Henry Steele Commager Quotes
Who would be cleared by their committees? Not Washington, who was a rebel. Not Jefferson. who wrote that ... "rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Not Garrison, who publicly burned the Constitution; or Wendell Phillips ... a philosophical anarchist; nor [William] Seward of the Higher Law.... Not Lincoln ... or Wilson ... or Justice Holmes.
Writing about congressional investigations such as those carried out by the House Un-American Activities Committee:
Henry Steele Commager, 1902-1998, Political Historian, Harper's Magazine, September 1947
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
His strategy was to fill the jails of Birmingham, and asked the young people to help. The next days saw virtually all the Birmingham high school students our of school and in the streets protesting which was then against the un-Constitutional laws of Birmingham and Alabama. The students were arrested by the droves and the white authorities, believing that they were being firm against “radical lawbreakers”, fell into the trap, and became a travesty to most of the country and the rest of the world and the hundreds of jailed students beaten and assaulted raised the consciousness of whites as well as Blacks.
Massachusetts rioters who had distressed Abigail Adams and others were pardoned for their crimes. Jefferson was responding to her concerns {592539} and providing her with the pardon news.
This was the speech that started the "Black Power" Movement. The rally was held in a city park to Protest the murder just 10 days before of the civil rights activist, James Meredith. It also marked the break between the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the nonviolent movement lead by Martin Luther King. Because of that, the speech received so much publicity that "Black Power" became a significant political term instantly.
Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) was an American historian. As one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time, with 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the United States.
