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Ben Johnson

@benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social
2.1K followers 2.7K following 554 posts

I study history in order to understand and help others understand the crazy world in which we live. Environment, climate, borders, violence and memory are key. Also @refusing2forget.bsky.social. My opinions are mine, sadly almost never my employer's.

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James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
here we go . . . www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/a...
nytimes.com
Smithsonian’s Secretary to Resign as Trump Tries to Rule the Institution (Gift Article)
In the face of escalating White House attacks about how museums present American history, Lonnie G. Bunch III has announced his decision to depart.
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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
if only there had been clues
Republicans convention delegates holding “mass deportation now!” signs
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Never heard or heard of this speech. Wow
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Karen K. Ho @karenho.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
This gallery of ICE crop/seed art at this year's Minnesota State Fair is incredible, especially the one based on Pablo Picasso's Guernica by Jennifer Nelson, which features the last words of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Morse code: www.cropart.com/Resist.pdf
A seed art entry in the 2026 Minnesota State Fair based on Pablo Picasso's Guernica. It features a loon, the words "Ice Out" and two representations of Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s. Notably, the mouths of Good and Pretty include their last words in Morse code:
‘I’m not mad at you,’ and ‘Are you okay?’” The artist is Jennifer Nelson.
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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Pretti’s parents said they found out their son had been murdered after watching footage of the shooting on the news. “We watched it on TV and was like, ‘That’s our son. That’s Alex.’ And they killed him,” dad Michael recounted. “No one called us.”
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Hello, it is me, Kira. :) @kirabira.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
She also really debunks the common justifications about religion, region, and age. Your grandparents and parents have shitty values because they have shitty values, not because of anything else. They could do better. Anyone can use their eyes to see the world and have the correct read.
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
nice piece on the attack on border history. @refusing2forget.bsky.social "If you value a people’s worth and contributions, then you preserve their history in textbooks and curriculums,” the historian Trinidad Gonzales said. “You would preserve these physical markers." www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/u...
nytimes.com
In West Texas, Trump’s Border Wall Collides With Latino History (Gift Article)
A century ago, Mexican American families came together to build an adobe church near the border. Can its bell toll again as the wall expansion nears?
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Elsie Garcia and Monica Martinez from @refusing2forget.bsky.social on the Porvenir site and the current threat to it. www.tpr.org/podcast/fron...
tpr.org
Fronteras: Revisiting the 1918 Porvenir massacre — How border construction puts the future of the site in danger
In 1918, 15 unarmed Mexican men and boys were killed in the remote West Texas community of Porvenir. The commemorative site is now in danger of being bulldozed and cut off by federal border wall const...
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
New story on the threat to Porvenir. @refusing2forget.bsky.social . www.tpr.org/podcast/fron...
tpr.org
Fronteras: Revisiting the 1918 Porvenir massacre — How border construction puts the future of the site in danger
In 1918, 15 unarmed Mexican men and boys were killed in the remote West Texas community of Porvenir. The commemorative site is now in danger of being bulldozed and cut off by federal border wall const...
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Strong piece about the damage and continued threat to the Porvenir Massacre site that descendants and @refusing2forget.bsky.social have worked so hard to commemorate. /1 www.marfapublicradio.org/news/2026-08...
marfapublicradio.org
Big Bend area border wall threatens to destroy the Porvenir Massacre site
As the Trump administration moves forward with a border wall in the region, a local archeologist says early construction activities have already damaged a notorious historic massacre site in Presidio ...
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
nice piece putting the current threat against the Porvenir massacre site in the larger contexts of ranger and border history. "Texas owes it to the massacre victims’ descendants to demand that the Porvenir historic site be preserved." /1 www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/trum...
dallasobserver.com
Trump is bulldozing the site of a Texas massacre. It’s time to remember Porvenir
Closer to home, the Texas Rangers continue to take part in the whitewashing and glorification of a violent, racist past
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
banger of an obit for @loyolahistdept.bsky.social MA alum Mary Morello. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/u...
nytimes.com
Mary Morello, Free Speech Activist Who Defended Explicit Lyrics, Dies at 102 (Gift Article)
An Illinois teacher — and the mother of the rock star Tom Morello — she took on Tipper Gore during culture war skirmishes over warning labels on records.
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
let's hope this sticks . . . www.texastribune.org/2026/08/17/t...
texastribune.org
Trump administration pausing Big Bend construction
It was not immediately clear how long CBP plans to implement the pause. The Trump administration had announced plans to build an access road and vehicle barriers in the park.
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Sign the petition to protect the Porvenir Massacre site from the border wall. @refusing2forget.bsky.social protect-porvenir.editdog.chatgpt.site#petition
protect-porvenir.editdog.chatgpt.site
Porvenir Massacre | History, Descendants & Petition
Sign the descendants' petition to protect the sacred ground, archaeological evidence, and continued access to the Porvenir Massacre site.
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Hurrah for People of La Junta for Preservation, Lipan Apache tribal government, and Far-Flung Adventures for fighting on our collective behalf. The article gives a glimpse into the re-emergence of Indigenous people (many supposedly "extinct") in recent decades. www.texasobserver.org/indigenous-g...
texasobserver.org
Indigenous Group Sues to Stop Big Bend Border Wall on Religious Grounds
The lawsuit seeks an immediate injunction, arguing that CBP construction and surveying activities in Big Bend violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
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James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I'll never steal your pen.
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
more on the outrage of possibly destroying the Porvenir massacre site. See link for a correction to the idea that the US cavalry rather than the Rangers were responsible. bigbendsentinel.com/2026/08/11/w...
bigbendsentinel.com
Wall path planned through Porvenir massacre site
An expedition of activists sets out to tour the historic site with contractors Porvenir (Victor Kulagin video) It was bitterly cold that January night in 1918, somewhere in the low twenties, as 15 men...
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Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Refusing to Forget condemns the latest DHS decision to build a wall that disturbs a sacred site in Presidio County. Stand with us in supporting descendants and their families. Learn more about this history: refusingtoforget.org Take action: nobigbendwall.org
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
We can stop this by erecting a confederate monument on the site. Then they wouldn’t trash the place. @refusing2forget.bsky.social
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
the contempt for the dead, the living, the land, our history (spectacular and horrific) upon it. Just a gut punch. @refusing2forget.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
texasmonthly.com
Trump’s Border-Wall Construction Is Set to Bulldoze the Porvenir Massacre Site
It is considered sacred ground for the descendants of those killed in a mass execution. The border wall threatens to erase it from history.
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ACLU of Texas @aclutx.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
BREAKING: We're suing Texas A&M over the university system’s unconstitutional censorship policy. Administrators are canceling or restricting courses that discuss race, gender, and sexual orientation. Public universities are meant for sharing knowledge — not banning it.
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Need to have some frank talk about #Yale President McInnis, General Counsel Alexander Dreier and the trustees. First, they keep saying that they are compelled to enter into a settlement with the #Trump administration. Untrue. 1/
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Great news on the freedom of speech/honest history front. JP Bryan’s specious lawsuit against the @historians.org and Carlos Blanton has been tossed. /1 file:///private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/8715AB9F-B356-40AB-B248-EBCBE4CC21C0/tmp/2026-07-30%252cReversedandRemandedOpinio1B8.pdf
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
GOALS
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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
My kids have measles, I can’t afford gas or steak, I’ve got explosive diarrhea, and there was glass in the last batch of Pillsbury rolls I ate. But at least now, Ross Douthat is on 60 Minutes.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
we may have a self awareness problem here
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Sean Casten @seancasten.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
A dementia added old man who watches too much Fox News and who is saddled with angst about the fact that he never earned or shared real love with anyone is yelling about exactly what you think he would be yelling about right now.
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SaveDemocracy123 @savedemocracy123.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
LIKE TRUMP/MILLER, ALL ICE AGENTS ARE LOSERS! Many are scared racists, White Nationalist ”Patriot Front, KKK, Proud Boys, Boogaloo Boys, Neo-NAZIS; too full of Trump’s fear/hate/lies to know that THEY’re the true criminals, NOT the innocent families they destroy. Some are just soulless opportunists.
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
his first book was critical to big chunks of yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300.... Excited to see this book out . . .
yalebooks.yale.edu
Texas
An exploration of the multifaceted characters and complex events that have defined the Lone Star State from its inception through today   When Americans tur...
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Bryan Edward Stone (שָׁלוֹם) @bestonetx.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Very pleased to appear in the new issue of the Journal of Texas History. My small piece is a bit of a rumination on a strange and moving item that appeared in the Galveston Daily News on September 16, 1900, eight days after a hurricane nearly destroyed the city. mavmatrix.uta.edu/journaltexas...
Ball High School in Galveston, Texas, after the storm. (G_1771.5_FF2_1, Galveston and Texas History Center, Rosenberg Library.)
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
This is why God created the @aaup.org Join!
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Timothy Noah @timothynoah.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
My latest is about the stunning evidentiary weakness of the White House’s anti-woke report on the National Museum of American History. If it had blue sealant it would peel. The shoddy workmanship in Trump’s 250 commemorations never stops! newrepublic.com/article/2128...
newrepublic.com
I Fact-Checked Trump’s Anti-Woke Report on the American History Museum
The document is notably short on evidence—and at odds with what I witnessed during a visit to the museum this week.
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Rachel Hope Cleves @rachelcleves.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
My response to D&Q's statement:
D&Q packaged and marketed Walden’s book as an independent work with no acknowledgment that it was an adaptation of my book. There is exactly one sentence in the notes at the back that acknowledges the existence of my book. Walden has repeatedly presented the work as based on her research, even going so far as to claim on CBC that she’s the only person who’s read all the letters, and saying in a video she made for the Henry Sheldon Museum that she worked exclusively from the diaries and letters. Readers of reviews, people who’ve listened to her CBC interview, and readers of the book have no way to know that she adapted my work. Many people who bought Walden’s book have commented exactly that on social media. Additionally, D&Q took my title, and cover image. I’ve heard from readers that when they tried to buy my book, bookstore owners have pointed them towards Walden’s graphic novel. In the future when people search for “Charity and Sylvia” on the internet the algorithm will point them to Walden, who has a far bigger platform as a cartoonist than I will ever have as an academic. In short, Walden and D&Q are profiting off eight years of my labor and pretending otherwise. It pains me to have to correct the record this way. Walden was initially given a grant to work exclusively from the papers at the Sheldon. Instead, as her website makes clear, she read my book twice closely and outlined and drafted, then went to look at documents to supplement the story I had written. My book is based on research at over 20 archives and historical sites. I am the author of the story. Walden took that story and illustrated it beautifully, but she and D&Q should have acknowledged the adaptation and they should compensate me.

Rachel Hope Cleves
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Second apparently this was a close case for this Court. As it stands the decision is 6-3. In 1898 the Court’s decision protecting birthright citizenship, Won Kim Ark v. U.S., was 6-2. That means this SCOTUS is either on par w/or to the right of the 1898 Court - the same SCOTUS that decided Plessy!
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
5-4 for what it explicitly says in the constitution is incredible. They were this close to undoing the civil war entirely. bsky.app/profile/mjsd...
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Joshua G. Schraiber @jgschraiber.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Holy fuck the fact that it's only 6-3 is as sure as a sign as anything that the court is broken
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Houston Chronicle @houstonchronicle.com · 18/06/2026
New research by Pulitzer-winning historian Caleb McDaniel  on the first Juneteenth anniversary reveals what Houstonians risked to celebrate freedom and struggle for equality. bit.ly/3S71Ov3
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
proud to be part of the effort to protect the Pedrito Jaramillo shrine site, along with @nvtividad.bsky.social and others. www.telemundo.com/noticias/not...
telemundo.com
Cementerios, escuelas y altares: así es el rescate de la historia latina que EE.UU. estaba perdiendo
Desde un cementerio de latinos segregados en Texas hasta un altar al que llegan cientos de peregrinos, estos sitios históricos enfrentaban abandono. Ahora reciben apoyo para preservar esas historias q...
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Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
The video, via NYT reporter Lauren McGaughy.
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Dan Hon @danhon.com · 12/06/2026
OCEANIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN VERY CLOSE TO A DEAL WITH EURASIA
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Matt Oswalt @mattoswaltva.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
NBA is rigged! when Spurs had 29 point lead the game should have been immediately stopped and Spurs declared winner. Instead officials decides to play "4th quarter?" and Knicks "somehow" score enough baskets to win. Fraud!
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Incredible line from a grand juror in the Broadview 6 case, who had just asked the prosecutors why they get "unlimited tries" to indict people they don't want to indict: "I heard this case like last week and I thought it was a crock of shit then and I still think it is."
MS. MECKLENBURG: Okay. I'm feeling the 09:29:526 skepticism already. Are you going to be able to7 listen with an open mind? Tell me the truth.8 GRAND JUROR: I -- no.9 MS. MECKLENBURG: Okay. Then you have to10 go -- 09:30:0411 GRAND JUROR: I heard this case like last12 week and I thought it was a crock of shit then and I13 still think it is.14 MS. MECKLENBURG: Okay. Thank you for your15 opinion for everybody.
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
extremely proud to have published this article on the first Juneteenth celebration, in the great city of Houston, by the Pulitzer-prize winning historian Caleb McDaniel. www.alliancefortexashistory.org/juneteenth?f...
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Historian Peter Cole recounts the origins and forgetting and remembering of the 1928 Chicago Race Riot. #SHGAPE2026
Plaque to Eugene Williams Plaque with text about 1919Historian Peter Cole by Lake Michigan Placard announcing 2026 SHGAPE conference
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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
ICE is a domestic terror group unwelcome in Chicago. Chicagoans want their immigrant neighbors to be left in peace.
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Feeling overwhelmed with all of this. LISTEN. Another Louisiana resident (Marshawn is the only name we have) testifies against the state’s racial gerrymander, speaking truth to power up and down the hearing room and predicts how this story will end. Speak your truth, fight and believe.
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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
well, I done made it into print in the latest column from the Texanist, my favorite @texasmonthly.bsky.social feature.
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Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
15 years ago today, Kate and William killed Osama Bin Laden at their wedding.
cover page of The Telegraph's May 4-10 edition creatures a large photo of Kate and William kissing at their wedding atop a large headline that says: Osama bin Laden is dead.

Smaller text above the photo of the couple says: “A day filled with romance, pageantry, and playfulness”
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