The ride to equality started 60 years ago​
Gerald Ensley, Democrat correspondent 11:43 p.m. EDT May 21, 2016

Sixty years later, it seems impossible to believe there was a time when blacks and whites were not allowed to sit together on Tallahassee city buses. It seems impossible to believe blacks were not allowed to sit in the front seats of a bus. Those seats were reserved for white people.

But in 1956, it was the law in Tallahassee, then still a small city of strict racial separation. The population was 38,000 — one-third black and confined to menial jobs or professional positions within the black community. Blacks could not eat in most white-owned restaurants. They couldn't shop at most white-owned stores; public water fountains were labeled for “whites only” and “colored only.”

On May 26, 1956, two Florida A&M students changed the course of history. Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson boarded a Tallahassee city bus on South Adams Street and plopped down on a front bench beside a white woman.

The bus driver ordered them to move to the back of the bus. When the two students refused, the driver drove to a nearby gas station and called the police. Jakes and Patterson were arrested and charged with placing themselves in a position to “incite a riot.”

More: http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/05/20/bus-boycott-60-years-later/84546580/

Texas Mom Breaks Facebook Record with Chewbacca Mask Video



By Naja Rayne @najarayne

05/20/2016 AT 08:45 PM EDT
A random purchase put this Texas mom on the fast track to Internet stardom.

On Thursday, Candace Payne, a Dallas mother of two, took to Facebook sharing a video of herself in a recently purchased Chewbacca mask, as she laughs hysterically at the voice features in the toy.

"It's the simple joys in life….," she captioned the clip.
http://www.people.com/article/texas-mom-breaks-facebook-record-with-chewbacca-mask

An open letter to my fellow Republicans
Mac Stipanovich, Context Florida 1:01 a.m. EDT May 5, 2016

<SNIP>

On a personal level, Trump is a boor, a bully, a carnival barker and an embarrassment. Politically, by intent or instinct, he is a neo-fascist — a nativist, an ultranationalist, a racist, a misogynist, an anti-intellectual, a demagogue and a palingenetic (sorry) authoritarian to whom clings the odor of the political violence he encourages.

He appeals to our fears, preys on our anxieties and exploits our ignorance. A worse candidate to sit in the Oval Office for the next four years cannot be imagined.

And he is our responsibility. We spawned Donald Trump; now we must stop him. We must deny him the presidency by not voting in the presidential election at all or voting for Hillary Clinton if conscience permits.

<SNIP>

A drop of a few percentage points in the Republican vote for Trump will be enough, which is why the pressure to conform, to toe the party line, will be enormous. We cannot depend on our elected leaders to lead us. They, for the most part, will fold like cheap lawn chairs, cowed by fear and fueled by ambition.

MUCH more: http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/04/mac-stipanovich-open-letter-my-fellow-republicans/32600059/