Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940

Anarchism

The Anarchist Library site  states: “Anarchists believe that the point of society is to widen the choices of individuals. This is the axiom upon which the anarchist case is founded….Anarchists strive for a society which is as efficient as possible, that is a society which provides individuals with the widest possible range of individual choices.”

It continues, “Anarchism is opposed to states, armies, slavery, the wages system, the landlord system, prisons, monopoly capitalism, oligopoly capitalism, state capitalism, bureaucracy, meritocracy, theocracy, revolutionary governments, patriarchy, matriarchy, monarchy, oligarchy, protection rackets, intimidation by gangsters, and every other kind of coercive institution. In other words, anarchism opposes government in all its forms.”

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Kovno, Lithuania

According to the Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA): Emma Goldmas was “born on June 27, 1869, in Kovno, Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire), Emma Goldman became acquainted with poverty, injustice and oppression at a young age. She witnessed violence against women and children, landlords brutalizing peasants, and corrupt officials extorting fees from a powerless constituency. Her family experienced significant anti-Semitism, living in Jewish ghettoes and forced to move often in search of opportunity.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

The Immigrant

She and her sister Helena came to the United States in 1885. She did not find, as so many millions before her had not found, streets paved with gold.  Working-class conditions were often brutal and fatal.  She found factory work near relatives in Rochester, NY

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Haymarket Square Revolt

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman, 

On May 4, 1886, labor and radical activists held a rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest the brutal suppression of a strike by the police. As the police attempted to stop the meeting, a bomb exploded, injuring many people and killing a police officer. In the ensuing chaos, a number of demonstrators were killed and six officers fatally injured, mostly by police gunfire.

Authorities accused Anarchists of the killings and four were executed on November 11, 1887. After living under the cruelty of her homeland and experiencing something akin to the same thing in the land of opportunity, Goldman found the idea of anarchism appealing.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Jacob Kershner

Shortly after her arrival, Goldmen met Jacob Kershner whose harsh living conditions were similar to hers. They shared an interest in reading and the arts.  They married four months after then met in February 1887. A year later, disappointed that the union brought no more freedom than when single, she divorced Kershner.

She found temporary work in a New Haven, CT corset factory, but when returning to Rochester and hearing Kershner’s threats of suicide, they remarried, only to again divorce quickly in August 1899.

Such behavior caused her Jewish community to shun her, but strengthened her resolve to find her own freedom her own way.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

August – December 1889

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman, 

Goldman moved to New York City and began to work at the office of an anarchist newspaper, Freiheit, and helped organize the November 11 Haymarket Commemoration.

In 1889 she met Alexander Berkman who would become her life-long companion.  They shared an apartment with Modest Stein, and Helene and Anna Minkin.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

The Orator

October 19, 1890: Goldman spoke in Baltimore to members of the International Working People’s Association in the afternoon. She later spoke in German to the Workers’ Educational Society at Canmakers’ Hall. This was the first lecture by Goldman to be reported in the mainstream press.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Assassination attempt

July 23, 1892: in reaction to the treatment of Pennsylvania steelworkers locked out of their jobs after demanding higher wages, Berkman traveled to Pennsylvania. (Homestead Strike, July 6, 1892)

He shot and stabbed but failed to kill steel magnate Henry Clay Frick,  Berkman also tried to use what was, in effect, a suicide bomb, but it didn’t detonate.

Emma Goldman was suspected of complicity. Police raid her apartment, seizing her papers. The press refered to Goldman, temporarily in hiding, as the “Queen of the Anarchists.”

July 26, 1892: the New York Times reported that “Emma Goldman who is reported to have been in this city [Pittsburg] Saturday Night, and with whom Berkmann lived at one time, could not be found yesterday. It is believed by many that she knew of Berkmann’s trip to Pittsburgh, and furnished him money to go with.”

September 19, 1892: Berkman sentenced to twenty-two years in prison.

June 1893: Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned three men found guilty of the Haymarket bombing, effectively ending his political career.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Goldman arrested after speech

In August 1893: Goldman addressed a public meeting, urging those in need to take bread if they are hungry. Four days later, she led a march of 1,000 people to Union Square, where, speaking in German and English, she repeated her belief that workers are entitled to bread. The speech led to her arrest for inciting a riot. She pleaded not guilty. (NYT article)

October 4 – 16, 1893: Goldman was tried and found guilty of inciting to riot. She was sentenced to one year in the penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island in New York’s East River.

August 17, 1894: Goldman released from prison. Her account of the experience appears in the New York World the next day.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Continues to speak

February – June 1898: Goldman addressed sixty-six meetings in twelve states and eighteen cities; reporters noted Goldman’s improved command of English.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Leon Czolgosz

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

September 6, 1901: Leon Czolgosz, a Polish citizen associated with the Anarchist movement  shot President William McKinley twice in the stomach while McKinley was attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley had been greeting the public in a receiving line. Czolgosz later confessed to the crime, signing a statement saying that the last public speaker he had heard was Emma Goldman, but added she had never told him to kill the president.

September 10, 1901: a warrant is issued for Goldman’s arrest in connection with the (then) assassination attempt. Goldman gave herself up and was subjected to intensive interrogation. Though initially denied, bail was set at $20,000. She was never officially charged with a crime. September 14, 1901: President McKinley died of a gangrenous infection stemming from his wounds. September 23, 1901:: Leon Czolgosz was put on trial for assassinating US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. September 24, 1901: Czolgosz convicted and Goldman released,  the case against her dropped for lack of evidence. October 29, 1901: Leon Czolgosz executed.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Immigration Acts

March 3, 1903: the 1903 Immigration Act banned the entry into the U.S. of anarchists, beggars, epileptics, and importers of prostitutes. The act became a model for subsequent restrictive, anti-immigrant laws in the years and decades ahead.

The 1918 Immigration Act, passed on October 16, 1918, expanded the definition of an “anarchist,” allowing the government to deport more alleged radicals.

The 1924 Immigration Act, passed on May 26, 1924, which included a “national origins” quota system that discriminated against people seeking to come to the U.S. from Eastern and Southern Europe.

The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, passed on June 27, 1952, was a Cold War law that barred the immigration of alleged “subversives” and allowed the government to deport immigrants who were deemed subversive.

1965 Immigration Act replaced the 1924 act. The 1965 act abolished the quota system. President Lyndon signed  the 1965 act into law on October 3, 1965, in a ceremony at the Statue of Liberty.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

International Workers of the World

June 27, 1905: Western miners and other activists form the Industrial Workers of the World at a convention in Chicago. The IWW, or Wobblies, was one of the most radical of all organized labor groups. Though they will achieve only limited success in moving their agenda forward, they will inspire generations of labor activists with their militant spirit. The Wobbly motto: “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Mother Earth magazine

InMarch, 1906:  the publication of the first issue of Mother Earth. Emma Goldman launched a speaking tour to raise money for the publication. It published articles on a variety of anarchist topics including the labor movement, education, literature and the arts, state and government control, and women’s emancipation, sexual freedom, and was an early supporter of birth control.  The magazine ran until 1917.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Berkman and Goldman again

May 18, 1906: Alexander Berkman released from prison after serving nearly 14 years of his 22-year sentence.

On May 26, 1906 a New York Time article headline reads: AN ANARCHIST HONEYMOON. In it, the reporter talks to the couple that the Chicago police are searching for.

October 30, 1906: Goldman  arrested in Manhattan while attending an anarchist meeting called to protest police suppression of free speech at a previous meeting. She was charged with unlawful assembly for the purpose of overthrowing the government under the new criminal laws against anarchy.

January 6, 1907: Goldman arrested while speaking on “The Misconceptions of Anarchism” at an afternoon meeting of 600 people in New York City.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

PFC  William Buwalda

April 26, 1908: Goldman lectured on patriotism at Walton’s Pavilion in San Francisco. A US soldier, PFC  William Buwalda, attended the lecture in uniform and was witnessed shaking her hand.

Within two weeks, he is court-martialed in violation of the 62nd Article of War, and found guilty by a military court, dishonorably discharged and sentenced to five years at hard labor on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, California.

May 22, 1908:  William Buwalda’s sentence was commuted to three years’ hard labor, in deference to Buwalda’s 15 years of excellent military service and the assumption of a temporary lapse in judgment under the sway of an “anarchist orator.”

December 31, 1908: President Theodore Roosevelt pardoned William Buwalda, In January of 1909, Emma Goldman announced that anarchists across the country had raised one thousand dollars for Buwalda to begin a new life after prison.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Rout

January 15, 1909: San Francisco police arrested Goldman and Ben Reitman just before they were about to hold a meeting. Police charged them with rout—the assembly of two or more persons at a meeting where measures are advocated where if they were actually carried out would lead to a riot.

Police also arrested William Buwalda for his protest of their arrest.

July 23, 1909: Goldman spoke in NYC. Among her comments were: Many people are afraid to come to an Anarchist meeting because they fear that they will be blown up. Isn’t it stupid to be afraid of violence; only of individual violence. They have no objection to battlefields, and policemen, and electric chairs, and other ornaments of the present system. So long as violence is committed in the name of the State they are happy.” She referred to the hanging of the Anarchists after the Haymarket riots as “judicial murder.”

January 14, 1910: Mother Earth magazine was banned from the mails after Anthony Comstock complained about Goldman’s essay, “The White Slave Traffic,” under section 497 of the Postal Laws and Regulations Act of 1902. Later, the issue will be released by the Post Office after Comstock is forced to withdraw his objections.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Anarchists excluded

March 26, 1910: an amendment to the Immigration Act of 1907 passed Congress. The 1910 Act, while not changing the language excluding anarchists, streamlined the methods of prosecution and deportation of excludable aliens, forbidding any anarchists into the U.S.

On her 1910 tour, she had spoken 120 times in thirty-seven cities in twenty-five states, reaching 25,000 people. On December 17, 1910 Goldman published her first book, Anarchism and Other Essays.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Ben Reitman

May 14, 1912: Goldman and Ben Reitman arrived in San Diego to support the efforts of the I.W.W. An angry crowd of 2,000 surrounded Goldman’s hotel.

Vigilantes seized Reitman, tarred and”sagebrushed” him, and burned the letters “I.W.W.” skin with a cigar. The vigilantes also forced Reitman to kiss the American flag and sing “The Star Spangled Banner.” He later made his way back to San Diego, and then to Los Angeles, where he reunited with Goldman.

May 17, 1912:: in a New York Times article, Ben Reitman described his abduction and torture.

A year later, on May 20, 1913: Goldman and Reitman returned to San Diego. Goldman was scheduled to lecture on Ibsen’s Play, “An Enemy of the People.”

Upon their arrival, they were taken to a police station under police protection, surrounded by a mob, and later escorted and placed aboard the afternoon train to Los Angeles “for their own safety.”

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

World War I

June 28, 1914: a Bosnian Serb anarchist assassinates Archduke Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne.

August 4, 1914: Britain declares war on Germany.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Goldman and Women’s Health

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman, 

August 6, 1915: Goldman and  Reitman arrested in Portland, OR for distributing literature on birth control. Goldman wass released on $500 cash bail and announced that she would try to speak on the subject of birth control on August 7. Reitman remained in jail.

August 7, 1915: Goldman and Ben Reitman fined $100 for having distributed birth control information. Goldman spoke that evening on “The Intermediate Sex (A Discussion of Homosexuality)” at Turn Hall. In the audience were policemen in plain clothes, a deputy district attorney, and a deputy city attorney. She was not arrested.

February 8, 1916: Goldman lectured in NYC on Women’s Health.

February 11, 1916:: Goldman was scheduled to lecture on the “Philosophy of Atheism” at Vorwart Hall,  NYC. She was arrested as she was about to enter the building, and charged with violating Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code for lecturing the previous Tuesday on a medical question (birth control) in defiance of the law. Goldman released on $500 bail.

March 1, 1916: Goldman spoke at a birth control mass meeting held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Other speakers included Margaret Sanger, Leonard Abbott, Gilbert E. Roe, Theodore Schroeder, Bolton Hall, John Reed, Anna Strunsky Walling, Dr. William J. Robinson and Dr. A. L. Goldwater.

April 20, 191: Goldman tried at Special Sessions for lecturing on birth control. She was sentenced to fifteen days in Queens County Jail after refusing to pay a $100 fine.

May 5, 1916: Goldman spoke at a birth control meeting at Carnegie Hall, NYC.

January 8, 1917: a New York court acquitted Goldman of the charge of circulating birth control information.’

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Anti-Draft

June 14, 1917:: Goldman and Alexander Berkman spoke at a No-Conscription League mass meeting. After the meeting, the police required men of draft age to show their conscription cards. As a result 30 men were detained, and two arrested.

June 15, 1917: President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act, which set penalties of up to thirty years’ imprisonment and fines of up to $10,000 for persons aiding US enemies, interfering with the draft, or encouraging disloyalty in the armed forces. On the same day, Goldman, Berkman, and William Bales were arrested at the Mother Earth offices. Manuscripts, letters and subscription lists, as well as subscription lists for the No-Conscription League and another publication, The Blast, were confiscated.

June 16, 1917: Goldman and Alexander Berkman were indicted on the charge of obstructing the Draft Act (Selective Service Act) in NYC. They pled not guilty. Bail set at $25,000 each.

July 9, 1917: Goldman and Alexander Berkman found guilty of conspiracy against the selective draft law in NYC.

September 11, 1917: while out on bail, Goldman was prevented from speaking at the Kessler Theater by the New York City police. She appeared with a gag over her mouth.

Goldman and Berkman were found guilty, fined $10,000 and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment

Berkman was sent to Atlanta State Penitentiary in Georgia and Goldman was taken to Jefferson City Penitentiary in Missouri.

September 26, 1917: the U.S. Post Office directed Mother Earth to show cause why it should not be barred from the mails because of its opposition to the war.

The Post Office subsequently denied Mother Earth 2nd Class mailing privilege (a device that was widely used during World War I, and effectively denied use of the mails for publications), and Mother Earth suspended publication.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Deportation

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman, 

September 27, 1919: Goldman and Berkman released from federal prison but J Edgar Hoover, director of the Justice Department’s General Intelligence Division, convinced the courts to deny their citizenship claims, have them re-arrested, and prepare  deportation orders.

December 1, 1919: the Department of Labor ordered Goldman and Alexander Berkman to appear at Ellis Island for deportation to Russia.

December 21, 1919: the ship USAT Buford, labeled the “Red Ark,” embarked from New York City on this day, carrying 249 aliens who were deported because of their alleged anarchist or Communist beliefs.

An estimated 184 of the 249 aliens on the Buford were members of the Union of Russian Workers. All of the passengers were shipped to Russia.

Hoping to see the freedom socialism promised, Goldman and Berkman became disillusioned by its terror and despotism.

They left Russia in 1921.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Deportee Berkeman

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman, 

Berkman moved to Berlin, Germany then to Saint-Cloud, France. He continued to support the ideals of anarchism. Poor health and chronic pain led him to shoot himself, He did not die immediately, but lingered in a coma for several hours before dying.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Deportee Goldman

With the exception of a brief ninety-day lecture tour in 1934, Goldman spent the remaining years of her life in exile from the United States, wandering through Sweden, Germany, France, England, Spain and Canada in a futile search for a new political “home.”

July – December 1922: Goldman completed a manuscript, My Two Years in Russia.

In 1923, Goldman’s manuscript published under the title My Disillusionment in Russia.

January, 1925. In London, Goldman continued her efforts to expose the Bolsheviks as betrayers of the revolution and violators of civil liberties, a task made more difficult by the return of a British trade union delegation that reported favorably on conditions in the Soviet Union.

June 1925: discouraged by the public response to her lectures on Russia, Goldman focused on earning money by writing a new series of lectures on drama.

June 27, 1925: on her birthday, Goldman married James Colton, an elderly anarchist friend and trade unionist from Wales, in order to obtain British citizenship and the right to travel and speak more freely.

In October 1926:: Goldman sailed for Canada to lecture; its proximity rekindled her hope for readmission to the U.S.

In 1930: journalist H. L. Mencken petitioned the U.S. Department of State to revoke Goldman’s deportation and grant her a visitor’s visa. He also requested that the Department of Justice return her personal papers seized in the 1917 raid on the Mother Earth office, to no avail.

March 26 – April 4, 1933:  the New York World published a series of controversial articles by Goldman exposing the harsh political and economic conditions in Russia.

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Back in the USA

January 1934: the U.S. Department of Labor approved a three-month visa, effective February 1, for Goldman to lecture in the U.S. on non-political subjects. Once word of her tour leaked, many lecture agencies in the U.S. offered their services.

February 1934: Goldman visited relatives in Rochester, NY before arriving in NYC on February 2, where she was mobbed by reporters and photographers at Pennsylvania Station and the Hotel Astor.

March 21 – April 2, 1934: Goldman delivered five lectures in Chicago. Sixteen hundred attended the lecture under the auspices of the Free Society Forum on March 22, twelve hundred at the University of Chicago on March 23, and a thousand at Northwestern University on March 26. Fifteen hundred attend a banquet held in her honor at the Medinah Hotel on March 28.

April 30, 1934: Goldman returned to Canada.

May 3, 1935: from the New York Times: [Montreal] Emma Goldman was hailed as “one of the great women of the age,” whose qualities of mind and sould would be remembered long after she had gone by Rabbi Stern of Montreal last night when friends and admirers of Miss Goldman gave a farewell dinner before she leaves for Europe.”

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

Her final days

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman, 
The birth date is incorrect

February 17, 1940: living in Toronto, Goldman suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed on her right side and unable to speak.

May 14, 1940: Goldman died at the age of seventy. Tributes and messages of condolence arrive from around the world. Her body was taken to the Labor Lyceum in Toronto. The Rev. Salem Bland delivered a eulogy.

May 17, 1940: Goldman was buried in Waldheim Cemetery, Chicago, close to the Haymarket memorial.  Alexander Berkeman had requested the same, but lacking funds, he had had to be buried in France.

In an address delivered at the burial, Jacob Siegel, editor of The Jewish Daily Forward, said, “Emma Goldman was a rebel all her life against injustices, until after the last war, when a change took place in her philosophy and mode of living. Were she living today, Emma Goldman would be assisting in the present human effort to destroy Hitlerism.”

It’s Christmastime in Washington

The Democrats rehearsed

Gettin’ into gear for four more years

Things not gettin’ worse

The Republicans drink whiskey neat

And thanked their lucky stars

They said, ‘He cannot seek another term

They’ll be no more FDRs’

I sat home in Tennessee

Staring at the screen

With an uneasy feeling in my chest

And I’m wonderin’ what it means

So come back Woody Guthrie

Come back to us now

Tear your eyes from paradise

And rise again somehow

If you run into Jesus

Maybe he can help you out

Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

I followed in your footsteps once

Back in my travelin’ days

Somewhere I failed to find your trail

Now I’m stumblin’ through the haze

But there’s killers on the highway now

And a man can’t get around

So I sold my soul for wheels that roll

Now I’m stuck here in this town

 

 

There’s foxes in the hen house

Cows out in the corn

The unions have been busted

Their proud red banners torn

To listen to the radio

You’d think that all was well

But you and me and Cisco know

It’s going straight to hell

So come back, Emma Goldman

Rise up, old Joe Hill

The barracades are goin’ up

They cannot break our will

Come back to us, Malcolm X

And Martin Luther King

We’re marching into Selma

As the bells of freedom ring

Anarchist Activist Emma Goldman

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Industrial Workers of the World

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

June 27, 1905: western miners and other activists formed the Industrial Workers of the World at a convention in Chicago. The IWW, or Wobblies, was one of the most radical of all organized labor groups. Though they will achieve only limited success in moving their agenda forward, they will inspire generations of labor activists with their militant spirit. The Wobbly motto: “An injury to one is an injury to all.” (Anarchism, see in March 1905; LH, see December 5, 1907)

Emma Goldman

June 27, 1925: on her birthday, Goldman married James Colton, an elderly anarchist friend and trade unionist from Wales, in order to obtain British citizenship and the right to travel and speak more freely. (see Goldman for expanded story)

Hotel worker strike

June 27, 1985: a 26-day strike of New York City hotels by 26,000 workers—the first such walkout in 50 years—ended with a 5-year contract calling for big wage and benefit gains (see Aug 17)

Janus v. American Federation

June 27, 2018: in  Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the US Supreme Court dealt a major blow to organized labor. By a 5-to-4 vote, with the more conservative justices in the majority, the court ruled that government workers who choose not to join unions may not be required to help pay for collective bargaining.

The ruling means that public-sector unions across the nation, already under political pressure, could lose tens of millions of dollars and see their effectiveness diminished.

The court based its ruling on the First Amendment, saying that requiring payments to unions that negotiate with the government forces workers to endorse political messages that may be at odds with their beliefs.

The court overruled its 1977 decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which had made a distinction between two kinds of compelled payments. Forcing nonmembers to pay for a union’s political activities violated the First Amendment, the court said. But it was constitutional, the court added, to require nonmembers to help pay for the union’s collective bargaining efforts to prevent freeloading and ensure “labor peace.” (see July 10)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Tom Allen and Joe Watts Lynched

June 27, 1911: a Walton County, Georgia mob of several hundred unmasked white men lynched two Black men named Tom Allen and Joe Watts after a local white judge—Charles H. Brand—had refused to allow state guardsmen to be present to prevent mob action.

Judge Brand had been aware of the threat of mob violence for weeks. Mr. Allen, who had been accused of assaulting a white woman, had been held in Atlanta for safekeeping because of the threat. In early June, Mr. Allen was brought to Monroe for trial with the protection of state troops from the Governor, but Judge Brand “resented” the presence of troops, postponed the trial because of the protection being offered, and sent Mr. Allen back to Atlanta. When Mr. Allen was ordered back to Monroe for trial on June 27, Judge Brand refused an offer of protection from the state troops. Consequently, Mr. Allen was protected only by two officers on the train.

Knowing that Mr. Allen no longer had the protection of state troops, the white mob intercepted the train bound for Monroe and seized Mr. Allen from the two officers charged with protecting him. The mob tied Mr. Allen to a telegraph pole and shot him while the passengers of the train and hundreds in the mob looked on.

The mob then proceeded to march six miles to the town jail where another Black man named Joe Watts was being held. Some newspapers reported that Mr. Watts was an alleged accomplice of Mr. Allen, while others noted Mr. Watts had been arrested for having “acted suspiciously” outside of a white man’s home, but had not been charged with a crime. The white mob stormed the jail without resistance from the jailers, removed Mr. Watts, and lynched him as well, hanging him to a tree and shooting him repeatedly. Both men had maintained that they were innocent, and contemporary newspapers reported that there was no evidence against them. [EJI article] (next BH and next lynching, see September 5, 1912 or see AL2 for expanded lynching chronology)

Buffalo, NY

June 27, 1967:  Buffalo, NY black youths cruised the neighborhood of William and Jefferson Streets breaking car and store windows. By night nearly 200 riot-protected police were summoned and a battle ensued. Many blacks, three policemen and one fire fighter were injured. Although it was dispersed that night, it began again the next afternoon with fires set, cars overturned, and stores looted. [article] (see July 12 – 18)

Sterilization abuse

June 27, 1973: the Relf family, with assistance from the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a lawsuit against the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, its parent agency, and the Office of Economic Opportunity, which provided federal funding to the clinic. The suit exposed the wide-spread sterilization abuse funded by the federal government and practiced for decades. The district court found an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 poor people were sterilized annually under federally-funded programs. Countless others were forced to agree to be sterilized when doctors threatened to terminate their welfare benefits unless they consented to the procedures.

The judge prohibited the use of federal dollars for involuntary sterilizations and the practice of threatening women on welfare with the loss of their benefits if they refused to comply.  (BH, see Sept 1)

Laquan McDonald

June 27, 2017: three current and former Chicago police officers, David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney were charged with conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice connected with covering up the Lequan McDonald shooting. March was the lead detective and Walsh was Van Dyke’s partner on the night of the fatal shooting. (B & S, see June 29; McDonald, see Aug 28)

Antwon Rose

June 27, 2018: the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, district attorney charged East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld with criminal homicide in the shooting death of 17-year-old Antwon Rose II, court records show.

The severity of the charge was not immediately clear. Under Pennsylvania law, criminal homicide includes murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. The latter is often a misdemeanor. (B & S, see July 16; AS, see Dec 10)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

FEMINISM

Suffrage opponents

June 27, 1918:  Suffrage opponents in U.S. Senate threaten filibuster; successfully delay rescheduled vote on federal woman suffrage amendment. (see Aug 6)

Women’s Health

June 27, 2016: the Supreme Court struck down parts of a restrictive Texas law that would have reduced the number of abortion clinics in the state to about 10 from what was once a high of roughly 40.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented.

The decision concerned two parts of a Texas law that imposed strict requirements on abortion providers. It was passed by the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature and signed into law in July 2013 by Rick Perry, the governor at the time. [NYT article] (see June 28)

Voisine v. the United States

June 27, 2016: the US Supreme Court handed down a decision that prohibited people convicted of domestic violence from possessing guns in a 6-2 vote.

“This was the case of two Maine men who were convicted on state domestic violence charges and then found with firearms and charged with violating a federal law that prohibits domestic abusers from having firearms,” SCOTUS blog’s Amy Howe wrote in the live blog. “The question was whether their convictions qualified under the statute.” [Oyez article] (see July 28)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

National Housing Act of 1934

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

June 27, 1934: also called the Capehart Act. It was part of the New Deal to make housing and home mortgages more affordable.

It created 1) the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) it insure made by banks and other private lenders for home building and home buying, and 2) the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation in order to insure deposits in savings and loans and 3) the United States Housing Authority to make low-interest, long term loans to local public agencies for slum clearance and construction of low-income dwellings. [Living New Deal article] (see August 15, 1936)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

Brinegar v. United States

June 27, 1949: the US Supreme Court case employing the “reasonableness test” in warrantless searches, held that while police need not always be factually correct in conducting a warrantless search, such a search must always be reasonable. [Justia article] (see February 20, 1950)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

June 27, 1952: officially the Immigration and Nationality Act (but usually referred to as the McCarran-Walter Act), the law allowed the government to deport aliens and naturalized citizens for subversive activities, and also to bar alleged subversives from entering the country. President Truman had vetoed the law two days earlier, but Congress overrode his veto by large margins (57–26 in the Senate), and Truman signed it into law on this day.

The provisions of the law that allowed the government to deny people from other countries visas to enter the U.S. because of their political views were largely repealed in later years. [US OoH article] (see January 5, 1953)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

see June 27 Music et al for more

Connie Francis

June 27 – July 10, 1960: “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” by Connie Francis #1 Billboard Hot 100.

Jimi discharged

June 27, 1962: received an honorable discharge on the basis of “unsuitability.” The discharge became effective on July 2. (see Jimi for expanded military story)

A World Without Love

June 27 – July 3, 1964: written by Paul McCartney. “A World Without Love” by Peter & Gordon #1 on Billboard Hot 100. (see July 10)

Trouble Every Day

June 27, 1966: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Trouble Every Day. Zappa’s reaction to the media’s coverage of the Watts Riots. (see “In Sept“)

see Denver Pop Festival for more

June 27 – 29, 1969: Denver Pop Festival (Mile High Stadium). From Wikipedia: Throughout much of the festival, a crowd gathered outside the venue and demonstrated against having to pay to hear the acts. They also tried to breach the gates and security fences. The Denver Police were forced to employ riot tactics to protect the gates.

The Road to Bethel

June 27, 1969: The Times-Herald editorial read in part, “We regard the proposed ordinance as an example of flagrant misuse of government power….It is, in our opinion, highly improper to prohibit one event in the guise of regulating it.” (see Chronology for full story)

see Fillmore East for more

June 27, 1971: Bill Graham closed the Fillmore East. The Allman Brothers Band, The J. Geils Band, Albert King, The Beach Boys, Edgar Winter, Country Joe McDonald and Mountain (Leslie West Mountain) were on the bill for the final show. The show was by invitation only. (next rock venue, see December 1973)

John/Yoko & the Watergate Scandal

June 27, 1973: John Lennon (still in the process of appealing his deportation) and Yoko Ono attended Watergate Hearings. (see “July – August”)

Victor Jara

June 27, 2016: a Florida jury found a former Chilean army officer liable for the 1973 torture and murder of the folk singer and political activist Victor Jara, awarding $28m in damages to his widow and daughters in one of the biggest and most significant legal human rights victories against a foreign war criminal in a US courtroom.

The verdict against Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nuñez after a two-week civil trial in Orlando’s federal court could now also pave the way for his extradition to face criminal murder charges in Chile related to his conduct during a CIA-backed coup that led to Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year military dictatorship and the deaths of almost 3,100 people. [NYT article] (see Jara for expanded chronology)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

JFK

June 27, 1962: following the June 25  Supreme Court decision declaring officially sponsored prayers in public schools to be unconstitutional, President John F. Kennedy was asked to comment on the subject at a press conference. Kennedy answered by giving strong support to the Court’s decision and the Supreme Court as an institution in America. He added that the decision reminds people of the importance of prayer at home.

President Kennedy: “The Supreme Court has made its judgment, and a good many people obviously will disagree with it. Others will agree with it. But I think that it is important for us, if we are going to maintain our constitutional principle, that we support the Supreme Court decisions even when we may not agree with them.” (see February 27 – 28, 1963)

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

June 27, 2002: the US Supreme Court ruled that Cleveland’s school voucher program did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The Court argued that since the program addressed a legitimate secular purpose of improving the educational options of poor children within a struggling school system. Since the vouchers, in the form of scholarships of up to $2250, were made available to a large category of people who were then free to direct this money to the school of their choice, religious or non-religious, the government program was neutral on religion and therefore not in violation of the First Amendment.

In a 5-4 opinion delivered by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the Court held that the program did not violate the Establishment Clause. The Court reasoned that, because Ohio’s program is part of Ohio’s general undertaking to provide educational opportunities to children, government aid reaches religious institutions only by way of the deliberate choices of numerous individual recipients and the incidental advancement of a religious mission, or any perceived endorsement, is reasonably attributable to the individual aid recipients not the government. Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote that the “Ohio program is entirely neutral with respect to religion. It provides benefits directly to a wide spectrum of individuals, defined only by financial need and residence in a particular school district. It permits such individuals to exercise genuine choice among options public and private, secular and religious. The program is therefore a program of true private choice.” [Oyez article] (see January 13, 2005)

Ten Commandments

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

June 27, 2015: the Oklahoma Supreme Court again ordered the removal of a statue of the Ten Commandments from the state capitol grounds after denying an appeal. The nine justices turned down an appeal from the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission to rehear the case less than one month after the court originally ordered for the monument to be taken down.

The court said the Oklahoma Constitution — in Article 2, Section 5 — banned the use of public property “for the benefit of any religious purpose.” Even though the Ten Commandments monument was paid for with private funding, the court said it is on public property and benefits or supports a system of religion and is therefore unconstitutional. [Huff Post article]  (see Dec 14)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

June 27, 1962: US above ground nuclear test. 7.65 megaton. (CW, see June 28; NN, see Aug 5)

 

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

June 27, 1969: Life magazine displayed portrait photos of all 242 Americans killed in Vietnam during the previous week, including the 46 killed at ‘Hamburger Hill.’ The photos had a stunning impact on Americans nationwide as they view the once smiling young faces of the dead. [Life  link]  (see July 8)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Stonewall Inn

June 27, 1969: patrons of the Stonewall Inn  riot when police officers attempt to raid the popular gay bar around 1am. Since its establishment in 1967, the bar had been frequently raided by police officers trying to clean up the neighborhood of “sexual deviants.”  Angry gay youth clash with aggressive police officers in the streets, leading to a three-day riot during which thousands of protestors received only minimal local news coverage. Nonetheless, the event will be credited with reigniting the fire behind America’s modern LGBTQ rights movement. [Inn’s site]  (next LGBTQ, see June 30; Stonewall, see June 6, 2019)

Chicago Gay Liberation parade

June 27, 1970: Chicago Gay Liberation held a gay rights parade in Chicago, one day ahead of the New York City Gay Pride March. These were the first two gay pride marches in the U.S. The 1970 marches were held to commemorate the June 28, 1969 (and days following) Stonewall Inn Riots in New York City which sparked the national lesbian and gay rights movement. [WTTW article] (see June 28)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

June 27, 1973: CBS reporter Daniel Schorr obtained a copy of Nixon’s infamous “enemies list” and read names from the list live on CBS television. In the midst of reading, he discovered that his own name was on the list. The “enemies list” was one of the abuses of power by the Nixon administration that were exposed as a result of the Watergate scandal and which eventually led to Nixon’s resignation. In fact, there was no single list, but several different versions that continued to grow in length.

Names on the original “enemies list” included reporter Daniel Schorr (number 17), actor Paul Newman, columnist Mary McGrory, labor union leader Leonard Woodcock, and African-American Congressmen John Conyers (Detroit) and Ron Dellums (Oakland). (see Watergate for expanded story)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

June 27, 1977: Djibouti independent of France. [face2face Africa article] (see July 7, 1978)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Proclamation 4771

June 27, 1980, in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4771, requiring 18- to 25-year-old males to register for a peacetime military draft. [text]

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Student Rights & Fourth Amendment

June 27, 2002: Board of Education of Independent School District #92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls. Random drug tests of students involved in extracurricular activities do not violate the Fourth Amendment. In Veronia School District v. Acton (1995), the Supreme Court held that random drug tests of student athletes do not violate the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. Some schools then began to require drug tests of all students in extracurricular activities. The Supreme Court in Earls upheld this practice. [Oyez article] (SR, see July 25, 2009; 4th, see June 15, 2006)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance

June 27, 2002: a federal appeals court declared that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because the phrase ”one nation under God” violates the separation of church and state. A three-member panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the pledge, as it exists in federal law, could not be recited in schools because it violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against a state endorsement of religion. In addition, the ruling turned on the phrase ”under God” which Congress added in 1954 to one of the most hallowed patriotic traditions in the nation.

From a constitutional standpoint, those two words, Judge Alfred T. Goodwin wrote in the 2-to-1 decision, were just as objectionable as a statement that ”we are a nation ‘under Jesus,’ a nation ‘under Vishnu,’ a nation ‘under Zeus,’ or a nation ‘under no god,’ because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion.” (see Pledge for expanded story)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

June 27, 2011: in Brown v. Video Merchants Associationthe Supreme Court struck down a 2005 California law that outlawed the sale of violent video games to children without parental consent. The Court held that video games, like books, movies and other forms of expression, communicate ideas and are therefore protected by the First Amendment. It also held that there is insufficient evidence that exposure to violent video games causes violent behavior.

The Court: “Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium. And ‘the basic principles of freedom of speech … do not vary’ with a new and different communication medium. . . The most basic principle—that government lacks the power to restrict expression because of its message, ideas, subject matter, or content . . . is subject to a few limited exceptions for historically unprotected speech, such as obscenity, incitement, and fighting words. But a legislature cannot create new categories of unprotected speech simply by weighing the value of a particular category.” [Cornell law article] (see August 20, 2013)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

June 27, 2018: James Alex Fields Jr., who was accused of killing a counterprotester in an attack involving a car at August 12, 2017’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, was indicted on federal hate-crime charges according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Federal law enforcement authorities announced that a grand jury returned 30 civil-rights charges against Fields, 21, of Maumee, Ohio, including two charges related to the death of Heather Heyer, a counterprotester who was killed when a car plowed into a crowd.

The charges against Fields included one hate-crime count for Heyer’s death, 28 counts for “hate crime acts causing bodily injury and involving an attempt to kill,” and one count of “racially motivated violent interference with a federally protected activity.” (T, see Oct 22; Fields, see Dec 7)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

June 27, 2023: the Supreme Court rejected a legal theory that would have radically reshaped how federal elections are conducted by giving state legislatures largely unchecked power to set rules for federal elections and to draw congressional maps warped by partisan gerrymandering.

The vote was 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing the majority opinion. The Constitution, he said, “does not exempt state legislatures from the ordinary constraints imposed by state law.” [NYT article] (next VR, see  Aug 4)

June 27 Peace Love Art Activism

June 27 Music et al

June 27 Music et al

Connie Francis

June 27 – July 10, 1960: “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” by Connie Francis #1 Billboard Hot 100.

June 27 Music et al

A World Without Love

June 27 – July 3, 1964: written by Paul McCartney. “A World Without Love” by Peter & Gordon #1 on Billboard Hot 100. (see July 10)

June 27 Music et al

Trouble Every Day

June 27, 1966: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Trouble Every Day. Zappa’s reaction to the media’s coverage of the Watts Riots. (see “In Sept”)

Well I’m about to get sick
From watchin’ my TV
Been checkin’ out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it’s gonna change, my friend
Is anybody’s guessSo I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every dayWednesday I watched the riot . . .
Seen the cops out on the street
Watched ’em throwin’ rocks and stuff
And chokin’ in the heat
Listened to reports
About the whisky passin’ ’round
Seen the smoke and fire
And the market burnin’ down
Watched while everybody
On his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash
And slash and bust and burnAnd I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every dayWell, you can cool it,
You can heat it . . .
‘Cause, baby, I don’t need it . . .
Take your TV tube and eat it
‘N all that phony stuff on sports
‘N all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box
Until my head begin to hurt
From checkin’ out the way
The newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-soAnd further they assert
That any show they’ll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They will be the first to tell,
Because the boys they got downtown
Are workin’ hard and doin’ swell,
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can’t be beat
And if another woman driver
Gets machine-gunned from her seat
They’ll send some joker with a brownie
And you’ll see it all completeSo I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every dayHey, you know something people?
I’m not black
But there’s a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I’m not whiteWell, I seen the fires burnin’
And the local people turnin’
On the merchants and the shops
Who used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item
Watched the mob just turn and bite ’em
And they say it served ’em right
Because a few of them are white,
And it’s the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination
Yellin’ “You can’t understand me!”
‘N all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and
All that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
Each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
Because the color of your skin
Just don’t appeal to him
(No matter if it’s black or white)
Because he’s out for blood tonightYou know we got to sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I bet there won’t be many live
To see it really end
‘Cause the fire in the street
Ain’t like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don’t you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now’s the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain’t no Great Society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn’t free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store
You know that five in every four
Just won’t amount to nothin’ more
Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poorBlow your harmonica, son!
June 27 Music et al

The [bumpy] Road to Bethel

June 27, 1969: The Times-Herald editorial read in part, “We regard the proposed ordinance as an example of flagrant misuse of government power….It is, in our opinion, highly improper to prohibit one event in the guise of regulating it.” (see Road for expanded chronology)

see Denver Pop Festival for more

June 27 Music et al

June 27 – 29, 1969: Denver Pop Festival (Mile High Stadium). From Wikipedia: Throughout much of the festival, a crowd gathered outside the venue and demonstrated against having to pay to hear the acts. They also tried to breach the gates and security fences. The Denver Police were forced to employ riot tactics to protect the gates.

see Fillmore East for more

June 27, 1971: Bill Graham closed the Fillmore East. The Allman Brothers Band, The J. Geils Band, Albert King, The Beach Boys, Edgar Winter, Country Joe McDonald and Mountain (Leslie West Mountain) were on the bill for the final show. The show was by invitation only.

June 27 Music et al

John/Yoko & the Watergate Scandal

June 27, 1973: John Lennon (still in the process of appealing his deportation) and Yoko Ono attended Watergate Hearings. (WS, see July 16; Beatles, see “July – August”)

June 27 Music et al

Victor Jara

June 27, 2016: a Florida jury found a former Chilean army officer liable for the 1973 torture and murder of the folk singer and political activist Victor Jara, awarding $28m in damages to his widow and daughters in one of the biggest and most significant legal human rights victories against a foreign war criminal in a US courtroom.

The verdict against Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nuñez after a two-week civil trial in Orlando’s federal court could now also pave the way for his extradition to face criminal murder charges in Chile related to his conduct during a CIA-backed coup that led to Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year military dictatorship and the deaths of almost 3,100 people. [NYT article] (see Jara for his expanded story)

June 27 Music et al