My Country – Arthur Wergs Mitchell In 1934, Arthur Wergs Mitchell became the first Democratic African-American member of Congress. Representing the First District of Illinois, Mitchell integrated himself into the Chicago political machine and changed political parties. However, over time, the machine came to dislike him as he challenged their authority. He began his career as an …
Month: April 2017
My Country – Simon Fish A major component of An Almanac of Liberty is British history, specifically religious history. Simon Fish wrote an attack on monasteries and the Roman Catholic Church. The tract was A Supplication of Beggars. Fish called the clergy “sturdy, idle, holy thieves.” He argued that they collected vast wealth for over 400 years through …
My Country – The Captive Justice Douglas begins today’s entry in An Almanac of Liberty by stating that censorship in 1950s America was more subtle than English censorship. I will note that this has not changed based on the case of “Almost, Maine.” As we noted homosexuality caused a North Carolina school to halt a production. The same …
My Country – Protecting the Arts The current administration hopes to slash the arts out of the federal budget. The budget plan eliminates the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As a member of PBS, I greatly disagree …