February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

The Communist Manifesto

February 21, 1848: in London a group of German-born revolutionary socialists known as the Communist League published The Communist Manifesto. Karl Marx, with the assistance of Friedrich Engels, wrote it. The political pamphlet–arguably the most influential in history–proclaimed that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” and that the inevitable victory of the proletariat, or working class, would put an end to class society forever. (text of Manifesto) (see April 12, 1858)

United Farm Workers

February 21, 1972, :  the AFL-CIO granted a charter to César E. Chávez and Dolores Huerta’s United Farm Workers of America. (UFW, see Mar 25)

Oakland teacher strike

February 21, 2019: teachers in Oakland, California went on strike after rejecting the district’s latest offer to avoid a walkout.

Union President Keith Brown said  the district proposed a raise of 7 percent over four years and a one-time bonus of 1.5 percent, up from its original offer of 5 percent over three years.

Brown said the latest offer failed to address the high cost of living that is driving teachers out of Oakland.

The union was demanding 12 percent over three years retroactive from 2017 to 2020. Teachers also wanted smaller class sizes, more counselors and full-time nurses. (see Mar 3)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Nathaniel Gordon

February 21, 1862: Nathaniel Gordon became the first and only American slave-trader to be executed under the U.S. Piracy Law of 1820 as he was hanged in New York.

On August 7, 1860, Gordon had loaded 897 slaves aboard his ship Erie at Sharks Point, Congo River, West Africa, “of whom only 172 were men and 162 grown women. Gordon… preferred to carry children because they could not rise up to avenge his cruelties.”

The USS Mohican captured the Erie on August 8, 1860. The slaves were taken to Liberia, the American colony established in West Africa by the American Colonization Society for the settlement of free blacks from the United States. (NYT archive article) (see Mar 24)

Wayman Caliman, Jr

February 21, 1947: students at Williams College in Massachusetts  protested a barber in Williamstown who had tried to charge an African-American customer, Wayman Caliman, Jr., $3.00 for a haircut rather than the $1.00 he charged white customers. One of the protesting students was Norman Redlich, who went on to become a distinguished lawyer, member of the Warren Commission that investigated President Kennedy’s assassination, and Dean of New York University Law School. (see Apr 9)

Montgomery Bus Boycott

February 21, 1956: a Montgomery grand jury indicted 89 leaders of the boycott, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy, for violating a 1921 state statute forbidding boycotts without “just cause.”

Grand jurors repudiated anti-segregation efforts in the grand jury report that accompanied the indictment. “In this state we are committed to segregation by custom and law; we intend to maintain it,” the grand jury wrote. “The settlement of differences over school attendance, public transportation and other facilities must be made within those laws which reflect our way of life.”

As the indicted boycott leaders surrendered themselves into custody at the police station, hundreds of African American supporters gathered outside in a show of support for their efforts to challenge racial discrimination and fight segregation in Alabama.

Of those indicted, only Dr. King was prosecuted. Despite defense evidence showing that the boycott was peaceful and that discriminatory bus service inflicted harm on the African American community, Dr. King was quickly convicted, fined $1000, and given a suspended jail sentence of one year at hard labor.

The indictment and Dr. King’s conviction strengthened local African Americans’ resolve to fight segregation and attracted national attention to the growing civil rights movement. (BH see Feb 24; see Montgomery for expanded story)

Free speech

February 21, 1961: the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy’s car was sold at auction to help pay off his portion of a $500,000 libel judgment. (see  (BH, see Mar 6; FS, see Mar 28)

Malcolm X

February 21, 1965: Malcolm X was shot and killed by assassins as he was about to address a rally in New York City; he was 39. (BH, see Feb 24; MX, see Feb 26)

Black Panthers

February 21, 1970:   in New York City a cell of the Weather Underground fire-bombed the house of Judge Murtagh, who had presided over the Panther 21 trial . The same night, Molotov cocktails were thrown at a police car in Manhattan and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn (2015 CNN article)  (BH, see Apr 12; BP, see Aug 7; WU, see Mar 6)

Tulsa race riot

February 21, 2001: After the Oklahoma State Legislature authorized a commission to study the Tulsa Riot of 1921, (Tulsa history article) the  report recommended actions for substantial restitution; in order of priority:

1. Direct payment of reparations to survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riot;
2. Direct payment of reparations to descendants of the survivors of the Tulsa race riot;
3. A scholarship fund available to students affected by the Tulsa race riot;
4. Establishment of an economic development enterprise zone in the historic area of the Greenwood district; and
5. A memorial for the reburial of the remains of the victims of the Tulsa race riot.  (next BH, see Apr 3; next RR, see Apr 7); next Lynching, see October 10, 2003; for expanded chronology of lynching, see also AL4)

Malcolm X 2021

February 21, 2021: a letter written by ex-undercover NYPD policeman Raymond Wood alleged that his department and the FBI covered up details of the Malcolm X

Wood said that he was ordered to infiltrate the civil rights movement and had members of Malcolm X’s security detail arrested shortly before the killing by assassins identified as members of the Nation of Islam. Three men were convicted of murder and imprisoned, and all were eventually paroled.

“I participated in actions that in hindsight were deplorable and detrimental to the advancement of my own Black people. My actions on behalf of the New York City Police Department were done under duress and fear,” said Reggie Wood, a relative who read Raymond’s letter aloud at a press conference.

The letter said the security arrests carried out by Wood meant Malcolm X did not have security at the entrance to the Audubon Ballroom where he was speaking. [Aljaaeera article,  Spectrum News article] (next BH, see Feb 23; next MX, see )

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Ariston Hotel Baths

February 21, 1903: New York police conducted raid on a gay bathhouse, the Ariston Hotel Baths. 26 men were arrested and 12 brought to trial on sodomy charges; 7 men received sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years in prison. 

Emma Goldman

In 1910. Goldman first began speaking publicly in favor of homosexual rights. Magnus Hirschfeld later wrote “she was the first and only woman, indeed the first and only American, to take up the defense of homosexual love before the general public.” (next LGBTQ, see June 4, 1920; see Goldman for her story)

Eric Rudolph

February 21, 1997: Eric Rudolph bombed the Otherside Lounge, an Atlanta lesbian bar, injuring five. (NYT article) (see Apr 30)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Meriam Report

February 21, 1928: The Meriam Report (officially The Problem of Indian Administration) compiled information and reported of the conditions of American Indians across the country The report combined narrative with statistics to criticize the Department of Interior’s implementation of the Dawes Act (February 8, 1887) and overall conditions on reservations and in Indian boarding schools. The Meriam Report provided much of the data used to reform American Indian policy through new legislation: the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. It strongly influenced succeeding policies in land allotment, education, and health care.

The report found generally that the US federal government was failing at its goals of protecting Native Americans, their land, and their resources, both personal and cultural. (complete text) (see June 18, 1934)

Same-sex marriage

February 21, 2015: the national debate over gay marriage prompted some Navajos to re-examine a 2005 tribal law called the Dine Marriage Act, which prohibited same-sex unions on the reservation. Among the tribal politicians who said they were amenable to repealing the law was Ben Shelly, president of the Navajo Nation, who said he would go along with a repeal if the Navajo Nation Council voted in favor of it. [NYT article] (LGBTQ, see Mar 2; NA, see Mar 30; Cherokee story, see December 9, 2016 )

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

February 21, 1947:  Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, which could produce a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds. 4 lb. Polaroid Land Camera Model 95 was on sale at the Jordan Marsh department store in Boston for $89.75. It made more than $5 million in sales in the first year, and would be the prototype for Polaroid cameras for the next 15 years. [NYT obit for Land] (see Oct 5)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical Weapons News

February 21, 1958: in England, professor Gerald Holtom  designed a nuclear disarmament symbol that became known as the peace symbol. Holtom was a professional artist and graduate of the Royal College of Arts in London. He was one of many intellectuals in Britain during the 1950’s who were deeply disturbed by witnessing the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and then watching in disbelief as their own government, despite being in a time of post-war material hardship, raced to join the nuclear club. (next Nuclear, see Apr 4; see Holtom for his story)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

South Vietnam Leadership

February 21, 1965: the Armed Forces Council dismissed South Vietnam’s Gen Nguyen Khanh as chairman and as commander of the armed forces. General Lam Van Phat replaced him. (V & SVL, see Feb 27)

Henry Kissinger

February 21, 1970: National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger began secret peace talks at a villa outside Paris with North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho, the fifth-ranking member of the Hanoi Politburo. Le Duc Tho stated that the North Vietnamese position continued to require an unconditional U.S. withdrawal on a fixed date and the abandonment of the Thieu government as a precondition for further progress, which stalled the negotiations. The North Vietnamese rejected Kissinger’s proposals for a mutual withdrawal of military forces, the neutralization of Cambodia, and a mixed electoral commission to supervise elections in South Vietnam.

The talks were so secret that neither the secretary of state nor the secretary of defense nor the head of the CIA nor the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been told. (see Feb 25)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

February 21 Music et al

LSD

February 21, 1965: police raided Owsley Stanley’s makeshift LSD laboratory. He would beat the charges and successfully sued for the return of his equipment. The police were looking for methamphetamine, but found only LSD, which was not illegal at the time. (see March…July)

Future Woodstock Performers

February 21, 1968: Blood, Sweat, & Tears released its first album, Child Is Father To the Man. Follow link to read more.(see July 1)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

February 21 > 28, 1972: President Richard M. Nixon arrived in China for an historic eight-day official visit. He was the first U.S. president to visit the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949.

The meeting between Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai resulted in the Shanghai Communique, a pledge to set aside differences, especially on Taiwan, and to begin the process of the normalization of relations. (2012 Washington Post story) (see June 4, 1974)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

February 21, 1975: former US Attorney General John N. Mitchell, and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, were sentenced to between 30 months and 8 years in prison. (see Watergate for expanded story)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

February 21, 1978:  New  Mexico Gov. Jerry Apodaca signed into law a bill to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes under very limited circumstances. The measure was based on evidence that marijuana helps relieve advese side effects of cancer chemotherapy and the painful effects of glaucoma. The first beneficiary of the law was Lynn Pierson, a 26‐year‐old student who said he had been using marijuana since 1976 to ease the effects of chemotherapy for treatment of lung cancer. [NYT article] (next Cannabis, see May 1985 or see CCC for expanded chronology)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS & Ryan White

February 21, 1986: White returned to school. A different judge grants a restraining order that afternoon to again bar him. (see White for his expanded story)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

John Geoghan

February 21, 2002:  John Geoghan sentenced to 9-10 years in prison as the archdiocese continues to reel from the scandal. The extent of the cover-up and the sheer number of priests involved has shocked Boston’s large Catholic community, leading to calls for Cardinal Bernard Law to step down. Meanwhile, new cases are being reported in several other states. (see April 8)

Church summit

February 21, 2019: Pope Francis opened a historic summit meeting devoted to the scourge of child sexual abuse, an issue that had for decades devastated and eroded faith in some corners of his vast church while being utterly ignored and denied in others.

“We hear the cry of the little ones asking for justice,” he said. “The holy people of God look to us and expect from us not simple and obvious condemnations, but concrete and effective measures.”

Bringing together church leaders from around the world at the Vatican, Francis said that the church was obliged to discuss the extent to which abuse was afflicting the church and humanity in a “sincere and in-depth manner.” [NYT article] (see Apr 23)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

February 21, 2014:  the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled against the University of Notre Dame in a case over parts of the federal health care law that forces it to provide health insurance for students and employees that covers contraceptives. The court upheld a federal judge’s earlier ruling that denied the Roman Catholic school’s request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent it from having to comply with the birth control requirement as the university’s lawsuit moves forward. [SBT article] (see Mar 4)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

DHS memoranda

February 21, 2017: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  released a set of memoranda regarding illegal immigrants.

• One document stated that , “The Department will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.”
• Another expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to perform expedited removals on people who have been living in the U.S. for up to two years.
• The U.S.would also prosecute the parents of unaccompanied minors as smugglers.
• DHS directed ICE to hire 10,000 additional people to get the job done.
• the priority remained “removable aliens” who have been convicted of a crime or charged with a crime.
• It did not suggest any changes to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. [NYT article] (see Mar 6)

Greyhound buses & Border Patrol

February 21, 2020: ABC news reported that Greyhound, the nation’s largest bus company, had announced that it would stop allowing Border Patrol agents without a warrant to board its buses to conduct routine immigration checks.

The company’s announcement came one week after The Associated Press reported on a leaked Border Patrol memo confirming that agents can’t board private buses without the consent of the bus company. Greyhound had previously insisted that even though it didn’t like the immigration checks, it had no choice under federal law but to allow them. (next IH, see Feb 28)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

February 21, 2018: in Murphy v Smith et al, by a 5-to-4 vote that divided the justices along ideological lines, the US Supreme Court ruled that prisoners who win civil rights suits must pay 25 percent of the damages they recover toward awards of attorney’s fees.

The case concerned Charles Murphy, an Illinois inmate badly beaten by prison guards, who crushed his eye socket. Murphy sued the guards, winning about $307,000 and $108,000 in attorney’s fees. [Oyez article] (see Feb 28)

February 21 Peace Love Art Activism

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Father Rale’s War

February 20, 1725: part of Father Rale’s War—or the war between the Abenaki and the New Englanders—a group of 88 scalp hunters led by John Lovewell attacked a band of Abenaki Indians living in a wigwam near Wakefield, New Hampshire. State-sponsored programs that offered rangers payments for Indian scalps motivated the men. They tracked the Abenaki for 11 days then opened fire near midnight on February 20.

Lovewell’s posse killed and scalped 10 men and received a bounty of 100 British pounds per scalp.  (from Battles of the Northeast site)

US Constitution & Native Americans

In 1789: US Constitution and references to Native Americans/Indians:

• Article 1 Section 3: 3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed. [Indians not counted in population]
• Article 1, Section 8: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; [Indians are treated as a foreign group]  (next NA, see February 27, 1803)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Deborah Samson

February 20, 1804: Paul Revere wrote to Massachusetts US Representative William Eustis on behalf of Deborah Samson. Revere requested that the US Congress grant her a military pension. This had never before been requested by or for a woman, but with her health failing and her family destitute, the money was greatly needed. Revere wrote, “I have been induced to enquire her situation, and character, since she quit the male habit, and soldiers uniform; for the more decent apparel of her own gender…humanity and justice obliges me to say, that every person with whom I have conversed about her, and it is not a few, speak of her as a woman with handsome talents, good morals, a dutiful wife, and an affectionate parent.” (see Samson for expanded story)

see National Women’s Hall of Fame for more

February 20, 1969: National Women’s Hall of Fame founded in Seneca Falls, New York. The museum’s location commemorates Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, two renowned leaders of the suffragette movement in the U.S. who organized the first Women’s Right Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. Follow link above for more. (see Mar 21)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Judicial Milestone

February 20, 1809:  US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in United States v. Peters that the legal power of the federal judiciary was greater than that of any individual state: “If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery; and the nation is deprived of the means of enforcing its laws by the instrumentality of its own tribunals.” (Constitutional Law Reporter article) (see March 20, 1816)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Textile Workers Strike

February 20, 1834: responding to a 15 percent wage cut, women textile workers in Lowell, Mass., organized a “turn-out”—a strike—in protest. The action failed. One worker’s diary recounts a “stirring speech” of resistance by a co-worker, 11-year-old Harriet Hanson Robinson. (see November 1, 1835)

Dockworker Strike

February 20, 2015: negotiators reached a tentative contract covering West Coast dockworkers, likely ending a protracted labor dispute that snarled international trade at seaports handling about $1 trillion worth of cargo annually.  

The breakthrough came after nine months of negotiations that turned contentious in the fall, when dockworkers and their employers began blaming each other for problems getting imports to consumers and exports overseas.  

The five-year deal, confirmed by International Longshore and Warehouse Union spokesman Craig Merrilees, The 13,000-member union’s rank-and-file still had approve. They worked 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle that handle about one-quarter of all U.S. international trade, much of it with Asia. (see Mar 25)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

February 20, 1907: President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Immigration Act of 1907 which excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons” from being admitted to the United States. (see Mar 2)

Cold War

Sen Joe McCarthy back tracks

February 20, 1950: Sen Joseph McCarthy gave a six hour speech on the floor of the Senate that lasts until midnight.  However, he now claimed to have evidence of only 81 communists working in the State Department. (see Apr 10)

SEATO ends

February 20, 1976: after operating for 22 years, SEATO [the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization] concluded its final military exercise and quietly shut down. SEATO had been one of the bulwarks of America’s Cold War policies in Asia, but the Vietnam War did much to destroy its cohesiveness and question its effectiveness. [NYT article] (see March 24, 1977)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

February 20, 1950: United States v. Rabinowitz the US Supreme Court held that warrantless searches immediately following an arrest to be constitutional. The decision overturned Trupiano v. United States (1948), which had banned such searches.

Police arrested Albert J. Rabinowitz in his office on February 16, 1943 for selling forged US postage stamps to an undercover federal officer. Federal agents then conducted a warrantless, ninety-minute search of the office, finding an additional 573 forged stamps. Rabinowitz unsuccessfully moved to exclude this evidence from his subsequent trial, but the motion was denied. He was convicted, but a US Court of Appeals later reversed the verdict, ruling that his rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been violated.

The US Supreme Court reversed the Appeals Court ruling in a 5-3 decision. Writing for the majority, Justice Sherman Minton wrote that only “unreasonable” searches were banned under the Fourth Amendment; searching the office of a suspected forger at the site of his lawful arrest was held to be reasonable. (see November 13, 1951)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

School Desegregation

February 20, 1958: five months after the integration crisis involving the Little Rock Nine, the Little Rock, Arkansas school board filed suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, urging suspension of its plan of desegregation. They alleged that public hostility to desegregation and that the opposition of Governor Orval Faubus and the state legislature created an intolerable and chaotic situation. (BH, see  Mar 28; SD, see Sept 12)

Alcorn A & M

February 20, 1968: Mississippi State troopers used tear gas and clubs to break up a student demonstration at Alcorn A & M (now Alcorn State University) in Lorman, Miss. Students had opposed the dismissal of three students who had passed out campaign literature in support of congressional candidate Charles Evers. (see Feb 29)

Race Revolt

February 20, 1987: in Tampa, FL, violence broke out for a second night in a mostly black neighborhood where a melee followed the death of a young black man subdued by a white officer using a chokehold.

Isolated groups of roaming youths broke windows with stones and bottles, and seven people were arrested, said Police Capt. R. W. B. Seal

Officials said the violence was less severe than the previous night, when stores were looted, car and trash fires were set and stones were hurled at the police after a crowd of 200 people gathered.  

”It’s a war zone down there,” said Bob Gilder, former president of the Tampa chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He said the disturbance had been touched off by the death Wednesday (Feb 18) of 23-year-old Melvin Eugene Hair. Mr. Hair reportedly threatened four people with a knife and attacked a police officer, who then applied the choke hold. The officer, David D’Agresta, 25, has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending an investigation into Mr. Hair’s death. (NYT article) (see BH, see Dec 21; RR, see January 16, 1989)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

February 20 Music et al

Wonderland by Night

February 20 – March 5, 1961: Bert Kaempfert’s Wonderland by Night returns to Billboard #1 album.

This Diamond Ring

February 20 – March 5, 1965: “This Diamond Ring” by Gary Lewis and the Playboys #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Al Kooper was one of the composers.

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

John Glenn

February 20, 1962: John Glenn orbited the Earth three times, becoming the first American to do so.  [NASA article] (see Apr 24)

Ranger 8

February 20, 1965: the Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface (NASA article). (see Mar 18)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

South Vietnam Leadership

February 20, 1965: Gen Nguyen Khanh was able to get troops to take over from the insurgents without any resistance. Meanwhile, Air Vice Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky met with the dissident officers and agreed to their demand for the dismissal of Khanh. (V & SVL, see Feb 21)

Tet Offensive

February 20, 1968: as a result of the Tet Offensive, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee began hearings to investigate American policy in Vietnam. At issue was whether the administration had provided Congress with truthful data at the time it was seeking passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in August 1964, which had considerably broadened the president’s war-making authority in Southeast Asia. (see Feb 25)

Chicago 8

February 20, 1970: Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, and Rennie Davis were each fined $5,000 and sentenced to five years in prison. At sentencing, Abbie Hoffman recommended that the judge try LSD, offering to set him up with a dealer he knew in Florida. [Newspapers site article] (Chi8, see May 3, 1971; Vietnam, see Feb 21)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

February 20, 1974: Patty Hearst’s 20th birthday. On a third audio tape, DeFreeze repeats his earlier statement that Hearst’s contribution should reflect both Hearst’s capabilities and the need of the people. He demands that the amount be increased to $6 million. He also demands that Hearst prove that he will stop committing “crimes” against “the people.” (see SLA for expanded story)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

February 20, 1974: the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision stating that the case of Lewis v. City Of New Orleans   should be reversed and remanded and declaring a municipal/other local ordinance as unconstitutional. The judgment rested on the Court’s authority over judicial review at the state level.

The Louisiana Supreme Court had upheld a statute making it unlawful and a breach of the peace “for any person wantonly to curse or revile or to use obscene or opprobrious language toward or with reference to” any city police officer serving in the line of duty, maintaining that it only prohibited fighting words. (see June 25)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Oklahoma City Explosion

February 20, 1996: the Court granted a change of venue and ordered that the case be transferred from Oklahoma City to the U.S. District Court in Denver, CO. (see June 2, 1997)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 20, 1998: Lewinsky attorney Bill Ginsburg said the former intern met with Vernon Jordan much earlier than was being reported. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

February 20, 2015: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the State Supreme Court to revoke the marriage license issued a day earlier to two women, arguing that the move violated a decade-old state ban on same-sex marriage and could cause legal chaos. [NYT article] (see Feb 21)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

February 20, 2019: in Timbs v Indiana, the US Supreme Court unanimously sided with a small time drug offender in Indiana whose $42,000 Land Rover was seized by law enforcement officials. The Court ruled that the Constitution places limits on civil forfeiture laws that allow states and localities to take and keep private property used to commit crimes.

Civil forfeiture was a popular way to raise revenue, and its use had been the subject of widespread criticism across the political spectrum.

The Supreme Court had ruled (see Austin v US, June 28, 1993) that the Eighth Amendment, which bars “excessive fines,” limits the ability of the federal government to seize property.

On this date, the court ruled that the clause also applies to the states. (see June 17)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

February 20, 2019: authorities arrested three European lawmakers after they broke into an air base in Belgium to protest the stockpiling of American nuclear weapons there.

The three politicians—Molly Scott Cato of the U.K., Michele Rivasi of  France and Tilly Metz of Luxembourg, all members of the European Parliament (MEPs) representing green parties—broke into the Kleine Brogel base in eastern Belgium on Wednesday and unfurled a banner on a runway used by F-16 fighter jets, The Guardian reported.

The three had been protesting the base’s stockpiling of American B61 nuclear bombs, of which there were believed to be between 10 and 20 at the facility, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative. All were detained on the runway.

Another 12 activists—including a fourth Green MEP Thomas Waitz from Austria—were arrested at a concurrent demonstration outside the base, the newspaper said. The other 12 were members of the Belgian peace group Agir Pour la Paix—Act for Peace. Several of those detained had tried to climb over the fence surrounding the dual-runway base. (see Feb 28)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

February 20, 2020: CBS News reported that according to a spokesperson for the Center for Reproductive Rights, Mississippi’s controversial “fetal heartbeat” ban, an effective six-week ban on abortion, was just struck down by a federal judge, The Center is the law firm that challenged the state law.

A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision writing, “[A]ll agree that cardiac activity can be detected well before the fetus is viable. That dooms the law. If a ban on abortion after 15 weeks is unconstitutional, then it follows that a ban on abortion at an earlier stage of pregnancy is also unconstitutional.”

The decision temporarily will block the law from going into effect, upholding a lower court’s decision from May 2019. In December, the Fifth Circuit also struck down a 15-week abortion ban passed by Mississippi. (next WH, see Feb 24)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

February 20, 2020: Hawaii News Now reported that the California Assembly apologized for discriminating against Japanese Americans and helping the U.S. government send them to internment camps during World War II.

The Assembly unanimously passed the resolution as several former internees and their families looked on. After the votes, lawmakers gathered at the entrance of the chamber to hug and shake hands with victims, including 96-year-old Kiyo Sato.

The California resolution said anti-Japanese sentiment began in California as early as 1913, when the state passed the Alien Land Law, targeting Japanese farmers who were perceived as a threat by some in the massive agricultural industry. Seven years later, the state barred anyone with Japanese ancestry from buying farmland. (next JIC see  Feb 26, or see Internment for expanded chronology)

February 20 Peace Love Art Activism