Smithsonian magazine shares Thirteen Discoveries Made About Human Evolution in 2023, like...

Smithsonian magazine shares Thirteen Discoveries Made About Human Evolution in 2023, like...: Smithsonian magazine shares Thirteen Discoveries Made About Human Evolution in 2023, like “Homo sapiens were in southeast Asia thousands of years earlier than expected.”

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Republican Lawmaker Spoke in Support of Bill to Kill Gay People in Uganda: Report

Republican Lawmaker Spoke in Support of Bill to Kill Gay People in Uganda: Report:

U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, a Republican representing parts of Michigan, encouraged the Ugandan government to “stand firm” amid the international backlash against the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, which includes the death penalty in some cases, during a speech in Uganda last October. The act is also known as the “kill the gays” bill.

Remembering Civil Rights Activist Fred Shuttlesworth

Remembering Civil Rights Activist Fred Shuttlesworth:

Sixty-seven years ago yesterday, on Dec 25, 1956, pioneering civil rights activist Fred Shuttlesworth survived a Ku Klux Klan bombing.

Fred Shuttlesworth somehow survived the KKK bombing that took out his home next to the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

An arriving policeman advised him to leave town fast. In the “Eyes on the Prize” documentary, Shuttlesworth quoted himself as replying, “Officer, you’re not me. You go back and tell your Klan brethren if God could keep me through this, then I’m here for the duration.’”

Months later, he and his family were beaten after trying to enroll his daughters in an all-white school.

They beat him with fists, chains and brass knuckles. His wife, Ruby, was stabbed in the hip, trying to get her daughters back in the car. His daughter, Ruby Fredericka, had her ankle broken. When the examining physician was amazed the pastor failed to suffer worse injuries, Shuttlesworth said, “Well, doctor, the Lord knew I lived in a hard town, so he gave me a hard head.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called him “the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South”. You can learn more about the bombing at the Equal Justice Initiative and about Shuttlesworth at the King Institute, in this hour-long documentary. and Andrew Manis’s 1999 biography of Shuttlesworth, A Fire You Can’t Put Out.

Tags: Fred Shuttlesworth · racism

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45 Years Ago, Gay Activist Anthony Adams Was Murdered. Utah Police Are Still Missing Evidence

45 Years Ago, Gay Activist Anthony Adams Was Murdered. Utah Police Are Still Missing Evidence:

On Nov. 30, 1978, gay rights activist Anthony Adams went missing. The 25-year-old was found murdered three days later in his Salt Lake City apartment.

Joe Sacco’s acclaimed graphic novel about Gaza is being rushed back into print.

Joe Sacco’s acclaimed graphic novel about Gaza is being rushed back into print.:

Palestine, Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Joe Sacco’s seminal nonfiction graphic novel about Gaza, which pioneered the medium of “comics journalism” upon its publication over twenty years ago, has been rushed back into print in response to surging demand.

First published across nine issues by Fantagraphics from 1993 to 1995, and then as a single volume edition with an introduction by the Palestinian American academic and critic Edward Said in 2001, Palestine is a record of Sacco’s own journeys around Gaza in the winter of 1991/92. Sacco spent this time meeting with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the narrative focuses on the minute details of everyday life in these areas.

Sacco had intended to write and draw a comic book based on his experiences traveling through Palestine, but, as he told the Observer earlier this week:

…when I was there, my journalistic training kicked in and, more than just talking to people, I started interviewing them … I began approaching the topic more systematically, trying to understand the actual structure of the occupation and its effect on Palestinians. So the fusion of comics and journalism was organic. I had no theory of graphic journalism. I was making it up as I was going along.

Sales of Palestine were initially slow—largely because people didn’t seem to know what to make of it, or even how to categorize it—but the book went on to win an American Book Award, develop a strong cult following, and become a core text of university courses examining the conflict. As Said wrote in his introduction to the book: “With the exception of one or two novelists and poets, no one has ever rendered this terrible state of affairs better than Joe Sacco.”

Gary Groth, the co-founder of Fantagraphics, said that demand for Palestine has soared since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent bombing of Gaza:

We blew out of our inventory of several thousand copies quickly and are reprinting now. Retailers and wholesalers began ordering the book in far greater quantities than in the recent past, which indicates that every element down the chain—consumers and retailers—are expressing demand for it.

As the Observer reports, Sacco is happy that the book is reaching a new audience, but that’s tinged with a deep sorrow for the current plight of the Palestinian people:

That the book itself still has relevance is a sorry testament to the enduring tragedy of the Palestinians—though, in some ways, it’s also a tribute to their fortitude, their unwillingness to give in.

I would go back, if I could get in. Thankfully, many brave Palestinian journalists are doing exemplary work despite the appalling conditions and the very real danger to themselves and their families. But the main reason I would like to go back to Gaza is to see my friends there. I hope they will make it through this.

Brittney Griner and Wife Remember Americans Still Imprisoned Overseas One Year After Release

Brittney Griner and Wife Remember Americans Still Imprisoned Overseas One Year After Release:

Brittney Griner and her wife, Cherelle Griner, have released a holiday message celebrating the one-year anniversary of Brittney’s release from incarceration in Russia and remembering the Americans still wrongly detained overseas.