History By Zim

Buses carried carolers to all ports, U.S.O. centers, and railroad stations to spread Christmas greetings. Here are U.S.O. Christmas Carols in El Paso, Texas in December 1941.

African American baseball players from Morris Brown College, with boy and another man standing at door, Atlanta, Georgia in either 1899 or 1900.

Founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1881, Morris Brown College first opened its doors on October 15, 1885 to 107 students and nine teachers. Located at the corner of Boulevard and Houston Streets in Atlanta, Georgia the first building was described as “a crude wooden structure.” It was the first education institution in the state under sole African-American patronage. The photo above was taken only a few years after the college opened.

Morris Brown College

A young woman in a bathing suit stands on the beach posing as a Christmas tree, complete with decorations and star on top in California, 1936.

The story of the only man awarded the Medal of Honor for combat on December 7, 1941.

December 7th, 1941 is “a date which will live in infamy” as the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The attack, which happened in two waves as 353 Japanese fighters were launched from six aircraft carriers, spurred everyone to their defensive positions including Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer John William Finn.

Finn was awoken in his bed when the Japanese first started their attack. He lived with his wife Alice in a house about a mile away from where he was stationed at the Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station (NAS). The NAS Kaneohe Bay was acquired by the Navy in 1939 and was used by three Patrol Squadrons for long-range reconnaissance flights using the PBY Catalina flying boats. Finn was in charge of twenty men and their primary task was to maintain the weapons of the PBY Catalina flying boat squadrons. The air station was about 15 miles from Pearl Harbor and Battleship Row and was attacked minutes before Pearl Harbor.

The sound of gunfire and low-flying aircraft awoke Finn. As he was trying to place what was going on, his neighbor knocked on the door. “They want you down at the squadron right away!” she told him when he opened the door. He hastily threw on his chief hat and a pair of dungarees and got into his car. Finn tried to maintain the 20 mph speed limit as he drove to the air station. ”I got around [a curve], and I heard a plane come roaring in from astern of me. As I glanced up, the guy made a wing-over and I saw that big old red meatball, the rising sun insignia, on the underside of the wing,” he recalled in an interview with Larry Smith for the 2003 book Beyond Glory. “Well, I threw it into second, and it was a wonder I didn’t run over every sailor in the air station.”

Once he arrived, Finn saw that most of the PBY Catalina flying boats were hit and on fire. His men were already firing back at the planes with machine guns from the PBYs. Some of the men were firing from inside the blazing planes while others detached the guns and used improved stands. He immediately took control of a machine gun from the squadron’s painter and moved the makeshift tripod of spare pipes into a better position out in an open area.

He began openly firing at the Japanese without any cover for over two hours. Finn, in a 2009 interview, stated that his only thought was to continue to fire at the planes even though he was an open target. “In some cases, I could see their faces,” Finn reminisced. Despite being repeatedly shot (he had 21 distinct wounds in his right foot, left shoulder along with shrapnel injuries to his chest, stomach, right elbow and thumb and a scalp laceration), Finn kept up his counterattack. “I didn’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain,” he later quipped.

The first Japanese aircraft that was destroyed in action was shot down by the men of Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station. Finn, himself, is credited with shooting down a plane. “I can’t honestly say I hit any,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2001. “But I shot at every damn plane I could see.”

Finn only left his post under specific orders to seek medical attention for his wounds. Undeterred by his injuries, Finn returned to the hangars later that day to help rearm returning planes. That is not to say his injuries were in any way superficial. Finn spent the next two weeks in the hospital recovering from them.

The attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station killed 18 sailors and destroyed all but 6 of the 33 PBY Catalinas on the ground or floating just offshore. The surviving flying boats were damaged and only the three Kaneohe Bay PBYs that were out on patrol at the time were deemed fit for service at the end of the attack.

During the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese planes damaged eight U.S. Navy battleships (four of which sunk), three cruisers, three destroyers, one anti-aircraft training ship and one minelayer. In addition, the Japanese destroyed 188 U.S. aircraft. Over 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. The attack also ushered in the formal entry of the United States into World War II.

On September 15, 1941, Finn was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on December 7th. He was awarded the honor on-board the flight deck of the USS Enterprise in Pearl Harbor by the Pacific commander Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. There were 15 Medal of Honor recipients from that fateful day. Of those, 14 were for rescue attempts, Finn was the only Medal of Honor awarded for combat. His citation reads:

For extraordinary heroism, distinguished service, and devotion above and beyond the call of duty. During the first attack by Japanese airplanes on the Naval Air Station, Kanoehe Bay, on 7 December 1941, Lieutenant Finn promptly secured and manned a 50-caliber machine gun mounted on an instruction stand in a completely exposed section of the parking ramp, which was under heavy enemy machine-gun strafing fire. Although painfully wounded many times, he continued to man this gun and to return the enemy’s fire vigorously and with telling effect throughout the enemy strafing and bombing attacks and with complete disregard for his own personal safety. It was only by specific orders that he was persuaded to leave his post to seek medical attention. Following first-aid treatment, although obviously suffering much pain and moving with great difficulty, he returned to the squadron area and actively supervised the rearming of returning planes. His extraordinary heroism and conduct in this action were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Finn served through the rest of the war and retired from the Navy in September 1956 as a lieutenant. He and his wife Alice were foster parents to five Native American children and had a son Joseph. They moved to a ranch outside of San Diego where they raised cattle, horses and chickens. Of his peaceful ranch, Finn stated that it was ”a place to ride my motorcycle, shoot my guns on my own property and collect my junk.” Alice died in 1998.

During his retirement, Finn made many appearances. He stood besides President Barack Obama during the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on March 25, 2009 at the National Medal of Honor Day ceremonies held at Arlington National Cemetery. At 100 years of age, Finn was the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient.

On May 27, 2010, only a few months after the ceremonies in Washington, Lt. John W. Finn passed away. Shortly before his death he was asked how he felt about being called a ‘hero,’ Finn was insistent that he was not a hero. “That damned hero stuff is a bunch crap, I guess. . . . You gotta understand that there’s all kinds of heroes, but they never get a chance to be in a hero’s position.”

Further Reading
Richard Goldstein, “John Finn, Medal of Honor Winner, Dies at 100,” New York Times, May 27, 2010.
T. Rees Shapiro, “Lt. John W. Finn, Medal of Honor recipient, dies at 100,” The Washington Post, May 29, 2010.
Larry Shaughnessy, “Oldest Medal of Honor recipient, 100, downplays ‘hero’ talk,” CNN.
Lieutenant John William Finn (1909-2010), Naval History & Heritage Heritage Command.
Congressional Medal of Honor Society

Small group of men in the process of dumping wine from barrels into a hole in the ground in a warehouse during Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, 1921.

Lieutenant Sarah Josephine Griffin, USN(NC) (Retired), assists an injured Korean War veteran as he learns to use his two artificial legs, at the Rehabilitation Center, Naval Hospital, Oakland, California, 1951. Lieutenant Griffin, who had lost her lower left leg as a result of an accident, successfully fought to be recalled to active duty so that she could care for troops returning from combat as they adjust to their loss of limbs.

Definition: A couch potato describes someone who leads a sedentary lifestyle with very little to no exercise. Activities they partake in include watching television, playing video games, being on the computer or sitting for much of the day.

Origin: It has been said that couch potato was first said during a telephone conversation by Tom Iacino of Pasadena, California on July 15, 1976. He humorously advocated ‘vegging’ on the couch while eating junk food instead of any of the numerous fad diets sweeping the country. Robert Armstrong, a friend of Iacino’s and an underground comic artist, took the term and created a cartoon of a couch with a potato on it. From there he inked a series of comics featuring these couch potatoes with Jack Mingo and Allan Dodge. Armstrong went as far as to trademark the term.

Further Reading
The Potato Museum
Jack Mingo and Robert Armstrong, The Official Couch Potato Handbook, San Francisco: Last Gasp, 1987.

Earl Wilson sits on a motorcycle in Hawaii, 1942.

Meriam De Shazo and Kenna Morris modeling with a Christmas tree on Pensacola Beach, 1962. Have you all finished trimming your beach Christmas tree?

PFC Samuel Sandoval, a member of the III Amphibious Corps Signal Battalion on Okinawa in 1945. Between 400-500 Native American “code talkers” served in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. Their job was primarily to transmit secret tactical messages by using a coded language. This coded language was built upon their native languages and sent over military telephone or radios.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Saying grace before carving the turkey at Thanksgiving dinner in the home of Earle Landis in Neffsville, Pennsylvania, 1942.

Sarah Josepha Hale, a writer and editor born in 1788 in New Hampshire, is known as the “Godmother of Thanksgiving” for her efforts in getting the day recognized as a national holiday. Hale is thought to have written the first detailed description of the first Thanksgiving experienced by the settlers of Massachusetts Bay in her 1827 novel Northwood. She ends with the following:

[It] is considered as an appropriate tribute of gratitude to God to set apart one day of Thanksgiving in each year, and autumn is the time when the overflowing gamers of America call for this expression of joyful gratitude.

In 1847, Hale’s crusade to get Thanksgiving a recognized holiday began. Through editorials in Godey’s Lady’s Book, in which Hale was the literary editor of, she emphasized how Thanksgiving would reiterate religious beliefs and unify the country. As the United States edged closer to the Civil War, Hale became ardent that Thanksgiving – as a national holiday – would strengthen the weakening bond between the North and the South.

Everything that contributes to bind us in one vast empire together, to quicken the sympathy that makes us feel from the icy North to the sunny South that we are one family, each a member of a great and free Nation, not merely the unit of a remote locality, is worthy of being cherished. We have sought to reawaken and increase this sympathy, believing that the fine filaments of the affections are stronger than laws to keep the Union of our States sacred in the hearts of our people . . . We believe our Thanksgiving Day, if fixed and perpetuated, will be a great and sanctifying promoter of this national spirit.

Her crusade was not deterred when war broke out. Hale decided to try a different method. She went straight to the man at the top. On September 28, 1863, Hale wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln. Not only did he read her letter, he also took action. On October 3, President Lincoln issued a proclamation urging Americans to observe the last Thursday in November as a day of “Thanksgiving.” The next year, he issued another Thanksgiving proclamation. After Lincoln’s death, President Andrew Jackson followed in his predecessor’s footsteps and appointed a day of thanksgiving – although it was December 1st instead of the last Thursday of November.

Hale was not satisfied with just a presidential proclamation. Her next endeavor was to get Thanksgiving Day proclaimed as a national holiday by Congress. In another editorial, in 1871, she wrote about her reasoning behind getting Congress’ formal proclamation.

It is eminently fit that this National Holiday shall rest upon the same legal basis as its companions, the Twenty-second of February and the Fourth of July. As things now stand, our Thanksgiving is exposed to the chances of the time. Unless the President or the Governor of the State in office happens to see fit, no day is appointed for its observance. Is not this a state of things which calls for instant remedy? Should not our festival be assured to us by law?

We hope to see, before many months have elapsed, perhaps before our next Thanksgiving, the passage of an act by Congress appointing the last Thursday in November as a perpetual holiday, wherein the whole nation may unite in praise to Almighty God for his bounty and love, in rejoicing over the blessings of the year, in the union of families, and in acts of charity and kindness to the poor.

Hale died in 1879 at the age of 91 before seeing her second crusade to completion. It would not be for another seventy years later that the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday every November to be Thanksgiving Day. On November 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law. Recently, a new memorial for Sarah Josepha Hale was dedicated in her hometown of Newport, New Hampshire for her work to get Thanksgiving recognized as a national holiday and for her role a writer, magazine editor and fundraiser for Boston’s Bunker Hill Monument.

While her name may not seem familiar or the fact that she was nicknamed the “Godmother of Thanksgiving”, Hale was an accomplished writer with 30 published books – one of which was one of the first American novels to criticize slavery. However, she is most remembered for a poem she wrote and included in Poems for Our Children, her second book of poetry that was published in 1830. The poem is one of the most famous in the English language – “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Further Reading
National Women’s History Museum
Hope Greenberg, “Godey’s Lady’s Book,” University of Vermont.
Bonnie Hurd Smith, “Sarah Josepha Hale,” Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
Peggy M. Baker, “The Godmother of Thanksgiving: The Story of Sarah Josepha Hale,” Pilgrim Society & Pilgrim Hall Museum, 2007.
Jon Kamp, “‘Thanks’ to Unsung Heroine Sarah Josepha Hale,” The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 26, 2013.

Proclamation 2600 – Thanksgiving Day, 1943
By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

God’s help to us has been great in this year of march towards world-wide liberty. In brotherhood with warriors of other United Nations our gallant men have won victories, have freed our homes from fear, have made tyranny tremble, and have laid the foundation for freedom of life in a world which will be free.

Our forges and hearths and mills have wrought well; and our weapons have not failed. Our farmers, victory gardeners, and crop volunteers have gathered and stored a heavy harvest in the barns and bins and cellars. Our total food production for the year is the greatest in the annals of our country.

For all these things we are devoutly thankful, knowing also that so great mercies exact from us the greatest measure of sacrifice and service.

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, November 25, 1943, as a day for expressing our thanks to God for His blessings. November having been set aside as “Food Fights for Freedom” month, it is fitting that Thanksgiving Day be made the culmination of the observance of the month by a high resolve on the part of all to produce and save food and to “share and play square” with food.

May we on Thanksgiving Day and on every day express our gratitude and zealously devote ourselves to our duties as individuals and as a nation. May each of us dedicate his utmost efforts to speeding the victory which will bring new opportunities for peace and brotherhood among men.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this 11th day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Proclamation 2600 – Thanksgiving Day, 1943,” The American Presidency Project, November 11, 1943.