Labor's Deeds Ignored in Schools
Chicago Union Teacher
(April 1956)
If you should ask your son or daughter what has made
America great, you will be sure to hear that it is our "free
enterprise" system. Perhaps your youngster will add something about
American "know-how" or our mass production system or the
perseverance of our captains of industry.
The chances are that he knows nothing of the
contribution of labor to the building of our country or of the
sacrifices of ordinary working men and women who, through struggles and
strikes, made possible our eight-hour day and our present high standard
of living.
What impression of work, of the contributions of
labor to American history, of unions and union leaders, do children
receive in our schools today?
In the basic readers used in the primary and middle
grades no working parents are presented. There is no story read later on
about the everyday heroism of workers.
Tunnels and bridges and skyscrapers may be presented
as engineering feats, but the tremendous work and human sacrifices of
the sandhogs, the carpenters, riveters, masons and the 'unskilled'
laborer are omitted.
Of all the full length biographies read in janitor
and senior high schools none are of labor leaders.
Your child will learn about Ford or Walt Disney,
about Chrysler or Edison but rarely about Powderly, Gompers, Hillman,
Lewis, Green and never about the union organizer, the shop steward or
the Jimmy Higgins on the picket line!
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 |
Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
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|
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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1965
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____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 13
December 2011
