Word: rankins
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...abolitionist John Rankin was that recognizable type, a scalding Old Testament moralist dropped into 19th century America, a place that was already a boiling pot. He was also a Presbyterian preacher, but not the type to turn the other cheek. In 1841, after a pro-slavery raiding party attempted to burn his house, he put forward a summation of his principles: "It is as much a duty to shoot the midnight assassin in his attacks as it is to pray...
John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Rankin--the U.S. produced men like that because slavery, the nation's fatal flaw, was awful enough to breed opponents of equal fury. In Beyond the River (Simon & Schuster; 333 pages), Ann Hagedorn tells Rankin's story as a window onto that era's most audacious utility, the Underground Railroad, the network of safe houses, sympathetic whites and free blacks that helped runaway slaves escape to the North. Rankin, his steadfast wife and reliable sons were among its major links--crucial enough that furious slaveholders put a bounty on the minister's head...
...hill above the Ohio River, the Rankin house--where a defiant lantern hung each night as a beacon--became a fabled destination that fleeing slaves struggled and sometimes died trying to reach. One of them was a woman who dared to cross the melting ice of the Ohio with her 2-year-old after learning that her master planned to sell the child. Rankin's sons helped her along to the next safe town, whence she eventually made her way to Ontario. Though her name remains unknown, the woman's story, by way of Rankin, reached the ears of Harriet...
...Yale’s Rankin Professor of Law Drew S. Days III, chair of an advisory committee on Yale’s response to the military, says legal action “is certainly a possibility” but that no decision has yet been made...
...ultimate goal is improving education, not just talking. Yet talk has its value. "The indicators we use to look at schools affect what schools focus on," says Nancy Rankin, at the National Parenting Association. "If they know they will get publicity as the top school for professor-student mentoring, maybe they will encourage faculty to be more available to students." Parents and college applicants who want to join the discourse can view the list of participating institutions on the NSSE website www.indiana.edu/NSSE) if any colleges they're interested in are included, they can ask those schools for their results...