What&#x27;s Past is Prologue

21h

145 years ago (Oct 26, 1881) — Gunfight at the OK Corral, Tombstone. 3 Earps w/Doc Holliday shot it out with 2 Clantons, 2 McLaurys, & Billy Claiborne. It only lasted about a minute, but we're still talking about it today Photo: Sign entering Tombstone, by Dorothea Lange, 1937, Library of Congress.

ruleoflawproject.orgFormer Prosecutors and Human Rights Leaders Launch The Rule of Law ProjectFormer federal prosecutors and human rights leaders launch The Rule of Law Project to document and investigate public corruption and state violence.

23h

Davey Crockett went out to Texas To fight at the #Alamo Old Will Travis never told him Texas is in Mexico It's a bloody mess You know the rest [Steve Earle, You Know the Rest youtu.be/GM2YtcJZOEE?...

What's Past is Prologue reposted

Laurence H. Tribe

@tribelaw.bsky.social

Former Prosecutors and Human Rights Leaders Launch The Rule of Law Project ruleoflawproject.org/news/project...

lincolncottage.orgThe Loathsome Den- Sexual Assault on the Plantation: #MeToo - President Lincoln's Cottage | A Home for Brave IdeasThe Loathsome Den: Sexual Assault on the Plantation, #MeToo of the 19th century by Curtis Harris In 1868, Elizabeth Keckly published Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the W...

The CSA (maps of which align w/modern maps of MAGA) was ruled by monied elites who owned other humans, raped them, & auctioned off their own offspring for cash... Today, our Epstein president—a rapist—is on TV defending an attack ad targeting a woman who was raped as a child. How low can the GOP go?

youtu.beAward-winning science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin | Oregon Art Beat ArchiveYouTube video by Oregon Public Broadcasting

born on this day in 1929: the late, great Ursula Le Guin #BookSky💙📚

The Witch Door by #AndrewWyeth, 1948 private collection

"Witch Country, Cushing" Andrew Newell Wyeth (American, 1917—2009) Muskegon Museum of Art tinyurl.com/v6346sk3

youtu.beTownes Van Zandt Pancho and LeftyYouTube video by townesfan10

Pancho met his match you know On the deserts down in Mexico Nobody heard his dying words That's the way it goes

Battle of Black Jack Arguably the 1st battlefield of the great Slaveholders' Rebellion. It was the 1st organized clash between pro- and anti-slavery militias in Bleeding Kansas, fought near Baldwin City, KS on June 2, 1856. It was always about slavery. [Black Jack is a type of oak tree] #JohnBrown

theguardian.comA new reading of Sherman’s march shows how enslaved people sought to free themselvesA recent book focuses on the experience of those who used the event as an emancipatory movement

". . . the version of the march that was popularized in the book and film Gone With the Wind doesn’t tell the full, or even a partially accurate, story, despite it being perhaps the most prominent understanding in the American zeitgeist of Sherman’s actions." #Sherman'sMarch #BookSky💙📚

OTD 167 years ago John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry. When Brown barricaded himself in the fire engine house, U.S. army troops (under Col. Robert E. Lee) forced their way in and seized him. Photo: circa 1885. Painted with "John Brown's Fort" to attract tourists. Library of Congress #JohnBrown

John Brown's Fort today (photo by Carol Highsmith, Library of Congress)

When the forfeited assets of organized crime syndicates are repurposed for the public good . . .

americanheritage.comAnnie at Tinker CreekAfter she wrote eloquently about her two years wandering along a local creek, the late Annie Dillard was called by many the “true heir” to Henry Thoreau.

"She called herself 'a fugitive and a vagabond, a sojourner seeking signs.' 'I am no scientist,' she wrote. 'I explore the neighborhood.'“ #PilgrimAtTinkerCreek #BookSky💙📚

youtu.beSpanish MoonYouTube video by Sweet Relief - Topic

Well the night that I got into town Was the night of the rain, it froze on the ground Down the street I heard such a sorrowful tune Comin' from the place they call the Spanish Moon #LowellGeorge

youtu.beThe Decemberists - Calamity SongYouTube video by TheDecemberistsVEVO

Pretty sure this is the only music video to depict the game of Eschaton—global nuclear war played out with tennis balls—as imagined by David Foster Wallace in his 1,000-page novel, "Infinite Jest." #BookSky💙📚

macmillan.yale.eduGLC Book Talk: David Blight with Connor Williams, author of “The Confederacy Myth: How an Insurrection of Slaveholders Tried to Destroy the United States”Wed, Oct 28 2026, 4 - 5:30pm | In-person and online via zoom. In-person seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Join Gilder Lehrman Center director David W. Blight and au...

[ZOOM presentation] GLC Book Talk: The Confederacy Myth: How an Insurrection of Slaveholders Tried to Destroy the United States. #BookSky 💙📚

macmillan.yale.eduGLC Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Ghosts of a Lost Cause: Battle for the Will of the People in Small-Town AmericaThu, Oct 15 2026, 5 - 7pm | Thursday, October 15, 2026 Luce Hall Auditorium: 5:00pm—7:00pm Reception to follow: Luce Hall Common Room Luce Hall | Yale University | 34 Hillhouse Avenue | New Haven, CT ...

"During this period of censorship and authoritarianism, this program will highlight how truth-telling in public spaces helps to raise awareness of social problems and stimulate collective action toward justice."

CRAIG SYMONDS So sorry to learn of the passing of #CraigSymonds today, a tremendous historian, & longtime professor at the USNA. He was a featured speaker at the 1st Central Coast Conference in Monterey in 2024 (seen here at the book signing, btwn Harold Holzer and Gordon Rhea). #Booksky💙📚

—Indigenous Peoples Day, 2026 "There Goes the Neighborhood #3" 1993, Johnnie Diacon www.instagram.com/artofjohhnie...

youtu.beHow the 'Lost Cause' narrative became American historyYouTube video by Washington Post

Sometimes the vanquished, not the victors, write the histories that take hold. "One of the most successful propaganda campaigns in American history was developed to obscure the role of slavery in the Civil War. . . "

fleetweeksf.orgSan Francisco Fleet WeekSan Francisco Fleet Week's Air Show, Parade of Ships, Ship Tours, Concerts, and many more community events honors the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

It's Fleet Week in San Francisco. With any luck, the President of the United States won't invite a foreign adversary to attack the city until after the festivities conclude on October 12. #FleetWeek fleetweeksf.org

Alice's Restaurant Massacree— “Alice didn’t live in a restaurant. She lived in the church nearby the restaurant. . .” #ArloGuthrie purchased the building in 1991, and founded the Guthrie Center. Thanksgiving Dinner is served for free there on Thanksgiving Day guthriecenter.org [Photo: 1968, Getty]

wapo.stAlice Brock, namesake of Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ dies at 83Guthrie’s 1967 antiwar anthem with the refrain “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant” begins with an eventful Thanksgiving hosted by Ms. Brock.

Alice Brock — the Alice of #Alice'sRestaurant — passed away in 2024 at age 83. She and Guthrie shared a Thanksgiving meal together in 2022 (the first time since 1965), “this time without the garbage." wapo.st/4rQD341

nobelprize.orgNobel Prize in Literature 1993The Nobel Prize in Literature 1993 was awarded to Toni Morrison "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"

OTD in 1993 — Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. At that time, she was the 8th woman to receive the award for literature (there have been 18 as of 2026), and the first black woman ever to receive the prize. #BookSky💙📚

pagetraveller.comAll the Women Nobel Prize Winners in LiteratureThis International Women's Day, we look at all the women who have won the Nobel Prize for Literature and their recognised works.

Read a little about the 18 women to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature as of 2026. #BookSky💙📚

britannica.comToday in History October 7 | 1916, Football, Blowout, John Heisman, Georgia Tech, & Cumberland College | BritannicaOn October 7, 1916, Georgia Tech demolished Cumberland College, 222–0, in the biggest blowout in college football history.

OTD in 1916, college football's biggest blowout. Final score: Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland College 0.

OTD in 1877, Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it, or Hinmaton Yalaktit (“Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain"), also known as #ChiefJoseph, or Joseph the Younger, surrendered to General Nelson Miles on the windswept Northern Plains. #BearPawBattlefield — The Flight of the #NezPerce comes to an end.

The 1877 Flight of the Nez Perce route from the Wallowa Valley of NE Oregon to the final battlefield just south of the Canadian border.

modocnation.comVirtual Walk - Modoc NationModoc Nation Honoring Our Ancestors Virtual Walk October 9 – November 16, 2026 Registration to Participate Join us for the Modoc Nation Honoring Our Ancestors Virtual Walk, a time of remembrance for t...

Modoc Nation Honoring Ancestors Virtual Walk October 9 - November 16, 2026 #ModocNation

modocnation.comHistory - Modoc NationHISTORY The ancestral home of the Modoc Nation, or Captain Jack’s Band of Modoc Indians, consisted of over 5,000 square miles along what is now the California-Oregon border. On the west loomed the per...

History of the Modoc Nation #Modoc

[2027 tour] Modoc War in the Lava Beds 1872–1873 talks and guided battlefield tours Tour Dates: August 12–14, 2027 (Klamath Falls, Oregon) whtours.org/the-modoc-wa...

Four sphinxes stand guard over the tomb of Leland Stanford. During construction, this & another buxom statue flanked the mausoleum entrance, but Jane Stanford "found the artistic effect not pleasing." She had the 2 lady sphinxes move to the back, and installed less voluptuous sphinxes in the front.

stanfordmag.orgWhat You Don’t Know About The MausoleumCarved out for remembrance, the place is also a party haven.

"Shaken, not disturbed. After the 1906 earthquake, much of the University lay in ruins. The Mausoleum? 'Not a crack,' observed a reporter."

Prayer to Corn People, 1975, Terrance Talaswaima (Honsvantewa), #Hopi. www.adobegallery.com/artist/terra...

2027 HISTORY ADVENTURE Plains, Deserts, & Mountains: THE DONNER-REED ODYSSEY on the CALIFORNIA TRAIL Sept 27–Oct 3, 2027 Fly into Salt Lake City; fly out of Sacramento [historian-guided motor coach tour; seating is limited to approx. 25] TOUR PAGE: whtours.org/plains-deser... #DonnerParty

In all my days, I've never even thought of marking a bacterial mat. There's no point in starting now [Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring]

Bucket of Blood Saloon, Virginia City, Nevada. Truly, the Wild West was wild as hell. [Google Street View]

lithub.comThe True Story of the Actual First Shot Fired in the Civil WarIt was the autumn of 1865—a quiet, bitter autumn after four hollowing years of war—when James Gilmore received a manuscript from a ghost. Well, not a ghost exactly. There’d been rumors, of course, …

"It’s the story of what happened outside William Parker’s house in the dawn hours of Sept 11, 1851. But it’s also a much larger story involving decades of tenacious, ever-evolving anti-slavery and Black rights efforts spread out across Philadelphia and rural southeastern Pennsylvania..." #BookSky💙📚

Simon & Schuster (September 8, 2026). 448 pages #BookSky💙📚

Adventures in History lineup for 2027

22 Sept

September 22, 1862 marked a major turning point in the Great Slaveholders' Rebellion. Preliminary Draft of #EmancipationProclamation. Abraham Lincoln, July 22, 1862. Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833-1916. Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Manuscript Division.

"All [constitutional amendments] are equal but some [constitutional amendments] are more equal than others" —(with apologies to George Orwell) Gun fetishists become apoplectic if someone hints at enhanced gun control (2nd Amendment), but are strangely quiet when 45 vetoes the 1st Amendment

Born OTD in 1944, the great Jesse Ed Davis. In his short life (died at age 43), he had an amazing career, and left his mark. An outstanding biography, "Washita Love Child," came out in 2024. wwnorton.com/books/978132... #BookSky💙📚#JesseEdDavis

wondering whether one can place a Kalshi wager on how long before Arlington is ordered to formally unveil the Donald J. Trump Eternal Flame at JFK's gravesite.

atlasobscura.comThe Deadly Temptation of the Oregon Trail ShortcutDying of dysentery was just the beginning.

The Donner-Reed Party thought the Hastings Cutoff would save them a lot of time and distance. Big mistake.

What's Past is Prologue reposted

Gordon Wark 🤬💥😡🔥🕗🕕🕓🕖

@1stwark.bsky.social

20 Sept

Sunday Truth.

garykamiya.substack.comFrom Anza to AI: 250 Years of San Francisco History at Mission Dolores and the PresidioSan Francisco has come a long way since a handful of Spanish settlers celebrated their first Mass in a chapel made of brushwood, and erected a feeble fort at the mouth of the Golden Gate.

18 Sept

From Anza to AI: 250 Years of San Francisco History at Mission Dolores and the Presidio

youtu.bePresident John F. Kennedy visit Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland, April 7, 1963YouTube video by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

18 Sept

Video of President John F. Kennedy visiting #Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland, April 7, 1963. The battle, fought OTD in 1862, is one of the most important and consequential days in American history. The U.S. victory spurred President Lincoln to issue the preliminary #EmancipationProclamation