Check on your love ones that are serving our country. Because this current administration does not care about them.

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Virginia Johnson didn’t just dance — she disrupted. “You’ve got all kinds of talent, but there’s no place for you in ballet”, she was told. It was meant to be a closing line — a quiet dismissal dressed as realism. Instead, Johnson made it her prelude.

Act One-Opening Scene: The Revolution Began in Slippers

Before she ever leapt across the stage as a principal ballerina, Virginia Johnson was already carrying history in her bones.

At three years old, she began ballet lessons in the Washington, D.C. living room of Therrell Smith, a pioneering Black ballet teacher who had studied under Mathilde Kschessinska, the Russian prima ballerina once close to the Romanov court. That thread, stretching from czarist Russia to Black America, wasn’t just lineage, it was subversion. Smith handed Johnson a legacy of imperial grace and fierce possibility, wrapped in a technique that few expected a young Black girl to inherit, let alone master.

By thirteen, Johnson earned a scholarship to The Washington School of Ballet, where she trained under Mary Day, one of the most esteemed ballet educators in the country. But instead of encouragement, Johnson was met with a verdict. As she prepared to graduate, Day told her: “You’ve got all kinds of talent, but there’s no place for you in ballet.”

That sentence should have closed the curtain. Instead, Johnson made it her overture.

Johnson didn’t just thrive where she was told she couldn’t — she changed what ballet could be.

Act Two: A Stage Where She Belonged

In 1969, just as she was studying at NYU, fate and vision intersected. Johnson was invited by Arthur Mitchell, the first African American principal dancer at New York City Ballet, to help found the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH). For Johnson, it was more than an artistic opportunity it was a reclamation.

Where The Washington School of Ballet had drawn boundaries, DTH erased them. Suddenly, Johnson was not “the only one” she was surrounded by dancers of color shaping a new narrative for classical ballet. Her talent, long filtered through skepticism, now took center stage with radical clarity.

She danced principal roles that carried both beauty and burden Creole Giselle became a vessel for cultural reinterpretation; Fall River Legend showcased her emotional range; Agon, choreographed by George Balanchine, confirmed she could command even the most abstract works with rigor and resonance.

Each performance was more than choreography, it was testimony. Her presence on stage said to audiences, critics, and young dancers watching: We have always belonged.

Act Three: Technique as Testimony

Virginia Johnson didn’t just perform ballets — she redefined what they could communicate. Her dancing was described as lyrical, intelligent, and emotionally expansive, a blend of classical precision and soulful depth that turned choreography into commentary.

In Creole Giselle, Johnson brought a new heartbeat to the role of Giselle by reframing the romantic tragedy through a Creole lens. It wasn't just a cultural adaptation; it was an assertion that Black dancers could inhabit the classics with authenticity and excellence. Her movement carried grief, love, and ghostly elegance in equal measure —critics called her performance “hauntingly beautiful.”

Her work in Agon, George Balanchine’s abstract neoclassical piece, pushed even further. With angular lines and daring timing, Johnson stood shoulder to shoulder with the most elite technicians in ballet, showing that Black bodies could command even the most cerebral of choreographies. This was no longer about proving she could do it, she was doing it better than anyone else.

Johnson infused dramatic storytelling with physical finesse in every role she danced. Every arabesque was layered with meaning, every lift felt like resistance. She didn't just dance roles — she embodied them, reshaping ballet into a canvas that bore her fingerprint.

And she did it all while navigating a world where her very presence challenged the traditions she excelled in.

Final Act: A Legacy That Leaps Beyond the Stage

Virginia Johnson didn’t just break barriers, she built bridges. Her performances redefined what ballet could express and who it could represent. Today, dancers of all backgrounds: Black, brown, queer, disabled, and beyond cite her as proof that excellence doesn’t require erasure.

Her legacy means:

• Representation with Rigor: Seeing Johnson command the stage with lyrical power and emotional depth showed that dancers of color could not only perform the classics — they could transform them.

• Global Inspiration: From Harlem to London, her performances resonated across cultures, proving that ballet is not a monolith but a language that adapts and includes.

• Intellectual Artistry: Johnson’s commitment to character research and narrative depth taught dancers that technique is only half the story — intention is the heartbeat.

• Visibility as Possibility: As one dancer put it, “Seeing Black and brown bodies on stage in such a graceful element is so beautiful to see. It changed my life.”

Even after retiring as artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem in 2023, Johnson’s impact continues. Her work with The Equity Project and her mentorship of emerging artists ensures that ballet’s future is more inclusive, expressive, and bold than ever.

She planted seeds in pointe shoes — and now, entire generations are dancing in full bloom.

Final Movement: Legacy in Motion

Virginia Johnson didn’t just dance roles — she danced revolutions. Her performances in Creole Giselle, Fall River Legend, and A Streetcar Named Desire weren’t just artistic triumphs; they were cultural interventions. She reimagined ballet’s aesthetic boundaries and shattered its racial gatekeeping, proving that classical technique and emotional depth were not confined to whiteness.

She once said, “I thought of myself as a normal person pursuing a dream… and had to have these reminders thrown at me that I wasn’t.” That tension — between identity and imposed limitation — echoes across time.

Today, her legacy lives in every dancer who steps into a studio believing they belong — because Johnson made it so.

For dancers of color, she is a blueprint: proof that excellence doesn’t require assimilation, and that presence can be protest.

For dancers of all kinds, she is a reminder that ballet is not just about form — it’s about intention, research, and storytelling. Her commitment to character work and historical context elevated ballet from spectacle to substance.

For the next generation, she planted seeds of possibility. As one dancer said after seeing DTH perform: “Just seeing Black and brown bodies on stage in such a graceful element changed my life.”

And for me, Johnson’s legacy mirrors my own mission. Johnson reclaimed space through movement; I reclaim memory through words. She danced through erasure; I write through it. Her story is not just inspiration — it’s affirmation.

Reference Sources:

• Dance Theatre of Harlem. “Virginia Johnson.” Dance Theatre of Harlem. Accessed July 11, 2025. https://www.dancetheatreofharlem.org/people/virginia-johnson/

• Johnson, Virginia. “Relevétions.” Pointe Magazine, Spring 2000. Reprinted March 13, 2025. https://pointemagazine.com/relevetions-virginia-johnson-pointe/

• Keefe, Maura. “Virginia Johnson.” Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive. March 2017. https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/themes-essays/women-in-dance/virginia-johnson/

• Ipiotis, Celia. “A Day in the Life of Dance: Virginia Johnson Reflects on Her Storied Career.” The Dance Enthusiast, April 17, 2023. https://www.dance-enthusiast.com/features/day-in-the-life/view/Dance-Theatre-of-Harlem-Virginia-Johnson-Groundbreaking-Ballerina-

• MOBBallet. “Virginia Johnson.” MOBBallet.org. Accessed July 11, 2025. https://mobballet.org/index.php/2017/02/26/virginia-johnson/

• Wikipedia contributors. “Virginia Johnson (dancer).” Wikipedia. Last modified June 28, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Johnson_(dancer)

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Let’s elevate voices that weren’t meant to be forgotten. Let’s make legacy louder. Every story here is a step toward justice — and the rhythm belongs to all of us.

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Letter From Birmingham Jail

Every year around Dr Martin Luther King ‘s holiday - the federal holiday that was established in 1987 through the blood, sweat and tears by those foot soldiers that have gone on before us. Those activists who gave everything in sacrifice for His day. We seem every year to have someone (and they are always White and a Man) who seem to think they know what Dr. King meant, believed or would believe today as he was making his speeches. These persons seem to think they know what Dr. King was believing as he traveled through Alabama looking for a hotel that would house “Colored Folk”, because at everyone turn there were signs reading, no dogs, no jews, no ni&&ers.

They seem to believe they know what Dr. King would say or think today, when writing speeches from Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee in the 50’s and 60’s, when he and his family couldn’t use the public pool, the public toilet, the public bathroom. And you paid the same price to sit at the back of the bus. These Harvard educated White men have no idea what they are talking about. Yet, and again every year we get someone quoting a few lines of Dr. King ‘s message from “I’ve been to the Mountaintop,” mostly the same words- you know content of character, color of skin. And, yet they never, ever, continue the entire speech and have no idea what they’re talking about 

I encourage you all to not just peruse Dr. Kings speeches. Read them in their entirety. Marinate the words, let the juices of the vowels and consonants flow throw you. I would beseech Mr. Ackman to read all of Dr. Kings words. Do not snip and pick what sounds good. Because you have an issue with the letters D-E-I. I found it difficult to wonder why Mr. Achman now issues with the letters D-E-I. Mr. Achman has feels so greatly about it that he can buy a white libel democrat to run, pump one million dollars into his campaign and swoosh DEI gone. (Good on you Mr. Achman). But you still have no idea what Dr. King was talking about.

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These few words from Dr. Kings “Letter from Birmingham Jail” sums it up so neatly for those who profess to know what Dr. King was thinking or feeling when writing this letter from Bull Connors jail; especially when it comes to the equality of Black people and minorities.

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” 

We get it, you think you are so down with the people. You are so progressive. Until your feelings get hurt, because your wife gets busted for plagiarizing or you get caught up in a fraud game. Then you got your money to shut everything down and it’s not so much about equity or equality. It’s about you. Because you own the board. Everyone on that board looks like you, dresses like you, hell even think like you. I say good on you.

But please stop trying to piecemeal Dr. Kings words for your own edification.

Please just stop!

On July 25, 1946, a white mob lynched two Black couples near Moore’s Ford Bridge in Walton County, Georgia. The couples killed were George W. and Mae Murray Dorsey and Dorothy and Roger Malcolm. Mrs. Malcolm was seven months pregnant. Mr. Dorsey, a World War II veteran who had served in the Pacific for five years, had been home for only nine months.

On July 11, Roger Malcom was arrested after allegedly stabbing a white farmer named Barnette Hester during a fight. Two weeks later, J. Loy Harrison, the white landowner for whom the Malcoms and the Dorseys sharecropped, drove Mrs. Malcom and the Dorseys to the jail to post a $600 bond. On their way back to the farm, the car was stopped by a mob of 30 armed, unmasked white men who seized Mr. Malcom and Mr. Dorsey and tied them to a large oak tree. Mrs. Malcom recognized members of the mob, and when she called on them by name to spare her husband, the mob seized her and Mrs. Dorsey. Mr. Harrison watched as the white men shot all four people 60 times at close range. He later claimed he could not Identify any members of the mob.

None of the lynch mob wore masks, and Harrison's claims not to know any of them were widely disbelieved.

Policeman Major William Spence told the press on August 3, 1946: "Harrison is either scared of being killed himself or he's lying in his teeth or both". The assistant police chief of Monroe, Ed Williamson, told the FBI about a conversation he had overheard between Talmadge and George Hester, Barnette's brother.

Should be noted that was an grand jury convened and after a hearing nearly three weeks of testimony, the grand jury was "unable to establish the identity of any persons guilty of violating the civil rights statute of the United States."

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Shame on the Republican Party and the god awful administration for how they handle things.

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Shame on the Republican Party and the god awful administration for how they handle things.

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This Congress has done absolutely nothing but put on clown shows. Try to fight witnesses, show naked pictures of the president’s son. And then old Margie gets mad when Hunter does even look her way. Come on Margie “he’s just not that into you”. If this GOP MAGA run congress can’t pass what they want, then they show not get paid. Let’s shut them down like they do the American citizens when they shut the government down. 

The GOP MAGA holding the House hostage, holding the Senate hostage, holding the border hostage, holding Ukraine and Israel hostage, and we should not negotiate with terrorist, especially domestic terrorist. There’s nothing like harm coming from inside your own house and MAGA is trying to burn it all down. Everything that you built gone in the blink of an eye because that is what the King of the MAGA Trumplican wants them to do. Oh, the border, oh the caravans. It is B.S, they do not care about a border. They do not care about the border patrollers, they do not care about the immigrants that are coming to the U.S., legally or illegally.

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They (MAGA and the Enablers) hated the bill that they never read. They just don’t want President Biden to look good.

"Let me tell you, I'm not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden's approval rating," Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas told CNN.

“Passing a tax bill that makes the president look good — mailing out checks before the election — means he could be re-elected, and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts,” Grassley told reporter.

What H.R.2 bill included

Just over $20 billion for border provisions, including expansions to existing policies and new policies. That includes $650 million for the border wall, approximately $4 billion to hire new asylum officers and additional funds to provide counsel for unaccompanied children.

The proposed bill included several tools to address the border, including: requiring the president shut down the border if the numbers of migrants hits a specific threshold; adjusting the rules for who qualifies for asylum; expediting the process for deciding asylum claims; and allowing migrants authorization to work while awaiting adjudication of their asylum claim.

So the Trumplican GOP MAGAs voted no.

They didn’t need to vote the bill down on to hinder Biden, he has the receipts.

Janaury 2024 350,00 Job numberss, Since becoming president 14.1 milliion jobs, 3.1 million in the past year. Umemployment is now at 3.6 percent.

But what has this less then do noting 118th Congress given us? Nothing.

This do nothing congress has been historically the least productive, worse functioning congress since 1931. Since convening in January, it has passed a little over 20 bills that were signed into law, and they didn’t want to do that. They passed a bill to mint some coins for the U.S. Marines 250th anniversary(okay). They named a Veterans Clinic, after a deceased soldier, and wouldn’t you know it everyone voted yes (well except one person, he voted present-Good Old chip roy of Texas (okay). They even passed a bill to create a taskforce. Because you gotta have a bill to create a taskforce. Right. Yet our taxes are they still paying their salaries (caveat-they haven’t had a raise since 2009). Yes, and federal minimum wage is still 7.25 and has been since 2009, and the poorest of reddest states keep it that way. Our Congressional members’ salary averages about $15, 000 a month or $100.00 an hour. Lawyers’ fees. And we don’t even have an ambulance chaser standing for us. If we did, we might get something back for our money. They have not earned their pay. And if they worked to the donald. They would get no pay.

This is a conman’s game; it’s a Grift on steroids. And the flimsiest Flammer has taken over. 

The Trumplican let a DT BARNUM Bailey showman SLIMBALL prove that there is always someone who will believe everything they hear and nothing they see, they choose to be the biggest suckers, the GOP MAGAs Republican. He is taking their rent money, utility money, their baby diaper money, their gas money, memaws and pa-paws prescription money, the children’s college fund money, and all to pay for a scam artist and proven sexual predator. 

Yeah that guy the one who told them to tank one of the most conservative border bills in years. And they did.

Please stop negotiating. All you get is a slap in the face and a knife in the back for your troubles.

That protection would mean safe harbor for women and their families from anti-women led states having Ms. Jane Crow-authoritarian, anti-freedom Kind Laws.

That protection would mean aiding to end the re-victimization of incest survivors, rape survivors, sexually battered and abused victims from a criminal justice system through bullying tactics by threatening to jail the doctors, nurses, family, friends the Uber driver and by allowing the prepetrators of the crimes to sue for enormous amounts of money?

In tepid hesitation you say, Ms. Jane who? Do I know her? Yes, you do. She may be your mother, cousin, friend, co-worker, lover, partner, daughter, or a stranger. Black woman have had to deal with Jane Crow Laws for as long as there have been Jim Crow Laws. Welcome white women to the full throttle of egocentric white supremacy through systemic sexist laws put in place to keep women in line and fragily egoed men in front.

Who was Jim Crow? Was he a real person? Answer. No, he was not. Jim Crow is a term attributed to a song-and-dance caricature called Jump Jim Crow which was done in black face by Thomas D. Rice, a minstrel performer, the show was first performed in 1828. Rice got rich, and because of these performances his fame rocketed. According to Woodward and McFeely’s book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, the term Jim Crow become by 1838 became a derogatory term for person that were African American (2002).

The southern states begin to pass law racial segregation laws and statutes, which became known as Jim Crow laws. The laws in theory were look good on paper written as “separate but equal.” The laws in practice we do know - there was separation, yet, not so much equal. You get the picture.

Who is Jane Crow? Jane is a what. not a who. Pauli Murray coined the term in the late forties describing Jane Crow as gender oppression combined with racial discrimination (Black women getting it from both ends). According to Humanities Kansas website, the term Jane Crow signaled that the impact of gender oppression differed from that of racial discrimination in name only. The article “Big Idea: Coupling Jim and Jane Crow” by Ayesha K. Hardison, Associate Professor of English and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Kansas, explores the intersection of Jim Crow and Jane Crow and how they impacted African Americans throughout the twentieth century. The terms Jim Crow and Jane Crow in 2024 are not new, at least not to those of us who have experienced it through history.

The laws created on their behalf aren’t original, they are just been revived and renamed.

Terms such as

• Grandfather clause: A provision that exempts certain people or entities from a law or regulation based on pre-existing conditions.  This term was used to exempt white people from voting restrictions during the Jim Crow era.

• Redlining: The practice of denying or limiting financial services to certain neighborhoods based on their racial or ethnic composition. This term was used to describe the practice of drawing red lines around neighborhoods where banks would not lend money during the Jim Crow era.

• Gerrymandering: The manipulation of electoral district boundaries to favor one political party or group over another. This term was named after Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts, who signed a bill in 1812 that created a district that resembled a salamander (Trickery, 2017). 

For 50 years women have had the autonomy to make decisions about their bodies. In 1973 Roe v. Wade was established as law. Every nominated person for justice screamed during their hearing it is precedent, its law. RBG died on September 18, 2020, and before her cold body was hit with dirt, Coney-Barrett was nominated, then confirmed on October 27, 2020. Barrett was the fastest person confirmed to the court in forty-five years. And thus, the nailing coffin of defeat for abortion health care had been hammered. And Poof, precedence is done.

What is next? Birth control of course. Since 1972 birth control for women has been legal. Prior more than twenty-six states had prohibited the use of birth control for Unmarried Women in 1965, and birth control was mentioned in the federal anti-obscenity laws (Really). It’s on the chopping block. For more than one hundred years women have had the right to vote.

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If the precedent of women’s choice can be taken away, so can her right to vote? You don’t think so. Voting rights, affirmative action, EPA regulations.

So, the Ms. Jane Crow 2024 laws established in Jane Crow states such as Texas, Florida and other Republican strongholds can go for women with her eyes wide open. These are no pretty terms to tell women in a not-so-subtle way that she and everything she owns, it belongs to the state or Gilead. Once placed into law, unless the systemic sexist laws are broken, the rights of all will continue to be taken away and freedoms of choice lost.

Cited Works

Humanities Kansas. (2021, January 11). Big Idea: Coupling Jim and Jane Crow. https://www.humanitieskansas.org/get-involved/kansas-stories/the-big-idea/big-idea-coupling-jim-and-jane-crow

Trickey, E. (2017, July 20). Where Did the Term “Gerrymander” Come From? Smithsonian Magazine.

Woodward, C.V., & McFeely, W.S. (2002). The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Oxford University Press.

Celset does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations corporate or government beyond their academic appointment.

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Real history is evident by the people who live it. History/Herstory/Theirstory, all of it matters. Without history we are doomed. Well! We may be doomed anyway but let’s at least know why we are here again.

Personal Facts and American History- My grandfather was drafted into the segregated US Army during WWII, he served overseas. He would say sometimes without going into details, when we asked him about it (WWII) “he saw some things.” My grandfather came back to the segregated south in June of 1946. My grandfather was a hard worker. He was humble and oh yes, he was so wise. From his eyes you could see he saw a lot during his time in the war, things that would make you shudder. The state of Alabama denied my grandfather his right to the GI Bill. The state that my grandfather was born in. The very state that used our ancestors as slaves, laboring from sunup until sundown, selling them off like livestock. Denied him. Denied him his due, it drafted him, and expected him to die for it.

Facts-President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the GI Bill into law in 1944. President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 in July of 1948. The original G.I. Bill aimed to help American WWII veterans adjust to civilian life by providing them with benefits including low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans, and financial support for education. Fact- while the GI Bill guaranteed low-interest mortgages and other loans, the VA did not administer them itself. The VA could cosign the loans, but not actually guarantee the loans. So, the White-Run financial institutions refused mortgages and loans to Black veterans and their families. Also, this decades-old practice of marking maps by race to characterize the risks of lending money and providing insurance, made purchasing a home even more difficult for Black veterans. They call it (Redistricting today). So, the lenders froze out poorer neighborhoods, making sure that any assistance and insurance would be denied. But don’t feel bad for my grandfather. He worked hard. Bought a house for his family by working in the Steel mill. Mind you, my grandparents lived on “Dynamite Hill” in Birmingham, Alabama.

Alabama History-Dynamite Hill is a section of a neighborhood in Birmingham. This nicknamed came to be because Ku Klux Klan, rode their trucks and cars continuously in the area bombing its streets, houses, churches, with sticks of dynamite during the Civil Rights era. But let’s save that for another day.

History, you can try to hide it, muzzle it, throw dirt on it, and bury it away. But eventually History-Festers, its pus’s, begins to repeat itself, then seeps out like blood on a scab. My articles will challenge the altered and alternative history that some have come to live and love. They do so because it’s easy and convenient not to challenge. It will focus on what is real and why some now choose to make it false.

I challenge you to challenge me. If I get it wrong let me know. My skin is brown, fine, and thick. I won’t melt from the constructive feedback. History no matter the outcome should be known. History must be shared and retained. History cannot be another day afterthought.

History a pattern of triumph and atrocities may they never be forgotten.

CellyBlue does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations corporate or government beyond their academic appointment

Among these amendments are guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to a speedy and public trial, and protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Speech, and the Press

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment 2 - The Right to Bear Arms

A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

Amendment 3 - The Housing of Soldiers

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment 4 - Protection from Unreasonable Searches and Seizures

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment 5 - Protection of Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy oflife or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

Amendment 6 - Rights of Accused Persons in Criminal Cases

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnessesagainst him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment 7 - Rights in Civil Cases

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment 8 - Excessive Bail, Fines, and Punishments Forbidden

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment 9 - Other Rights Kept by the People

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparageothers retained by the people.

Amendment 10 - Undelegated Powers Kept by the States and the People

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Source: National Archives

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In 1985, Donald Trump, was the owner of the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League (USFL), he signed Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie to a five-year, $7 million contract.

This deal made Flutie the highest-paid player in professional football at the time.

What was the SCAM?

• The "scam" aspect refers to Trump's primary motivation being publicity and attention for himself and the Generals, rather than a strategic football decision, as Flutie was considered a limited quarterback and his own coach advised against the signing.

• Trump later attempted to persuade other USFL owners to contribute to Flutie's salary, claiming the signing benefited the entire league, despite Flutie's poor performance and the league's struggling attendance.

What were the broader consequences of this deal and Trump's actions for the USFL?

• Doug Flutie's performance with the New Jersey Generals was unsuccessful, and the team's attendance declined significantly.

• Trump's aggressive strategy, including pushing the USFL to file an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, is widely seen as a major factor in the collapse of the USFL.

Although the USFL technically won the lawsuit, they were awarded a symbolic $3 in damages, which effectively led to the league's cessation of operations and left many players without a professional league.

Donald Trump has always been a scammer - New York knows it, Florida knows it.

Now you know!

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And then there was Woodstock.

Jimi Hendrix was one of the highest paid rockstars at Woodstock, but even so, people were starting to leave before he even began his “Star-Spangled Banner” performance. So Hendrix poured his heart and soul into the Anthem. He made the crown feel the Vietnam War. And feel it intensely.

Those who stray from how the National Anthem is performed are considered disrespecful, unAmerican, radical.

Well to hell with you all. It’s my National Anthem too.

When Hendrix appeared on the Dick Cavett show some months after his performance he was asked why he played it that way?

Jimi said-

When Cavett accused Jimi of being unorthodox.

I think it is beautiful as well.

It’s my National Anthem Too!

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What was not discussed. The victims that were preyed upon.

Remember the victims.

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Juneteenth, also known as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day and Black Independence Day, is tied to the history of those enslaved in Galveston, Texas — individuals who did not learn that they were emancipated in 1863 with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Instead, they learned two years later on June 19, 1865, when federal troops arrived in Galveston took control of the state and ensured that all enslaved people be freed.

President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, officially known as Proclamation 95, January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. This proclamation changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved persons in the Southern Confederate states from enslaved to free. It also allowed for the “recruitment” of former slaves into the paid service of the United States armed forces. Emancipation did not happen overnight, however. Slave owners withheld the information until after harvest season in many areas, and in Texas, a lack of Union forces meant this information was withheld for years.

During the Civil War, Texas had no Union forces present or large-scale fighting. Most slave holders moved to Texas, viewing it as a safe place to continue slavery.  Therefore in Galveston, slaves did not learn of their freedom until almost two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was formally put into place. 

It is also important to recognize that the aim of the Emancipation Proclamation was to include free slaves in the fighting to preserve the Union. It initially freed only the slaves in the rebellious states in the South, but by the end of the war, that freeing had influenced and prepared citizens to advocate for and accept the abolition of all slaves in both the North and South. By the end of January 1865, both houses of Congress had passed the 13th Amendment, and it was ratified that December.

Once freedom was established, the newly free men and women of Texas faced a continuous and arduous journey. Most continued to work for their previous owners, and some left the state of Texas. On December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment was finally passed, officially abolishing slavery. As freed slaves migrated from Texas to other parts of the country, the Juneteenth tradition spread and became so much more for the people of Galveston, Texas and the Country.

While all 50 states either commemorate or observe Juneteenth, at least 28 states and the District of Columbia legally recognize it as a public holiday. In these states, government offices are closed, and state workers have a paid day off. The states that observe Juneteenth as a permanent paid state holiday include Texas (where the holiday originated), New Jersey, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. Additionally, Connecticut, Minnesota, Nevada, and Tennessee have recently made Juneteenth a public holiday at the state level.

*In Alabama and West Virginia the Governor authorized Juneteenth as a State Holiday in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but those states do not have legislation recognizing it as a permanent holiday.

Remember the history of Juneteenth.

CellyBlue-I Do Know This!

*****YOU CAN’T PULL YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS IF THE LACES HAVE BEEN CUT

The Color Of Law comes in 12 chapters. It dissects the history of racial segregation in the United States. The book documents the history of state sponsored segregation stretching back to the late 1800s and exposes racially discriminatory policies put forward by most presidential administrations in that time, including liberal presidents like Franklin Roosevelt.

Rothstein puts forth the argument that the full force of segregation in America is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal levels, also known as “de jure segregation — and not happenstance, but by law, or de facto segregation, a personal choice or White Flight”.

My focus really begins with chapter 3, "Racial Zoning," This demonstrates how the government intentionally sought to keep Black Americans in high-poverty neighborhoods and moreover near industrial and environmentally hazardous businesses. The goal was to keep lower-income Blacks from dwelling near middleclass whites and to bar middle-class Blacks from purchasing homes in the same neighborhoods as their white counterparts through concealed zoning practices. Rothstein made appoint to single out the tragic massacre that happen in 1876 in Hamburg, South Carolina prior ro the election of Rutherford B. Hayes. The Town of Hamburg had a Republican Biracial state government and this would not due. It would not due at all.A white paramilitary group called the Red Shirts overthough the town of Hamburg and took control of the city the murdering six black men.

“The white supremacist militia rounded up around two dozen black citizens, some from the militia, and at about 2 a.m, took them to a spot near the South Carolina Railroad and bridge. There, the whites formed what was later called the "Dead Ring" and debated the fate of the black men. The whites picked out four men and, going around the ring, murdered them one at a time; these men were as follows: Allan Attaway, David Phillips, Hampton Stephens, and Albert Myniart. The Sweetwater Sabre Company, led by Ben Tillman, was chosen to execute black state legislator Simon Coker of Barnwell. After being told of his impending execution, Coker asked the unit to give instructions to his wife regarding cotton-ginning and that month's rent. He was then executed mid-prayer”

- Hamburg Massacure or Red Shirt Massacre of 1876-

After the massacre the biracial goverment was disbanned. Blacks were segregated and barred from holding office. They were terrorized, beaten and burned out of their homes. At one point 500 whites camped outside Hamburg, moving to a small town nearby killing more then fifty blacks. The murderer Tillman became a senator for 24 years and was proud of his insurrection. In the end many blacks left Hamburg and it again went to waste, after a major flood in 1911 Hamburg was left unprotected. Disastrous floods in 1927 and following seasons finally forced out the last residents in 1929. Today the town of Hamburg is covered largely by a golf course. Ultimately Tillman and his Red Shirts did succeed. I personally don’t think this was by happenstance, the state of South Carolina and Aiken County let Hamburg fall into declinement, they wanted to wash away the stains of bloodshed and murder.

And there were other towns not just Hamburg. Towns like Helena, Montana. Rothstein states that by 1890 every county in the state of Montana had black settlers living in them. Blacks had established a middle class that supported Black-owned businesses, Black churches, Black newspapers and a Black literary society. A Black police officer patrolled the town's wealthiest (white) neighborhood, but by 1930, Montana had cleared 11 of its 56 counties of any blacks. In Helena the state capital there were 420 at its peak and by 1930 there were 131. By 2010 113 which is less then 1/2 of 1 percent. Why because in 1906 the towns new prosecutor said, “It’s time that the respectable white people in this community rise in their might and asset their rights.” They developed new discriminatory laws, such as a ban on mixed marriages and the establishment of many sundown towns, like ranging of the church bells informing blacks to be out of sundown. What about Glendive, Montana.

In Rothstein states a local newspaper article in 1915 published “Color Line Is Drawn In Glendive” “Considerable amusement was created in police court yesterday… . a certain nomadic ‘gentleman of color.’ “The colored gent, it appears, had blown into town and was engaged in the artistic pursuit of begging, his efforts at this being furthered by the fact that he was minus an arm.” An argument ensued “concerning the fact that no ‘ni$$ers’(sic) were allowed in town.

I would note that during my research today that the median income for a household in the city was $30,943, and the median income for a family was $40,313. Males had a median income of $30,977 versus $20,132 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,544. About 11.6% of families and 14.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.8% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over. Today in Glendice, Montana there live perthe census 89 African-Americans or Black persons making up 1.81 percent of the population. In the Miles City, Montana, blacks were forced to flee by white mob violence.

Know that Racial Zoning, mob violence and sundown towns are just the tip of the iceberg for the Color Of Law. This book is historical fact. A must read. From White Flight to Local Tactics.

Take the SCOTUS case of 2007. In this case Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, 551 U.S. 701, the court struck down the public school desegregation plans. In his decision, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “Where [racial imbalance] is a product not of state action but of private choices, it does not have constitutional implications.” Rothstein says Roberts got the decison wrong. Rothstein tells how courts enforced racial covenants on residential property, of how police forces failed to protect African-American buyers in white neighborhoods from violence and how highways were routed through African-American neighborhoods near city centers to get blacks out of the way. So yeah as with everything else Chief Justice Roberts got it exactly wrong.

Rothstein asks, “Is it any wonder [students] come to believe that African-Americans are only segregated because they don’t want to marry or because they prefer to live only among themselves?”

Richard Rothstein is an American academic and author. He is affiliated with the Economic Policy Institute and serves as a Distinguished Fellow there. Additionally, he holds the position of Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Richard Rothstein is worth his weight in words. The historical facts are important and profound. I count this book as one of my best buys.

Among Rothstein’s many writngs are:

• Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right (2008)

• Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap (2004)

• The Way We Were? Myths and Realities of America’s Student Achievement (1998)

• Co-author of The Charter School Dust-Up: Examining the Evidence on Enrollment and Achievement (2005)

• All Else Equal: Are Public and Private Schools Different? (2003).

History is so valuable and so important. Holding those accountable and never letting us forget how one group subjected another through force, fear and systemic rascism embedded in our laws can’t be hidden or overlooked.

CellyBlue-I Do Know This!