Historical Snapshots

"He told the orphans they were going out into the country, so they ought to be cheerful. At last they would be able to exchange the horrible suffocating city walls for meadows of flowers, streams where they could bathe, woods full of berries and mushrooms. He told them to wear their best clothes, and so they came out into the yard, two by two, nicely dressed and in a happy mood."

Then he walked with them, "his head bent forward, holding the hand of a child, without a hat, a leather belt around his waist, and wearing high boots."

Janusz Korczak, a famous writer of children's books, amongst other works, also ran an orphanage in Warsaw before the war started. Then, in 1940, his orphanage was forced to move with all other Jewish people to the Warsaw ghetto. Janusz went with the children.

He had opportunities to leave the ghetto. The resistance wanted to help him escape. But he chose to stay, to be with the children, to be with them to the end, to that day in early August of 1942, when they were taken to Treblinka, an extermination camp. "You do not leave a sick child in the night, and you do not leave children at a time like this," Janusz said. 

After boarding the train to the extermination camp, he was never heard from again.

Amongst his many writings, Janusz wrote, "I exist not to be loved and admired, but to love and act. It is not the duty of those around me to love me. Rather, it is my duty to be concerned about the world, about man."

This was Janusz Korczak. 

Sources:

* "He told the orphans..." quote: Szpilman, Wladyslaw. The Pianist. United Kingdom, Orion, 2011.

* "His head bent..." quote: Ghetto eyewitness, Joshua Perle - Nick Shepley (7 December 2015).

* Hitler, Stalin and the Destruction of Poland: Explaining History. Andrews UK Limited. p. 55. ISBN 978-1-78333-143-7

* "I exist not be..." quote: Korczak, Janusz. The Warsaw Ghetto memoirs of Janusz Korczak. Washington, University Press of America, 1979.

* “Janusz Korczak.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Korczak 

* Portrait taken in Warsaw, Poland, circa 1930 - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Miedzynarodowe Stowarzyszenie im. Janusza Korczaka / Wikimedia Commons

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On the surface, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was a simple proposal, democratic even. It would take the vast Nebraska Territory, carve it into two separate entities—Kansas and Nebraska—and let the settlers decide the fate of slavery in each through popular sovereignty. 

Instead, the Act plunged the U.S. into turmoil that would lead the country to a Civil War within a few years.

Slavery had been a contested issue from the earliest years of U.S. history. A number of Northern states that had initially allowed slavery began banning the practice throughout the late 1700s and early 1800s. With the Missouri Compromise in 1820, the border between slave and non-slave states was drawn, with the sections becoming known as the North and the South. The former didn't allow for slavery, while the latter did. 

As the century progressed, the idea of Manifest Destiny, a national desire to expand the country westward, became more prominent. With the expansion came important questions. Amongst them were: 

* How to motivate people to move into the new territories?

* What efficient transportation would connect the country East to West like the Mississippi River did North to South?

* Would the new territories and states have slavery or not?

To the latter question, Northern abolitionists didn't want slavery included in the new regions. Southern leaders did.  

The political driver behind the Kansas—Nebraska Act initiative was a young Senator from Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas. Senator Douglas was a staunch advocate of Manifest Destiny. He also had an interest in the transportation question. Senator Douglas was one of the biggest advocates for building a transcontinental railroad through Chicago. And while the following may be conjecture, he also wanted to make a more prominent name for himself on the national stage since he likely already had aspirations to run for President, which he would do in 1860. 

In the cauldron of conflicting interests and ideologies, Senator Douglas saw an opportunity to strike a compromise that would serve his objectives: organize the Nebraska Territory for settlement while securing a desirable route for the transcontinental railroad. He proposed to repeal the Missouri Compromise, divide the Nebraska Territory into two separate entities (in part to potentially keep a power balance of slave and non-slave states), and let the settlers decide the fate of slavery through popular sovereignty. This latter point was particularly controversial, as the Nebraska Territory would have banned slavery under the Missouri Compromise.

After months of debate, the Senate and House of Representatives approved the bill amidst a charged atmosphere. On May 30, 1854, President Franklin Pierce signed it into law.

Once the Act passed, settlers representing both sides of the slavery debate flooded into the newly opened territories. Kansas, in particular, became the battleground for a brutal struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. The two groups clashed in violent skirmishes, earning the territory the moniker of "Bleeding Kansas." This way of life would continue until 1861.

The impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act extended far beyond the borders of the frontier. It shattered the delicate equilibrium of American politics, laying bare the irreconcilable differences between North and South. In the halls of Congress, compromise gave way to confrontation. Also out of the discord came a newly formed Republican Party, which emerged as a formidable force dedicated to halting the spread of slavery. Their efforts would come to fruition as they came to power with the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

Sources:

* Hodder, Frank Heywood. “The Railroad Background of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 12, no. 1, 1925, pp. 3–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1891782. Accessed 3 May 2024.

* "Kansas–Nebraska Act." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas%E2%80%93Nebraska_Act

* Stephen A. Douglas. [Between 1855 and 1865] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2017895896/>.

* "The Kansas-Nebraska Act." United States Senate, https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Kansas_Nebraska_Act.htm

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"Freedom has never been free...I love my children and I love my wife with all my heart. And I would die, die gladly, if that would make a better life for them." - Medgar Evers

Medgar Evers was a leader who didn't care for fame or money—the "quiet integrationist" he was called. He wanted to make a difference and improve the lives of others. As his wife described him, he was sensitive "to other human beings; their needs, hopes, joys, and aspirations...Perhaps most important, Medgar was able to turn hate into love."

As a child, Medgar was studious, shy, and "the conscience of his friends." Among the qualities and experiences he took from his parents, it was their outspoken nature, especially regarding their convictions, that Medgar adopted. 

At 18, Medgar joined the U.S. Army and fought from 1943 to 1945 during World War II. After the war, he went to college and then started a family. While his family was most important, his work for the NAACP during the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s became his calling. As the Field Secretary for the organization in Mississippi, he helped organize boycotts and set up local NAACP chapters.

One of Medgar's struggles throughout these years was living daily with fear. He was afraid for his life because of his position in the movement. As his wife recalled,

"We lived with that fear day in and day out. We learned to deal with the threatening telephone calls. We lived with the cars that circled our home late at night. We lived with the rocks and debris thrown at us. We talked about the possibility of death many times."

Medgar would admit to being afraid but then say, "I can't let that stop me from doing what I must." 

These fears, however, were very real. In 1963, a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the carport of his home. Shortly after, someone tried to run Medgar over. 

Then, in the early morning of Wednesday, June 12 of that year, when Medgar returned home after a usual long day from work, wearing a T-shirt that read, "Jim Crow Must Go," he was shot in the back as he got out of his car and began walking to the front door. He died about an hour later. He was 37 years old. 

The following year, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and then Voting Rights Act of 1965, giving black Americans the rights Medgar had worked so hard for. 

It would take 30 years for the man who committed the murder to be found guilty and sent to prison for life. 

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Sources:

* Elliot, Jeffrey, and Medgar Evers. “MEDGAR EVERS a Personal Portrait.” Negro History Bulletin, vol. 40, no. 6, 1977, pp. 760–63. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44176405. Accessed 1 May 2024.

* Medgar Evers, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right, wearing jacket and tie. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/93516441/>.

* "Medgar Evers." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medgar_Evers

* NAACP Speech on June 7, 1963.

* St. Lawrence, Genevieve. Medgar Evers. United States, Raintree, 2004.

* Tisdale, John Rochelle, 1958-. Medgar Evers (1925-1963) and the Mississippi Press, dissertation, December 1996; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278976/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library,  https://digital.library.unt.edu;

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"Of the multitude who throughout history have spoken for human dignity in times of great suffering and loss, no voice is more compelling than that of Anne Frank." - President John F. Kennedy

Anne Frank was born to a Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929. A few years later, her family moved to Amsterdam after the Nazis came to power in Germany. Then, in 1940, Germany invaded and took over the Netherlands. 

For two years, the family experienced many changes. The Nazis implemented anti-Jewish laws that took away many rights. As Anne would write in her diary on June 20, 1942,

"After May 1940 the good times were few and far between: first there was the war, then the capitulation and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews. Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees: Jews were required to wear a yellow star: Jews were required to turn in their bicycles! Jews were forbidden to use street-cars! Jews were forbidden to ride in cars, even their own! Jews were required to do their shopping between 3 and 5 P.M.! Jews were required to frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty parlors! Jews were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 P.M. and 6 A.M.! Jews were forbidden to attend theaters, movies or any other forms of entertainment; Jews were forbidden to use swimming pools, tennis courts, hockey fields or any other athletic fields; Jews were forbidden to go rowing; Jews were forbidden to take part in any athletic activity in public; Jews were forbidden to sit in their gardens or those of their friends after 8 P.M.; Jews were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes; Jews were required to attend Jewish schools, etc. You couldn't do this and you couldn't do that, but life went on."

Throughout this time, Anne's father, Otto, tried to secure a visa to move the family to the U.S. Unable to do so, he began preparing a three-story space above his office as a hiding place. He spent a year stocking the annex with all the necessities. In 1942, when the family learned that Anne's older sister was to be deported to a work camp, they went into hiding. 

Anne, who loved to write and dreamt of being a journalist or writer, was given a diary for her thirteenth birthday. In it, she wrote about life in hiding, growing up, being in love, of everything happening. 

In one of her last entries, written on July 15, 1944, Anne wrote,

"It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

A few weeks later, someone betrayed Anne and her family. They were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Anne and her sister Margot were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died within days of each other in early March 1945, likely as a result of typhus. Anne was just 15 years old.

After the war, Anne's father, the sole family survivor, returned to Amsterdam and was given Anne's diary by Miep Gies, one of the Dutch citizens who had helped hide the Frank family and had discovered the diary after their arrest. Deeply moved by Anne's writings, Otto fulfilled his daughter's wish of becoming a writer. He worked tirelessly to have her diary published.

Anne's diary, "The Diary of a Young Girl," was published in Dutch in 1947. Over the years, it has been translated into many languages and has become widely read.

Though Anne never had the chance to become a journalist, her words live on through the diary and continue to influence many worldwide.

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Sources:

* “Anne Frank.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank

* Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. United Kingdom, Penguin, 1997.

* Hasian, Marouf. “Anne Frank, Bergen-Belsen, and the Polysemic Nature of Holocaust Memories.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs, vol. 4, no. 3, 2001, pp. 349–74. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41940587. Accessed 1 May 2024.

* "Passport photo Anne Frank, May 1942." Photo collection Anne Frank House, Amsterdam. https://www.flickr.com/photos/collection_annefrankhouse/31927397212  / Wikimedia Commons

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Episode transcript:

"To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years ... is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be." - Rachel Carson

Born in 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania, Rachel Carson grew up in the hills overlooking the Allegheny River. It was there that she fell in love with nature after many walks in the area with her mother, observing the natural landscapes and the wildlife. And it was also there that, in her youth, she fell in love with writing, winning several awards. She published her first story in a children's magazine at ten years old, and around that time began telling people that she wanted to be a professional writer. 

While her family was not well off, her mother insisted that Rachel attend college to become a writer. She entered intending to study English but changed her major to biology in her sophomore year. After graduating, she continued her studies, earning a master's degree in zoology. Then, she began a doctorate. But because of the Great Depression and with her father's passing in 1935, Rachel dropped out, taking a job with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to help support her family.

At work, she wrote radio copy for educational broadcasts. A year later, after receiving the highest score in the civil service exam, she became a junior biologist in the organization. But because of her writing talent, she was asked to continue writing, a role in which she would eventually grow to become Editor-in-Chief of all service publications.

Outside of working in her government job, Rachel began writing articles for publications around the U.S. Those articles evolved into books. And all these works, beloved by many, would influence how people understood and talked about nature. Amongst many impacts, she brought the word ecology to everyday life. And she spurred an increased awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment, and the inextricable links between pollution and public health. This work also had policy implications, as she challenged those using harmful pesticides, leading to a national ban on DDT and other pesticides.

Rachel passed away from breast cancer on April 14, 1964, at the age of 56.

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Original post: A Snapshot Biography of Rachel Carson

Sources:

• Carson, Rachel L. The Edge of the Sea. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1955.

  
  



• Lear, Linda J. “Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring.’” Environmental History Review, vol. 17, no. 2, 1993, pp. 23–48. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3984849. Accessed 22 Sept. 2023.

  
  



• “Rachel Carson.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson

  
  



• “Rachel Carson (1907-1964) Author of the Modern Environmental Movement.” U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, https://www.fws.gov/staff-profile/rachel-carson-1907-1964-author-modern-environmental-movement / “Rachel-Carson.” Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rachel-Carson.jpg

  
  

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Story transcript & sources: https://historicalsnaps.com/2023/09/21/snapshot-marian-anderson-biography/

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Transcript and original post: Langston Hughes: writer, “My People” & other works

Episode photo source: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the generosity of Elizabeth Ann Hylton, NPG.2011.101 

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Snapshot biography of Jesse Owens on Historical Snapshots

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Our snapshot biography of actress and inventor, Hedy Lamarr:

Some said Hedy Lamarr was the most beautiful woman in the world. Some said she had the most beautiful face they had ever seen. Some just stopped talking mid-sentence, in awe, when she walked into a room.

Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1914, Hedy was an only child of two loving and devoted parents. She spent time with her mother learning about the arts, and with her father, they explored the city, often stopping to learn about the workings of different machines they came across. Her father spent much time teaching her, developing in her a love and understanding for technology. By five years old, Hedy was taking apart and reassembling gadgets like music boxes at home.

But it was acting that captured young Hedy’s heart. Enamored with the art, dedicating herself to the craft, she began to play roles in films. And by her late teens, Hedy was a star.

Soon she married. Her husband, infatuated with the star, treated her less like a wife and more as a prize. “I was like a doll. I was like a thing, some object of art which had to be guarded—and imprisoned—having no mind, no life of its own,” she said. Unhappy in her marriage, one night, she dressed as a maid and escaped abroad, where she filed for divorce.

Life took her to the U.S., where just as in Europe, she became a famous actress. She wowed audiences with beauty and charm and sophistication. Yet, Hedy, intelligent and curious, wanted to do more.

With World War II taking place and understanding the dangers of life under a Nazi regime from her experiences living in Europe, she got involved in the war effort. Working together with a fellow inventor, they filed a patent for a radio guidance system that Allied torpedoes could use to defeat the threat of blocking or interfering with wireless communication.

Ultimately the U.S. Navy did not use their innovation. But the principles from the designs are now incorporated into modern Wi-Fi, CDMA and Bluetooth technology. Hedy was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

Original post on Historical Snapshots.

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Story transcript:

“There is nothing so beautiful as the free forest. To catch a fish when you are hungry, cut the boughs of a tree, make a fire to roast it, and eat it in the open air, is the greatest of all luxuries. I would not stay a week pent up in cities, if it were not for my passion for art.” – Edmonia Lewis

—

Most people didn’t know her age; she kept those details a mystery. But no one questioned her remarkable talent. For as a sculptor, Edmonia Lewis was one of the best. People traveled from all over the world to see her art and watch her at work.

Edmonia was born in New York sometime around 1844. Like her age, details of her upbringing and parents are sparse. Edmonia’s mother was of mixed African and Native American descent and was known for her weaving and craftsmanship. Her father was of African American descent and was known for being a writer.

Both of her parents passed away by the time Edmonia was nine years old. Afterward, aunts raised her and her older half-brother. But while family life came with much tragedy, Edmonia experienced some financial fortune through her half-brother. He ventured to California during the Gold Rush, where he struck gold and became wealthy.

Her half-brother used part of his wealth to fund Edmonia’s education. He paid for her to attend Oberlin Academy Preparatory School and then Oberlin Collegiate Institute (now Oberlin College). But she experienced much turmoil in college. She was accused of poisoning two classmates, and while the charges would be dismissed, Edmonia was beaten nearly to death by locals. About a year later, Edmonia was accused of stealing from the college – a charge ultimately dismissed. And then came another accusation, aiding and abetting a burglary. With that, Edmonia decided to leave college without graduating.

Edmonia moved to Boston, where she began working in sculpting. While her talents came with some recognition, opportunities were sparse. In her words, “I was practically driven to Rome in order to obtain the opportunities for art-culture, and to find a social atmosphere where I was not constantly reminded of my color. The land of liberty had no room for a colored sculptor.”

Edmonia settled in Rome and opened a studio. She worked, and with time her art, which often portrayed Native American and African American themes, became well-renowned. Of all her pieces, “Forever Free,” a sculpture of an African American woman and a man with broken chains, arguably became her most famous piece. And as her work became prominent, Edmonia herself found much fanfare. People, including numerous celebrities, visited her studio from all over the world.

Edmonia cared deeply for art. She dedicated much of her adult life to work, never marrying or having children. She passed away in London in 1907.

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Sources are available on original post at Historical Snapshots.

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