Daily Archives: May 1, 2022

Rick, Marty and the Oak Island team are back for the biggest season yet bringing with them more determination, resources and technology than ever in their quest to solve the 224-year old treasure mystery. After seismic testing conducted at the end of last season revealed a possible sunken ship buried in the triangle-shaped swamp, the team will use sonic core drilling, strategic dives and finally a historic big dig to find out what could be buried below. Now fully partnered with fellow land owner, Tom Nolan, the son of the late, Fred Nolan, Rick, Marty and Craig Tester will have unprecedented access to areas of the island that they hope will yield answers and treasure.

Even more extensive metal detecting will be used to search on the surface of the island while exhaustive archaeological digs will be conducted near the historic homestead foundations of Daniel McGinnis and Samuel Ball.

The cofferdam at Smiths Cove will be expanded to allow the team to conduct an even more extensive investigation than last year, which uncovered numerous manmade structures dating more than two decades prior to the discovery of the Money Pit in 1795. The Oak Island team will not only find more of the ancient slipway, but be searching for the box drains and artifacts like the 14th century lead cross found two years ago. They will also be drilling and digging above the beach in search of the so-called convergence point where the box drains are believed to merge into a single flood tunnel leading back to the original Money Pit.

In the Money Pit area, itself, they will conduct deep ground penetrating radar to look for the flood tunnel and using cutting edge survey tech and heavy digging machines, they will excavate early 19th century searcher shafts to help triangulate their way back to the location of the original Money Pit. This will lead to the biggest and most extensive digs that Rick, Marty, Craig Tester and the team have ever conducted in an effort to once and for all locate the fabled Chappell Vault.

After 224 years, the Oak Island mystery, now has the greatest chance ever to finally being solved.

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Watch The Curse of Oak Island Full Episodes ... - HISTORY

NEW YORK -- Katie Taylor showed up to the weigh-in Friday afternoon and it was then -- more than 24 hours before she'd be in the boxing ring at Madison Square Garden against Amanda Serrano -- that the gravity of everything they'd been trying to pull off hit her.

She has seen big weigh-ins before. But inside the Hulu Theater it was like, are you kidding me? The crowd was intense. Loud. Massive, especially for a weigh-in. Puerto Rican fans and Irish fans waving their flags, chanting and turning a mundane part of a boxing week into its own sideshow.

For months, they'd billed Taylor-Serrano as the biggest fight in women's boxing history. Now they would have to deliver.

"It was something like an Anthony Joshua weigh-in or a Canelo [Alvarez] weigh-in," Taylor said. "I never experienced anything like that throughout my professional career, and just selling out Madison Square Garden here tonight, the atmosphere was amazing.

"Tonight was just very, very, very special, and I don't know what else to say."

By the time a still bloody Taylor sat at a dais -- flanked by her promoter, Eddie Hearn, and her trainer, Ross Enamait, after defending her undisputed lightweight title in a split decision win over Amanda Serrano -- she had her answer.

Taylor-Serrano had done more than produce a memorable fight on a night when women's boxing received a rare spotlight. It had created boxing excellence, and it showed the possibility of a sport both growing in potential stars and needing a moment to latch to.

If things had gone well, it would have attracted attention. If it had gone perfectly -- and Saturday night was close -- it could transform and elevate the entirety of the sport.

"Madison Square Garden, you think of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier," Taylor said. "People will absolutely be talking about myself and Amanda Serrano for years and years to come.

"This is a history-making fight, and it definitely lived up to that expectation."

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The entire promotion -- on posters, as part of the title card and even as the hashtag they tried to push the past few weeks -- had all been focused on one thing: history. The first women to ever headline The Garden's big room. Taylor and Serrano were asked to do next to impossible Saturday night.

They were asked to live up to the outsize reality that is promoting any sport, but especially boxing. This could have easily been a letdown. These events can get swallowed by the gravity of the promotion and the intensity of the moment.

Taylor-Serrano exceeded what people might have expected, what the promoters had billed. As Taylor and Serrano stood in the middle of the ring in the final minute, decibels from the crowd rising with each punch thrown, everything they hoped for was reality.

Serrano had a bruised face; Taylor a bloodied nose and a cut over her right eye. The crowd provided an intense atmosphere. All of the necessary ingredients were in place to create a big moment in The Garden.

If you wanted a scrap, Taylor and Serrano delivered. If you wanted a technical fight between two different styles of fighters trying to game-plan how to attack one another? You got that too.

The only thing that didn't happen was a knockdown or a knockout, but some of the best fights don't end like that. Why? Because the fight was even. Two fighters of equal stature, making life difficult for the other one.

"Tonight is the moment where we stop talking about women's and men's boxing," Hearn said. "Just boxing. Because that was one of the best fights I've ever witnessed live."

The energy was obvious from the beginning. A full two hours before Taylor and Serrano left their dressing rooms, cheers erupted whenever Taylor's or Serrano's name was mentioned. At 8:20 p.m., when video was shown of each fighter walking into The Garden, it was like they were heading into the arena bowl.

As the moment came closer, the crowd grew more frenzied; "Ole, Ole, Ole" constantly chanted throughout the Liam Smith-Jessie Vargas undercard in front of an area where nearly every seat was filled.

During the ring walks, both fighters seemed to pick up the gravity of the moment, to appreciate what they were going through just a bit more.

Taylor appeared to pause at the top of the ring before walking into it, briefly looking like a small smile had creased her serious fight-night demeanor. Later, she said this evening eclipsed the night she won the Olympic gold medal in 2012 in London.

Serrano smashed her gloves together when introduced, this after raising her fist to the crowd in acknowledgment before entering the ring.

"It was just a crazy feeling," Serrano said. "You had two women, main-eventing a sold-out MSG, who would have thought that? You had two great champions going out there, giving it their all, and the crowd was truly amazing.

"My last two events, I was the co-main event with Jake Paul, and I was able to experience that. But this time, it was me, and I was told to enjoy every minute of it, and that's what I did. I just took it all in."

When the fight started, Serrano couldn't hear anything specific. The noise was so loud -- and so close to being constant -- that she couldn't hear from her corner, trainer Jordan Maldonado and her sister, former professional boxer Cindy Serrano.

That is what they wanted. An environment like this. A night like this. A chance to tangibly grow the sport they've cared so much about. That was the lofty goal going in beyond the practicalities of winning and losing, of legacies and what Taylor called "career-defining moments." It's risky to manifest that. So much could go wrong. But Taylor and Serrano did the remarkable.

They put women's boxing on the top of the marquee with their fists. They pulled it off.

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Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano made boxing history by perfectly living up to the hype - ESPN

Saturday night in Colorado's Coors Field, the Reds lost, 4-3. Given that the Rockies are generally very tough at home and it was a one-run game, normally this wouldn't be the type of result that would garner a team some dubious coverage. This was the last day of April, however, and the endpoints of each month are a natural time to do some glancing around the league.

As we glance, we see the Reds at 3-18, the worst record in baseball. It's not even really close, as everyone else has at least six wins.

No, we need to look outside 2022 to find teams that were as bad in April as these Reds and that list isn't very long, either.

In an April calendar that is at least 2/3 full of games, the worst team is an easy and obvious one. Remember that Sports Illustrated cover from 1988 with Billy Ripken holding a bat against his forehead in the dugout? It said, simply, "0-18." That 1988 Orioles team would actually start 0-21 before finally winning a game and finished April at a horrifying 1-22.

The 2003 Tigers were the worst team since the 1962 expansion Mets went 40-120. That Tigers team was 43-119 when the season mercifully ended for them. They went 3-21 in April.

By record alone, those are the only two teams in April baseball history we can say were definitely worse than the 2022 Reds. Here are some numbers from historically-bad April teams (March is looped in when the season started that month). Via Stathead search:

So, again, with a sample of at least three weeks of baseball before we got to May, we can nail down two teams that had a worse introductory month to a season than than the 2022 Cincinnati Reds. That's it.

Go here to see the original:

The Reds just completed one of the worst Aprils in MLB history - CBS Sports

History, good and bad

A red wave is coming | Letter, April 24

The #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and woke movements are uncomfortable for many white persons. So is the concept of sexual orientation and gender identity as both a continuum and a fact of birth. They are angry that advocates and the media keep talking about them. They want to believe that Native American genocide, cruel slavery and abusive treatment of women as well as laws, procedures and customs that unfairly affect minorities (institutional racism) never happened other than as exceptions by a few bad actors.

The U.S. Constitution enshrines wonderful principles, but we have not always lived up to them. Our factual history is a mix of great, good, not so good and tragic. But sweeping the latter under the rug will not make our country a better place for all our citizens. Todays white persons (me included) are not responsible for the decisions and actions of our ancestors. But we are responsible to learn about the objective reality of our society and history, and do what we can to make America a better place for everyone today and tomorrow.

Robert More, Riverview

A red wave is coming | Letter, April 24

Thank you for publishing this letter. Perfectly stated, the writers letter is spot on with how most of us are thinking, the silent majority that will not be silent much longer. As the writer says, there are millions of us out here. Basically, we are fed up.

Carol Maples, Seminole

A red wave is coming | Letter, April 24

It must be nice to be a white guy who has never had to worry that America could be a hostile place for people not like you. It must be nice to never have to worry that your vote could be suppressed, or that you could be killed in a police encounter or that you could be fired for your differences from a job that puts food on your table and keeps a roof over your head. It must be nice to never been brutalized for wanting to attend a public school or demonstrating for safe neighborhoods or the very right to exist. What kind of people would keep other Americans from having access to the American dream? There is enough to go around for everyone.

Karen Hodgen, St. Petersburg

Cross Gov. DeSantis and youll pay a price | Perspective, April 24

Columnist Anthony Man said exactly what Ive been trying to put into words for weeks. Who is this chief executive who is bullying the Legislature to pass unnecessary legislation? Rather than stand and fight for whats right for the citizenry of Florida, the Legislature just bends to the governors wants, wishes and needs. That is not what a democratic republic is about. Its representation elected by the people, for the people. Rattling chains and causing havoc is a way to get noticed so hopefully voters are noticing what is not right about one branch that runs roughshod over another branch of government.

Carol Hess, Hudson

Florida adds 20,860 COVID cases in past week as infections climb | April 23

Now that individuals in Florida have the freedom to protect themselves from the spread of COVID, it would be helpful if the state would start publishing daily COVID data and trends again, so we have information on the concentration of infections in our county and state. Unfortunately, the governor is too busy fighting culture wars, preventing election fraud that doesnt exist (but not candidate fraud, which does exist) and preempting local governments from serving their citizens.

Georgia Earp, St. Petersburg

Disney bout ignites donors | April 27

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In the long run it doesnt matter how many out-of-state hedge fund billionaires contribute to the DeSantis campaign. Its the voters who will make the final decision. My concern: If Gov Ron DeSantis were to lose, would he accept that result or would his newly formed election fraud division cry foul and claim the election was stolen?

Susan Bullard, Gulfport

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Learn from our history the heroic and the uncomfortable | Letters - Tampa Bay Times

Few people in the U.S. know much Asian American history beyond Chinese migrants building railroads and Japanese American detention during WWII. Advocates hope attention to an 1898 Supreme Court ruling changes that.

Why it matters: The Wong Kim Ark case affirmed that American-born people of Asian descent were U.S. citizens giving protections to millions of Asian Americans, Latinos, and even Native Americans decades later. It's an overlooked example of how Asian American civil rights fights transformed the nation.

Driving the news: Connecticut lawmakers are considering a bill to make Asian American history a requirement in public schools.

The intrigue: The push to integrate Asian American history into public school classes comes as some states including some of the same ones debating the new requirements are passing bills to limit diversity education under the guise of banning critical race theory.

Details: The San Francisco-born Wong Kim Ark returned to the city of his birth in November 1894 after visiting family in China, but was refused re-entry.

What they're saying: "It's a hallmark case in Asian American history because it establishes the activism that the Asian American community had been waging for decades," Jason Oliver Chang, an Asian American studies and history professor at the University of Connecticut, told Axios.

Between the lines: The Wong Kim Ark case established the Birthright Citizenship clause and led to the dramatic demographic transformation of the U.S.

The Wong Kim Ark ruling is a gateway to open students up to more Asian American history for a complete picture of the U.S., Lynn Lin, a teacher of Chinese languages of 4th graders to middle schoolers in New York City, told Axios.

What's next: Lin and Bae are part of the growing chapters of Make Us Visible, seeking to build classroom curriculum around AAPI contributions.

Continue reading here:

The 1898 moment: How one Asian American transformed the U.S. - Axios

Tom Adamich| Special to the Monroe News

The Monroe County Historical Commission and the Monroe County Museum have joined forces since 2019 to update and install new versions of Michigan Historical Markers throughout Monroe County.

This effort included a review of the content of each marker to allow for appropriate updating of content as well as the logistics associated with removal of the old markers, procurement of the new markers, and new marker installation.

A marker that I often passed by quickly on my way to work at Monroe County Community College was the Old Burial Ground marker located on N. Monroe Street near West Grove Street. The cemetery was the 1830 successor to the original cemetery of St. Antoines Catholic Church officially established on November 16, 1794, according to "The Cross Leads Generations On: A Bicentennial Retrospect," which is a history of Monroes St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church from 1788 to 1988.

A letter dated that day from the first pastor of St Antoines wrote, On November 16, 1794, the parishioners of the River Raisin unanimously chose St. Anthony of Padua as their patron, and consequently, Mr. Joseph IRAC donated to the parish a piece of land measuring three arpents less 1 perches long by eighty arpents deep, bounded by the land of Mr. Irac on one side, the land of Joseph Belleaire on another side, and the land of the abovementioned donor Mr. Joseph Irac on the other side; which donation of three arpents less 1 perches by eighty arpents deep, the chief trustee Joseph Jobin and the two other trustees Jacques Prudent and Antoine Campeau accepted in the name of the parish with consent of all parishioners present.

An arpent is an old French unit of land area equivalent to 3,420 square meters (about 1 acre), the standard measure of land in those areas settled during the French regime and still used in Quebec, Canada, some parishes in Louisiana and other French territories. A perch is considered to measure just over 30 square yards or .00625 acre.

The second pastor of St. Antoines, French-born Sulpician Father Jean (John) Dilhet -- who was installed as pastor on July 1, 1798 by Father Michael Levadoux, Pastor of St. Anne Catholic Church, Detroit, and Vicar-General of the Bishop of Baltimore discovered that the donated land had never been formally and legally transferred to St. Antoines. As a result, titles need to be secured, as well as the acknowledgment of quit claim deeds (releases of a partys interest in a property without reason) and registering this information at the area civil office of the territory.

The area was officially known as Claim 648 and encompassed 99.98 acres known as St. Antoine Church Farm located off N. Custer Road. It was one of the River Raisins French ribbon farms farms which had some river frontage (to facilitate water transportation for shipping) and extending in a narrow strip away from the water, sometimes for miles.

A new small brick church for St Antoines was built in 1828 on the former Vincent Soleau property north of the river and existed on the property until the dedication of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in Monroe in 1845. It was identified as the Fairgrounds Church because of its Noble Avenue location. This property was near the future site of the original county fairgrounds located behind the current St. Mary Church (Monroe County had been established in July, 1817). It was never fully completed and razed in 1845.

In 1832, the Old Burial Ground served as a burial site for all faiths and nationalities during the cholera epidemic of that year.

See the original post:

Monroe County history: The history of the Old Burial Ground - Monroe Evening News

Even as a young adult, Shannen Dee Williams who grew up Black and Catholic in Memphis, Tennessee knew of only one Black nun, and a fake one at that: Sister Mary Clarence, as played by Whoopi Goldberg in the comic film Sister Act.After 14 years of tenacious research, Williams a history professor at the University of Dayton arguably now knows more about Americas Black nuns than anyone in the world. Her comprehensive and compelling history of them, Subversive Habits, will be published May 17.Williams found that many Black nuns were modest about their achievements and reticent about sharing details of bad experiences, such as encountering racism and discrimination. Some acknowledged wrenching events only after Williams confronted them with details gleaned from other sources.For me, it was about recognizing the ways in which trauma silences people in ways they may not even be aware of, she said.The story is told chronologically, yet always in the context of a theme Williams forcefully outlines in her preface: that the nearly 200-year history of these nuns in the U.S. has been overlooked or suppressed by those who resented or disrespected them.For far too long, scholars of the American, Catholic, and Black pasts have unconsciously or consciously declared by virtue of misrepresentation, marginalization, and outright erasure that the history of Black Catholic nuns does not matter, Williams writes, depicting her book as proof that their history has always mattered.The book arrives as numerous American institutions, including religious groups, grapple with their racist pasts and shine a spotlight on their communities overlooked Black pioneers.Williams begins her narrative in the pre-Civil War era when some Black women even in slave-holding states found their way into Catholic sisterhood. Some entered previously whites-only orders, often in subservient roles, while a few trailblazing women succeeded in forming orders for Black nuns in Baltimore and New Orleans.Even as the number of American nuns of all races shrinks relentlessly, that Baltimore order founded in 1829 remains intact, continuing its mission to educate Black youths. Some current members of the Oblate Sisters of Providence help run Saint Frances Academy, a high school serving low-income Black neighborhoods.Some of the most detailed passages in Subversive Habits recount the Jim Crow era, extending from the 1870s through the 1950s, when Black nuns were not spared from the segregation and discrimination endured by many other African Americans.In the 1960s, Williams writes, Black nuns were often discouraged or blocked by their white superiors from engaging in the civil rights struggle.Yet one of them, Sister Mary Antona Ebo, was on the front lines of marchers who gathered in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 in support of Black voting rights and in protest of the violence of Bloody Sunday when white state troopers brutally dispersed peaceful Black demonstrators. An Associated Press photo of Ebo and other nuns in the march on March 10 three days after Bloody Sunday ran on the front pages of many newspapers.During two decades before Selma, Ebo faced repeated struggles to break down racial barriers. At one point she was denied admittance to Catholic nursing schools because of her race, and later endured segregation policies at the white-led order of sisters she joined in St. Louis in 1946, according to Williams.The idea for Subversive Habits took shape in 2007, when Williams then a graduate student at Rutgers University was desperately seeking a compelling topic for a paper due in a seminar on African American history.At the library, she searched through microfilm editions of Black-owned newspapers and came across a 1968 article in the Pittsburgh Courier about a group of Catholic nuns forming the National Black Sisters' Conference.The accompanying photo, of four smiling Black nuns, literally stopped me in my tracks, she said. I was raised Catholic How did I not know that Black nuns existed?Mesmerized by her discovery, she began devouring everything I could that had been published about Black Catholic history, while setting out to interview the founding members of the National Black Sisters' Conference.Among the women Williams interviewed extensively was Patricia Grey, who was a nun in the Sisters of Mercy and a founder of the NBSC before leaving religious life in 1974.Grey shared with The Associated Press some painful memories from 1960, when as an aspiring nurse she was rejected for membership in a Catholic order because she was Black.I was so hurt and disappointed, I couldnt believe it, she said about reading that rejection letter. I remember crumbling it up and I didnt even want to look at it again or think about it again.Grey initially was reluctant to assist with Subversive Habits, but eventually shared her own story and her personal archives after urging Williams to write about the mostly unsung and under-researched history of Americas Black nuns.If you can, try to tell all of our stories, Grey told her.Williams set out to do just that scouring overlooked archives, previously sealed church records and out-of-print books, while conducting more than 100 interviews.I bore witness to a profoundly unfamiliar history that disrupts and revises much of what has been said and written about the U.S. Catholic Church and the place of Black people within it, Williams writes. Because it is impossible to narrate Black sisters journey in the United States accurately and honestly without confronting the Churchs largely unacknowledged and unreconciled histories of colonialism, slavery, and segregation.Historians have been unable to identify the nations first Black Catholic nun, but Williams recounts some of the earliest moves to bring Black women into Catholic religious orders in some cases on the expectation they would function as servants.One of the oldest Black sisterhoods, the Sisters of the Holy Family, formed in New Orleans in 1842 because white sisterhoods in Louisiana, including the slave-holding Ursuline order, refused to accept African Americans.The principal founder of that New Orleans order Henriette Delille and Oblate Sisters of Providence founder Mary Lange are among three Black nuns from the U.S. designated by Catholic officials as worthy of consideration for sainthood. The other is Sister Thea Bowman, a beloved educator, evangelist and singer who died in Mississippi in 1990 and is buried in Williamss hometown of Memphis.Researching less prominent nuns, Williams faced many challenges for example tracking down Catholic sisters who were known to their contemporaries by their religious names but were listed in archives by their secular names.Among the many pioneers is Sister Cora Marie Billings, who as a 17-year-old in 1956, became the first Black person admitted into the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia. Later, she was the first Black nun to teach in a Catholic high school in Philadelphia and was a co-founder of the National Black Sisters Conference.In 1990, Billings became the first Black woman in the U.S. to manage a Catholic parish when she was named pastoral coordinator for St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Richmond, Virginia.Ive gone through many situations of racism and oppression throughout my life, Billings told The Associated Press. But somehow or other, Ive just dealt with it and then kept on going.According to recent figures from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, there are about 400 African American religious sisters, out of a total of roughly 40,000 nuns.That overall figure is only one-fourth of the 160,000 nuns in 1970, according to statistics compiled by Catholic researchers at Georgetown University. Whatever their races, many of the remaining nuns are elderly, and the influx of youthful novices is sparse.The Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence used to have more than 300 members, according to its superior general, Sister Rita Michelle Proctor, and now has less than 50 most of them living at the motherhouse in Baltimores outskirts.Though were small, we are still about serving God and Gods people. Proctor said. Most of us are elderly, but we still want to do so for as long as God is calling us to.Even with diminished ranks, the Oblate Sisters continue to operate Saint Frances Academy founded in Baltimore by Mary Lange in 1828. The coed school is the countrys oldest continually operating Black Catholic educational facility, with a mission prioritizing help for the poor and the neglected.Williams, in an interview with the AP, said she was considering leaving the Catholic church due partly to its handling of racial issues at the time she started researching Black nuns. Hearing their histories, in their own voices, revitalized her faith, she said.As these women were telling me their stories, they were also preaching to me in a such a beautiful way, Williams said. It wasnt done in a way that reflected any anger -- they had already made their peace with it, despite the unholy discrimination they had faced.What keeps her in the church now, Williams said, is a commitment to these women who chose to share their stories.It took a lot for them to get it out, she said. I remain in awe of these women, of their faithfulness.

Even as a young adult, Shannen Dee Williams who grew up Black and Catholic in Memphis, Tennessee knew of only one Black nun, and a fake one at that: Sister Mary Clarence, as played by Whoopi Goldberg in the comic film Sister Act.

After 14 years of tenacious research, Williams a history professor at the University of Dayton arguably now knows more about Americas Black nuns than anyone in the world. Her comprehensive and compelling history of them, Subversive Habits, will be published May 17.

Williams found that many Black nuns were modest about their achievements and reticent about sharing details of bad experiences, such as encountering racism and discrimination. Some acknowledged wrenching events only after Williams confronted them with details gleaned from other sources.

For me, it was about recognizing the ways in which trauma silences people in ways they may not even be aware of, she said.

The story is told chronologically, yet always in the context of a theme Williams forcefully outlines in her preface: that the nearly 200-year history of these nuns in the U.S. has been overlooked or suppressed by those who resented or disrespected them.

For far too long, scholars of the American, Catholic, and Black pasts have unconsciously or consciously declared by virtue of misrepresentation, marginalization, and outright erasure that the history of Black Catholic nuns does not matter, Williams writes, depicting her book as proof that their history has always mattered.

The book arrives as numerous American institutions, including religious groups, grapple with their racist pasts and shine a spotlight on their communities overlooked Black pioneers.

Williams begins her narrative in the pre-Civil War era when some Black women even in slave-holding states found their way into Catholic sisterhood. Some entered previously whites-only orders, often in subservient roles, while a few trailblazing women succeeded in forming orders for Black nuns in Baltimore and New Orleans.

Even as the number of American nuns of all races shrinks relentlessly, that Baltimore order founded in 1829 remains intact, continuing its mission to educate Black youths. Some current members of the Oblate Sisters of Providence help run Saint Frances Academy, a high school serving low-income Black neighborhoods.

Some of the most detailed passages in Subversive Habits recount the Jim Crow era, extending from the 1870s through the 1950s, when Black nuns were not spared from the segregation and discrimination endured by many other African Americans.

In the 1960s, Williams writes, Black nuns were often discouraged or blocked by their white superiors from engaging in the civil rights struggle.

Yet one of them, Sister Mary Antona Ebo, was on the front lines of marchers who gathered in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 in support of Black voting rights and in protest of the violence of Bloody Sunday when white state troopers brutally dispersed peaceful Black demonstrators. An Associated Press photo of Ebo and other nuns in the march on March 10 three days after Bloody Sunday ran on the front pages of many newspapers.

During two decades before Selma, Ebo faced repeated struggles to break down racial barriers. At one point she was denied admittance to Catholic nursing schools because of her race, and later endured segregation policies at the white-led order of sisters she joined in St. Louis in 1946, according to Williams.

The idea for Subversive Habits took shape in 2007, when Williams then a graduate student at Rutgers University was desperately seeking a compelling topic for a paper due in a seminar on African American history.

At the library, she searched through microfilm editions of Black-owned newspapers and came across a 1968 article in the Pittsburgh Courier about a group of Catholic nuns forming the National Black Sisters' Conference.

The accompanying photo, of four smiling Black nuns, literally stopped me in my tracks, she said. I was raised Catholic How did I not know that Black nuns existed?

Mesmerized by her discovery, she began devouring everything I could that had been published about Black Catholic history, while setting out to interview the founding members of the National Black Sisters' Conference.

Among the women Williams interviewed extensively was Patricia Grey, who was a nun in the Sisters of Mercy and a founder of the NBSC before leaving religious life in 1974.

Grey shared with The Associated Press some painful memories from 1960, when as an aspiring nurse she was rejected for membership in a Catholic order because she was Black.

I was so hurt and disappointed, I couldnt believe it, she said about reading that rejection letter. I remember crumbling it up and I didnt even want to look at it again or think about it again.

Grey initially was reluctant to assist with Subversive Habits, but eventually shared her own story and her personal archives after urging Williams to write about the mostly unsung and under-researched history of Americas Black nuns.

If you can, try to tell all of our stories, Grey told her.

Williams set out to do just that scouring overlooked archives, previously sealed church records and out-of-print books, while conducting more than 100 interviews.

I bore witness to a profoundly unfamiliar history that disrupts and revises much of what has been said and written about the U.S. Catholic Church and the place of Black people within it, Williams writes. Because it is impossible to narrate Black sisters journey in the United States accurately and honestly without confronting the Churchs largely unacknowledged and unreconciled histories of colonialism, slavery, and segregation.

Historians have been unable to identify the nations first Black Catholic nun, but Williams recounts some of the earliest moves to bring Black women into Catholic religious orders in some cases on the expectation they would function as servants.

One of the oldest Black sisterhoods, the Sisters of the Holy Family, formed in New Orleans in 1842 because white sisterhoods in Louisiana, including the slave-holding Ursuline order, refused to accept African Americans.

The principal founder of that New Orleans order Henriette Delille and Oblate Sisters of Providence founder Mary Lange are among three Black nuns from the U.S. designated by Catholic officials as worthy of consideration for sainthood. The other is Sister Thea Bowman, a beloved educator, evangelist and singer who died in Mississippi in 1990 and is buried in Williamss hometown of Memphis.

Researching less prominent nuns, Williams faced many challenges for example tracking down Catholic sisters who were known to their contemporaries by their religious names but were listed in archives by their secular names.

Among the many pioneers is Sister Cora Marie Billings, who as a 17-year-old in 1956, became the first Black person admitted into the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia. Later, she was the first Black nun to teach in a Catholic high school in Philadelphia and was a co-founder of the National Black Sisters Conference.

In 1990, Billings became the first Black woman in the U.S. to manage a Catholic parish when she was named pastoral coordinator for St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Richmond, Virginia.

Ive gone through many situations of racism and oppression throughout my life, Billings told The Associated Press. But somehow or other, Ive just dealt with it and then kept on going.

According to recent figures from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, there are about 400 African American religious sisters, out of a total of roughly 40,000 nuns.

That overall figure is only one-fourth of the 160,000 nuns in 1970, according to statistics compiled by Catholic researchers at Georgetown University. Whatever their races, many of the remaining nuns are elderly, and the influx of youthful novices is sparse.

The Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence used to have more than 300 members, according to its superior general, Sister Rita Michelle Proctor, and now has less than 50 most of them living at the motherhouse in Baltimores outskirts.

Though were small, we are still about serving God and Gods people. Proctor said. Most of us are elderly, but we still want to do so for as long as God is calling us to.

Even with diminished ranks, the Oblate Sisters continue to operate Saint Frances Academy founded in Baltimore by Mary Lange in 1828. The coed school is the countrys oldest continually operating Black Catholic educational facility, with a mission prioritizing help for the poor and the neglected.

Williams, in an interview with the AP, said she was considering leaving the Catholic church due partly to its handling of racial issues at the time she started researching Black nuns. Hearing their histories, in their own voices, revitalized her faith, she said.

As these women were telling me their stories, they were also preaching to me in a such a beautiful way, Williams said. It wasnt done in a way that reflected any anger -- they had already made their peace with it, despite the unholy discrimination they had faced.

What keeps her in the church now, Williams said, is a commitment to these women who chose to share their stories.

It took a lot for them to get it out, she said. I remain in awe of these women, of their faithfulness.

Read the original here:

The overlooked history of Black Catholic nuns - WDSU New Orleans

Now that the pandemic is almost history, travelers are poised to discover their own. After two years of being locked down and quarantined, Americans are embarking on ambitious trips to discover history and it's taking them to some remarkable places.

A survey by Priceline predicts a banner year for historical tourism, also called heritage tourism. If you've ever traveled anywhere to experience artifacts and activities representing the stories and people of the past and present, then congratulations you're a heritage tourist. (And by the way, that's the textbook definition given to heritage tourism by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, an independent federal agency.)

One-third of Americans say heritage travel is a meaningful way to travel, according to Priceline. Interestingly, the younger crowd (18-34 years old) shows the highest interest in heritage tourism this year.

I've met many of them in the last few weeks as the tourism season gets underway in Europe. I'm traveling through Turkey in April and I'll be in Greece next month, both known for their rich histories.

The Forbidden City in Beijing, the most visited historical attraction in the world.

If you've ever been to a place that deepens your understanding of world history, then you've been a heritage traveler.

If you want more than sun and fun on your next getaway, you can find a quick list of the best historical tourism sites by visiting the UNESCO World Heritage List. Of course, there are many more sites worth seeing, but this list is one of the best starting points.

Ancient Lycean tombs along the Dalyan ay River in Dalyan, Turkey.

Although places of interest for heritage tourism are everywhere, some areas especially Turkey are experiencing a particular surge in demand.

At the Dalyan Resort & Spa Hotel, for example, history frames your entire experience. From the banks of the Dalyan ay River, visitors can see the famous Lycian Rock Tombs. These impressive facades, built in the 4th century, are all that remain of a once-thriving civilization. Fulya and Yucel Okutur, the resort's owners, say the region has attracted an increasing number of history enthusiasts who charter boats to sail down the curving river and take pictures of the crumbling rock facades.

Olympos Lodge, a boutique hotel on the Mediterranean coast, is also a stone's throw from Mt. Olympos, another Lycian city. Co-owner Ayen zkan imek says the pandemic has given visitors an opportunity to consider a deeper meaning behind travel, so visiting a place that has a rich history makes it all the more appealing. Properties like Olympos Lodge tend to get a fair number of visitors from Eastern Europe, but with the war going on, she says Western Europe and North America are picking up the slack this summer.

In Antalya, the Tuvana Hotel is also in the right place at the right time. Its location, in the central district of Kaleii, puts guests within walking distance of the city's main historical attractions. These include the famous Tekeli Mehmet Paa Mosque, the ancient harbor and Hadrian's Gate, according to Nermin Tankut, who manages the Ottoman-style boutique hotel.

"People are looking for an experience," she says. "They want to take a walking tour and see the gates but they are also looking for more from their vacation."

The restored amphitheater in Aspendos, an ancient Greco-Roman city in Turkey's Antalya province.

If you haven't booked your summer vacation yet, and are looking for a heritage vacation, there's still time, although you're cutting it close. International airfares are still down from 2019 levels they were 19 percent below pre-pandemic levels during spring break but some destinations have more than bounced back. The average roundtrip economy class airline ticket to Italy costs over $1,300. Maybe the Colosseum can wait until the summer of 2023.

Airlines are scrambling to meet demand. European airlines, eager to serve hot Turkish Riviera destinations like Antalya, haven't been able to find enough staff to add new flights, according to tourism insiders. Turkish Airlines will operate 388 direct weekly flights to 47 cities in 29 countries from Antalya, Dalaman, Bodrum-Milas and zmir, according to the carrier.

For all the interest in heritage tourism, there's still plenty of room for more visitors. But it depends where you want to go. Ali afak ztrk, president of Regnum Carya Golf & Spa Resort, an all-inclusive resort in Antalya, recalls a recent conversation with director Guy Ritchie, who was visiting his property to make the upcoming movie Operation Fortune. Ritchie, like many visitors, was captivated by the ancient city of Aspendos, with its well-preserved Roman amphitheater. "He was saying that it's so beautiful and we have so much history, but it's not well known," he says.

That's the dilemma faced by destinations with historical attractions. If you improve marketing, you risk being overrun by visitors. For now, properties like Regnum are happy to have their guests stay there for the golf and take a day tour of the Roman ruins. But what if they all came for the history? That would fundamentally change the way these historical destinations operate.

Pelin Tanca, the co-founder of TAY Istanbul, a travel and event management company, says historical tourism is more complicated than it looks. Most visitors come with more than one thing on their to-do list. They're here for a destination wedding and they want to see the Roman ruins. Or they want to play nine holes and then see Hadrian's Gate. Pulling that off takes some expertise.

"Within the same trip, you can hike on The Lycian Way, visit ancient ruins, taste delicacies, and at the end, lie on the beach," she says.

Find a qualified travel advisor. You'll probably need an expert to help you plan a heritage vacation. Check the American Society of Travel Advisors site and look for someone who specializes in the destination you plan to visit.

Consider a tour. Historical tours are difficult to plan and execute. There are so many moving parts, and there are often language barriers. A tour operator can help you cut through that, and you might also get a better deal since tour operators buy their trip components in bulk. You can find a list of vetted tour operators at the United States Tour Operators Association site.

Get a guide. If you don't join a tour, then at least consider hiring a professional guide. You can stroll around the ruins on your own and Google every site, but you're better off finding someone who can show you around. That's particularly true for sites that could be dangerous, with rock outcroppings or cliffs. You can check Viator or Getyourguide for details. But find a pro. Seriously.

One thing is clear: The summer of 2022 will be one for historical discovery. And for many Americans, it isn't a question of if they will take a heritage tour in the coming months, but which one.

See the article here:

Your History: Heritage Tourism Is Poised To Take Off This Summer - Forbes

Chinas Xi Jinping and Russias Vladimir Putin strode out to the Gate of Heavenly Peace in the center of Beijing. The sky overhead was perfectly blue. The crowds waved their red flags in perfect unison. This was the entrance to the Forbidden City when Chinas last emperors ruled, and it was where Mao Zedong declared the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. But that wasnt why they were here. They had come to commemorate Victory Day, the anniversary of the end of World War II in Chinaor as it was known there, the Chinese Peoples War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War.

In that devastating war, the Chinese Peoples War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression started first and lasted longest, Xi said in his speech on Sept. 3, 2015. The unyielding Chinese people fought gallantly and finally won total victory over the Japanese militarist aggressors, thus preserving the achievements of Chinas 5,000-year-old civilization and defending the cause of peace for mankind. Then, to celebrate that peace, there was a massive military parade.

Twelve thousand troops marched into Tiananmen Square in perfect lockstep. When they reached Xi, their heads snapped right, a sea of resolute faces turning to salute their commander in chief. From the crowded press pen, I squinted up at the tiny figures of Xi and Putin on the balcony high above us as the soldiers goose-stepped past below. Most of all, I was struck by the sound, the boots stamping out a relentless drumbeat on the pavement and then the low guttural growl of the tanks. They rumbled past in a cloud of engine smoke, and they were so heavy I could feel the ground shaking beneath my feet. Next came a procession of the countrys latest, most formidable weaponry. There was the new long-range strategic missile, the Dong Feng (East Wind) 5B, designed to carry a nuclear warhead and capable of reaching targets in Western Europe and the United States, and the Dong Feng 21D anti-ship missile, dubbed the carrier killer for its purported ability to sink an aircraft carrier.

Chinas Xi Jinping and Russias Vladimir Putin strode out to the Gate of Heavenly Peace in the center of Beijing. The sky overhead was perfectly blue. The crowds waved their red flags in perfect unison. This was the entrance to the Forbidden City when Chinas last emperors ruled, and it was where Mao Zedong declared the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. But that wasnt why they were here. They had come to commemorate Victory Day, the anniversary of the end of World War II in Chinaor as it was known there, the Chinese Peoples War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War.

In that devastating war, the Chinese Peoples War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression started first and lasted longest, Xi said in his speech on Sept. 3, 2015. The unyielding Chinese people fought gallantly and finally won total victory over the Japanese militarist aggressors, thus preserving the achievements of Chinas 5,000-year-old civilization and defending the cause of peace for mankind. Then, to celebrate that peace, there was a massive military parade.

Twelve thousand troops marched into Tiananmen Square in perfect lockstep. When they reached Xi, their heads snapped right, a sea of resolute faces turning to salute their commander in chief. From the crowded press pen, I squinted up at the tiny figures of Xi and Putin on the balcony high above us as the soldiers goose-stepped past below. Most of all, I was struck by the sound, the boots stamping out a relentless drumbeat on the pavement and then the low guttural growl of the tanks. They rumbled past in a cloud of engine smoke, and they were so heavy I could feel the ground shaking beneath my feet. Next came a procession of the countrys latest, most formidable weaponry. There was the new long-range strategic missile, the Dong Feng (East Wind) 5B, designed to carry a nuclear warhead and capable of reaching targets in Western Europe and the United States, and the Dong Feng 21D anti-ship missile, dubbed the carrier killer for its purported ability to sink an aircraft carrier.

Putin shaded his eyes from the sun on the balcony. Xi looked straight ahead. His face was impassive, even slightly bored. Fighter jets roared through the sky above us, followed by a thunderous swarm of attack helicopters that made downtown Beijing look like a scene from Apocalypse Now. Clearly this was as much about demonstrating the countrys growing strength as it was about remembering the past. But then, both leaders insisted the two were inextricably linked.

Xi was then midway through his first term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), while Putin, his increasingly close friend, had been in power for 15 years. Putin said they had first bonded over family memories of World War II while they shared a late-night shot of vodka and sliced some sausage at an Asia-Pacific leaders summit in 2013, and they evidently also shared an understanding of the conflicts wider resonance. The two leaders deployed their extensive security forces to crush dissent and silence their opponents, but they also both appealed to the history of the war to rally public support.

In Russia, Putin exploited the sacred myth to frame the countrys contemporary challenges and cast his enemies as traitors, and in China, too, Xi was intensifying focus on the conflict and turning to the past to serve his contemporary needs. The Victory Day celebrations in 2015 were a case in point. While the extraordinary scale and seamless choreography made this look like a long-held tradition, it was not. In fact, this was the first time the victory parade had ever been held. Victory Day was one of three new national holidays that had been created the previous year, along with an annual day to commemorate the Nanjing Massacre, which was carried out by Japanese troops during World War II, and Martyrs Day, which was dedicated to all those who had given their lives to defend the country.

It is not unusual for a country to designate memorial days to honor its fallen, but this was all happening 70 years after the end of the war. It had taken long enough for the Soviet leadership to reinstate Victory Dayalmost two decades after Joseph Stalin canceled the holiday therebut it took the CCP another half-century to come around to the idea.

The new memorial days were just the beginning. Xi called for a renewed effort to study the history of the conflict, although on the partys terms, and while Chinese suffering during the war with Japan had played an important role in the partys post-Tiananmen patriotic education campaign, he now turned up the volume and shifted the emphasis. As well as remembering the countrys suffering during the conflict as part of the broader century of humiliation China had endured before the party came to power, he said the war should also be remembered as the beginning of the end of that humiliation and the start of the journey to what he called the China Dream of national rejuvenation.

The victory over Japan was the first complete victory won by China in its resistance against foreign aggression in modern times, Xi said in his Victory Day speech in 2015. Not only did it put an end to the national humiliation of China, he said, but also this great triumph represented the rebirth of China, opened up bright prospects for the great renewal of the Chinese nation, and set our ancient country on a new journey. What was more, the victory reestablished China as a major country and won the Chinese people the respect of all peace-loving people around the world.

This was an important part of Xis narrative of the war and another point on which he and Putin agreed: that as the nations that had sacrificed the most to save the world from fascism, the war had earned them the right to respect. They presented themselves as the founders and guardians of the postwar international order, instead of its greatest threat. Putin had illegally annexed Crimea a year earlier, and he was fighting a covert war in Ukraine at the time, while Xi was installing surface-to-air missiles and military facilities on artificial islands in the South China Sea. But both leaders claimed they were the ones upholding world peace and it was U.S. hegemony that posed the real danger.

All countries should jointly uphold the international order and system underpinned by the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter [which China was the first to sign], Xi said. They should build a new model of international relations based on mutually beneficial co-operation and advance the noble cause of global peace and development. In his telling, Chinas growing military strength was simply to defend its interests and ensure the country would never again be pushed around. Even as the tanks and the intercontinental ballistic missiles rolled through Tiananmen Square, the official commentary assured viewers that Chinas rise would always be peaceful.

Our generation is lucky to be born at a time when the country will not be bullied by others, remarked one student at Beijings prestigious Tsinghua University after watching the military parade. Now we will show the world how strong China is, said an 8-year-old girl.

***

When Xi was unveiled as the CCPs new general secretary in November 2012, there were some predictions that he would unleash a series of pragmatic reforms. Maos body will be hauled out of Tiananmen Square on his watch, wrote Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times in January 2013. And Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning writer, will be released from prison. Xis father, Xi Zhongxun, who had served under Mao as one of the first generation of Chinese Communist revolutionaries, had supported economic reforms, Kristof pointed out (he was not alone in his optimism), and Xis mother had elected to live in the capitalist enclave of Shenzhen. His daughter was studying at Harvard University in the United States. But as with Kim Jong Un, who took over across the border in North Korea the previous year, those early predictions turned out to be wrong. Instead of loosening his grip, Xi consolidated power and reasserted the partys role in the economy and across all aspects of society. Liu died in detention in 2017, with Mao still firmly ensconced in his mausoleum.

Like Putin and Kim, Xi saw history as a crucial tool for maintaining power. It was the foundation on which the party built its claim to rule and framed its appeals for public support. It was the basis on which they attacked their opponents and the answer to the question as to why China needed the Communist Party at all. As Deng Xiaoping had urged in the aftermath of the Tiananmen crackdown, they needed to continually remind people what China was like in the old days and what kind of country it was to become before the rise of the CCP.

Also, like Putin, Xi had seen for himself what happened when a communist regime lost power. Xi was a midranking party official in the southeastern province of Fujian when he watched the Soviet Union collapse. All it took was one quiet word from Gorbachev to declare the dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party, and a great party was gone, he reportedly later said. He had given considerable thought to how the CCP could avoid the same fate, and it was one of the first issues he raised after becoming general secretary. Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse? he asked party members in a closed-door speech in December 2012, less than a month after taking office. An important reason was that their ideals and convictions wavered, he said. In the end, nobody was a real man, nobody came out to resist.

He repeated that message a few weeks later when he returned to the Soviet collapse during a seminar for senior officials. The struggle in the ideological sphere was extremely fierce, Xi said of the situation in the Soviet Union at the time. There was a complete denial of Soviet history, denial of Lenin, denial of Stalin, pursuit of historical nihilism, confusion of thought. With discipline breaking down and the partys history under attack, he said, the great Soviet Communist Party scattered like birds and beasts. The great Soviet socialist nation fell to pieces.

Xi was determined not to repeat those mistakes. As he saw it, national security was not just a physical or a material concept. They also had to guard against threats in the ideological sphere. And already there were signs of some of the same looming dangers for the CCP as there had been in the Soviet Union. Organizational discipline had collapsed, corruption was spiraling, and ideological control was failing. If they wanted to avoid the same fate, they would have to act fast. Public support, Xi warned, was a matter of the partys survival or extinction. Unlike Mikhail Gorbachev, he intended to put up a fight.

In the spring of 2013, a secret communique known as Document No. 9 circulated among senior officials. The party faced a complicated, intense struggle in the ideological realm, the document warned, setting out a series of false ideological trends that must be confronted. These included efforts to promote Western constitutional democracy, universal values, civil society, and historical nihilism, which meant denying the partys version of history. The goal of this historical nihilism, the document explained, was to undermine the partys legitimacy and challenge its long-term political dominance. In other words, if the party wanted to hold on to power, it would have to strengthen its grip on the countrys history. Officials were urged to wage a perpetual, complex, and excruciating struggle, making ideological work a top priority in their daily schedules.

A select group of historians convened for a special conference at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government-affiliated research institute, in Beijing the following year and concluded that historical nihilism was one of the main tactics hostile international forces were using to try to Westernize and divide China. They called for a more disciplined approach to the study of history that would safeguard ideological security and create a positive image of China.

Just as the partys focus on the countrys past national humiliation after the Tiananmen crackdown had seen a sudden surge of scholarship on the subject, so too now did historical nihilism became a hot topic for research. New papers and initiatives proliferated. Qiushi (Seeking Truth), the partys ideology journal, devoted a special section on its website to the battle to combat historical nihilism, complete with a banner quote from Xi: History is history, truth is truth, and no one can change history or truth.

This wasnt true. The Communist Party had rewritten plenty of the countrys history. The extent of the human-made famine under Mao had been erased, as had the scale of the violence during the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen massacre. It would be more accurate to say that history and truth were whatever the leadership said they were at that moment, and no one was allowed to challenge that version of events. But the party presented its campaign against historical nihilism as a patriotic mission, and the hunt for historical nihilists was on.

This article is adapted from Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea, by Katie Stallard, Oxford University Press, 304 pp., $29.95, May 2022.

Excerpt from:

Xi Jinping Thinks Unapproved History Is The Enemy Within - Foreign Policy

Iowa Starting Line will be sharing historical photos of our state and our communities every morning on our Facebook page. Sometimes theyll just be one-off interesting photos we find in archives, sometimes theyll be a series on a specific topic. When we do a series, well put all of them together in a post like this after its done so you can easily see them all in one place in case you missed a day.

Also, if you have any suggestions of future photo history topics we should look at, send them to Nikoel Hytrek at Nikoel@IowaStartingLine.com (and preferably include where specific photos on the subject might be found).

Heres our series from this past week on the Civilian Conservation Corps in Iowa:

Several facilities in Ledges Park were built by workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps, the program started by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 under his New Deal agenda.

After flooding in 1935 much of the camps work was devoted to clean-up. However, Company 2723 of the CCC also planted trees, designed and constructed trails and mapped Ledges topography.

Photo: Workers in the CCC Mess Hall, Hampton, Iowa camp. (Dec. 4, 1936)

The Civilian Conservation Corps was started by President Franklin Roosevelt, March 31, 1933, as part of his New Deal Program. It was a voluntary government work program for unemployed, unmarried men between 18 and 25, which eventually expanded to include 17-26-year-olds. It lasted from 1933 to 1942 and was meant to teach skills and provide the men with jobs.

Photo: CCC Rec room, Hampton, Iowa. (Dec. 4,1936)

Members of the Civilian Conservation Corps worked on more than 80 state parks in Iowa and 46,000 Iowans were enrolled when the program was discontinued. Camps were maintained by the army, and most men came to the program with little other than the clothes they were wearing.

Photo: Workers in the CCC Mess Hall, Hampton, Iowa camp. (Dec. 4, 1936)

Company 2717 of the Civilian Conservation Corps, stationed in Hampton, was popular with the community. In December 1937, they were ordered to ship out to another park, but members of the community wrote to the Iowa governor in protest. Those protests led to the company staying until September 1938 to complete their various projects.

Photos: Beeds Lake dam, Nov. 26 1936 at Beeds Lake State Park, Hampton, Iowa

The property containing Beeds Lake was converted into a state park by Company 2717 from summer 1934 to 1938. This limestone dam, as well as other structures, was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Beeds Lake dam is one of the most photographed dams in the Midwest. Officially, the park opened to the public on June 5 1938, but it had seen visitors as early as the 1936-37 season.

Photos: Then and Today Ledges State Park CCC Oak Woods Shelter

The Oak Woods Shelter was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the Lower Ledges part of Ledges State Park near Boone, and is now reservable for events. Its one of a few structures built at Ledges. Company 2723 worked primarily at Ledges, but Company 780 was stationed in the same place and did a lot of work in Ames with the State Forest Nursery, Lake LaVerne, and land erosion projects.

by Nikoel HytrekPosted 4/29/22

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Iowa History In Photos: The Civilian Conservation Corps - Iowa Starting Line