Category Archives: North American History

Black Women and Police: One Day on My Way to Agnes Scott College

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by ©️Leslye Joy Allen

This essay is a revisit and an edit to a memory I wrote about 10 years ago, but a memory I hope might help someone else, particularly a Black or Brown woman.

Most of my encounters with police have been rare and routine. Most of the police officers I have dealt with have been courteous and helpful. I have made the occasional phone call about the neighbor whose dog has been running around the neighborhood terrorizing a few people. The police come out, speak with the offender, and the matter is resolved. Yet, I remember this incident…

A police officer discovered I had a “First Insurance Cancellation Suspension” on my driver’s license. For those of you born late in the 20th century, let me explain. An insurance cancellation suspension was common if you changed cars or changed insurance companies. You used to get a form in the mail from the Department of Motor Vehicles instructing you to record your new insurance or your new car. Occasionally, however, you might not receive the form by mail, and you could easily forget about it. 

If your new car/new insurance data had not arrived at the Department of Motor Vehicles when you bought a new car or changed your car insurance, you could end up with this particular type of suspension. You typically had to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles, show them your new purchase, along with your new insurance card.

In what appeared to be a routine road check for driver’s license and insurance, the Decatur, Georgia Police held me for three hours only a few months after I purchased a car from my elderly uncle. This happened in the spring of 1998 when I was back in college to complete my Bachelor’s degree at Agnes Scott College. 

After checking my Driver’s License number the officer stated that I had a “First Insurance Cancellation Suspension” on the car I previously owned. I showed him my new insurance card on the car I was driving. I knew I would have to straighten out the suspension before I drove any car again. Since I was about a mile from the campus, I asked him if he could radio the Agnes Scott College Police and have someone from that police department drive down the street, and pick me (and the car) up.

I explained that I would have my Mama come pick me up at Agnes Scott and we would go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and get the suspension problem cleared up. 

“I’m not calling anybody,” he yelled. I pulled out my student ID. He said, “I don’t need that. Girl, get out of the car.” I was a grown woman then in my thirties; and while I might not have looked as old as my birth certificate said I was, I was nobody’s “girl.” I kept my mouth closed, but I am sure he sensed my displeasure.

I got out of the car and he instructed me to lie down in the street. When I asked why are you doing this? He told me to shut up. While I lay down in the street for over 30 minutes, he and another two officers pulled the back seat out of my car. They searched the trunk. If it had not been for the little old man that came out of his house to watch, I do not know what else might have happened. I was terrified, but I suffer from something my Mama used to call, “Your Daddy’s Disease.”

She said my father never showed fear when under pressure. I don’t show it either. Daddy always looked fearless, even menacing, when some horrible event was going on. Then later when everything was all over, he would fall apart, shaking and reaching for a good stiff drink. “That kind of thing can get you killed, Joy,” Mama said, “When someone expects you to be afraid, sometimes the worst thing you can do is look like you have no fear.”

This event was before everyone had a cellphone. A female police officer appeared and asked me if I wanted to call my Mama using her phone. The first police officer decided to write me a simple ticket for driving with a suspended license and he left me standing there in the street. He drove off. 

That sweet little old man stood there and talked with me until Mama arrived. He told me he thought the Decatur police were doing some kind of sweep. “They’re looking for somebody that’s up to no good, and they’re tryin’ to find ‘em in these road blocks,” he said. Mama arrived in about 30 minutes and picked me up. My new best friend—that sweet observant little old Black man told me to leave my car where it was until the suspension problem was straightened out.

“Them SOBs are probably waiting somewhere watching and waiting for you to drive off so they can give you another ticket or take you to jail. I’ll watch your car until you get back,” he said.

Mama asked me how my clothes got so dirty. I lied and told her I slipped and fell. She would have had a heart attack if I told her what really happened to her only child. We headed to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The clerk handed me a simple form that I filled out citing that I no longer owned the previous vehicle and therefore had no insurance on that vehicle. 

I had to write down the serial number and model of my current car and provide my proof of insurance. The clerk recorded my data and lifted my “First Insurance Cancellation Suspension.” All of this took about 20 minutes.

I did argue my case in traffic court. The police officer rolled his eyes at me as I explained in detail his refusal to call the Agnes Scott College police even after I showed him my student ID. I told the judge every detail and showed him my insurance card, the purchase of my car, and the statement from the Department of Motor Vehicles that lifted my insurance cancellation suspension. 

To add as much injury as I could, I said, “I missed my Latin Class because of this!” The judge dismissed my case. I paid no fine. I was lucky. Yet, I sensed that what happened to me was not rare. This kind of treatment happens to women, and particularly Black women and women of color, with a frequency that many people do not want to admit. 

Black women encounter more than our share of rudeness and physical intimidation from male police. This offending officer was Black. It’s easy to talk about racist cops, but it is not so easy to talk about SEXIST ones. And for the record, I don’t like Black men who are cops anymore than I like White men who are cops. Here’s the rub…

I consider myself to be an average size woman. By the time I was 50 years old, I managed to gain enough weight to make it to a whopping 135 pounds at 5 feet, 5 inches tall. At the time of this incident, I weighed only about 115 pounds. That police officer was at least 6’ 2” tall and weighed well over 200 pounds. He called me a girl. He told me to shut up. He did not throw me to the ground, Thank God. Yet, just imagine how easy it would have been for him to do so.

©️Leslye Joy Allen

I am an Independent Historian, Oral Historian and Dramaturge. Please consider supporting my work with a few bucks for Coffee and Eggs via my CashApp.

All blogs written by Leslye Joy Allen are protected by U. S. Copyright Law and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Any partial or total reference to any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen, or any total or partial excerpt of any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen must contain a direct reference to this hyperlink: https://leslyejoyallen.com with Leslye Joy Allen clearly stated as the author.  Postings or blogs placed here by other writers should clearly reference those writers.  All Rights Reserved.

Tariffs, Borders, & Personal Loss Redux

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by ©️Leslye Joy Allen

It can be argued that tariffs helped fuel the US Civil War. By the mid-1800s, the northern economy was based on manufacturing and was in direct competition with an agricultural, slave-based southern economy. Tariffs on imported goods were great for the Northern states as they provided a huge amount of revenue. Tariffs also protected American businesses from foreign competitors and provided revenue for the federal government. In the South, tariffs were a big negative.

In 1828, a tariff that southerners called the Tariff of Abominations became law. This tariff protected Northern manufacturers, but it penalized Southern slaveholders who relied on exporting their agricultural products (cotton) that were produced by Black slave labor. These same Southerners imported goods from Europe.

The Morrill Tariff passed in 1861 around the time several Southern states had seceded from the Union because tariffs placed a heavy economic burden on the South. The big issue was, however, the expansion of slavery. 

The American South sought to transplant slavery in newly acquired western territory due to its own self-produced ecological disaster, namely soil exhaustion. Yet, it was often difficult to transplant slavery in the western portion of what is now the United States due to the fact that laws differed in these newly acquired regions. California became a state in 1850, but it had abolished slavery. The Compromise of 1850 granted statehood to California as a free state with the expectation that California would uphold the Fugitive Slave Act.

Once the Mexican-American War was over in 1848 and the Treaty of Guadalupe was signed, Mexico ceded over 500,000 square miles of its territory to the United States. Those square miles included modern-day Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, California, and large portions of Arizona, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Kansas. So, do not think that Felon 47’s desire for extra territory is something new. And for Goddess sake don’t think the USA had or has any respect for actual geographic boundaries.

(Arlington Cemetery, c. 1865, Library of Congress)

Tariffs in the United States only waned after this country’s “protectionist” period ended roughly in the early 1930s. By the end of World War II, the United States entered full swing into a period of open markets and greater engagement with markets in other countries. 

But here’s the thing. What Felon 47 is doing is not new. In the mid-1800s while Northern industrialists reminded poorly paid white factory workers that they had privileges and supremacy over Black folks who were slaves, Southern slaveholders were selling the exact same argument to poor whites and middling white yeoman farmers. 

The white oligarchy didn’t fight in the Civil War on either side. They used poor whites to do it for them. And the South lost—Thank You Jesus! Yet, what most folks forget is that Black folks in the South were its property and its wealth. Setting them free WAS NOT the initial aim of the war. It was not until Black abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass pushed at President Abraham Lincoln to make ending slavery a war objective.

Douglass made it plain. If Lincoln wanted to end the war, and force the South back into the Union, the simplest way to do it was to free the slaves. After all, Black slaves were one third of the population of the entire South, and Black bodies were the primary source of wealth of a minority of white southern oligarchs. That strategy worked. 

Yet, here’s something to contemplate on a more personal level. After he was around the age of 6, abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass never saw his mother again and never learned what happened to her. After he escaped from his owner, he remained a fugitive for years. Eventually his freedom was purchased by Quakers in the UK for $711.66 (around $30K today) in 1846. After the Civil War ended, roughly two generations of white southern women who hoped to marry and have children never did so in certain areas of the South because there simply were not enough men to go around. A majority of the men they might have married were killed during the Civil War. 

As a Black woman historian, nothing that Felon 47 is doing is new to me. Although I must admit he seems to be an old American history lesson on steroids. The American North tore up the Slaveholding South, imposed tariffs that favored their industries and never lost a wink of sleep; and never once worried about the personal costs of doing any of it. 

So, while there are plenty of Black fools out there (trust me, I know many of them), a majority of us Black folks know that there is no limit to how oligarchs will play with our lives, crush economies, steal from us, and attempt to throw our Black asses on the frontlines of military interventions and sacrifice us on an assortment of altars. They have done all of this to us for centuries. What is different now is that white folks are finding out that they too will be placed in these same untenable positions. 

©️Leslye Joy Allen

I am an Independent Historian, Oral Historian and Dramaturge. Please consider supporting my work with a few bucks for Coffee and Eggs via my CashApp.

All blogs written by Leslye Joy Allen are protected by U. S. Copyright Law and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Any partial or total reference to any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen, or any total or partial excerpt of any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen must contain a direct reference to this hyperlink: https://leslyejoyallen.com with Leslye Joy Allen clearly stated as the author.  Postings or blogs placed here by other writers should clearly reference those writers.  All Rights Reserved.

Revisiting “Ordinary Men”

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by ©️Leslye Joy Allen

This is not a full book review. I don’t have the strength to do that right now. Yet, when you are a historian there are certain books that stay with you because they are so provocative. One of them is “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” by Christopher R. Browning.

People often forget that the Holocaust in Nazi Germany didn’t just extinguish millions of Jews, but it also exterminated Afro-Germans, Gypsies, LGBTQIA, and people with disabilities. Anything or anyone that was viewed as defective was subject to be put to death. But that’s not exactly what I want to write about here.

The title of this book says it all. This battalion was charged with the duty of marching groups of Jews out to a ditch, having them lay in that ditch; then the battalion would shoot them to death.

The first time they carried out this heinous order, most of the men balked at having to carry out such an awful task. Several men vomited at the sight of the murders; others ran and went AWOL. Yet, most of the men stayed behind and followed their orders.

By the time I got to the end of this book, I was mortified. That same battalion that initially balked at killing Jews that were laid in a ditch now carried out the orders with precision and without blinking. They became professional killers doing a job, not men who once had some empathy, sympathy, and consciences.

We prefer to believe that most people cannot be manipulated and threatened in order to convert them into monsters under the appropriate circumstances.  “Ordinary Men“ showed me that it was relatively easy to find and nurture the dark side of human beings. 

Those of us who are fighting as hard as we can against the excesses and abuse of Felon 47 need to remember one thing—Felon 47 and the Muskrat are only TWO men. They cannot do what they are doing without willing accomplices.

Stay the course my Fellow Resisters. But watch the people around you and watch your back; and NEVER normalize or explain away bad behavior even when it’s yours.

©️Leslye Joy Allen

I am an Independent Historian, Oral Historian and Dramaturge. Please consider supporting my work with a few bucks for Coffee and Eggs via my CashApp.

All blogs written by Leslye Joy Allen are protected by U. S. Copyright Law and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Any partial or total reference to any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen, or any total or partial excerpt of any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen must contain a direct reference to this hyperlink: https://leslyejoyallen.com with Leslye Joy Allen clearly stated as the author.  Postings or blogs placed here by other writers should clearly reference those writers.  All Rights Reserved.

A Quick Word to Millennial (and Younger) Protesters and Activists

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by ©️Leslye Joy Allen

The photo below is of a creation titled “The World is Watching.”  The artist is not known. It is located at the Library of Congress which has a long history of collecting Protest Art and Protest Photography. Visually stunning and a reminder that protests and activism change with the technology of the times.

I was born during the last years of what was called the Baby Boom. As a Baby Boomer, I did not grow up from Childhood to Early adulthood with a Personal Computer, the Internet, and definitely not Social Media or a cellphone with a camera.

I learned of protest marches and various forms of activism via word-of-mouth, letters, signs on school and church bulletin boards, and via Black-owned newspapers. Sometimes these protests were featured on the 6 O’Clock News.

Fast forward to the late 20th and early 21st centuries and you have young adults who grew up with everything we Baby Boomers grew up without. Millennials get messages out there in cyberspace in a matter of seconds. They can rally thousands (even millions) of people with brief blurbs and blogs in a matter of a couple of days and occasionally a couple of minutes. There are, however, a few drawbacks.

In addition to creating mediums that make it seem as if a few “likes” on social media has resolved the problem, it also exposes certain tactics that should not be seen by everyone. Social Media exposes protest tactics to our enemies as much as it exposes those tactics to our friends. So let me share the following history. Ignore it; modify it; and/or adapt this in any way you see fit.

The Black American Civil Rights Movement typically had a 3-pronged approach. 

  1. Back in the day, you had a set of individuals who could not physically participate in protest marches because they were the folks who were designated to bail you out of jail if you were arrested. The folks who were part of the Black community who had a degree of affluence and wealth were often in this position. Although many of them were out there in the streets protesting. 
  2. Another group was the observers. These were individuals who lined routes of marches who watched and recorded what they saw. Sometimes they would stand on sidewalks and pretend to be window shoppers or they would sit near the windows inside places of business so that they could see what was going on outside in order to report what they saw. There were no cellphones with cameras in them back then. Their hardest role was to not intervene when they saw any physical violence. They had to record what they saw.
  3. Finally, there were the Black protesters themselves who were trained in non-violent resistance in order to highlight the sheer brutality of their oppressors. They were trained to endure and not fight back.

Now, I am not at all advocating for any of you to quietly endure any form of brutality and violence as you fight against this onslaught of abuse from the administration of Felon 47. What I am suggesting is that you create a 3 or even 4 or 5-pronged approach to how you protest and advocate for the causes you believe in.

Right now, activism is highly tied to how much press and social media presence one can generate. That’s not a bad strategy, but the limitations of that approach is that almost anyone can see it. You win most against enemies when enemies do not know EXACTLY what is coming at them all the time. And that is not my original idea. It actually comes from Sun Tzu, a Chinese General and Strategist born around 544 B.C.E. Some ideas stand the test of time. Study those ideas. Onward!

©️Leslye Joy Allen

I am an Independent Historian, Oral Historian and Dramaturge. Please consider supporting my work with a few bucks for Coffee and Eggs via my CashApp.

All blogs written by Leslye Joy Allen are protected by U. S. Copyright Law and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Any partial or total reference to any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen, or any total or partial excerpt of any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen must contain a direct reference to this hyperlink: https://leslyejoyallen.com with Leslye Joy Allen clearly stated as the author.  Postings or blogs placed here by other writers should clearly reference those writers.  All Rights Reserved.

Dear Ontario: Turn the Lights Off If You Have To

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by ©️Leslye Joy Allen

I was impressed when Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford towed a hardline with Felon 47 who wants to bully Canada into becoming a 51st state. Felon 47 hopes to do this with tariffs. 

But here’s what Americans need to know about how ridiculous, mean-spirited and stupid Felon 47 actually is.

Canada is the world’s third largest supplier of energy. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia supply more energy.  The United States consumes more energy than it produces. 

Canada and the United States’ electrical grids have been integrated well over 100 years for the security of both nations. New England and many parts of the northeastern United States are heavily dependent on Canadian electricity. 

Canada is the second largest supplier of hydroelectricity powered by moving water which generates nearly 60 percent of Canada’s electricity. Electricity Canada, which is based in Ontario, provides clean electricity to Canada and the United States.

(Ontario Premier Doug Ford, photo by Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

So, here’s the deal. For now, Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford has decided to hold off on raising tariffs by 25 percent on electricity exported to the US. He still could impose, however, those penalties where consumers in the northern USA see their electric bills go sky high or they could find themselves looking for candles.

Felon 47 has decided to withhold imposing a 25 percent increase in tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel for now. Yet, he is discovering that his role as a bully is being met by leaders who have better sense and materials the United States is dependent on.

Here’s one thing everyone better understand. Canada can survive and thrive even if it cuts its diplomatic and regional ties to the United States. It has already been established that with some adjustments to its economy, Canada can continue to thrive. It is not clear whether the same can be said of the United States. 

©️Leslye Joy Allen

I am an Independent Historian, Oral Historian and Dramaturge. Please consider supporting my work with a few bucks for Coffee and Eggs via my CashApp.

All blogs written by Leslye Joy Allen are protected by U. S. Copyright Law and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Any partial or total reference to any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen, or any total or partial excerpt of any blog authored by Leslye Joy Allen must contain a direct reference to this hyperlink: https://leslyejoyallen.com with Leslye Joy Allen clearly stated as the author.  Postings or blogs placed here by other writers should clearly reference those writers.  All Rights Reserved.