Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) - On Sunday night, John Brown, and his party, seized the Federal armory, in Harper's Ferry. It had a substantial arms supply. At least 20 men took part in the raid. Most were white men.
Sundary, October 16th, 11 p.m., Brown began his raid. It started well. They freed a number of slaves and cut the telegraph lines into the town. The group ran into Heyward Shepherd, a 'free' Black American man. He was a baggage handler for the railroad.
Heyward was told to stop. Instead, he headed back to the station. Brown's men shot him in the back. Pro-slavers regarded Heyward as a hero.
A white doctor heard the gunshot. He came to see what happened. Brown saw the doctor and let him leave. After the doctor left, he raised an alarm. Church bells were rung in the town. Later, he went to another town to tell of the raid.
Brown sent men to get help from nearby plantations. He wanted Black American men. Only a handful joined. With his group, Brown took at least 60 hostages, in town. The 10 most important were kept in the engine house, of the railroad.
Monday, October 17th, 1:15 a.m., the evening train was stopped. It was held for five (5) hours. Brown went on the train. He talked with passengers for an hour. The passengers were allowed into town to stay at a hotel.
At 7 a.m., the train got to the first telegraph. At 10:30 a.m., the military was sent word of Brown's raid.
Between 11 a.m. and evening, local militia units formed. Several companies of men arrived in Harper's Ferry. Most were drunk and disorderly. There was enough control to surround Brown's men.
The militia killed Dangerfield Newby. He was an ex-slave in Brown's group. Newby's corpse was mutilated, by the militia. His testicles and ears were cut off. The militia kept them as souvenirs.
By the time the military arrived, most of the hostages were freed. Brown only held about 10. They were held in the engine house, of the railroad.
On Tuesday, October 18th, the raid ended. Colonel Robert E. Lee and the military captured Brown.
On December 2nd, 1859, John Brown was hanged. Shields Green, who escaped slavery, and the 'free' man, John Copeland, were hanged. John Brown's wife was allowed to take his body back to New York. The bodies of the two Black American men were sold to white medical students.
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Mexico City, Mexico - Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos (right) each raised a fist at the award podium for the 200m race, at the 1968 Olympic Games.
Smith and Carlos were shoeless on the platform to show their black socks, which represented Black American poverty. Carlos wore a bead necklace to represent lynchings in the United States.
Carlos and Smith raised their gloved hand, when the Star Spangled Banner played, at the awards ceremony and bowed their heads.
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Brooklyn, New York - Planned Parenthood was founded. Margaret Sanger, her sister Ethel Byrne, and Fania Mindell were its founders. The goal was to reduce births and family sizes of those they deemed unfit. It began as the Negro Project.
Sanger was a eugenicist. The Eugenics Society was founded in 1907. Eugenics was an attempt at a formal, scientific racism. It promoted the birth of superior races over the inferior. Black Americans were legally decided to be an inferior race, at that time.
From its start, Planned Parenthood made Black American women its focus. It has worked for many decades to reduce the number of Black Americans. Abortion of Black American babies has always been its number one goal. It has never made healthy Black American babies or mothers a serious goal.
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