The Clinton Desegregation Crisis of 1956 unfolded on this day in Clinton, Tennessee, following the US Supreme Court's ruling mandating the desegregation of public schools. In response to this ruling, US District Court Judge Robert Taylor ordered Clinton High School to desegregate in the 1956-57 school year. As a result, 12 Black students, later known as the 'Clinton Twelve,' enrolled at the previously all-white school, making history as the first Black people to integrate a public school in Tennessee. Their enrollment, however, sparked white-segregationist opposition and violent protests a few days later.

Continued….. Tennessee Governor Frank Clement intervened by deploying the National Guard (military reservists) and the Highway Patrol (traffic-law enforcers) to restore order. Despite the violence, including cross burnings, gunfire, and dynamite attacks aimed at Black residents and supporters of desegregation, some of the Clinton Twelve continued to attend the school.

Although racial tensions persisted, Clinton High School symbolised progress in the fight for school desegregation. Bobby Cain, one of the Clinton Twelve, became the first Black student to graduate from a desegregated Southern school in 1957. Despite a bombing destroying much of the school in 1958, a national fundraising campaign helped rebuild it.

This gem of wisdom comes from Kenya. When two people fight, it’s those around them that suffer. In particular, when the mighty clash, they don’t value how they trample over the less fortunate.

ISRAELI COVERT OPERATION OVERTURNS ELECTIONS?

In 2023, a Paris-based NGO tracked down and unmasked a covert Israeli operation that privately boasted of influencing more than 30 elections worldwide. So far, ‘Team Jorge’ claims to have influenced the 2015 Nigerian election and says its fee was too high to disrupt a Kenyan election. It also ran a social media campaign in Senegal, according to the Guardian newspaper, which published NGO Forbidden Stories’ findings.

According to the journalists, Team Jorge had worked on the Nigeria project alongside Cambridge Analytica. News reports in 2018 revealed that the British consulting firm had acquired the personal data of 87 million Facebook users to allegedly influence people on how to vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum (whether the UK should exit the European Union) and the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

Continued….. According to NGO Forbidden Stories, the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed the existence of mysterious hackers who used an alias for the boss of this secret entity: ‘Jorge.’

Forbidden Stories journalists tracked down ‘Jorge’ by posing as representatives of an African leader who wanted to postpone or cancel an election.

‘Jorge’ turned out to be Tal Hanan, a 50-year-old former Israeli special forces operative. He boasted that his team included ‘graduates of government agencies,’ with expertise in finance, social media and campaigns, and ‘psychological warfare.’ They reportedly operate from six offices worldwide, providing services to intelligence agencies, political campaigns and private companies that want to manipulate public opinion.

Video credit: @fbdnstories @guardian

BLACK COMMUNITIES ‘REVENUE GENERATORS’ FOR POLICE

After taxes were slashed in the 1980s, US police departments became reliant on fees and fines to generate money. Typically, low-income Black neighbourhoods, who can’t afford them, were targeted and a vicious cycle of more fines and court fees followed.

In this clip, Dr Carol Anderson explains the devastating impact, using the example of Ferguson, Missouri. It exploded into riots in 2014 after police killed Michael Brown Jr. According to witnesses, it happened after an officer saw Brown walking in the road and told him to get on the sidewalk. At the time, fines for jaywalking, speeding and other minor offences accounted for 25 per cent of the city’s operating budget.

Policing for profit had become big business and helped break the very community officers were meant to serve and protect.

Video credit @emoryuniversity

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TWO WOMEN KILLED, DUMPED IN PIGSTY ON S. AFRICAN FARM

A horrific murder in South Africa, where two women were shot dead on a farm and then dumped in a pigsty, where the animals started eating their corpses.

Maria Makgato (47), Zimbabwean national Locadia Ndlovu (34) and her husband Mabutho (44) reportedly trespassed Onvervaght farm in Limpopo province to gather perished dairy products, which are usually dumped by a truck.

They were accosted by pig farmer Zachariah Johannes Olivier, farm supervisor Andrian Rudolph De Wet and farm worker William Musora. The trio is accused of opening fire, killing the two women and badly injuring the man.

All are now in custody, on various charges, including murder and attempted murder. Musora, who is Black, also faces a charge of being in South Africa illegally.

Continued.....In this clip, online commentator Brother Legend (BigBroLGND) reacts to the grim news. He also makes some interesting observations about the inequalities surrounding farmland ownership. What’s your reaction?

Video credit: https://x.com/BigBroLGND

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