A Very Interesting Day: NOW, Van Hollen - Edwards Debate, Newseum Commemoration of 50 Years Since the Voting Rights Act

Today there were some very interesting activites.

First, the Maryland Chapter of NOW (National Organization for Women) held its annual meeting. There was a report about work on bills in the Maryland General Assembly this session and then election of new officers. It was a good meeting.

Then Maryland NOW held what was probably the first debate between candidates for the Maryland seat in the U.S. Senate, Chris Van Hollen and Donna Edwards. It was very interesting. 

Things got a little nasty at one point when Edwards said, as she had before but not with Van Hollen sitting close by, that she would protect Social Security while Van Hollen had been willing to compromise on it in Congress. Van Hollen replied that he had always protected Social Security and gave details to prove his point.

This evening, at the Newseum there was a program put on by Moment magazine and the Newseum to commemorate the 50th anniversary of passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The moderator was Steve Roberts and the panel included Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, former Congressman Barney Frank, Julian Bond, and others. 

They talked about memories of their roles in the Civil Rights movement in the early 1960's and concluded with a moving statement by Julian Bond about what the right to vote meant to freed slaves in the 1800's and what it means today. As a result of the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court the ability of Americans to vote is more difficult rather than less so, and this is the opposite of what we should be seeking.

The Newseum and Moment magazine did a terrific job.

April 14, 1865

As just about everyone knows, today, April 14, 1865, exactly 150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theatre at about 10:30pm. But the assassin's plan was for far more than that.

Booth had worked with a group that supported him and said they were willing to help with a coup d'etat against the United States. One of Booth's allies was George Atzerodt who was assigned to assassinate V.P. Andrew Johnson. However, Atzerodt was a coward and instead of killing the V.P. he drank all day, walked the streets of Washington, and was finally arrested in Germantown in Montgomery County, Maryland, at a cousin's house.

Despite his failure to kill the V.P., Atzerodt was tried with some of the other conspirators and he was hanged on July 7, 1865, in what is now the tennis court of Ft. McNair in Washington, D.C.

If both the President and V.P. had been assassinated, the next in line for the presidency at that time was the President Pro Tem of the Senate. That was Senator Lafayette Foster, a Republican from Connecticut. He was undistinguished but would have  become our 17th president if Atzerodt had carried out his mission.

Another of Booth's allies was Lewis Powell. He had been a Confederate soldier and part of their Secret Service. He was assigned to kill the Secretary of State, William Seward, and he almost succeeded. He attacked Seward and others in his house, inflicting grievance wounds on many. Seward had a terrible cut on his face that resulted in his always turning whenever his photo was taken in the future.

If all this had succeeded, there is no telling how much the U.S. would have been harmed. The Civil War was not over even though Robert E. Lee had surrendered his army. There were still at least three significant Confederate armies in the field and many willing to engage in guerrilla warfare, and Jefferson Davis and his cabinet were still at large and setting up a new Confederate capital.

More importantly, our best president, Abraham Lincoln, was replaced by our worst, a man who showed now skills at working with others or handling the military and political affairs of Reconstruction. America was completely changed by the events of this day 150 years ago.

April 12

April 12 is a date filled with history. 

The Civil War started this date with the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861 and it ended with the official surrender at the village of Appomattox Court House on this date in 1865. 

In between, in 1862 the Andrews Raid took place in Georgia, with Union soldiers capturing a Confederate train but later being captured, and in 1864 the Fort Pillow massacre in Tennessee where Nathan Bedford Forrest's men massacred U.S. Colored Troops after their surrender.

In 1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, shortly before the end of World War 2. In 1955 the Salk vaccine against polio was declared effective. In 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in space and orbit the earth. 

Also, Henry Clay, one of the most important and famous U.S. statesmen of the 1800's, was born on this day. 

And in 2015, according to many reports, Hillary Clinton is going to announce that she is running for president of the U.S.

Lincoln in Richmond, and Death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

   

On this day, 150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln took a walk in Richmond, Virginia. At that time it was an amazing event as the leader of the United States walked in the capital of the Confederacy that had tried to break up the Union.

Two days earlier the Confederate army had left Richmond after a 10 month siege, as the Union army overwhelmed them. The next day Union troops, including units of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) entered Richmond, still smoldering from fires set by Confederate troops as they left and after rioting in the street by Southerners.

Despite warnings for his safety, Abraham Lincoln decided he wanted to see Richmond. He held his son, Tad's, hand (it was Tad's 12th birthday) and walked the streets of Richmond with a small guard. A huge crowd of freed slaves couldn't believe their eyes and followed and touched Lincoln, amazed to see him in person.

After a short walk Lincoln and Tad returned to their boat and left, but they had accomplished an amazing feat in Richmond, one very worthy of being remembered.

Exactly 103 years later the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered in Memphis on this date. He, too, had accomplished a great deal during his life and in a sense helped end the work that Abraham Lincoln had started a century earlier.

Wicked at the Hippodrome in Baltimore

Wicked is a really great musical and the Hippodrome in Baltimore is a great place to see it now.

Full review is at http://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2015/04/03/wicked-at-hippodrome-theatre-at-france-merrick-performing-arts-center/

April 2: The Fall and Burning of Richmond

Today was the day the South had feared. General Grant launched an all-out assault on the Confederates defending Richmond. After fierce fighting starting at sun-up the U.S. troops succeeded in breaking Lee's lines.

Lee informed Jefferson Davis, who was at Palm Sunday church services, that he could no longer defend Richmond, so the Confederate government prepared to flee with all the valuables they had left. By the afternoon all Richmond citizens knew and chaos ensued. By 11pm President Davis and his cabinet left by train to Danville VA.

Southern generals were ordered to destroy anything that could help the Union forces so they set fires that quickly got out of control. Liquor was poured in the streets to prevent approaching Union soldiers from drinking and rampaging, but Southerners drank the liquor from the streets and rampaged themselves.

Witnesses described Richmond that night, April 2, as "hell." And as yet no Union forces had entered the city. Southerners had done all this to themselves.

Battle of Five Forks - Beginning of the End of the Civil War

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Five Forks. Why is this important? It was the beginning of the end of the Civil War.

Grant's and Lee's armies had been in a 10-month siege involving trench warfare around Richmond and Petersburg. Grant kept trying to cut off Lee's supply lines, and on this day his army finally succeeded. Because of the Southern rout at Five Forks today which cut off the last railroad supply line, Lee could no longer feed his army.

The next day Grant attacked throughout the siege lines and Lee was forced to tell Jefferson Davis that Richmond had to be abandoned. Lee's army then rushed to the west to try to get around Grant's army but was stopped when he was surrounded at the town of Appomattox Court House eight days from today.