November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Abolitionist Elijah P Lovejoy murdered

November 7, 1837: abolitionist, clergyman and editor Elijah P. Lovejoy was killed by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Ill., as he defended his newly delivered printing press. Lovejoy was a Presbyterian minister, journalist, and news editor first established a newspaper called the St. Louis Observer in St. Louis, Missouri but was eventually run out of town for his critical editorials about slavery and other religions. He established a new newspaper in Alton, Illinois called the Alton Observer. On three occasions a pro-slavery mob destroyed his printing press for his strongly abolitionist views. When they attempted to destroy the final printing press, Lovejoy tried to intervene but was shot five times by the angry mob who were armed with shotguns. Lovejoy then was viewed as a martyr for the abolitionist movement and inspired antislavery ideas in the North. No one was ever convicted for his murder. (see  Dec 21)

Successful Slave revolt

November 7, 1841: a slave revolt occurred on a slave trader ship, the ‘Creole,’ which was en route from Hampton, Va., to New Orleans, La.,. Slaves overpowered crew and sailed vessel to Bahamas where they were granted asylum and freedom. [Black Past article] (SR, see December 26, 1848; BH, see August 1842)

Scottsboro Tavesty

November 7, 1932: in Powell v. Alabama by a vote of 7 -2, Supreme Court reversed the convictions. The Court ruled that the defendants were denied the right to counsel, which violated their right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. The cases were remanded to the lower court. (Scottsboro, see Scottsboro; Right to counsel, see May 23, 1938)

Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City v. Dawson

November 7, 1955: a per curiam order by the US Supreme Court affirming an order by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that enjoined racial segregation in public beaches and bathhouses. The case arose from a challenge to segregation at Sandy Point State Park in Maryland.

Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company

November 7, 1955: the Interstate Commerce Commission, in response to a bus segregation complaint filed in 1953 by a Women’s Army Corps private named Sarah Louise Keys, broke with its historic adherence to the Plessy v. Ferguson separate but equal doctrine and interpreted the non-discrimination language of the Interstate Commerce Act as banning the segregation of black passengers in buses traveling across state lines. [Black Then article] (see Nov 9)

Cleveland’s first Black mayor

November 7, 1967: Carl B. Stokes elected mayor of Cleveland becoming the first African American mayor of a major US city. (see Dec 29)

Nixon/Jordan/Young

November 7, 1972: Nixon reelected in one of the largest landslides in American political history, taking more than 60 percent of the vote and crushing the Democratic nominee, Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota.

Also, Barbara Jordan of Houston and Andrew Young of Atlanta, become the first African Americans from the south elected to Congress since Reconstruction. (BH, see Nov 23;  see Watergate for expanded chronology)

NYC’s first Black mayor; Virginia’s first Black governor

November 7, 1989: David Dinkins elected first African American mayor of New York City.

Douglas Wilder wins the Virginia governor’s race, becoming the first elected African American governor. (see Dec 7)

Interracial marriage legal in Alabama

November 7, 2000: Alabama became the last state to officially legalize interracial marriage. By November 2000, interracial marriage had been legal in every state for more than three decades after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Loving v. Virginia (1967) – but the Alabama State Constitution still contained an unenforceable ban in Section 102: “The legislature shall never pass any law to authorise or legalise any marriage between any white person and a Negro or descendant of a Negro.” The Alabama State Legislature clung to the old language as a symbolic statement of the state’s views on interracial marriage; as recently as 1998, House leaders successfully killed attempts to remove Section 102. When voters finally had the opportunity to remove the language, the outcome was close: although 59% of voters supported removing the language, 41% favored keeping it. Interracial marriage remained controversial in the Deep South, where a 2011 poll found that a plurality of Mississippi Republicans still support anti-miscegenation laws. (Alabama results) (see Dec 16)

University of Missouri football

November 7, 2015: dozens of black University of Missouri football players said that they would boycott all football-related activities — including games — until the university’s president, Timothy M. Wolfe, steps down or was removed. At issue, the players and other student activists said, were recent instances of racism directed at black students and a lack of action from administrators that the students contend have combined to create an intolerable atmosphere on campus. Wolfe resigned on November 9.

137 SHOTS

November 7, 2017:  Cleveland settled a federal lawsuit filed by Lt. Johnny Hamm who said the city and police Chief Calvin Williams retaliated against him for a series of Facebook posts about the 22-mile police chase that left two people dead.

The notice that Hamm reach a settlement with the city was filed in front of U.S. District Christopher Boyko. The city refused to discuss the terms of the settlement. (see 137 shots for more)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting rights

November 7, 1893:  passage of a referendum made Colorado the first state to grant women the right to vote.(F, see Dec 8)

In 1897 Josephine Dodge founded the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. Dodge was the first president, the NAOWS believed that woman suffrage would decrease women’s work in communities and their ability to effect societal reforms. Active on a state and federal level, the group also established a newsletter, Woman’s Protest( reorganized as Woman Patriot in 1918), that was a bellwether of anti-suffrage opinion. In 1918 the NAOWS moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C., where it operated until its disbandment following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Woman Patriot continued to be published through the 1920s, generally opposing the work of feminists and liberal women’s groups.(Feminism, see  March 18, 1898;  VR, see April 25, 1898)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Domestic terrorism

November 7, 1922: Oregon voters approved the Compulsory Education Act, a Ku Klux Klan-sponsored initiative, which required children between the ages of 8 and 16 to attend public schools. The law was motivated by KKK anti-Catholic bias and would have effectively closed down parochial schools in the state. In the 1920s the Klan was a major force in many states outside of the South, and was particularly active with regard to anti-Catholic bias. On June 1, 1925, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional because it interfered with the right of parents to control the education of their children.(T, see June 14, 1924; Oregon, see June 1, 1925)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

November 7, 1957: the final report from a special committee called by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to review the nation’s defense readiness indicated that the US was falling far behind the Soviets in missile capabilities, and urged a vigorous campaign to build fallout shelters to protect American citizens.(see Nov 17)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

November 7 Music et al

Bob Newhart

November 7 – December 11, 1960: The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart comedy album returns to Billboard #1.

John meets Yoko

November 7, 1966: John Lennon visited the Indica Gallery in London where he met Yoko Ono who was displaying her art. The Indica Gallery was in the basement of the Indica Bookshop in Mason’s Yard, just off Duke Street in Mayfair, London and co-owned by John Dunbar, Peter Asher, and Barry Miles, and was supported in its early years by Paul McCartney. (see Nov 19)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Harvard protests

November 7, 1966: Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara faced a student protest when he visited Harvard University to address a small group of students. As he left a dormitory, about 100 demonstrators shouted at him and demanded a debate. When McNamara tried to speak, supporters of the Students for a Democratic Society shouted him down. McNamara then attempted to leave, but 25 demonstrators crowded around his automobile so that it could not move. Police intervened and escorted McNamara from the campus. (click >>>Harvard) (see Nov 15)

Draft deferments cancelled

November 7, 1967: the Selective Service Commission announced that college students arrested in anti-war demonstrations would lose their draft deferments. (see draft) (see Nov 11)

WAR POWERS ACT

November 7, 1973: both the House and Senate passed the War Powers Act, overriding President Nixon’s veto.

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

UN Declaration

November 7, 1967: the U.N. Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women was adopted, stating that discrimination against women was fundamentally unjust and constituted an offense against human dignity. It set out equal rights for women in education, civil law, electoral politics and the workplace, among other articles. [text] (see January 15, 1968)

Hillary Rodham Clinton

November 7, 2000: the Presidential election ended without a clear winner. Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first First Lady of the United States to win public office. (election, see Nov 26; next F, see January 22, 2001)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Briggs Initiative defeated

November 7, 1978: voters rejected the Briggs Initiative by more than a million votes John Briggs had dropped out of the California governor’s race, but received support for Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, a proposal to fire any teacher or school employee who publicly supported gay rights. Harvey Milk campaigned against the bill and attended every event hosted by Briggs. In the summer, attendance had greatly increased at Gay Pride marches in San Francisco and Los Angeles, partly in response to Briggs. President Jimmy Carter, former Governor Ronald Reagan, and Governor Jerry Brown speak out against the proposition. (see April 1, 2001)

Initiative Measure 416

November 7, 2000: anti-gay forces in Nebraska push through the discriminatory Initiative Measure 416 at the ballot, constitutionally prohibiting the state from respecting any form of family status or recognition for same-sex couples. (see Nov 27)

Same-sex marriage denied

November 7, 2006: constitutional amendments denying same-sex couples the freedom to marry passed in seven more states – Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Arizona becomes the first state to reject an anti-gay marriage amendment at the ballot. (see December 14, 2006)

slowly but surely things changed…

November 7, 2013: the US Senate approved a ban on discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity, voting 64 to 32 in a bipartisan show of support that was rare for any social issue. It was the first time in the institution’s history that it had voted to include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the country’s nondiscrimination law. (see Nov 15)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ War I

November 7, 1991:  the last oil well fire in Kuwait is extinguished. (see April 14 – 16, 1993)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

Colorado/Nevada

November 7, 2000: fifty-four percent of voters in Colorado approved Amendment 20, which amended the state’s constitution to recognize the medical use of marijuana. The law took effect on June 1, 2001. It removed state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess written documentation from their physician. The law established a confidential state-run patient registry that issues identification cards to qualifying patients…

Sixty-five percent of voters in Nevada approved Question 9, which amended the states’ constitution to recognize the medical use of marijuana. The law took effect on October 1, 2001. The law removed state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who have ‘written documentation’ from their physician… The law establishes a confidential state-run patient registry that issues identification cards to qualifying patients.” (see May 14, 2001)

November 7 measures

November 7, 2017: The Cannabis News headline on the day’selection results said: “Marijuana Won Tuesday’s Election.”

• In Philadelphia, Lawrence Krasner, an outspoken advocate of non-enforcement of laws against marijuana use, was elected district attorney.
• In Detroit, voters strongly approved two measures that will allow medical marijuana businesses to operate in more areas of the city and stay open longer. Recreational marijuana legalization is likely to be petitioned onto the Michigan ballot next November, and the Detroit results are seen as good news for the state initiative.
• In Athens, Ohio, home of Ohio University, voters approved a city ordinance to completely eliminate fines and court costs for possessing and cultivating up to 200 grams (about 7 ounces) of marijuana. The vote was 77 percent to 22 percent in favor.
• In Virginia, Democratic Governor-Elect Ralph Northam had made marijuana decriminalization a centerpiece of his campaign, emphasizing the disproportionate number of black Virginians who are arrested on marijuana charges in the state. Blacks are 2.8 times more likely to be busted for pot than whites in Virginia.
• In New Jersey, governor-elect Phil Murphy promised to sign a bill to legalize recreational marijuana in New Jersey (next Marijuana, see January 1, 2018; NJ, see March 25, 2019)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

November 7, 2002:  U.S. Roman Catholic bishops picked Kathleen McChesney , the FBI’s top-ranking woman, to head a new office charged with making sure American church leaders adhere to clerical sex abuse policy. McChesney was named director of the Office for Child and Youth Protection, a critical post as the bishops try to re-establish their credibility. [NYT article] (see Nov 13)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

November 7, 2013: Jesse M. Furman of Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that New York City had violated the rights of about 900,000 of its residents with disabilities by failing to accommodate for their needs during emergencies, Furman found that the city, through “benign neglect,” was in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. [NYT article] (see Nov 8)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

TERRORISM

November 7, 2017: a window was broken and an incendiary device was placed inside a women’s health clinic in Champaign, IL.

The FBI investigated the attempted arson as a civil rights violation. Authorities investigated the act as an attempted arson.

The FBI says the attempted arson violates the FACE act, which protects people’s right to reproductive health care. (Terrorism, see Nov 20;  Champaign, see March 13, 2018)

Affordable Care Act

November 7, 2017: the University of Notre Dame reversed it October 27 decision and announced that faculty, students, and staff would be able to obtain coverage for contraceptives through their university-sponsored insurance plans. [Indy Star article] (WH, see Nov 22; ACA, see Dec 21; ND, see Feb 7)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

November 7, 2017: diplomat, Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s top diplomat, issued yet another stern warning that the Iran nuclear agreement that was reached in 2015 could not be reopened for negotiation or changed, as President Trump had vowed to do.

“Renegotiating part of the agreement or the entire agreement is not an option,” said Mogherini, who served as the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. [NYT article]  (next N/C N,see Nov 9; next Iran, see January 12, 2018)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

November 7, 2019: the Trump administration changed a 25-year-old policy to make it easier for coastal communities to take sand from protected ecosystems to improve their beaches.

The shift made it cheaper for some of the wealthiest communities in the country to replenish their beachfronts, which were increasingly under threat from more frequent and intense storms, rising seas and other effects of climate change. Critics said that would come at the expense of vulnerable coastal ecosystems.

“Undeveloped coastal islands and beaches will now be opened up to sand mining that will imperil birds and other wildlife, destroy important habitat and reduce the protections these places provide against impacts of storms and erosion,” said Karen Hyun, vice president for coastal conservation at the National Audubon Society, in a statement. [NYT article] (next EI, see Nov 13)

November 7 Peace Love Art Activism

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

History fills every day. In 1917, suffragists finally got a foothold in New York when women there won the right to vote. Three years later, women voted nationally for the first time. The US government offered citizenship to Native American veterans.Few of us have heard of Rudolph Anderson, but he was the only US fatality during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And when the Symbionese Liberation Army first struck, we’d never heard that name, either. 

Feminism

Voting Rights

November 6, 1917:  the woman suffrage referendum succeeded in New York. New York was the first eastern state to grant women the vote. (NYT sufferage article) (see Nov 10)

and exactly three years later…

November 6, 1920:  following the ratification of the 19th amendment on August 18, 1920, women across entire United States vote for first time. In Yoncalla, Oregon, woman won every council seat. (Women vote for first time) (next Feminism, see November 23, 1921; VR, see February 27, 1922)

Nancy Pelosi

November 6, 2006: mid-term elections resulted in the Democrats gaining control of both houses of Congress; Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House. (see January 4, 2007)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

1919 American Indian Citizenship Act

 

Native Americans were not considered citizens of the United States despite the obvious fact that they were born and lived here for thousands of years before there even was a United States. Native Americans fought in support of US troops in every was. On November 6, 1919, Congress enacted the 1919 American Indian Citizenship Act, but it did not grant automatic citizenship to American Indian veterans who had received an honorable discharge. The Act merely authorized those American Indian veterans who wanted to become American citizens to apply for and be granted citizenship. Few Indians actually followed through on the process.

“BE IT ENACTED . . . that every American Indian who served in the Military or Naval Establishments of the United States during the war against the Imperial German Government, and who has received or who shall hereafter receive an honorable discharge, if not now a citizen and if he so desires, shall, on proof of such discharge and after proper identification before a court of competent jurisdiction, and without other examination except as prescribed by said court, be granted full citizenship with all the privileges pertaining thereto, without in any manner impairing or otherwise affecting the property rights, individuals or tribal, of any such Indian or his interest in tribal or other Indian property.”

(click for a longer article on citizenship and Native Americans around this time >>> Daily Kos) (see June 2, 1924)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Spangler, PA explosion

November 6, 1922: a coal mine explosion in Spangler, Pa., killed 79. The mine had been rated gaseous in 1918, but at the insistence of new operators it was rated as non-gaseous even though miners had been burned by gas on at least four occasions (see April 2, 1923)

Mount Lemmon Fire District v. Guido

November 6, 2018:the US Supreme Court decided in Mount Lemmon Fire District v. Guido that the Mount Lemmon Arizona Fire District had unlawfully terminated the employment of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs alleged  that their termination as firefighters was in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).

The District responded that it was too small to qualify as an “employer.”  The Court noted that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had, for 30 years, interpreted the ADEA to cover political subdivisions regardless of size, and a majority of the states impose age discrimination proscriptions on political subdivisions with no numerical threshold. (see January 14, 2019)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

McCarthyism/the KKK/Kickbacks

November 6, 1946: the Republican Party won a majority in both the House and Senate, ushering in a major revival of institutional anticommunist activity, publicly spearheaded by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Joe McCarthy won election to the U.S. Senate from Wisconsin.

In 1947,the House on Un-American Activities decided not to investigate the Ku Klux Klan’s violent actions. HUAC’s chief counsel, Ernest Adamson, announced: “The committee has decided that it lacks sufficient data on which to base a probe,” HUAC member John Rankin added: “After all, the KKK is an old American institution.”

It was reported that from 1947 – 1949 Senator Joe McCarthy had accepted kickbacks from Pepsi Cola totaling $20,000 in exchange for helping Pepsi to circumvent the post-war sugar rationing.   He also received another $10,000 from entrepreneurs in the pre-fabricated housing industry.  Shortly thereafter, McCarthy joined the Senate Housing Committee and went on the road to speak out against public housing for veterans, extolling the benefits of the pre-fabricated home and offering it as an alternative. (FH, see May 3, 1948: RS, see Feb 17)

Rudolph Anderson

November 6, 1962: during the Cuban Missile Crisis on October 27, US Air Force pilot Rudolph Anderson took off in a U-2F (spy plane) from McCoy Air Force Base in Orlando Florida. 

A few hours into his mission, he was shot down by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile near Banes, Cuba. Anderson was killed when shrapnel from the exploding proximity warhead punctured his pressure suit causing it to decompress at high altitude.

On October 31, Acting United Nations Secretary U Thant returned from a visit with Premier Fidel Castro and announced that Anderson was dead.

On this date, Rudolph Anderson’s body interred in Greenville, South Carolina at Woodlawn Memorial Park.  (next Cold War, see December 15 – March 8, 1963)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Roland T. Price

November 6, 1947: six white police officers shot an unarmed 25-year-old Black military veteran named Roland T. Price shot 25 times outside of a bar in Rochester, New York. The shooting was deemed “justified” even though evidence showed that Mr. Price did not resist the officers’ demands. [EJI story] (next BH, see  January 12, 1948)

South Africa, Apartheid

November 6, 1962: the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1761, which condemned Apartheid in South Africa and called on member-nations to boycott the country. The Resolution also set up a Special Committee against Apartheid. [PDF] (see July 11, 1963)

Dee/Moore Murders

November 6, 1964: after an extensive FBI investigation, state authorities arrested James Ford Seale and Charles Marcus Edwards for the kidnapping and murder of Henry Dee and Charles Moore. (see Dee/Moore for expanded story; BH, see Nov 9)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Calvin Graham

November 6, 1950: Graham enlisted in the US Marine Corps. His “birth certificate” indicated he was 17. He was actually 12. (see Calvin Graham for expanded story)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Presidential Elections

Dwight D Eisenhower

November 6, 1956, Dwight D Eisenhower re-elected defeating Adlai Stevenson.

Ronald Reagan

November 6, 1984: Ronald Reagan defeated Walter F. Mondale with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon’s 61% victory in 1972.

Reagan carried 49 states in the electoral college; Mondale won only his home state of Minnesota by a mere 3,761 vote margin and the District of Columbia.

Wilson Goode elected first African American mayor of Philadelphia.

Barak Obama

November 6, 2012, Barak Obama re-elected President. A protest at the University of Mississippi against his re-election grew into crowd of about 400 people with shouted racial slurs. Two people were arrested on minor charges. The university said that the gathering at the student union began late Tuesday night with about 30 to 40 students, but grew within 20 minutes as word spread. Some students chanted political slogans while others used derogatory racial statements and profanity, the statement said.

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

see November 6 Music et al for more

Turn! Turn! Turn!

In 1962, Pete Seeger used verses from the Bible’s Book of Ecclesiastes to write song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” which promoted peaceful aims. (see Dec 23)

Big Bad John

November 6 – December 10, 1961: “Big Bad John” by Jimmy Dean #1 Billboard Hot 100.

Rock Venues

November 6, 1965:  promoter Bill Graham put on his first show, a benefit for the radical San Francisco Mime Troupe at the Calliope Warehouse in San Francisco. He did it to raise money for a legal defense fund for a member of the troupe who been arrested a few days earlier. The troupe’s offices were in the warehouse and they figured they could hold about 400 – 500 people. The donation to get in was “at least $1.00”. About 4000 people showed up.

For entertainment, Bill hired a band who also rehearsed in the same warehouse. The band was the Jefferson Airplane. They played 3 songs. Also on the bill were The Fugs and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. (see Dec 10)

Get Off My Cloud

November 6 – 19, 1965, “Get Off My Cloud” by the Rolling Stones #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

see Raccoon Creek Rock Festival for more

November 6 – 8, 1969: Livingston Gym, Denison University (Granville, OH). The Who. The Spirit and Johnny Winter. Supporting acts: Owen B, The Dust

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

 Draft Card Burning

November 6, 1965: at a peace demonstration in Union Square, NYC, Thomas Cornell (teacher) Marc Edelman (cabinetmaker), Roy Lisker (novelist and teacher), and James Watson (on staff of Catholic Worker Pacifist Movement) burn their draft cards, [Dorothy Day speech that day] (Vietnam, see Nov 9; DCB, see Dec 21)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

November 6, 1973:  after several months of weapons training, the S.L.A. committed its first revolutionary act. They ambush and murder black Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster and seriously wound his deputy, Robert Blackburn. (Marcus Foster article) [see SLA for more] (see February 4, 1974)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

Massachusetts

November 6, 2012: Massachusetts became the 18^th state to approve medical marijuana. (see July 23, 2013)

2018 Mid-term elections

November 6, 2018:  on election day four states had a marijuana-related propositions. Here were the results:

• Michigan approved adult-use recreational marijuana.
• Missouri approved one of three medical-marijuana use propositions.
• Utah approved medical marijuana use.
• North Dakota voted down voted down recreational-marijuana use. (next Marijuana, see March 25, 2019)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

November 6, 2013: Burt Neuborne, a law professor at New York University, filed a legal brief in the federal appeals court in Manhattan on behalf of Judge Scheindlin, asking that he and a team of four other prominent lawyers be allowed to challenge the order disqualifying her from the stop-and-frisk case. The motion called the order removing her from the case procedurally deficient, inaccurate and unwarranted, and asked that it be vacated or reviewed by the full appeals court.  (NYT article) (see Nov 13)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Bans struck down

November 6, 2014: in a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed lower court rulings in Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky that struck down same-sex marriage bans, allowing four states to prohibit same-sex unions. (NYT article) (see Nov 12)

Jared Polis

November 6, 2018:  Colorado voters made history election night by choosing Jared Polis to become the state’s next governor. Polis became the nation’s first openly gay governor.

Kim Davis

November 6, 2018:  Kim Davis lost her bid for re-election. Davis, who switched to the Republican Party before the election, faced Democrat Elwood Caudill. Caudill won 54% of the approximately 7,800 votes cast in the race. [LGBTQ Nation article] (next Kim Davis, see October 5, 2020)

Native American

November 6, 2018: Sharice Davids beat Kevin Yoder in the Kansas 3rd District race, becoming the first lesbian Native American congresswoman.

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual abuse of children

November 6, 2014:  the Archdiocese of Chicago released thousands of internal documents showing how it hid the sexual abuse of children by 36 priests, adding to similar disclosures made earlier this year and fulfilling a pledge by Cardinal Francis George to release the files before he retired.

“We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue,” George said in a statement. “Child abuse is a crime and a sin.”

In January, the archdiocese had released 6,000 documents on 30 abusive priests as part of a legal settlement with victims, and on this day posted online 15,000 more records related to 36 others and involving abuse allegations dating to the early 1950s. The files only covered cases in which the archdiocese substantiated the abuse, and did not include those against priests who died before their accusers came forward or those who served in religious orders. [AP News article]  (see April 21, 2015)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

November 6, 2015: President Barack Obama rejected the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada in a victory for environmentalists who campaigned against the project for more than seven years.

“The pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy,” Obama told a press conference. He said it would not reduce gasoline prices, and shipping “dirtier” crude from Canada would not increase U.S. energy security. [Reuters article] (see Dec 12)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH & Colin Kaepernick

November 6, 2016: Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall decided to stand during the anthem again. Before the Broncos’ Sunday Night Football matchup against the Raiders, Marshall explained in an Instagram post why he would no longer kneel during the national anthem.

“I’m encouraged with the many productive discussions and progress that has taken place as the Denver Police department has decided to review its use of force policy, ” Marshall wrote. “I’m proud to have joined so many of my peers throughout sports who’ve also made their own statements.”   [Denver Post article](CK, see March 1, 2017; FS, see March 2, 2017)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

TPS

November 6, 2017:  the Trump administration gave 2,500 Nicaraguans with provisional residency 14 months to leave the United States, announcing that it would not renew the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation that has allowed them to remain in the country for nearly two decades.

Trump officials deferred a decision for the much larger group of 57,000 Hondurans who had been living in the United States with the same designation, saying the Department of Homeland Security needed more time to consider their fate. [Washington Post article]  (IH, see Nov 13; Hondurans, see May 4, 2018)

Mental Health Services

November 6, 2019: Judge John Kronstadt ruled that the U.S. government must provide mental health services to thousands of migrant parents and children who were separated under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy,.

Kronstadt found that the government had taken “affirmative steps to implement the zero-tolerance policy” which subsequently caused “severe mental trauma to parents and their children.” Kronstadt issued a preliminary injunction that would require the government to immediately make mental health resources available to migrants who experienced the forced separation—which includes screenings, counseling, and other services.

The judge also said the Trump administration could be held accountable for the psychological harm that the family separation policy caused. [NYT story] (see Nov 13)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Vernon Madison

November 6, 2017: the Supreme Court allowed the execution of  Vernon Madison, an  Alabama inmate who, after several strokes, could not remember the 1985 murder that sent him to death row.

The court’s opinion was unanimous, and there were no noted dissents, but three of the court’s more liberal justices filed concurring opinions saying the case presented a substantial legal question to which the court should return. [AL article] (see January 8, 2018)

Benjamin Schreiber

November 6, 2019: Benjamin Schreiber was found guilty of first-degree murder in 1997 and sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole.

According to court records , he was hospitalized in March 2015 after large kidney stones caused him to develop septic poisoning. He was rushed from the Iowa State Penitentiary to the hospital in 2015, where his heart was restarted five times. He had signed a “do not resuscitate” agreement years earlier and claimed after recovering that his life sentence was fulfilled in his short-lived death. 

A district court denied Schreiber’s request, writing that it found his claim “unpersuasive and without merit,” and on this date Judge Amanda Potterfield affirmed that district court’s decision.

Potterfield wrote, “Schreiber is either still alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is actually dead, in which case this appeal is moot” and that Schreiber’s sentence isn’t up until a medical examiner declares he is deceased. (see Nov 20)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

November 6, 2019: federal Judge Paul A. Engelmayer ruled in New York struck down a May 2, 2019 rule  letting health care clinicians object to providing abortions and other services on moral or religious grounds.

Engelmayer’s ruling came after health organizations and others sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Others opposing the rule include women’s groups, organizations and states.

The had rule let clinicians object to providing abortions and other services that conflict with their moral and religious beliefs. [PBS story] (next WH, see Dec 9)

November 6 Peace Love Art Activism