title: George Floyd protests

text: The protests were the subject of extensive media coverage, documentaries, and television specials. The documentary "Say His Name: Five Days of George Floyd", released in February 2021, contained footage of protests and unrest in a neighborhood of Minneapolis in the five days that elapsed between Floyd's murder and the criminal charges being filed against Derek Chauvin. In August 2020, the occupied protests at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis was the subject of a multi-part "PBS News Hour" series, "George Floyd Square: The epicenter of a protest movement that's swept the world" and in December 2020, it was the subject of a monthlong series by Minnesota Public Radio, "Making George Floyd's Square: Meet the people transforming 38th and Chicago".


title: George Floyd protests

text: Several documentaries and news specials were broadcast to coincide with first anniversary of Floyd's murder. The ABC-produced "After Floyd: The Year that Shook America" examined the "generation-defining movement" of Floyd's death and "Our America: A Year of Activism" reflected on the year-long period of activism on social justice issues that followed. PBS-produced "Race Matters: America After George Floyd" reported on ongoing protests in communities over issues of police brutality a year after Floyd's death.


title: George Floyd protests

text: The Minneapolis-based "Star Tribune" newspaper received the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for the breaking news it reported of Floyd's murder and the resulting aftermath. Danielle Frazier, the then 17-year old who filmed Floyd's arrest and murder on her cellphone, received a Pulitzer special citation recognition in 2021 for her video.


title: George Floyd protests

text: The video recorded of Floyd's arrest and death by Darneil Frazier on her mobile phone quickly went viral after she posted to Facebook a few hours later in the early morning hours of May 26. Public outrage over the contents of the video became an inflection point that sparked the largest civil-rights protests in U.S. history as Americans confronted topics of structural racism and police reform. Protests had continued for over a year after Floyd's murder.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Numerous individuals and celebrities used social media to document the protests, spread information, promote donation sites, and post memorials to George Floyd. Following Floyd's murder, a 15-year-old started a Change.org petition titled "Justice for George Floyd", demanding that all four police officers involved be charged. The petition was both the largest and fastest-growing in the site's history, reaching over 13 million signatures. During this time, multiple videos of the protests, looting, and riots were shared by journalists and protesters with many videos circulating widely on social media websites.


title: George Floyd protests

text: A remix of Childish Gambino's song "This is America" and Post Malone's "Congratulations" was used heavily by protesters sharing footage of protests and police action on TikTok. Others used personal Twitter pages to post video documentation of the protests to highlight police and protesters actions, as well as points of the protests they felt would not be reported. One example was a viral photo that appears to show white women protesters standing with their arms locked between Louisville Metro Police Officers and protesters, with the caption describing the image and "This is love. This is what you do with your privilege."


title: George Floyd protests

text: Viral images of officers "taking a knee" with protesters and engaging in joint displays against police brutality, highlighted by hashtags such as "#WalkWithUs", have circulated widely on social media. These acts have been identified by some cultural critics as copaganda, or "feel-good images" to boost public relations. Official social media accounts of police departments boosted positive images of collaboration. In some cases, these displays of solidarity, such as police kneeling, have been recognized as occurring moments before police teargassed crowds or inflicted violence on them. An article in "The Fader" characterized these acts as public relations tactics which were being undermined by police violence, "It feels like we go past the point of no return several times each day."


title: George Floyd protests

text: American K-pop fan accounts hijacked right wing and pro-Trump hashtags on social media, flooding trending hashtags with images and videos of their favorite artists. Users attempting to look up the hashtags "#WhiteLivesMatter," "#WhiteoutWednesday" and "#BlueLivesMatter" were met with messages and video clips of dancing idols. After the Dallas Police Department asked Twitter users to submit videos of protesters' illegal activity to its iWatch Dallas app, submissions of K-pop videos led to the temporary removal of the app due to "technical difficulties".


title: George Floyd protests

text: On May 28, hacktivist group Anonymous released a video to Facebook and the Minneapolis Police Department entitled "Anonymous Message To The Minneapolis Police Department", in which they state that they are going to seek revenge on the Minneapolis Police Department, and "expose their crimes to the world". According to Bloomberg, the video was initially posted on an unconfirmed Anonymous Facebook page. 269 gigabytes of leaked internal law enforcement data spanning 10 years obtained by Anonymous were later published by the activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets on June 19 to coincide with Juneteenth. The leak consisted of over a million documents, in what investigative journalist and founder of the group—Emma Best—called "the largest published hack of American law enforcement agencies". The leaked documents revealed that law enforcement agencies had been covertly monitoring protestors' private communication over social media, and that both federal and local law enforcement had been stoking fear among police officers, likely setting the stage for the escalation of violence against protestors by police.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Facebook's decision not to remove or label President Trump's tweet of "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" prompted complaints from Facebook employees that political figures were getting a special exemption from the site's content policies. Actions included internal petition, questioning the CEO at an employee town hall, some resignations, and an employee walkout.


title: George Floyd protests

text: On June 3, as U.S. protests gained momentum, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted a recommendation for users to download end-to-end encryption (E2EE) messaging app Signal. On June 6, an estimated half million people joined protests in 550 places in the United States. By June 11, "The New York Times" reported that protest organizers relied on the E2EE app "to devise action plans and develop strategies for handling possible arrests for several years" and that downloads had "skyrocketed" with increased awareness of police monitoring leading protesters to use the app to communicate among themselves. During the first week of June, the encrypted messaging app was downloaded over five times more than it had been during the week prior to Floyd's murder. Citizen, a community safety app, also experienced a high spike in downloads.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speculated that there was "an organized attempt to destabilize civil society", initially saying as many as 80% of the individuals had possibly come from outside the state, and the mayor of St. Paul, Melvin Carter, said everyone arrested in St. Paul on May 29 was from out of state. However, jail records showed that the majority of those arrested were in-state. At a press conference later the same day, Carter explained that he had "shared... arrest data received in [his] morning police briefing which [he] later learned to be inaccurate".


title: George Floyd protests

text: Numerous eyewitness accounts and news reporters indicated that tear gas was used to disperse protesters in Lafayette Square. Despite this evidence, U.S. Park Police officials said, "USPP officers and other assisting law enforcement partners did not use tear gas or OC Skat Shells to close the area at Lafayette Park", adding that they only used "pepper balls" and "smoke canisters". Donald Trump's presidential campaign demanded news outlets retract reports of "tear gas" use. President Trump called the reports "fake" and said "they didn't use tear gas."


title: George Floyd protests

text: On the night of May 31, exterior lights on the north side of the White House went dark as usual at 11:00 pm, while protesters were demonstrating outside. "The Guardian" mistakenly reported that "in normal times, they are only ever turned off when a president dies." A 2015 stock photograph of the White House, edited to show the lights turned off, was shared tens of thousands of times online, including by Hillary Clinton. While the photograph did not depict the building at the time of the protests, Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley confirmed that the lights "go out at about 11 p.m. almost every night".


title: George Floyd protests

text: On June 6, the "New York Post" reported that a NYPD source said $2.4 million of Rolex watches had been looted during protests from a Soho Rolex store. However, the store in question was actually a Watches of Switzerland outlet that denied anything was stolen. Rolex confirmed that "no watches of any kind were stolen, as there weren't any on display in the store."


title: George Floyd protests

text: A June 12 article by "The Seattle Times" found that Fox News published a photograph of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that had been digitally altered to include a man armed with an assault rifle. The Fox News website also used a photograph of a burning scene from the Minnesota protests to illustrate their articles on Seattle's protests. Fox removed the images and issued an apology, stating the digitally altered image was a collage that "did not clearly delineate" splicing.


title: George Floyd protests

text: False claims of impending antifa activity as part of the protests circulated through social media platforms, causing alarm in at least 41 towns and cities. As a result of the rumors, several people were harassed. Hundreds of members of armed self-proclaimed militias and far right groups gathered in Gettysburg National Military Park on Independence Day in response to a fake online claim that antifa protesters were planning on burning the U.S. flag.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Some social media users spread images of damage from other protests or incidents, falsely attributing the damage to the George Floyd protests.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Twitter suspended hundreds of accounts associated with spreading a false claim about a communications blackout during protests in Washington, D.C., or a claim that authorities had blocked protesters from communicating on their smartphones. Also, some accounts shared a photo of a major fire burning near the Washington Monument, which was actually an image from a television show.


title: George Floyd protests

text: A study by Zignal Labs identified three dominant themes in misinformation and conspiracy theories around the protests: unsubstantiated claims of antifa involvement, claims that Floyd's murder had been faked, and claims of involvement by the billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros.


title: George Floyd protests

text: A week into the protests, "The Washington Post" stated that the current situation suggests that the "status quo" was undergoing a shock, with the article stating "the past days have suggested that something is changing. The protests reached into every corner of the United States and touched nearly every strand of society." Joe Biden told "Politico" that he had experienced an awakening and thought other White Americans had as well, saying: "Ordinary folks who don't think of themselves as having a prejudiced bone in their body, don't think of themselves as racists, have kind of had the mask pulled off." Large amounts of journalistic and academic sources have viewed the protests as forcing Americans to face racial inequality, police brutuality and other racial and economic issues. Many have stated that the current unrest is due to the current political and cultural system of overlooking, ignoring and oppression of Black Americans, calling it a racial reckoning. "Politico" said the murder of George Floyd, captured on video, had "prompted a reckoning with racism [...] for a wide swath of white America." Deva Woodly, Associate Professor of Politics at The New School for Social Research, wrote: "We are living in a world-historical moment." NPR said that "a change of attitude seems to have swept through the national culture like a sudden wind." CNN's Brianna Keilar said that "[y]ou are watching America's reckoning" as she outlined the "profound change" the country had experienced, including that in mid-June 15 of the 20 bestselling books were about race.


title: George Floyd protests

text: In late June, "The Christian Science Monitor"s editorial board wrote: "It may still be too soon to say the U.S. has reached a true inflection point in its treatment of its citizens of African descent. But it has certainly reached a reflection point." Reuters reported that Black candidates in June's primaries had benefited from "a national reckoning on racism." By early July, "The Washington Post" was running a regularly updated section titled "America's Racial Reckoning: What you need to know." On July 3, "The Washington Post" said that "the Black Lives Matter protests following the police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks focused the world's attention on racial inequities, structural racism and implicit bias."


title: George Floyd protests

text: "The New York Times" described the events in the wake of Floyd's murder and video that circulated of it as "the largest protests in the United States since the Civil Rights era."


title: George Floyd protests

text: According to the "American Political Science Review", the George Floyd protests led to a reduction in favorability toward the police among politically liberal Americans, and further exacerbated racial and political tensions and attitudes regarding the "race and law enforcement" debate in the U.S.


title: George Floyd protests

text: The Property Claim Services (PCS) of the U.S. Insurance industry states that in the "unrest that took place from May 26 to June 8" 2020 in 140 U.S. cities in 20 states was "the costliest civil unrest in U.S. history", and that insured losses are "estimated at over $2 billion".


title: George Floyd protests

text: According to "Fortune", the economic impact of the protests has exacerbated the COVID-19 recession by sharply curtailing consumer confidence, straining local businesses, and overwhelming public infrastructure with large-scale property damage. A number of small businesses, already suffering from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, were harmed by vandalism, property destruction, and looting. Curfews instated by local governments – in response to both the pandemic and protests – have also "restricted access to the downtown [areas]" to essential workers, lowering economic output. President Donald Trump, after announcing a drop in overall unemployment from 14.7% to 13.3% on June 5, stated that strong economic growth was "the greatest thing [for race relations]" and "George Floyd would have been proud [of the unemployment rate]". That same day reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the unemployment rate among African Americans (covering the first two weeks of protests) was up 0.1%, rising to 16.8%.


title: George Floyd protests

text: The U.S. stock market remained unaffected or otherwise increased from the start of the protests on May 26 to June 2. The protest's first two weeks coincided with a 38% rise in the stock market. A resurgence of COVID-19 (facilitated by mass protests) could exacerbate the 2020 stock market crash according to economists at RBC. The protests have disrupted national supply chains over uncertainty regarding public safety, a resurgence of COVID-19, and consumer confidence. Several Fortune 500 retail companies, with large distribution networks, have scaled back deliveries and shuttered stores in high-impact areas. Mass demonstrations – of both peaceful and violent varieties – have been linked to diminished consumer confidence and demand stemming from the public health risks of group gatherings amid COVID-19. Large-scale property damage stemming from the protests has led to increased insurance claims, bankruptcies, and curbed economic activity among small businesses and state governments. Insurance claims arising from property damage suffered in rioting is still being assessed, but is thought to be significant, perhaps record-breaking. Estimates of property damages from fires and looting in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area were $550 million to 1,500 property locations. Private insurance covered less than half of the estimated damages, which had a disproportionate effect on small business owners, many of who were immigrants and people of color. Among the losses in Minneapolis was Minnehaha Commons, an under-construction, $30 million redevelopment project for 189 units of affordable housing, which was destroyed by fire after being torched on May 27, 2020. A community organization in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood said that between $10 million and $15 million in property damage (excluding losses from looting) was incurred over the weekend of May 29–31, mostly along storefronts along Peachtree Street and Phipps Plaza. The damage to downtown Chicago's central business district (near the Magnificent Mile) was reported to have sustained "millions of dollars in damage" according to "Fortune".


title: George Floyd protests

text: Public financing and funding, particularly on the state level, has also been impacted by the protests. The COVID-19 recession has eroded large parts of state budgets which have, subsequently, struggled to finance the police overtime pay, security costs, and infrastructure repairs related to the demonstrations. State governments have, since June, announced budget cuts to police departments as well as increased funding to other public safety measures. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on June 5 he will seek up to $150 million in cuts to the Los Angeles Police Department budget.


title: George Floyd protests

text: On May 31, Walmart temporarily closed several hundred of its stores as a precaution. Amazon announced it would redirect some delivery routes and scale back others as a result of the widespread unrest.


title: George Floyd protests

text: A makeshift memorial emerged at the East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue intersection in Minneapolis where Floyd was murdered. Minneapolis officials renamed a stretch two block stretch of Chicago Avenue as George Floyd Perry Jr Place and designated it as one of seven cultural districts in city.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Scrutiny of, discussion of removal, and removal of civic symbols or names relating to the Confederate States of America (frequently associated with segregation and the Jim Crow era in the United States) has regained steam as protests have continued. On June 4, 2020, Virginia governor Ralph Northam announced the Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond would be removed.


title: George Floyd protests

text: On June 5, making specific reference to events in Charlottesville in 2017, the United States Marine Corps banned the display of the Confederate Battle Flag at their installations. The United States Navy followed suit on June 9 at the direction of Michael M. Gilday, the Chief of Naval Operations.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor Randall Woodfin ordered the removal of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Linn Park. The Alabama Attorney General has filed suit against the city of Birmingham for violating the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act.


title: George Floyd protests

text: A statue of America's first president, George Washington, has been torn down and American flag was burned by rioters in Portland, Oregon. Portland Public Schools was responding after protesters pulled down the Thomas Jefferson statue in front of Jefferson High School. Several protesters tore down the statue of the third President of the United States and wrote: "slave owner" and "George Floyd" in spray paint at its white marble base. PPS officials said they recognize that the act is part of a larger and very important national conversation. The statues targeted included a bust of Ulysses S. Grant and statue of Theodore Roosevelt. BLM activist Shaun King tweeted that statues, murals, and stained glass windows depicting a white Jesus should be removed. Protesters defaced a statue of Philadelphia abolitionist Matthias Baldwin with the words "murderer" and "colonizer". Protesters in San Francisco vandalized a statue of Miguel de Cervantes, a Spanish writer who spent five years as a slave in Algiers.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Vandals defaced the statue of Winston Churchill in London's Parliament Square and Queen Victoria's statue in Leeds. The Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial and the statue of General Casimir Pulaski were vandalized during the George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C. On June 7, the statue of Edward Colston was toppled and thrown into Bristol Harbour by demonstrators during the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom. BLM activists in London are calling for the removal of 60 statues of historical figures like Prime Ministers Charles Grey and William Gladstone, Horatio Nelson, Sir Francis Drake, King Charles II of England, Oliver Cromwell and Christopher Columbus. Protesters in Belgium have vandalized statues of King Leopold II of Belgium.


title: George Floyd protests

text: In Washington, D.C., a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in front of the Indian Embassy was vandalized on the intervening night of June 2 and 3. The incident prompted the embassy to register a complaint with law enforcement agencies. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the Indian Ambassador to the United States, called the vandalism "a crime against humanity". In London, another statue of Gandhi was vandalized by Black Lives Matter protesters along with the statue of Winston Churchill.


title: George Floyd protests

text: On June 12, the city council in Hamilton, New Zealand removed the statue of Captain John Hamilton, a British officer who was killed during the New Zealand Wars in 1864. A local Māori elder Taitimu Maipi, who had vandalized the statue in 2018, has also called for the city to be renamed Kirikiriroa. New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters called the scrutiny of colonial-era memorials a "wave of idiocy".


title: George Floyd protests

text: On June 22, a crowd of rioters unsuccessfully attempted to topple Clark Mills' 1852 bronze equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square in President's Park, directly north of the White House in Washington, D.C. Several days later, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) charged four men with destruction of federal property for allegedly trying to bring down the statue. The Justice Department alleged that a video showed one of the men breaking off and destroying the wheels of the cannons located at the base of the statue as well as pulling on ropes when trying to bring down the statue.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Soon afterwards, the DOJ announced the arrest and charging of a man who was not only allegedly seen on video climbing up onto the Jackson statue and affixing a rope that was then used to try to pull the statue down, but had on June 20 helped destroy Gaetano Trentanove's 1901 Albert Pike Memorial statue near Washington's Judiciary Square by pulling it from its base and setting it on fire. The DOJ's complaint alleged that the man had been captured on video dousing the federally-owned Pike statue with a flammable liquid, igniting it as it lay on the ground and using the fire to light a cigarette.


title: George Floyd protests

text: On , after the Mississippi Legislature obtained a two-thirds majority in both houses to suspend rules in order to pass a bill addressing the Confederate Battle Flag on the Mississippi state flag, Governor Tate Reeves signed a bill that relinquished the state flag, mandated its removal from public premises within 15 days, and established a commission to propose a new flag design that excluded the Confederate Battle Flag and included the motto "In God We Trust". The flag contained the infamous Confederate symbol in the canton (upper left corner) of the flag, and was the last U.S. state flag to do so.


title: George Floyd protests

text: During a speech on July 3 at Mount Rushmore, U.S. president Donald Trump denounced the monument removals as part of a "left wing cultural revolution" to "overthrow the American Revolution".


title: George Floyd protests

text: On , the Washington Redskins announced that their name and logo would be retired upon completion of "a thorough review of the name" that was first announced on .


title: George Floyd protests

text: A week-long tour began July 28 in which a hologram of Floyd was projected on a monument to be removed, thereby "replacing" the monument with Floyd. Richmond, Virginia, was the first stop.


title: George Floyd protests

text: In the response to the protests, Congress mandated the creation of a Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. President Trump cited this provision in his veto of the NDAA, resulting in the only veto override of his presidency.


title: George Floyd protests

text: According to Lt. Bob Kroll, the head of the Minneapolis police union, officers began retiring "en masse" alongside morale being at an "all-time low".


title: George Floyd protests

text: Around 170 Atlanta police officers walked off of the job in mid-June following unresolved grievances in the Rayshard Brooks case.


title: George Floyd protests

text: The New York City Police Department reported a 411% increase in police retirement application in the first week of July. As a result, the department has limited new retirement applications to 40 a day.


title: George Floyd protests

text: On July 11, at least 150 Minneapolis police officers reported nondescript injuries as well as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, leading over half of them to leave their jobs with more likely to follow. The Minneapolis police have denied there being any serious injuries inflicted on officers.


title: George Floyd protests

text: In the wake of Floyd's killing, state and local governments evaluated their police department policies, and the response to protests, for themselves. For example, California Governor Gavin Newsom called for new police crowd control procedures for the state, and the banning of the police use of carotid chokeholds, which starve the brain of oxygen. The Minneapolis police department banned police from using chokeholds; Denver's police department also banned the use of chokeholds without exception, and also established new reporting requirements whenever a police officer holds a person at gunpoint.


title: George Floyd protests

text: In June 2020, Democrats in Congress introduced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, a police reform and accountability bill that contains measures to combat police misconduct, excessive force, and racial bias in policing. The impetus for the bill were the killings of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other African Americans at the hands of police. It passed the House of Representatives one month after Floyd's killing, 236 to 181, with support from Democrats and three Republicans. A Republican reform bill was blocked in the U.S. Senate by all but two Democrats; neither party negotiated the contents of the bill with the other. Speaker Nancy Pelosi summarized Democratic opposition to the Senate bill: "it's not a question that it didn't go far enough; it didn't go anywhere".


title: George Floyd protests

text: On June 16, President Trump signed an executive order on police reform that incentivized departments to recruit from communities they patrol, encourage more limited use of deadly force, and prioritize using social workers and mental health professionals for nonviolent calls. The order also created a national database of police officers with a history of using excessive force.


title: George Floyd protests

text: On September 10, Ted Wheeler, the mayor and police commissioner of Portland, Oregon, banned city police from using tear gas for riot control purposes, but reiterated that police would respond to violent protests forcefully. Portland had seen over one hundred consecutive days of protests since they began on May 28.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Nine members of the Minneapolis City Council — a veto-proof majority — pledged on June 7 to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, despite opposition from Mayor Jacob Frey. U.S. representative Ilhan Omar stated, "the Minneapolis Police Department has proven themselves beyond reform. It's time to disband them and reimagine public safety in Minneapolis." Despite pledges by city council members to the end the Minneapolis Police Department, a proposed amendment to the Minneapolis city charter which was approved by the Minneapolis City Council on June 26 would only rename the police department and change its structure if approved by voters. In August, the review of another proposal to dismantle the department was delayed by 90 days, meaning it wouldn't be voted on in the November ballot because it passed the statutory deadline of August 21. The budget for the department was passed in December and the funding was reduced by $7.7 million.


title: George Floyd protests

text: In the media industry, the protests have spurred scrutiny for cop shows and led to the cancellation of popular television shows referred to by critics as copaganda. With long-standing criticism that it presented an unbalanced view of law enforcement in favor of police, encouraged police to engage in more dramatic behavior for the camera, and degraded suspects who had not yet been convicted of any crime, the Paramount Network canceled the 33rd season of the TV show "Cops" and pulled it from broadcast. The television network A&E canceled a similar show, "Live PD", which was also found to have destroyed footage documenting the police killing of Javier Ambler in Austin, Texas, in 2019. The streaming service HBO Max temporarily pulled the film "Gone with the Wind" until video that explains and condemns the film's racist depictions could be produced to accompany it. In the United Kingdom, the BBC pulled the famed "The Germans" episode of "Fawlty Towers" from its UKTV streaming service, but later reinstated it after criticism from series star and co-writer John Cleese. He later criticized their use of the word "fury" to describe his comments. This was later removed by the BBC. The episode, which included racial slurs about the West Indies cricket team, now features a disclaimer at the beginning warning of "offensive content and language". The BBC also removed the "Little Britain" series and its spinoff "Come Fly with Me" from the iPlayer and BritBox services as well as Netflix for its use of blackface.


title: George Floyd protests

text: The week of June 24, 2020, several animated series that had black, mixed or non-white characters voiced by white actors, including "Big Mouth, Central Park, Family Guy" and "The Simpsons", announced those characters would be recast with people of color. That same week, episodes of "30 Rock", "The Office", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", "Community", "The Golden Girls", and "Peep Show" that involved characters using blackface were either removed or edited from syndication and streaming services.


title: George Floyd protests

text: In light of the protests, "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" co-star Terry Crews said that the first four episodes of the show's eighth season had to be rewritten.


title: George Floyd protests

text: The "" episode "Sing, Sing, Sing", opens with an additional viewer discretion warning about its content, specifically the lynching of a character by members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The episode originally aired less than one month after Floyd's murder, and was the only episode to feature this additional warning.


title: George Floyd protests

text: In reaction to the higher sensitivity by customers for racial issues in the aftermath of Floyd's murder, multiple companies decided to rebrand some products. The brands Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben's, and Fair & Lovely made adaptations to eliminate racial stereotypes. In sports, the NFL football team in Washington, D.C., dropped the "Redskins" nickname and the MLB baseball team in Cleveland said it would discontinue the "Indians" nickname after the 2021 season and adopt the "Guardians" nickname. In June 2020, Disney announced that their theme park attraction Splash Mountain, which had been themed to the 1946 film "Song of the South", controversial for its depiction of African Americans, would be re-themed based on the 2009 film "The Princess and the Frog", which had Disney's first depiction of a black princess.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Artistic impressions of George Floyd's likeness became an icon of the protest movement that unfolded following his murder. Paintings of Floyd appeared on exterior walls in many cities in the United States and around the world. A mapping project of protest art after Floyd's death had by May 19, 2021, documented 2,100 entries of George Floyd-related and anti-racism art around the world, though much of it was from the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area. Many works appeared on plywood that covered up boarded-up windows and doors as result of unrest.


title: George Floyd protests

text: The protests occurred during the global COVID-19 pandemic, leading officials and experts to express concerns that the demonstrations could lead to further spread of SARS-CoV-2. The demonstrations thus sparked debate among commentators, political leaders, and health experts over coronavirus restrictions on gatherings. In June 2020 the CDC released the "Considerations for Events and Gatherings" which assesses large gatherings where it is difficult for people to stay at least six feet apart, and where attendees travel from outside the local area as "highest risk". Public health experts and mayors urged demonstrators to wear face coverings, follow physical separation (social distancing) practices, engage in proper hand hygiene, and seek out COVID-19 testing.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Subsequent studies and public health reports showed that the protests in 2020 did not drive an increase in COVID-19 transmission. Epidemiologists and other researchers attributed this to the location of the demonstrations outdoors (where the virus is less likely to spread as compared to indoors); because many protesters wore masks; and because persons who demonstrated made up a small portion of the overall U.S. population (about 6% of adults). Outdoor events were analyzed to have a substantially lower risk of spreading the virus than indoor ones, and transient contact was considered less risky than extended close contact.


title: George Floyd protests

text: Some protesters that were arrested were detained in crowded, indoor environments and did not have protective masks, which prompted concern over potential jail-spread of SARS-CoV-2. Some law enforcement personnel in New York City who responded to protests were criticized for failing to wear face masks. An outbreak was detected among Houston, Texas, police department officers, but it was not clear if the officer's were exposed on or off of their police duty.


title: George Floyd protests

text: While many U.S. states experienced growth in new cases during the initial wave of protests, these upticks are thought to be attributed to reopenings of workplaces, bars, restaurants, and other businesses.


title: The Five Love Languages

text: The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate is a 1992 book by Gary Chapman. It outlines five general ways that romantic partners express and experience love, which Chapman calls "love languages". They are acts of service, gift-giving, physical touch, quality time, and words of affirmation.


title: The Five Love Languages

text: Examples are given from his counseling practice, as well as questions to help determine one's own love languages. According to Chapman's theory, each person has one primary and one secondary love language.


title: The Five Love Languages

text: Chapman suggests that to discover another person's love language, one must observe the way they express love to others, and analyze what they complain about most often and what they request from their significant other most often. He theorizes that people tend to naturally give love in the way that they prefer to receive love, and better communication between couples can be accomplished when one can demonstrate caring to the other person in the love language the recipient understands.


title: The Five Love Languages

text: An example would be: if a husband's love language is acts of service, he may be confused when he does the laundry and his wife does not perceive that as an act of love, viewing it as simply performing household duties, because the love language she comprehends is words of affirmation (verbal affirmation that he loves her). She may try to use what she values, words of affirmation, to express her love to him, which he would not value as much as she does. If she understands his love language and mows the lawn for him, he perceives it in his love language as an act of expressing her love for him; likewise, if he tells her he loves her, she values that as an act of love.


title: The Five Love Languages

text: The book sold 8,500 copies in its first year, four times what the publisher expected. The following year it sold 17,000, and two years later, 137,000. It was on the "New York Times" Best Seller list from 2009 to 2013. A new, revised edition of "The Five Love Languages" was released on January 1, 2015.


title: The Five Love Languages

text: A 2006 study by Nicole Egbert and Denise Polk suggests that the Five Love Languages might have some degree of psychometric validity.


title: The Five Love Languages

text: Since 1992, Chapman has written several books related to "The Five Love Languages", including "The Five Love Languages of Children" in 1997 and "The Five Love Languages for Singles" in 2004. In 2011, Chapman co-authored "The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace" with Dr. Paul White, applying the 5 Love Languages concepts to work-based relationships. There are also special editions of the book, such as "The Five Love Languages Military Edition" (2013) which Chapman co-authored with Jocelyn Green.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: USS "Missouri" (BB-63) is an built for the United States Navy (USN) in the 1940s and is currently a museum ship. Completed in 1944, she is the last battleship commissioned by the United States. The ship was assigned to the Pacific Theater during World War II, where she participated in the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands. Her quarterdeck was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, which ended World War II. She has been called the most historic battleship in the world.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: After World War II, "Missouri" served in various diplomatic, show of force and training missions. On 17 January 1950 the ship ran aground during high tide in Chesapeake Bay and after great effort was re-floated several weeks later. She later fought in the Korean War during two tours between 1950 and 1953. "Missouri" was the first American battleship to arrive in Korean waters and served as the flagship for several admirals. The battleship took part in numerous shore bombardment operations and also served in a screening role for aircraft carriers. "Missouri" was decommissioned in 1955 and transferred to the reserve fleet, (also known as the "Mothball Fleet").


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" was reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan. Cruise missile and anti-ship missile launchers were added along with updated electronics. The ship served in the Persian Gulf escorting oil tankers during threats from Iran, often while keeping her fire-control systems trained on land-based Iranian missile launchers. She served in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 including providing fire support.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" was again decommissioned in 1992, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS "Missouri" Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Her bow faces the USS "Arizona" Memorial intending to convey that Missouri watches over the remains of so that those interred within "Arizona"s hull may rest in peace.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The "Iowa" class of fast battleships was designed in the late 1930s in response to the US Navy's expectations for a future war with the Empire of Japan. The last battleships to be built by the United States, they were also the US Navy's largest and fastest vessels of the type. American officers preferred comparatively slow but heavily armed and armored battleships, but Navy planners determined that such a fleet would have difficulty in bringing the faster Japanese fleet to battle, particularly the s and the aircraft carriers of the 1st Air Fleet. Design studies prepared during the development of the earlier and es demonstrated the difficulty in resolving the desires of fleet officers with those of the planning staff within the displacement limits imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty system, which had governed capital ship construction since 1923. An escalator clause in the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936 allowed an increase from to in the event that any member nation refused to sign the treaty, which Japan refused to do.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" is long overall and is long at the waterline. The ship has a beam of and a draft of at her full combat load of . The "Iowa"-class ship are powered by four General Electric geared steam turbines, each driving one screw propeller using steam provided by eight oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Rated at , the turbines were designed to give a top speed of , but were built to handle a 20 percent overload. None of the "Iowa"s ever ran speed trials in deep water, but the Bureau of Ships estimated that they could reach a speed of about from at a light displacement of . The ships had a designed cruising range of at a speed of , although the 's fuel consumption figures during her sea trials suggest that her range was at least at that cruising speed. Their designed crew numbered 117 officers and 1,804 enlisted men which had greatly increased by the end of the war in 1945. "Missouri"s crew at that time numbered 189 officers and 2,978 sailors.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The main battery of the "Iowa"-class ships consisted of nine /50 caliber Mark 7 guns in three triple-gun turrets on the centerline, two of which were placed in a superfiring pair forward of the superstructure, with the third aft. Going from bow to stern, the turrets were designated I, II, and III. Their secondary battery consisted of twenty /38 caliber dual-purpose guns mounted in twin-gun turrets clustered amidships, five turrets on each broadside. Unlike their sister ships and "New Jersey" that were the first pair of ships built, "Missouri" and were completed with an anti-aircraft suite of twenty quadruple mounts for Bofors AA guns, nine mounts on each broadside and one each on the roofs of Turrets II and III. Forty-nine Oerlikon light AA auto-cannon in single mounts were distributed almost the length of the ships.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The primary means of controlling the main armament are two Mark 38 directors for the Mark 38 fire-control system mounted at the tops of the fore and aft fire-control towers in the superstructure. These directors were equipped with rangefinders, although their primary sensor was the Mark 8 fire-control radar mounted on their roofs. A secondary Mark 40 fire-control director was installed inside the armored conning tower at the front of the superstructure that used the Mark 27 fire-control radar positioned on the top of the conning tower. Each turret is fitted with a rangefinder long and can act as a director for the other turrets. Four Mark 37 gunnery directors, two on the centerline at the ends of the superstructure and one on each broadside, control the five-inch guns. Each director was equipped with a rangefinder and a pair of radars on its roof. These were a Mark 12 fire-control system and a Mark 22 height-finder radar. Each 40 mm mount was remotely controlled by a Mark 51 director that incorporated a Mark 14 lead-computing gyro gunsight while the sailors that used the 20 mm gun used a Mark 14 sight to track their targets.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: A SK-2 early-warning radar was fitted on the ship's foremast; above it was a SG surface-search radar. The other SG radar was mounted at the top of the mainmast positioned on the rear funnel.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The "Iowa"s were built with two rotating aircraft catapults on their stern for floatplanes and a large crane was fitted to recover them. Initially a trio of Vought OS2U Kingfishers were carried, but these were replaced by Curtiss SC Seahawks in December 1944.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The internal waterline armor belt of the "Iowa"-class ships is thick and has a height of . Below it is a strake of Class B homogeneous armor plate that tapers in thickness from 12.1 inches at the top to at the bottom and is high. The two strakes of armor are inclined outwards at the top 19 degrees to improve the armor's resistance to horizontal fire. In general the vertical armor plates are made from Class A cemented armor and the horizontal armor from Class B or Special treatment steel (STS). The belt armor extends to the two transverse bulkheads fore and aft of the main-gun barbettes, forming the armored citadel. Part of the lower armor belt extends aft from the rear bulkhead to protect the ships' steering gear. Its maximum thickness ranges from at the top and the plates taper to 5 inches at the bottom. Unlike the "Iowa" and "New Jersey", the armor plates in the forward transverse bulkhead in "Missouri" and "Wisconsin" have a maximum thickness of at the top that tapers to . The aft bulkhead is a consistent 14.5 inches in thickness, but does not go below the lower belt extension.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The main-gun turrets has Class B plates thick on their faces and of Class A plates on their sides. The armor plates protecting their barbettes range in thickness from to and with the thickest plates on the sides and the thinnest ones on the front and back. The sides of the conning tower are thick. The main deck of the "Iowa"s consists of of STS. Below this deck, the roof of the armored citadel is formed by of armor in two layers. Below this is a deck of STS plates intended to stop splinters from shells that pierced the armored deck above it. The armor deck extends aft and the roof of the steering gear compartment is thick.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The underwater protection system of the "Iowa"-class battleships consists of three watertight compartments outboard of the lower armor belt and another behind it. The two outermost compartment are kept loaded with fuel oil or seawater to absorb the energy of the torpedo warhead's detonation and slow the resulting splinters so they can be stopped by the lower armor belt. Behind the belt is a holding bulkhead intended to protect the ships' inner spaces from any splinters that might penetrate and the subsequent flooding. For protection against naval mines, the "Iowa"s have a double bottom that runs the full length of the ships and increases to a triple bottom except at the bow and stern.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the US state of Missouri. The ship was authorized by Congress in 1938 and ordered on 12 June 1940 with the hull number BB-63. The keel for "Missouri" was laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 6 January 1941 in slipway 1. The ship was launched on 29 January 1944 before a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000 spectators. At the launching ceremony, the ship was christened by Margaret Truman, the ship sponsor and daughter of Harry S. Truman, then one of the senators from the ship's namesake state; Truman himself gave a speech at the ceremony. Fitting-out work proceeded quickly, and the ship was commissioned on 11 June; Captain William Callaghan served as her first commander.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" conducted her initial sea trials off New York, beginning on 10 July, and then steamed south to Chesapeake Bay, where she embarked on a shakedown cruise and conducted training. During this period, she operated with the new large cruiser , which had also recently entered service, and several escorting destroyers. The ship got underway on 11 November, bound for the West Coast of the United States. She passed through the Panama Canal a week later and continued on to San Francisco. There, additional fitting-out work was carried out at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard to prepare the vessel for use as a fleet flagship.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: On 14 December, "Missouri" departed San Francisco and sailed for Ulithi in the Caroline Islands, where she joined the rest of the fleet on 13 January 1945. She became a temporary headquarters ship for Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher. She then joined Task Force 58, which sortied on 27 January to launch an air attack on Tokyo in support of the planned operation against Iwo Jima. "Missouri" served as part of the anti-aircraft screen for Task Group 58.2, centered on the carriers , , and , during the raid on Tokyo. In addition to guarding the carriers, "Missouri" and the other battleships acted as oilers for the escorting destroyers, since the fleet's logistics train could not accompany the strike force during raids.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: By 16 February, the task force had arrived off the coast of Japan to begin a series of airstrikes. The fleet then proceeded to Iwo Jima, which was invaded by American ground forces on 19 February. That evening, while patrolling with the carriers, "Missouri" shot down a Japanese aircraft, probably a Nakajima Ki-49 bomber. Task Force 58 departed in early March and returned to Ulithi to replenish fuel and ammunition. "Missouri" was transferred to the task group, TG 58.4 at that time.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The ships departed again on 14 March for another round of air strikes on Japan. Four days later, "Missouri"s anti-aircraft guns assisted in the destruction of four Japanese aircraft. American carrier aircraft struck a variety of targets around the Inland Sea, which prompted a Japanese counter-attack that struck several carriers. The carrier was badly damaged and "Missouri"s task group was detached to cover her withdrawal. By 22 March, "Franklin" had left the area of operations and the group returned to the fleet to join the preparatory bombardment for the upcoming invasion of Okinawa. "Missouri" was temporarily transferred to TF 59, along with her sisters "New Jersey" and "Wisconsin", to bombard the southern coast of Okinawa on 24 March, part of an effort to draw Japanese attention from the actual invasion target on the western side of the island, during which she fired 180 rounds. "Missouri" thereafter returned to TG 58.4.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: While operating with the carriers on 11 April, "Missouri" came under attack from a kamikaze that struck the side of the vessel below the main deck. The impact shattered the aircraft, throwing gasoline on the deck that rapidly ignited, but it was quickly suppressed by her crew. The attack caused superficial damage and the battleship remained on station. Two crewmen were wounded on 17 April when another kamikaze clipped the stern crane and crashed in the ship's wake. "Missouri" left Task Force 58 on 5 May to return to Ulithi; in the course of her operations off Okinawa, she claimed five aircraft shot down and another probable kill, along with partial credit for another six aircraft destroyed. While en route, "Missouri" refueled from a fleet oiler that also brought the ship's new commander, Captain Stuart S. Murray, who relieved Captain Callaghan on 14 May.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: On 9 May, "Missouri" reached Ulithi, before continuing on to Apra Harbor, Guam, where she arrived nine days later. Admiral William F. Halsey Jr., the commander of Third Fleet, came aboard the ship that day, making her the fleet flagship of what was now re-designated as TF 38. On 21 May, the battleship got underway again, bound for Okinawa. She had reached the operational area by 27 May, when she took part in attacks on Japanese positions on the island. Together with the rest of the Third Fleet, she then steamed north to conduct a series of air strikes on Japanese airfields and other installations on the island of Kyūshū on 2 and 3 June. The fleet was struck by a major typhoon on the night of 5–6 June, which caused extensive damage to many ships of the fleet, though "Missouri" suffered only minor damage. Another round of air strikes against targets on Kyūshū took place on 8 June. The fleet then withdrew to Leyte Gulf to replenish fuel and ammunition, arriving there on 13 June.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Third Fleet got underway again on 1 July to launch another series of attacks on the Japanese Home Islands. During this period, "Missouri" operated with TG 38.4. The carrier aircraft struck targets around Tokyo on 10 July, and then further north between Honshū and Hokkaidō from 13 to 14 July. The following day, "Missouri" and several other vessels were detached to form TG 38.4.2 which was tasked with bombarding industrial facilities in Muroran, Hokkaido. A second bombardment mission followed on the night of 17–18 July, by which time the British battleship had joined the formation. The battleships then returned to screen the carriers during strikes against targets around the Inland Sea and then Tokyo later in the month. After a brief pause, the carriers resumed attacks on northern Japan on 9 August, the same day as the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. The following day, rumors circulated that Japan would surrender, which was formally announced on the morning of 15 August.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Over the course of the following two weeks, Allied forces made preparations to begin the occupation of Japan. On 21 August, "Missouri" sent a contingent of 200 officers and men to "Iowa", which was to debark a landing party in Tokyo to begin the process of demilitarizing Japan. Two days later, Murray was informed that "Missouri" would host the surrender ceremony, with the date scheduled for 31 August. The ship's crew immediately began preparations for the event, including cleaning and painting the vessel. "Missouri" began the approach to Tokyo Bay on 27 August, guided by the Japanese destroyer . That night, the ships stopped at Kamakura, where a courier brought the flag that Commodore Matthew Perry had flown during his expedition to open Japan in 1853; the flag was to be displayed during the surrender ceremony. The flotilla then entered Tokyo Bay on 29 August, and "Missouri" was anchored close to where Perry had anchored his own vessels some ninety-two years earlier. Poor weather delayed the ceremony until 2 September.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz boarded shortly after 08:00, and General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allies, came on board at 08:43. The Japanese representatives, headed by Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, arrived at 08:56, 2 September 1945. At 09:02, General MacArthur stepped before a battery of microphones and opened the 23-minute surrender ceremony to the waiting world by stating, "It is my earnest hope—indeed the hope of all mankind—that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance, and justice."


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: By 09:30 the Japanese emissaries had departed. In the afternoon of 5 September, Halsey transferred his flag to the battleship , and early the next day "Missouri" departed Tokyo Bay. As part of the ongoing Operation Magic Carpet she received homeward-bound passengers at Guam, then sailed unescorted for Hawaii. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 20 September and flew Admiral Nimitz's flag on the afternoon of 28 September for a reception.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The next day, "Missouri" departed Pearl Harbor bound for the East Coast of the United States. She reached New York City on 23 October and hoisted the flag of Atlantic Fleet commander Admiral Jonas Ingram. Four days later, the battleship fired a 21-gun salute (the first of 3 that day) as Truman—who had since become President of the United States—boarded for Navy Day ceremonies.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: After an overhaul in the New York Naval Shipyard that included the replacement of the Mark 8 fire-control radars with Mark 13 models, and a training cruise to Cuba, "Missouri" returned to New York. During the afternoon of 21 March 1946, she received the remains of the Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Munir Ertegun. She departed on 22 March for Gibraltar, and on 5 April anchored in the Bosphorus off Istanbul. She rendered full honors, including the firing of 19-gun salutes during the transfer of the remains of the late ambassador and again during the funeral ashore.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" departed Istanbul on 9 April and entered Phaleron Bay, Piraeus, Greece, the following day for a welcome by Greek government officials and anti-communist citizens. Greece had become the scene of a civil war between the pro-communist-dominated left-wing resistance organization EAM-ELAS and the returning Greek government-in-exile. The United States saw this as an important test case for its new doctrine of containment of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were also pushing for concessions in the Dodecanese to be included in the peace treaty with Italy and for access through the Dardanelles strait between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The voyage of "Missouri" to the eastern Mediterranean symbolized America's strategic commitment to the region. News media proclaimed her a symbol of US interest in preserving Greece and Turkey's independence.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" departed Piraeus on 26 April, touching at Algiers and Tangiers before arriving at Norfolk on 9 May. She departed for Culebra Island on 12 May to join Admiral Mitscher's 8th Fleet in the Navy's first large-scale postwar Atlantic training maneuvers. The battleship returned to New York City on 27 May, and spent the next year steaming Atlantic coastal waters north to the Davis Strait and south to the Caribbean on various training exercises. On 3 December, during a gunnery exercise in the North Atlantic, a star shell fired by the light cruiser accidentally struck the battleship, killing one crewman and wounding three others.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" arrived at Rio de Janeiro on 30 August 1947 for the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Hemisphere Peace and Security. President Truman boarded on 2 September to celebrate the signing of the Rio Treaty, which broadened the Monroe Doctrine by stipulating that an attack on any one of the signatory American countries would be considered an attack on all.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The Truman family boarded "Missouri" on 7 September 1947 to return to the United States and disembarked at Norfolk on 19 September. Her overhaul in New York, which lasted from 23 September to 10 March 1948 included upgrading most of her radar suite. The SK-2 system was replaced by a SR-3 radar and both SG fire-control radars were removed, an improved SG-6 replaced the forward antenna and the aft SG was exchanged for a SP height-finding radar; Mark 25 fire-control radars replaced the combination Mark 12/22 installations on the roofs of the Mark 37 directors. After the overhaul, the ship worked up at Guantanamo Bay. The summer of 1948 was devoted to midshipman and reserve training cruises. Also in 1948, "Missouri" became the first battleship to host a helicopter detachment, operating two Sikorsky HO3S-1 machines for utility and rescue work. The battleship departed Norfolk on 1 November 1948 for a second three-week Arctic cold-weather training cruise to the Davis Strait. During the next two years, "Missouri" participated in exercises from the New England coast to the Caribbean, alternated with two midshipman summer training cruises. She was overhauled at Norfolk Naval Shipyard from 23 September 1949 to 17 January 1950.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Throughout the latter half of the 1940s, the various service branches of the United States had been reducing their inventories from their World War II levels. For the Navy, this resulted in several vessels of various types being decommissioned and either sold for scrap or placed in one of the various United States Navy reserve fleets scattered along the coasts. As part of this contraction, three of the "Iowa"-class battleships had been de-activated and decommissioned but President Truman refused to allow "Missouri" to be decommissioned. Against the advice of Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, Secretary of the Navy John L. Sullivan, and Chief of Naval Operations Louis E. Denfeld, Truman ordered "Missouri" to be maintained with the active fleet partly because of his fondness for the battleship and partly because the battleship had been christened by his daughter Margaret.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Captain William D. Brown assumed command of the battleship on 10 December while she was being overhauled. Then the only US battleship in commission, "Missouri" was proceeding from Hampton Roads on her first training exercise at sea since the overhaul, early on 17 January 1950 when she ran aground from Thimble Shoal Light, near Old Point Comfort. She hit shoal water a distance of three ship-lengths from the main channel. The error resulted from a combination of many factors, including Brown's inexperience maneuvering such a large ship. The grounding occurred during a particularly high tide making the effort to free her even more difficult as did having an abandoned anchor becoming embedded in her hull. After off-loading ammunition, fuel and food to lighten the battleship, she was refloated on 1 February with the aid of tugboats, pontoons, beach gear and a rising tide.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: After the subsequent Naval Board of Inquiry, Brown and three of his officers were court-martialled. Brown was relieved of command and his subordinates were reprimanded. Captain Harold Page Smith assumed command on 7 February as the "Missouri"s repairs were being completed. Having repaired morale aboard during his tenure as the ship was relegated to training duties in an effort to cut costs by Johnson, Page Smith was replaced by Captain Irving Duke on 19 April.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: In 1950, the Korean War started, prompting the United States to intervene on behalf of the United Nations. President Truman was caught off guard when the invasion struck, but quickly ordered US forces stationed in Japan into South Korea. Truman also sent US-based troops, tanks, fighter and bomber aircraft, and a strong naval force to Korea to support the Republic of Korea. As part of the naval mobilization "Missouri" was transferred to the Pacific Fleet and dispatched from Norfolk on 19 August to support UN forces on the Korean peninsula. Due to the urgency of her mission Duke took the battleship directly through a hurricane off the coast of North Carolina on 20 August that blew her helicopers off the stern and damaged her enough that she required nearly a week's worth of repairs once she reached Pearl Harbor.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" arrived just west of Kyūshū on 14 September, where she became the flagship of Rear Admiral Allan Edward Smith. The first American battleship to reach Korean waters, she bombarded Samchok on 15 September in an attempt to divert troops and attention from the Incheon landings. After a brief visit to Sasebo, Japan, to resupply, the ship arrived at Incheon on 19 September, and began bombarding North Korean troops as they retreated north. On 10 October she became flagship of Rear Admiral John M. Higgins, commander of Cruiser Division 5. She arrived at Sasebo on 14 October, where she became flagship of Vice Admiral A. D. Struble, Commander, Seventh Fleet. After screening the carrier along the east coast of Korea, she conducted bombardment missions from 12 to 26 October in the Chongjin and Tanchon areas on the west coast, and at Wonsan where she again screened carriers eastward of Wonsan. During this time, comedian Bob Hope visited the battleship and gave three performances for the crew.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: MacArthur's amphibious landings at Incheon had severed the North Korean Army's supply lines; as a result, North Korea's army had begun a lengthy retreat from South Korea into North Korea. This retreat was closely monitored by the People's Republic of China (PRC), out of fear that the UN offensive against Korea would create a US-backed enemy on China's border, and out of concern that the UN offensive in Korea could evolve into a UN war against China. The latter of these two threats had already manifested itself during the Korea War: US F-86 Sabres on patrol in "MiG Alley" frequently crossed into China while pursuing Communist MiGs operating out of Chinese airbases.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Moreover, there was talk among the UN commanders, notably MacArthur, about a potential campaign against the People's Republic of China. In an effort to dissuade UN forces from completely overrunning North Korea, the People's Republic of China issued diplomatic warnings that they would use force to protect North Korea, but these warnings were not taken seriously for a number of reasons, among them that China lacked air cover to conduct such an attack. This changed abruptly on 19 October 1950, when the first of an eventual total of soldiers under the command of General Peng Dehuai crossed into North Korea, launching a full-scale assault against advancing UN troops. The PRC offensive caught the UN completely by surprise, forcing UN troops to retreat. The "Missouri" provided gunfire support during the Hungnam evacuation in December until the last UN troops, the American 3rd Infantry Division, departed on 24 December.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: In early 1951 "Missouri" alternated carrier escort duty and shore bombardments off the east coast of Korea until 19 March. During a visit to Yokosuka, Japan, Captain George Wright relieved Duke as commanding officer on 2 March. The battleship arrived at Yokosuka on 24 March and departed the port four days later for the United States, having fired 2,895 sixteen-inch rounds and 8,043 five-inch shells during her deployment. Upon her arrival at Norfolk on 27 April the ship became the flagship of Rear Admiral James L. Holloway, Jr., commander, Cruiser Force, Atlantic Fleet. From May to August, she engaged in two midshipman training cruises. "Missouri" entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard 18 October for an overhaul which lasted until 30 January 1952. Captain John Sylvester assumed command of the ship the same day her overhaul began.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" spent the next six months training out of Guantanamo Bay and Norfolk and made a port visit to New York in May where she participated in Navy Day celebrations, hosting nearly 11,000 visitors. She returned to Norfolk on 4 August and entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard to prepare for a second tour in the Korean combat zone. Captain Warner Edsall relieved Sylvester at the beginning of the overhaul. The battleship departed Hampton Roads on 11 September and arrived at Yokosuka on 17 October.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Vice Admiral Joseph J. Clark, commander of the Seventh Fleet, brought his staff onboard on 19 October. Her primary mission was to provide naval gunfire support, codenamed "Cobra strikes", in the Chaho-Tanchon area, at Chongjin, in the Tanchon-Sonjin area, and at Chaho, Wonsan, Hamhung, and Hungnam from 25 October through 2 January 1953. One of the ship's helicopters crashed on 21 December while trying to assess the damage from a bombardment; all three men aboard were killed. "Missouri" put into Incheon on 5 January and then sailed to Sasebo. General Mark W. Clark, Commander in Chief, UN Command, and Admiral Sir Guy Russell, the British Commander-in-Chief, Far East Fleet, visited the battleship on 23 January. In the following weeks, "Missouri" resumed "Cobra" missions along the east coast of Korea. As part of these, the ship would enter Wonsan Harbor to bombard targets there. North Korea artillery fruitlessly engaged her there on two occasions, 5 and 10 March, as their shells were fused to burst in the air. In retaliation for the latter incident, "Missouri"s five-inch guns fired 998 shells at the North Korean positions. The last bombardment mission by "Missouri" was against the Kojo area on 25 March; she had fired 2,895 sixteen-inch and 8,043 five-inch shells during the deployment. The following day, Edsall suffered a fatal heart attack while conning her through the anti-submarine nets defending Sasebo Harbor. Captain Robert Brodie assumed command on 4 April. "Missouri" was relieved as the Seventh Fleet flagship on 6 April by "New Jersey" and departed Yokosuka on 7 April.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" arrived at Norfolk on 4 May; Rear Admiral E. T. Woolridge, commander, Battleships-Cruisers, Atlantic Fleet, hoisted his flag aboard her 10 days later. She departed on 8 June on a midshipman training cruise to Brazil, Cuba and Panama and returned to Norfolk on 4 August. Woolridge hauled down his flag in October as he transferred to another ship; Rear Admiral Clark Green, commander of Battleship Division 2 replaced him. The battleship was overhauled in Norfolk Naval Shipyard from 20 November to 2 April 1954 that included replacing her 16-inch guns and exchanging her SP radar for a SPS-8 system that required strengthening the mainmast to handle its weight. The day before the end of the overhaul, Captain Taylor Keith relieved Brodie in command of the ship. As the flagship of Rear Admiral Ruthven Libby, who had relieved Woolridge, "Missouri" departed Norfolk on 7 June as the flagship of the midshipman training cruise to Lisbon, Portugal, Cherbourg, France, and Cuba. During this voyage "Missouri" was joined by the other three battleships of her class, the only time the four ships sailed together. She returned to Norfolk on 3 August and departed on 23 August to be placed in reserve on the West Coast. The ship hosted 16,900 people at Long Beach, but more than 20,100 visited in San Francisco. "Missouri" arrived in Seattle on 15 September where she again hosted visitors and subsequently off-loaded her ammunition at the facility in Bangor. The ship was decommissioned on 26 February 1955 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard where she was assigned to the Bremerton group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. "Missouri" retained her Mark 27 radar until the mid-1950s.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" was moored at the last pier of the reserve fleet berthing. She served as a tourist attraction, logging about 250,000 visitors per year, who came to view the "surrender deck" where a bronze plaque memorialized the spot () in Tokyo Bay where Japan surrendered to the Allies. The accompanying historical display included copies of the surrender documents Nearly thirty years passed before "Missouri" returned to active duty.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Under the Reagan Administration's program to build a 600-ship Navy, led by Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman, "Missouri" was reactivated and towed by the salvage ship to the Long Beach Naval Yard in the summer of 1984 to undergo modernization in advance of her scheduled recommissioning. In preparation for the move, a skeleton crew of 20 spent three weeks working 12 to 16-hour days preparing the battleship for her tow.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Over the next several months, the ship had her obsolete armament removed: 20 mm and 40 mm AA guns, their directors, and four of her ten 5-inch gun mounts. Installed in their place on the superstructure were four Mk 141 quad cell launchers for 16 RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, eight Mk 143 Armored Box Launcher mounts for 32 BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, and a quartet of 20 mm Phalanx CIWS rotary cannon for defense against enemy anti-ship missiles and enemy aircraft. She also received upgrades to radar and fire-control systems for her guns and missiles, and improved electronic warfare capabilities. Additions included an AN/SPS-49 early-warning radar and an AN/SPS-67 surface-search radar while the SPS-8 radar and the mainmast were removed. The added missile capacity necessitated additional fire-support systems to launch and guide the ordnance. To fire the Harpoon anti-ship missiles, the ship was equipped with the SWG-1 fire-control system. "Missouri" was also outfitted with the AN/SLQ-25 Nixie to be used as a decoy against enemy torpedoes, an AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite electronic-warfare system that can detect, jam, and deceive an opponent's radar and a Mark 36 SRBOC system to fire chaff rockets intended to confuse enemy missiles. The ship's crew now consisted of 65 officers and 1,450 enlisted men.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: During the modernization the ship's bell, which had been removed from the battleship and sent to Jefferson City, Missouri for sesquicentennial celebrations in the state, was formally returned to the battleship in advance of her recommissioning. "Missouri" was formally recommissioned in San Francisco on 10 May 1986 with Captain Albert Kaiss in command. "This is a day to celebrate the rebirth of American sea power," Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger told an audience of 10,000 at the recommissioning ceremony, instructing the crew to "listen for the footsteps of those who have gone before you. They speak to you of honor and the importance of duty. They remind you of your own traditions." Margaret Truman gave a short speech especially aimed at the ship's crew, which ended with "now take care of my baby." Her remarks were met with rounds of applause from the crew.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Only briefly in command, Kaiss was relieved by Captain James A. Carney on 20 June. Three months later "Missouri" departed from her new home port of Long Beach for an around-the-world cruise, visiting Pearl Harbor Hawaii; Sydney, Hobart, and Perth, Australia; Diego Garcia; the Suez Canal; Istanbul, Turkey; Naples, Italy; Rota, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; and the Panama Canal. "Missouri" became the first American battleship to circumnavigate the globe since Theodore Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet" 80 years before—a fleet which included the first battleship named .


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: In 1987, "Missouri" was outfitted with 40 mm grenade launchers and 25 mm chain guns and sent to take part in Operation Earnest Will, the escorting of reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. These smaller-caliber weapons were installed due to the threat of Iranian-manned, Swedish-made Boghammar cigarette boats operating in the Persian Gulf at the time. On 25 July, the ship departed on a six-month deployment to the Indian Ocean and North Arabian Sea. She spent more than 100 continuous days at sea in a hot, tense environment. As the centerpiece for Battlegroup Echo, "Missouri" escorted tanker convoys through the Strait of Hormuz, keeping her fire-control system trained on land-based Iranian Silkworm missile launchers.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The ship returned to the United States via Diego Garcia, Australia, and Hawaii in early 1988. Captain John Chernesky relieved Carney on 6 July in Pearl Harbor during the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RimPac) exercises that had begun a few weeks earlier. Other highlights during the year included port visits in British Columbia and Washington State.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: In the early months of 1989, "Missouri" was in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for routine maintenance. A few months later she departed for the multi-national Pacific Exercise (PacEx) '89, where she and "New Jersey" performed a firepower demonstration off Okinawa for the Japanese and some of the other allied ships. Missouri fired 45 rounds of 16-inch and 263 of 5-inch, considerably more than her sister. The highlight of PacEx was a port visit in Pusan, Republic of Korea during which she had some trouble docking in the port's shallow water. At the end of the year, the ship visited "Mazatlan", Mexico. In early 1990, "Missouri" again took part in the RimPac Exercise and Kaiss returned to relieve Chernesky on 13 June.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: On 2 August 1990 Iraq, led by President Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait. In the middle of the month US President George H. W. Bush sent the first of several hundred thousand troops, along with a strong force of naval support, to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf area to support a multinational force in a standoff with Iraq.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri"s scheduled four-month Western Pacific port-to-port cruise set to begin in September was canceled just a few days before the ship was to leave; after the cruise was completed, the ship was due to begin the process of inactivation. She had been placed on hold in anticipation of being mobilized as forces continued to mass in the Middle East. As part of the preparations for combat, a detachment of AAI RQ-2 Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicles were transferred to the ship to improve her ability to direct her gunfire. "Missouri" departed on 13 November 1990 for the troubled waters of the Persian Gulf. She departed Long Beach, with extensive press coverage, and headed for Hawaii and the Philippines for more work-ups en route to the Persian Gulf. Along the way she made stops at Subic Bay and Pattaya, Thailand, before transiting the Strait of Hormuz on 3 January 1991. Before Operation Desert Storm began later that month, "Missouri" prepared to launch Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles and provide naval gunfire support as required. The ship fired her first Tomahawk missile at Iraqi targets at 01:40 am on 17 January 1991, followed by 27 additional missiles over the next five days.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: On 29 January, the frigate escorted "Missouri" northward. In her first bombardment action of Desert Storm, she shelled an Iraqi command and control bunker near the Saudi border, the first time her 16-inch guns had been fired in combat since March 1953 off Korea. The battleship bombarded beach defenses in occupied Kuwait on the night of 3 February, firing 112 main-gun rounds over the next three days until relieved by "Wisconsin". "Missouri" then fired another 60 rounds off Khafji on 11–12 February before steaming north to Faylaka Island. After minesweepers cleared a lane through Iraqi defenses, the ship fired 133 rounds during four shore bombardment missions as part of the amphibious landing feint against the Kuwaiti coast the morning of 23 and 24 February. The heavy pounding attracted Iraqi attention; in response to the battleship's artillery strike, the Iraqis fired two HY-2 Silkworm missiles at the battleship, one of which crashed shortly after launching. The other missile was intercepted by a GWS-30 Sea Dart missile launched from the British destroyer within 90 seconds and crashed into the sea roughly in front of "Missouri". Shortly afterwards, the battleship's Pioneer drones located the missile launchers and neutralized them with about fifty 16-inch shells.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: During the campaign, "Missouri" was involved in a friendly fire incident with the frigate . According to the official report, on 25 February, "Jarrett"s Phalanx CIWS engaged the chaff fired by "Missouri" as a countermeasure against enemy missiles, and stray rounds from the firing struck the battleship, one penetrating through a bulkhead and becoming embedded in an interior passageway of the ship. One sailor aboard "Missouri" was struck in the neck by flying debris and suffered minor injuries.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: During the operation, "Missouri" also assisted coalition forces engaged in clearing Iraqi naval mines in the Persian Gulf. By the time the war ended, the ship's crew had destroyed at least 15 naval mines.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: With combat operations out of range of the battleship's weapons on 26 February, "Missouri" had fired a total of 783 sixteen-inch shells and launched 28 Tomahawk cruise missiles during the campaign, and began patrolling the northern Persian Gulf until sailing for home on 21 March. Following stops at Fremantle and Hobart, Australia, the warship visited Pearl Harbor before arriving home in April. She spent the remainder of the year, hosting visitors in between training missions, the latter including a 7 December "voyage of remembrance" to mark the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. During that ceremony, "Missouri" hosted President Bush, the first such presidential visit for the warship since Harry S. Truman's in September 1947.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the absence of a perceived threat to the United States came drastic cuts in the defense budget, and the high cost of maintaining and operating battleships as part of the United States Navy's active fleet became uneconomical; as a result, "Missouri" was decommissioned on 31 March 1992 at Long Beach. Her last commanding officer, Captain Albert L. Kaiss, wrote in the ship's final Plan of the Day:


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" returned to be part of the United States Navy reserve fleet at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington, until 12 January 1995, when she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register. She remained in Bremerton, but was not open to tourists as she had been from 1957 to 1984. In spite of attempts by citizens' groups to keep her in Bremerton and be re-opened as a tourist site, the US Navy wanted to pair a symbol of the end of World War II with one representing (for the United States) its beginning. On 4 May 1998, Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton signed the donation contract that transferred her to the USS "Missouri" Memorial Association (MMA) of Honolulu, Hawaii, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. She was towed from Bremerton on 23 May to Astoria, Oregon, where she sat in fresh water at the mouth of the Columbia River to kill and drop the saltwater barnacles and sea grasses that had grown on her hull in Bremerton, then towed across the eastern Pacific, and docked at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor on 22 June, from the "Arizona" Memorial. Less than a year later, on 29 January 1999, "Missouri" was opened as a museum operated by the MMA.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Originally, the decision to move "Missouri" to Pearl Harbor was met with some resistance. The National Park Service expressed concern that the battleship, whose name has become synonymous with the end of World War II, would overshadow the battleship , whose dramatic explosion and subsequent sinking on 7 December 1941 has since become synonymous with the attack on Pearl Harbor. To help guard against this impression "Missouri" was placed well back from and facing the "Arizona" Memorial, so that those participating in military ceremonies on "Missouri"s aft decks would not have sight of the "Arizona" Memorial. The decision to have "Missouri"s bow face the "Arizona" Memorial was intended to convey that "Missouri" watches over the remains of "Arizona" so that those interred within "Arizona"s hull may rest in peace.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: "Missouri" was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 14 May 1971 for hosting the signing of the instrument of Japanese surrender that ended World War II. She is not eligible for designation as a National Historic Landmark because she was extensively modernized in the years following the surrender.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: On 14 October 2009, "Missouri" was moved from her berthing station on Battleship Row to a drydock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard to undergo a three-month overhaul. The work, priced at $18 million, included installing a new anti-corrosion system, repainting the hull, and upgrading the internal mechanisms. Drydock workers reported that the ship was leaking at some points on the starboard side. The repairs were completed the first week of January 2010 and the ship was returned to her berthing station on Battleship Row on 7 January 2010. The ship's grand reopening occurred on 30 January. In 2018 a $3.5 million project was completed to restore and preserve the superstructure. This included the lower navigation bridge on level four which includes the chart house, the captain's at-sea cabin, pilot house and conning tower and the open bridge on level five.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: Cher asked to film her 1989 music video of her song "If I Could Turn Back Time" aboard a US Navy ship and the Navy's Office of information in Washington approved. The Navy intended to have it filmed aboard "New Jersey" because "Missouri" would be at sea at the planned time. "Missouri"s information officer told the producer: "We're the most historic battleship in the world. This is where World War II ended. You want to do it on here." Cher changed her schedule so that it could be filmed aboard "Missouri". The performance was filmed over the 4th of July weekend. "The production people did a spectacular job of rigging the ship with lights; The battleship became a dramatic stage for the...video." Her performance was racier than expected with her wearing a very revealing costume and straddling one of the 16-inch guns during a part of the performance. The video was mostly well received, especially by the crew, but the Navy received some complaints. Columnist Jack Anderson wrote "If battleships could blush, the USS "Missouri" would be bright red". Afterwards, "Missouri"s captain directed that the song be played when the ship was conducting underway replenishments with other ships.


title: USS Missouri (BB-63)

text: The ship was central to the plot of the 1992 film "Under Siege" (many of the on-ship scenes were shot aboard the similar but older battleship ). The ship was also prominently featured in the 2012 sci-fi action film "Battleship". As "Missouri" has not moved under her own power since 1992, shots of the ship at sea were obtained with the help of three tugboats.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: Black Panther is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist-coplotter Jack Kirby. The character first appeared in "Fantastic Four" #52 (cover-dated July 1966) in the Silver Age of Comic Books. Black Panther's real name is T'Challa, and he is depicted as the king and protector of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Along with possessing enhanced abilities achieved through ancient Wakandan rituals of drinking the essence of the heart-shaped herb, T'Challa also relies on his proficiency in science, rigorous physical training, hand-to-hand combat skills, and access to wealth and advanced Wakandan technology to combat his enemies.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: Black Panther is the first superhero of African descent in mainstream American comics, having debuted years before early black superheroes such as Marvel Comics' the Falcon (1969), Luke Cage (1972), and Blade (1973) or DC Comics' John Stewart in the role of Green Lantern (1971). In one comic book storyline, the Black Panther mantle is handled by Kasper Cole, a multiracial New York City police officer. Beginning as an impersonator, Cole would later take on the moniker of White Tiger and become an ally to T'Challa. The role of Black Panther and leadership of Wakanda was also given to T'Challa's sister Shuri while he was in a coma for a short time.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: Black Panther has made numerous appearances in various television shows, animated films and video games. Chadwick Boseman portrayed the character in of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's films: "" (2016), "Black Panther" (2018), "" (2018), and "" (2019), and voiced alternate versions of the character in the first season of the animated series "What If...?" (2021).


title: Black Panther (character)

text: The Black Panther's name predates the October 1966 founding of the Black Panther Party, though not the black panther logo of the party's predecessor, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO), nor the segregated World War II 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion. Scripter Stan Lee denied that the comic, which pre-dates the political usage of the term, was, or could have been, named after any of the political uses of the term "black panther", including the LCFO, citing "a strange coincidence". He is the first black superhero in American mainstream comic books; very few black heroes were created before him, and none with actual superpowers. These included the characters in the single-issue, low distribution "All-Negro Comics" #1 (1947). Waku, Prince of the Bantu, who starred in his own feature in the omnibus title "Jungle Tales", from Marvel's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics and the Dell Comics Western character Lobo, the first black person to star in his own comic book. Previous non-caricatured black supporting characters in comics include U.S. Army infantry private Gabriel Jones of "Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos".


title: Black Panther (character)

text: In a guest appearance in "Fantastic Four" #119 (February 1972), the Black Panther briefly used the name Black Leopard to avoid connotations with the Party, but the new name did not last. The character's name was changed back to Black Panther in "The Avengers" #105, with T'Challa explaining that renaming himself made as much sense as altering the Scarlet Witch's name, and he is not a stereotype.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: Co-creator Stan Lee recounted that the name was inspired by a pulp adventure hero who has a black panther as a helper. Jack Kirby's original concept art for Black Panther used the concept name Coal Tiger. Influences on the character included historical figures such as 14th-century Mali Empire sultan Mansa Musa and 20th-century Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey, as well as Biblical figures such as Ham and Canaan.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: The origin of the idea for the character was disputed by both Kirby and Lee. Jack Kirby claimed sole credit for the creation of the character in "The Comics Journal" #134, from February 1990, stating that a realization that there were no black characters in his comics demanded some be added for "human reasons". Stan Lee claims the character was created by his desire in the mid-60s to include more African and African-American characters in Marvel Comics. While there is no documentation showing which version of the creation is closer to the truth, by 1966 Kirby is thought to have been largely plotting the book on his own and was having to explain the stories to Lee when the pages arrived in the Marvel offices, as had happened a few issues prior with the Silver Surfer in "The Fantastic Four" #48 (March 1966). In a 1968 interview Lee stated:


title: Black Panther (character)

text: In an interview, Kirby shared the same genesis as Lee, "I came up with the Black Panther because I realized I had no blacks in my strip. I’d never drawn a black. I needed a black. I suddenly discovered that I had a lot of black readers. My first friend was a black! And here I was ignoring them because I was associating with everybody else."


title: Black Panther (character)

text: Roy Thomas has made claims that support Lee's version of events, while Kirby was supported by his wife and prior artwork. In 1963, they included a black character, Gabe Jones, in the ensemble cast of "Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos", and Lee encouraged artists to include black characters in crowd scenes. In a 1998 interview, Lee explained his motivation: "I wasn't thinking of civil rights. I had a lot of friends who were black and we had artists who were black. So, it occurred to me... why aren't there any black heroes?" Soon after Black Panther was introduced, Marvel also added two more recurring black characters: Jill Jerrold in "Modeling with Millie", and Bill Foster in "The Avengers".


title: Black Panther (character)

text: There was some internal debate at Marvel with Lee being unsure about how far to go with the commercially risky introduction of a black superhero. In the first version of the cover for "Fantastic Four" #52, Kirby drew the Black Panther wearing a cowl that exposed his face. In the published version, the cowl became a full face-mask. Previews in other comics did not show the cover at all, indicating that Lee was hesitant.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: Following his debut in "Fantastic Four" #52–53 (July – August 1966) and subsequent guest appearance in "Fantastic Four" Annual #5 (1967) and with Captain America in "Tales of Suspense" #97–99 and "Captain America" 100 (January – April 1968), the Black Panther journeyed from the fictional African nation of Wakanda to New York City to join the titular American superhero team in "The Avengers" #52 (May 1968), appearing in that comic for the next few years. During his time with the Avengers, he made solo guest-appearances in three issues of "Daredevil", and fought Doctor Doom in "Astonishing Tales" #6–7 (June & August 1971), in that supervillain's short-lived starring feature.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: He received his first starring feature with "Jungle Action" #5 (July 1973), a reprint of the Panther-centric story in "The Avengers" #62 (March 1969). A new series began running the following issue, written by Don McGregor, with art by pencilers Rich Buckler, Gil Kane, and Billy Graham, and which gave inkers Klaus Janson and Bob McLeod some of their first professional exposure. The critically acclaimed series ran in "Jungle Action" #6–24 (September 1973 – November 1976).


title: Black Panther (character)

text: One now-common format McGregor pioneered was that of the self-contained, multi-issue story arc. The first, "Panther's Rage", ran through the first 13 issues. Critic Jason Sacks has called the arc "Marvel's first graphic novel":


title: Black Panther (character)

text: The second and final arc, "Panther vs. the Klan", ran as mostly 17-page stories in "Jungle Action" #19–24 (January – November 1976), except for issue #23, a reprint of "Daredevil" #69 (October 1970), in which the Black Panther guest-starred. The subject matter of the Ku Klux Klan was considered controversial in the Marvel offices at the time, creating difficulties for the creative team.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: Though popular with college students, the overall sales of "Jungle Action" were low, and Marvel relaunched the Black Panther in a self-titled series, bringing in the character's co-creator Jack Kirby—newly returned to Marvel after having decamped to rival DC Comics for a time—as writer, penciler, and editor. However, Kirby wanted to work on new characters and was unhappy at being assigned a series starring a character he had already worked with extensively. He left the series after only 12 issues and was replaced by Ed Hannigan (writer), Jerry Bingham (penciler), and Roger Stern (editor). "Black Panther" ran 15 issues (January 1977 – May 1979). Due to the series getting discontinued, the contents of what would have been "Black Panther" #16–18 were published in "Marvel Premiere" #51–53.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: A four-issue miniseries, "Black Panther" vol. 2, (July – October 1988) was written by Peter B. Gillis and penciled by Denys Cowan. McGregor revisited his Panther saga with Gene Colan in "Panther's Quest", published as 25 eight-page installments within the bi-weekly anthology series "Marvel Comics Presents" (issues #13–37, Feb.–December 1989). He later teamed with artist Dwayne Turner in the square-bound miniseries "Black Panther: Panther's Prey" (September 1990 – March 1991). McGregor conceived a fifth arc in his Black Panther saga, titled "Panther's Vows", but it failed to get off the ground.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: Writer Christopher Priest's and penciller Mark Texeira's 1998 series "The Black Panther" vol. 3 used Erik Killmonger, Venomm, and other characters introduced in "Panther's Rage", together with new characters such as State Department attorney Everett Ross; the Black Panther's adopted brother, Hunter; and the Panther's protégé, Queen Divine Justice. The Priest-Texeira series was under the Marvel Knights imprint in its first year. Priest said the creation of character Ross contributed heavily to his decision to write the series. "I realized I could use Ross to bridge the gap between the African culture that the Black Panther mythos is steeped in and the predominantly white readership that Marvel sells to," adding that in his opinion, the Black Panther had been misused in the years after his creation.


title: Black Panther (character)

text: The last 13 issues (#50–62) saw the main character replaced by a multiracial New York City police officer named Kasper Cole, with T'Challa relegated to a supporting character. This Black Panther, who became the White Tiger, was placed in the series "The Crew", running concurrently with the final few "Black Panther" issues. "The Crew" was canceled with issue #7.