A Timeline of Terror in America By Marion T. Sanders, Jnr.

1. A Timeline of Terror in AmericaBy Marion T. Sanders, Jnr.

2. TerrorismTerrorism is the nagging fear that the enemy, or your persecutor, can hurt, humiliate, or degrade you whenever they choose.

3. Terrorists-Slave Traders and Slave Owners-TerrorizedAfricans Shipped to America The first Africans in America arrived as indentured servants via Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Slavery on American soil grew at such a rapid rate that , by 1750, over 200,000 African slaves were in America. Fifty years later, that number grew to 700,000. To be denied freedom and considered as chattels is to be terrorized.

4. Terrorists-Certain Residents of Salem, Massachusetts-Terrorized Over twenty-four people In 1692, nineteen innocent men and women were hanged for witchcraft. An old man was pressed to death for refusing to stand trial. Four others died in jail as they awaited trial. One can only imagine the horror of being targeted as a “witch.” The psychological damaged had to be severe and long-lasting.

5. Terrorist- King George III-The Proclamation of 1763-Terrorized American Settlers on the Western Side of the Appalachian Mountains Before the French and Indian War, colonists had begun to expand westward over the Appalachian Mountains. American colonists fought for the Mother Country and gained all the land to the Mississippi River. However, King George issued a royal proclamation forbidding colonists from going back home to their western lands. The Colonists regarded the new policy as an infringement of their basic rights and an act of terrorism by the King.

6. Procalmation of 1763_ cont’d

7. Terrorists-British navy- Terrorized American Sailors aboard the Chesapeake (Impressment) It was the custom of the British Navy in the early years of the American republic to lie in wait for America merchant ships after they had departed an American harbor. They would demand a search of the vessels for British deserters and force members of their crews into the British navy. These act of terrorism eventually turned violent. In June 1807, the frigate Chesapeake was intercepted and the American captain refused to be searched: the result was that three Americans were killed, eighteen wounded, and the American ship was crippled.

8. Impressment of the Chesapeake_cont’d

9. Terrorists-A Mob of Angry Proslavers-Terrorized Elijah Lovejoy, Abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy was an abolitionist. He was a Presbyterian minister who started a religious newspaper, the St. Louis Observer, where he advocated the abolition of slavery. He published a full account of the lynching of an African-American in St. Louis and the subsequent trial that acquitted the guilty parties. This angered some local people and his printing press was destroyed by a white mob. Three times Lovejoy’s press was seized by white mobs and thrown into the Mississippi River.

10. Elijah Lovejoy

11. Terrorists-President Andrew Jackson and the United States Calvary-TerrorizedCherokee Indians of Georgia Even though Jackson was no longer President in 1838, the removal of an estimated 17,000 Cherokees from Georgia was part of his overall Indian Removal Policy. This act of terrorism was so heinous that historians immediately began referring to it as “The Trail of Tears.” No one knows exactly how many Cherokee died on the journey to Oklahoma, but estimates are near 4,000.

12. “The Trail of Tears”

13. Terrorists-Angry Anti-Mormon Citizens of Illinois-Terrorized Joseph Smith and His Followers In the spring of 1820, a young, fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith claimed to have been visited by two “personages” who identified themselves as God the father and Jesus Christ. They told him not to join any church. A few years later, Smith claimed he was visited by an angel named Moroni, who told him of an ancient record containing God’s dealings with the former inhabitants of the American continent. Joseph retrieved this record, which he claimed was inscribed on thin golden plates and transcribed them. The resulting manuscript was the Book of Mormon. Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were,however, soon forced by unsympathetic neighbors to move to Ohio,Missouri,

14. …and then Illinois.He was loved by his followers and hated by his detractors. Smith was persecuted much of his adult life and was killed along with his brother Hyrum by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27,1844

15. Terrorists-United States Colonel J.M. Chivington and His Militia-Terrorized Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek Colorado This conflict began when a group of Cheyenne continuously refused to move onto a reservation. In 1864, Colonel Chivington and a troop of volunteer militia swooped down and attacked a group of Cheyenne and Arapaho camped near Sand Creek. Around 250 Indians,mostly women, children and elderly, were killed in the attack, despite the presence of flags being flown which were the agreed-upon indicators of a peaceful camp.

16. Sand Creek Massacre_cont’d

17. Terrorists-New Southern State Legislatures Passing Black Codes-Terrorized Free African-Americans In 1865, the newly reconstituted southern state legislatures passed a series of laws thereafter known as the so-called Black Codes. The laws were aimed to control freed men and women and to enable plantation owners to exploit and trample on the rights of newly emancipated African-American workers. Other laws banned African-Americans from owning or renting farms. One law allowed whites to take orphaned African-American children as unpaid apprentices. The Black Codes were little other than slavery in disguise.

18. Black Codes_ Cont’d

19. Terrorists- Ku Klux Klan (from 1866 on) -Terrorized African Americans and Their Supporters During Reconstruction, white violence against African Americans and their supporters became a common occurrence. Much of this violence was committed by secret societies organized to prevent freed men and women from exercising their rights and to help whites regain their power. The most terrifying of these societies, the Ku Klux Klan, was formed in 1866. Wearing white sheets and hoods, members of the Klan launched “midnight rides” against African Americans, burning their homes, churches, and schools. The Klan killed as well. Klan violence increased before elections, the group tried to scare African Americans to keep them from voting.

20. Klu Klux Klan_ Cont’d

21. Terrorists-The United States Army-Terrorized Lakota Sioux Indians After the death of Sitting Bull in early December 1890, several hundred Lakota Sioux fled in fear. They gathered at a creek called Wounded Knee in southwestern Dakota. Immediately after Christmas (1890), the army went there to collect the Sioux’s weapons. The Indians were starving and freezing. No one knows how the fighting started, but when a shot rang out, the army responded. Using machine guns, soldiers killed more than 300 Lakota. Wounded Knee marked the end of armed conflict between the American Army and the once mighty Plains Indians. The Native Americans had lost.

22. Wounded Knee_ Cont’d

23. Terrorists-Chicago Police-Terrorized People on the Street and Eight Anarchists In 1866, a bloody clash broke out between police and striders in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. Striking workers from McCormick Harvester company were protesting the killings of four strikers the previous day by the Chicago Police. When police ordered the crowd to break up, an unidentified person threw a bomb that killed seven police officers. A fierce battle ensued which left at least 13 people dead, some of whom were civilians caught in the middle. Eight anarchists attending the meeting were arrested and charged with being accessories to the crime, on the grounds that they had publicly and frequently advocated such violence. They were tried and found guilty on a variety of charges. Seven were sentenced to death and one to imprisonment. Four were hanged, one committed suicide, the sentence of two was commuted to life imprisonment, and one received…

24. Haymarket Riot_ cont’d …a 15-year prison term. In 1893, the three in prison were pardoned by the governor John P. Altgeld of Illinois mainly on the ground that no evidence had been presented actually connecting the defendants with the throwing of the bomb.

25. Terrorists-Robber Barons with the Support of Congress-Terrorized hundreds of Thousands of Children In the 19th century, hundred of thousands of children under the age of 16 worked in factories, mines, agriculture and other industries.

26. Terrorized Children_ cont’d “Tipple Boys”, as young as 8 years old, had to sit, leaning over, and using their feet to divide the rock and shale from the coal as it traveled on a conveyor belt below them. Because they worked during their formative years, their spines were permanently curved.

27. Terrorists- Men, Politicians, and the United States Government-Terrorized Suffragettes and all Women For years women fought for the right to vote and for equal rights in America. Brave women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony were relentless in their quest.

28. Terrorists-President Hoover & U.S. Army- Terrorized Bonus Army The United States Congress in the boom times of the 1920s agreed to give each veteran of the First World War a $1,000 bonus payable in 1945. In June 1932, when the hard times of the Depression had set in, about 2,000 of the jobless veterans wanted their money immediately. They formed the Bonus Army and marched on Washington, camping out like soldiers in the public parks to pressure Congress. When the D.C. police tried to disband the veteran’s camp, conflict broke out and two people were killed. Hoover responded by calling in the army. With tanks, machine guns, and cavalry, troops entered the camp. Veterans and their families fled in terror as the troops burned their camp.

29. Bonus Army_ cont’d

30. Terrorists-United States Government-Terrorized Japanese-Americans (Nisei) After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese-Americans were feared and hated by many other Americans. About two-thirds of the Japanese-Americans were Nisei, American citizens born in the United States. As result, the president directed the army to relocate more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast to detention centers located mostly in desert areas. These internment camps were crowded and uncomfortable. Conditions were very harsh and primitive for the internees.

31. Japanese Internment camp_ cont’d

32. Terrorists-Segregationist Americans-Terrorized Elizabeth Eckford And The Others Like Her In 1957, a federal judge ordered Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, a hitherto all-white institution, to admit African-American students. On the day that those students were scheduled to begin schooling, armed Guardsmen blocked the school’s entrance. One brave young 15 year-old girl, Elizabeth Eckford, nevertheless braved the insults and threats of white citizens to enter the school.

33. Anti-integration efforts_ cont’d

34. Terrorists- Birmingham Police-Terrorized Civil Rights Demonstrators In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King,Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference targeted Birmingham, Alabama, for a desegregation protest march. The police used high pressure water hoses against the civil rights marchers. Police arrested hundred of demonstrators, including King, but the demonstrations nevertheless continued.

35. Desegregation Protest_ cont’d

36. Terrorists- United States Government/National Guard-Terrorized Kent State University Students When President Richard Nixon sent American troops into Cambodia in the spring of 1970, anti-war critics charged him with invading a neutral country. They claimed that in doing this he had overstepped his constitutional authority as President. The invasion invoked a storm of anti-war protests on college campuses across the nation. Most were peaceful; however, one ended in violence. On the morning of May 4, 1970, armed troops arrived on the campus of Kent State University. Rifle fire by a contingent of 28 Ohio National Guardsmen left four students dead, one permanently paralyzed, and eight others wounded. Some of the injured and killed students were merely walking to and from class. One was an ROTC officer candidate.

37. Kent State_ cont’d

38. Terrorists-Mohammed Salameh, Nidal Avvad, Mahmud Abbluhalima, and Ahmad Aiaj- Bombed the World Trade Center in New York City On February 26, 1993, a suspected car bomb exploded beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. Thousands of office workers were trapped as smoke billowed up through the building. Hundreds eventually poured out of the building gasping for air and covered with soot. In the end, the death toll rose to six with, however, hundreds of people injured.

39. World Trade Center bombing 1993_cont’d

40. Terrorists-Timothy McVeight and Terry Nichols TerrorizedTerrorized-Workers in and Around the Murrah Building and America April 19,1995 a massive bomb inside a rental truck exploded, blowing half of the nine-story building into oblivion. A stunned nation watched as the bodies of men, women, and children were pulled from the rubble of nearly two weeks. When the smoke cleared and the exhausted rescue workers packed up and left, 168 people were dead

41. Implosion of the Murrah building_cont’d

42. Terrorist-Theodore Kacznski(Unabomber) and Eric RudolphTerrorized-Americans Both of these men used violence to try and bring about changes in a system they deemed unfair or corrupt. Kacznski claimed in his manifesto that his target was “Industrial Society and Its Future”. Rudolph bombed abortion clinics, a gay nightclub and Atlanta’s Centennial Park during the 196 Summer Olympics.

43. American terroists_cont’d Theodore Kacznski Eric Rudolph

44. Terrorists-John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo (Beltway Sniper)- Terrorized the Washington, D.C. Area During three weeks in October of 2002, two men terrorized the greater metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. When the killing spree ended, ten people were dead and three others critically injured. Following an intense investigation, it was later learned that the spree had actually begun a month before with murders and robbery in several other states where three more had died. The so-called Beltway Sniper’s plot was to extort $10 million from various government agencies.

45. American terrorists_cont’d John Allen. Muhammad Lee Boyd Malvo

46. Bertrand Russell called upon men to not submit to but to transcend, lower moralities which, glorified power, force, the creed of militarism,and the struggle for survival. Living in peace and perpetual happiness is not only an intrinsic desire, but fervent collective wish of humankind. Will there ever be an end to terrorism, war and conflict? Is there a way to reduce collective stress and create peace?