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Washington Post
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Who'll be in Trump's hero garden? There are a few surprises.
The list of nearly 250 includes the famous, the obscure and, in some cases, the intentionally controversial. Perhaps in a few years, you'll be able to stroll through a garden — location TBA — past life-size statues of 250 mostly famous Americans and American-adjacent folks, from George Washington and Rosa Parks to Dr. Seuss, Christopher Columbus, Muhammad Ali and Elvis. A tiny chunk of the big bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4 allots $40 million to create a 'National Garden of American Heroes,' a park Trump first proposed during the racial justice protests of 2020, when many Confederate and other monuments nationwide were being toppled. So if the garden is a go, who are the heroes? A 2021 executive order listed 244 mostly household names, all deceased, who embodied 'the American spirit of daring and defiance, excellence and adventure, courage and confidence, loyalty and love.' The list comes with one giant caveat: These people were chosen four years before Trump's 'anti-DEI' scrubbing of references to some notable people, including Black, Hispanic and female veterans, from federal spaces. A White House spokesperson said in an email last week that the final list of honorees remains under consideration. Astronauts, explorers and pioneers Hover on a bubble to explore the data Hover on a bubble to explore the data 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Daniel Boone Daniel Boone Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Sally Ride Sally Ride The list was compiled by members of a task force who asked for input from state and local officials. Another executive order, in January of this year, states that a few names will be added by the assistant to the president for domestic policy, a role held by Vince Haley, for a total of 250. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Most were (relatively) recent, some were controversial Birth dates of people on the list range from the mid-1400s to the late 1900s. About half were in their prime during the 20th century. Astronauts, explorers and pioneers 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Columbus b. 1451 Daniel Boone Daniel Boone Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Sally Ride Sally Ride Because Trump thought some protesters went too far in removing statues, he wanted the garden to include significant historical figures despite their flaws. The earliest person on the list is Columbus, the celebrated Italian explorer who also brutalized Native people in the Caribbean. The most recent is NBA superstar and 'girl dad' Kobe Bryant, who died at 41 with his daughter in a helicopter crash on his way to coach her basketball team. Seventeen years earlier, he had grappled with a sexual assault allegation. TV, movie, music and sports figures 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant Billie Holiday Billie Holiday In between are scores of people who fought for liberty, some of whom owned enslaved people, and scores more who changed the world in positive ways, but not necessarily for everybody. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement A few immigrants, a lot of New Yorkers More than 1 in 10 people on the list were born in New York, not including crooner Frank Sinatra, from nearby Hoboken, New Jersey, who sang Trump's favorite version of 'My Way.' They include poet Walt Whitman, Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig and polio vaccine creator Jonas Salk. At least nine states have no homegrown 'heroes' — 10, if you believe President Andrew Jackson was born north of the border between the Carolinas. (No one is sure.) D.C. has representation, though: jazz great Duke Ellington and Tuskegee Airmen leader Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Puerto Rico, too, with baseball Hall of Famer and humanitarian Roberto Clemente. Inventors, scientists and pioneers in medicine 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Luis Walter Alvarez Luis Walter Alvarez Samuel Morse Samuel Morse Thirty-seven people on the list were born abroad, in 20 countries, including longtime 'Jeopardy' host Alex Trebek (Canada for 200, Ken!) and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (Germany). Not all immigrated intentionally. Phillis Wheatley, who in 1773 became the first African American woman to publish a book of poems, was kidnapped as a young child from West Africa and sold into slavery in Boston. She was still enslaved when her book was published. Rs and Ds, famous and not-so-famous The garden's organizing structure is yet to be determined, so we gave it a shot, slotting each person into a group based on what they were best known for to see what patterns emerged. Plenty of people would fit into more than one of these categories. Artists, architects and literary figures 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 John James Audubon John James Audubon Harper Lee Harper Lee Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington The list leans ideologically conservative, but not overwhelmingly so. Thought leaders such as author Russell Kirk ('The Conservative Mind') and William F. Buckley (longtime host of the public affairs talk show 'Firing Line') are included, along with conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But so is Scalia's liberal 'best buddy' (her words), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Thurgood Marshall, the first African American on the court. The 17 presidents on the list are split fairly evenly, party-wise: eight Republicans, five Democrats, two Democratic-Republicans (the precursor to the Democrats), a Federalist (John Adams) and George Washington, the only president who had no party affiliation. Presidents 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan George Washington George Washington Civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King are among four married couples, along with actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Two first ladies made it in addition to their husbands: Dolley Madison, who largely defined the role, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who turned it into a platform for advocacy. Activists 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 Medgar Evers Medgar Evers Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth Some names are less well known than their actions, such as the Black women mathematicians known as 'human computers' at NASA who calculated orbital trajectories during the space race in the 1960s. Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan were portrayed in the 2016 movie 'Hidden Figures.' At least a dozen are remembered mostly for one heroic act. One is Todd Beamer, who was heard over an Airfone saying a final 'Let's roll' before apparently leading fellow passengers to storm the cockpit of the hijacked Flight 93 before it could reach its D.C. target on Sept. 11, 2001. The 'Four Chaplains' shepherded terrified young soldiers toward the lifeboats on a sinking Army transport ship in 1943, then handed out life vests — including their own. Survivors saw Alexander D. Goode, John P. Washington, Clark V. Poling and George L. Fox praying hand-in-hand on the deck as the SS Dorchester went down. Explore each category Select a category... 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 A lot of White men, and a lot of firsts A couple dozen people on the list achieved some kind of breakthrough for a person of their race, gender or — in the case of Neil Armstrong — species. Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon, is one of the garden's five astronauts, along with teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded. Breakdown by race or ethnicity and gender Breakdown by race or ethnicity and gender Male Female White 155 35 Sally Ride Neil Armstrong Black 19 15 Thurgood Marshall Native American 3 7 Maria Tallchief Hispanic 7 Asian 2 Note: At least one person's ancestry is debated. Breakdown by race or ethnicity and gender Male Female Native White Hispanic Black Asian American 155 7 19 2 7 Thurgood Marshall Neil Armstrong 35 15 3 Maria Tallchief Sally Ride Note: At least one person's ancestry is debated. Montana's Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress, and it happened in 1916, about four years before women were guaranteed the right to vote. Maria Mitchell was the first American scientist to discover a comet. Civil War flag-bearer Joseph De Castro was the first Hispanic American to receive the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor in combat. Maria Tallchief was the first Native American prima ballerina. Barbara Jordan of Texas, whose powerful speech to the House Judiciary Committee in July 1974 helped turn the country against Richard M. Nixon, was the first African American woman in the 20th century to be elected to Congress from the South. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Five Catholic saints are on the list, including Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born person to be canonized, in 1975. However, there is not a single female athlete, unless you count sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Regardless of who makes the final cut, federal statues typically take years to commission, design, cast and install. The park's opening was originally planned for July 4, 2026, the nation's 250th birthday, but a White House spokesperson said the new goal is sometime before the end of Trump's presidency in January 2029. As of now, no site has been chosen. However, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden (R) is promoting a mining company's offer of land near Mount Rushmore, a plan that local Indigenous groups oppose. If the White House accepts the offer, maybe the four presidents depicted there can come off the garden's to-do list. Only 246 to go. Illustrations by Lucy Naland/The Washington Post; Library of Congress; Mark J. Terrill/AP; iStock; Reed Saxon/AP; iStock; NASA/Bob Nye; NASA; iStock
Miami Herald
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Bus driver forces Black men to sit in the back or he'll call cops, MN suit says
Rosa Parks made history when she refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on Dec. 1, 1955. Her refusal helped bring an end to legalized segregation on buses, among other Jim Crow-era laws. But, on July 13, 2023, two Black men were told to sit in the back of a bus, according to a Minnesota lawsuit filed on July 7. Two Black men boarded a Jefferson Lines bus in Fargo, North Dakota, and were instructed by the driver to sit in the back of the bus despite the company having a 'first come, first serve' policy for seats, the lawsuit said. The two men started to argue with the driver, but he threatened to call police if the passengers did not comply, the lawsuit said. One of the two men forced to sit in the back is now suing Jefferson Lines and the unnamed bus driver, accusing them of racial discrimination. 'Rosa Parks took a stand in 1955, refused to give up her seat, and we're not going back, not now, not ever, not in 2023, not in 2025,' the man's attorney, Samuel Savage, told McClatchy News in a phone interview. The attorney representing Jefferson Lines did not immediately respond to McClatchy News' request for comment on July 11. A spokesperson told KARE that the company doesn't comment on active legal matters. The plaintiff, who is seeking $50,000 in damages, sat in the back of the bus during his ride from Fargo to Crookston, Minnesota, rather than continue to argue with the driver, according to the lawsuit. 'I think in the moment, it was more of a 'I just want to get to my destination and be about my business,'' Savage said. The two men were the only Black people on the bus on July 13, the complaint said. Other passengers were allowed to choose their seats, according to the suit. Four days after the man's bus ride, Jefferson Lines asked the bus driver to create an incident report. The driver wrote that he asked the two Black men to sit in the back of the bus because they smelled like marijuana, the lawsuit said. The driver was given a verbal warning for 'deviating from the policy' the next month, according to the lawsuit. In January, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights said there was probable cause that discrimination occurred during the 2023 bus ride. A similar incident on a Jefferson Lines bus in Minneapolis occurred in 2009 when a driver told a mother and her 3-year-old daughter to sit in the back of the bus, which she said was because they were Black, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. Crookston, Minnesota, is about a 70-mile drive northeast from Fargo, North Dakota.
CBS News
03-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Rosa Parks' former home in Detroit has earned local historic designation
The former Detroit home of the late civil rights activist Rosa Parks has been approved for a local historic district designation. Detroit City Council voted Tuesday to establish the Rosa and Raymond Parks Flat Historic District. The step takes effect immediately for the two-story home in the 3200 block of Virginia Park Street where the Parks lived for 27 years. A public hearing on the matter took place June 26 under the jurisdiction of the Detroit City Council Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee. Rosa Parks, who was active in the Civil Rights Movement, became nationally known for her refusal to follow the Jim Crow-era laws in Montgomery, Alabama. Specifically, she refused to give up her seat on a bus and move to the back of the vehicle on Dec. 1, 1955. Her arrest in that incident helped spark the Montgomery bus boycott. Eventually, Rosa and Raymond Parks settled in Detroit. He died in 1977. She died in 2005. Detroit's local historic districts are meant to be associated with people or events that are a significant part of Detroit's history, or have artistic or historical significance. Once a local historic district is established for a site, any exterior alterations to the building must go through the Historic District Commission.
CBS News
20-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Former Detroit home of Rosa Parks in line for historic district designation
A proposal is pending for the former Detroit home of Civil Rights Movement activists Rosa and Raymond Parks to be named a local historic district. The Detroit City Council Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee will hold a public hearing to consider the proposal. The designation is intended to honor the flat in the 3200 block of Virginia Park Street where Civil Rights activists Rosa and Raymond Parks lived for 27 years. "Their activism in Detroit helped shape the Civil Rights Movement," the Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Board said on its social media post. A public hearing, which is part of the designation process, will begin at 10:35 a.m. June 26 at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center on Woodward Avenue. Detroit's local historic districts are meant to be associated with people or events that are a significant part of Detroit's history, or have artistic or historical significance. Once a local historic district is established for a site, any exterior alterations to the building must go through the Historic District Commission. Rosa Parks, who was already active in the Civil Rights Movement, became known for her refusal to follow the Jim Crow-era laws in Montgomery, Alabama. Specifically, she refused to give up her seat on a bus and move to the back of the vehicle on Dec. 1, 1955. Her arrest in that incident helped spark the Montgomery bus boycott. After the boycott, Rosa and Raymond Parks moved to Hampton, Virginia, and then settled in Detroit. He died in 1977. She died in 2005.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Frank Sinatra, Other Anti-Racist Icons Who Were Down For Black Folks
Black Americans have always led our own struggle for freedom and justice, but we couldn't do it alone. Standing beside leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass were white folks like legendary singer Frank Sinatra who used their voices and privilege to protests the unjust racism in the country. But what about all the other white allies whose names have been lost to history…? We hardly remember the white abolitionists and civil rights leaders who in many cases became martyrs to the cause. So now, The Root is taking a closer look at the anti-racist white heroes who were just as down for civil rights as Black folks throughout history. At age 18, Rev. Bruce Klunder knew he had to join the Civil Rights Movement, and by 26, he became a martyr for the cause. Klunder was one of several protesting the construction of a segregated school in Ohio. 'Even way back then, we realized that injustice was in the institutions—that it was systematic,' he said according to PBS. During the 1964 protest, he threw himself behind a bulldozer to prevent it from advancing. As the driver backed away from the side, he drove over the 26-year-old, killing him. Before he became the musical icon we know today, Frank Sinatra would make trips to Harlem just to watch Black jazz musicians like Sammy Davis Jr. play. When a guard at Sinatra's show wouldn't let his Black jazz friend in, Sinatra didn't hesitate to rip up his contract and never play that venue again. In 1947, he said, 'We've got a hell of a way to go on this racial situation,' and for the rest of his career, he would use his voice and power as a white singer to advocate against discrimination. Centuries before 'crashing out' became common slang, John Brown was demonstrating what the phrase meant to the fullest extent. Back in the 1850s, Brown famously gathered a group of other white men opposed to slavery and targeted and killed any pro-slavery person they could find. This went on for years until the climax at his failed raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, according to PBS. He was captured and executed. Despite his violent activism, Brown is remembered as one of the many white abolitionists who inspired slave revolts and pure change. In 1963, William Lewis Moore, a white postal worker from Baltimore, set out on a one-man protest against racial injustice. His plan was to walk 600 miles from Chattanooga, Tenn. to Jackson, Miss. to hand the governor a hand written letter. Unfortunately, his plan was never completed as he was shot and killed halfway through his journey, according to PBS. His suspected killer, a Klu Klux Klan member named Floyd Simpson, was never charged. His murder remains unsolved. The U.S. district judge knew the ultimate power of the courts during the Civil Rights Movement. That's why he ruled to open white primaries to Black voters during election season. Waring once said, 'The cancer of segregation will never be cured by the sedative of gradualism,' according to the Southern Oral History Program. He was shunned by white supremacists in his hometown of Charleston, S.C. This led Waring to move to New York City. Born in 1924, Anne McCarty Braden was a journalist from Kentucky who used her privilege and career to advocate against racial injustices. Most famously, she and her husband helped a Black couple buy a home in an all-white neighborhood in Louisville in 1954, according to the Los Angeles Times. She and her husband were consequently put on trial for sedition– inciting a riot– and they were banned from jobs and threatened after the fact. She worked closely with Ella Baker, Rosa Parks and she was even mentioned in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail.' Rev. James Reeb, a Unitarian minister, understood his calling and used his voice to amply the movement. After witnessing the violent police attacks to Black protestors in Selma, Ala., Reeb traveled to the city to do his part, just as Dr. King urged folks. But when he got there, he would unfortunately meet his end in 1965 after he was targeted and killed by a group of white supremacists. 'James Reeb symbolizes the forces of good will in our nation,' Dr. King said after his death, according to Stanford University. 'He demonstrated the conscience of the nation…He was a witness to the truth that men of different races and classes might live, eat, and work together as brothers.' Reeb's killers were acquitted of his murder that same year. Edgar Chandler worked closely with Dr. King in the 1960s. He was a Navy Chaplain, congregational minister and the director of the Church Federation of Greater Chicago, according to The New York Times. He later hired Jesse Jackson at the Church Federation of Greater Chicago and the two men became friends. Jackson said Chandler 'really helped to bring me into the civil rights movement…He helped to hire me when I had no money, and helped sustain my family.' When Jim Zwerg was sent to Fisk University for a one-month exchange student program, his life was changed forever. There, he met a young John Lewis, who would become one of the most prominent civil rights leaders in history, according to the High Museum of Art. Zwerg soon became a freedom rider until a near death attack put him in a coma. Pictures of him after the attack soon flooded the media, making him a notable face for the movement. Born the same month the Civil War ended, Mary White Ovington was a journalist and co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Ovington became involved with the movement following hearing Frederick Douglass speak in 1890. After a race riot in Illinois, Ovington helped organize a meeting between Black and white people. This would lay the foundation for the modern day NAACP, according to the organization's website. Sally Rowley was always a free spirit. After taking an interest in Amelia Earhart, she soon learned how to fly planes. Rowley eventually moved to New York, where she joined the freedom riders. On one of her trips to the South in 1961, she was arrested. Rowley served time in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. She died of COVID in 2020, The New York Times reported. Margaret Leonard wanted folks to know that all white people in the South weren't 'evil,' as she said. In the 1960s, she began attending CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) meetings and participating in sit-ins for civil rights. Most notably, she was a Freedom Rider. 'At the CORE meetings they said, 'If somebody comes to hit you, protect your head.' But then in the Freedom Rides, they got real serious. We would go and spend some hours in a church basement being told what to do when they try to kill you,' she said according to Viola Liuzzo had a history of activism, but it wasn't until 1965 when she would officially join the Civil Rights Movement. The housewife and mother of five traveled from her home in Detroit to Selma to help with ongoing efforts after Bloody Sunday in 1965. Liuzzo marched in the Selma to Montgomery demonstration across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, according to the National Park Service. While driving back with fellow activists to the airport, she was shot and killed by Klan members ate age 39. Haunted by his own experience under Adolf Hitler, Joachim Prinz empathized with the message of the Civil Rights Movement. He represented the Jewish community, helping organize the 1963 March on Washington. He's most famous for being the speaker before MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech and after gospel singer Mahalia Jackson's performance. He said it was his duty to join the efforts because 'the most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence,' according to the National Park Service. Best known for forming the first freedmen's school for formerly enslaved people, Laura Towne spent her career dedicated to ending slavery. She was raised in Philadelphia, where abolitionist teachings were common. This led Towne to volunteer when the Union captured Port Royal in South Carolina. Eventually, she joined forced with her Quaker friend named Ellen Murray and founded the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, the first freedmen's school in the country, according to the website.
