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Randall Whitestone

Randy Whitestone is a corporate communications executive and and independent historian with an interest in 20th Century politics and the Cold War. he holds a B.A. in history from the University of Rochester, where he is a long-time member of the Department of History's Alumni Advisory Committee.

Ruth Pratt: Pioneering New York Woman in Congress

December 19, 2019 by Randall Whitestone Leave a Comment

Ruth Baker PrattU.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester) announced in October of 2019 she wouldn’t seek a new term. Her retirement concluded a noteworthy 32-year career in Congress, during which she became the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee (past chairs included James Garfield, later President, and Joseph Cannon, later Speaker).

Rep. Lowey is only the latest noteworthy female Representative from New York. The list includes Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress, who ran for President in 1972; Geraldine Ferraro, Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1984; Katharine St. George, a first cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt who represented Tuxedo Park as a Republican for 18 years; and Bella Abzug, the brassy co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus who was the subject of a Broadway show. [Read more…] about Ruth Pratt: Pioneering New York Woman in Congress

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Political History, Tammany Hall, womens history

Decades After Closure, Brooklyn Navy Yard Sails On

November 11, 2019 by Randall Whitestone 2 Comments

Sands Street entrance to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1904.A decidedly unglamorous black-hulled cargo barge plying the turbid waters off Staten Island represents the last working evidence of two centuries of New York history. McAllister Towing & Transportation Co.’s Atlantic Trader, a 300-foot container-carrying barge which entered service in 1977 appears to be the last vessel built from the ground up at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The plodding, anonymous Atlantic Trader had many famous Navy Yard forebears, including the USS Arizona, destroyed at Pearl Harbor where the Second World War began for the United States on Dec. 7, 1941, and the USS Missouri, where the war ended 45 months later with the formal Japanese surrender on her polished teak deck in Tokyo Bay. Other warships built in Brooklyn included the USS Maine, whose 1898 destruction in Havana Harbor helped launch the Spanish-American War; the USS Ohio, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line launched in 1820 that saw action in the Mexican-American War; and eight battleships and eight aircraft carriers completed between 1911 and 1961. Ships built at the yard saw service in every major American conflict from the War of 1812 to Operation Iraqi Freedom. [Read more…] about Decades After Closure, Brooklyn Navy Yard Sails On

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Labor History, Military History, Navy, New York City

Cuomo Break-Up Recalls Rockefeller’s Momentous 1962 Split

October 6, 2019 by Randall Whitestone 1 Comment

Nelson Rockefeller and wife Mary“After more than a decade together, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his longtime girlfriend, Sandra Lee, announced on Wednesday that they are ending their relationship. The two confirmed the split in a statement.” – New York Times, Sept. 25, 2019.

A thunderclap this was not. But 58 years ago, a different New York governor’s personal life was in the Times. He was, after all, a Rockefeller – with presidential ambitions. And it was a different time. [Read more…] about Cuomo Break-Up Recalls Rockefeller’s Momentous 1962 Split

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Andrew Cuomo, Nelson Rockefeller, Political History

Robert Morgenthau’s Statehouse Ambitions

July 31, 2019 by Randall Whitestone Leave a Comment

Morgenthau and JFK

The recent death at age 99 of longtime Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau recalls his two attempts to run for governor of New York against Nelson Rockefeller. Obituaries featured brief references to his statehouse ambitions, but his 1962 run in particular is worth remembering for its national significance.

Morgenthau, grandson of Woodrow Wilson’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and son of FDR’s Treasury secretary, was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in early 1961 by newly elected President John F. Kennedy. He would soon be asked to aim higher. [Read more…] about Robert Morgenthau’s Statehouse Ambitions

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: JFK, Manhattan, Nelson Rockefeller, Political History, politics, Tammany Hall

Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss in New York

July 21, 2019 by Randall Whitestone 5 Comments

Whittaker ChambersSeventy years ago this month, a lower Manhattan courtroom provided the stage for a remarkable confrontation – much of which played out in New York – that symbolized the frustration of a nation that had recently won the Second World War but felt more insecure than ever.

The euphoria of victory had been quickly succeeded by a perception of global communism on the march. In Europe, the Soviet Union had only recently ended an 11-month blockade of Berlin and had, since 1945, rung down the Iron Curtain across Eastern Europe. In China, Mao’s communists were winning their civil war against Chiang Kai-Shek’s U.S.-backed Nationalists, who would soon flee the mainland for Taiwan. And the Soviets were about to end the U.S. monopoly on the atom bomb with a successful test explosion. [Read more…] about Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss in New York

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Crime and Justice, Foley Square, Legal History, Manhattan, New York City, Political History

Ogden Reid: A Link to Another Era in New York Politics

April 2, 2019 by Randall Whitestone 2 Comments

ogden reidOgden Rogers “Brownie” Reid, the six-term former congressman, ambassador, and New York Herald Tribune editor who died recently, was a link to a bygone era.

Reid led an eventful and historic life. He grew up in a McKim, Mead & White-designed stone castle in Purchase, New York, built by his grandfather – himself a Republican powerbroker, ambassador, and 1892 vice presidential nominee. After service in the Army during the Second World War, at the age of 30 in 1955, Brownie assumed leadership of the “family” newspaper, the voice of moderate, internationalist Eastern wing of the GOP. And, like fellow New Yorkers Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, and John Lindsay, Reid was forced to uncomfortably straddle a Republican party morphing rightward; like Lindsay, he eventually switched parties. [Read more…] about Ogden Reid: A Link to Another Era in New York Politics

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Hugh Carey, Nelson Rockefeller, Political History, Westchester County

Lindsay’s Snowstorm: A Rising Star Falls to Earth in Queens

January 27, 2019 by Randall Whitestone 2 Comments

daily news lindsay stormFifty years ago this month, John Vliet Lindsay, 103rd mayor of New York and national paragon of urban progressivism, faced ruin in Rego Park.

The worst winter storm in in almost two decades hit on Sunday, February 9, 1969, dumping 15 inches in Central Park and 20 inches out at Kennedy Airport in Queens and resulting in the deaths of 42 people. Seventy-two hours later, much of the city was dug out and businesses and schools were slowly getting back to normal.

Except in Queens. [Read more…] about Lindsay’s Snowstorm: A Rising Star Falls to Earth in Queens

Filed Under: History, Nature, New York City Tagged With: John Lindsay, New York City, Political History, Queens

Stewart-Cousins to be Latest Historic State Senate Leader

December 23, 2018 by Randall Whitestone 1 Comment

Senator RF Wagner Andrea Stewart-Cousins is positioned to become the first woman and first African-American state senate majority leader in New York state history after the New Year. Ms. Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers resident, is currently the Democratic leader in the senate, a chamber her party will now control, with 39 seats out of 63, following the November elections.

It’s the first time Democrats will control the body in almost a decade, and their largest majority ever. (In fact, Democrats have only controlled the upper chamber for three years since World War II).

A few of Ms. Stewart-Cousins’ predecessors have also achieved prominence: [Read more…] about Stewart-Cousins to be Latest Historic State Senate Leader

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Al Smith, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, JJ Walker, Labor History, Manhattan, Nelson Rockefeller, New York City, Political History, politics, Prohibition, Robert Wagner, Roscoe Conkling, Tammany Hall, womens history

Rockefeller, Harriman and 1958’s Battle of the Millionaires

November 4, 2018 by Randall Whitestone 1 Comment

The Yalta Conference Crimea February 1945One candidate was the incumbent, owner of a glittering resumé featuring roles in the Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman administrations and a veteran of two tries for the Presidency, most recently with former President Truman’s overt backing. The other candidate, 17 years younger, was an electoral neophyte but a past holder of positions in the FDR, Truman and Eisenhower administrations.

One was the angular man in the back of the famous Yalta Summit photo taken in the dying days of the Second World War, an ear-whispering counselor to power and man of gravitas – a “wise man” role he would continue to play into his 90s. The other was a broad-shouldered bundle of energy and wide interests, a brash self-promoter who never met an issue he didn’t want to study, a public policy challenge he didn’t yearn to tackle. [Read more…] about Rockefeller, Harriman and 1958’s Battle of the Millionaires

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Nelson Rockefeller, New York City, Political History, politics

100 Yrs Ago New Yorkers Breached the Hindenburg Line

September 28, 2018 by Randall Whitestone 2 Comments

107th Infantry monument in Central ParkA century ago on September 29, 1918, Allied forces breached the formidable 400-mile Hindenburg Line, spelling the beginning of the end for Imperial Germany in World War I. In the vanguard that cool, misty morning were two American divisions under British-Australian command. The 30th division, nicknamed “Old Hickory” after Andrew Jackson, was drawn from North and South Carolina and Tennessee National Guard regiments.

The 27th division, commanded by Major General John F. O’Ryan and nicknamed “O’Ryan’s Roughnecks,” was drawn entirely from New York National Guard units. Fresh but inexperienced, the Americans lost heavily that day in the battle of St. Quentin Canal. Among the fallen was my great uncle, Everett Wallace Baker, not yet 20, who had enlisted with several Newburgh Free Academy classmates the previous year. [Read more…] about 100 Yrs Ago New Yorkers Breached the Hindenburg Line

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Military History, New York City, World War One

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