Transcript A Timeline of terror in America By Marion T. Sanders, Jnr.

A Timeline of Terror in America
By
Marion T. Sanders, Jnr.
Terrorism
Terrorism is the nagging fear that the
enemy, or your persecutor, can hurt,
humiliate, or degrade you whenever they
choose.
Terrorists-Slave Traders and Slave OwnersTerrorizedAfricans Shipped to America
The first Africans in America arrived as indentured
servants via Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Slavery on
American soil grew at such a rapid rate that , by
1750, over 200,000 African slaves were in America.
Fifty years later, that number grew to 700,000.
To be denied freedom and considered as chattels is to
be terrorized.
Terrorists-Certain Residents of Salem, MassachusettsTerrorized Over twenty-four people
In 1692, nineteen innocent men and women were hanged for
witchcraft. An old man was pressed to death for refusing to
stand trial. Four others died in jail as they awaited trial. One
can only imagine the horror of being targeted as a “witch.”
The psychological damaged had to be severe and longlasting.
Terrorist- King George III-The Proclamation
of 1763Terrorized American Settlers on the Western
Side of the Appalachian Mountains
Before the French and Indian War, colonists had begun
to expand westward over the Appalachian Mountains.
American colonists fought for the Mother Country and
gained all the land to the Mississippi River. However,
King George issued a royal proclamation forbidding
colonists from going back home to their western lands.
The Colonists regarded the new policy as an
infringement of their basic rights and an act of
terrorism by the King.
Procalmation of 1763_ cont’d
Terrorists-British navyTerrorized American Sailors aboard the
Chesapeake (Impressment)
It was the custom of the British Navy in the early years of the
American republic to lie in wait for America merchant ships
after they had departed an American harbor. They would
demand a search of the vessels for British deserters and force
members of their crews into the British navy. These act of
terrorism eventually turned violent. In June 1807, the frigate
Chesapeake was intercepted and the American captain refused
to be searched: the result was that three Americans were killed,
eighteen wounded, and the American ship was crippled.
Impressment of the
Chesapeake_cont’d
Terrorists-A Mob of Angry ProslaversTerrorized Elijah Lovejoy, Abolitionist
Elijah Lovejoy was an abolitionist. He was a
Presbyterian minister who started a religious
newspaper, the St. Louis Observer, where he advocated
the abolition of slavery. He published a full account of
the lynching of an African-American in St. Louis and
the subsequent trial that acquitted the guilty parties.
This angered some local people and his printing press
was destroyed by a white mob. Three times Lovejoy’s
press was seized by white mobs and thrown into the
Mississippi River.
Elijah Lovejoy
Terrorists-President Andrew Jackson and the
United States CalvaryTerrorizedCherokee Indians of Georgia
Even though Jackson was no longer
President in 1838, the removal of an
estimated 17,000 Cherokees from Georgia
was part of his overall Indian Removal
Policy. This act of terrorism was so
heinous that historians immediately began
referring to it as “The Trail of Tears.” No
one knows exactly how many Cherokee
died on the journey to Oklahoma, but
estimates are near 4,000.
“The Trail of Tears”
Terrorists-Angry Anti-Mormon Citizens of
IllinoisTerrorized Joseph Smith and His Followers
In the spring of 1820, a young, fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith
claimed to have been visited by two “personages” who identified
themselves as God the father and Jesus Christ. They told him not to
join any church.
A few years later, Smith claimed he was visited by an angel
named Moroni, who told him of an ancient record containing God’s
dealings with the former inhabitants of the American continent.
Joseph retrieved this record, which he claimed was inscribed on thin
golden plates and transcribed them. The resulting manuscript was
the Book of Mormon. Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints. They were,however, soon forced by
unsympathetic neighbors to move to Ohio,Missouri,
…and then Illinois.He was loved by his followers and hated
by his detractors. Smith was persecuted much of his adult life
and was killed along with his brother Hyrum by a mob in
Carthage, Illinois, on June 27,1844
Terrorists-United States Colonel J.M. Chivington
and His MilitiaTerrorized Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek
Colorado
This conflict began when a group of Cheyenne continuously
refused to move onto a reservation. In 1864, Colonel Chivington
and a troop of volunteer militia swooped down and attacked a
group of Cheyenne and Arapaho camped near Sand Creek.
Around 250 Indians,mostly women, children and elderly, were
killed in the attack, despite the presence of flags being flown which
were the agreed-upon indicators of a peaceful camp.
Sand Creek Massacre_cont’d
Terrorists-New Southern State Legislatures Passing
Black CodesTerrorized Free African-Americans
In 1865, the newly reconstituted southern state
legislatures passed a series of laws thereafter known as
the so-called Black Codes. The laws were aimed to
control freed men and women and to enable plantation
owners to exploit and trample on the rights of newly
emancipated African-American workers.
Other laws banned African-Americans from owning or
renting farms. One law allowed whites to take orphaned
African-American children as unpaid apprentices. The
Black Codes were little other than slavery in disguise.
Black Codes_ Cont’d
Terrorists- Ku Klux Klan (from 1866 on) Terrorized African Americans and Their
Supporters
During Reconstruction, white violence against African
Americans and their supporters became a common occurrence.
Much of this violence was committed by secret societies organized
to prevent freed men and women from exercising their rights and
to help whites regain their power.
The most terrifying of these societies, the Ku Klux Klan, was
formed in 1866. Wearing white sheets and hoods, members of the
Klan launched “midnight rides” against African Americans,
burning their homes, churches, and schools. The Klan killed as
well. Klan violence increased before elections, the group tried to
scare African Americans to keep them from voting.
Klu Klux Klan_ Cont’d
Terrorists-The United States ArmyTerrorized Lakota Sioux Indians
After the death of Sitting Bull in early December 1890, several
hundred Lakota Sioux fled in fear. They gathered at a creek called
Wounded Knee in southwestern Dakota. Immediately after
Christmas (1890), the army went there to collect the Sioux’s
weapons. The Indians were starving and freezing. No one knows
how the fighting started, but when a shot rang out, the army
responded. Using machine guns, soldiers killed more than 300
Lakota.
Wounded Knee marked the end of armed conflict between the
American Army and the once mighty Plains Indians. The Native
Americans had lost.
Wounded Knee_ Cont’d
Terrorists-Chicago PoliceTerrorized People on the Street and Eight
Anarchists
In 1866, a bloody clash broke out between police and striders
in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. Striking workers from
McCormick Harvester company were protesting the killings of
four strikers the previous day by the Chicago Police. When
police ordered the crowd to break up, an unidentified person
threw a bomb that killed seven police officers. A fierce battle
ensued which left at least 13 people dead, some of whom were
civilians caught in the middle.
Eight anarchists attending the meeting were arrested and
charged with being accessories to the crime, on the grounds
that they had publicly and frequently advocated such violence.
They were tried and found guilty on a variety of charges. Seven
were sentenced to death and one to imprisonment. Four were
hanged, one committed suicide, the sentence of two was
commuted to life imprisonment, and one received…
Haymarket Riot_ cont’d
…a 15-year prison term. In 1893, the three in prison were
pardoned by the governor John P. Altgeld of Illinois mainly on
the ground that no evidence had been presented actually
connecting the defendants with the throwing of the bomb.
Terrorists-Robber Barons with the Support of
CongressTerrorized hundreds of Thousands of Children
In the 19th century, hundred of thousands of children
under the age of 16 worked in factories, mines, agriculture
and other industries.
Terrorized Children_ cont’d
“Tipple Boys”, as young as 8 years old, had to sit, leaning over, and
using their feet to divide the rock and shale from the coal as it
traveled on a conveyor belt below them. Because they worked
during their formative years, their spines were permanently
curved.
Terrorists- Men, Politicians, and the United States
GovernmentTerrorized Suffragettes and all Women
For years women fought for the right to vote and for equal rights
in America. Brave women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia
Mott, and Susan B. Anthony were relentless in their quest.
Terrorists-President Hoover & U.S. ArmyTerrorized Bonus Army
The United States Congress in the boom times of the
1920s agreed to give each veteran of the First World War
a $1,000 bonus payable in 1945. In June 1932, when the
hard times of the Depression had set in, about 2,000 of
the jobless veterans wanted their money immediately.
They formed the Bonus Army and marched on
Washington, camping out like soldiers in the public parks
to pressure Congress. When the D.C. police tried to
disband the veteran’s camp, conflict broke out and two
people were killed. Hoover responded by calling in the
army. With tanks, machine guns, and cavalry, troops
entered the camp. Veterans and their families fled in
Bonus Army_ cont’d
Terrorists-United States GovernmentTerrorized Japanese-Americans (Nisei)
After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December
7, 1941, Japanese-Americans were feared and hated by
many other Americans. About two-thirds of the
Japanese-Americans were Nisei, American citizens born
in the United States.
As result, the president directed the army to relocate
more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans living on the
West Coast to detention centers located mostly in desert
areas. These internment camps were crowded and
uncomfortable. Conditions were very harsh and
primitive for the internees.
Japanese Internment camp_ cont’d
Terrorists-Segregationist AmericansTerrorized Elizabeth Eckford And The Others
Like Her
In 1957, a federal judge ordered Central High
School in Little Rock, Arkansas, a hitherto all-white
institution, to admit African-American students.
On the day that those students were scheduled to
begin schooling, armed Guardsmen blocked the
school’s entrance. One brave young 15 year-old girl,
Elizabeth Eckford, nevertheless braved the insults and
threats of white citizens to enter the school.
Anti-integration efforts_ cont’d
Terrorists- Birmingham PoliceTerrorized Civil Rights Demonstrators
In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King,Jr.,
and the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference targeted Birmingham, Alabama, for
a desegregation protest march. The police used
high pressure water hoses against the civil rights
marchers. Police arrested hundred of
demonstrators, including King, but the
demonstrations nevertheless continued.
Desegregation Protest_ cont’d
Terrorists- United States Government/National
GuardTerrorized Kent State University Students
When President Richard Nixon sent American troops into
Cambodia in the spring of 1970, anti-war critics charged him with
invading a neutral country. They claimed that in doing this he had
overstepped his constitutional authority as President.
The invasion invoked a storm of anti-war protests on college
campuses across the nation. Most were peaceful; however, one ended
in violence. On the morning of May 4, 1970, armed troops arrived on
the campus of Kent State University. Rifle fire by a contingent of 28
Ohio National Guardsmen left four students dead, one permanently
paralyzed, and eight others wounded. Some of the injured and killed
students were merely walking to and from class. One was an ROTC
officer candidate.
Kent State_ cont’d
Terrorists-Mohammed Salameh, Nidal
Avvad, Mahmud Abbluhalima, and
Ahmad Aiaj- Bombed the World Trade
Center in New York City
On February 26, 1993, a suspected car bomb exploded
beneath the World Trade Center in New York City.
Thousands of office workers were trapped as smoke
billowed up through the building.
Hundreds eventually poured out of the building gasping
for air and covered with soot. In the end, the death toll rose
to six with, however, hundreds of people injured.
World Trade Center bombing 1993_cont’d
Terrorists-Timothy McVeight and Terry
Nichols Terrorized
Terrorized-Workers in and Around the Murrah
Building and America
April 19,1995 a massive bomb inside a rental truck
exploded, blowing half of the nine-story building into
oblivion. A stunned nation watched as the bodies of
men, women, and children were pulled from the
rubble of nearly two weeks. When the smoke cleared
and the exhausted rescue workers packed up and left,
168 people were dead
Implosion of the Murrah building_cont’d
Terrorist-Theodore
Kacznski(Unabomber) and Eric Rudolph
Terrorized-Americans
Both of these men used violence to try and bring
about changes in a system they deemed unfair or
corrupt. Kacznski claimed in his manifesto that his
target was “Industrial Society and Its Future”.
Rudolph bombed abortion clinics, a gay nightclub
and Atlanta’s Centennial Park during the 196
Summer Olympics.
American terroists_cont’d
Eric Rudolph
Theodore Kacznski
Terrorists-John Allen Muhammad and
Lee Boyd Malvo (Beltway Sniper)Terrorized the Washington, D.C. Area
During three weeks in October of 2002, two men terrorized
the greater metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. When the
killing spree ended, ten people were dead and three others
critically injured. Following an intense investigation, it was
later learned that the spree had actually begun a month
before with murders and robbery in several other states
where three more had died. The so-called Beltway Sniper’s
plot was to extort $10 million from various government
agencies.
American terrorists_cont’d
John Allen. Muhammad
Lee Boyd Malvo
Bertrand Russell called upon men to not
submit to but to transcend, lower
moralities which, glorified power, force,
the creed of militarism,and the struggle
for survival.
Living in peace and perpetual happiness is not
only an intrinsic desire, but fervent collective
wish of humankind. Will there ever be an end to
terrorism, war and conflict? Is there a way to
reduce collective stress and create peace?