September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Feminism

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

September 22, 1692: Ann Pudeator, Martha Corey (whose husband had been pressed to death on September 19), Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Wilmott Redd, Margaret Scott and Samuel Wardwell were hanged for witchcraft; the Rev. Nicholas Noyes called them “eight firebrands of hell.”  It was the last executions in the Salem witch craze of 1692. [Streets of Salem article] (see October)

September 22 Peace Love Activism September 22 Peace Love Activism September 22 Peace Love Activism
 September 22 Peace Love Activism  September 22 Peace Love Activism  September 22 Peace Love Activism
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Emancipation Proclamation

September 22, 1862: motivated by his growing concern for the inhumanity of slavery as well as practical political concerns, President Abraham Lincoln changed the course of the Civil War by issuing the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

The measure did not technically free any slaves, but it expanded the Union’s war aim from reunification to include the abolition of slavery. The proclamation announced that all slaves in territory that was still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. (see January 1, 1863)

Atlanta massacre

September 22 Peace Love Activism

September 22, 1906: after local newspapers reported alleged assaults on four white women by black men, mobs of angry white men gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, streets with the goal of attacking and killing any black man they found. The mobs seized upon street cars, trapped black male passengers, and killed the men by shooting them or brutally beating them to death. When the street cars stopped running, the rioters ransacked black businesses, beating or killing the people inside. The armed white men also chased black men through hotels and white-owned businesses, shooting and killing them in the hallways. The police and fire departments were called upon to quell the unrest but failed, as did the militia.

When asked what he could do to end the violence, Atlanta Mayor James Woodward replied, “The only remedy is to remove the cause. As long as the black brutes assault our white women, just so long will they be unceremoniously dealt with.” Woodward’s ambivalence empowered the mobs and the massacre continued. For a total of four days, black people were chased, beaten, shot, and hung throughout Atlanta and its surroundings. When black citizens of Brownville, a nearby suburb, attempted to arm themselves in defense, Georgia troops raided their homes, taking weapons and arresting those in possession of them. After four days of riots, between 25 and 40 people were dead and countless more were injured. (Georgia encyclopedia article)

Lugenia Burns Hope

September 22 Peace Love Activism

In 1908: Lugenia Burns Hope created the Neighborhood Union, the first woman-run social welfare agency for African Americans in Atlanta, which provided medical, recreational, employment, and educational services and became known for its community building and race and gender activism. [Georgia Encyclopedia article] (see Feb  10)

Black Power

September 22 Peace Love Activism

September 22, 1954: Richard Wright’s book, Black Power, published. It is a non-fiction account of Wright’s trip to Africa’s Gold Coast before it became the free nation of Ghana.

It is the first known use of the phrase Black Power. [Kirkus review] (see “in October”)

Freedom Riders

September 22, 1961: the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) issued a ruling enforcing the desegregation of interstate travel. The ruling removed “whites only” signs from terminals and enforced the end of segregated seating on interstate bus transit effective November 1, 1961. [related Oyez aticle]  (BH, see Sept 25; Freedom Riders, see Nov 1)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAYS

Bulgaria

September 22 Peace Love Activism

September 22, 1908: Bulgaria independent from the Ottoman Empire. (see December 29, 1911)

Mali

September 22 Peace Love Activism

September 22, 1960: Mali independent from France. (see ID for the many other 1960s Independence days)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Immigration History

September 22, 1922: the Cable Act, (the Married Women’s Independent Nationality Act) significantly improved gender equality in nationality law by providing that American women would no longer lose their U.S. citizenship upon marriage to a foreigner—a reversal of the 1907 Expatriation Act, which had essentially declared American women’s citizenship dependent upon their husbands’.  [NWP article] (Feminism, see Nov 21; next IH, see Feb 19; Cabel Act, see May 24, 1934)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

September 22, 1940:  France’s Vichy government (the German collaborators) signed an armistice with Germany. The allied Germany and Japan allowed Vichy France to controlled most French overseas possessions, including Indochina. Japan agreed to allow Japan to station soldiers in Tonkin. During World War II Japan stationed a large number of soldiers and sailors in Vietnam although the French administrative structure was allowed to continue to function. (see Dec 23)

My Lai Massacre

September 22 Peace Love Activism

September 22, 1971: Captain Ernest Medina was acquitted of all charges [murder, manslaughter, and assault ] relating to the My Lai massacre of March 1968. His unit, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) of the 23rd (Americal) Division, was charged with the murder of over 200 Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, at My Lai 4, a cluster of hamlets that made up Son My village in Son Tinh District in Quang Ngai Province in the coastal lowlands of I Corps Tactical Zone.

All charges were dropped when the military judge at the Medina’s court martial made an error in instructing the jury. (next Vietnam, see Oct 29; see Mai Lai for expanded story)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

McCarran Act

September 22, 1950: although vetoed by President Truman, the Senate overrode his veto 89 – 11 and the McCarran Act, or Internal Security Act of 1950 became law.  Among other things, it authorized the creation of concentration camps “for emergency situations.” (Encyclopedia dot com article) (see Dec 9)

Peace Corps

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

September 22, 1961: in an important victory for his Cold War foreign policy, President John F. Kennedy signed legislation establishing the Peace Corps as a permanent government agency. Kennedy believed that the Peace Corps could provide a new and unique weapon in the war against communism. [Peace Corps site] (see Oct 4 – 9)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Oliver W. Sipple

September 22 Peace Love Art ActivismSeptember 22, 1975: President Gerald Ford survived a second assassination attempt. Sara Jane Moore had stood among a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco and was about 40 feet away from Mr. Ford as she aimed a .38-caliber pistol at him. Oliver W. Sipple, a former marine who was standing next to her, knocked her arm upward as she fired, sending the bullet well over Mr. Ford’s head; it ricocheted off a building and slightly injured a person in the crowd. (see Sipple for more about his story)

Domestic partnership statute

September 22, 1999: California became the first state to create a domestic partnership statute, allowing same-sex couples to receive some, but not all, of the protections afforded by marriage. The statute has been expanded over time to include more of the protections afforded to different-sex couples, although it is no substitute for marriage itself. [Overall history]  (see Dec 9)

Louisiana

September 22, 2014: Louisiana state Judge Edward Rubin ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, in part because it violated equal protection rights. Rubin said the ban violated the 14th Amendment and the constitutional requirement that states give “full faith and credit” to each other’s laws. His ruling came in same-sex adoption case of Angela Costanza and her partner, Chasity Brewer.

The judge said Constanza could adopt her partner’s son and be listed as a parent on his birth certificate. The couple’s lawsuit said the state should recognize their marriage, which took place in California.

Laura Gerdes, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, said the office disagreed with the ruling and started the appeals process. [NOLA article] (see Oct 6)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

September 22, 1980: the command council of Iraq ordered its army to “deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets,” initiating the Iran–Iraq War. (see June 7, 1981)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

September 22, 1985: first Farm Aid Concert was held at Champaign, Illinois. The concert was staged to “raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land” and  featured a performers from the worlds of country, folk and rootsy rock music. There were the three main organizers: Bob Dylan, for instance, along with Hoyt Axton, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell and Charley Pride. But the first Farm Aid, more than any of the annual Farm Aid concerts since, was a bit of a stylistic free-for-all, featuring artists united only by their interest in supporting a good cause. “As soon as I read in the paper that there was gonna be such a thing,” Sammy Hagar told MTV’s cameras on the day of the show, “I called my manager and said, ‘I wanna do it.’ And he said, ‘It’s all country.’ I said, ‘I don’t care. It’s America. I wanna do it.’ If there was anything more surprising than hearing Hagar perform his hard-rock anthem “I Can’t Drive 55″ on the same stage that had earlier featured the quiet folk of Arlo Guthrie, it was hearing Lou Reed perform “Walk On The Wild Side” on a stage that had featured John Denver. (see Oct 13)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

September 22, 1989: Deal barracks bombing: An IRA bomb explodes at the Royal Marine School of Music in Deal, Kent, United Kingdom, leaving 11 dead and 22 injured. (see Troubles for expanded story)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

September 22, 1995: CDC reviews Syringe Exchange Programs — United States, 1994-1995. The National Academy of Sciences concluded that syringe exchange programs should be regarded as an effective component of a comprehensive strategy to prevent infectious disease. (see Dec 6)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

September 22, 2012: Kalispell, Montana. Dan Fredenberg, upset with Brice Harper’s romantic involvement with Fredenberg wife, walked through Mr. Harper’s open garage door. Harper aimed a gun at the unarmed Mr. Fredenberg, fired and struck him three times. Fredenberg was dead before morning. (see Oct 9)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH & Colin Kaepernick

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

September 22, 2016: Time magazine featured Colin Kaepernick on the cover in its October 3 issue.

It featured Kaepernick kneeling in his full 49ers uniform. The issue included a cover story from Sean Gregory, where Kaepernick’s protest was a centerpiece in a larger conversation among athletes regarding sports activism and patriotism.

Also on September 22, Houston Texan’s Duane Brown raised a fist while standing during the national anthem

Brown didn’t play due to an injury, but did participate in the protest for the first time that season. He had been vocal about recent police shootings. [Time article] (FS & CK, see Oct 1)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Right to Die

September 22, 2020: The NY Times reported that the Vatican reiterated the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia, which it called “intrinsically evil” acts, “in every situation or circumstance.”

The Vatican’s condemnation did not break new ground, but came as legislation in favor of allowing the ending of lives to relieve suffering has been in discussion or been adopted by a growing number of governments around the world, including in traditionally Catholic countries.

“Euthanasia is a crime,” stated the document, written by the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with Pope Francis’ explicit endorsement. The document accuses lawmakers who approve legislation allowing euthanasia or assisted suicide of being “accomplices of a grave sin that others will execute.” (next RtD, see March 28, 2022 )

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Snowtown Riots

September 21 – 24, 1831: the Snowtown riots [Providence, RI] were  sparked by a saloon brawl. A white sailor was shot by a black; a mob then sacked houses on Olney’s Lane. The next day, it pulled down more houses. On the third day, the militia maintained calm. On the fourth, a thousand rioters crossed the Moshassuck River to attack Snowtown, almost overwhelming the 140 members of the First Light Infantry. After rioters ignored warnings from the sheriff and Gov. Lemuel Arnold, the militia fired first into the air, with no effect, and then into the mob, killing four whites.  [Providence Journal article] (next BH, see Oct 30)

Emmett Till

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

September 21, 1955: Moses Wright, Emmett Till’s great uncle, does the unthinkable–he accused two white men in open court. While on the witness stand, he stands up and points his finger at Milam and Bryant, and accuses them of coming to his house and kidnapping Emmett. (see Till for expanded story)

James Byrd

September 21, 2011: Lawrence  Brewer, murderer of James Byrd, Jr, executed. Shawn Berry was sentenced to life in prison. John King remained on death row. (News media report)

Troy Davis

September 21, 2011: the State of Georgia executed Troy Davis despite evidence of his innocence. Davis, a black man, was sentenced to death in the 1989 fatal shooting of white off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. Supporters of Davis, including the NAACP, Amnesty International, former President Jimmy Carter, and Pope Benedict XVI, had been encouraged by a 2009 United States Supreme Court ruling permitting him to present evidence of his innocence in court, but when the federal trial judge denied relief, the Court refused to review the case and an execution date was set. Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles, not the governor, has exclusive authority to grant clemency. Two days before Davis’s scheduled execution, the board held a full clemency hearing, where it heard from Davis’s attorneys and supporters, prosecutors, and the victim’s family. By that time, seven of the prosecution’s nine key witnesses against Davis had either recanted or backed off their trial testimony and others had come forward to give sworn statements that the State’s main witness had himself confessed to the shooting. The evidence undercutting Davis’s guilt was so compelling that three jurors who sentenced him to death at his 1991 trial urged the board to stop the execution. In addition, more than 600,000 people worldwide signed petitions urging the board to commute Davis’s sentence, citing concerns that executing a man amid so much uncertainty about his guilt would deeply undermine the public’s confidence in the justice system. The board denied clemency on September 20, 2011. In his final words, Davis professed his innocence, expressed condolences to Officer MacPhail’s family, and expressed appreciation to his family and supporters. He was executed by lethal injection on September 21, 2011, and pronounced dead at 11:08 p.m. (CNN report) (BH, see Oct 16; DP, see April 25, 2012)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

September 21, 1921: a collector from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now the Internal Revenue Service) assessed $6,312.79 in excise taxes against Drexel, a furniture manufacturing company in North Carolina, for employing a child under fourteen during the 1919 tax year. Drexel paid the tax under protest and sued for a refund. [court case] (Nov 3)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Daughters of Bilitis

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

September 21, 1955: In San Francisco, the Daughters of Bilitis became the first lesbian rights organization in the US. The organization hosted social functions, providing alternatives to lesbian bars and clubs, which were frequently raided by police.

The name Bilitis is the name given to a lesbian contemporary of Sappho by the French poet Pierre Louÿs in his collection, The Songs of Bilitis (1894).  [Rainbow History article] (LGBTQ, see August 30, 1956; Bilitis, see September 7, 1957)

Defense of Marriage Act

September 21, 1996: President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law. The law defined marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman and that no state is required to recognize a same-sex marriage from out of state. It established a Federal definition of: (1) ‘marriage’ as only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife; and (2) ‘spouse’ as only a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife.”  [Gov Track article on DOMA]  (see February 21, 1997 or see December 13, 2022 for DoMA)

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

September 21, 2010: The US Senate struck down a bill that would end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell with a vote of 56–43, almost completely along party lines. (see Oct 13)

Kentucky

September 21, 2015: gay couples in Kentucky said altered marriage licenses issued by Kim Davis were invalid and a federal judge should order her office to reissue them or put the office in receivership and have someone else do it. When Davis returned to work, she altered the license forms to say they were issued under the authority of the federal court instead of her office.

On this date, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union asked the judge to force the clerk’s office to reissue the licenses. (see Sept 24)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

September 21, 1963: President John Kennedy sent Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Maxwell Taylor to investigate the situation in South Vietnam. He asked for “the best possible on the spot appraisal of the military and paramilitary effort to defeat the Viet Cong”. (see Oct 11)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

September 21 Music et al

Blue Velvet

September 21 – October 11, 1963, “Blue Velvet” by Bobby Vinton #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Written in 1950, it had been recorded already by Tony Bennett (1951) and The Clovers (1955).

“Harper Valley, PTA”

September 21 – 27, 1968: “Harper Valley, PTA” by Jeannie C Riley #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAYS

Malta

September 21, 1964: Malta independent from United Kingdom. [InterContinental Malta site] (see ID for expanded list of 1960s Independence days)

Belize

September 21, 1981: Belize independent of the United Kingdom.  [Belize dot com article] (see Nov 1)

Armenia

September 21, 1991: Armenia declared independence from the Soviet Union. [LA Times article] (Dissolution, see Oct 27; ID, see Oct 8)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

United Farm Workers

September 21, 1983: Rene Lopez, a 21 year old, farm worker, was fatally wounded after voting in an election at the Sikkema Dairy Ranch. The UFW charged that Lopez was shot by the brother-in-law of owner, Ralph Sikkema and an accomplice, Donato Estrada.  David Stirling, the General Counsel to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, dismissed charges on the basis of lack of evidence. [WFW article] (see October 8, 2012)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

September 21, 1998: the Judiciary Committee released and many television networks immediately broadcast more than four hours of President Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony. Along with the videotape, the Judiciary Committee also releases the appendix to the Starr’s report which includes 3,183 pages of testimony and other evidence, including a photograph of Lewinsky’s semen-stained dress. (see Clinton for expanded story)

Native Americans

September 21, 2004: the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) opened with a Native Nations Procession in which over 20,000 indigenous people from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America united and walked along the National Mall to the museum’s entrance. The opening ceremonies lasted from September 21 to 26 with over 300 performances by indigenous representatives.  [NMAI article] (next NA, see February 11, 2008)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Hurricane Katrina

September 21, 2005: the official death toll was raised to 1,036, with 63 additional deaths recognized in Louisiana. This marked the first time since 1928 that a natural disaster in the U.S. had been officially acknowledged to have killed at least 1,000 people. State-by-state death tolls: Louisiana 799, Mississippi 218, Florida 14, Alabama 2, Georgia 2, Tennessee 1. (see Katrina for expanded story)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Emissions cheating

September 21, 2015: Volkswagen said that 11 million diesel cars worldwide were equipped with the same software that was used to cheat on emissions tests in the United States. The company issued a de facto profit warning because of the costs of repairing vehicles to comply with pollution standards. [NYT article]  (see Oct 1)

Arctic Ocean Melt

September 21, 2023: according to a new scientific study, the first summer on record that melts practically all of the Arctic’s floating sea ice could occur as early as the 2030s, — about a decade sooner than researchers previously predicted.

The peer-reviewed findings also showed that this milestone of climate change could materialize even if nations managed to curb greenhouse gas emissions more decisively than they were currently doing. [NYT article] (next EI, see )

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH & Colin Kaepernick

September 21, 2016
Iman Shumpert

Cleveland Cavaliers player Iman Shumpert announced he would raise money for families impacted by police fatalities

On his Twitter and Instagram accounts, Shumpert announced that, for every steal he makes during the 2016-17 NBA season, he will donate money to organizations that aim to “improve the struggle between the badge and the citizen.” While showing support for Kaepernick, he also noted that he would not be kneeling during the national anthem, despite originally hinting at it in a song he released on Sept. 16 titled “His Story,” saying “I no longer believe taking a knee is the answer.”

WNBA

In the Women’s National Basketball Association, the entire Indiana Fever team and two Phoenix Mercury players knelt during the national anthem

Before the first game of the WNBA playoffs, every player on the Indiana Fever locked arms and kneeled during the national anthem, while the Mercury’s Kelsey Bone and Mistie Bass joined them on the other side. Afterward, Fever coach Stephanie White told her team that she was “proud of y’all for doing that together.” (FS & CK, see Sept 22)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

September 21, 2020: an NPR article reported that their reporters had obtained 305 autopsy reports of inmates executed in nine states between 1990 and 2019. Nearly all autopsies were gathered through public records requests; several were taken from public evidence submitted in federal court cases. The states included Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia.

NPR then consulted with pathologists, pulmonologists and anesthesiologists to interpret the autopsies. Lung analysis was based on the internal examination notes written by medical examiners, and, when available, microscopy provided in the reports. Prevalence of pulmonary edema was determined, in consultation with doctors, by the presence of terms such as “pulmonary edema,” “edema/edematous,” “froth,” “foam” and “congestion.”

In the large majority of cases, there was such a presence indicating that the executed likely experienced the feeling of suffocation or drowning. (next DP, see January 13, 2021)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

 

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Equal Rights Party

September 20, 1884: a group of American suffragists formed the Equal Rights Party in San Francisco, dedicated to “equal and exact justice to every class of our citizens, without distinction of color, sex, or nationality” and in support of the proposition that “the laws of the several states be so amended that women will be recognized as voters, and their property-rights made equal with that of the male population, to the end that they may become self-supporting – rather than a dependent class.”

The party nominated and ran Belva Ann Lockwood for President that year. (see March 1886)

“Battle of the Sexes”

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

September 20, 1973:  in a highly publicized “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, top women’s player Billie Jean King, 29, beat Bobby Riggs, 55, a former No. 1 ranked men’s player. Riggs (1918-1995), a self-proclaimed male chauvinist, had boasted that women were inferior, that they couldn’t handle the pressure of the game and that even at his age he could beat any female player. The match was a huge media event, witnessed in person by over 30,000 spectators at the Houston Astrodome and by another 50 million TV viewers worldwide. King made a Cleopatra-style entrance on a gold litter carried by men dressed as ancient slaves, while Riggs arrived in a rickshaw pulled by female models. Legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell called the match, in which King beat Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. King’s achievement not only helped legitimize women’s professional tennis and female athletes, but it was seen as a victory for women’s rights in general. [NYT pdf: King defeats Riggs] (see Nov 12)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

US Labor History

September 20, 1891:  African American sharecroppers affiliated with the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance and Union go on strike for higher wages and an end to peonage in Lee County, Arkansas. By the time a white mob – led by the local sheriff – put down the strike, more than a dozen people had been killed. [TSHA article] (BH, see March 9, 1892; Labor, see Oct 31)

Emmett Till

September 20, 1955:  Judge Curtis Swango recesses the court to allow more witnesses to be found. It is the first time in Mississippi history that local law enforcement, local NAACP leaders and black and white reporters team up to locate sharecroppers who saw Milam’s truck and overheard Emmett being beaten. (see Emmett Till)

see Martin Luther King, Jr assassination attempt for more

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

September 20, 1958: Dr Aubre de L Maynard, chief of surgery at Harlem Hospital, removed a letter opener from the chest of Martin Luther King, Jr. Izola Ware Curry had stabbed King with a steel letter opener while he signed copies of his book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.  Curry also carried a fully loaded .25-calibre automatic.

In 1968, the day before he was assassinated, King spoke to a group and referred to this incident:

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had merely sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I’ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I’d received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I’ve forgotten what that letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I’ll never forget it. It said simply,

Dear Dr. King,

I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School.”

And she said,

While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I’m a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.

 And I want to say tonight — I want to say tonight that I too am happy that I didn’t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream, and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. (BH, see  Sept 27; MLK, see January 24, 1960; Curry, see March 7, 2015) (PDF NYT article: MLK stabbed)

James H Meredith

September 20, 1962: defying orders of the Federal courts, Mississippi Governor Ross R Barnett denied Meredith admission to the University of Mississippi. The Justice Department immediately obtained contempt of court citations against Dr J D Williams, university chancellor; Dr Robert B Ellis, registrar, and Dean Anthony B Lewis. (see September 25, 1962)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

September 20, 1965: eleven U.S. warplanes were shot down over North and South Vietnam. (see Sept 25)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

September 20 Music et al

Beatles break-up

September 20, 1969: John Lennon announced to the others that he was leaving the band. (see Sept 26)

Blind Faith

September 20, 1969 – October 3, 1969: Blind Faith’s Blind Faith is the Billboard #1 album. (article about cover)

“Sugar, Sugar”

September 20 – October 17, 1969: “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was the most successful song in the bubblegum rock genre. There was no actual Archies group  but a group of studio musicians who played behind the animated Archie TV characters.

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Calvin Graham

September 20, 1976: Graham again requested an honorable discharge from the Navy. (see Calvin Graham)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

East Beirut, Lebanon

September 20 Peace Love Activism

September 20, 1984:  the Shi’a Islamic militant group Hezbollah, with support and direction from the Islamic Republic of Iran, carried out a suicide car bombing targeting the U.S. embassy annex in East Beirut, Lebanon. The attack killed 24 people. including 2 U.S. military. [NYT article] (see Dec 4)

Oklahoma City Explosion

September 20, 1994:  Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh rented a storage shed and began gathering supplies for the truck bomb they would use in Oklahoma City.(see April 19, 1995)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

September 20, 1998: California made Native American Day an official state holiday. [Day’s site]  (see March 22, 1999)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

September 20 Peace Love ActivismSeptember 20, 2006: The Heart Mountain Relocation Center, which had held almost 11,000 Japanese-Americans interned during World War II, was designated a National Historic Landmark on this day, to be maintained by the National Park Service. The closest town to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center is Ralston, Wyoming, with a population of less than 300 people, about 76 miles from Billings, Montana. [HM site] (see Dec 21)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

September 20, 2011: the US military officially ended its policy of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” allowing gay and lesbian personal to publicly declare their sexual orientation. [HRC article]  (see Sept 29)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

People’s Climate March

September 20, 2014: hundreds of thousands of demonstrators from around the world turned out for the massive People’s Climate March, filling the streets of midtown Manhattan with demands for global leaders take action to avert catastrophic climate change. [Huff Post article] (see Dec 17)

States sue NHTFA

September 20, 2019: two days after Trump’s announcement, California, 22 other states and several major cities filed a lawsuit in federal court against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is the division of the Department of Transportation that issued the rule revoking California’s authority.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the complaint stated that the move “exceeds NHTSA’s authority, contravenes Congressional intent, and is arbitrary and capricious, and because NHTSA has failed to conduct the analysis required under the National Environmental Policy Act.”

The NEPA, signed into law in 1970, was considered a kind of “national charter” for regulating the protection of the environment. (next EI, see Sept 25)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

 FREE SPEECH & Colin Kaepernick

September 20, 2016: in support of Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racial injustice, several members of Oakland Unified School District’s Honor Band took a knee while playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It happened toward the end of the song.

Band director Zack Pitt-Smith said he didn’t know until rehearsal that the band was going to kneel, saying that the idea originally came from a few students and eventually spread around. John Sasaki, a spokesperson for the school district, stated that the organization was “proud” of its students for making the decision to kneel:

“They knew that this was a controversial issue across our nation, and yet they decided to go ahead with their protest knowing it would not be well-received by some Americans.”

That evening, during his appearance on Conan, Marshawn Lynch was asked about his thoughts on Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem. Lynch said he’d rather see Kaepernick “take a knee than stand up, put his hands up, and get murdered.”  [East Bay Times article] (FS & CK, see Sept 21)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

Three-Mile Island

September 20, 2019:  Three Mile Island’s single remaining reactor (Unit 1) generated its last kilowatt of energy and closed, a victim not of the anti-nuclear movement but rather of simple economics. Even though the plant is licensed to operate until 2034, Exelon Generation is ceasing operations after the state of  Pennsylvania earlier this year refused to throw the company a financial lifeline that would have kept it open. (see Oct 5)

September 20 Peace Love Art Activism