April 12, 1945: Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

70 years ago. Previous threads at DU:

April 12, 1945 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Dies in Warm Springs, GA

Georgia Negro Weeps Open-Eyed at the Death of President Roosevelt

[Mike Nelson]

1. Great article...

..thank you.

[jwirr]

2. All of us wept tears of grief then. I remember setting on my mothers lap as tears streamed down

both of our faces. Strangely I do not remember where my father was.

I have a signed picture of FDR on my wall. To this day he is my greatest hero.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Ten Years Later, to the Day:

Defeating Polio, The Disease That Paralyzed America

April 10, 201510:33 AM ET
Linton Weeks

Tens of thousands of Americans — in the first half of the 20th century — were stricken by poliomyelitis. Polio, as it's known, is a disease that attacks the central nervous system and often leaves its victims partially or fully paralyzed.

The hallmarks of the Polio Era were children on crutches and in iron lungs, shuttered swimming pools, theaters warning moviegoers to not sit too close to one another.

On April 12, 2015, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of a vaccine developed by Jonas Salk that prevented the disease and eventually led to its remarkable decline. The introduction of that vaccine in 1955 was one of the biggest medical advances in American history.

Think of it: Between 1937 and 1997, Post-Polio Health International estimates in one table, more than 457,000 people in the U.S. — and hundreds of thousands more around the world — suffered from some form of polio. Thousands and thousands were paralyzed in this country alone. ... Within two years of the 1955 announcement, U.S. polio cases dropped 85 to 90 percent, Joe Palca of NPR reported.

[Arugula Latte]

4. And then everybody got autism!