title: Elective monarchy

text: The Republic of Venice was ruled from 697 to 1797 by a doge, who normally ruled for life, though a few were forced from office. His powers were never those of an absolute monarch, but he was the Republic's highest official and powerful within restrictions and levels of oversight that varied in different periods. The election process began with the Great Council of more than 2000 Venetian aristocrats and employed an elaborate system designed to prevent one family or alliance from dominating the process. It used smaller nominating groups that were reduced in number by the drawing of lots and required a supermajority for election.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The Kingdom of Algiers (from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century) was an elective monarchy, whose dey was elected, depending on the period, by the Divan of Algiers or by the Taïfa of the raïs (Assembly of the corsairs). The elected deys also bore the title of governor-sultan of Algiers or sultan of Algiers.


title: Elective monarchy

text: In Africa, the Mali Empire functioned as both a constitutional and elective monarchy. The mansa, or emperor, had to be approved by the Great Assembly known as the Gbara, despite hereditary claims.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The Kingdom of Kongo was a purer example of an elective monarchy, where blood claims had even less influence. Nobles elected a king's successor, and it was common for the successor to be of a different family as his predecessor.


title: Elective monarchy

text: This form of elective monarchy existed in the kingdom from its inception in around 1400 until its complete disintegration in the early 20th century.


title: Elective monarchy

text: In the pre-colonial period, a number of West African rulers, such as the kings and chieftains of the Ashanti Empire and those of Ife and the Oyo Empire, were elected from amongst the various royal families of their polities by colleges of noblemen known as kingmakers. This practice has continued to the present day.


title: Elective monarchy

text: In Afghanistan, jirgas have been reportedly organized since at least the early 18th century when the Hotaki and Durrani dynasties rose to power.


title: Elective monarchy

text: There is a myth in the sense that the ancient Aryan tribes, who are hypothesized to have spoken Proto-Indo-Iranian, came down in intermittent waves from Central Asia and Afghanistan. They practiced a sort of jirga system with two types of councils – ' and '. The ' (summit) comprised elders and tribal chiefs. The king also joined sessions of the '. was a sort of rural council. In India they are referred to as "Samiti" and "Sabha".


title: Elective monarchy

text: The Parthian Empire (248 BCE-224 CE), also known as the Arsacid Empire, is considered to be the oldest elective monarchy in the Asia. The King of Kings has been required to undergo an assembly of the nobles called Mahestān, as a vote of approval before being allowed to ascend to the imperial throne or to be removed from the power.


title: Elective monarchy

text: Other monarchs, such as the former Shah of Iran, have been required to undergo a parliamentary vote of approval before being allowed to ascend to the throne.


title: Elective monarchy

text: In the Mongol Empire, the Great Khan was chosen by the Kurultai. This was often convened in the capital. Other critical leadership positions were also assigned.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The ancient Korean kingdom of Silla elected its first king by a conference of tribal and village elders in 57 BC. Unified Silla's kings were elected by the aristocracy whose powers were on par with the king. In the kingdom of Goguryeo, the ruler was originally chosen from among the heads of the five tribes, most often the Sono tribe.


title: Elective monarchy

text: In 1858, several central Māori tribes of the North Island of New Zealand elected Pōtatau Te Wherowhero as their monarch. The Tainui tribal elders have continued this tradition and the Kiingitanga movement alive to the present. The present Māori King (i.e. monarch of the Kiingitanga movement, not of all Māori) is Tūheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII, eldest son of the previous Māori monarch Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu. He was sworn in on 21 August 2006 on the day of his mother's funeral. While in principal the position is not hereditary, in practice every Māori monarch thus far has been the heir of the previous monarch.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The Hawaiian Kingdom could be considered a "de facto" example. From 1864 until the monarchy was overthrown in 1893, it was constitutionally a hereditary monarchy utilizing male-preference primogeniture. However, the Constitutions of 1864 and 1887, and the draft constitution of 1893, all provided that, in the event of the extinction of the royal line, the Legislature would elect a "native aliʻi" as the new monarch and stirps of a new dynasty. In practice, however, during the entire time from 1864 until the abolition of the monarchy, the throne was never passed from parent to child, as every Hawaiian monarch who reigned during that period died without leaving issue. Following the 1872 death of King Kamehameha V, a non-binding referendum was held, in which William Charles Lunalilo won; he was subsequently elected king by the legislature in 1873. King Kalākaua was elected by the legislature in 1874, after Lunalilo's death. However, when Kalākaua died in 1891, the crown demised to the collateral line of his sister, Queen Liliʻuokalani. Prior to 1864, the Hawaiian King-in-Council appointed the heir to the Hawaiian throne.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The Tlatoanimeh of the Aztec Empire were chosen by a council of elders, nobles, and priests. He would be selected from a pool of four candidates.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The "mánkeme" (king) of the Kingdom of Nicoya was elected by a council of elders known as the "monéxico".


title: Elective monarchy

text: French explorer Orélie-Antoine de Tounens claimed to be elected by the Mapuche to be the Great Toqui, Supreme Chieftain of the Mapuches, possibly in the belief that their cause might be better served with a European acting on their behalf. He later proclaimed himself as the King of Araucanía and Patagonia.


title: Elective monarchy

text: An attempt to create an elective monarchy in the United States failed. Alexander Hamilton argued in a long speech before the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that the President of the United States should be an elective monarch, ruling for "good behavior" (i.e., for life, unless impeached) and with extensive powers. Hamilton believed that elective monarchs had sufficient power domestically to resist foreign corruption, yet there was enough domestic control over their behavior to prevent tyranny at home. His proposal was resoundingly voted down in favor of a four-year term with the possibility of reelection. In his later defense of the Constitution in "The Federalist Papers", he often hints that a lifetime executive might be better, even as he praises the system with the four-year term.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The crown of the Empire of Haiti, established in 1804, was also elective according to its 1805 constitution.


title: Elective monarchy

text: A hereditary monarchy may occasionally use election to fill a vacant throne. For example, the royal family may become extinct; depending on how precisely the succession to the throne is defined in law, several candidates with equally, or almost equally, strong claims could emerge, with an election being held to choose from among them. This differs from a formally elective monarchy in that it is an extraordinary measure, and with the new monarch the succession again becomes hereditary.


title: Elective monarchy

text: Alternatively, the monarch may be deposed, as in a revolution. While sometimes a monarch may be forced to abdicate in favour of his or her heir, on other occasions the royal family as a whole has been rejected, the throne going to an elected candidate. Examples of extraordinary election are:


title: Elective monarchy

text: Before republics became widespread or default form of modern government, back when many states operated as monarchies by default, new polities or countries in internal turmoil sometimes selected and invited some person to become their monarch. The selected person might have had little or nothing to do with his prospective kingdom; he might have had associations with a current great power or with a current regional power, or might appear as a true outsider, (hopefully) unbiased in matters of internal politics. (The concept of "invitation" may discreetly gloss over intense lobbying or diplomatic maneuvering in some cases.) By selecting a foreign prince or aristocrat, nations could expect to gain diplomatic links and a figurehead accustomed to the trappings of courts and ceremonial duties. Newly established states in the 19th and early 20th centuries established trends in the selection and appointment of newly minted monarchs.


title: Elective monarchy

text: At the start of the 20th century, the first monarchs of several newly independent nations were elected by parliaments: Norway is the prime example. Previously, following precedent set in newly independent Greece, new nations without a well-established hereditary royal family often chose their own monarchs from among the established , rather than elevate a member of the local power establishment, in the hope that a stable hereditary monarchy would eventually emerge from the process. The first king of Belgium, as well as the now-deposed royal families of Greece, Bulgaria, Albania (unsuccessfully) and Romania, were originally appointed in this manner. On 9 October 1918 the Parliament of newly independent Finland elected Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, brother-in-law of the German Emperor Wilhelm II, as King of Finland – but soon afterwards, this move was foiled by the German defeat in WWI and the demise of Monarchy in Germany itself, and Finland opted to become a Republic instead.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The Taliban follows a elective system of monarchy where the Emir is elected by the members of Leadership Council of Afghanistan. The current Emir, Hibatullah Akhundzada, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, was appointed leader in 2016 following the assassination of then-leader Akhtar Mansoor.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The king is chosen for a life term by the Royal Council of the Throne from candidates of royal blood.


title: Elective monarchy

text: In The Holy See and the associated Vatican City State, the Pope is elected in a conclave by the College of Cardinals, generally from among their number.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The "Yang di-Pertuan Agong" (Supreme Head of State) is elected to a five-year term. Nine hereditary rulers from the Malay States form a Council of Rulers who will determine the next "Agong" via a secret ballot. The position has to date been "de facto" rotated amongst the State rulers, originally based on seniority. The "Yang di-Pertuan Agong" shall not be re-elected unless the rotation succession was complete.


title: Elective monarchy

text: The president is elected by the Federal Supreme Council with a term of five years. Since its formation, the position has been a "de facto" hereditary position to the Al Nahyan sheikhs of Abu Dhabi by consensus of the Federal Supreme Council. Likewise, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE is a position held by the Al Maktoum sheikhs of Dubai. Elections are held every 5 years. The position of the ruler of each emirate of the United Arab Emirates is determined by consensus of the respective ruling royal family of that emirate.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions "Morgan v. Virginia" (1946) and "Boynton v. Virginia" (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.


title: Freedom Riders

text: "Boynton" outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines. Five years prior to the "Boynton" ruling, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) had issued a ruling in "Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company" (1955) that had explicitly denounced the "Plessy v. Ferguson" (1896) doctrine of separate but equal in interstate bus travel. The ICC failed to enforce its ruling, and Jim Crow travel laws remained in force throughout the South.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Freedom Riders challenged this status quo by riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation in seating. The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement. They called national attention to the disregard for the federal law and the local violence used to enforce segregation in the southern United States. Police arrested riders for trespassing, unlawful assembly, violating state and local Jim Crow laws, and other alleged offenses, but often they first let white mobs attack them without intervention.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored most of the subsequent Freedom Rides, but some were also organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The Freedom Rides, beginning in 1960, followed dramatic sit-ins against segregated lunch counters conducted by students and youth throughout the South, and boycotts of retail establishments that maintained segregated facilities.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Supreme Court's decision in "Boynton" supported the right of interstate travelers to disregard local segregation ordinances. Southern local and state police considered the actions of the Freedom Riders to be criminal and arrested them in some locations. In some localities, such as Birmingham, Alabama, the police cooperated with Ku Klux Klan chapters and other white people opposing the actions, and allowed mobs to attack the riders.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Freedom Riders were inspired by the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, led by Bayard Rustin and George Houser and co-sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the then-fledgling Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Like the Freedom Rides of 1961, the Journey of Reconciliation was intended to test an earlier Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Joe Felmet and Andrew Johnnson, were arrested and sentenced to serve on a chain gang in North Carolina for violating local Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The first Freedom Ride began on May 4, 1961. Led by CORE Director James Farmer, 13 young riders (seven black, six white, including but not limited to John Lewis (21), Genevieve Hughes (28), Mae Frances Moultrie, Joseph Perkins, Charles Person (18), Ivor Moore, William E. Harbour (19), Joan Trumpauer Mullholland (19), and Ed Blankenheim). left Washington, DC, on Greyhound (from the Greyhound Terminal) and Trailways buses. Their plan was to ride through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, ending in New Orleans, Louisiana, where a civil rights rally was planned. Many of the Riders were sponsored by CORE and SNCC with 75% of the Riders between 18 and 30 years old. A diverse group of volunteers came from 39 states, and were from different economic classes and racial backgrounds. Most were college students and received training in nonviolent tactics.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Freedom Riders' tactics for their journey were to have at least one interracial pair sitting in adjoining seats, and at least one black rider sitting up front, where seats under segregation had been reserved for white customers by local custom throughout the South. The rest of the team would sit scattered throughout the rest of the bus. One rider would abide by the South's segregation rules in order to avoid arrest and to contact CORE and arrange bail for those who were arrested.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Only minor trouble was encountered in Virginia and North Carolina, but John Lewis was attacked in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Over 300 Riders were arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina; Winnsboro, South Carolina; and Jackson, Mississippi.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Birmingham, Alabama, Police Commissioner, Bull Connor, together with Police Sergeant Tom Cook (an avid Ku Klux Klan supporter), organized violence against the Freedom Riders with local Klan chapters. The pair made plans to bring the Ride to an end in Alabama. They assured Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informer and member of Eastview Klavern #13 (the most violent Klan group in Alabama), that the mob would have fifteen minutes to attack the Freedom Riders without any arrests being made. The plan was to allow an initial assault in Anniston with a final assault taking place in Birmingham.


title: Freedom Riders

text: On Sunday, May 14, 1961, Mother's Day, in Anniston, Alabama, a mob of Klansmen, some still in church attire, attacked the first of the two Greyhound buses. The driver tried to leave the station, but he was blocked until KKK members slashed its tires. The mob forced the crippled bus to stop several miles outside town and then threw a firebomb into it. As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intending to burn the riders to death. Sources disagree, but either an exploding fuel tank or an undercover state investigator who was brandishing a revolver caused the mob to retreat, and the riders escaped the bus. The mob beat the riders after they got out. Warning shots which were fired into the air by highway patrolmen were the only thing which prevented the riders from being lynched. The roadside site in Anniston and the downtown Greyhound station were preserved as part of the Freedom Riders National Monument in 2017.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Some injured riders were taken to Anniston Memorial Hospital. That night, the hospitalized Freedom Riders, most of whom had been refused care, were removed from the hospital at 2 AM, because the staff feared the mob outside the hospital. The local civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth organized several cars of black citizens to rescue the injured Freedom Riders in defiance of the white supremacists. The black people were under the leadership of Colonel Stone Johnson and were openly armed as they arrived at the hospital, protecting the Freedom Riders from the mob.


title: Freedom Riders

text: When the Trailways bus reached Anniston and pulled in at the terminal an hour after the Greyhound bus was burned, it was boarded by eight Klansmen. They beat the Freedom Riders and left them semi-conscious in the back of the bus.


title: Freedom Riders

text: When the bus arrived in Birmingham, it was attacked by a mob of KKK members aided and abetted by police under the orders of Commissioner Connor. As the riders exited the bus, they were beaten by the mob with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains. Among the attacking Klansmen was Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI informant. White Freedom Riders were singled out for especially frenzied beatings; James Peck required more than 50 stitches to the wounds in his head. Peck was taken to Carraway Methodist Medical Center, which refused to treat him; he was later treated at Jefferson Hillman Hospital.


title: Freedom Riders

text: When reports of the bus burning and beatings reached US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he urged restraint on the part of Freedom Riders and sent an assistant, John Seigenthaler, to Alabama to try to calm the situation.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Despite the violence suffered and the threat of more to come, the Freedom Riders intended to continue their journey. Kennedy had arranged an escort for the Riders in order to get them to Montgomery, Alabama, safely. However, radio reports told of a mob awaiting the riders at the bus terminal, as well as on the route to Montgomery. The Greyhound clerks told the Riders that their drivers were refusing to drive any Freedom Riders anywhere.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Recognizing that their efforts had already called national attention to the civil rights cause and wanting to get to the rally in New Orleans, the Riders decided to abandon the rest of the bus ride and fly directly to New Orleans from Birmingham. When they first boarded the plane, all passengers had to exit because of a bomb threat.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Upon arriving in New Orleans, local tensions prevented normal accommodations—after which Norman C. Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA), decided to house them on campus in secret at St Michael's Hall, a dormitory.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Diane Nash, a Nashville college student who was a leader of the Nashville Student Movement and SNCC, believed that if Southern violence were allowed to halt the Freedom Rides the movement would be set back years. She pushed to find replacements to resume the rides. On May 17, a new set of riders, 10 students from Nashville who were active in the Nashville Student Movement, took a bus to Birmingham, where they were arrested by Bull Connor and jailed.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The students kept their spirits up in jail by singing freedom songs. Out of frustration, Connor drove them back up to the Tennessee line and dropped them off, saying, "I just couldn't stand their singing." They immediately returned to Birmingham.


title: Freedom Riders

text: In answer to SNCC's call, Freedom Riders from across the Eastern US joined John Lewis and Hank Thomas, the two young SNCC members of the original Ride, who had remained in Birmingham. On May 19, they attempted to resume the ride, but, terrified by the howling mob surrounding the bus depot, the drivers refused. Harassed and besieged by the mob, the riders waited all night for a bus.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Under intense public pressure from the Kennedy administration, Greyhound was forced to provide a driver. After direct intervention by Byron White of the Attorney General's office, Alabama Governor John Patterson reluctantly promised to protect the bus from KKK mobs and snipers on the road between Birmingham and Montgomery. On the morning of May 20, the Freedom Ride resumed, with the bus carrying the riders traveling toward Montgomery at 90 miles an hour, protected by a contingent of the Alabama State Highway Patrol.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Highway Patrol abandoned the bus and riders at the Montgomery city limits. At the Montgomery Greyhound station on South Court Street, a white mob awaited. They beat the Freedom Riders with baseball bats and iron pipes. The local police allowed the beatings to go on uninterrupted. Again, white Freedom Riders were singled out for particularly brutal beatings. Reporters and news photographers were attacked first and their cameras destroyed, but one reporter took a photo later of Jim Zwerg in the hospital, showing how he was beaten and bruised. Seigenthaler, a Justice Department official, was beaten and left unconscious lying in the street. Ambulances refused to take the wounded to the hospital. Local black residents rescued them, and a number of the Freedom Riders were hospitalized.


title: Freedom Riders

text: On the following night, Sunday, May 21, more than 1500 people packed into Reverend Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church to honor the Freedom Riders. Among the speakers were Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who had led the 1955–1956 Montgomery bus boycott, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and James Farmer. Outside, a mob of more than 3,000 white people attacked the black attendees, with a handful of the United States Marshals Service protecting the church from assault and fire bombs. With city and state police making no effort to restore order, the civil rights leaders appealed to the President for protection. President Kennedy threatened to intervene with federal troops if the governor would not protect the people. Governor Patterson forestalled that by finally ordering the Alabama National Guard to disperse the mob, and the Guard reached the church in the early morning.


title: Freedom Riders

text: In a commemorative Op-Ed piece in 2011, Bernard Lafayette remembered the mob breaking windows of the church with rocks and setting off tear gas canisters. He recounted heroic action by King. After learning that black taxi drivers were arming and forming a group to rescue the people inside, he worried that more violence would result. He selected ten volunteers, who promised non-violence, to escort him through the white mob, which parted to let King and his escorts pass as they marched two by two. King went out to the black drivers and asked them to disperse, to prevent more violence. King and his escorts formally made their way back inside the church, unmolested. Lafayette also was interviewed by the BBC in 2011 and told about these events in an episode broadcast on the radio on August 31, 2011, in commemoration of the Freedom Rides. The Alabama National Guard finally arrived in the early morning to disperse the mob and safely escorted all the people from the church.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The next day, Monday, May 22, more Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery to continue the rides through the South and replace the wounded riders still in the hospital. Behind the scenes, the Kennedy administration arranged a deal with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi, where the governors agreed that state police and the National Guard would protect the Riders from mob violence. In return, the federal government would not intervene to stop local police from arresting Freedom Riders for violating segregation ordinances when the buses arrived at the depots.


title: Freedom Riders

text: On Wednesday morning, May 24, Freedom Riders boarded buses for the journey to Jackson, Mississippi. Surrounded by Highway Patrol and the National Guard, the buses arrived in Jackson without incident, but the riders were immediately arrested when they tried to use the white-only facilities at the Tri-State Trailways depot. The third bus arrived at the Jackson Greyhound station early on May 28, and its Freedom Riders were arrested.


title: Freedom Riders

text: In Montgomery, the next round of Freedom Riders, including the Yale University chaplain William Sloane Coffin, Gaylord Brewster Noyce, and southern ministers Shuttlesworth, Abernathy, Wyatt Tee Walker, and others were similarly arrested for violating local segregation ordinances.


title: Freedom Riders

text: This established a pattern followed by subsequent Freedom Rides, most of which traveled to Jackson, where the Riders were arrested and jailed. Their strategy became one of trying to fill the jails. Once the Jackson and Hinds County jails were filled to overflowing, the state transferred the Freedom Riders to the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary (known as Parchman Farm). Abusive treatment there included placement of Riders in the Maximum Security Unit (Death Row), issuance of only underwear, no exercise, and no mail privileges. When the Freedom Riders refused to stop singing freedom songs, prison officials took away their mattresses, sheets, and toothbrushes. More Freedom Riders arrived from across the country, and at one time, more than 300 were held in Parchman Farm.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Riders arrested in Jackson included Stokley Carmichael (19), Catherine Burks (21), Gloria Bouknight (20), Luvahgn Brown (16), Margaret Leonard (19), Helen O'Neal (20), Hank Thomas (20), Carol Silver (22), Hezekiah Watkins (13), Peter Stoner (22), Byron Baer (31), and LeRoy Glenn Wright (19) in addition to many more


title: Freedom Riders

text: While in Jackson, Freedom Riders received support from local grassroots civil rights organization Womanpower Unlimited, which raised money and collected toiletries, soap, candy and magazines for the imprisoned protesters. Upon Freedom Riders' release, Womanpower members would provide places for them to bathe while offering them clothes and food. Founded by Clarie Collins Harvey, the group was considered instrumental in the success of the Freedom Riders. Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland said the Womanpower members "were like angels supplying us with just little simple necessities."


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Kennedys called for a "cooling off period" and condemned the Rides as unpatriotic because they embarrassed the nation on the world stage at the height of the Cold War. James Farmer, head of CORE, responded to Kennedy saying, "We have been cooling off for 350 years, and if we cooled off any more, we'd be in a deep freeze." The Soviet Union criticized the United States for its racism and the attacks on the Riders.


title: Freedom Riders

text: Nonetheless, international outrage about the widely covered events and racial violence created pressure on American political leaders. On May 29, 1961, Attorney General Kennedy sent a petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) asking it to comply with the bus-desegregation ruling it had issued in November 1955, in "Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company". That ruling had explicitly repudiated the concept of "separate but equal" in the realm of interstate bus travel. Chaired by the South Carolina Democrat J. Monroe Johnson the ICC had failed to implement its own ruling.


title: Freedom Riders

text: CORE, SNCC, and the SCLC rejected any "cooling off period". They formed a Freedom Riders Coordinating Committee to keep the Rides rolling through June, July, August, and September. During those months, more than 60 different Freedom Rides criss-crossed the South, most of them converging on Jackson, where every Rider was arrested, more than 300 in total. An unknown number were arrested in other Southern towns. It is estimated that almost 450 people participated in one or more Freedom Rides. About 75% were male, and the same percentage were under the age of 30, with about equal participation from black and white citizens.


title: Freedom Riders

text: During the summer of 1961, Freedom Riders also campaigned against other forms of racial discrimination. They sat together in segregated restaurants, lunch counters and hotels. This was especially effective when they targeted large companies, such as hotel chains. Fearing boycotts in the North, the hotels began to desegregate their businesses.


title: Freedom Riders

text: In mid-June, a group of Freedom Riders had scheduled to end their ride in Tallahassee, Florida, with plans to fly home from the Tallahassee Municipal Airport. They were provided a police escort to the airport from the city's bus facilities. At the airport, they decided to eat at the "Savarin" restaurant that was marked "For Whites Only". The owners decided to close rather than serve the mixed group of Freedom Riders. Although the restaurant was privately owned, it was leased from the county government. Canceling their plane reservations, the Riders decided to wait until the restaurant re-opened so they could be served. They waited until 11:00 pm that night and returned the following day. During this time, hostile crowds gathered, threatening violence. On June 16, 1961, the Freedom Riders were arrested in Tallahassee for unlawful assembly. That arrest and subsequent trial became known as "Dresner v. City of Tallahassee," named for Israel S. Dresner, a rabbi among the group arrested. The Riders were convicted of unlawful assembly by the Municipal Court of Tallahassee, and the convictions were affirmed in the Florida Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District. The convictions were appealed to the US Supreme Court in 1963, which refused to hear the case based on jurisdictional reasons. In 1964, the "Tallahassee 10" protesters returned to the city to serve brief jail sentences.


title: Freedom Riders

text: In early August, SNCC staff members James Forman and Paul Brooks, with the support of Ella Baker, began planning a Freedom Ride in solidarity with Robert F. Williams. Williams was an extremely militant and controversial NAACP chapter president for Monroe, North Carolina. After making the public statement that he would "meet violence with violence," (since the federal government would not protect his community from racial attacks) he had been suspended by the NAACP national board over the objections of Williams' local membership. Williams continued his work against segregation however, but now had massive opposition in both black and white communities. He was also facing repeated attempts on his life because of it. Some SNCC staff members sympathized with the idea of armed self-defense, although many on the ride to Monroe saw this as an opportunity to prove the superiority of Gandhian nonviolence over the use of force. Forman was among those who were still supportive of Williams.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Freedom Riders in Monroe were brutally attacked by white supremacists with the approval of local police. On August 27, James Forman - SNCC's Executive Secretary - was struck unconscious with the butt of a rifle and taken to jail with numerous other demonstrators. Police and white supremacists roamed the town shooting at black civilians, who returned the gunfire. Robert F. Williams fortified the black neighborhood against attack and in the process briefly detained a white couple who had gotten lost there. The police accused Williams of kidnapping and called in the state militia and FBI to arrest him, in spite of the couple being quickly released. Certain he would be lynched, Williams fled and eventually found refuge in Cuba. Movement lawyers, eager to disengage from the situation, successfully urged the Freedom Riders not to practice the normal "jail-no bail" strategy in Monroe. Local officials, also apparently eager to de-escalate, found demonstrators guilty but immediately suspended their sentences. One Freedom Rider however, John Lowry, went on trial for the kidnapping case, along with several associates of Robert F. Williams, including Mae Mallory. Monroe legal defense committees were popular around the country, but ultimately Lowry and Mallory served prison sentences. In 1965, their convictions were vacated due to the exclusion of black citizens from the jury selection.


title: Freedom Riders

text: On September 13, 1961, a group of 15 Episcopal priests including 3 black priests entered the Jackson, Mississippi Trailways bus terminal. Upon entering the coffee shop, they were stopped by two policemen, who asked them to leave. After refusing to leave, all 15 were arrested and jailed for breach of peace, under a now-repealed section of the Mississippi code § 2087.5 that "makes guilty of a misdemeanor anyone who congregates with others in a public place under circumstances such that a breach of the peace may be occasioned thereby, and refuses to move on when ordered to do so by a police officer."


title: Freedom Riders

text: The group included 35-year-old Reverend Robert L Pierson. After the case against the priests was dismissed on May 21, 1962, they sought damages against the police under the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Their claims were ultimately rejected in the United States Supreme Court case "Pierson v. Ray" (1967), which held that the police were protected by qualified immunity.


title: Freedom Riders

text: By September it had been over three months since the filing of the petition by Robert Kennedy. CORE and SNCC leaders made tentative plans for a mass demonstration known as the "Washington Project". This would mobilize hundreds, perhaps thousands, of nonviolent demonstrators to the capital city to apply pressure on the ICC and the Kennedy administration. The idea was pre-empted when the ICC finally issued the necessary orders just before the end of the month. The new policies went into effect on November 1, 1961, six years after the ruling in "Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company". After the new ICC rule took effect, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they pleased on interstate buses and trains; "white" and "colored" signs were removed from the terminals; racially-segregated drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms serving interstate customers were consolidated; and the lunch counters began serving all customers, regardless of race.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The widespread violence provoked by the Freedom Rides sent shock waves through American society. People were worried that the Rides were evoking widespread social disorder and racial divergence, an opinion supported and strengthened in many communities by the press. The press in white communities condemned the direct action approach that CORE was taking, while some of the national press negatively portrayed the Riders as provoking unrest.


title: Freedom Riders

text: At the same time, the Freedom Rides established great credibility with black and white people throughout the United States and inspired many to engage in direct action for civil rights. Perhaps most significantly, the actions of the Freedom Riders from the North, who faced danger on behalf of southern black citizens, impressed and inspired the many black people living in rural areas throughout the South. They formed the backbone of the wider civil rights movement, engaging in voter registration and other activities. Southern black activists generally organized around their churches, the center of their communities and a base of moral strength.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The Freedom Riders helped inspire participation in subsequent civil rights campaigns, including voter registration throughout the South, freedom schools, and the Black Power movement. At the time, most black Southerners had been unable to register to vote, due to state constitutions, laws and practices that had effectively disfranchised them since the turn of the 20th century. For instance, white administrators supervised reading comprehension and literacy tests that highly educated black people could not pass.


title: Freedom Riders

text: In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, Oprah Winfrey invited all living Freedom Riders to join her TV program to celebrate their legacy. The episode aired on May 4, 2011.


title: Freedom Riders

text: On May 6–16, 2011, 40 college students from across the United States embarked on a bus ride from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, retracing the original route of the Freedom Riders. The 2011 Student Freedom Ride, which was sponsored by PBS and "American Experience", commemorated the 50th anniversary of the original Freedom Rides. Students met with civil rights leaders along the way and traveled with original Freedom Riders such as Ernest "Rip" Patton, Joan Mulholland, Bob Singleton, Helen Singleton, Jim Zwerg, and Charles Person. On May 16, 2011, PBS aired a documentary called "Freedom Riders".


title: Freedom Riders

text: On May 19–21, 2011, the Freedom Rides were commemorated in Montgomery, Alabama, at the new Freedom Ride Museum in the old Greyhound Bus terminal, where some of the violence had taken place in 1961. On May 22–26, 2011, the arrival of the Freedom Rides in Jackson, Mississippi was commemorated with a 50th Anniversary Reunion and Conference in the city. During commemorative events in February 2013 in Montgomery, Congressman John Lewis accepted the apologies of Chief Kevin Murphy of the Montgomery Police Department; Murphy gave Lewis his own badge, off his uniform, moving Lewis to tears.


title: Freedom Riders

text: In late 2011, Palestinian activists, inspired by the Freedom Riders, used the same methods in Israel by boarding a bus from which they were excluded.


title: Freedom Riders

text: In January, 2017, President Barack Obama declared the Anniston, Alabama bus station the Freedom Riders National Monument.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The 1980s PBS series, "Eyes on the Prize," had an episode, "Ain't Scared of Your Jails: 1960-1961," which gave attention to the Freedom Riders. It included an interview with James Farmer.


title: Freedom Riders

text: The title of the 2007 film "Freedom Writers" is an explicit pun on the Freedom Riders, a fact made clear in the film itself which references the campaign.


title: Freedom Riders

text: PBS in 2012 broadcast "Freedom Riders" as part of its "American Experience" series. It included interviews and news footage from the Freedom Riders movement.


title: Freedom Riders

text: "The Freedom Riders: The Civil Rights Musical" is a theater musical retelling the story of the Freedom Rides. The musical was created by Los Angeles screenwriter/director Richard Allen, and San Diego native music artist Taran Gray. Richard and Taran finalized the music in March 2016, and by April of the same year were asked to perform excerpts from their musical as a BETA Event at the New York Musical Festival (NYMF). The FREEDOM RIDERS musical received NYMF's inaugural BETA Event Award, and is scheduled to return to New York, summer of 2017, for an Off-Broadway run as part of NYMF's festival.


title: The Matrix Awakens

text: The Matrix Awakens is a 2021 open world video game and technology demonstration developed by Epic Games using Unreal Engine 5 in partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures, The Coalition, Wētā FX, Evil Eye Pictures, SideFX, and others for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S, serving as a marketing tie-in for the 2021 film "The Matrix Resurrections".


title: The Matrix Awakens

text: Released during the 2021 Game Awards on December 9, 2021, it features Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Neo (Keanu Reeves), along with photorealistic 3D-scanned models of both Moss and Reeves from the present time, portrayed by themselves, in cinematic and QTE shooter scenes where the player can take control of IO, a character which Epic introduced with Unreal's MetaHuman creator tool.


title: The Matrix Awakens

text: While the demo did not get a PC release, Epic released the city environment in the demo as a sample project titled "City Sample" in their Unreal Engine 5 workshop. This was immediately used by fans to generate a Windows executable package in which the city can be navigated, offering the ability to control several parameters of the game engine. The assets were also reused later in several fanmade demos featuring characters such as Spider-Man and Batman.


title: The Matrix Awakens

text: The demo was written and directed by "Resurrections" director Lana Wachowski, with many members of the team that worked on the first three "Matrix" films participating in the project, including John Gaeta, James McTeigue, Kym Barrett, and Kim Libreri, the chief technology officer of Epic Games.


title: The Matrix Awakens

text: "Eurogamer" commented that the game looked a "suitable 4K" on PS5 and Xbox Series X by using temporal super resolution TSR technology for sub-native rendering. "Ars Technica" praised the demo's particle effects, ray tracing and lighting, and range of its draw distance. "VentureBeat" opined that this technology demonstration was "a pretty good sign that Epic Games is serious about building its own metaverse." "GameSpot" commented that "The Matrix Awakens" was "an impressive tech demo that does a lot to further blur the lines between games and films, and maybe even reality" as the narrative of the demo suggests.


title: The Sopranos (season 2)

text: The second season of the American crime drama series "The Sopranos" aired on HBO from January 16 to April 9, 2000. The second season was released on DVD in region 1 on November 6, 2001.


title: The Sopranos (season 2)

text: The story of the season focuses on Tony's growing mistrust of one of his closest friends Big Pussy Bonpensiero, who is revealed to be an FBI informant. Dr. Melfi continues meeting with Tony despite her growing disgust with his actions and contemplates the nature of their relationship. Tony's sister Janice also returns to New Jersey, and their collectively strained relationship with their mother Livia and each other continues.


title: The Sopranos (season 2)

text: Meadow is accepted into college, but her personal life intersects with Tony's crime life for the first time. Uncle Junior gets sent to prison again for his crimes. Tony introduces his new enforcer straight from Italy, Furio. Former boss Jackie Aprile's brother Richie is released from prison and causes trouble for Tony and his business.


title: The Sopranos (season 2)

text: The second season of "The Sopranos" received universal acclaim from critics—garnering a 97 out of 100 on Metacritic, and a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The latter aggregator reports a critical consensus of ""The Sopranos" strong cast and solid writing add depth to the show's occasionally unlikable characters and their repellent deeds, making for thought-provoking, consistently compelling viewing." Ed Bark of "Dallas Morning News" wrote, "[It] could be the best TV series of our times. Not for everyone, no. But for what it is, The Sopranos is near magical."


title: The Sopranos (season 2)

text: Steve Johnson of the "Chicago Tribune" praised the series for accurately portraying human communication, observing how the show reveals "matters of the greatest consequence stem from misunderstandings and misinterpretations." Eric Mink of "The New York Times" wrote of the show's unique writing and multifaceted characters: "The Sopranos remains a showcase for ferociously distinctive writing, inventive direction and brilliant portrayals of surprisingly, even disturbingly, sympathetic multilayered characters by a perfectly cast group of actors who hold back nothing."


title: Treble (association football)

text: A treble in association football is achieved when a club team wins three trophies in a single season. A "continental treble" involves winning the club's national league competition, main national cup competition, and main continental trophy. A "domestic treble" involves winning three national competitions—normally the league title, the primary cup competition, and one secondary competition.


title: Treble (association football)

text: Competitions which consist of a single match or a two-leg match are not normally counted as part of a treble (e.g., the FA Community Shield, Supercopa de España, Trophée des Champions, DFL-Supercup, UEFA Super Cup, Recopa Sudamericana, FIFA Club World Cup, Intercontinental Cup, and others).


title: Treble (association football)

text: This list includes clubs who have won their country's top-tier league and the primary cup competition (the double), in addition to the major continental tournament, all within a single season. Tokyo Verdy of Japan and Barcelona of Spain are the only clubs to win continental trebles for both their men's and women's sections, completing the feat in 2019 and 2021, respectively.


title: Treble (association football)

text: 21 men's clubs have achieved the feat, with the first being TP Mazembe (then known as FC Englebert) of the DR Congo and Celtic of Scotland, both in 1967. Five men's clubs have won the continental treble two or more times: Al Ahly SC of Egypt, Auckland City FC of New Zealand, FC Barcelona of Spain, FC Bayern Munich of Germany, and Cruz Azul of Mexico. Cruz Azul were the first team to win two of these trebles, winning their second in 1997. Al Ahly and Auckland City are the only teams with more than two continental trebles, with Al Ahly having three and Auckland City having four. Auckland City completed this achievement first, winning their third treble in 2015 and fourth in 2022. Al Ahly and Auckland City are also the only men's clubs to win trebles in back-to-back seasons, though Al Ahly were the first to do this after winning in both 2006 and 2007. European teams have won the most continental trebles with nine, coming from seven clubs. The only countries to have more than one team win a continental treble are New Zealand and the Netherlands, with two teams winning trebles.


title: Treble (association football)

text: No South American team has achieved the feat with the above stipulations, making it the only continent to never have a continental treble winner. This can in part be blamed on an absence of a domestic knockout cup in some of South America's nations until recently: the Copa do Brasil only began in 1989, the Copa Argentina restarted in 2011 after a 41-year hiatus, and many countries including Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay still do not have one. However, multiple Brazilian teams have won some combination of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, their state championship, the Copa do Brasil, and the now-defunct Taça Brasil, plus the Copa Libertadores, but never by winning the Campeonato, Copa do Brasil, and Copa Libertadores.


title: Treble (association football)

text: Six women's clubs have won a continental treble with these stipulations, five of which are European clubs. The first to do so was 1. FFC Frankfurt in 2002, who won the treble again in 2008. The only other women's club to achieve it more than once is Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, who has done so five times (a record for both men's and women's clubs). Lyon are also the only women's club to win trebles in back to back years, and have completed this feat on two occasions.


title: Treble (association football)

text: The lack of women's continental trebles compared to men's can largely be attributed to the absence of continental competitions for women until recently. The UEFA Women's Champions League did not begin until 2001, the Copa Libertadores Femenina did not begin until 2009, the AFC Women's Club Championship did not begin until 2019, the CAF Women's Champions League did not begin until 2021, and CONCACAF and the OFC still do not sponsor a continental women's competition (though the CONCACAF Women's Champions League is set to begin in 2024). Additionally, many nations do not have a top level cup competition for women.


title: Treble (association football)

text: Domestic trebles are only possible in some countries, as most only give clubs the chance to win one league title and one cup. However, some countries, especially those which were once British or French possessions, also have a secondary cup competition, usually only accessible to teams in the top few levels of their national league system. A secondary cup competition is the most common way for a team to earn a domestic treble, but there are other formats. For example, Brazil has state-level leagues alongside the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A and the Copa do Brasil; in the United States (plus the Canadian teams that play in the MLS), the domestic treble requires winning the "MLS double" (winning the Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup) plus the U.S. Open Cup or Canadian Championship.


title: Treble (association football)

text: 89 men's clubs have won a domestic treble, 26 of whom have done it more than once. The first team to win a domestic treble was Northern Ireland's Linfield in 1921–22. Scottish sides Celtic and Rangers have won the most domestic trebles, each with seven. Celtic and Bayern Munich are the only men's sides to win both a domestic treble and a continental treble, but Celtic are the only one to win both in the same season. Celtic also hold the record for the most consecutive men's domestic trebles with four.


title: Treble (association football)

text: Five women's clubs have won domestic trebles, and three of those teams have won their domestic treble more than once. Scotland's Glasgow City has won the most domestic trebles, with five. Glasgow City also have the most consecutive women's domestic trebles, with four. Arsenal of England became the first women's club to win a domestic treble when they won it in 1992–93. Them, along with Tokyo Verdy Beleza of Japan are the only women's clubs to win both a continental treble and a domestic treble, and each team won the domestic treble in the same season they won the continental treble (2007 for Arsenal and 2019 for Tokyo Verdy).


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists is an American crime thriller mystery drama television series created by I. Marlene King. The series is the third television series on the franchise. It's loosely based on the 2014 novel "The Perfectionists" by Sara Shepard, but serves as a spin-off and standalone-sequel to "Pretty Little Liars". The show premiered on Freeform on March 20, 2019 and concluded on May 22, 2019.


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: The series features Sofia Carson as Ava Jalali, Sydney Park as Caitlin Park-Lewis, and Eli Brown as Dylan Walker. Sasha Pieterse and Janel Parrish reprise their roles from the original series as Alison DiLaurentis and Mona Vanderwaal.


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: In a town of Beacon Heights, Oregon, where everything seems perfect, from their top-tier college to their overachieving residents and the stress of needing to be perfect leads to the town's first murder.


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: In November 2014, I. Marlene King was announced to adapt a screenplay for Sara Shepard's novel series "The Perfectionists", as the television series. It was later reworked as a sequel of the television show "Pretty Little Liars". On September 25, 2017, Freeform ordered a pilot for the series titled "Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists" and the second spin-off series following "Ravenswood". On May 14, 2018, the network picked up the series for a 10-episode season, set to air in 2019. I. Marlene King wrote and Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum directed the first two episodes, which are titled "Pilot" and "Sex, Lies and Alibis". On February 5, 2019, it was announced that the series would premiere on March 20, 2019. On September 27, 2019, Freeform canceled the series after one season.


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: On September 25, 2017, Freeform announced that Sasha Pieterse and Janel Parrish had been cast to reprise their roles from mother series "Pretty Little Liars" as Alison DiLaurentis and Mona Vanderwaal, respectively. On January 29, 2018, it was announced that Sofia Carson had been cast in the role of Ava, one of the series' protagonists.


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: On March 9, 2018, "Deadline Hollywood" reported that Kelly Rutherford would be playing Claire Hotchkiss. It was also announced that Sydney Park as Caitlin Park-Lewis, Eli Brown as Dylan Walker, Noah Gray-Cabey as Mason Gregory and Klea Scott as Dana Booker. "General Hospital" star Hayley Erin was cast in a "mysterious, unnamed role", which later proved to be Taylor Hotchkiss.


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: On January 23, 2018, it was announced that the series would be filmed in Portland, Oregon. King confirmed on Twitter that filming would start in March 2018. Production started on February 27, 2018, with a table read for the pilot. Filming for the pilot started on March 12, 2018, and wrapped in the last week of the same month.


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: On May 19, 2018, Michael Suby was announced to compose the series, having previously scored both "Pretty Little Liars" and "Ravenswood". A version of The Pierces' song "Secret", from "Pretty Little Liars" was performed by Denmark + Winter, serving as the series' theme song. It was released by WaterTower Music on March 22, 2019. It is featured music from musical group Vitamin String Quartet for each of the series episodes including Coldplay's "Clocks" and Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" and "Just Dance".


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: A tie-in book edition was based on the series, features the both combined characters are set in the "Pretty Little Liars" universe. The book was written by Sara Shepard, and released by HarperCollins on May 28, 2019.


title: Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

text: "Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists" was met with widespread acclaim from critics, achieving a rating above all seasons of the parent series. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 100% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 7.87/10. The site's consensus reads: "Visually intriguing and deliciously provocative, "Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists" effectively pays homage to its soapy forebear".


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: The Wounded Knee Occupation, also known as Second Wounded Knee, began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota (sometimes referred to as Oglala Sioux) and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, United States, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The protest followed the failure of an effort of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) to impeach tribal president Richard Wilson, whom they accused of corruption and abuse of opponents. Additionally, protesters criticized the United States government's failure to fulfill treaties with Native American people and demanded the reopening of treaty negotiations to hopefully arrive at fair and equitable treatment of Native Americans.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Oglala and AIM activists controlled the town for 71 days while the United States Marshals Service, FBI agents, and other law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area. The activists chose the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre for its symbolic value. In March, a U.S. Marshal was shot by gunfire coming from the town, which ultimately resulted in paralysis. Frank Clearwater (both part of Cherokee and Apache nations) was shot and wounded on April 17th, dying 8 days later on April 25th, 1973, and Lawrence "Buddy" Lamont (Oglala) was shot and killed on April 26th, 1973. Ray Robinson, a civil rights activist who joined the protesters, disappeared during the events and is believed to have been murdered. Due to damage to the houses, the small community was not reoccupied until the 1990s.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: The occupation attracted wide media coverage, especially after the press accompanied two U.S. Senators from South Dakota to Wounded Knee. The events electrified Native Americans, and many Native American supporters traveled to Wounded Knee to join the protest. At the time there was widespread public sympathy for the goals of the occupation, as Americans were becoming more aware of longstanding issues of injustice related to Natives. Afterward AIM leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means were indicted on charges related to the events, but their 1974 case was dismissed by the federal court for prosecutorial misconduct, a decision upheld on appeal.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Wilson stayed in office and in 1974 was re-elected amid charges of intimidation, voter fraud, and other abuses. The rate of violence climbed on the reservation as conflict opened between political factions in the following three years; residents accused Wilson's private militia, Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs), of much of it. According to AIM, there were 64 unsolved murders during these years, including opponents of the tribal government, such as Pedro Bissonette, director of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO), however this is disputed, with an FBI report in 2000 concluding that there were only 4 unsolved murders and that many of the deaths listed weren't homicides or political.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 was one law among others through the 1940s and '50s that are referred to as Indian Termination. It was an effort by the U.S. government to hasten the assimilation of American Indians. Some scholars have characterized the law as an attempt to encourage people to leave Indian reservations for urban areas, which resulted in poverty, joblessness, homelessness for many in the new urban environment. By 1968, AIM was founded in urban Minneapolis, Minnesota, and other activist groups were established in cities after termination.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: For years, internal tribal tensions had been growing over the difficult conditions on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which has been one of the poorest areas in the United States since it was set up. Many of the tribe believed that Wilson, elected tribal chairman in 1972, had rapidly become autocratic and corrupt, controlling too much of the employment and other limited opportunities on the reservation. They believed that Wilson favored his family and friends in patronage awards of the limited number of jobs and benefits. Some criticism addressed the mixed-race ancestry of Wilson and his favorites, and suggested they worked too closely with Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officials who still had a hand in reservation affairs. Some full-blood Oglala believed they were not getting fair opportunities.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: "Traditionalists" had their own leaders and influence in a parallel stream to the elected government recognized by the United States. The Traditionalists tended to be Oglala who held onto their language and customs, and who did not desire to participate in US federal programs administered by the tribal government.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: In his 2007 book on the twentieth-century political history of the Pine Ridge Reservation, historian Akim Reinhardt notes the decades-long ethnic and cultural differences among residents at the reservation. He attributes the Wounded Knee Occupation more to the rising of such internal tensions than to the arrival of AIM, who had been invited to the reservation by OSCRO. He also believes that the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 did not do enough to reduce U.S. federal government intervention into Sioux and other tribal affairs; he describes the elected tribal governments since the 1930s as a system of "indirect colonialism". Oglala Sioux opposition to such elected governments was longstanding on the reservation; at the same time, the limited two-year tenure of the president's position made it difficult for leaders to achieve much. Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, administrators, and police still had much influence at Pine Ridge and other American Indian reservations, which many tribal members opposed.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Specifically, opponents of Wilson protested his sale of grazing rights on tribal lands to local white ranchers at too low a rate, reducing income to the tribe, whose members held the land communally. They also complained of his land-use decision to lease nearly one-eighth of the reservation's mineral-rich lands to private companies. Some full-blood Lakota complained of having been marginalized since the start of the reservation system. Most did not bother to participate in tribal elections, which led to tensions on all sides. There had been increasing violence on the reservation, which many attributed to Wilson's private militia, Guardians of the Oglala Nation, attacking political opponents to suppress opposition. The so-called “GOONs” were initially funded with $62,000 from the BIA to be “an auxiliary police force."


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Another concern was the failure of the justice systems in border towns to prosecute white attacks against Lakota men who went to the towns for their numerous saloons and bars. Alcohol was prohibited on the reservation. Local police seldom prosecuted crimes against the Lakota, or charged assailants at lesser levels. Recent murders in border towns heightened concerns on the reservation. An example was the January 27, 1973, murder of 20-year-old Wesley Bad Heart Bull in a bar in Buffalo Gap, which the tribe believed was due to his race. On February 6, AIM led about 200 supporters to a meeting at the courthouse in Custer, where they expected to discuss civil rights issues and wanted charges against the suspect raised to murder from second-degree manslaughter. They were met by riot police, who allowed only five people to enter the courthouse, despite blizzard conditions outside. Reinhardt notes that the confrontation became violent, during which protesters burned down the chamber of commerce building, damaged the courthouse and destroyed two police cars, and vandalized other buildings.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Native American protests had only recently been receiving media attention regarding their civil rights. Preceding the Wounded Knee Occupation was the Occupation of Alcatraz that started November 20, 1969, lasted for two years, and inspired more indigenous activism. The 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties march ended with a six-day AIM led occupation of the BIA in Washington D.C.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Three weeks before the Wounded Knee Occupation, the tribal council had charged Wilson with several items for an impeachment hearing. However, Wilson was able to avoid a trial, as the prosecution was not ready to proceed immediately, the presiding official would not accept new charges, and the council voted to close the hearings. Charges had been brought by a coalition of local Oglala, grouped loosely around the "traditionalist", the OSCRO, and tribal members of AIM. Wilson opponents were angered that he had evaded impeachment. U.S. Marshals offered him and his family protection at a time of heightened tensions and protected the BIA headquarters at the reservation. Wilson added more fortification to the facility.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: After AIM's confrontation at the Custer courthouse, OSCRO leaders asked AIM for help in dealing with Wilson. The traditional chiefs and AIM leaders met with the community to discuss how to deal with the deteriorating situation on the reservation. Women elders such as OSCRO founder Ellen Moves Camp, Gladys Bissonette, and Agnes Lamont urged the men to take action. They decided to make a stand at the hamlet of Wounded Knee, the renowned site of the last large-scale massacre of the American Indian Wars. They occupied the town and announced their demand for the removal of Wilson from office and for immediate revival of treaty talks with the U.S. government. Dennis Banks and Russell Means were prominent spokesmen during the occupation; they often addressed the press, knowing they were making their cause known directly to the American public. The brothers Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt were also AIM leaders at the time, who operated in Minneapolis.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: On February 28, 1973, AIM leaders Russell Means (Oglala) and Carter Camp (Ponca), together with 200 activists and Oglala of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, including children and the elderly. They opposed Oglala tribal chairman Richard Wilson, occupied the town of Wounded Knee to protest Wilson's administration, as well as against the federal government's persistent failures to honor its treaties with Native American nations. U.S. government law enforcement, including FBI agents, surrounded Wounded Knee the same day with armed reinforcements. They gradually gained more arms.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: According to former South Dakota Senator James Abourezk, "on February 25, 1973, the U.S. Department of Justice sent out 50 U.S. Marshals to the Pine Ridge Reservation to be available in the case of a civil disturbance." This followed the failed impeachment attempt and meetings of opponents of Wilson. The American Indian Movement says that its organization went to Wounded Knee for an open meeting and "within hours police had set up roadblocks, cordoned off the area and began arresting people leaving town...the people prepared to defend themselves against the government's aggressions." By the morning of February 28, both sides began to be entrenched.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: The federal government established roadblocks around the community for 15 miles in every direction. In some areas, Wilson stationed his GOONs outside the federal boundary and required even federal officials to stop for passage.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: About ten days into the occupation, the federal government lifted the roadblocks and forced Wilson's people away as well. When the cordon was briefly lifted, many new supporters and activists joined the Oglala at Wounded Knee. Publicity had made the site and action an inspiration to American Indians nationally. On March 8, the leaders declared the territory of Wounded Knee to be the independent Oglala Nation and demanded negotiations with the U.S. Secretary of State, William P. Rogers. The nation granted citizenship to those who wanted it, including non-Indians.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: A small delegation, including Frank Fools Crow, the senior elder, and his interpreter, flew to New York to attempt to address and be recognized by the United Nations. While they received international coverage, they did not receive recognition as a sovereign nation by the UN.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: The data gathered by the historians Record and Hocker supports this: "barricades of paramilitary personnel armed with automatic weapons, snipers, helicopters, armored personnel carriers equipped with .50-caliber machine guns, and more than 130,000 rounds of ammunition." The statistics on the U.S. government force at Wounded Knee vary, but all accounts agree that it was a significant military force including "federal marshals, FBI agents, and armored vehicles." One eyewitness and journalist described "sniper fire from...federal helicopters," "bullets dancing around in the dirt," and "sounds of shooting all over town" [from both sides].


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: On March 13, Harlington Wood Jr., the assistant attorney general for the Civil Division of the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ), became the first government official to enter Wounded Knee without a military escort. Determined to resolve the deadlock without further bloodshed, he met with AIM leaders for days. While exhaustion made him too ill to conclude the negotiation, he is credited as the "icebreaker" between the government and AIM.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: After 30 days, the government's tactics became harsher when Kent Frizell was appointed from the DOJ to manage the government's response. He cut off electricity, water, and food supplies to Wounded Knee, when it was still winter in South Dakota, and prohibited the entry of the media. The US government tried starving out the occupants, and AIM activists smuggled food and medical supplies in past roadblocks "set up by Dick Wilson and tacitly supported by the US government." Keefer, a Deputy U.S. Marshal at the scene, said there were no persons between federal agents and the town, and that the federal marshals' firepower could have killed anyone in the open landscape. The Marshals Service decided to wait out the AIM followers in order to reduce casualties on both sides. Some activists organized an airlift of food supplies to Wounded Knee.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Carter Camp, an AIM spokesperson and organizer of the occupation is quoted saying, “We have 10 or 12,” referring to hostages that were allies of Tribal President Richard Wilson. On April 1, the FBI began to hint at division within AIM leadership and other occupiers, but this was refuted by Means and Banks the next day.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Sometime during March, Leonard Crow Dog, the spiritual leader of The American Indian Movement brought back the Ghost Dance. He claims in his book "Crow Dog: Four Generations Sioux of Medicine Men" "My great-grandfather's spirit gave me a vision to do this. The vision told me to revive this ceremony at the place where Chief Big Foot's ghost dancers, three hundred men, women, and children, had been massacred by the army, shot to pieces by cannons, old people, babies." With the help of Wallace Black Elk they got together as many people as possible to participate in the dance that hadn't been done in 83 years. Before dancing they first had to do the Sweat lodge, a purification ritual, then Leonard ran the ghost dance with around 30 dancers, the way his father and uncle (Henry Crow Dog and Dick Fool Bull) had described it to him.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: On March 1st, Senators James Abourezek and George McGovern came to talk with AIM. Abourezk was sympathetic for his son's house in Pine Ridge was fire-bombed, however McGovern had no likeness for what AIM was doing.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: On March 3rd, the government sent Colonel Volney Warner, chief of staff of the 82nd Airborne, to see whether or not the army would need to use force to take back Wounded Knee. Warner was also sympathetic to AIM, changing the FBI order from "shoot to kill" to "shoot to wound" and finally to "do not shoot at all", reporting that AIM wouldn't harm anyone.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: On March 6th, the federal spokesman, Erikson, told AIM to "surrender, or else" and to "send all women and children out of Wounded Knee before darkness fell on March 8th" but nothing was made of this threat.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: On March 11th, four postal inspectors thought to be spies by AIM, drove into the town and said they were there to inspect the post office and trading post. AIM's security stopped, and disarmed them finding handguns, handcuffs, and badges. Security took them to the museum and Leonard Crow Dog gave them food and an around 30 minute lecture on Indian history and why they were occupying Wounded Knee, afterwards escorting them to the federal lines.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Both AIM and federal government documents show that the two sides traded fire through much of the three months. U.S. Marshal Lloyd Grimm was shot early in the conflict and suffered paralysis from the waist down. Among the many Indian supporters who joined the protest were Frank Clearwater and his pregnant wife, who were Cherokee from North Carolina. He was shot in the head April 17, within 24 hours of his arrival, while resting in an occupied church, during what was described by both sides as a vicious fire fight with federal forces. AIM supporters evacuated Clearwater from the village but he died in a hospital on April 25.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: When Lawrence "Buddy" Lamont, a local Oglala, was killed by a shot from a feds sniper bullet that went through the heart on April 26 during the biggest shoot-out of the siege and the next day on April 27th it was reported he had died. He said during the occupation "If something happens to me I want to stay at Wounded Knee. Don't make any fuss over me. Just bury me in my bunker." he was then buried in his bunker, close to the long trench where the 300 were buried in a Sioux ceremony by Leonard Crow Dog and Wallace Black Elk. After his death, tribal elders called an end to the occupation. Knowing the young man and his mother from the reservation, many Oglala grew sorrow from his death. Both sides reached an agreement on May 5 to disarm. The terms included a mandated meeting at Chief Fools Crow's land to discuss reinstating the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. With the decision made, many Oglala Lakota began to leave Wounded Knee at night, walking out through the federal lines. Three days later, the siege ended and the town was evacuated after 71 days of occupation; the government took control of the town.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Ray Robinson, a black civil rights activist, went to South Dakota to join the Wounded Knee occupation. He was seen there by both a journalist and a white activist. He disappeared during the siege and his body was never found. One AIM leader, Carter Camp, said years later that Robinson had walked away under his own power, seeking aid for a wounded leg. Others have recalled open conflict between Robinson and activists over FBI claims.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: His widow Cheryl Robinson believes he was murdered during the incident. In 2004, after the conviction of a man for the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, Robinson renewed her calls for an investigation into her husband's death. Paul DeMain, editor of "News From Indian Country", has said that based on interviews, he believes "Robinson was killed because, based on a misinformation campaign, some thought he was an FBI spy."


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: In 2014, the FBI confirmed that Robinson had been killed and buried on the reservation in April 1973. Robinson was allegedly killed by AIM members during a confrontation. Robinson's remains have not been found. The FBI said it had closed his case.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Public opinion polls revealed widespread sympathy for the Native Americans at Wounded Knee. They also received support from the Congressional Black Caucus as well as various actors, activists, and prominent public figures, including Marlon Brando, Johnny Cash, Angela Davis, Jane Fonda, William Kunstler, and Tom Wicker.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: After DOJ prohibited the media from the site, press attention decreased. However, actor Marlon Brando, an AIM supporter, asked Sacheen Littlefeather, President of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee, to speak at the 45th Academy Awards on his behalf, as he had been nominated for his performance in "The Godfather". She appeared at the March 27 ceremony in traditional Apache clothing. When his name was announced as the winner, she said that he declined the award due to "the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry … and on television and movie reruns and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee" in an improvised speech, as she was told she could not give the original speech given to her by Brando and was warned that she would be physically taken off and arrested if she was on stage for more than a minute. Afterwards, she read his original words about Wounded Knee backstage to many of the press. This recaptured the attention of millions in the United States and world media. AIM supporters and participants thought Littlefeather's speech to be a major victory for their movement. Although Angela Davis was turned away by federal forces as an "undesirable person" when she attempted to enter Wounded Knee in March 1973, AIM participants believed that the attention garnered by such public figures forestalled U.S. military intervention.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Following the end of the 1973 stand-off, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation had a higher rate of internal violence. Residents complained of physical attacks and intimidation by President Richard Wilson's followers, the so-called GOONS or Guardians of the Oglala Nation. The murder rate between March 1, 1973, and March 1, 1976, averaged 56.7 per 100,000 per annum (170 per 100,000 over the whole period). Detroit had a rate of 20.2 per 100,000 in 1974 and at the time was considered "the murder capital of the US." The national average was 9.7 per 100,000. More than 60 opponents of the tribal government allegedly died violently during this period, including Pedro Bissonette, executive director of OSCRO. AIM representatives said many were unsolved murders, but in 2002 the FBI issued a report disputing this.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: According to Ward Churchill, despite the FBI's claims, there were many suspicious events surrounding murders of AIM activists and their subsequent investigations or lack thereof. Churchill states that the deaths of AIM activists went uninvestigated, even though there was an abundance of FBI agents on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at the time.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: For instance, Annie Mae Aquash was an activist who had been present at Wounded Knee and was later suspected of being a spy for the government. It was later revealed that most of this campaign to discredit her can be traced to Douglass Durham, an FBI informant. Aquash was found dead near Highway 73 on February 24, 1976. Her cause of death was initially ruled as exposure, suggesting that alcohol had been involved, even though there was none in her bloodstream. Dissatisfied with this finding, an exhumation was requested by OSCRO, which found that Aquash had been shot in the back of her head at close range. AIM members Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham were convicted of Aquash's murder in 2004 and 2010; both received life sentences. Additionally, AIM activist Thelma Rios plead guilty as an accessory to the kidnapping.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: In 2000, the FBI released a report regarding these alleged unsolved violent deaths during this time on Pine Ridge Reservation and accounted for most of the deaths, and disputed the claims of unsolved and political murders. The report stated that only 4 deaths were unsolved and that some deaths were not murders.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: In 1974, Russell Means ran against Wilson. Wilson won the election, even though he lost to Means in the primary. At AIM's behest, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigated the election and found that it had been “permeated with fraud." The fraudulent actions included voter fraud, a lack of poll watchers, and a lack of oversight. However, no formal action was taken to rectify this, and Wilson remained in charge.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: After an eight-and-a-half-month trial the U.S. District Court of South Dakota (Fred Joseph Nichol, presiding judge) dismissed the charges against Banks and Means for conspiracy and assault (both Banks and Means were defended by William Kunstler and Mark Lane). The jury had voted 12–0 to acquit both defendants of the conspiracy charge, but before the second vote one juror suffered a stroke and could not continue deliberations. The government refused to accept a verdict of eleven jurors and sought a mistrial; in the meantime, the defense team filed a motion for judgment of acquittal.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: The judge ruled to dismiss, citing prosecutorial misconduct, stating: "It is my belief, however, that the misconduct by the government in this case is so aggravated that a dismissal must be entered in the interests of justice." In 1975 the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the government's appeal was barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause and dismissed it, "despite Government's argument that jurisdiction should be assumed due to the public interest in fair trials designed to end in just judgements."


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: On September 5th, 1975, FBI marshals came into Leonard Crow Dog's home (Crow Dog's Paradise) and arrested him for preventing federal officers from performing their assignment. His unfair trial was not held till January 1976 in Rapid City, SD, where he was found guilty in under an hour. He was later released in September of 1976 after his legal team brought in thousands of support letters from around the globe.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: The legacy of the Siege of Wounded Knee is rife with disagreements, due to the controversial approaches of AIM and the FBI. The FBI has faced criticism for their speculated underhanded attempts to undermine AIM through COINTELPRO-like methods, such as releasing false information and having undercover individuals sow disorder within AIM and Wounded Knee. It has also been suggested that the FBI and the federal government in general were too focused on Watergate at the time to give the situation at Wounded Knee the attention it deserved. If the federal government were more focused on Wounded Knee, it might not have lasted as long as it did.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: AIM's handling of Wounded Knee has also met its fair share of critics. Special Agent in Charge at the time, Joseph H. Trimbach, has argued that AIM used federal funds to purchase weaponry, rather than aid the American Indian people. Trimbach and others have also suggested that AIM members murdered Anna Mae Aquash because they thought she was a spy. Even individuals within the movement, such as Mary Crow Dog, have been critical of AIM. In her autobiography, Mary Crow Dog says, “There were a lot of things wrong with AIM. We did not see these things, or did not want to see them."


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: On June 30, 1980, The Great Sioux Reservation won a legal case in the Supreme Court that acknowledges the illegality of U.S.’ acquisition of reservation land in 1876. The Sioux claim had perpetually been tossed out by the courts since the 1920s, and the case reached the Supreme Court through no coincidence. Following a decade of media exposure and fights for Tribal Sovereignty, the American Indian narrative became known, as opposed to being brushed away.


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: During the one-hundred-year anniversary of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, in 1990, Russell Means barred South Dakota Governor George S. Mickelson from taking part in commemorating the dead there. Means argued, “It would be an insult because we live in the racist state of South Dakota, and he is the Governor.”


title: Wounded Knee Occupation

text: Despite disputes about the handling of Wounded Knee, Wounded Knee shed a light on the problems facing American Indians and showed them that they could have a voice. Wounded Knee is now an important symbol of American Indian activism, fittingly building on its initial symbolic meaning of the atrocities committed by the US government against American Indian people.


title: An American Crime

text: An American Crime is a 2007 American crime horror drama film directed by Tommy O'Haver and starring Elliot Page and Catherine Keener. The film is based on the true story of the torture and murder of Sylvia Likens by Indianapolis single mother Gertrude Baniszewski. It premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.


title: An American Crime

text: Because of internal problems with the film's original distributor, First Look International, the film was not released theatrically. The Showtime television network officially premiered "An American Crime" on May 10, 2008. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, a Primetime Emmy (both for Keener's performance), and a Writers Guild of America Award.


title: An American Crime

text: In 1965, sixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens and her disabled fifteen-year-old sister, Jenny, are left in the care of an impoverished woman named Gertrude Baniszewski, a church acquaintance and mother to Paula, Johnny, Stephanie, and several younger children. Sylvia and Jenny's parents, Lester and Betty, work in the carnival circuit and leave on a tour. Gertrude agrees to take care of Sylvia and Jenny for a fee of $20 per week.


title: An American Crime

text: Lester's payment fails to arrive. Infuriated, Gertrude whips the Likens sisters with a belt. When the payment arrives with a letter from the parents, Gertrude discards the letter without telling the sisters. After Sylvia tells Paula's boyfriend about Paula's pregnancy, Gertrude forces Sylvia to apologize for "spreading lies" and has Johnny help Paula beat Sylvia until she complies. Jenny discovers the letter from their parents in the trash. Sylvia telephones them, but she is seen by the Baniszewski children. Gertrude falsely accuses them of stealing money from her for the call and burns Sylvia with a cigarette. She also accuses Sylvia of flirting with Andy, father of one of Gertrude's sons. She sexually abuses Sylvia and orders Johnny and Stephanie's boyfriend, Coy Hubbard, to push her down the basement stairs. As Jenny weeps, Gertrude says Sylvia will remain in the basement "until she learns her lesson".


title: An American Crime

text: Gertrude instructs her children to lie that Sylvia was sent to juvenile detention. With Gertrude's knowledge and approval, Johnny regularly invites the neighborhood children to the basement to abuse Sylvia. Paula soon feels guilty and tells her mother Sylvia has been punished enough. Gertrude ignores Paula, reminding her that there is blood on her hands as well. The Reverend arrives, hinting that Paula has confessed about her pregnancy and Sylvia's treatment. Gertrude lies to him that Sylvia was sent away. Once the Reverend leaves, Gertrude orders everyone into the basement, where she restrains Sylvia and begins branding the words "I'M A PROSTITUTE AND PROUD OF IT" on her stomach with a heated needle. Gertrude passes the needle to her teen neighbor Ricky Hobbs to finish the branding.


title: An American Crime

text: That night, Paula helps an injured Sylvia escape from the basement. Gertrude is awakened by another daughter and tries to catch Sylvia, but she is stopped by Paula. Ricky drives Sylvia to her parents. They are horrified by Sylvia's condition and drive her back to the Baniszewski house at her request to make sure Jenny is okay. When Sylvia enters, she sees a distraught Stephanie trying to revive Sylvia with Ricky's help, but to no avail, indicating that the entire escape and reunion with her parents had been a hallucination. Sylvia soon dies in the arms of Stephanie and Ricky, after which Gertrude claims that the death has nothing to do with her.


title: An American Crime

text: Once the police arrive, Jenny agrees to testify in court in exchange for her freedom. At the murder trial, Jenny says Gertrude threatened her with the same treatment if she told anyone. Again, Gertrude denies all wrongdoing and tries to frame her children and their friends for Sylvia's death. However, her attempts to frame all her witnesses backfire as she is sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder. Sylvia's voice narrates the fates of her other murderers. Gertrude, in her prison cell, briefly sees Sylvia's ghost.


title: An American Crime

text: Principal photography took place in 2006. Most of the cast were completely unaware of the real Likens murder until after they read the script, which was based largely on actual court transcripts from the case. Catherine Keener originally turned down the role of Gertrude Baniszewski; however, after she could not get the story out of her head, she met with director Tommy O'Haver and agreed to do the film. Elliot Page was the only choice to play Sylvia Likens.


title: An American Crime

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 43% of 14 critic reviews are positive for the film, with an average rating of 4.8/10. Ginia Bellafante of "The New York Times" called it "one of the best television movies to appear in years" and praised Catherine Keener's portrayal of Gertrude Baniszewski.


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: HMS "Ark Royal" (pennant number 91) was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that was operated during the Second World War.


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: Designed in 1934 to fit the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty, "Ark Royal" was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead, England, and completed in November 1938. Her design differed from previous aircraft carriers. "Ark Royal" was the first ship on which the hangars and flight deck were an integral part of the hull, instead of an add-on or part of the superstructure. Designed to carry a large number of aircraft, she had two hangar deck levels. She was used during a period that first saw the extensive use of naval air power; several carrier tactics were developed and refined aboard "Ark Royal".


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: "Ark Royal" operated in some of the most active naval theatres of the Second World War. She was involved in the first aerial U-boat kills of the war, operations off Norway, the search for the German battleship , and the Malta Convoys. "Ark Royal" survived several near misses and gained a reputation as a 'lucky ship'. She was torpedoed on 13 November 1941 by the and sank the following day. One of her 1,488 crew members was killed. Her sinking was the subject of several inquiries, with investigators keen to know how the carrier was lost in spite of efforts to save the ship and tow her to the naval base at Gibraltar. They found that several design flaws contributed to the loss, which were rectified in new British carriers.


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: The wreck was discovered in December 2002 by an American underwater survey company using sonar mounted on an autonomous underwater vehicle, under contract from the BBC for the filming of a documentary about the ship, at a depth of about and approximately from Gibraltar.


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: In 1923, the Admiralty prepared a 10-year building programme which included an aircraft carrier and 300 aircraft for the Fleet Air Arm. The economic downturn following the First World War caused it to be postponed. In 1930, the Director of Naval Construction, Sir Arthur Johns, began to update the plans for the carrier by incorporating recently developed technology. His aim was to increase the number of aircraft carried by shortening the landing and take-off distances of aircraft using arrestor gear and compressed steam catapults respectively, which would make more deck space available for storage and aircraft preparation. Along with the inclusion of two hangar decks, this allowed "Ark Royal" to carry up to 72 aircraft, although the development of larger and heavier aircraft during the carrier's construction meant that the actual number carried was between 50 and 60. Ark Royal featured an enclosed hangar design where the flight deck was the 'strength deck' and was strongly built with .75in (19mm) thick Ducol steel plating. The two hangar decks were thus enclosed within the hull girder, which also gave splinter protection to the hangars. The machinery spaces were protected by belt armour. Three lifts moved aircraft between the hangars and the flight deck.


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: Another feature was the length and height of the flight deck. At , the flight deck was longer than the keel; the latter dictated by the length of Royal Navy drydocks in Gibraltar and Malta. Due to the twin hangar decks, the flight deck rose to above the waterline.


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: The Washington and London Naval treaties had restricted warship tonnage for a number of nations after the end of the Great War and were both to expire by the end of 1936. With a potential naval arms race developing between Britain, Japan and Italy, the British government sought a second treaty, which included limiting the maximum displacement of an aircraft carrier to . "Ark Royal" would have to fit this anticipated limit; to conserve weight, armour plating was limited to the belt, engine rooms, and magazines, while welding instead of rivetting 65% of the hull saved . Installation of an armoured flight deck was not possible, as the weight would have placed "Ark Royal" above the proposed limit, while reducing her endurance and stability. The ship was designed with a three-layer side protection system based upon a void-liquid-void scheme very similar to that used on the "King George V"-class battleships, and was designed to protect against torpedoes with up to a warhead.


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: The ship was fitted with six boilers, which powered three Parsons geared turbines. The turbines were connected via three driveshafts to three propellers in diameter, to produce a maximum theoretical speed of . Speed was important, as with catapults and arrestor gear, "Ark Royal" would have to turn into the wind to launch and recover aircraft. To avoid endangering other ships with the frequent course changes associated with flight operations, "Ark Royal" would have to break away from accompanying ships, and catch up on completion. Additionally, as the carrier was not armed for ship-to-ship combat, speed was her main protection against enemy warships.


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: The deteriorating international situation by 1933, typified by Germany's rearmament and the expansion of Japan and Italy, convinced the British to announce funds for the carrier's construction in the 1934 budget proposals. The plans were finished by November 1934 and were tendered in February 1935 to Cammell Laird and Company Ltd., which calculated the cost of the hull at £1,496,250 () and the main machinery at approximately £500,000 (). The overall cost was estimated to be over £3 million (equivalent to £ million in ), making "Ark Royal" the most expensive non-battleship ordered by the Royal Navy. Construction began on Job No. 1012 when "Ark Royal"s keel was laid down on 16 September 1935.


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: "Ark Royal" spent nearly two years in the builder's yard before being launched on 13 April 1937 by Lady Maud Hoare, wife of Sir Samuel Hoare, then First Lord of the Admiralty. The bottle of champagne thrown against "Ark Royal"s bows did not smash until the fourth attempt. The carrier spent a year fitting out, was handed over to her first commander, Captain Arthur Power, on 16 November 1938, and was commissioned on 16 December. Although intended for the Far East, events in Europe during the carrier's construction, including the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1935 and the Spanish Civil War in 1936, caused the Admiralty to mark her for deployment with the Home and Mediterranean Fleets. After her crew joined at the end of 1938, "Ark Royal" underwent sea trials to prepare for service, during which the carrier proved capable of sailing above her theoretical speed, reaching over and in trials during May 1938 "Ark Royal" achieved with at a deep displacement of .


title: HMS Ark Royal (91)

text: "Ark Royal"s armament was designed with anti-aircraft warfare in mind, as aircraft were expected to be the main threat; ships and submarines could be outrun or dealt with by escorts. Her main armament was sixteen quick-firing dual purpose guns in eight double turrets, four on each side of the hull, controlled by four Directors using the High Angle Control System. The original design placed the turrets low on the hull, but was later altered to locate them just below the flight deck, which increased each turret's field of fire. Six 8-barrelled 2-pounder () "pom-pom" guns were located on the flight deck, in front of and behind the superstructure island, while eight 4-barrelled machine guns were installed on small projecting platforms to the front and rear of the flight deck.