Remember The Alamo Was To Keep Texas a Slave State

by Black Kos Editor, Justice Putnam

Henry Smith was a former slave who was tortured and murdered at a public, heavily attended and promoted lynching on 1 February 1893 at the Paris Fairgrounds in Paris, Texas. That mere fact embossed on a plaque at a state or national park is now illegal to display. But banners of the Mad King now adorn government buildings like a threat, while armed, masked goons rampage across towns, cities, farms, pastures and forests, scooping up anyone in their path. Children die in ICE box gulags, nurses are shot ten times in the back of the head for helping a woman pushed violently to the pavement, while the Vichy press argues that’s the price to pay for a booming Dow and you must be a commie to complain.

When I was a young history and english teacher, pressed into coaching football and track when the right wing was calling to publicly drown representative democracy in a bath tub, I was admonished by an administrator who fielded a parent complaint that I told my class, “Remember the Alamo was to keep Texas a slave state,” like it was a bad thing. I stood there for a few moments, mouth agape, and then turned firmly on my heel, walked out and tendered my resignation the next day. I already had to work two other jobs to afford to be disrespected and maligned by parents who had no idea what “walking a precinct” meant. My minuscule high school teacher’s salary was hardly worth the insult to my morality and integrity by poorly educated educators who lacked the background to see the joke about the “Three R’s.”

I remember that sniveling administrator sneer to my face that citing slavery was “so cliche.”

“You mean cliche like my English comp students opening a writing project with ‘a dark and stormy night?’ I replied over my shoulder.

“Don’t get cute,” he muttered, as I let the class door slam behind me.

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night

by

Justice Putnam

It was a dark
And stormy night

As I sloshed along
The gale-washed streets
Of a Sam Shepard Paris, Texas

The wooden senoritas
Dressed in their virginal white

The local Padre righting
The fallen-in-the-wind-nativity

The lizards scurrying
Across the rain-lashed
Wind-beaten stones
And sand

The flag of
The Texas Republic
Tattered in
The gusting torrent

Laying claim to
A deeper truth
A deeper meaning
A deeper consideration

Of all that is
And is meant to be

The last Rangers
In flight against
The last lawless
Latin-blooded immigrant

Escaping through

The wind
And the rain
And the dark

To a new destiny

Where the wind
And the rain
And the dark

Are but distant memories

And the tears of yesterday
Becomes the giddy laughter
Of child-like tomorrows

And all of humanity
Is lighted by the
City of Light Paris

While the
Sam Shepard Paris
Is darkened by
The nocturnal blowings

Of wind
And rain

And the extinguished candles
Of a forgotten today.

© 2010 by Justice Putnam
and Mechanisches-Strophe Verlagswesen

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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor

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Senior Judge Cynthia M. Rufe ordered the the Park Service to restore the exhibit to the way it was on Jan. 21 before the Trump admin changed it. CBS NEWS: Trump administration appeals judge’s order to restore slavery exhibits at President’s House in Philadelphia

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The Trump administration filed an appeal Tuesday after a judge ordered slavery exhibits that were removed from the President’s House Site in Philadelphia to be returned.

In a ruling issued Monday, Senior Judge Cynthia M. Rufe ordered the defendants in the case — Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior, National Park Service Acting Director Jessica Bowron and the National Park Service — to restore the site to the way it was on Jan. 21, the day before the signage was removed. They also must keep all of the items safe, secure and undamaged, and cannot install any “replacement materials” without mutual agreement with the city of Philadelphia while the litigation is ongoing or before another order from the judge.

The order also says officials must continue to properly maintain the site, including the grounds, video monitors, recordings and exhibits.

On Feb. 18, the judge ordered the exhibits to be restored by 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20.

Monday’s order grants the city’s latest motion for a preliminary injunction and will be in effect until the judge issues another ruling.

The exhibits in question provide information about enslaved people who lived at the site with Presidents George Washington and John Adams. After Park Service workers removed the signs in January, the city of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to have the displays put back. The suit argues that the city has prior agreements with NPS that require any disputes to be resolved through communication and compromise between the two parties.

Rufe begins her memo about the opinion with a quote from the George Orwell novel “1984” and says the court has been asked “to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims— to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts.”

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Launched on Jan. 16, 2026, the exhibition features artworks from individuals of all ages, exploring themes of freedom and resistance. Newsone: As Black History Faces Erasure, 1619-Inspired Exhibit Lands In Nation’s Capital

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Freedom and Resistance Exhibit Inspired by The 1619 Project Opens in D.C.

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the “Freedom & Resistance” exhibition at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., offers a profound reflection on the nation’s history. Inspired by The 1619 Project, the exhibit seeks to reframe America’s founding narrative by centering the experiences and contributions of Black Americans.

Launched on Jan. 16, 2026, the exhibition features artworks from individuals of all ages, exploring themes of freedom and resistance. The initiative is a collaboration between the New York Times Magazine, led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Center, and guest curator Dominique Hazzard.

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Social media, headlines, and increased discussion could be causing your kids to experience racism vicariously. The Grio: Is vicarious racism impacting your children? Its effects can be devastating

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Racism isn’t just something you experience in person. It can arrive virtually, through headlines, videos, and social media feeds, and its impact is no less felt by children watching and absorbing it.

According to child and adult psychiatrist Dr. Amanda Joy Calhoun, this phenomenon is called “vicarious racism,” and its impact on young developing minds can be intense.

“Some [children] are angry, some are depressed, some are terrified, worrying about their safety as Black people in America,” she writes in Parents magazine, describing how widely-televised racist violence and bias show up in the mental health of her patients.

Vicarious racism refers to secondhand exposure to racism through news, social media, or hearing about racist experiences happening to others, and research shows that children aren’t immune.

Calhoun notes that “children experiencing vicarious racism can also experience low self-esteem, anxiety symptoms, and increased substance use” and may become withdrawn or behaviorally changed as a result.

This isn’t just emotional discomfort — it’s a real threat to childhood development as well because children are still building their sense of safety and identity.