“In the 1950s the portrayal of a Black man in a position of authority and a discussion of racism in a comic was at the centre of a battle between Entertaining Comics editor William Gaines and the Comics Code Authority, which had been set up in 1954 to self regulate the content of US comics amid fears they were a corrupting influence on youth. Gaines fought frequently with the CCA in an attempt to keep his magazines free from censorship.
The particular example noted by comics historian Digby Diehl, Gaines threatened Judge Charles Murphy, the Comics Code Administrator, with a lawsuit when Murphy ordered EC to alter the science-fiction story “Judgment Day”, in Incredible Science Fiction #33 (Feb. 1956).
The story depicted a human astronaut, a representative of the Galactic Republic, visiting the planet Cybrinia inhabited by robots. He finds the robots divided into functionally identical orange and blue races, one of which has fewer rights and privileges than the other. The astronaut decides that due to the robots’ bigotry, the Galactic Republic should not admit the planet. In the final panel, he removes his helmet, revealing himself to be a black man.
Murphy demanded, without any authority in the Code, that the black astronaut had to be removed.
Feldstein, interviewed for the book Tales of Terror: The EC Companion, reiterated his recollection of Murphy making the request:
So he said it can’t be a Black [person]. So I said, ‘For God’s sakes, Judge Murphy, that’s the whole point of the Goddamn story!’ So he said, ‘No, it can’t be a Black’. Bill [Gaines] just called him up [later] and raised the roof, and finally they said, ‘Well, you gotta take the perspiration off’. I had the stars glistening in the perspiration on his Black skin. Bill said, ‘F**k you’, and he hung up
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815-1902 (Social activist, abolitionist, author)
“What will we and our daughters suffer if these degraded black men are allowed to have the rights that would make them even worse than our Saxon fathers?”
Anna Howard Shaw, 1847-1919 (Physician, Methodist minister, president
of the National Woman Suffrage Association)
“You have put the ballot in the hands of your black men, thus making
them political superiors of white women. Never before in the history of the world
have men made former slaves the political masters of their former mistresses!”
Frances Willard, 1839-1898 (Feminist lecturer, founder of the National
Council of Women, anti-child abuse activist)
“Alien illiterates rule our cities today; the saloon is their palace,
and the toddy stick their scepter. The colored race multiplies like the locusts
of Egypt.”
Carrie Chapman Catt, 1859-1947 (Founder of the League of Women Voters)
“White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by women’s suffrage.”
Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton, 1835-1930 (First woman to serve in the
Senate)
“I do not want to see a negro man walk to the polls and vote on who
should handle my tax money, while I myself cannot vote at all…When there is not
enough religion in the pulpit to organize a crusade against sin; nor justice in
the court house to promptly punish crime; nor manhood enough in the nation to put
a sheltering arm about innocence and virtue—-if it needs lynching to protect woman’s
dearest possession from the ravening human beasts—-then I say lynch, a thousand
times a week if necessary.”
If hair braiding isn’t taught in many beauty schools, why does the government force black women to go (and pay thousands) to get a cosmetology license? What’s worse is not doing so could result in a $10,000 fine and a year in prison. Since the 1990s, the Institute for Justice has been fighting for hair braiders — and a new legal showdown in Iowa could be their biggest yet.
Philadelphia homicide Capt. James Clark told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Jenkins, 22, exited a car moments prior to her murder. Once out of the car, the group surrounded Jenkins and when she fell to the ground during the assault, they was shot twice in the back. Jenkins is the second transgender woman to be killed in Philadelphia this year and the 21st in the U.S. This is a dire problem, and as Laverne Cox recently said, fixing it starts with representation.
McDole sits at a unique intersection often ignored in the conversation on police brutality: violence against people who are potentially suffering through a mental illness and those who are a living with a physical disability. He also is one on a growing list of people who the police were originally called out to help, but instead were killed (like James Anderson several days later). These victims of state violence are often the most convenient to label as worthy of lethal force, as many do in fact have a weapon. However, even when police are aware of the potential mental state of these citizens, they do nothing to adjust their approach/tactics. In essence, people like McDole are doubly pathologized, not just for being black but for also being sick. More must be done to uplift the stories of Tanisha Anderson, Janisha Fonville, Lavall Hall, James Anderson, and countless others who have been stolen from us. Rest in Power. We fight for you now too. #staywoke #farfromover
