Historic Glass Negative Photographs by John Johnson

03/31/2025

Trump Atrocity Tracker
IT’S ALL ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY
IT’S ALL ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY
IT’S ALL ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY

To consider alternative views, I have really tried to hang on to some Facebook friends who support the current administration. However, if you continue to support their ideology after last Thursday’s “RESTORING TRUTH AND SANITY TO AMERICAN HISTORY” executive order, I need to respectfully ask you to unfriend me.

The order seeks to scrub away uncomfortable history, especially history referring to systemic racism. Among other things, the order directs the Secretary of the Interior “to determine whether, since January 1, 2020, public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology;”

Obviously that refers to the Confederate monuments that have been taken down. Re-erecting the monuments is the equivalent of putting up statues of Hi**er in Germany.

The Confederate monuments were originally erected mostly by the Daughters of the Confederacy at the beginning of the 20th century. They were erected to perpetuate what is now known as the “Myth of the Lost Cause”. What followed was the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, rampant segregation and racist films like Birth of a Nation.

03/30/2025

“What’s wrong with those people? Lincoln freed them.” Spoken to me by an acquaintance a few years ago.

Where to start? The only place to begin sorting out that kind of profound ignorance is in schools and museums. The systemic and everyday racism that permeates our culture is at epidemic levels, and now the Trump administration wants to sweep uncomfortable history under the table with one of his executive order atrocities.

The order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, orders “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology” to be removed from the Smithsonian Institution.

What this order is really about is erasing the “bad stuff” in American history. I could go on and on, but in short, much of what my generation was taught when we were growing up (especially in the South) left many of us “Myth Informed” It is only in the last few decades that the truths about oppression and slavery have been taught in schools and now the administration wants to scrub it all away. “Nothing to see here. Lincoln freed the slaves and everyone has been living in peace, harmony and equality ever since”. Sigh.

PHOTO: One on the images in my John Johnson glass negative collection circa 1915. Many of Johnson’s subjects are portrayed with a quiet dignity, a dignity that belied their circumstances. Dakota Talbert was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, and came to Lincoln with his family in 1913. He served in the army in France during World War I fighting for freedom and against tyranny. When Dakota returned to the United States, he faced racial prejudice, Jim Crow laws, low wage jobs and few opportunities (he worked as an elevator operator, shoe shiner, driver, and cook in Lincoln and Omaha restaurants.)

03/21/2025

Whack-a-Mole Atrocity Tracker

Here’s the tactic: The administration does something outrageous, then the media and the public rightly scrambles to call it out, sometimes forcing the administration to respond. However, while the media is reporting on the egregiousness, the administration does something elsewhere equally or more outrageous.

Recently, a search of the Army's website for "Jackie Robinson" found 18 results. A couple days ago, to conform to Trump’s purging of anything that reeked of diversity, equity and inclusion, 14 of the articles had been deleted.

Also included in the purge were articles about Navajo Code Talkers, Iwo Jima flag-raisers (one of them, Ira Hayes, was Native American) and the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb, the Enola GAY. (An unacceptable word in DEI World).

After public outcry, some of the links have been restored, but the damage has already been done. Just ask Humpty-Dumpty about that.

It’s all about chaos, cruelty, confusion and misdirection.

PHOTO: From my collection of John Johnson glass negatives in Lincoln, Nebraska circa 1915. This man played catcher for a Lincoln candy company. For much of the 20th century one of the few places that had a MODICUM of diversity, equity and inclusion was sports.

02/25/2025

Wake up. Look beyond your bubble. DO SOMETHING

02/20/2025

I get it. We are all so exhausted. Nevertheless, endeavor to do something every day, even if it's just a "like"on a social media post. I've been asking people to call their representatives and ask for a town hall.
Do something, however futile it may seem. Keep the proverbial pedal to the metal.

02/19/2025

In the midst of the all consuming chaos, it’s easy to forget it’s Black History Month. This is one of the treasures from my John Johnson Glass Negatives Collection. Thanks to meticulous research by Lincoln Nebraska historian Ed Zimmer and his staff, we now know all the people in this circa 1915 image.

Of particular note is Clyde Malone, standing at right. Clyde was born in Lincoln to Frank and Pency Malone. Beside Clyde is his wife, Izetta, whose parents, Lulu and Walter Colley, moved their family from Lexington, Missouri, to Lincoln in 1905. Father and son-in-law held service jobs typical of those available to Black men in Lincoln in the first two decades of the 20th century —porter, janitor, waiter— before partnering to operate a grocery store in 1920-1921.

Clyde then attended the University of Nebraska and graduated in 1925. Clyde and Izetta left Lincoln for about a decade while he worked as a district manager for an insurance company and then at a community center in Minneapolis, before returning to work at Lincoln's Urban League. He became executive director in 1943 and served until his sudden death in 1951. The Urban League was renamed Clyde Malone Community Center in his memory.

Last year, the Malone Center received a $25 million dollar grant to construct a brand new multipurpose building.

02/08/2025

What follows is a very imperfect analogy to explain Diversity Equity and Inclusion. I fully expect certain people to poke gaping holes in it. Nevertheless…

Here in Chico, we have something called Chico Senior Softball. It’s all about diversity, equity and inclusion. ANYONE of a certain age who signs up, no matter what their skill level, plays. That’s INCLUSION. Every year we have a draft. The members of teams change every year. That’s DIVERSITY. Before the season starts, everyone on the team is technically equal. Then, when the season actually starts, the managers place players in positions (field and batting order) that they seem best suited for. During the course of the season, some players improve their skills and their positions are changed. REGARDLESS, everyone plays. Everyone bats. Some people bat better. Some people field better. Everyone deserves a chance. A supportive team and manager try to help a player whose skills need sharpening. That’s EQUITY.
What they do with that chance is up to them.

PHOTO: Baseball player in Lincoln, Nebraska circa 1920 from my John Johnson Glass Negative Collection. In the early 20th century, minorities were making strides towards equality. Although Blacks were largely relegated to lower class jobs, things were getting better. Schools and the University of Nebraska sports teams were integrated. However, by the 1920s, thanks to the Ku Klux Klan, racist films like Birth of a Nation and the Great Depression that all came crashing down. A century later, it’s crashing down again.

02/02/2025

Happy Black History Month. You better believe we’re still honoring it at Douglas Keister Photography.

This image is near the top of my list of favorites in my 280 glass negative collection of John Johnson photographs. I love the variety of expressions on the men’s faces.

It was a number of years after I acquired the negatives before I was able to digitally piece this glass negative together. When I did, I discovered one of the people in the image was photographer John Johnson. I speculate that the person who actually snapped the shutter was Earl McWilliams, who was listed in Johnson’s “Negro History of Lincoln” as a “photographer’s assistant.” Earl McWilliams’ mother is quoted as saying, “Earl knew how to make people smile.”

Through the years, drips and drabs of Earl McWilliams’ life have emerged, but there are still many unsolved mysteries. To my knowledge, no pictures of Earl have emerged. A bit odd for someone who worked at various photography studios in Lincoln, Nebraska in the early 20th century.

10/31/2024

I’m in the ER. That’s the Chico ENTERPRISE RECORD, known around these parts as the ER.

If you want Fascism just say it , ‘cause that’s pretty much what Trump and his handlers are offering.

10/29/2024

Have you seen a synopsis of Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday night? The list of atrocities is endless. Is this what you want your children and grandchildren to model?

10/28/2024

Like many, I have often wondered how people can continue to support Trump. Multiple former members of his administration have say he is unfit for office, incapable of even a modicum of empathy, and in the words of Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly, [Trump is] “the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.” The people making those remarks are long-standing Republicans.

Thus, I’ve compiled my list of the types of people who, despite knowing his character, are prone to being seduced by the ocherous quacksalver.

GARDEN VARIETY GRIFTERS They see supporting the ex-president as a way to make money.

PEOPLE WHO ARE PHYSICALLY AFRAID OF BEING ATTACKED BY RABID TRUMP SUPPORTERS Hello Lindsey and Mitch and legions of others.

AGGRIEVED INDIVIDUALS: Trump acts as a mouthpiece for their existing animus, which in turn gives them permission to act out in egregious ways.

SADISTS: They love to see people suffer.

PEOPLE SADDLED WITH A FRAGILE EGO: They are constitutionally incapable of admitting they were wrong.

ALPHA MALES They think men should be in charge and women subservient (some women are also in this group). They are often overly enchanted with big trucks and assorted weaponry.

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS. They believe their religious leanings are the only way. Some actually believe Trump has been sent by god.

NAZI’S White makes right.

PRACTITIONERS OF CONFIRMATION BIAS: They only search for answers that conform to theirs.

WILLFUL IGNORANCE They don’t want to know the truth.

Did I miss something? Class participation welcome.

By the way, I’m not saying I am without flaws. I can provide references if you want to know them. What I am saying is that supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is not one of them.

ILLUSTRATION: Trump’s vision of America as a garbage can. The open-mouthed figure at top center bears a resemblance to the ocherous quacksalver. NOTE: This is actually an illustration titled Christ in Limbo, attributed to Hieronymus Bosch or one of his students.

10/27/2024