March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
George Boxley attempts revolt
March 6, 1815: George Boxley was a white storekeeper and mill owner. While living in Berkeley Parrish, Spotsylvania County, Virginia, he allegedly tried to coordinate a local slave rebellion in 1815, based on “heaven-sent” orders to free the enslaved. His plan was for slaves from Spotsylvania, and surrounding counties to meet at his home with horses, guns, swords and cubs. His plan involved capturing Richmond’s magazine or arsenal, and from there he planned to help the participating enslaved reach freedom. An enslaved girl, Lucy, informed her owner, Ptolemy Powell, who then informed the magistrate.
The plot was foiled. At least six enslaved people were executed and many others were arrested. Boxley was able to escape from the Spotsylvania County Jail when his wife, brought him a file, which he used to cut his chains and escape to freedom. A thousand dollars reward was offered for Boxley, but he was never caught. Boxley fled to Indiana, where he continued to help runaways and teach the principles of abolitionism on the railway to freedom. [NPS article]
Fort Blount revolt
In 1816: three hundred slaves and about 20 Native American allies hold Fort Blount on Apalachicola Bay, Florida for several days before being attacked by U.S. troops. (next BH & Slave Revolts, see May 30, 1822 or see SR for expanded slave revolt chronology)
Dred Scott decision
March 6, 1857: Chief Justice Taney delivered the majority opinion of the Court.
It held that Dred Scott was not a “citizen of a state” and therefore was unable to bring suit in federal court. According to Taney, the authors of the Constitution had viewed all blacks as “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
If the Court were to grant Scott’s petition, It would give to persons of the negro race, …the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, …to sojourn there as long as they pleased, to go where they pleased …the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.
As far as Scott’s previous residence in both a free state and a free territory, Justice Taney deferred to the Missouri State court’s: “…we are satisfied, upon a careful examination of all the cases decided in the State courts of Missouri referred to, that it is now firmly settled by the decisions of the highest court in the State, that Scott and his family upon their return were not free, but were, by the laws of Missouri, the property of the defendant; and that the Circuit Court of the United States had no jurisdiction, when, by the laws of the State, the plaintiff was a slave, and not a citizen.” (BH, see Sept 13; see Scott for expanded story)
Executive Order 10925
March 6, 1961: President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925. It required government contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” It established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. (full text of order) (see Mar 7)
Muhammad Ali
March 6, 1964: Cassius Clay adopted Muhammad Ali as his new name given to him by Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, Ali’s name mean “Praiseworthy One.” (next BH, see Mar 12; Ali, see Mar 9)
Confederate flag
March 6, 2013: Florida. After hearing heated arguments against and for flying a Confederate flag at the Pensacola Bay Center, the Escambia Board of County Commissioners voted in favor of a resolution that gives the county the option of flying the same five flags there that the city of Pensacola flies at its public buildings.
The commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of the resolution. It changed the commissioners’ decision in December to only fly the American and state of Florida flags at the Bay Center. The resolution gives the county the option to display historical flags at county buildings that are consistent with the flags the city of Pensacola flies. The city buildings have the American, British, French, Spanish and the National Flag of the Confederacy. (see Mar 7)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Cultural/Technical Milestones
Oreo cookie
March 6, 1912: Oreo sandwich cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Co., which later became Nabisco. (see March 25, 1913)
Clarence Birdseye
March 6, 1930: retail frozen foods go on sale for the first time in Springfield, Massachusetts. Various fruits, vegetables, meat and fish were offered for sale. Clarence Birdseye had developed the method used to successfully freeze foods on a commercial scale. (see September 17, 1931)
Walter Cronkite
March 6, 1981: Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.” (see Aug 1)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
Little Red Song Book
March 6, 1913: Joe Hill’s song “There is Power in a Union” appeared in the Little Red Song Book, published by the Wobblies (see May 26)
WV Teacher Strike
March 6, 2018: the statewide West Virginia teachers’ strike ended when Gov. James C. Justice signed a bill to give teachers and other state employees a 5 percent pay raise. (see Apr 2)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
President Ho Chi Minh
March 6, 1946: President Ho Chi Minh struck an agreement with France that recognized his country as an autonomous state within the Indochinese Federation and the French Union. (see Mar 20)
US Advisors
March 6, 1960: the US announced that 3,500 additional American soldiers would be sent to Vietnam as advisors. (see Nov 11)
U.S. Marines
March 6, 1965: the White House confirmed reports that, at the request of South Vietnam, the United States was sending two battalions of U.S. Marines for security work at the Da Nang air base to free South Vietnamese troops for combat.
That day, President Johnson had a private conversation with Democratic Senator Richard Russell o f Georgia explaining to him about the imminent deployment of the Marines. The President told Russell how General Westmorland and many others kept insisting of the deployment’s necessity. At the end of the conversation, Johnson said, “…a man can fight if he can see daylight down the road somewhere. But there ain’t no light in Vietnam. Not a bit.” (see Mar 8)
Weather Underground
March 6, 1970: a nail bomb they were constructing detonated and killed Weathermen members Theodore Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins in their Greenwich Village townhouse. They had intended to plant the bomb at a non-commissioned officer’s dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. (2015 NY Daily news article) (Vietnam, see Mar 10; WU, see May 21)
My Lai Massacre
March 6, 1998: at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, the Army presented the Soldier’s Medal, for heroism not involving conflict with an enemy, to Hugh Thompson; to his gunner, Lawrence Colburn; and, posthumously, to Glenn Andreotta, who was killed in a helicopter crash three weeks after the My Lai massacre.
Thompson was the Army helicopter pilot who rescued Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai massacre, reported the killings to his superior officers in a rage over what he had seen, and testified at the inquiries. (2006 NYT obit) (see August 20, 2009)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Cold War
Nuclear/Chemical News
March 6, 1951: trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg began in New York Southern District federal court. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presided over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians (treason could not be charged because the United States was not at war with the Soviet Union). The Rosenbergs, and co-defendant, Morton Sobell, were defended by the father and son team of Emanuel and Alexander Bloch. The prosecution included the infamous Roy Cohn, best known for his association with Senator Joseph McCarthy. (Rosenberg Fund for Children site article) (see Mar 29)
Georgy Malenkov
March 6, 1953: Georgy Malenkov was named premier and first secretary of the Communist Party. (1988 NYT obit) (see Mar 20)
North Korea
March 6, 2018: South Korean officials announced that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, told South Korean envoys that his country was willing to begin negotiations with the United States on abandoning its nuclear weapons and that it would suspend all nuclear and missile tests while it is engaged in such talks. (NYT article) (see Apr 8)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
INDEPENDENCE DAY
March 6, 1957: Ghana independent from the United Kingdom. It was the first African nation to achieve freedom from colonial rule. (see Aug 31)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
March 6 Music et al
Exodus
March 6 – 19, 1961: soundtrack from the movie Exodus is Billboard #1 album for a second time.
My Girl
March 6 – 12, 1965: “My Girl” by the Temptations #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
John Lennon
March 6, 1973: the New York Office of the Immigration Department canceled John Lennon’s visa extension. It had been granted only five days before. (see JL for expanded chronology)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Native Americans
Wounded Knee
March 6, 1974: Federal District Court Judge Fred Nicol upset over confusing statement involving inaccessible FBI documents said he wanted the files intact in his chambers to inspect. He said, “I don’t care what the FBI agrees or disagrees on. I used to think the FBI was one of the best bureaus…but now I think it has deteriorated. It has deteriorated badly and I don’t care how many FBI agents are in the courtroom to hear this.” (see June 18)
Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe
March 6, 1978: In Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the lower courts and held that Indian tribal courts do not have inherent criminal jurisdiction to try and to punish non-Indians, and hence may not assume such jurisdiction unless specifically authorized to do so by Congress. (see July 15)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Leonard Matlovich
March 6, 1975: in early 1974, Air Force Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a Vietnam veteran and winner of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, read an interview in the Air Force Times with gay activist Frank Kameny, who had counseled gays in the military. He met with Kameny and ACLU attorney David Addlestone, spending months formulating a plan. On this day, he hand-delivered a letter to his Langley AFB commanding officer, disclosing he was gay. When his commander asked, “What does this mean?” Matlovich replied, “It means Brown versus the Board of Education” — a reference to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case outlawing racial segregation in public schools and Matlovich’s belief that homosexuals should also be treated without discrimination. (2015 Time article) (LGBTQ, see Mar 25; Matlovich, see Sept 16)
Transgender rights
March 6, 2017: The Supreme Court announced that it would not hear a major case on transgender rights after all, acting after the Trump administration changed the federal government’s position on whether public schools had to allow transgender youths to use bathrooms that matched their gender identities.
In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court vacated an appeal’s court decision in favor of a transgender boy, Gavin Grimm, and sent the case back for further consideration in light of the new guidance from the Trump administration. (see Mar 14)
F.V. v. Barron
March 6, 2018: in the case of F.V. v. Barron (formerly F.V. v. Armstrong), U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale ordered Idaho state officials to allow transgender people born in Idaho to apply to correct the gender markers on their State of Idaho birth certificates by April 6, 2018. Lambda Legal had filed a federal lawsuit in April 2017 challenging Idaho’s categorical ban on such corrections.
Candy wrote in her opinion, “After careful consideration, the Court finds IDHW’s policy of categorically and automatically denying applications submitted by transgender individuals to change the sex listed on their birth certificates is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court finds further that any constitutionally sound rule must not include the revision history as to sex or name to avoid impermissibly compelling speech and furthering the harms at issue.” (text of decision via Lambda Legal) (see Mar 12)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Jack Kevorkian
March 6, 1996: the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that mentally competent, terminally ill adults have a constitutional right to aid in dying from doctors, health care workers and family members. It is the first time a federal appeals court endorses assisted suicide. (see Kevorkian for expanded story)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
Trump tries again
March 6, 2017: President Trump signed a revised version of his executive order that would for the first time rewrite American immigration policy to ban migrants from predominantly Muslim nations, removing citizens of Iraq from the original travel embargo and scrapping a provision that explicitly protected religious minorities. (see Mar 8)
Trump sues California
March 6, 2018: the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against California’s Gov. Jerry Brown and the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, over three state laws passed in recent months saying the sanctuary laws made it impossible for federal immigration officials to do their jobs and deport criminals who were born outside the United States. The Justice Department called the laws unconstitutional and asked a judge to block them. (next IH, see Mar 13); lawsuit, see July 5)
Census
March 6, 2019: U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of California issued a court order to block the Trump administration’s plans to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. He was the second judge to do so (for first order, see Jan 15)
Seeborg found that the administration’s decision to add the question violated administrative law. He also ruled that it was unconstitutional because it prevents the government from carrying out its mandate to count every person living in the U.S. every 10 years.
“In short, the inclusion of the citizenship question on the 2020 Census threatens the very foundation of our democratic system — and does so based on a self-defeating rationale,” Seeborg wrote in a 126-page opinion . [NPR article] (next IH, see Mar 8; next Census, see Apr 5)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
Planned Parenthood funding
March 6, 2017: the White House proposed preserving federal payments to Planned Parenthood if it discontinued providing abortions. Officials at the organization (which received about $500 million annually in federal funding) rejected the offer as an impossibility . That money helps pay for women’s health services the organization provides, not for abortion services.
“Let’s be clear: Federal funds already do not pay for abortions,” Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said. “Offering money to Planned Parenthood to abandon our patients and our values is not a deal that we will ever accept. Providing critical health care services for millions of American women is nonnegotiable.” (see Apr 13)
Alabama/IVF
March 6, 2024: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law aimed at protecting in vitro fertilization patients and providers from legal liability with some clinics poised to lift a hold on certain IVF services as early as this week after an unprecedented state Supreme Court ruling threw the future of fertility care into turmoil.
The new law did not address the issue of personhood at the heart of last month’s ruling in a case stemming from the accidental destruction of frozen embryos at a fertility clinic, and experts said it’s going to take more work to protect fertility services in the state. The fertility clinic at the center of that case has halted services and told CNN the new legislation falls short of providing the legal protection it needs to resume care. [CNN article] (next WH, see May 1)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
Pledge of Allegiance./Student Rights
March 5, 2019: Roderick Ford of Tampa, the lawyer for Jabari Talbot, the 11-year-old student arrested for causing a disturbance at school and resisting arrest, said that the case against Jabiri was closed .
Ford provided a February 26 letter from Polk County Teen Court Director Clever English, showing the “case is closed and there were no issues pending.”
English also told Talbot’s mother, Dhakira Talbot, in the letter that the case was not entered into a criminal database and no delinquency record was created.
“Although we are very thankful that the Polk County Juvenile Court has closed the file, and there will be no criminal prosecution by the Polk County State Attorney’s Office, our journey to justice against the perennial criminalization of millions of black youth who attend public schools continues, as a civil rights complaint is now currently pending before the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,” said Ford. (next SR, see Sept 30; next Pledge, see Dec 3)
Environmental Issues
March 6, 2024: European Union’s climate monitoring organization, Copernicus reported that the world as a whole experienced the hottest February on record, making it the ninth consecutive month of record temperatures. Even more startling, global ocean temperatures in February were at an all-time high for any time of year, according to Copernicus. [NYT article] [next EI, see Apr 9)
March 6 Peace Love Art Activism
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