History as Prologue

Category: Civil Rights

  • Least appreciated event in African-American history?

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    by

    Mark Thomas
    in

    August 21, 1831 seldom receives much national publicity. The date seldom triggers responses from even ardent students of antebellum history the way April 15, June 6, and November 22 awakens the memories of U.S. History fans. Even among followers of African-Americans history and those who keep alive the messages from the long civil rights struggle,…

  • Herbert Spencer’s Supreme Court Revenge

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    by

    Mark Thomas
    in ,

    In siding with neither his fellow conservatives, nor the more liberal members of the Supreme Court in his opinion upholding the a key element of the affordable Care Act, Chief Justice John Roberts took aim at one of the two most problematic parts of the U.S. Constitutional as viewed by contemporary conservatives. That ominous, deciding…

  • Why Levi Isn’t Eating His Vegetables

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    by

    Mark Thomas
    in

    This October 28, will mark the 214th anniversary of Quaker Abolitionist Levi Coffin’s birth. Among his many involvements in what were at the time the nation’s most prominent social developments, Coffin was active in the ill-fated Free Labor Movement. At the heart of that movement rests a central issue as compelling today as it was…

  • The Faults of Others

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    by

    Mark Thomas
    in ,

    Officially, I’ve been a volunteer guide at the Levi Coffin House State Historical Site since 1974. I tagged along with my mother who was one of the original guides for the site and then our Scout Troop began diligently manning one or two rooms as docents of which I was a regular volunteer. The house…