lincoln was assassinated.

Saxton attempted to give freed black slaves if not 40 acres and a mule, at least the land they had worked as slaves.

Because of this effort, President Andrew Johnson removed him from his position with the Freedmen's Bureau.

The Planter was sold -- some say to Ferguson -- and lost in 1876.

And Robert needed a job.

iampunha

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Saturday June 18, 2011 · 6:16 AM PDT

2011/06/18 · 06:16

Robert Smalls had been a slave, a fugitive, a skilled laborer, a boat captain, an emissary to the president and a spy.

He had been shown the evils of slavery and the value of hard work, ingenuity and courage.

He had worked tirelessly in an area he knew as well as anyone. He had risked his life and been rewarded beyond his wildest dreams.

Now he was being told to do something crucial to the war effort that would call upon his personal story and humanity -- but that would test his humility uniquely.

iampunha

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Friday June 17, 2011 · 6:16 AM PDT

2011/06/17 · 06:16

The adventure had only just begin for Robert and his wife and children, all newly free citizens.

At 3 a.m. May 13, 1862, Robert, Hannah, Elizabeth Lydia and Robert Jr. Smalls were slaves.

At 3 p.m. May 13, 1862, Robert, Hannah, Elizabeth Lydia and Robert Jr. Smalls were free.

And Robert was one of the most wanted men in America.

Now, how would he navigate these waters?

(Language may offend some. Don't read this if racial epithets could get you in trouble.)

iampunha

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Thursday June 16, 2011 · 6:16 AM PDT

2011/06/16 · 06:16

Robert Smalls had to get the ship out of the harbor without arousing suspicions.

He had to get past each of five gun batteries without allowing his face to be seen, while giving the correct signal to guarantee the ship would not be stopped.

He had to be lucky enough for some small thing to not foul the whole thing up.

And the lives of every person on that boat would be changed for the best if he succeeded and for the worst if he failed.

And no matter how he fared, he knew every other black Confederate -- and probably most slaves, period -- would feel retribution regardless of the outcome.

iampunha

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Wednesday June 15, 2011 · 8:16 AM PDT

2011/06/15 · 08:16

Robert Smalls was a very lucky man.

Or he was just lucky enough -- and more gutsy and passionate and a lot more just plain smart.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Maybe I should start over -- after all, Robert Smalls was born into slavery. How could he be lucky?

(Language may offend some. Don't read this if racial epithets could get you in trouble.)

iampunha

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Tuesday June 14, 2011 · 6:16 AM PDT

2011/06/14 · 06:16

When we talk about people who died before some great effort of theirs was realized, we pity them for not getting to see that effort come to fruition.

The person or pursuit matters little; we wish they had lived longer, we wish they had been born in a different time, we wish it could have happened earlier.

We miss the point of the pursuit. And today, we miss the point of Josephine Butler's work if we pity her for dying before women got the right to vote -- because she worked to advance the rights of women.

And she did.

iampunha

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Monday June 13, 2011 · 6:16 AM PDT

2011/06/13 · 06:16

She did not, and she will not, and she cannot lead a decades-long movement to empower ... anyone.

She, a documentary filmmaker, and her husband, a writer/activist, will not abandon a life of some prosperity for the slums of some third-world country, determined to put enough important eyes on the plight of brown dirt farmers that, by the time she is 40, clean water is not a luxury for her, let alone her brown neighbors.

She will not get pregnant at 15 and decide to do anything amazing. She will not die in childbirth at 15 and inspire her child to do anything amazing.

Her name will not appear on any list with Forbes on it. She will not consult on local economic and political factors for a company seeking not to outsource to an area but actually improve an area where clean water is now not a luxury.

iampunha

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Sunday June 12, 2011 · 3:36 AM PDT

2011/06/12 · 03:36

I had sat here last night to write all about the amazingly cool life of Millicent Garrett Fawcett, born on June 11, 1847, whose father way back in the 1850s thought his children -- boys and girls -- should have a good education.

Millicent's story is pretty cool. She was a big part of the effort to get British women the vote.

But as happens when I write these diaries, I noticed a little note in her story -- her sister was a doctor.

Britain's first female doctor.

And another idea began to form itself in my head.

iampunha

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Friday June 10, 2011 · 6:11 AM PDT

2011/06/10 · 06:11

"I Have a Dream."

Brown v. Board.

Birmingham.

Selma.

The Montgomery bus boycott.

Thurgood Marshall.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Those are the nouns, the places, the events in the books that tell the ongoing story of how we got closer to the equal rights we're still working on.

They tell big pieces of the tale. They give you an idea of what had happened and what happened after, about why it happened then and why it hadn't happened yet.

They tell you about the results of work done by Clara Luper (and a pile of other people). They don't tell you about it.

So I will.

iampunha

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Tuesday February 08, 2011 · 5:57 AM PST

2011/02/08 · 05:57

When it was over, Dorough thanked the legislators, walked into the hallway and cried.

(Story here, among other places.)

I do not know Wayne Dorough. I've never met him, I don't know what he looks like, I wouldn't know to thank him if I went up to see relatives in Virginia and saw him in the supermarket.

But I know Wayne Doroughs. I know people who would have said what Wayne Dorough said -- not the words he used, but equally effective words.

So when I read that story, saw how he acted, ...

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They received scarlet letters

Three men ran

Robert tried to escape (Part 5)

Robert Smalls tried to escape (Part 4)

Robert Smalls tried to escape (Part 3)

Robert Smalls tried to escape (Part 2)

Robert Smalls tried to escape

Josephine Butler set the table

She

Millicent Fawcett wrote WHAT?

Clara Luper sat.

Wayne Dorough's tears