This is the original design for Mount Rushmore. The presidents were to be depicted down to the waist, but as with many beautiful but useless enterprises, insufficient funding prevented it.
Jonathan Coulton - The Presidents
Jonathan Coulton- The Presidents
Washington came first and he was perfect.
John Adams kept us out of war with France.
Jefferson made Louisiana Purchase.
In 1812 James Madison kicked the British in the pants.
James Monroe told Europe they could suck it.
John Quincy Adams looked just like his dad.
Andrew Jackson got rid of all the Indians.
Van Buren served one term, but he wasn’t bad.
William Henry Harrison died early.
John Tyler annexed Texas from Mexico.
James K. Polk fought Mexico to keep it.
Taylor was a Mexican War hero.
Fillmore gave a boat to Commodore Perry.
Pierce appealed the Missouri Compromise.
Buchanan saw the Civil War’s beginnings.
Lincoln saved the Union, then he died.
Andrew Johnson just survived impeachment.
General Grant enjoyed a drink or two.
Rutherford B. Hayes ended reconstruction.
Garfield was assassinated in 1882.
Arthur suspended Chinese immigration.
Cleveland made the railroad people squirm.
Harrison signed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Grover Cleveland served another term.
McKinley kicked the Spanish out of Cuba.
Roosevelt was handy with a gun.
Taft was big and fat and had a mustache.
Wilson kicked some ass in World War I.
Harding said “Let’s Laissez Fair with business.”
Coolidge made the roaring 20s roar.
Hoover screwed the pooch in the great depression.
Roosevelt beat the Nazis in the war.
Truman dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.
Eisenhower kept the Commies well in hand.
Kennedy was killed by a magic bullet.
Johnson murdered kids in Vietnam.
Nixon was a sweating, filthy liar.
Ford gave Nixon pardon for his crimes.
Carter lusted in his heart for peanuts.
Reagan won the Cold War, and lost his mind.
George Bush Sr. poked at Saddam Hussein.
Clinton gave an intern a cigar.
W’s legacy’s a work in progress.
That is all the President’s so far.
In the year 2005 we’re out of money.
Somewhere, surely, freedom’s on the march.
I don’t like to make political statements.
February is Black History Month
Photos from previous posts: The 6888th Postal Battalion, Coretta Scott King, Gwen Cherry, Kredelle Petway.
Richard Loving kissing wife Mildred as he arrives home from work in King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965
The Loving’s children Peggy, Sidney and Donald play in King and Queen County, Virginia in April 1965
The love story that changed history: Fascinating photographs of interracial marriage at a time when it was banned in 16 states
Just 45 years ago, 16 states deemed marriages between two people of different races illegal. But in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the case of Richard Perry Loving, who was white, and his wife, Mildred Loving, of African American and Native American descent. The case changed history - and was captured on film by LIFE photographer Grey Villet, whose black-and-white photographs are now set to go on display at the International Center of Photography.
Eight years prior, the pair had married in the District of Columbia to evade the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which banned any white person marrying any non-white person. But when they returned to Virginia, police stormed into their room in the middle of the night and they were arrested. The pair were found guilty of miscegenation in 1959 and were each sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for 25 years if they left Virginia. They moved back to the District of Columbia, where they began the long legal battle to erase their criminal records - and justify their relationship. Following vocal support from the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches, the Lovings won the fight - with the Supreme Court branding Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law unconstitutional in 1967. It wrote in its decision:
‘Marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man, fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law.’
Following the ruling, there was a 448 per cent increase in the number of interracial marriages in Georgia alone.
In 2007, 32 years after her husband died, Mrs Loving - who herself passed away the following year - released a statement in support of same-sex marriage. She said:
‘Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry.
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.’Photographs of their content family life and grapple with the law were unearthed by director Nancy Buirski during the making of a documentary about the pair.
Her documentary, The Loving Story, will air on February 14 on HBO.
Twenty of the prints will be exhibited at the International Center of Photography in New York City, from January 20 until May 6. They are on loan by the estate of Grey Villet and by the Loving family.
MORE PICS AT: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088040/Photographs-Lovings-interracial-marriage-time-banned-16-states.html
Johann Theodor de Bry - Emblemata secularia mira et jucunda (1596).
The Most Interesting Roosevelt in the World
William Howard Taft - (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930) the 27th president of the United States. In his one term in office he passed the Sixteenth amendment and did some civil service reform all whilst up keeping one awesome mustache. He was also a pretty hot teenager, just sayin.
On January 3, 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr., appeared on the cover of Time magazine as its man of the year. Time has the table of contents on its site from this issue, so you can go see what was in the news at the time, and if you’re a subscriber, you can read the issue!
Top 10 Historical Women I studied in 2011:
- Sofonisba Anguissola
- Lavinia Fontana
- Moterata Fonte
- Laura Cereta
- Olympe de Gouges
- Anne Stuart, Queen of Great Britain
- Mary Wollstonecraft
- Abigail Adams
- Mercy Otis Warren
- Judith Sargent Murray
I spent the year pretty much studying European history and the American Revolution.
(Source: historicalslut)
