The first rock festival in the sense most people think of, that is, an outdoor multi-day event with a variety of performers can be traced back to the 1967 Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival which happened a few weeks before the more famous Monterey International Pop Music Festival.
Of course, Alan Freed had large indoor rock concerts beginning in March 1952 with his Moondog Coronation Ball.
Rock music had expanded over the 14 years since that four-hour one-night event and by 1966 the music scene in San Francisco evolved into the Trips Festival.
1966 San Francisco Trips Festival
Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand was the main organizer of the festival Trained as a biologist, he had discovered the use of peyote while doing research concerning Native Americans. From that study, he founded the America Needs Indians organization.
Like many Americans in the 1960s, space exploration fascinated him. He wondered why a satellite had never taken a picture of our planet from space? With that question in mind, Brand made buttons asking that quesiton [“Why haven’t we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?] and drove across the United States selling the buttons in an effort to raise awareness of the question.
In 1967 NASA took the whole Earth picture and in 1967 Brand used it on the cover of his new publication, the Whole Earth Catelog.
1966 San Francisco Trips Festival
Promo
The advertisement for the festival said that it would be “…the FIRST gathering of its kind anywhere. the TRIP –or electronic performance –is a new medium of communication & entertainment.”
In other words, it would be a festival of performance art and those in attendance were part of the show. It also included a liquid light show, something new but eerily familiar to those acid test initiated.
1966 San Francisco Trips Festival
Buchla
Prankster Ken Babbs recalls, “We had this guy build us a soundboard; Buchla [Donald “Don” Buchla} . He lived in San Francisco and he built us this thing called the Buchla Box. I think he worked on the Moog synthesizer. This guy was unbelievable. …he had ten speakers set up … in the balcony. He had this board in which he could run the sound around in circles…[and] … would isolate one, and have sound wheeling around the room. He had this thing like a piano that was just flat and you ran your fingers across it and it would play the notes. Made it himself, absolutely fantastic. He made up this box for us that was essentially a mixer and a mike amp and a speaker box and an earphone box. ” Jerry’s Brokendown Palace site
1966 San Francisco Trips Festival
Acid Test
The idea was not new. Ken Kesey, Ken Babbs, and the other Merry Pranksters had begun acid tests in November 1965. In a sense, the Tests were miniatures of what the Trips Festival would do on a grander scale. Unfortunately for Ken Kesey, police had arrested him a second time for marijuana possession. He could not participate at the Trips Festival as Ken Kesey, but did manage to be there in disguise appropriately in a space suit. He stayed in the balcony and spoke over the PA system. To avoid jail time, Kesey would soon fake his suicide and flee to Mexico. Another story. Another time.
1966 San Francisco Trips Festival
Impact
The Trips Festival was a success on many levels. Like those who would become part of Woodstock Nation tribe, attendees realized that there were many more of Them than they’d realized. They had arrived.
The three-day event earned money (unlike Woodstock!) and the idea helped Bill Graham decide to use the Fillmore Auditorium as a rock venue on a regular basis.
January 21, 1908: The Sullivan Ordinance was passed in New York City making smoking by women illegal. The measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. The ordinance was the result of a campaign by the National Anti-Cigarette League. (NYT article) (see Jan 28)
Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur
January 21, 1974: in Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur the US Supreme Court found that overly restrictive maternity leave regulations in public schools violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision struck down mandatory maternity leave rules. (Oyez site article) (see Mar 24)
Taylor v. Louisiana
January 21, 1975: the Supreme Court ruled 8 – 1 on this day, in Taylor v. Louisiana, that Louisiana’s procedures for selecting jury pools systematically discriminated against women. In St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, where the case originated, 53 percent of the people potentially eligible for jury duty were women, but represented only 10 percent of those on the “jury wheel” (the pool from which jurors were selected). The Court ruled that the process violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
The decision reversed Hoyt v. Florida (November 20, 1961), in which the Supreme Court had held that the exclusion of women from jury duty was not unconstitutional. Associate Justice William Rehnquist cast the only “No” vote. Rehnquist had consistently opposed on legal trounds court actions seeking equal treatment for women in employment. (NYT article) (see Oct 7)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
Seattle Shipyard Strike
January 21, 1919: 35,000 shipyard workers in Seattle go on strike seeking wage increases. They appealed to the Seattle Central Labor Council for support and within two weeks, more than 100 local unions joined in a call for a general strike to begin on the morning of February 6. The 60,000 total strikers paralyzed the city’s normal activities, while their General Strike Committee maintained order and provided essential services. (Washington dot edu article) (see Feb 24)
Guaranteed severance
January 21, 2020: NJ Gov. Phil Murphy signed the landmark legislation into law making the state the first to force employers to pay severance to laid-off workers.
The law (S3170) required that New Jersey employers with at least 100 employees provide their workers 90 days notice — up from 60 — before a large layoff or a plant closing or transfer that will put at least 50 people out of work. It would also force these businesses to pay their workers one week’s severance for every year of service. The payout increased by an additional four weeks if the employer did not comply with the 90-day notification rules. [NJ.com story] (next LH, see Jan 29)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Calvin Graham
January 21, 1943: Graham’s mother certified that she “did willingly and knowingly sign consent papers and age certificate to the effect that…Graham was born…on [April 3, 1925] whereas…he was born on April 3, 1930.” He had been 12.years old. When the ship captain was notified Graham was thrown in the brig and stripped of his medals over fraudulent enlistment. Graham was released from the brig after his sister threatened to contact the newspapers. (see Calvin Graham for expanded chronology)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
The Red Scare
January 21, 1950: a federal jury in New York City found former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury. The jury concluded that he made false statements in denying Whittaker Chambers‘ allegations that the two men had known each other as Communists in the 1930s. Hiss will serve more than three years in federal prison. (CW, see February 9, 1950; Hiss, see November 27, 1954)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear & Chemical News
January 21, 1954: the first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Connecticut. The Nautilus did not make its first nuclear-powered run until nearly a year later. (see Mar 4)
January 21, 22, & 23 1966: Trips Festival at Longshoreman’s Hall in San Francisco.
The Trips Festival helped mark the beginning of the hippie counterculture movement in San Francisco. Organized by Stewart Brand, Ramon Sender, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, and Bill Graham at the Longshoremen’s Hall for January 21-23, 1966, the event brought together the city’s diverse underground arts scene, including rock music groups, experimental theater performers, dance companies, light show artists and film producers.
The Dead played on the 22 & 23. (LSD, see January 29; Dead, see June 3)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
Khe Sanh
January 21, 1968: at 5:30 a.m., a barrage of shells, mortars and rockets slam into the Marine base at Khe Sanh. Eighteen Marines were killed and 40 wounded. The attack continued for two days.
Broadway for Peace
January 21, 1968: a concert called “Broadway for Peace 1968,” bill as the greatest array of stars ever,” was held at New York’s Philharmonic Hall. The proceeds went to the campaigns of antiwar senatorial and congressional candidates. [Bernstein site article] (next Vietnam, see Jan 27)
Executive Order 11967
January 21, 1977: the day after he was sworn in as president, Jimmy Carter issued Executive Order 11967, pardoning anti-Vietnam War protesters facing federal criminal charges. His order involved the dismissal of all pending criminal charges related to violations of the selective service law between August 1964 and March 1973. Anyone unable to reenter the U.S. because of a violation of the selective service act would now be able to enter, as would be any other alien. Finally, any person granted conditional clemency, or granted a pardon, under President Gerald Ford’s plan, announced on September 16, 1974, would be eligible for a pardon under the terms of Carter’s order. Carter also issued Proclamation 4483, which restated Ford’s executive order. (see January 24, 1982)
January 21, 1998: several news organizations reported the alleged sexual relationship between Lewinsky and Clinton. Clinton denied the allegations as the scandal erupted. (see Clinton for more on impeachment)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
January 21, 2001: Byron De La Beckwith, 80 years old, who was convicted of the 1963 assassination of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers, died at University Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. (BH, see Jan 27; see Evers for expanded chronology)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
DEATH PENALTY
January 21, 2011, the sole U.S. maker of the anesthetic used in executions announced it would stop manufacturing sodium thiopental to prevent its product from being used to put prisoners to death. Hospira Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., stopped making its brand of sodium thiopental, Pentothal, at a North Carolina plant early last year because of an unspecified raw material supply problem. When Hospira attempted to move production to a factory in Liscate, Italy, near Milan, Italian authorities demanded assurances that the drug wouldn’t end up in the hands of executioners. Hospira spokesman Dan Rosenberg said company officers couldn’t make that guarantee and decided instead to ‘exit the sodium thiopental market.’
California corrections officials imported a large quantity of sodium thiopental – enough for about 90 executions – from a British distributor in November, before a public outcry in Britain led to a ban on export of the drug to the United States. (see Sept 21)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
California code of ethics
January 21, 2015: the California’s judicial code of ethics barred judges from holding “membership in any organization that practices invidious discrimination on the basis of race, sex, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity or sexual orientation.” On this date the State Supreme Court voted that California judges would no longer be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts. (LGBTQ, see Jan 23; BSA, see May 21)
Utah bans conversion therapy
January 21, 2020: Utah became one of the most conservative states in the country to ban licensed therapists from performing conversion therapy on minors, curtailing a discredited practice that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender expression.
The ban, which Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican, proposed in November, added conversion therapy to a list of practices considered to be “unprofessional conduct” for state-licensed mental health therapists. Punishments could include suspending or revoking their license, according to state law.
The new rule did not apply to clergy members or religious counselors acting in a “religious capacity.” The rule also did not apply to parents or grandparents “acting substantially in the capacity of a parent or grandparent and not in the capacity of a mental health therapist.” [from NYT article] (next LGBTQ, see Feb 5)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
January 21, 2018: Pope Francis apologized for demanding proof of abuse from victims in Chile even as he continued to doubt them — prompted concerns that he just does not understand.
“There was great hope that this pope understood — he ‘got it’ — but if that were true we would not have his words today,” said Marie Collins, a survivor of abuse who last year resigned (see March 1, 2017) in frustration from the pope’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
“Anyone who was still clinging to the hope there would be real change in the church to the issue of abuse and this change would be led by Pope Francis will have lost that hope today,” Ms. Collins said. (see Jan 24)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Trump Impeachment
Jaunuary 21, 2020: a divided Senate began the impeachment trial of President Trump. Republicans blocked Democrats’ efforts to subpoena witnesses and documents related to Ukraine and moderate Republicans forced last-minute changes to rules that had been tailored to the president’s wishes.
In a series of party-line votes punctuating 12 hours of debate, Senate Republicans turned back every attempt by Democrats to subpoena documents from the White House, State Department and other agencies, as well as testimony from White House officials that could shed light on the core charges against Mr. Trump. [NYT article] (next TI, see January 22 or see Trump for expanded chronology)
January 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Free Speech
January 21, 2022: Judge Mark E. Walker of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida handed a crucial free-speech victory to six University of Florida professors Friday, ordering the university to stop enforcing a policy that had barred them from giving expert testimony in lawsuits against the state.
Walker’s stinging ruling accused the university of trying to silence the professors for fear that their testimony would anger state officials and legislators who control the school’s funding. He likened that to the decision last month by Hong Kong University to remove a 25-foot sculpture marking the 1989 massacre of student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square by the Chinese military, apparently for fear of riling the authoritarian Chinese government.
If the comparison distressed university officials, he wrote, “the solution is simple. Stop acting like your contemporaries in Hong Kong.” [NYT story] (next FS, see Feb 15)
January 20, 1870: Hiram Rhodes Revels was elected to the U.S. Senate. He would become the first African American to serve in the United States Congress. Revels was elected in Mississippi to fill the vacancy left after the state’s secession from the Union prior to the Civil War.
However, when Revels later arrived in Washington, Southern Democrats determined to block his seating to the U.S. Congress. The Democrats declared his election null and void for various reasons including the fact that he was ineligible for the Senate because he was not a citizen under Dred Scott until the passage of the 14th Amendment. (biography of Revels from US House site) (BH, see Feb 3; Revels, see Feb 25)
George H White/lynching
January 20, 1900: Black Congressman, George H White from North Carolina introduced the first bill in Congress to make lynching a federal crime to be prosecuted by federal courts; it died in committee, opposed by southern white Democrats. (next BH & Lynching, see Nov 16; for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)
Georgia attempts to withhold school funding
January 20, 1951: Georgia Governor Eugene Talmadge attempted to fight integration by asking the legislature to withhold funds from schools which admit black students. (see Apr 23)
James H Meredith
January 20, 1963: though he initially considered leaving because of continual harassment, James H Meredith announced that he would return to the U of Mississippi for the spring semester. (next BH, see Jan 24; Meredith, see July 9 )
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 20, 1986: the US observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (see Feb 6)
Biden reverses Trump policies
January 20, 2021: On his first day in office, President Biden ended the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission, which had released a report that historians said distorted the role of slavery in the United States, among other history.
Biden also revoked Trump’s executive order limiting the ability of federal agencies, contractors and other institutions to hold diversity and inclusion training.
The president designated Susan E. Rice, the head of his Domestic Policy Council, as the leader of a “robust, interagency” effort requiring all federal agencies to make “rooting out systemic racism” central to their work. His order directed the agencies to review and report on equity in their ranks within 200 days, including a plan on how to remove barriers to opportunities in policies and programs. The order also moves to ensure that Americans of all backgrounds have equal access to federal government resources, benefits and services. It starts a data working group as well as the study of new methods to measure and assess federal equity and diversity efforts. [NYT article] (next BH, see Feb 11)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
BILL OF RIGHTS
January 20, 1920: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) founded.
January 20, 1965: Alan Freed died. Freed was the man who first played Rock and Roll on the radio and was one of the first to use the term “Rock’N’Roll” in the early 1950’s. Freed is commonly referred to as the “Father of Rock’N’Roll”. He helped bridge the gap of segregation among young teenage Americans, presenting music by African-American artists (rather than cover versions by white artists) on his radio program, and arranging live concerts attended by racially mixed audiences. Freed appeared in several motion pictures as himself. In the 1956 film Rock, Rock, Rock, Freed tells the audience that “rock and roll is a river of music that has absorbed many streams: rhythm and blues, jazz, rag time, cowboy songs, country songs, folk songs. All have contributed to the big beat.” (see January 8, 1966)
Byrds Mr Tambourine Man
January 20, 1965: The Byrds entered the studio to record “Mr Tambourine Man,” what would become the title track of their debut album and, incidentally, the only Bob Dylan song ever to reach #1 on the U.S. pop charts. Aiming consciously for a vocal style in between Bob Dylan and John Lennon, Roger McGuinn sang lead, with Gene Clark and David Crosby providing the complex harmony that would, along with McGuinn’s jangly electric 12-string Rickenbacker guitar, form the basis of the Byrds’ trademark sound. (see Mar 27)
Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert
January 20, 1968, Bob Dylan and the Band performed Woody Guthrie’s “I Ain’t Got No Home” at the Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert, Carnegie Hall. The concert was Dylan’s first public appearance since his motorcycle accident on August 20, 1966 . (see June 22)
Judy In Disguise
January 20 – Feb 2, 1968: “Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)” by John Fred & His Playboy Band #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Judy in disguise, well that’s what you are Lemonade pies with a brand new car Cantaloupe eyes come to me tonight Judy in disguise, with glasses.
The Beatles inducted
January 20, 1988. Paul McCartney did not attend the ceremony, leaving surviving Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, to be inducted by Mick Jagger. McCartney released a brief statement that read: ‘’After 20 years, the Beatles still have some business differences, which I had hoped would have been settled by now. Unfortunately, they haven’t been, so I would feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion.’’ (see May 7, 1992)
January 20, 1966: stewardess Judith Evenson’s challenge to the airlines’ “no marriage” policy was one of a number of cases between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s in which stewardesses challenged discriminatory policies in the industry. She eventually settled her case out of court, but subsequent challenges by other stewardesses ended this and other discriminatory policies. (F, seeJune 30; Labor, see June 8)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Iran hostage crisis
January 20, 1981: Iran released the 52 Americans held for 444 days within minutes of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration ending the Iran hostage crisis. (NY Daily News article) (see IHC for expanded chronology)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Symbionese Liberation Army
January 20, 2001: on his final day in office, President Bill Clinton issued a presidential pardon to Patty Hearst. (Guardian article) (see Patti Hearst for more about the SLA)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Maryland/Same-sex marriage
January 20, 2006: Maryland Circuit Court Judge M. Brooke Murdock struck downa state law banning same-sex marriage saying the measure violated a state constitutional amendment prohibiting sex discrimination. (see October 25, 2006)
Biden reverses Trump
January 20, 2021: on his first day in office President Biden with an executive order reinforced Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require that the federal government dids not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, a policy that reverses action by Trump’s administration. [NYT article] (next LGBTQ, see Jan 25)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Foxconn
January 20, 2011: iPhone maker Apple was criticized by Chinese green groups for lax corporate oversight of its suppliers in China, leading to poor environmental and work safety standards that poisoned dozens of factory workers. (see Feb 22)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
Holt v Hobbs
January 20, 2015: in Holt v Hobbs, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously and invalidated an Arkansas state prison rule that barred inmates from growing beards measuring more than a quarter of an inch long. The rule had been challenged by inmate Gregory Holt, a Muslim man who had asked for permission to grow a half-inch-long beard as a compromise from the full beard he believed was required by his faith. In the ruling the Supreme Court said the policy violated Holt’s religious beliefs.
Justice Ruth Ginsberg wrote: “Unlike the exemption this Court approved in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., accommodating petitioner’s religious belief in this case would not detrimentally affect others who do not share petitioner’s belief. On that understanding, I join the Court’s opinion.” (Oyez article)
Church request denied
January 20, 2015: the Supreme Court decided not hear a petition by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, LA regarding a civil lawsuit the diocese said threatened the confidentiality of the confession.
The petition had sought to block a child from testifying in a civil suit against the church and priest about what she said in confession. The high court’s decision meant the lawsuit could move forward.
The Louisiana Supreme Court’s ruling, rendered in May 2014, laid out arguments that priests should be subject to mandatory reporting laws regarding abuse of minors if the person who makes the confession waives confidentiality. Normally, priests are exempt as mandatory reporters in the setting of confessions. The decision by the state’s high court stated confidentially was intended to protect the person who made the confessions, not the person who receives them.
The original case involved a then-minor girl, who alleged she confessed during the sacrament of Reconciliation to Baton Rouge priest Father George Bayhi that a fellow church parishioner had molested her. The Mayeux family sued the priest and diocese for damages, claiming they were negligent in allowing the alleged abuse to continue and should have reported it to authorities. The suit also names the estate of the man Mayeux says molested her, who died in 2009, as a defendant.
The state Supreme Court’s ruling did not decide the case but ordered it returned to the district level for a hearing to let both sides present evidence about the nature of the confessions. The hearing would decide if the communications between Mayeux and Bayhi should be considered religious confessions and/or explore the content of what was allegedly said. (see June 30)
HUD cancelled a reduction in the Federal Housing Administration’s annual fee for most borrowers. The cut would have reduced the annual premium for someone borrowing $200,000 by $500 in the first year. (see May 1)
Renewed Rule
January 20, 2023: the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a proposed fair housing rule which put back in place many fair housing obligations that the Trump administration rescinded in 2020.
The new rule revived many provisions of the 2015 Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule, passed during the Obama administration. The 2015 rule required program participants to submit an “equity plan” for review and acceptance to HUD every five years. It also required participants to identify fair housing issues in their communities and set goals to remedy them.
The Biden administration’s proposed rule was supposed to foster “greater transparency and public involvement” in its execution by making equity plans available for public feedback. HUD would provide technical assistance to communities under this program. The rule also aimed to create public accountability by including a “complaint and compliance review process.”
The proposed rule fulfilled an obligation in the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which formed part of the landmark 1968 Civil Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, disability and other grounds in the provision of real estate and brokerage services. [Jurist article] (next FH, see Mar 17)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Trump Impeachment
January 20, 2020: Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, unveiled ground rules for President Trump’s impeachment trial that would attempt to speed the proceeding along and refuse to admit the evidence against the president unearthed by the House without a separate vote.
In a 110-page brief submitted to the Senate, the president’s lawyers advanced their first sustained legal argument since the House opened its inquiry in the fall, contending that the two charges approved largely along party lines were constitutionally flawed and set a dangerous precedent. [NYT story] (next TI, see Jan 21 or see Trumpfor expanded chronology]
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
January 20, 2020: according to the findings by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the financial cards were stacked against women who wanted but were denied an abortion, as they and their children were more likely to spend years living in poverty than those able to end their pregnancies. Those compelled to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term were far more likely to experience eviction, bankruptcy and be mired in debt,
In looking at a decade of credit data for women who sought abortions at 30 health providers in 21 states, the latest findings built upon a 2019 study that found denied abortions quadrupled the odds of a new mother and her child living in poverty. The new analysis compared changes over time in credit report outcomes for three years before and up to five years after the intended abortion.
“We find that being denied an abortion has large and persistent effects on financial distress that are sustained for five years following the intended abortion,” wrote the report’s authors, Sarah Miller of the University of Michigan, Laura Wheery of the University of California at Los Angeles and Diana Foster of of the University of California at San Francisco. “Unpaid debts that are more than 30 days past due more than double in size, and the number of public records, which include negative events such as evictions and bankruptcies, increases substantially.” [CBS News story] (next WH, see Feb 20)
In additional executive orders, Biden began the reversal of a slew of the Trump administration’s environmental policies, including revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline; reversing the rollbacks to vehicle emissions standards; undoing decisions to slash the size of severalnational monuments; enforcing a temporary moratorium on oil and natural gas leasesin the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and re-establishing a working group on the social costs of greenhouse gasses. [NYT article] (next EI, see Jan 27)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
DACA
January 20, 2021: with an executive order, President Biden bolstered the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA] program that protected from deportation immigrants brought to the United States as children, often called Dreamers. President Trump had sought for years to end the program.
The order also called on Congress to enact legislation providing permanent status and a path to citizenship for those immigrants.
Another order overturned a Trump executive order that pushed aggressive efforts to find and deport unauthorized immigrants.
Another order blocked the deportation of Liberians who had been living in the United States.
Biden has also ended the so-called Muslim ban, which blocked travel to the United States from several predominantly Muslim and African countries. Biden had directed the State Department to restart visa processing for individuals from the affected countries and to develop ways to address the harm caused to those who were prevented from coming to the United States because of the ban. [NYT article] (next DACA, see July 17)
Trump’s Wall
January 20, 2021: President Biden halted construction of President Trump’s border wall with Mexico. The order included an “immediate termination” of the national emergency declaration that had allowed the Trump administration to redirect billions of dollars to the wall. It said the administration would begin “a close review” of the legality of the effort to divert federal money to fund the wall. [NYT article](next TW, see)
2020 Census
January 20, 2021: with an executive order, Biden revoked the Trump administration’s plan to exclude noncitizens from the census count, [NYT article] (next 2020 Census, see Apr 26; next IH, see Jan 26)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
January 20, 2022: Pope Benedict XVI knew about priests who abused children but failed to act when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, an inquest found, rejecting Benedict’s long-standing denials in a damning judgment.
“He was informed about the facts,” lawyer Martin Pusch said, as the Westpfahl Spilker Wastl law firm announced the findings of an investigation into historic sexual abuse at the Munich Archdiocese over several decades. The report was commissioned by the church itself.
“We believe that he can be accused of misconduct in four cases,” Pusch said. “Two of these cases concern abuses committed during his tenure and sanctioned by the state. In both cases, the perpetrators remained active in pastoral care.” [CNN article] (next SaoC, see Apr 19)
January 20 Peace Love Art Activism
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
