On This Day: June 10th, 1964

Imagine all of the things in American History that have taken place on June 10th?

On June 10th, 1752, Ben Franklin and his son fly a kite in a strom and it gets struck by lightning. It was a shock to Ben!


June 10th, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to write a Declaration of Independence.

June 10th, 1793, Washington D.C. replaced Philadelphia as capital of United States.



June 10th, 1801, the North African State of Tripoli declared war on the U.S. The dispute was over merchant vessels being able to travel safely through the Mediterranean.

It was June 10th, in 1869, that the steamship S.S. Agnes arrives in New Orleans with 1st ever shipment of frozen beef

June 10th, 1871, Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 U.S. Marines in naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea.


June 10th, 1898, U.S. Marines landed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
June 10th, 1909, the Morse Code "SOS" distress signal is transmitted for the first time in an emergency. The Cunard liner S.S. Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores.

June 10th, 1921, the US Naval Dirigible made a forced landing on a San Diego high School Campus after the under work collapsed under the Air Ship and narrowly missed the school flagpole.


On June 10th, 1943, during World War II, the Allies began bombing Germany around the clock.
On June 10th, 1944, the youngest pitcher in major league baseball pitched his first game. Joe Nuxhall was 15 years, 10 months and 11 days old.

June 10th, 1948, was the day that test-pilot Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound in the Bell XS-1.

June 10th, 1952, President Harry Truman, an ultra-liberal Democrat, announces his desire to "Nationalize"American steel industry similar to Communist governments.


June 10th, 1954, General Motors announced the gas turbine bus had been produced successfully.
June 10th, 1961, after injuries sustained while on a trip to Canada, President Kennedy's back injury is improving although he is still using crutches to get around.


On this day in 1964, Congressional Democrats Filibustered the Civil Rights Act.

The bill was called for by President John F. Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11, 1963, in which he asked for legislation, "giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments," as well as "greater protection for the right to vote."

Emulating the Republican's Civil Rights Act of 1875, President Kennedy's civil rights bill included provisions to ban discrimination in public accommodations, and to enable the U.S. Attorney General to join in lawsuits against state governments which operated segregated school systems, among other provisions.

One day short of a year later, June 10th, 1964, was a dramatic day in the United States Senate.

For the first time in its history, cloture was invoked on a civil rights bill, ending a record-breaking filibuster by Democrats that had consumed fifty-seven working days.

The Democrats, the party of slavery, secession, segregation, and the KKK, fought against equality for 83 days and lost that day.

The hero of the hour was minority leader Republican Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen of Illinois

Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican Leader in the U.S. Senate, condemned the Democrats for their 57-day filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Leading the Democrats in their opposition to civil rights for African-Americans was Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV).

It's true, on the morning of June 10, 1964, Senator Robert Byrd who was a Democrat and former Klu Klux Klan member from West Virginia completed a filibustering address that he had begun 14 hours and 13 minutes earlier opposing the legislation.

Byrd joined with Democrat Senators to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1964, personally filibustering the bill for 14 hours.

Until then, the measure had occupied the Senate for 57 working days, including six Saturdays.

With six wavering senators providing a four-vote victory margin, the final tally stood at 71 to 29.

Never in history had the Senate been able to muster enough votes to cut off a filibuster on a Civil Rights bill. And only once in the 37 years, since 1927, had it agreed to cloture for any measure.

Despite an 83-day filibuster in the Senate, President Johnson signed the bill into law.  Later, Byrd would also opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In the early 1940s, Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to create a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Sophia, West Virginia.

Byrd became a recruiter and leader of his chapter. When it came time to elect their Exalted Cyclops, their top officer in the Klan, Byrd won unanimously.


In 1946, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo:

I shall never fight in the armed forces with a negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.

—Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1946

In 1947, Byrd wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard stating, "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."

Yes, Robert Byrd, who got into politics as a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan and draft dodger during World War II, spoke against the bill for 14 straight hours.

But that wasn't his only demonstration of old style Democrat bigotry, Byrd was the only senator to vote against both Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court, the only two African-American nominees.

In the Thurgood Marshall situation, Byrd asked FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to look into what Byrd believed to be the possibility that Marshall had either connections to Communists or had a Communist past.

In a March 4th, 2001, interview with Tony Snow, Byrd said of race relations:


They're much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime ... I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us ... I just think we talk so much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that. There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time, if you want to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."

Byrd's use of the term "white nigger" created immediate controversy.

When asked about it, Byrd apologized saying the phrase dated back to his boyhood and he was trying to articulate strongly held feelings.

I can't help but wonder why, even up to his death, Democrats called Senator Robert Byrd "the conscience of the Senate."

In 1964, in his speech, Republican Senator Dirksen called on the Democrats to end their filibuster and "accept racial equality." 

Accepting racial equality is something that Republicans have fought for since the 1850s - well over 150 years.

It is what the Democrat Party, the party of slavery, secession, segregation, and the KKK, has fought against forever.


Story by Tom Correa

The Pony Express Rider, 1861

The Pony Express was founded by William H. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors.

Plans for the Pony Express were spurred by the threat of the Civil War and the need for faster communication with the West.

It had been established to provide a speedy method of delivering mail over a two thousand mile route that stretched between St. Joseph Missouri and Sacramento, California.

Pony Express Riders were paid $100 a month. This is equivalent to approximately $2,570.00 today.

Later ads for riders called for: "Young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over 18. Must be expert riders. Willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred."

The Pony Express consisted of relays of men riding horses carrying saddlebags of mail across a 2000-mile trail.

The service opened officially on April 3, 1860, when riders left simultaneously from St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.

Eventually, the Pony Express had more than 100 stations, 80 riders, and between 400 and 500 horses.

The express route was extremely hazardous, but only one mail delivery was ever lost.

The first westbound trip was made in 9 days and 23 hours and the eastbound journey in 11 days and 12 hours. And yes, upon its first run and immediately captured the imagination of the nation.

The pony riders covered 250 miles in a 24-hour day.

The distance was divided into a series of relays 75 to 100 miles in length over which a lone rider would race, changing his horse every 10 to 15 miles before handing his cargo off to the next rider.

He would then wait for a rider from the opposite direction to arrive, take his mail, and return to his starting point.

Speed of delivery was paramount. Any weight other than the mail the horse carried was kept to a minimum.

A specialized, light-weight saddle was developed that had built-in pouches to carry the mail. Hazards abounded, including weather, terrain, hostile Indians and bandits.

It typically took a week for mail to reach its destination at a cost of $5.00 per ½ ounce.

Travelers on the trial would keep an expectant eye out for the appearance of the Pony Express rider.

Suddenly, a speck would appear in the distance, rapidly grow larger and a cheer would arise as the rider sped by and gave a wave of acknowledgement.

The service lasted only 19 months until October 24, 1861, when the completion of the Pacific Telegraph line ended the need for its existence.

Although California relied upon news from the Pony Express during the early days of the Civil War, the horse line was never a financial success, leading its founders to bankruptcy.

Though the Pony Express was a financial failure for the company that operated it, the romantic drama surrounding the Pony Express has made it a part of the legend of the American West. 

The imagery of a lone rider making a perilous journey against all odds made an indelible impression on the nation's collective memory.

"A party of fifteen Indians jumped me. . ."

Buffalo Bill Cody, who later became famous for his Wild West Show, was a rider for the Pony Express and wrote of his experiences. We join Bill's story as he is hired - at the age of 15 - to ride a section of the trail that lies in modern-day Wyoming:

". . .The next day he [Mr Slade,the manger of Cody's Pony Express station] assigned me to duty on the road from Red Buttes on the North Platte, to the Three Crossings of the Sweetwater - a distance of seventy-six miles - and I began riding at once.

One day when I galloped into Three Crossings, my home station, I found that the rider who was expected to take the trip out on my arrival had got into a drunken row the night before and had been killed; and that there was no one to fill his place.

I did not hesitate for a moment to undertake an extra ride of eighty-five miles to Rocky Ridge, and I arrived at the latter place on time.

I then turned back and rode to Red Buttes, my starting place, accomplishing on the round trip a distance of 322 miles.

Slade heard of this feat of mine, and one day as he was passing on a coach he sang out to me, 'My boy, you're a brick, and no mistake.

That was a good run you made when you rode your own and Miller's routes, and I'll see that you get extra pay for it.'

Slade, although rough at times and always a dangerous character - having killed many a man - was always kind to me.

During the two years that I worked for him as pony-express-rider and stage-driver, he never spoke an angry word to me.

As I was leaving Horse Creek one day, a party of fifteen Indians 'jumped me' in a sand ravine about a mile west of the station.

They fired at me repeatedly, but missed their mark. I was mounted on a roan California horse - the fleetest steed I had. Putting spurs and whip to him, and lying flat on his back, I kept straight on for Sweetwater Bridge - eleven miles distant - instead of trying to turn back to Horse Creek.

The Indians came on in hot pursuit, but my horse soon got away from them, and ran into the station two miles ahead of them.

The stock-tender had been killed there that morning, and all the stock had been driven off by the Indians, and as I was therefore unable to change horses, I continued on to Ploutz's Station - twelve miles further - thus making twenty-four miles straight run with one horse.

I told the people at Ploutz's what had happened at Sweetwater Bridge, and with a fresh horse went on and finished the trip without any further adventure.

About the middle of September the Indians became very troublesome on the line of the stage road along the Sweetwater.

Between Split Rock and Three Crossings they robbed a stage, killed the driver and two passengers, and badly wounded Lieut. Flowers, the assistant division agent.

The red-skinned thieves also drove off the stock from the different stations, and were continually lying in wait for the passing stages and pony express-riders, so that we had to take many desperate chances in running the gauntlet.

The Indians had now become so bad and had stolen so much stock that it was decided to stop the pony express for at least six weeks, and to run the stages but occasionally during that period; in fact, it would have been almost impossible to have run the enterprise much longer without restocking the line."

This eyewitness account appears in Cody William F., The Life of Buffalo Bill (1879, republished 1994).

American Indian Graduate Fined for Wearing Eagle Feather at Graduation

Chelsey Ramer is a Poarch Creek Indian. She has now been fined $1,000 for wearing an eagle feather at her high school graduation. Imagine the silliness!

But believe it or not, it's true! A private High School in Alabama has denied a graduating senior her diploma and fined her $1,000 because she wore an eagle feather during her graduation ceremony. 

Escambia Academy High School senior Chelsey Ramer dangled the feather on her mortarboard as a show of pride in her Native American heritage, reports WPMI-TV. And yes, Chelsey Ramer, 17, is a member of the Poarch Creek Band of Creek Indians.

"I was excited," Ms Ramer told WPMI. She also told the local NBC affiliate that she had explicitly sought permission from the Escambia Academy headmaster to wear the eagle feather at the May 23rd graduation.

"She told us we could not wear our feathers," said Chelsey. "They told me that if I wore it that they would pull me off the field."

There is a dress-code contract, which states: Students and staff shall not wear extraneous items during graduation exercises unless approved by the administration. But Ms Ramer told WPMI that she never signed the contract.

While the senior did apparently walk across the graduation stage with her feather intact, it’s not clear how school officials handled the situation right there and then. And yes, school officials have since told Ms Ramer that she must pay a $1,000 fine if she wants her diploma and access to her transcripts.

"I don’t think it’s fair at all. I feel like it’s kind of discrimination against me. Somebody’s gotta do it. Somebody’s gotta make a stand," she said.

The newly-minted high school graduate said she doesn’t regret her actions, despite the resulting kerfuffle. "It was worth it. It means a lot to me," she added.

The Poarch Creek Indians are the only federally-recognized tribe of Native Americans in Alabama. Poarch Creek Indian Gaming operates three Alabama casinos. According to its website, the tribe descends from the original Creek Nation, which once lived in the much of the land that is now Alabama and Georgia. The tribe’s reservation is located eight miles from Atmore.

According to the Escambia Academy 2012-13 handbook, the school is not officially church-sponsored but it does offer a noticeably Christian atmosphere. For example, "every class has a daily devotion during homeroom. In most cases, this routine consists of prayer, Bible reading, and/or a devotional."

My small advice to Escambia Academy High School is behave in a Christian manner and give the young lady her diploma, give her access to her transcripts, and drop the asinine threat of a $1,000 fine.

Education is tough with many hard lessons, and not all lessons come from books -- many come from experience. This experience is teaching her to choose between threats and her heritage. And frankly, I respect her for choosing wisely even in the face of a bully in the form of a High School administration.

Like many of us, I've seen streakers, flower lies, shorts, and a many other different expressions of educational completion walk across a stage or two just to receive their handshake and diploma. This school is setting a poor example and will reap nothing good out of this negative publicity. As an educational institution, Escambia Academy High School might have a hard time grasping the reality that being jerks over a single feather may cost them a lot more in the long run.

Full-price tuition at the Atmore, Alabama, private high school is $3,420 per year. That is a steep price to lose over one feather if just one parent thinks Escambia Academy has presented itself in a way that is not to their liking.

And by the way, you folks at Escambia Academy High School might want to apologize to Chelsey for putting her through such absurdity. It's only right that you do.

And yes, that's just the way I see it.
Tom Correa

Reprisals Feared Against Oklahoma Rep. Bridenstine

The Obama administration style of attacks on political opponents hasn't been seen in America since the Nixon days.

But really, even the Nixon White House never went to the extent of getting even with his political opposition as the Obama White House has shown.

The lengths that the Obama administration is capable of resorting to - just to get revenge - is unconscionable.

The Obama administration has used the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and now we find out that it has even used the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to exact punishment against conservative groups and individuals.

From the DOJ investigating Conservative groups and reporters, to the FCC going after Conservative Talk Radio, to the FEC refusing Conservative groups the ability to run political ads, to the IRS refusing to grant Tax Exempt 501(c) status, to the EPA charging Conservative groups fees while largely exempting Liberal groups, the Obama administration is using the U.S. government as a weapon for political means.

And friends, since there are 456 federal agencies in the federal government - all consisting of hierarchies of agencies within themselves, bureaucracies within bureaucracies - this is a danger that we must stop.

All of the agencies that I've noted are agencies that we know which have been used in political retaliation against Conservative groups, businesses and individual citizens here in the United States.

Sound scary? Well, it should!

Punishment in the form of retribution and reprisals are powerful weapons which are right now being used by the Obama administration against anyone they see as opposing Obama or his policies.

These are scary times in American history.

For the first time in memory, a U.S. President attacks American citizens who don't agree with his policies or positions on issues governing our nation.

Fear is a not a new political tactic. It is just something new to Americans.

Most of us never thought that we'd be targeted for exercising our freedoms and rights under our Constitution.

Many now fear reprisal from the Democrats in control of the White House and the many government agencies that they can use as weapons against us.

My fear for Congressman Jim Bridenstine is that he has endangered himself, his family, friends and associates.

Why? Well, on June 3rd, 2013, yesterday, Oklahoma Congressman Jim Bridenstine questioned President Obama’s leadership in his speech on the floor of the House.

This is about the best evaluation of the Obama regime - and what's going on in Washington.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=86UL9ekiXDk

Speaking on the House floor Monday, Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) delivered a brief-yet-scathing review of President Barack Obama and his administration.

In just over a minute, Congressman Bridenstine gave voters a concise list of political scandals and possible criminal activities that have occurred under President Obama.

The Republican lawmaker said the fact that his administration is spinning out of control proves Obama is “not fit to lead” as Commander-in-Chief.

Here are his remarks:

"The president’s Justice Department sold weapons to narco-terrorists south of our border, who killed one of our finest.

The president’s State Department lied about Benghazi with false information provided by the White House.

The president’s attorney general authorized spying on a Fox News reporter and his family for reporting on a North Korean nuclear test.

The president’s Justice Department confiscated phone records of the Associated Press because they reported on a thwarted terrorist attack.

The president’s Treasury Department uses the IRS to target political opposition.

The president’s Health and Human Services secretary pressures insurance companies she is supposed to regulate to promote ‘Obamacare,’ which is the same law she uses to force citizens to pay for abortion inducing drugs against their religious liberties.

The president’s dishonesty, incompetence, vengefulness and lack of moral compass lead many to suggest that he is not fit to lead.

The only problem is that his vice president is equally unfit and even more embarrassing."

We can only thank Congressman Jim Bridenstine for his courage to stand up to those in power.

He did so while knowing full well that President Obama and those in his administration will most likely use all of the power of the presidency to have multiple U.S. government agencies investigate and harass him, his family, and probably his supporters.

Yes, these are scary times in American history.

Today, more Americans believe that the President would try to punish them if they oppose him in any way. 

Today, more Americans see Washington as more of a threat than a protector of their right to Free Speech and Privacy.

Horribly, must Americans see Washington as more of a threat than a protector of their rights as a whole.

But if the Obama administration is using their ability to exact retribution or reprisals as a strategy intended to dissuade an adversary from undertaking opposition to his policies, its not working.

Though fear of punishment is a powerful weapon, we can thank God that America has men like Oklahoma Congressman Jim Bridenstine who stand up for what is right - even in the face of danger knowing full well that the Obama administration will seek revenge.  After all, that's what they do!


Story by Tom Correa