Teaching Educational TV a Lesson about Race
JANUARY 8 IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of an unprecedented decision by the Federal Communications Commission, to cancel the broadcasting license of Alabama Educational Television because the station "excluded blacks from the decision-making process," and rejected "most of the Black-oriented programming available to it," in a state where 30 percent of population was Black. In addition, the station's signal did not even reach seven of the nine Alabama counties where Blacks outnumbered whites.
The FCC's wake-up call to Alabama's racist good-ole-boy network had the desired effect. After the station hired a substantial number of Black managers, adjusted its programming to reflect the interests of the state's entire population and expanded the reach of its signal, it was allowed to reapply for the license, which was renewed. https://www.facingsouth.org/teaching-educational-tv-lesson
‘It Was the Right Thing To Do’
JANUARY 9 IS THE 95TH ANNIVERSARY of a strangely forgotten episode in the relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
On January 9, 1930, the very large and successful architectural firm of Albert Kahn Associates, which was headquartered in Detroit and operated both internationally and throughout the U.S., signed a contract with the Soviet government to be the consulting architect for all industrial construction in the Soviet Union for the next five years, that is, for the duration of the Soviet Union's first 5-year plan.
At a time when the U.S. did not recognize the USSR's government and had no diplomatic relations with it, which meant that doing business in the USSR involved an unusual amount of risk. Albert Kahn Associates assumed the responsibility for eventually designing 521 Soviet factories and other industrial projects. In addition, the firm established an office in Moscow that trained more than four thousand architects and engineers, close to the number of design professionals graduated by all the architectural and engineering schools in the U.S. during the same period.
Albert Kahn Associates was renowned for having designed production facilities for scores of major U.S. corporations, including all the large automobile manufacturers. Kahn was a believer in the notion that producing practical designs for industrial buildings was a key task in the success of any industrial society. In 1930, the Soviets had very little experience in that realm, and Kahn was more than happy to share his expertise with them.
Kahn did not profess to be a leftist. When asked why he undertook the unusual project in the Soviet Union, he said that he believed “the Russian people – regardless of their form of government – were entitled to help after all their generations of suffering under the czars. It was the right thing to do.”
Less than a decade later, when the Third Reich came to grief in its failed attempt to obliterate the Soviet Union, more than a few observers believed that Kahn's contribution to the USSR's industrial infrastructure and nurturing a cadre of Soviet architects and engineers played a significant role in the outcome of World War 2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41933723
Negligence Kills, But Only the Victims Pay
JANUARY 10 IS THE 165TH ANNIVERSARY of an unprecedentedly massive industrial catastrophe, the 1860 collapse, without warning, of the brick, 5-story Pemberton Textile Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
At least 145 workers died and more than 150 were hurt, many of them critically. Investigation after the collapse found that the 7-year-old mill had been built with substandard cast-iron columns and substandard mortar, but no individual or company was ever held responsible for the deaths and injuries. If you visit the Zinn Education Project's page, you can watch an informative 15-minute video about the collapse and its aftermath https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/pemberton-mill-collapse/
Paul Robeson Is John Henry
JANUARY 11 IS THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY of the second day of an unsuccessful (6-day) Broadway run of the musical “John Henry” at the Forty-fourth Street Theater on Broadway.
With a book by Roark Bradford and music by Jacques Wolf, “John Henry” starred Paul Robeson and Ruby Elzy with Josh White, Joseph Attles, Musa Williams, and Bayard Rustin. You can hear Josh White’s rendition of its song "I Don't Care Where They Bury My Body" here: https://youtu.be/ng_xRr69eas?si=tj_1jvNS5f7qnlMO
New Technology Remakes an Industry
JANUARY 12 IS THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY of the beginning of a revolution in ocean shipping that would result in the speedy remaking of every major port city and a tsunami of unemployment among the residents of those cities.
In January 1960, a radically new kind of ship, designed to carry many specially designed metal containers instead of loose cargo, for the first time steamed into the port of New York to tie up at Newark, where it was loaded with containers bound for Venezuela. The loading took place at an old-style pier not specifically designed to handle shipping containers. Nearby the world's first maritime container port was under construction, but it would not open until August 1962.
The containerization of cargo has substantially reduced the number of workers needed to load and unload ships, with the result that the size of the dockworker workforce has fallen sharply. At the same time, the dockworkers' unions have negotiated contracts that significantly increased the incomes of the remaining workforce. Another major effect of containerization has been to change the geography of the industry. Because container ports require much more land than old-style ports, port operations in densely populated locations have almost disappeared, to be replaced by operations in places where land is available for the vast networks of roads and parking lots that are required. https://xxxxxx.org/2019-05-16/newest-automation-plan-hits-nerve-la-port-communities
A Classic Ragtime Spiritual
JANUARY 14 IS THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY of the recording session during which Bessie Smith on vocals, Louis Armstrong, cornet, and Fred Longshaw, harmonium, recorded the huge hit, W.C. Handy's unforgettable The St. Louis Blues. You can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/3rd9IaA_uJI?si=Ibwn3AfYSa4vI5uM
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