Fourteenth Amendment, Section 5:

The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Congress, in addition to proposing to the states the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, enacted seven statutes designed in a variety of ways to implement the provisions of these Amendments.¹ Several of these laws were general civil rights statutes that broadly attacked racial and other discrimination on the part of private individuals and groups as well as by the states, but the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional or rendered ineffective practically all of these laws over the course of several years.² In the end, Reconstruction was abandoned and with rare exceptions no cases were brought under the remaining statutes until fairly recently.³ Beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1957, however, Congress generally acted pursuant to its powers under the Commerce Clause⁴ until Supreme Court decisions indicated an expansive concept of congressional power under the Civil War amendments,⁵ which culminated in broad provisions against private interference with civil rights in the 1968 legislation.⁶

constitution.congress.gov

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

THE CRACKLING EXECUTION OF – Helen Ray Fowler

02/22/2022 Nativegrl77

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

1956 – In Montgomery, Alabama, 80 participants in the three-month-old bus boycott voluntarily gave themselves up for arrest after an ultimatum from white city leaders. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were among those arrested. Later in 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court mandated desegregation of the buses.

02/22/2022 Nativegrl77

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

2/22/22

02/22/2022 Nativegrl77

~ In the Library

In the Library: Last Dance in Havana by Eugene Robinson

02/22/2022 Nativegrl77

In power for forty-four years and counting, Fidel Castro has done everything possible to define Cuba to the world and to itself — yet not even he has been able to control the thoughts and dreams of his people. Those thoughts and dreams are the basis for what may become a post-Castro Cuba. To more fully understand the future of America’s near neighbor, veteran reporter Eug…moreIn power for forty-four years and counting, Fidel Castro has done everything possible to define Cuba to the world and to itself — yet not even he has been able to control the thoughts and dreams of his people. Those thoughts and dreams are the basis for what may become a post-Castro Cuba. To more fully understand the future of America’s near neighbor, veteran reporter Eugene Robinson knew exactly where to look — or rather, to listen. In this provocative work, Robinson takes us on a sweaty, pulsating, and lyrical tour of a country on the verge of revolution, using its musicians as a window into its present and future.

Music is the mother’s milk of Cuban culture. Cubans express their fondest hopes, their frustrations, even their political dissent, through music. Most Americans think only of salsa and the “Buena Vista Social Club” when they think of the music of Cuba, yet those styles are but a piece of a broad musical spectrum. Just as the West learned more about China after the Cultural Revolution by watching “From Mao to Mozart,” so will readers discover the real Cuba — the living, breathing, dying, yet striving Cuba.

Cuban music is both wildly exuberant and achingly melancholy. A thick stew of African and European elements, it is astoundingly rich and influential to have come from such a tiny island. From rap stars who defy the government in their lyrics to violinists and pianists who attend the world’s last Soviet-style conservatory to international pop stars who could make millions abroad yet choose to stay and work for peanuts, Robinson introduces us to unforgettable characters who happily bring him into their homes and backstage discussions.

Despite Castro’s attemptsto shut down nightclubs, obstruct artists, and subsidize only what he wants, the musicians and dancers of Cuba cannot stop, much less behave. Cubans move through their complicated lives the way they move on the dance floor, dashing and darting and spinning on a dime, seducing joy and fulfillment and next week’s supply of food out of a broken system. Then at night they take to the real dance floors and invent fantastic new steps. “Last Dance in Havana” is heartwrenching, yet ultimately as joyous and hopeful as a rocking club late on a Saturday night.