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1 Jun, 5 tweets, 2 min read
As we start #PrideMonth, I wanted to quote from a paragraph from my 60s chapter in Of Thee I Sing, highlighting critical patriotic LGBTQ rights activism that predated Stonewall: "One of the earliest & most overtly critical patriotic 1960s LGBT rights protests took place outside+
Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on July 4th, 1965. Organized by a courageous group of activists called the Gay Pioneers, this first of what would become known as the Annual Reminder Marches was very purposefully held in that historically significant location+
+on that nationally symbolic occasion; as one of its participants, Reverend Robert Wood, put it, “We were picketing for freedom and equal rights, and the Liberty Bell was a great symbol.”+
+Another local LGBT rights activist, Cuban American immigrant Ada Bello, expressed that critically patriotic perspective directly: “'The marches were to convey to everybody that we were just as entitled as any citizen to have our rights respected.'”
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/firs…
For more on these pioneering 1960s critical patriotic protests & social movements, check out Chapter 7 in Of Thee I Sing. & happy #Pride2021!
rowman.com/ISBN/978153814…

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More from @AmericanStudier

Ben Railton Profile picture
3 Jun
I wanted to say a couple things about a historical figure who used to be on my Memory Day Calendar (for his June 1 birthday), why I removed him, & the difference between history & commemoration: Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan. #twitterstorians
For a long time, I knew Harlan only for his inspiring (mostly—hold that thought) dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), & specifically for his striking & influential argument there that the Constitution is “color-blind.”

chnm.gmu.edu/courses/nclc37…
Along with Homer Plessy & his lawyer, the thoroughly awesome Albion Tourgée, I thus put Harlan into the category of “inspiring historical figures we can learn from amidst a horrific, exclusionary, white supremacist historical event.”

google.com/books/edition/…
Read 19 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
1 Jun
The Decoration Day series continues with Frederick Douglass' amazing & crucial 1871 speech at Arlington National Cemetery! #decorationday #MemorialDay #twitterstorians

americanstudier.blogspot.com/2021/06/june-1…
As much as the overt, neo-Confederate Lost Cause narrative and all that came with it became dominant in the post-Civil War US, I would say that another white-centered narrative was & remains just as destructive: that the Civil War was a terrible tragedy.
saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/06/consid…
That tragedy frame relies on another narrative with which I grew up: recognizing the courage & sacrifice of soldiers on both sides, even if we acknowledge the war's true cause. Douglass takes that on directly in the conclusion of his stunning speech:
Read 6 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
28 Mar
Last week my friends @PedagogyAmLitSt shared a tweet about how #ScholarSunday threads tend to highlight the same, often already established & prominent voices. I hope my Sunday threads have been varied, but I totally get how that can happen even when unintended. So+
For this week’s brief #ScholarSunday thread I wanted to do something a bit different: highlighting a few of the many grad students & NTT folks from whom I’ve learned so much & whom we should all be following. In no particular order:
Gotta start with those awesome @PedagogyAmLitSt folks, which includes @GregSpecter, @CaitlinLeeKelly, @SilasLapham, & Brianna Jacquette (who might not be on twitter any more). Always amazing AmericanStudying & teaching content!
Read 7 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
20 Mar
I'm finishing my 16th year at FSU & 21st of teaching overall, so I've had the full spectrum of experiences w/classes, including some where the whole group has for one reason or another (incl my own failures) struggled. But I've never had anything like my Am Lit II this semester.+
~3-4 of 29 students have done the short (1-2 sentence) reading responses each week. Paper 1 was due 2 weeks ago (& ungraded, so turning it in = full credit), & 11 of 29 have turned it in. This past week we paused all work to allow for catching up, & I got no responses or papers.
Obviously I get it, & I know there's nothing I can do about much of what's happening. ~15-20 of the 29 are generally on the weekly synchronous Google Meet convo, so maybe it has to be enough to think that they're taking something away from our texts & convos. But man.
Read 5 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
24 Jan
Looking for reading material to help you stay comfy & warm on this frigid January day? Well, it’s easy as another #ScholarSunday morning thread of public scholarly work from the last week! #twitterstorians
Great @benbarber96 interview of @AngieMaxwell1 for @facingsouth on countering the “Long Southern Strategy”:
facingsouth.org/2021/01/politi…
& an equally vital @FAIRmediawatch interview w/@KeriLeighMerrit on the Lost Cause:
fair.org/home/the-lost-…
Read 17 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
19 Jan
So as my fellow #twitterstorians have documented quite potently, the #1776Commission report is propagandistic white supremacist nonsense. But I might be most offended by its depiction of education & educators, at this moment in our history no less. A quick thread:
For nearly a year now, educators—especially at the secondary & primary levels, but we higher ed folks as well—have been doing everything possible to take care of our young people amidst these horrific times & help them respond to all that's in our society & world.
That means fundamental emphases of care & community amidst a deepening global health crisis. But it also means responding to both the year’s protests & activisms & to white supremacist sedition & insurrection, to the worst & best of our history & society.
Read 11 tweets

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