Day 127/365 Civil Rights Amidst Uncivil Unrest

Photograph by Cecil Stoughton Photograph courtesy of National Archives and Record Administration, LBJ Library #276-10-64


As someone who grew up in the South of the mid-1950's through to the mid-1960's, today marks a major anniversary.

On June 19, 1964, the United States Senate passed the Civil Rights Bill - but only after 83 days of filibuster by die-hard Republicans and some deep-south Democrats.

This piece of legislation that struck so much fear into the hearts of southern white folks simply states that every person must have equal access to public places and there would no longer be any discrimination in employment.

That's it.

But the effects were enormous:

No more segregated hotels, restaurants, buses, trains if they engaged in interstate commerce (think Holiday Inn, MacDonald's, Greyhound, Amtrak).

State and federal governments could no longer deny access to public facilities on grounds of race, religion, gender, or ethnicity. (Think sporting events, holiday events like firework displays, park facilities, public swimming beaches).

Barred any discrimination by any agency receiving federal funds (think colleges, universities or research facilities).

Prohibited discrimination by employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, as well as discrimination against an individual because of his or her association with another individual of a particular race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. An employer could no longer discriminate against a person because of his interracial association with another, such as by an interracial marriage.

And finally, this legislation authorized the U.S. Attorney General to file suits to enforce school desegregation, and encouraged him to do so as quickly as possible.

All this, with one stroke of a pen.

On July 2nd, Lyndon Baines Johnson (forever affectionately known as LBJ) sat down in front of Rev. Martin Luther King,Jr., and used several pens to sign the bill.

Although the Civil Rights bill had been conceived and pushed towards Congress by his predecessor, President Kennedy, LBJ did little to acknowledge that. Instead, in a somewhat
petty action, he handed a handful of pens to then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and told him to hand them out. Although Bobby Kennedy played a crucial part in the passage, LBJ mostly ignored him during the signing, and did not invite Kennedy up to the desk to stand with the group during signing.

Afterwards (in his own personal act of defiance), Bobby had one of the pens framed with a note that said "Pen used to sign President Kennedy's civil rights bill".

For his part, after the signing, LBJ said to a bystander: "We just handed away the South for the next 50 years."

He was right.

This would be the beginning of the Republican Party and religious fundamentalism sweeping the South, cancelling years of faithful Democrat voting.*

*Not in our Virginia family. My grandmother would "die and go to hell" before she'd vote for a Republican. She figured if civil rights was good enough for LBJ, it was good enough for her.**

**I have inherited a great many of my grandmother's genetic code, including the Democrat gene.

Day 126/365 Hippo Birdee To Ewe!

HAPPY 67TH BIRTHDAY, SIR PAUL!


Say, while I've got you here, I've been meaning to ask you if you ever got that birthday cake I sent you in June 1967.

It was in a white box, and my BFF and I decided to make the frosting look like it was tie-dye? Like, with green, red, blue swirls.

It cost about $10 to send it to you, care of Capitol Records in London, England. We figured you were there, 'cause you'd want to be home for your birthday, you know, like with Jane Asher and all.



No?

Hasn't turned up yet?

Hmm.

Well, I was just wondering, that's all.

Love ya anyways!

Beatles Forever

Day 124/365 Book Lots (And Lots and Lots and Lots)

Another hot humid Virginia Saturday -and another round of book sales. Actually this time one book sale, and two church rummage sales where I bought all their books (just about).

This is where I like to find my paperbacks. After 10 years of selling all my books on ebay, during late 2008 I pulled all my single titles off (moved them to Amazon), and now I only sell boxed lots of specific authors or genres on ebay. (That green hardback, sitting on the edge, is about to be quarantined with dryer sheets and sealed shut in a zip lock bag -the title is: Thomas Jefferson American Tourist by Edward Dumbauld, 1946. It's a personal purchase, albeit a stinky, musty one).

I don't know about you, but when I find a good author, I want to read ALL their books. And I want to read them NOW. There's nothing I like better than finding out a good book is part of a series, and, better still, that the series has all been published, and I don't have to wait for the next installment.

Boxed lots are the perfect answer for impatient readers like myself. Like Sue Grafton and her alphabet mysteries (A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, etc)? Look for my boxed lot on ebay (price includes shipping). If I don't have one up, email me, and I'll see what I do have. I lack the energy to have all of these sets sorted by author, photo'd, and listed at one time - there's approx 7,000 books out there - but there's a good chance I have the authors you're looking for.

Price-wise it can't be beat. Prices usually start around $13.99 and can go as high as $99.99 (includes shipping). A box of 100 large-print westerns for $99.99 (these are hardbacks and generally sell new for no less than $15.99 each - so buy them boxed and used -and save yourself $1500.

Currently, I've got a couple lots of 100 assorted mysteries listed at $69.99 - but the retail value is approximately $4.99 each minimum, so buying the boxed lot saves you around $430.00

All this financial figuring came about because on the way home it dawned on me I bought 230 books this morning, and the retail value would be approximately $1380 (I guessed an average new retail price of $6 each).

Holy cow.

Judging from the pictures, any fan of Lilian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who mystery series) will shortly be making out like a bandit, likewise Robert B. Parker mystery readers. Somewhere in here is a box of Tom Clancy, Elmore Leonard, Marian Babson, Richard North Patterson, James Lee Burke, Clive Cussler, Edna Buchanan, and of course, homeschool classics (just in time for stocking up for the coming school year, or summer reading).

Next week will be romance batching week.

I really have to watch the romance books - they breed like rabbits.

The Very Virile Viking, The Hunky Highlander, The Captivating Cowboy or The Panting Pirate - you can't leave any of them alone for a minute.

Day 123/365 Same Hate, Different Day

March 10, 1933.



Recognize these folks? Mom out shopping with her two daughters on a busy city street.



I have a habit of relating history to pertinent dates in my own family's history. It helps me put things in perspective and keep the timelines straight. On March 10, 1933, my mother is eleven days away from being born.



In other words, this could be my grandmother, out shopping with two of my aunts.

Summer, 1933.

My aunts use to wear these same little white undershirts - no air conditioning back then.

May 1940.

Another street scene, this time a more grown-up family holiday, a time when grownups and young adult children both wore hats.

In May 1940, my mom was finishing first grade, wearing these same heavy-duty leather shoes all day (but kicking them off at the back door before she went out to do chores-shoes were just for school).

Still don't recognize the girls? This photo of one at her writing desk should help.

And of course there's the famous one.

Particularily heart-wrenching this week.

I wonder if she had been allowed to live until today (her 80th birthday), if Anne Frank would "in spite of everything ... still believe that people are really good at heart".

'Cause I have to tell you - I'm not too sure anymore.

Day 122/365 The Sale To End All Sales

One of the best things about being a bookseller is always having justification for stopping at yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, and of course, church rummage sales.

The Holy Grail of all church sales in our area is the annual Joyous Junque Sale, held on the first weekend in June, by Resurrection Catholic Church in Moneta Virginia.

So guess where we were this last weekend?

Short of a Beatles reunion or an early flight to Scotland, this sale is the only reason you'll find me getting up at 3:45 A.M. Before we left for the sale (all day affair), puppies had to go out/come in/eat/go out, then we made an early morning breakfast stop, met my mom half-way at 5:30, and ended up 5th in line at 5:45 A.M.

Sale didn't open until 7, and by then, the line stretched all the way around the church (approximately 3 blocks). Some people brought trailers, others drove vans (us, for instance), some brought trucks, or even two vehicles, many with out-of-state plates.

The first Joyous sale was held in 1986, but we just started going 8 or 9 years ago. I've bought French doors, a freezer, two couches, three easy chairs, one recliner, more than a few light fixtures, a cooktop, lots of wallpaper, dishes, stereo components (amplifiers, turntables), TV's, bookcases, dollhouses, cookware, baskets to dry herbs in, curtains, bedspreads,concrete stain, the paint on my kitchen walls (paprika) and at least a hundred boxes of books.

So what did we find this year?

Just the highlights:

Ice cube trays - for freezing fresh herbs in, making it very convenient to add them to soups and stews. My basil plants are almost ready for picking, chopping and freezing - so these appeared just in time.

Two huge pieces of carpeting - approximate size 9'x12' - just in time for cutting in strips for garden paths (the carpeting I've been using for the last 4 years has finally worn out). I lay it carpet side down, meaning no matter how much it rains, I still have a dry garden path .

One of two framed prints - this one is of a medieval square, with a half-finished cathedral behind it. No idea if its "famous", haven't had time to research it.

The second framed print - a Mary Cassett - HAD to get it after my earlier post about her. This one has my little redhead in it (of course) and is titled Young Mother Sewing (1900).

And the "icing on the cake" purchase: an electronic treadmill. Not a fancy one, or even a newish one (apologies for the blurry pic, no time to do another one since it's now dark and raining) - but for $25 I get to see how devoted I am to walking on a treadmill (versus ending up using it as a clothes hanger). And it folds. At the moment it's out on the carport, but the plan is for it to be part of my office.

You know: list a book, walk a bit....list a book, walk a bit.....list a book....(yeah, you know I bought a few boxes of books in addition to treadmills and paintings).

Wish me luck.

Day 121/365 Another Turn of the Screw

I had to search google *forever* to find a photo of a clock radio like the one I owned in June 1968. This one was cream colored, but mine was aqua blue, so forgive me the tinting. Late at night I would fall sleep listening to WLS in Chicago or KAAY in Little Rock, then right before I dropped off, I'd flip the dial back to KIOA 940 (the cool rock station in Ames,Iowa where we had recently moved).

My morning routine was to reach over half asleep and push the alarm peg in, and then listen to the Chickenman morning routine (I was 12, what did you expect?).

But on June 5, 1968, I woke up to one of those serious "special reports". During the Sixties a person could really get sick of hearing those. This one was one of the worst - Bobby Kennedy was in a L.A. hospital after being shot at one of his own campaign rallies, right after he won the California primary. I remember wondering why on earth his own campaign people would shoot him if he won.

Waking up a little more, it hit me. This was JFK all over again, 5 years later. Martin Luther King Jr., all over again, 2 months later.

Photo Credit: Bill Eppridge. The Life Picture Collection, copyright © Time, Inc.

Bobby was the first presidential candidate I ever worked for. Yes, at age twelve. And I had no shortage of friends who worked right alongside me. We knew his positions on issues, we knew what he stood for, and he was loved. We went door-to-door, we passed out flyers, we stuffed envelopes.

The photo above was taken when he was in Marion Iowa, a town not far from Ames.

Look at the raw hope on those faces.

The indestructibility of American optimism never ceases to amaze me.

I am left to wonder.....what if? What if a hero actually succeeded and led this country to "all it can be"?

Forty-one years later, here we are once again, armed with our trademark American optimism, and yet another round of raw hope.

Day 119/365 More Bookplates

Bookplate Update:

Sunday's post on bookplates paid off with an email from an actual bookplate collector.

Turns out he knows a whole lot more about the subject than I do, in addition to having a fascinating blog just for bookplates.

Go and visit -it's well worth the time - don't miss the link to Brandeis University Special Collections page, with the very first bookplate, ever. And there's even a bookplate with a "book-fetching piggy"!

Http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com

Tell Lewis 365Moonshine sent ya!