Nerdy Alaskan Witch

Rev. George Washington Lee was the first recorded victim of the racial murders that accompanied African American efforts in the 1950s to bolster voter registration. His murder made clear the perils that African Americans face in pursuing their right to vote.

Born in Edwards, Mississippi, Lee became a grocer and preacher in Belzoni. In 1954, in Mound Bayou, Washington, he exhorted a crowd of around 10,000 to sign up to vote. Lee and his wife, Rosebud, opened a small print shop and grocery where appeals to register to vote were mass produced. Lee was offered a chance to give up on his voters rights efforts in exchange for his life. Lee declined.

On the 7th of May, 1955, Lee was driving in Belzoni when a green and white mercury convertible pulled up alongside him. The window of the other car rolled down and a shotgun blast struck Lee in the face. He died right there at the scene. His brutal murder soon gave way to an effort to conceal the crime. The sheriff, Ike Shelton, claimed that his death was nothing more than a car accident and the case was closed.

The civil rights movement demanded an investigation; Lee’s autopsy report made it clear he had been shot with a shotgun. Nevertheless, Shelton claimed the wounds were caused by dental fillings that became loose in the crash. The pathologist refuted these claims, stating that cavities are not filled with lead. Eventually U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. ordered that the Justice Department look into his death. Nevertheless, nobody was ever charged with the murder.

how many liner pens died for this….

Pictured is Alice Liddell, the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll’s beloved story “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. Carroll, whose real name is Charles Dodgson, met her family in 1855 while he was taking photographs at of a cathedral at the Christ Church, Oxford, where Henry Liddell held the position of Dean. The Liddell children became some of Dodgson’s favorite photography subjects. He captured the top-left and bottom-left photo of Alice during her childhood. Additionally, Dodgson often accompanied Alice and her sisters, Edith and Ina, for picnics or short excursions.

On the afternoon of July 4th, 1862 the Liddell sisters, Dodgson, and Reverend Robinson Duckworth, another family friend, were out for a rowboat ride when Alice requested a story. Dodgson began to spin a fantastical story of a little girl named Alice and her adventures down a rabbit hole. The sisters begged for him to write it down. Several months following, Dodgson presented Alice with a copy of the manuscript. He later published it under the pen name Lewis Carroll.

This video depicts the moment Sir Nicholas Winton realises he is in the same room as hundreds of Jewish people he saved as children during the Holocaust. While appearing on the TV show, “That’s Life!” the host Esther Rantzen asked the audience: “May I ask, is there anyone in our audience tonight who owes their life to Nicholas Winton? If so, could you stand up, please?” To Winton’s shock, the entire audience stood up.

The impunity of race-based police brutality is a systematic problem in America. George Floyd was handcuffed, on the ground, not resisting arrest and yet he was still killed. Black blindness is very much still a thing and black children are taught that if they ever come into contact with police, to not resist arrest, to not provoke police and it will save their lives... It’s shameful that they’re taught that in the first place, but to just be black is to be at an extraordinary risk... That is what this man was doing yet the “officer” crushed his neck for 10 minutes straight. He was not a threat. He was not going to harm anybody.

18-year-old Stephen Lawrence was born in Greenwich, London, to Jamaican parents who had moved to the UK in the 1960s. His father was a carpenter and his mother worked with children with special needs. Stephen was a dedicated teenager who studied technology and physics. He dreamed of becoming an architect.

On the 22nd of April, 1993, Stephen spent the day at school before playing video games at his uncle’s house with Duwayne Brooks. At around 10:30PM, they walked to the nearby bus stop to catch the bus back home. Moments later, a group of six white youth started walking towards them, calling out racial slurs. Before Stephen or Duwayne had a chance to react, the pounched on Stephen and stabbed him in the collarbone and shoulder, severing arteries and penetrating a lung. Stephen and Duwayne managed to run away from the scene but Stephen collapsed around 130 yards away and bled to death. Duwayne said that when officers arrived on the scene, they had a very nonchalant attitude. “I got the impression they were repulsed by the blood or just didn’t want to help…”

In the days following the murder, a local gang of five white youths were named as the suspects. They were Gary Dobson, Neil and Jamie Acourt, Luke Knight and David Norris. They had been previously involved in racist knife attacks around the area. Despite the fact that the prime suspects had been named, none were apprehended until weeks later. Detective Superintendent Brian Weeden, the officer who was leading the investigation, told the public he hadn’t made an arrest earlier because he didn’t know the law in regards to making an arrest under reasonable suspicion. The charges against the five were subsequently dropped citing insufficient evidence.

In 2006, a cold case review commenced and looked at blood found on clothing of Dobson; the blood was determined to belong to Stephen and that it had deposited fresh. According to police, this new evidence was only found because of advancement in forensic science. The initial investigation into the murder was marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers. It was later discovered that the inquiry was bungled on purpose, which led to all of the killers evading justice. An inquiry into the original investigation led to the landmark ruling that organisations could be “institutionally racist.”