1957 Arkansas vs. 2012 North Carolina
April 1943. Clinton, Iowa. “Mrs. Marcella Hart, mother of three, employed as a wiper at the roundhouse. Chicago & North Western R.R.”
4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
In Remembrance: Women Who Died From Illegal and Unsafe Abortions
The seven women below are just a small representation of the countless women who have died because they did not have access to safe and legal abortions. Most of these women died before Roe v. Wade offered them a safe alternative. However, women continue to die and suffer injury due to current restrictions that particularly affect young women and poor women.
Our government is now controlled by conservative leaders who are extremely hostile to women’s reproductive rights. If more retsictions on abortion are enacted, and especially if Roe v. Wade is overturned, this list of lives cut short could grow to include our daughters, sisters, mothers, best friends, wives, partners, granddaughters and other special women and girls…
Clara Bell Duvall
Dec. 23, 1896 - March 27, 1929
Clara Duvall, her husband and five children (ages 6 months to 12 years) were living in Pittsburgh, Pa., with her parents due to limited financial resources when she learned she was pregnant again. Clara attempted a self-abortion with a knitting needle. Her doctor, knowing she was seriously ill and in severe pain, delayed sending her to a hospital for several weeks. The Catholic hospital where she died chose to list the cause of death as “pneumonia.”Ruth Irene Friedl
Aug. 24, 1901 - Aug. 21, 1929
Denied a legal abortion though her pregnancy was diagnosed as life-threatening, Ruth Friedl attempted to self-abort by drinking a plant poison, ergot apiol. That night at the dinner table of their home in Denver, Colo., with her husband and two small children present, she collapsed and died.
Pauline Roberson Shirley
June 22, 1910 - August 22, 1940
Pauline Shirley and her six children were living with her mother in Arizona while her husband sought work in California. After an illegal abortion, she began to hemorrhage and was hospitalized. She needed massive transfusions. While Pauline’s mother searched the community for donors, Pauline bled to death.Vivian Campbell
December 12, 1925 - May 6, 1950
Vivian Campbell was the mother of two children ages five and three. She was newly separated from her husband when she realized she was pregnant. Sending her children to stay with her parents, she sought and obtained an illegal abortion. She sent for her husband, but by the time he arrived at the hospital it was too late. She died in agony of peritonitis.Geraldine Santoro
August 16, 1935 - June 8, 1964
The photo of Geraldine Santoro dead on a hotel room floor has become a symbol for the horror of illegal abortion. Gerri, as she was known, lived on her family farm in Coventry, Conn., with her two daughters. At the age of 28, separated from her abusive husband, she became pregnant by another man, Clyde Dixon. Afraid that her husband would kill her if he found out, she and Dixon looked for ways to terminate her pregnancy. With no other options, they attempted to perform the procedure themselves. When the operation went awry, Dixon fled, leaving Santoro behind where she bled to death. A chambermaid found her body the next morning.
Rosie Jimenez
1950 - Oct. 3, 1977
A single mother with a 5-year-old daughter, Rosie Jimenez of McAllen, Texas, was a scholarship student six months away from her teaching credential. She was the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment, which cut off Medicaid funding for abortion to women on public assistance — women who by the government’s own definition cannot afford health care. Too poor to pay for the procedure at a private clinic, she died in agony from a botched illegal abortion.
Becky Bell
August 24, 1971 - Sept. 16, 1988
At 17, Becky became a victim of an Indiana state law requiring parental consent for a minor to obtain an abortion. Unable to bring herself to disappoint her parents by telling them she was pregnant — or go before a judge to bypass the law — Becky sought an illegal abortion. When she became seriously ill, her parents rushed her to the hospital. In severe pain from a massive infection, Becky still could not tell them, and despite the efforts of the doctors, she died.Sandy Rapp’s song, “Remember Rose: A Song For Choice”, recalls the story of Rosie Jimenez. It’s a fitting soundtrack on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This version features vocals by feminist Congressmember Bella Abzug. Listen to “Remember Rose”.
We will not. go. back.
I don’t live in America myself, but there is no denying that a ban on abortions is just horribly backwards.
Also, out of curiosity, I did a quick Google search for Geraldine Santoro, and the photograph of her body is terribly upsetting, I would advise caution to anyone with possible triggers.Overall, I cannot understand how anyone can even think for a second that they can tell anyone what they can and cannot do to or with their own body.
The photo of Gerri is indeed incredibly upsetting and I too recommend caution before googling it. All of these stories are horrible. There is no reason we should start moving backwards. How can someone claim to be pro-life and allow women to die like this?recommended reading: patricia g. miller’s the worst of times, which you can buy used for really cheap. it’s an excellent, heartbreaking compendium of different folks’ experiences with abortion from women who survived their illegal abortions to kids whose mothers didn’t. i transcribed one woman’s story here that really exemplifies the difference between now and then. (now being 1993, but y’know.)
The Problem We All Live With - by Norman Rockwell 1964
Painting of Ruby Bridges being escorted by U.S. Marshalls to her first day of unsegregated schooling in New Orleans, LA.
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I wrote a paper which focused on this piece and other depictions of racism in art for an Art History class in uni.
gatheringbones:wrathofprawn:lostsplendor:stalins-princess:
Nightwitches
Die NachtHexen
Ночные ведьмы
for those not in the know, night witches were russian lady bombers who bombed the shit out of german lines in WW2. Thing is though, they had the oldest, noisiest, crappest planes in the entire world. The engines used to conk out halfway through their missions, so they had to climb out on the wings mid flight to restart the props. the planes were also so noisy that to stop germans from hearing them combing and starting up their anti aircraft guns, they’d climb up to a certain height, coast down to german positions, drop their bombs, restart their engines in midair, and get the fuck out of dodge.
their leader flew over 200 missions and was never captured.
Check this out, Maze.
Holy shit, is Die Nachthexen ever my new band name.
Ordinary people. The courage to say no.
The photo was taken in Hamburg in 1936, during the celebrations for the launch of a ship. In the crowd, one person refuses to raise his arm to give the Nazi salute. The man was August Landmesser. He had already been in trouble with the authorities, having been sentenced to two years hard labor for marrying a Jewish woman.
We know little else about August Landmesser, except that he had two children. By pure chance, one of his children recognized her father in this photo when it was published in a German newspaper in 1991. How proud she must have been in that moment.
Eve Arnold
School for black civil rights activists; young girl being trained to not react to smoke blown in her face
Virginia, 1960
Reading David McCullough’s 1776, I found myself wondering: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents? If so, when did American accents diverge from British accents?
The answer surprised me.
Of course they do. Fuck the Tea Party, man. Fuck them so hard.
Reblogging this again because FUCK THIS SHIT
anal-is-like-pooping-but-worse:
Theodore Roosevelt, October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919
“Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake there would have been a fight.”
Holy shit we share a birthday
I am destined to be as badass as TR.
theodore roosevelt best president everyone go home
BAMF!
And remember when he said:
“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”
Or when he said:
“I have not been able to think out any solution of the terrible problem offered by the presence of the Negro on this continent, but of one thing I am sure, and that is that inasmuch as he is here and can neither be killed nor driven away, the only wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he shows himself worthy to have.”
Or when he said:
“The expansion of the peoples of white, or European, blood during the past four centuries which should never be lost sight of, especially by those who denounce such expansion on moral grounds. On the whole, the movement has been fraught with lasting benefit to most of the peoples already dwelling in the lands over which the expansion took place.”
Or when he said:
“It was out of the question to expect Texans to submit to the mastery of the weaker [Mexican] race.”
pero like…
WOO FUCK YEAH TEDDY ROOSEVELT etc
and it’s no accident that this segment is conveniently left out of our education
The white-washing of MLK jr. and the civil rights movement on a whole to make history look kindly upon white folk and convince POC of the disempowering lie that is “Be polite, nice, & don’t challenge us & you’ll get your rights” is one that disgusts me to no end.
Hidden in the Open: A Photographic Essay of 140-Years of Black Male Couples
Historian Trent Kelly has collected 146 rare vintage photographs of black male couples from the past 150 years.
Although the large majority of the pictures depict gay couples, the collection also includes images of families and friends but they all have one thing in common: they capture images of love.
Below is a snippet of why Kelly started the collection along with a few photos from his archive.
“Historically, the Afro American gay male and couple has largely been defined by everyone but themselves. Afro American gay men are ignored into nonexistence in parts of black culture and are basically second class citizens in gay culture. The black church which has historically played a fundamental role in protesting against civil injustices toward its parishioners has been want to deny its gay members their right to live a life free and open without prejudice. Despite public projections of a “rainbow” community living together in harmonious co-habitation, openly active and passive prejudices exist in the larger gay community against gay Afro Americans.”
