Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i Cobblestone American History and Current Events for Kids and Children

Reconstruction is the period from 1865 to 1877 when the Confederate states were controlled by the federal government before being readmitted to the Union. Lenient means merciful or not harsh. Legislation is proposed laws. Well before the Civil War ended in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln began to consider how the Confederate states should be received back into the Union. Conceived in 1863, his plan for Reconstruction was remarkably lenient. Lincoln proposed to readmit any Confederate state in which 10 percent of the voters signed an oath of loyalty to the United States. He offered a full pardon to all Southerners except Confederate military and political leaders. He promised to protect Southerners’ private property. Lincoln’s objective was to end fighting in the war and to begin the process of bringing the…

By the early 1890s, Ida B. Wells had discovered a passion for journalism. She had established herself as a fearless reporter and editor in Memphis, Tennessee. She seemed to prove the familiar saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Black women in the late 1800s generally did not have the power to enact social or political change. But as a journalist, Wells used her pen as a sword to attack issues about which she was passionate. She became a champion for African Americans and against injustice toward them. In particular, she used her powerful style of writing and speaking to force many people to see lynching for the violent crime that it was. And she came to that role after one specific, horrific event in March 1892. Deputized means…

Ida B. Wells-Barnett was one of many remarkable African American women who lived during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Here are a few more notable Black women of that era. Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837–1913) devoted her life to education. Her appointment as principal of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia made her the first African American woman in the United States to reach that level in the field of higher education. Beauty and hair-care entrepreneurMadam C.J. Walker (1867–1919) was one of the first African American businesswomen. While single-handedly building a successful enterprise from the ground up, she provided jobs and introduced other Black women to the business world. Walker also became a noted philanthropist. Bessie Coleman (1896–1926) was a pilot who persisted in her dream of flying even…

Jamie Nesbitt Golden (LEFT) is a Chicago journalist who works with Block Club Chicago, an online independent newspaper. Golden reports on what’s happening in several Chicago neighborhoods not typically covered by other media outlets. She talked with COBBLESTONE about her role as a journalist. Watchdogs are people or organizations that maintain a watchful eye over something. What would you say a journalist does? Our job is to be the watchdogs of the country. We try to hold the powerful accountable for their actions and make sure they’re doing what they promised. A lot of people say we work for the people. That means our readers and viewers also must hold us accountable for what we put out there. We’re always told to question everything. We absolutely have to make sure…

Women all around the world have fought an uphill battle for equality. Here are three women whose pioneering work in journalism helped in that fight. TOTAL EQUALITY In the 1800s, many people believed women should stay at home. In fact, medical experts at the time believed women shouldn’t be too physically active. Scottish writer Florence Dixie (1855–1905) knew that was nonsense. She played sports, hunted big game, and traveled across Patagonia in South America. In 1881, she became the first female war correspondent for a British newspaper when she reported on the Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa. Back home, she fought for women’s rights. She wanted total equality for men and women in every aspect of life, particularly sports. She was the first president of the British Ladies’ Football Club.…

In 1898, the United States and Spain went to war. The residents of Spain’s overseas colonies—Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines—had been rebelling to be free from Spain’s absolute monarchy. The United States got involved because it blamed Spain for the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor. First, the United States blockaded the island of Cuba with its navy to keep Spanish supplies and reinforcements out. However, four Spanish protected cruisers under the command of Admiral Pascual Cervera snuck into the harbor at Santiago de Cuba. American troops then landed at Guantánamo Bay. The Spanish had 13,000 troops at Santiago, holding positions at El Caney and San Juan Hill. On July 1, General Joseph Wheeler led Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders and other troops in taking San…

What do you know about your great-grandmother? Perhaps you know your grandparents, and maybe they have talked about their mothers. This month’s mystery hero knows quite a bit about her great-grandmother—Ida B. Wells-Barnett! As a youngster, this month’s hero knew that her great-grandmother was an amazing person, but she didn’t focus on it. She grew up in Chicago’s South Side in the 1960s and 1970s. School was important to her because she wanted to attend college. The dream to continue her education was fulfilled when our hero attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. During her college years, she experienced a different world. Dartmouth was primarily attended by middle- and upper-class white students. Our hero realized how different life was for a Black person in a white world. As our hero…

CREATURE FEATURE The northern mockingbird has been designated as the state bird for several states, including Mississippi and Tennessee. (Ida B. Wells-Barnett spent the first three decades of her life in those states.) Mockingbirds are most famous for their remarkable vocal talents. Their Latin name, Mimus polyglottos, translates to “many-tongued mimic.” The birds can sing hundreds of songs. Not only do they mimic other birds’ songs, but they also can imitate frogs, insects, and man-made sounds such as machinery. Another notable characteristic of mockingbirds is their defense of their territory and home. Both male and female mockingbirds behave aggressively toward anything—other songbirds, birds of prey, snakes, even people—that they consider a threat. February 2023 Volume 44 Number 2 cricketmedia.com $6.95…

Baffled means confused. On the warm Chicago evening of June 27, 1895, Ida B. Wells married Ferdinand Lee Barnett. The match baffled those who did not know the couple well. Ida had a strong personality that often intimidated the men she met in the course of her work. She also was extremely independent. Her friends could not see her giving up her causes to become a housewife and mother. Ferdinand was 10 years older than Ida. He was a prominent African American attorney and a widower with two small children. He once had said that if he married again it would be to a woman “who can help me in my career.” But to friends who did know the couple, the union was a perfect example of opposites attracting. One…

The names and words in this crossword puzzle are of the different people—family members, friends, foes, and groups—who contributed to Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s strength and independence. Can you solve it? All the answers can be found in this issue. The solution is on page 49. ACROSS 3. Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s Aunt _____ invited Ida and her two sisters to live with her in Memphis. 4. After good friend Thomas _____ was killed by a mob in Memphis, Tennessee, Wells-Barnett began her investigation of lynching in the United States. 7. When Wells-Barnett’s second child, _____, was born in 1897, she decided to devote a few years to being a mother. 9. In 1913, Wells-Barnett refused to march in a separate group of African American women that had been segregated from white…

In 1882, Ida B. Wells had the opportunity to move from the country to the city. Her father’s sister, Fannie Butler, had been widowed by a yellow fever epidemic. Aunt Fannie invited Ida and her two younger sisters, Annie and Lily, to live with her in Memphis, Tennessee. Ida took a teaching job in Woodstock, about 10 miles outside Memphis. Wells did not enjoy being a teacher, but it was one of the few occupations open to women in the late 1800s. And she had to work to support her family. So, she took her job seriously and worked toward advancement in her career. She read constantly and continued her education during summer breaks by taking college courses. She also studied for the teacher’s exam for the Memphis public schools.…

In 1889, the Rev. Taylor Nightingale asked Ida B. Wells to become a staff writer for his Memphis, Tennessee, newspaper. Nightingale was pastor of that city’s largest Baptist church. He owned the Free Speech and Headlight—the city’s only Black newspaper—with his partner, J.L. Fleming. Wells was interested, but only if she could become an owner, too. “I refused to come in except as equal with themselves, and I bought a one-third interest,” she wrote in her autobiography. “I was editor, Mr. Fleming was business manager . . . and Rev. Nightingale was sales manager.” Much of the newspaper’s circulation came from the 500 copies Nightingale sold each Sunday at his church. But those sales plus the newspaper’s $200 monthly income from advertising were not enough to support Wells and her…

For many years, Ida B. Wells-Barnett contributed to Chicago’s rich African American history. For 11 years, between 1919 and 1930, the Barnett family made their home at 3624 Grand Boulevard (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive). The stately brownstone was built in 1889. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is recognized as a Chicago Historical Landmark. It is known today as the Ida B. Wells-Barnett House. Between 1939 and 1941, a housing project in South Side Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood was named the Ida B. Wells Homes. The buildings were demolished in the early 2000s. In 2019, a major street in Chicago’s downtown business district was renamed Ida B. Wells Drive. In 2021, the Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument (RIGHT)—also in Bronzeville—was unveiled. Historic…

Ida B. Wells-Barnett participated in battles that she knew she would lose. It didn’t stop her from doing what she believed was right. She was motivated by a firm sense of justice. Yet her uncompromising nature at times intimidated people. At the turn of the 20th century, Wells-Barnett and her husband, Ferdinand Lee Barnett, were leaders in Chicago’s growing Black community. The city had become a center for anti-Bookerites. Anti-Bookerites were people who did not support Black activist Booker T. Washington and his viewpoints. Washington was an educator and speaker who had emerged as a spokesperson for Black America. He believed that education was the best way for African Americans to make progress over time. As principal of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he trained a generation of Black teachers,…

In 1908, mobs of white people in Springfield, Illinois, attacked African Americans. They murdered Black people and burned their homes. An old photograph captured the aftermath of that deadly race riot. It showed two burnt chimneys—all that was left of the buildings that once stood around them. The photograph inspired sculptor Preston Jackson to create his “Acts of Intolerance” (BELOW), which is located in Springfield’s Union Square. Jackson is quoted as saying, “Confronting our past straightforwardly is the only way we can learn to develop our future together.”…

A site that once was a major slave auction location in Montgomery, Alabama, today is home to the Legacy Museum. Through texts, photos, artwork, and videos, the museum explores the history of slavery in the United States. It gives faces and voices to people who have been erased and silenced. It draws a line through U.S. history from the beginning of slavery in the 17th century to issues of mass incarceration of the 20th and 21st centuries. Sections in the museum are devoted to the transatlantic slave trade, Reconstruction, lynching, the Jim Crow era, and the modern-day unjust imprisonment of people of color of all ages. The museum also has collaborated with world-famous Black artists and musicians to fill an art gallery that celebrates Black contributions to American culture. For…