During World War II, Josephine Baker served with the French Red Cross and was an active member of the French resistance movement. Using her career as a cover Baker became an intelligence agent, carrying secret messages written in invisible ink on her sheet music. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre, and received a Medal of the Resistance in 1946. In 1961 she received the highest French honor, the Legion d’Honneur awarded by then President Charles de Gaulle.

Our loss, U.S.A….

If you don’t admire the shit out of J. Baker, who was also pretty openly bisexual and adopted NINETEEN children in addition to the badassery mentioned above, I want you to go sit in the corner and think about your life choices.

um she was also a huge civil rights activist and her refusal to perform for segregated audiences at major clubs that were fallin over themselves to book her helped de-segregate vegas performance venues

aaaand she had a pet cheetah

The best thing she ever did was leave the US

Today, September 8th, is the 60th birthday of Ruby Nell Bridges - a woman who, being the first black child to attend an all-white school in New Orleans in 1960, underwent a traumatizing ordeal that came to signify the deeply troubled state of race relations in America.

On her first day of school at William Frantz Elementary School, during a 1997 NewsHour interview Bridges recalled that she was perplexed by the site that befell, thinking that it was some sort of Mardi Gras celebration:

"Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.”

Only six-years-old at the time, little Ruby had to deal with a slew of disgusting and violent harassment, beginning with threats of violence that prompted then President Eisenhower to dispatch U.S Marshals as her official escorts, to teachers refusing to teach her and a woman who put a black baby doll in a coffin and demonstrated outside the school in protest of Ruby’s presence there. This particular ordeal had a profound effect on young Ruby who said that it “scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us.”

Only one teacher, Barbara Henry, would teach Ruby and did so for over a year with Ruby being the only pupil in her class.

The Bridges family suffered greatly for their brave decision. Her father lost his job, they were barred from shopping at their local grocery store, her grandparents, who were sharecroppers, were forcibly removed from their land, not to mention the psychological effect this entire ordeal had on her family. There were, however, members of their community - both black and white - who gathered behind the Bridges family in a show of support, including providing her father with a new job and taking turns to babysit Ruby.

Part of her experience was immortalized in a 1964 Norman Rockwell painting, pictured above, titled The Problem We All Live With. Her entire story was made into a TV movie released in 1998.

Despite the end of the segregation of schools in the United States, studies and reports show that the situation is worse now than it was in the 1960s.

Today, still living in New Orleans, Briges works as an activist, who has spoken at TEDx, and is now chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation.

89-year-old Charlotte Despard speaks to an anti-fascist rally, Trafalgar Square, London, June 1933.

Charlotte Despard seems like she was a really cool lady. She was an anti-capitalist advocate for animal liberation, direct action, and Irish independence. She and Maude Gonne (an Irish nationalist) worked together to create the Women’s Prisoner’s Defence League, which helped support political prisoners such as Irish republicans. Despard was politically active well into her nineties (she died when she was ninety-five), and spoke at several anti-fascist rallies, like the one in the picture.

A young “Miss Maggie” Walker, the daughter of a former slave, who in 1903 became the first woman of any race to found and become president of an American bank. She also founded a newspaper and a department store called “Saint Luke’s Emporium.”

Courtesy of the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site Find Black History Album on Tumblr  Pinterest  Facebook  Twitter

Oops, turns out piracy is pretty much always a term like terrorist that gets slapped on whatever we don’t like despite being a general reaction to the status quo. And nothing’s really changed.

And when african pirates were captured by the British they were forced into the slave trade.

Horrible Histories taught me about pirates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwn5K89dE5c

They were generally democratic, disciplined, communal - they even had pensions! If you wanted out of the pirate life, you would be taken to a destination of your choice (anywhere in the world) and given a lump sum to help you with your new life.

interesting

Honor among thieves.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU YES i’ve spent like two years studying piracy (back when i had time to devote to reading and research) and yes pirates are actually all very interesting and democratic and great

Reblogging since someone recently sent me an ask on this topic (although now it appears to be lost somewhere in my inbox).

The thing that annoys me the most about conversations on piracy is the Eurocentrism. African pirates feature as ‘side characters’ on white western ships and that’s about it. This TOTALLY ignores the many other pirate communities out there. Like, why are there no documentaries, movies and novels about Chinese pirates? They outnumbered pirate ships of European origin by a large margin and were very succesful. They formed massive fleets and regularily kicked ass against European naval fleets.

Chinese ‘Pirate kings’ often had a fleet of over 200 ships and the Japanese-Chinese pirate king Cheng Chih-Lung had over a thousand. He fought wars against rival pirate kings and often saw the European fleets as minor nuances. After 1635 you couldn’t sail the Taiwan Strait without a permit issued by Cheng Chih-Lung. He then went on to become a navy commander of the Ming dynasty. He kicked the Dutch VOC out of Taiwan and might have become king of Taiwan if he hadn’t died shortly after.

How is he not the most famous pirate in the history of piracy? Oh yeah.. wait.. he wasn’t white.

Actually, the most successful pirate in history was Ching Shih, a Chinese woman who commanded over 300 junks manned by 20,000 to 40,000 pirates.

It also looks like they’re going to make a TV Series based on her life Starring Maggie Q:

im setting myself on fire goodbye 

I made you a sandwich put it in your mouth

TELL THAT TO MOTHERFUCKING QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER HUGE ASS EMPIRE BITCH

I’m sorry.

I couldn’t hear you.

Over all the voices of amazing women.

Throughout history.

Who could have kicked

your

ignorant

ass.

Reblogging this for the gender studies we’re doing in my history course.

No important discoveries of course because discovering what the sun is made of isn’t important at all OH NO.

Whaaat a douchetit fucknugget. I’d love to practice my crotch kicking skills on this dude.

my favorite part is at the end. obviously your completely truthful when you say “i am not sexist, anti-feminine, or whetever but this is brilliant”

just somethings that women invented:

We wouldn’t know what we do about radiation without Marie Curie. Oh and what about Roseline Franklin, who figured out what DNA looked like?

And guess who took on the empty jobs when all the men were in the army in WW2?

Arg, posts like this.

Also Re: “never forced to die in a war”, Libya, Benin, Chad, Malaysia, Tunisia, Cuba, Eritrea, Taiwan, and Israel’s mandatory military services would like to have a word with you.

I’m going to go point by point here:

Joan of Arc led an army 600 YEARS AGO what do you mean women have never fought in wars?  COUNTLESS women have been killed in battle.  HOW DARE YOU disregard their courage and their sacrifice.  And let’s not forget all the women who contributed to war efforts before they were allowed to fight by working in factories, nursing, spying, and making sure the industries back home didn’t die completely.

“Women have never lead a nation”?  Yeah, everyone from Margaret Thatcher to Ruth Dreifuss would like to have a word with you about that.  The Chancellor of Germany (generally considered one of the most powerful people in Europe and in the world) is a woman.  The Presidents of Liberia, Argentina, Lithuania, Costa Rica, Brazil, Kosovo, Malawi, and South Korea are women, as are the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh, Iceland, Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, Slovakia, Thailand, Denmark, and Jamaica.  The US Secretary of State, the President of the Indian National Congress Party, the General Secretary of the Burmese National League for Democracy, and the monarchs of England and Jordan are women. 

Facebook’s COO, the CEOs of Pepsi, Kraft, Xerox, IBM, Yahoo, WellPoint, Avon, the President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and the co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment are women, just to name a few.  There are now a million more female college graduates in America than there are male college grads.  So no, I would not say that women are incapable of succeeding at their jobs.  I think we can all agree that idiots like you are the reason women get paid less than their male counterparts.

RE the voting thing and the thing about women not being able to make difficult decisions: The ghosts of Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Bloomer, Emily Davison, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Mary Richardson, Emmeline Pankhurst,  Frances Ellen Watkins, Maria W. Stewart, Christabel Pankhurst, Lucy Stone, and all the other suffragettes and abolitionists who fought for their rights despite how radical and dangerous it was are coming to haunt you.

The things about wimpy support groups and physical beauty make so little sense that I don’t even know what to say in response

A further list of things invented by women:

Toilet paper holder

Submarine lamp and telescope

Ironing board

Home solar heating system

Gas heating furnace

Foldaway bed

Disposable diaper

Cobol (first computer language)

Circular saw

Rolling pin

Kevlar

Electric hot water heater

Elevated railway

Engine muffler

You conveniently forgot to mention literature, but let me just remind everyone that the 5th, 6th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 21st best-selling books of all time were written by women.  The 1st, 2nd and 6th best-selling authors of 2012 are women, while the 3rd best-selling book of 2011 was written by a woman…do I really need to continue?

Women have not contributed to science or mathematics or the building blocks of modern society?  Tell that to the 43 female Nobel Prize winners.  Tell that to Emilie du Chatelet, Caroline Herschel, Mary Anning, Mary Somerville, Maria Mitchell, Lise Meitner, Irène Curie-Joliot, Barbara McClintock, Dorothy Hodgkin, Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin, any of the people mentioned in the previous comments, or any of the other women who made significant scientific or mathematical advances despite being oppressed by people like you.  Oh, and RE the philosophy, here’s a list of people who prove you wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_philosophers.

And women did all that in a society ruled by thinking like yours.  While bearing your children and wearing corsets.

I never claimed we were superior, but don’t you dare tell me we are not EQUAL.  

I love it when this comes back up on my dash.

Overview:

Story:

Always question the history you are taught.

February 22, 1943: Members of the White Rose are executed.

The White Rose (die Weiße Rose) was one of the most famous anti-Nazi resistance groups working within the borders of the Third Reich; their defiant opposition against Adolf Hitler and the atrocities and oppression of his government was and is especially remarkable when juxtaposed with the traditional image of the apathetic German citizen, oblivious to or unwilling to speak out against the crimes of their own leaders and military. The principal members of the organization were students from the University of Munich - Hans and Sophie Scholl, Alex Schmorell, Willi Graf, Lilo Berndl, Jürgen Wittenstein, Falk Harnack, Christoph Probst, Traute Lafrenz, Katharina Schueddekopf, and Marie-Luise Jahn. Several had refused to join the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls ,(membership was, at that point in the war, compulsory), and most were motivated by moral reasons; some, as medical students, had witnessed the horrors of the war on the Eastern Front, atrocities committed by Germans against civilians, and the conditions of the Jewish ghettos in Warsaw and other cities. 

The White Rose’s main activity was spreading awareness through leaflets and pamphlets heavily influenced by religious texts, ancient philosophy, and traditional German writers, while avoiding detection by the Gestapo. The second of the six eventual leaflets (and a seventh draft) read:

Shortly after the total surrender of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad (and on the same day as Joseph Goebbels’ “total war” speech), a custodian at the university witnessed the Scholl siblings distributing pamphlets at the school, and the two were soon taken into custody by the Gestapo to be interrogated. Hans and Sophie Scholl, along with Christoph Probst, were tried by the People’s Court in a hasty show trial, found guilty, and executed by guillotine all on the same day - February 22,1943. More members were executed in July and October of that year, and others connected to the organization were sentenced to prison terms; however, it was the Scholls, more than any other members of the White Rose, who became symbols of selfless resistance and martyrs in postwar Germany. 

- Leaflet Four

A Random Viking Fact I Found Out

When a viking mistreats his lady, she may cut off his junk and hang it in her home.

Also:

VIKINGS

i want to be a viking

Madam C.J. Walker and several friends in her automobile.

She was the first woman in America to become a millionaire by her own endeavors, as well as the first African American millionaire. 

I did a huge project on her when I was in grade school! One of my first ever research projects.

Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. She was a Congresswoman, representing New York’s 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1968, she became the first African-American woman elected to Congress. On January 25, 1972, she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"I want history to remember me not just as the first black woman to be elected to Congress, not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself."

On this date, July 13, in 1972 Shirley Chisholm received 152 first-ballot votes at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. She was the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. During her campaign she survived three assassination attempts.

Legend.

During her campaign she survived three assassination attempts.

During her campaign she survived three assassination attempts.

DURING HER CAMPAIGN SHE SURVIVED THREE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS.

ha.

indigenous resistance, indigenous badassery. 

Look me in the face and tell me that is not THE most badass thing you have ever heard.

if you think rap lyrics are graphic today the poet catallus had everyone bested in the 1st century bc holy fuck:

Aww yeah Catullus 16

That's hardcore.

A woman hitting a skinhead with her handbag, Sweden, 1985 by Hans Runesson. The woman was reportedly a concentration camp survivor. 

ladies, non binary folks, and gentlemen I hereby declare this one of the best post in all of the world

Now that is a badass.

Why you should be in passionate horny love with Elizabeth ‘Nellie Bly’ Cochrane

*CLAPS LOUDLY*

I’m so pissed right now because I NEVER, EVER found her in a single of the history and literature books I studied on. Fuck that shit, this woman needs a whole entire chapter in every single book in print

*applauds wildly** I am more angry at the fact I’m only learning about her now than anything. WTF history, TEACH US ABOUT THESE BAMFS!

Working on it, love, I promise!

Diasporicroots:

The Dahomey Amazons

The Dahomey Amazons were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey (now known as Benin). They were named so by Western observers and historians due to their similarity to the legendary Amazons described by the Ancient Greeks.

King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Amazons as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto. During the 18th century, the king had some of his wives trained as royal bodyguards. Houegbadja’s son King Agadja (ruling from 1708 to 1732) developed the female bodyguard into a militia and successfully used them in Dahomey’s defeat of the neighbouring kingdom of Savi in 1727. European merchants recorded their presence, as well as similar female warriors amongst the Ashanti. For the next hundred years or so, they gained reputation as fearless warriors. Though they fought rarely, they usually acquitted themselves well in battle. The group of female warriors was referred to as Mino, meaning “Our Mothers” in the Fon language by the male army of Dahomey. From the time of King Ghezo (ruling from 1818 to 1858), Dahomey became increasingly militaristic. Ghezo placed great importance on the army and increased its budget and formalized its structures. The Mino were rigorously trained, given uniforms, and equipped with Danish guns (obtained via the slave trade). By this time the Mino consisted of between 4000 and 6000 women, about a third of the entire Dahomey army. The Mino were recruited from among the ahosi (“king’s wives”) of which there were often hundreds. Some women in Fon society became ahosi voluntarily, while others were involuntarily enrolled if their husbands or fathers complained to the King about their behaviour. Membership among the Mino was supposed to hone any aggressive character traits for the purpose of war. During their membership they were not allowed to have children or be part of married life. Many of them were virgins. The regiment had a semi-sacred status, which was intertwined with the Fon belief in Vodun. The Mino trained with intense physical exercise. Discipline was emphasised. In the latter period, they were armed with Winchester rifles, clubs and knives. Units were under female command. Captives who fell into the hands of the Amazons were often decapitated. Conflict with France  European encroachment into west Africa gained pace during the latter half of the 19th century, and in 1890 King Behanzin started fighting French forces in the course of the First Franco-Dahomean War. According to Holmes, many of the French soldiers fighting in Dahomey hesitated before shooting or bayoneting the Mino. The resulting delay led to many of the French casualties. Ultimately, bolstered by the Foreign Legion, and armed with superior weaponry, including machine guns, the French inflicted casualties that were ten times worse on the Dahomey side. After several battles, the French prevailed. The Legionnaires later wrote about the “incredible courage and audacity” of the Amazons. The last surviving Amazon of Dahomey died in 1979.