winningthebattleloosingthewar:
On the morning of September 4, 1957, fifteen-year-old Dorothy Counts set out on a harrowing path toward Harding High, where-as the first African American to attend the all-white school – she was greeted by a jeering swarm of boys who spat, threw trash, and yelled epithets at her as she entered the building.
Charlotte Observer photographer Don Sturkey captured the ugly incident on film, and in the days that followed, the searing image appeared not just in the local paper but in newspapers around the world.
People everywhere were transfixed by the girl in the photograph who stood tall, her five-foot-ten-inch frame towering nobly above the mob that trailed her. There, in black and white, was evidence of the brutality of racism, a sinister force that had led children to torment another child while adults stood by. While the images display a lot of evils: prejudice, ignorance, racism, sexism, inequality, it also captures true strength, determination, courage and inspiration.
Here she is, age 70, still absolutely elegant and poised.
she deserves to be re-blogged.
❤
(Source: cloudyskiesandcatharsis, via oldfilmsflicker)
R.I.P. James Gandolfini. The “Sopranos” star has died at age 51, HBO has confirmed.
Photo: Gandolfini in Los Angeles in 2012. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
Too soon. Too young. Too much left to do.
:(
Homophobic law passed in Russia creates greater climate of fear for homosexuals; makes acknowledging queer existence illegal
June 12, 2013Moscow’s gays and their supporters rallied Wednesday with rainbow flags — only 24 hours after Russia’s Parliament passed a law that effectively bans gay-pride parades or speaking publicly in defense of gay rights.
The gays marched amid an anti-Kremlin opposition rally that drew about 10,000 protesters to a Moscow park.
Between the red flags of the communists and the black flags of the anarchists, the gay activists walked bunched together, waving their rainbow flags, but appeared visibly nervous. They eyed the black uniformed police that cut occasionally through the marchers.
Vitaly held a brightly colored gay-rights sign. But he talked with a nervous stutter. “In any normal country, [there] should not be a law like this, said Vitaly, a 19-year-old computer student. So, it is really negative. It really makes no sense. And my friends, who are mostly not gay, also understand the law is absurd and that something wicked is happening now in our country,” said Vitaly.
The day before, about 20 gay activists gathered outside Russia’s Parliament building to protest the vote. Right-wing militants attacked and beat the activists. Then, police made their move - they arrested the gay protesters.
Anna, a 22-year-old linguistics student, talked as her rainbow flag fluttered in the summer breeze. “I know that yesterday people were beaten up, and they were arrested, she said. And I am actually very scared that this is the last opportunity for me to freely come and not be arrested.”
At the Duma, the vote was 436 - 0, with one abstention.
Ilya Ponomaryov, was the deputy who abstained. On Wednesday, he marched in the opposition rally among the red flags of the “Left Front, a socialist group.
He said he abstained because the language of the act was vague. He also said he saw the legislation as part of a hard-right turn taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who seeks to bolster his support among traditional conservatives.
A 51-year-old English teacher, Alexei Sinodov, was one of thousands of unaffiliated protesters who marched Wednesday. He said the anti-gay law was just the latest in a series of restrictive laws passed since President Putin returned to the Kremlin one year ago. The same undemocratic law, he said. I have nothing against the gays, the lesbians — they can do whatever they like.
Public-opinion polls indicate large majorities of Russians are hostile to homosexuality. At best, they want it to be kept hidden away from the public. Anna, a lesbian marcher, says the Kremlin seeks to rally popular support by attacking internal enemies. “We are easy to kick, so they are kicking us,” she said.
My heart & hope is with you beautiful queer Russians. Fight for revolution & human dignity! Putin to the guillotine.
(Source: thepeoplesrecord, via humanrightswatch)
President Obama has read your texts to your girlfriend, and he’s worried, man.
(Source: fallontonight)
This is the best/truest thing I’ve read in so long (via thesleepingfawn)
But this explains the 90s kids
(via thebbcisslowlykillingme)
(Source: kistymea, via moriartiel-deactivated20150612)
Game of Desks is coming… Friday May 24.
I’ll just leave this here.
(Source: fallontonight, via cockenblog)
An amazingly directed and important video on Everyday Sexism, its creator and the online group that has brought women together to talk about the experience of daily sexualization and harassment and are typically kept from talking about.
Via velvetlovepocket (Link here: [x]) and meenerhabi.
(via thepoliticalnoteboo1deac)
From Bosnia in 1994 to Syria today, via Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Mali, is western military intervention ever justified?
(via aljazeera-blog)
Your Complete Guide to Arrested Development: michael bluth
Find out what’s happened to the rest of the family previously on… Arrested Development: