ISU History & Social Sciences Club

coolchicksfromhistory:

Kang Tongbi (Kang Tung Pih) 康同璧, circa 1905.

The daughter of a Chinese intellectual, Tongbi was the first Asian student at Barnard.  After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911,  Tongbi returned to China and became involved in feminist causes. Unlike many other women of her class, Tongbi’s feet had never been bound as her parents objected to the practice.  In Shanghai, Tongbi co-founded a Tianzuhui (Natural Feet Society) with a female doctor.  Tongbi also edited Nüxuebao (Women’s Education), one of the first women’s journals in China, and published a biography of her father Kang Youwei.  In the 1920s, she helped organize the Shanghai Women’s Association, which petitioned the Nationalist government in Nanjing for a new constitution under the slogan, “Down with the warlords and up with equality between men and women.”.

(via someotherchick)

fyeah-history:

A Chinese girl from one of the Japanese Army’s ‘comfort battalions’ awaits interrogation at a camp in Rangoon - 8 August 1945. The term “comfort women” was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. 

(via asianhistory)

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

The first woman to ask for divorce and lead an army, Eleanor of Aquitaine lived until she was 82 (pretty good considering most died in their 40s). She got a formal education, which was really rare for women in that era. There are rumours that she poisoned her second husband Henry II’s mistress, the Fair Rosamund. 

This lady’s bad-ass.

(via somewhereinthebetween)

aleki-says:

A feminist symbol of the Mexican Revolution, La Adelita was the name of a woman soldier, a soldadera, who followed the troops, helped set up camp, and cooked for the soldiers

The legend states that Adelita was a woman who fought in the Revolution. It is not known if she actually existed as an individual, but she came to epitomize all soldaderas and courageous women of that period. 

La Adelita is more than a romantic image to modern-day Chicanas. She continues to symbolize feminine independence, integrity, the fight or justice, and a proud heritage.

Rafaela G. Castro, Chicano Folklore: A Guide to the Folktales, Traditions, Rituals and Religious Practices of Mexican Americans

RADICAL BABES 5EVER

(via decolonizeyourmind)

rookiemag:

geneparade:

In the 19th Century having a photograph taken was a lengthy process. Frustrated by the difficulties of getting children to sit still long enough to snap a proper photo , photographers in the 1800’s conceived of a technique called “The Hidden Mother”. Draping a sheet over the mothers head in an attempt to camouflage her as a part of the furniture to better emphasize the child, the mother was then able to hold her infant and keep them still long enough for the camera to get an exposure. Vintage photographs already have a eerie feel to them, but these images of moms as cloaked phantoms take the creep factor to the next level.

(via juliarese)

racebending:

[Image: Photo of Shig Murao at the Howl trial, seated behind the defendant’s table in a black suit, with his hand over his mouth.]

Howl (2010) told the story of San Francisco’s Six Gallery and the 1957 obscenity trial against Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl. In 1957, Shigeyoshi Murao, the Japanese American manager of the City Lights Bookstore, was dragged off to jail for selling Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems.

“Imagine being arrested for selling poetry!” Murao, a lifelong friend of Ginsberg, would later reflect. Murao was bailed out by the ACLU and removed as a defendant in the obscenity trial after the prosecution could not prove he knew what was in the book he was selling.

According to the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, although much of the publicity surrounding the Howl trial was focused on storeowner Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Murao committed the actual controversial act of selling the so-called “obscene book”. As a result, Murao, whose family had been interned during World War II, was the one who served the jail time. “To me, he was the real hero of this tale of sound and fury, signifying everything,” Ferlinghetti wrote in later years.

Given Murao’s important role in the history and story of Howl, he is conspicuously absent in the 2010 film. Patricia Wakida of the Japanese American National Museum unsuccessfully tried to contact the producers to ensure Shig Murao would be included in the film. As depicted on its official website,Howl (2010) had an all-white lead cast and the only defendant depicted in the film is Ferlinghetti.  The Asian American man who served time in jail for this historic case?  Invisible.  Erased from the story.

(via stopwhitewashing)

newsweek:

These two photos we came across this morning (thanks, Reddit) depict Jewish prisoners during the liberation of Dachau getting revenge on their Nazi guards.

Above, a mass of dead or dying German guards lay at the base of a white wall. A few remain standing, but were shot dead moments after this photograph was taken. In the second photo, two inmates prepare to kill a fallen SS guard with a shovel.

Both photographs via here, but h/t here.

ourpresidents:

“A garden for every child, every child in a garden.”

-The United States School Garden Army

On May 5, 1917, Herbert Hoover was appointed by President Wilson to be the United States Food Administrator. 

The U.S. had just entered World War I, and Hoover mobilized Americans to produce and conserve food supplies.  Among the kitchen war efforts were Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays.

Across the country, a movement to grow food in school gardens also took off.  Children, women, and other civilians tended and harvested gardens to feed WWI troops. 

What are you growing in your school garden?

(via todaysdocument)

fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory:

Today In Latin American History

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, which has become a popular holiday in the United States under the name Cinco de Mayo. On May 5, 1862, a Mexican army led by Ignacio Zaragoza, who was born in what is now the state of Texas, defeated a much larger French army during the time of the French Intervention in Mexico. A significant victory, it nevertheless failed to put and end to France’s designs on the country, and the French military forces able to take over the Mexican capital some time later. Napoleon III eventually installed the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph as Emperor Maximiliano I of Mexico in 1864. French involvement in the country would continue for the next few years, with a definitive end arriving with the ouster and execution of Maximiliano I in 1867. Future Mexican president Porfirio Díaz distinguished himself as a young military officer during the Battle of Puebla, and the holiday is said to have gained greater prominence in the country—and, eventually, in the neighboring United States—during his rule at the turn of the century, although the day is also said to have been celebrated by Mexican miners in California in the 1860s. The day of the Battle of Puebla is currently considered a regional event in Mexico, celebrated only in the state of Puebla. In the United States, the holiday is often confused with the date of Mexican independence, which is celebrated on the 16th of September.

picturesofwar:

The Kent State Massacre:

National Guardsmen fire on a crowd of students protesting the Vietnam War and the American invasion of Cambodia at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine more - paralyzing one for life.  Earlier protests had turned to rioting, which had first spurred the calling of the National Guard to the University.  

The shooting itself lasted only 13 seconds, in which 67 bullets were fired at close range.

May 4, 1970 - 42 years ago today.

(via aheadfullofempty)