Washington D.C. Archives - Public Seminar

History

Insurrection and Apocalypse: Staring Down Monsters, from the Middle Ages to America Today

How the medieval understanding of redemptive violence can illuminate the impulses of some Christian conservatives today

February 11, 2021 • by Jehangir Yezdi Malegam

Nine hundred years ago, on April 25, 1112 – an Easter Sunday – a mob in the French town of Laon rose up in a carnival of vandalism and homicide. Witnesses describe a world turned upside down. Merchants murdered the local bishop and set fire to the town’s cathedral. Serfs ...

Insurrection and Apocalypse: Staring Down Monsters, from the Middle Ages to America Today

Past Present

The January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol

Past Present Podcast, Episode 262

January 13, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: On January 6, armed rioters interrupted the joint session of Congress convened to certify the vote count of the Electoral College. Natalia referred to this Axios article rounding up conservative media response to the insurrection. Niki mentioned David Blight’s book, ...

The January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol

Activism

The Women’s March 2020

Rain, sleet and snow did not dampen enthusiasm

January 21, 2020 • by Jo Freeman

Roughly 20,000 people marched in Washington DC for the fourth time. Despite the poor weather forecast, they came from hundred’s of miles away. Others planned to come, but changed their minds when the roads became icy. In DC, nothing happened as planned. At a press conference held in Freedom Plaza the ...

Activism

Fonda’s Firedrill Fridays

December 28, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

Each features a rally on the southeast quadrant of the Capitol lawn followed by a short march and mass civil disobedience in a different location. The theme varies. On November 29 (the day after Thanksgiving) it was Food Justice and Agriculture. On December 20 it was it was Health. Held the day before ...

Multi Media

From Raunchy to Respectable and Back

PRIDE marches on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riot

July 7, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

The first PRIDE marches were quite raunchy, in a time when displaying pubic hair or female nipples was considered obscene and could lead to arrests. Over the decades what was publicly acceptable changed. PRIDE marches became more like Mardi Gras with costumes, floats and flashy dressing. There have been many schisms over ...

Feature

Release Mueller

Demonstrators gather in Lafayette Park calling for the release of the report

April 10, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

Progressive groups brought thousands of people to hundreds of places around the country to demand the release of the Mueller report. Although the call to demonstrate came with more notice than the one to Protect Mueller last fall, the turnout was lower. About 500 hundred people came to Lafayette Park, across from ...

Feature

Sex, Race and Religion Flood the Streets of Washington, DC

Hundreds of protestors coincide over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend

January 24, 2019 • by Jo Freeman

Multiple marches filled the streets of Washington, D.C. over the cold, winter weekend celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Sex, race and religion were major themes. The first was the Indigenous People’s March, which met at the Dept. of Interior at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, January 18. After a greeting with prayers ...

Sex, Race and Religion Flood the Streets of Washington, DC

Feature

Women March in DC to Protest Family Separation

A photo essay documenting the activism on June 28th

July 15, 2018 • by Jo Freeman

"We Care" "We Care" shouted a thousand women as they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capital. Organized on very short notice by WomensMarch, which brought millions of women to Washington on January 21, 2017, the march started at Freedom Plaza and stopped for a rally at the Justice Department ...

Women March in DC to Protest Family Separation

Feature

Black Aesthetic/Aesthetic Black

Race, Space, and the Possibilities of Becoming

May 7, 2018 • by Brandi Thompson Summers

How do we recognize blackness? Is it something we feel? According to recent data, medical professionals believe we don’t feel pain at the same intensity as white people, and therefore are administered less pain medication. Is it something we taste? Black culinary traditions are rooted in history and experience, but only a few ...

Feature

Free Speech or Free Riding?

Janus v AFSCME before the Supreme Court

March 10, 2018 • by Jo Freeman

A thousand people rallied outside the Supreme Court the morning of January 26 while the Justices heard oral argument on Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 inside. The decision in this case will have profound effects on public service unions. Currently 22 states require employees who do not choose to join a union ...