February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Slave Revolt: Newton, Long Island

February 28, 1708: seven white people were killed in Newton, Long Island. Following the rebellion, two black male slaves and an Indian slave were hanged, and a black woman was burned alive.

Slave Revolt: Virginia

In 1709 : a plot involving enslaved Indians as well as Africans spread through at least three Virginia counties—James City, Surry, and Isle of Wight. Of the four ringleaders, Scipio, Salvadore, Tom Shaw, and Peter, all but Peter were quickly jailed. (see April 20 (Easter), 1710)

Republican Party

February 28, 1854: about 50 slavery opponents met in Ripon, Wis., to call for creation of a new political group that became the Republican Party. (see Apr 29)

Detroit rebellion

February 28, 1943: the Detroit rebellion occurred. At 9 a.m Black renters, having signed leases and paid their rent, attempted to enter their homes. Many  left the area fearing trouble.

Fighting began when two blacks in a car attempted to run through the picket line. Clashes between white and Black groups continued into the afternoon when 16 mounted police attempted to break up the fighting. Tear gas and shotgun shells were used. Officials announced an indefinite postponement of the move. Detroit newspapers, union leaders, and many other whites campaigned for the government to allow the Black workers to move into the homes.

In April, 1,100 city and state police officers and 1,600 Michigan National Guard troops were mobilized and sent to the area to allow the renters to enter homes. (see Apr 17)

Columbia Tennessee riots continue

February 28, 1946: (see Feb 26 & 27 for preceding story) Columbia, Tennessee policemen killed two black prisoners in custody. During an interrogation of James Johnson, William Gordon, and Napoleon Stewart, the police reported that two of the prisoners grabbed guns from white officers and began shooting. In defense, the police retaliated, killing two and wounding the third suspect.

A federal grand jury was convened to investigate the charges of misconduct by the white policemen, but the local all-white jury absolved the police of any wrong doing. Eventually, twenty-five blacks were tried in for the shootings of the white officers during the riot. Two of the accused were found guilty but were never retried due to lack of evidence. The one valid conviction came in a second trial at Columbia in November. Lloyd Kennedy was found guilty and served time in jail for shooting at a white highway patrolman. (BH, see Apr 18; RR, see Aug 10)

George Whitmore, Jr

February 28, 1972: The U.S. the Supreme Court refused to disturb Whitmore’s conviction for the attempted rape and assault of a practical nurse Elba Borrero almost eight years earlier. (next BH, see June 4; see Whitmore for expanded story)

Ben Chester White

February 28 Peace Love Activism

February 28, 2003: on June 10, 1966 three Klansmen had approached Ben Chester White at his home near Natchez, Mississippi and asked for him help in finding a lost dog. White, a 67-year old sharecropper, was then driven to the Homochitto National Forest, where they shot White repeatedly, then dumped over him over a bridge into a creek bed below. Three men, Ernest , Claude Fuller, and James Lloyd Jones, had allegedly killed White in an attempt to lure Martin Luther King, Jr. to Natchez, Mississippi.  Ernest Avants was tried in 1967 but acquitted.

In 2003, the New York Times described Chester this way: Ben Chester White used twists of wire to hold the soles on his shoes, patched his own clothes with scrap and said “yes, sir,” to white men, and when he made a little money, he wrapped the $1 bills in wax paper so they would not be ruined by his own sweat. He was not registered to vote, and had never fought against the segregation that was as much a fact of life for him as a hoe handle or cotton sack.

On this date, because Homochitto National Forest was federal property,  the federal government could retry Ernest Avents for White’s murder. Allan Kornblum, the FBI agent who investigated the crime in 1967 testified that Mr. Avants said that his lawyer had told him that he would not be convicted in that case:

‘Because you can’t be convicted of killing a dead man.’ ”

‘Yeah, I shot that nigger,’ ” Mr. Kornblum said Mr. Avants told him. But Mr. Avants said that by the time he shot Mr. White, another man had shot Mr. White several times — investigators have said about 16 times — with an automatic carbine.

‘I blew his head off with a shotgun,’ ” Mr. Avants told him, Mr. Kornblum said. But by then, Mr. Avants told him that day, there was no life left in Mr. White.

”It’s been 37 years,” said Paige Fitzgerald, a trial lawyer with the United States Department of Justice. ”How do you remember?”

Mr. Kornblum answered, ”It’s one of those singular events in a person’s life…It’s burned in my memory,”

At that time, Agent  Kornblum was legal adviser to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and had a national security clearance that is higher than top secret. (see Mar 1)

George Whitmore, Jr

February 28, 2014: from an article in The Paris Review by Sabine Heinlein. I mailed a copy of my book Among Murderers, about the struggles three men faced when they returned to the world after several decades behind bars, to Richard Robles.

Robles wrote back:

Remorse is a tough subject. It’s complicated by the human desire to avoid pain and punishment, which is actually stronger, I think. It includes feelings of shame and guilt. Then there’s the drive to rehabilitate oneself and change. It is complex and confusing. One has to take an honest look at himself and get rid of that “bullshit ego.”

He added:

I found it [the book] very honest and real. I think it will be an eye opener for those who have the misconception that parole is freedom. I’d like to see it as mandatory reading for all first offenders because they often think “parole is freedom” and are quickly, very negatively struck with profound disappointment when reality smacks or kicks them in the face.

Along these lines I would have liked to see more about the unrealistic expectations prisoners fantasize about in prison—and how fantasies inhibit reform/rehabilitation efforts. I think you tried to portray that but I’m not certain the average reader could get it. You portray a prisoner as saying “Expect the unexpected.” I’d rephrase that to “Expect to be disappointed in every dream you conjure in prison.” (next BH, see Mar 21; see Whitmore for expanded story)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

February 28, 1877: the US Congress ratified the Manypenny Agreement with the Lakota Sioux, under which the United States took control of 900,000 acres of the Black Hills.

The Lakota argue to this day that the Agreement was illegal, was obtained by coercion associated with starvation, and that the Black Hills should be returned to them. (see May 5)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

February 28, 1898: Holden v. Hardy, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a Utah state law limiting the number of work hours for miners and smelters as a legitimate exercise of the police power. The majority held that such a law was legitimate, provided that there was indeed a rational basis, supported by facts, for the legislature to believe particular work conditions were dangerous. The court was quick to distinguish this case from other cases of the era which imposed universal maximum hour rules, which it held unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. (law dot jrank article) (see April 29, 1899)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

International Women’s Day

February 28, 1908:  the first International Women’s Day observed. In NYC, about 15,000 women marched demanding shorter hours, better pay, and the right to vote.  (see July 21)

Violence Against Women Act

February 28 Peace Love Activism

February 28, 2013: after the House plan endorsed by conservatives was defeated, the House or Representatives gave final approval to a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, sending a bipartisan Senate measure to President Obama. (DoJ article) (see March 13)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

Hitler’s plant

February 28, 1943: nine Norwegian saboteurs successfully blew up Hitler’s heavy water plant, a critical part of his nuclear program. [NYT story] (see April 17, 1945)

Trump/Jung-Un

February 28, 2019: President Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, abruptly ended their second summit meeting when negotiations collapsed after the two sides failed to agree on even the first steps on nuclear disarmament, a peace declaration or reducing sanctions on the North.

The premature end to the negotiations meant the diplomacy between the United States and North Korea that has gone on for most of a year remains stalled, even as experts say North Korea continues to produce fissile material to make nuclear warheads. (see Apr 8)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

February 28 Peace Love ActivismFebruary 28, 1953:  Cambridge University scientists James D. Watson and Frances H.C. Crick announced that they had determined the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes. (see March 26)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

February 28 Music et al

The Beatles

February 28 Peace Love Activism

February 28, 1964: despite the arrival of “Beatlemania” Time magazine featured musician Thelonious  Monk on its cover reflecting the continued importance and popularity of jazz in the US. (see Mar 21)

The Road to Bethel

February 28, 1969: Joel Rosenman, John Roberts, and Michael Lang signed the contract creating Woodstock Ventures and its plan for 1) a recording studio in Woodstock, NY and 2) a festival in Saugerties, NY. Artie Kornfeld could not sign the contract because he was still under contract with with Capital. Michael Lang agreed to hold Kornfeld’s share until the Capitol contract expired. (see Chronology for expanded story)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

February 28, 1973: confirmation hearings begin for confirming L. Patrick Gray as permanent Director of the FBI. During these hearings, Gray revealed that he had complied with an order from John Dean to provide daily updates on the Watergate investigation, and also that Dean had “probably lied” to FBI investigators.(see Watergate for expanded story)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

February 28, 1985:  the Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing 9 officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day. (see Troubles for expanded chronology)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism
The Cold War &  Nuclear/Chemical Weapons News

February 28, 1987:  in a surprising announcement, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicated that the USSR was ready to sign “without delay” a treaty designed to eliminate U.S. and Soviet medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe. (CW, see June 12; NN, see Nov 24)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of Yugoslavia

February 28, 1994, US F-16s shot down 4 Serbian J-21s over Bosnia and Herzegovina for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone. (see Aug 4)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance

February 28, 2003: the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the addition of “under God” to the The Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional, refused to reconsider its ruling, saying it would be wrong to allow public outrage to influence its decisions. (NYT article) (see Pledge for expanded chronology)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

February 28, 2006:  The Washington Times reported that the Bush administration never drew up a comprehensive plan for rebuilding Iraq after the March 2003 invasion. (see Mar 19)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

Private prison contracts

February 28, 2017: in a one-paragraph memo, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the previous directive to the Bureau of Prisons to either reduce or decline to renew private-prison contracts as they came due.  “The memorandum changed long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the Bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system,” Sessions wrote. “Therefore, I direct the Bureau to return to its previous approach.” (see May 11)

Terry Lee Morris v Texas

February 28, 2018: in Terry Lee Morris v Texas, Justice Yvonne T Rodriguez overturned the 2014 conviction of Terry Lee Moris.

During the trial of Morris (for soliciting explicit photographs from a 15-year-old girl) Judge George Gallagher ordered that a deputy shock Morris, who was wearing a shock belt, three times. Morris had been found guilty and sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Rodriquez wrote/quoted in her opinion, ” “The flagrant disregard in the courtroom of elementary standards of proper conduct should not and cannot be tolerated.” Illinois v. Allen…(1970). When challenging defendants breach decorum and threaten to tarnish proceedings with bad behavior, we afford trial judges “sufficient discretion to meet the circumstances of each case.” Id. But discretion has its limits (see Mar 14)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

February 28, 2020:  CNN reported that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the Trump administration from sending asylum seekers to Mexico to wait for their immigration hearings in the US, a major blow to the administration as it has increasingly relied on the program to send thousands of migrants back to Mexico.

The ruling applies across the southern border and stripped the administration of one of its key asylum policies, which went into effect in January 2019. The Ninth Circuit also issued a separate ruling that upheld a lower court’s block on an administration policy denying asylum to those who crossed the southern border illegally.

The so-called “remain in Mexico” program required migrants, many of whom were from Central America, to stay in Mexico until their respective court dates in the US. Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said 59,000 people had been enrolled in the program, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols program. (next Immigration, see Mar 29)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

February 28, 2022:major scientific report by by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the dangers of climate change were mounting so rapidly that they would soon overwhelm the ability of both nature and humanity to adapt, creating a harrowing future in which floods, fires and famine displace millions, species disappear and the planet is irreversibly damaged,

The panel was made up of a body of experts convened by the United Nations. The report was the most detailed look yet at the threats posed by global warming. It concluded that nations were not doing nearly enough to protect cities, farms and coastlines from the hazards that climate change had already unleashed, such as record droughts and rising seas, let alone from the even greater disasters in store as the planet kept heating up. [NYT article] (next EI, see Mar 15)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Hattie McDaniel

February 29, 1940:  the daughter of slaves, African-American actress Hattie McDaniel won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in the classic film Gone With the Wind. She was the first African-American to win an Oscar. Her acceptance speech acknowledged the racial significance of her winning the Oscar.

At the awards ceremony at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, however, she was forced to sit in the back of the room at a separate table from the white attendees. (Hollywood Reporter article) (see Apr 7)

Autherine Lucy

February 29, 1956: Autherine Lucy and her attorneys had filed suit against the University to have her suspension overturned. On this date US District Judge W. Hobart Grooms ordered her re-admittance, but school trustees permanently expelled her for “false, defamatory, impertinent and scandalous charges” against school officials. (BH, see March; U of A, see January 18, 1957)

Brown v Board of Education

February 29, 1956:  the Mississippi legislature unanimously adopted an “interposition” resolution that declared “invalid” the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled racially segregated schools unconstitutional. After the resolution was passed, members of the House of Representatives stood and sang Dixie. Interposition is a legal theory that was advanced in southern states before the Civil War, holding that states would “interpose” their authority between themselves and the federal government. A related theory was “nullification,” which held that states could nullify federal laws and court decisions.

In his famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, Rev. Martin Luther King referred to segregationists with their “lips dripping with nullification and interposition.” By the time Mississippi passed its resolution, similar resolutions had been passed in Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, and South Carolina. The doctrines of nullification and interposition, however, had little effect on the course of the civil rights movement. (BH, see March; Nullification, see September 12, 1958)

Alabama Governor John Patterson

February 29, 1960: Alabama Governor John Patterson held a news conference to condemn the sit-in by the six Alabama State College students.  Patterson, who was also chairman of the State Board of Education, threatened to terminate Alabama State College’s funding unless it expelled the student organizers and warned that “someone [was] likely to be killed” if the protests continued. (next BH, see Mar 29; see GR for expanded chronology)

Kerner Report

February 29, 1968: The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders or Kerner Report was released. Its finding was that the riots resulted from black frustration at lack of economic opportunity. The report’s most infamous passage warned, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—-separate and unequal.” [PDF of report]  (BH, see Mar 8; RR, see Apr 9)

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

February 29, 2012: The New York City Council introduced a package of police reform bills to bring greater accountability to the NYPD, in particular the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices. (ACLU site article) (see March 22)

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

February 29, 2012: CANBERRA, Australia — a Senate inquiry called for the Australian government to apologize and offer compensation to thousands of unwed mothers who were forced to give up their babies for adoption in the late 20th century.

Unwed mothers were pressured, deceived and threatened into giving up their babies from World War II until the early 1970s so they could be adopted by married couples, which was perceived to be in the children’s best interests, the Senate committee report found. “If it wasn’t illegal, it was unethical,” committee chairwoman Sen. Rachel Siewert said.

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

February 29, 2012: American-born Majid Khan, pleaded guilty in a deal requiring him to testify against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of the September 11 (2011) attacks, and other accused terrorists. [NYT article] (next T, see November 21, 201; next WTC, see July 29, 2019)

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

President Jefferson plans Native American removal

February 27, 1803: in a private letter to William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory, President Thomas Jefferson outlined an Indian policy that would result in the natives ceding land to the United States. He stated [my underlining]: To promote this disposition to exchange lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we shall push our trading uses, and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands. He added, “…we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be foolhardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation.” (complete letter from the National Archive site)  (see October 5, 1813)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Voting Rights

February 27, 1922: in Leser v. Garnett the US Supreme Court held, that the Nineteenth Amendment to the US  Constitution had been constitutionally established. (next Feminism, see Sept 22; VR, see March 7, 1927)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Woolworth’s

February 27, 1937: four hundred fifty Woolworth’s workers and customers occupied a store in Detroit for eight days in support of Waiters and Waitresses Union. (see Mar 1)

Sit-down strikes

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

February 27, 1939: the Supreme Court, in National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., effectively outlawed sit-down strikes. (see June 5)

Montana Coal and Iron Company

February 27, 1943: an explosion at the Montana Coal and Iron Company mine killed 74 workers. It was the worst mining disaster in Montana’s history. The small communities of Washoe and Bearcreek, Montana, consisted almost entirely of mine workers and their families. Many of them worked Smith Mine #3 for the Montana Coal and Iron Company. On a cold Saturday morning, February 27, 77 men were working in the mine when, at 9:30 a.m., a huge explosion rang out. The people of Washoe and Bearcreek heard the roar and then the long, wailing siren that followed. The exact cause of the explosion is not known, though some of the company’s miners claimed methane gas had built up in some abandoned shafts and was ignited after a cave-in. Of the 77 workers in the mine at the time of the explosion, only three made it out alive. (see May 31)

WV teacher strike

February 27, 2018: teacher and service personnel union leaders said that after meeting with the governor the work stoppage that had closed public schools in West Virginia provisionally ended and they would return to school on March 1.

Gov. Jim Justice announced a 3 percent pay increase for all state employees this year, with an additional 2 percent hike for those who work in education, including teachers and service personnel. It remained unknown whether leaders of the House and Senate would go along with the deal. (USLH & WV, see Mar 1)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Calvin Graham

February 27, 1943: Graham turned himself in at the Houston recruiting station. (see Graham for expanded story)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Detroit

February 27, 1943: with a cross burning in a field near the homes, 150 angry whites picketed the a Detroit housing project vowing to keep out any Black homeowners. (see Feb 28)

Wharlest Jackson

February 27 Peace Love Activism Feminism

The Armstrong Tire & Rubber plant in Natchez, Tennessee had offered Wharlest Jackson a promotion to its chemical mixing plant. Jackson had worked at the plant for 12 years and was also the treasurer of the local NAACP chapter.

On February 27, 1967, as Jackson was driving home from work, a bomb exploded in his 1958 Chevrolet truck, killing him instantly. The Natchez Police Department arrived on the scene and found Jackson’s truck blown to bits – the blast blew out the top of the truck, the front and rear glass, both doors and the hood.

The Natchez community was shocked and appalled by Jackson’s murder. Charles Evers and the Natchez NAACP organized a protest, leading 2,000 demonstrators to watch the changing of the shift at the Armstrong plant. From the Armstrong plant, the demonstrators marched to the place where Jackson died, and then to Rosehill Baptist Church, where they had an hour-long meeting. Even Governor Paul Johnson, infamously hostile to the NAACP, called Jackson’s murder “an act of savagery which stains the honor of our state.”

After Jackson’s death, the FBI launched an intensive probe that it quickly expanded to include other Klan-related murders and crimes. Investigators speculated that Jackson was a victim of the Silver Dollar Group, a violent, heavily armed cell of the Ku Klux Klan. The Silver Dollar Group had about 20 members, each of whom carried a silver dollar minted in the year he was born as evidence of membership in the cell. Several members had experience with explosives. The FBI identified Raleigh Jackson “Red” Glover, the leader of the Silver Dollar Group, as the primary suspect in both the Jackson and Metcalfe bombings.

No one was ever been convicted for the crime. (see Mar 2)

Colin Kaepernick

February 27, 2019:  WINK TV reported that Charlotte County School District school authorities forced Alissa Perry,  a Port Charlotte High School math teacher, to take down a Black History Month poster because it featured former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

“Thank you all for participating in this,” said Perry.

Perry made the poster to celebrate Kaepernick for Black History Month, but the poster stirred up a different type of emotion in a lot of parents.

The District said the front office was getting too many phone calls asking for the poster to be taken down.  Students said the school district cracked under pressure.  (next BH, see Mar 12; next CK, see Oct 10)

Ahmaud Arbery

February 27, 2020: the Brunswick[GA] District Attorney’s Office and the Glynn County Police Department conducted the initial investigation into the February 23 killing of Ahmaud Arbery.

On this date, the Brunswick district attorney, Jackie L. Johnson, recused herself from the case, pointing out that Gregory McMichael, a former Glynn County police officer, had been a longtime investigator in her office until his retirement in May 2019.  [NYT article] (next B & S and AA, see April 1 or see AA for expanded chronology)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

February 27 Music et al

February 27 – March 19, 1961: “Pony Time” by Chubby Checker #1 Billboard Hot 100.

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

South Vietnam Leadership

February 27, 1962: South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem survived another coup attempt when Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots Lieutenants Pham Phu Quoc and Nguyen Van Cu tried to kill him and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu by bombing and strafing the presidential palace. Lieutenant Quoc was arrested after his fighter-bomber crash-landed near Saigon. Lieutenant Cu fled to Cambodia, where he remained until November 1963.  (next V, see July; SVL, see Dec 2)

Walter Cronkite

February 27, 1968: the well-respected CBS TV news anchorman Walter Cronkite, who had just returned from Saigon, told Americans during his CBS Evening News broadcast that he was certain “the bloody experience of Vietnam was to end in a stalemate.” (next Vietnam, see Mar 14; see Cronkite for expanded story)

STUDENT ACTIVISM

February 27, 1969: police charged student picket lines, club and arrested two Chicano leaders at U.C. Berkeley; thousands rampage thru nine buildings at U of Wisconsin, Madison over black enrollments. (Vietnam, see March; SA, see April)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

February 27 – 28, 1963:  Abington School District v. Schempp argued before the US Supreme Court In her opening statement Madalyn Murray, an atheist, said, in part:

Your petitioners are atheists and they define their beliefs as follows. An atheist loves his fellow man instead of god. An atheist believes that heaven is something for which we should work now – here on earth for all men together to enjoy. An atheist believes that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it, and enjoy it. An atheist believes that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment. He seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to know a god. An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He believes that we cannot rely on a god or channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in a hereafter. He believes that we are our brother’s keepers and are keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons and the job is here and the time is now.” (see June 17, 1963)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Russell C Means

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

February 27, 1973: members of the Lakota Sioux tribe on the Pine Ridge reservation attempted to have Dick Wilson, the Bureau of Indian Affairs-backed head of the tribal administration, impeached, they received resistance from the federal government, which wanted to keep Wilson in power. Led by leader Russell Means, AIM seized control of Wounded Knee (site of the 1890 massacre) and the perimeter is placed under siege for 71 days.  (see Mar 2)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Rev. Bruce Ritter

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

February 27,1990: the Rev. Bruce Ritter, celebrated leader of Covenant House for teen runaways, stepped down amid a scandal. He denied an accusation of molestation from one youth, but others step forward to accuse him and the Covenant House board reports extensive misconduct. Ritter’s Franciscan superiors in Rome approved a transfer to India, but outrage following a news report about the move forces the plan to be scrapped. 

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

In 1991, the first Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests meeting was held at the Holiday Inn,  Chicago.

In 1992, Doubleday Books  published Jason Berry’s Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children. In the forward, Rev. Andrew M. Greeley described the book’s content as revealing “what may be the greatest scandal in the history of religion in America and perhaps the most serious crisis Catholicism has faced since the Reformation” (see In July)

National Review Board

February 27, 2004: the National Review Board, a lay panel formed by Catholic bishops, issued two studies documenting the molestation problem. One was the first church-sanctioned tally of abuse cases, finding 10,667 abuse claims against about 4 percent of all American clerics from 1950 to 2002. The second report puts much of the blame on American bishops for not cracking down on errant priests. (see July 1)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

February 27, 1990: Exxon and its shipping company were indicted on 5 criminal counts for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. (see Mar 22 )

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ War I

February 27, 1991: President George H. W. Bush announced a ceasefire and that Kuwait had been liberated from Iraqi occupation. (see Mar 17)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH & The Red Scare

February 27, 1997: Frank Wilkinson, once banned from speaking at the University of North Carolina, returned to Chapel Hill to speak at the UNC Law School. (Frank Wilkinson site article) (FS, see December 23, 2003;  RS, see March 21, 1999)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 27, 1998: White House communications aide Sidney Blumenthal refused to answer some of the questions posed before the grand jury, citing the controversy over whether the independent counsel can force aides to testify about conversations they had with the president. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Kentucky

February 27, 2014: U.S. District Court Judge John Heyburn ordered Kentucky officials to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples performed out of state.

Heyburn ruled that Kentucky’s Constitution and laws banning recognition of such marriages “violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and they are void and unenforceable.” The decision amounted to a final ruling of his Feb. 12 opinion in the case.

Attorney Dan Canon, a lawyer for the four gay and lesbian couples who won the case, said: “We are cautiously optimistic. The order has been granted without qualification and without a stay.”

Walt Disney World

February 27, 2014: Walt Disney World announced that it would no longer subsidize local chapters of the Boy Scouts of America, in response to the national organization’s continued ban on allowing LGBTQ troop leaders. (LGBTQ, see Mar 14; BSA, see May 20)

Catholic grammar school

February 27, 2019: Fr Craig J Maxim, pastor of St Ann Catholic Church and School, sent a letter to the school’s families, faculty, and staff explaining the decision not to permit a same sex couple to enroll their child in the school.

In the letter he stated, “…the Archdiocese states that since same sex unions are not in conformance with the Church’s teaching on sacramental marriage and these unions have no current ability to bring their relationship into conformity, the parents cannot model behaviors and attitudes consistent with the Church’s teachings.” (see Mar 7)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Death Penalty

Arkansas

February 27, 2017: in an attempt to resume the death penalty after a nearly 12-year hiatus Arkansas Gov Asa Hutchinson set execution dates for eight inmates on death row between April 17 and 27. Two men would be put to death on each of the four dates. If Arkansas followed through with that timetable, it would be carrying out the death penalty at a rate unmatched by any state since the United States resumed capital punishment in 1977.

 The hurried schedule appears to be influenced by the expiration of a lethal injection drug in the state’s supply. Arkansas uses three drugs in executions, and its stock of midazolam, a sedative injected to start of the process, would expire in April. Its supply of potassium chloride, the final drug in the series, expired in January, but the state has said it was confident it could acquire more. (Mercury News article) (DP, see Mar 27; Arkansas, see Apr 14)

Madison v Alabama

February 27, 2019: in Madison v Alabama, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor Vernon Madison, a 68-year-old man suffering from severe vascular dementia following multiple life-threatening strokes. The Court held that Mr. Madison, who is legally blind, incontinent, cannot walk without a walker, speaks with slurred speech, and has no memory of the crime or the circumstances that brought him to death row, is entitled to an assessment that recognizes that dementia and other mental conditions are covered by the Eighth Amendment’s ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

In a 5-3 decision written by Justice Elena Kagan, the Court explained that the Eighth Amendment bars executing a person whose mental disorder makes him unable to reach a rational understanding of the reason for his execution.

“The critical question is whether a “prisoner’s mental state is so distorted by a mental illness” that he lacks a “rational understanding” of “the State’s rationale for [his] execution.”  Or similarly put, the issue is whether a “prisoner’s concept of reality” is “so impair[ed]” that he cannot grasp the execution’s “meaning and purpose” or the “link between [his] crime and its punishment.”  [EJI article] (see Mar 13)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Immigrants held without bail hearings

February 27, 2018: the US Supreme Court ruled that people held in immigration detention, sometimes for years, were not entitled to periodic hearings to decide whether they may be released on bail.

The vote was 5 to 3, with the court’s more conservative members in the majority. Justice Stephen G. Breyer summarized his dissent from the bench, a rare move signaling intense disagreement.

The two sides exchanged unusually caustic barbs, mirroring the sharp divisions on immigration policy among lawmakers and members of the public.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the detention of people seeking asylum or fighting deportation was needed to give immigration officials time “to determine an alien’s status without running the risk of the alien’s either absconding or engaging in criminal activity.”

Justice Breyer responded that the decision was most likely “the first time ever” that the Supreme Court had interpreted a federal law to allow the long-term confinement of people held in the United States and accused of misconduct without an opportunity to obtain bail. “An ‘opportunity,’ I might add, does not necessarily mean release, for there may be a risk of flight or harm that would justify denying bail,” he said from the bench. (NYT article

Immigration & Environmental Issue

February 27, 2018: U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego once accused by President Donald Trump of being biased against him because he’s “Mexican” and a “hater” paved the way for construction of a section of Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S. southern border.

Curiel sided with the Homeland Security Department, which asserted authority under federal immigration law to waive compliance with environmental protection statutes because 14 miles of existing fencing near San Diego is “no longer optimal for border patrol operations.”

The government had argued in court papers that the law allowing it to sidestep environmental reviews “has been repeatedly upheld in the face of legal challenges.”

California and environmental advocacy groups had claimed in court filings that the 1996 immigration law is unconstitutional. They also alleged the lack of environmental reviews would imperil endangered species including the Quino checkerspot butterfly and the Mexican flannel bush and that federal officials failed to consult, as required, with the state and other affected agencies and parties. [NYT article] (EI, see  Apr 3; IH, see Mar 6)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

February 27, 2018: the Anti-Defamation League stated that the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the United States surged 57 percent in 2017. The organization’s Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents found 1,986 such incidents in 2017, compared with 1,267 in 2016. That increase was the largest in a single year since the A.D.L. began tracking in 1979.

Only once since 1979 has the Anti-Defamation League recorded more incidents: 2,066 in 1994. Since then, the numbers had mostly declined. There were small increases in 2014 and 2015. Then, in 2016, the count began to shoot up. (see Oct 22)

February 27 Peace Love Art Activism