June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism

June 26, 1893: Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe and Michael Schwab, three men found guilty of the Haymarket bombing, effectively ending his political career. (next Anarchism, see In August)

US Labor History

June 26, 1894: the American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, called a general strike in sympathy with Pullman workers. (see June 28)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Republicans endorse ERA

June 26 – 28, 1944: at its convention, the Republican Party endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment. (see Feminism  July 19 – 21, 1944)

United States v. Virginia

June 26, 1996: the Supreme Court ruled that the all-male Virginia Military School had to admit women in order to continue to receive public funding. It held that creating a separate, all-female school would not suffice. [Oyez article] (see Aug 29)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Berlin airlift

June 26, 1948: US General Lucius Clay gave the order for the Berlin Airlift (only afterwards receiving authorization from President Truman). This act of defiance against the Soviets was an incredible feat of logistics (at one point cargo planes landed at Tempelhof every four minutes, twenty four hours a day), a defining moment of the Cold War, and a demonstration of American support for the citizens of Berlin.  [US Office of the Historian article] (Red Scare, see July 2, 1948; Berlin Airlift, see May 12, 1949)

Congress for Cultural Freedom

June 26, 1950: The Congress for Cultural Freedom was a liberal anti-Communist group that was secretly funded by the CIA. The Congress was designed to offset the impact of international conferences and events sponsored by the Soviet Union. While some leaders of the Congress were “witting” (the term then used for those knowledgeable about the secret practices), many people who participated in its events were not, and were embarrassed when the secret role of the CIA was exposed in the 1960s. [CIA article] (Red Scare, etc, see June 29; CCF, see February 15, 1967)

Cole v. Young

June 26, 1956: Senators Joe McCarthy and James O. Eastland of Mississippi attacked the Supreme Court (“One pro-Communist decision after another”) for a series of pro-civil liberties decisions.  Specifically, they were incensed by the Court’s decision in Cole v. Young just two weeks earlier, on June 11, 1956. [Oyez article] (see July 23)

Ich bin ein Berliner

June 26, 1963: President Kennedy spoke in Berlin, West Germany. He reaffirmed American solidarity declaring, “Ich bin ein Berliner”  [Atlantic article] (see Aug 30)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

School Desegregation

June 26, 1959: Prince Edward County closed its schools to avoid the desegregation ordered by the Virginia Supreme Court. Five years later (see May 25, 1964), the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the public school system reopened. (BH, see July 14: SD, see January 11, 1960)

Medgar Evers murder trial

June 26, 1963: the federal government dropped its civil rights charges against De La Beckwith in view of Mississippi’s plans to prosecute him for the murder of Medgar Evers. (BH, see “in July”; Evers, see July 2)

James Meredith

June 26, 1966: Meredith, along with nearly 15,000 marchers, ended the civil rights march in Jackson, MS. (see January 1967).

James C. Anderson murdered

June 26, 2011:  James Anderson was standing near his car at a Jackson, Mississippi  motel about 5 a.m. Two carloads of teenagers pulled off the Interstate and into the motel parking lot. Several jumped from the vehicles and beat Anderson. A white sport utility vehicle drove away. As Anderson stumbled along the edge of the parking lot, the police said, the driver of a green Ford F250 pickup truck, Deryl Dedmon, accelerated and drove over him. Mr. Anderson was pronounced dead at a local hospital. (see Aug 7)

Philando Castile

June 26, 2017: Valerie Castile, the mother of Philando Castile, the black motorist killed last summer by a police officer from St. Anthony, Minn., reached a nearly $3 million settlement with that city.

The settlement came 10 days after the officer who fired the fatal shots, Jeronimo Yanez, was acquitted of second-degree manslaughter and all other charges. Mr. Castile’s case is the latest example of a police shooting of a black person leading to a legal settlement but no criminal conviction of the officer involved. (see June 29)

Timothy Coggins

June 26, 2018: Frank Gebhardt, 60, was convicted of murder, battery, assault and other charges in the killing of Timothy Coggins. He was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison.

“Hopefully, sir, you have stabbed your last victim,” Judge W. Fletcher Sams of Spalding County Superior Court said as he handed down the sentence.

The other murder defendant, Bill Moore — Mr. Gebhardt’s brother-in-law — is awaiting trial later this year. (BH, see July 3)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

June 26, 1960:  Madagascar independent from France. [Global Security dot org article] (see IDs for list of independence days from that decade)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

June 26 Music et al

Quarter to Three

June 26 – July 9, 1961, “Quarter to Three” by Gary U.S. Bonds #1 Billboard Hot 100.

A Hard Day’s Night

June 26, 1964: US release of A Hard Day’s Night album by United Artists Records in both mono and stereo, the fourth Beatles album in the US. The album went to number one on the Billboard album chart, spending 14 weeks there, the longest run of any album that year.

All seven songs from the film were featured along with “I’ll Cry Instead”, which, although written for the film, was cut at the last minute. The American version also included four easy listening-styled instrumental versions of Lennon and McCartney songs arranged by George Martin conducting an orchestra of studio musicians: “I Should Have Known Better,” “And I Love Her,” “Ringo’s Theme,” and “A Hard Day’s Night.” (see June 27 – July 3)

Mr. Tambourine Man

June 26 – July 2, 1965:  “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Helped introduce many to Bob Dylan. (see In July)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7eJSdpMEnI

The [bumpy] Road to Bethel on June  26, 1969

Woodstock Ventures held a media meeting at the Village Gate on Bleeker Street to cooperatively present, discuss, and formulate “ground rules for outdoor peace and music programs.” In the end it was agreed that the festival was to emphasize music and not politics.

On that same day the Wallkill town attorney  presented Woodstock Ventures with a document outlining proposed ordinances regarding  assemblies of 5,000 people or more. Such proposals such as not light, sound, or odor seepage beyond the festival’s specific boundaries created seemingly insurmountable barriers to the event. Wallkill expected Woodstock Ventures to present the  application for the event covering all the details no later than July 2. (see Chronology for expanded story)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

June 26, 1965: Gen. William Westmoreland, senior U.S. military commander in Vietnam, was given formal authority to commit American troops to battle when he decided they were necessary “to strengthen the relative position of the GVN [Government of Vietnam] forces.” This authorization permitted Westmoreland to put his forces on the offensive. Heretofore, U.S. combat forces had been restricted to protecting U.S. airbases and other facilities. (see June 28)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

June 26, 1972: Rosenfeld v New Jersey. At a school board meeting, David Rosenfeld  was arrested for calling  teachers, the school board, and others “motherfuckers.” The Supreme Court overruled the conviction. [Justia article] (see March 19, 1973)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate scandal 

June 26, 1973: former White House counsel John W. Dean told the Senate Watergate Committee about an “enemies list” kept by the Nixon White House. (see June 27)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

June 26, 1974: the supermarket price scanner made its debut in Troy, Ohio, as a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum costing 67 cents and bearing a Uniform Product Code (UPC) was scanned by Marsh Supermarket cashier Sharon Buchanan for customer Clyde Dawson. (The barcoded package of never-chewed gum is on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.) (see January 21, 1976)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

June 26, 1975: in O’Connor v. Donaldson the Supreme Court ruled that a state cannot confine a mentally ill person who is not a danger to the community and who can survive in the community by themself or with the assistance of others. Kenneth Donaldson had been held for 15 years in a Florida State institution for the mentally ill. He was confined with dangerously mentally ill persons in an understaffed ward that had only one doctor (an obstetrician) for about 1,000 inmates.

The Court: “May the State fence in the harmless mentally ill solely to save its citizens from exposure to those whose ways are different? One might as well ask if the State, to avoid public unease, could incarcerate all who are physically unattractive or socially eccentric. Mere public intolerance or animosity cannot constitutionally justify the deprivation of a person’s physical liberty.” [Oyaz article] (see April 5, 1977)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Leonard Peltier

June 26, 1975: Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams, two FBI agents, entered Jumping Bull Ranch where a large number of AIM supporters, invited there for protection by the Jumping Bull elders, camp. A shootout ensued and the two agents were killed.

One of the AIM defenders, Leonard Peltier, was later captured in Canada, extradited and convicted for murder by an all-white jury. Activists continue to campaign for his exoneration and release while Peltier serves two consecutive life terms in federal prison. (Peltier, see June 24, 1987)

NAPT

In 1976, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting establishes Native American Public Telecommunications, Inc.  to promote, produce and distribute Native American television and radio programming.[Indian Country article] (next NA, see September 13, 1976)

 

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Anita Bryant protest

June 26, 1977: some 200,000 protesters march through the streets of San Francisco, protesting Anita Bryant’s anti-gay remarks and the murder of Robert Hillsborough. (see Oct 14)

Lawrence v. Texas

June 26, 2003:  the US Supreme Court, in a 6–3 ruling struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by extension, invalidated sodomy laws in thirteen other states, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory. The Court overturned its previous ruling on the same issue in the 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick, where it upheld a challenged Georgia statute and did not find a constitutional protection of sexual privacy. [Oyez article] (see Aug 5)

LGBTQ June 26, 2015

• Obergefell et al v Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health, et al

The US Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees a nationwide right to same-sex marriage. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in the 5 to 4 decision. He was joined by the court’s four more liberal justices.

Justice Kennedy said gay and lesbian couples have a fundamental right to marry.

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” he wrote. “In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”

“It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage,” Justice Kennedy said of the couples challenging state bans on same-sex marriage. “Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.” [Oyez article]

• Most States immediately comply

In Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal (R) said the state “is subject to the laws of the United States” and a judge at a county court in Atlanta began performing the state’s first gay marriages.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) urged compliance with the ruling, asking the state to “treat everyone with the respect and dignity they deserve.”

Alabama’s attorney general, Luther Strange (R), issued a statement acknowledging that “the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling is now the law of the land” and pledged to enforce the ruling, though some counties in the state had stopped issuing all marriage licenses in an effort to avoid allowing gay marriages. (see June 28)

Free Speech vs Gay Rights

June 30, 2023: the Supreme Court sided with a web designer in Colorado who said she had a First Amendment right to refuse to design wedding websites for same-sex couples despite a state law that forbids discrimination against gay people.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, writing for the majority in a 6-3 vote, said that the First Amendment protected the designer, Lorie Smith, from being compelled to express views she opposed.

“A hundred years ago, Ms. Smith might have furnished her services using pen and paper,” he wrote. “Those services are no less protected speech today because they are conveyed with a ‘voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox.’”

The case, though framed as a clash between free speech and gay rights, was the latest in a series of decisions in favor of religious people and groups, notably conservative Christians.  [NYT article] (next LGBTQ+, see )

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Ford v. Wainwright

June 26, 1986: the U.S. Supreme Court held in a 5-4 vote that the execution of an insane prisoner was an unconstitutional violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. [Oyez article] (see November 4, 1986)

Penry v. Lynaugh

June 26, 1989: the Supreme court held that executing mentally retarded persons did not violate the Eighth Amendment.  [Oyez article] (DP, see September 13, 1994; 8^th, see March 1, 2005)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

June 26, 1993: President Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District of Baghdad, in response to an Iraqi plot to assassinate former. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April.[Politico article] (October 8, 1994)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Kevorkian

“suicide clinic”

June 26, 1995: opened a “suicide clinic” in an office in Springfield Township, Michigan. Erika Garcellano, a 60-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, woman with ALS, is the first client. A few days later, the building’s owner kicks out Kevorkian. (see JK for expanded story)

Washington v. Glucksberg

June 26, 1997:   the U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously that state governments have the right to outlaw doctor-assisted suicide. The Court had been asked to decide whether state laws banning the practice in New York and Washington were unconstitutional.  [Oyez article] (see Oct 27)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Student Rights

Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646

June 26, 1995:  the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of random drug testing regimen implemented by the local public schools in Vernonia, Oregon. Under that regimen, student athletes were required to submit to random drug testing before being allowed to participate in sports. During the season, 10% of all athletes were selected at random for testing. The Supreme Court held that although the tests were searches under the Fourth Amendment, they were reasonable in light of the schools’ interest in preventing teenage drug use. [Justia article] (see June 10, 1996; 4^th, see June 27, 2002)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

June 26, 1998: Ken Starr presented arguments to a federal appeals court requesting that Secret Service personnel be required to testify in the Lewinsky case. Linda Tripp is called to appear before the grand jury on Tuesday, June 30. (see Clinton for expanded story)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

June 26, 2015: the US Supreme court decided 8 – 1 in the Johnson v. United States case that a section of the Armed Career Criminal Act, which is used to extend prison sentences, was “unconstitutionally vague.” The ruling may compel Congress to address the language of the law as thousands of prisoners would seek to have their sentences reduced.

Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion for the court and ruled that the residual clause of the ACCA was a violation of due process: “Nine years’ experience trying to derive meaning from the residual clause convinces us that we have embarked upon a failed enterprise. Each of the uncertainties in the residual clause may be tolerable in isolation, but “their sum makes a task for us which at best could be only guesswork.” United States v. Evans [(1948). Invoking so shapeless a provision to condemn someone to prison for 15 years to life does not comport with the Constitution’s guarantee of due process.”  [Justia article] (see Oct 6)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

June 26, 2017: in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, the Supreme Court ruled that efforts at separating church and state go too far when they deny religious institutions access to government grants meant for a secular purpose.

In siding with a Missouri church that had been denied money to resurface its playground, the court ruled 7-2 that excluding churches from state programs for which other charitable groups are eligible is a violation of the Constitution’s protection of the free exercise of religion.

“The consequence is, in all likelihood, a few extra scraped knees,” wrote Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. “But the exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand.” [Oyez article] (see Sept 30)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

June 26, 2017: the Supreme Court permitted a scaled-back version of President Trump’s ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries to take effect, deciding to hear the merits of the case in the fall but allowing Trump for now to claim a victory in the legal showdown.

The court’s unsigned order delivered a compromise neither side had asked for: It said the government may not bar those with a “bona fide” connection to the United States, such as having family members here, or a job or a place in an American university.

But the justices indicated that courts had gone too far in completely freezing Trump’s order banning new visas for citizens of six countries — Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — for 90 days and putting the refu­gee program on hold for 120 days. [Washington Post article] (see July 12)

States sue Trump

June 26, 2018: seventeen U.S. states sued over the federal government’s controversial policy of separating undocumented children from parents, intensifying an ongoing legal fight just hours after President Donald Trump scored a major victory on his travel ban. A complaint calling the policy unconstitutional was filed Tuesday in federal court in Seattle by states including Washington, California, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia. The joint effort by the Democratic state attorneys general mirrors the battle over Trump’s travel ban against several Muslim-majority countries — a battle the states lost Tuesday in a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling along ideological lines. The states allege the border policy violates immigrants’ Fifth Amendment rights to equal protection under the law and due process. The policy also runs afoul of the federal Administrative Procedure Act and U.S. asylum laws, the states say.

Trump v Hawaii

June 26, 2018: in Trump v Hawaii, the US Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, delivering to the president a political victory and an endorsement of his power to control immigration at a time of political upheaval about the treatment of migrants at the Mexican border.

In a 5-to-4 vote, the court’s conservatives said that the president’s power to secure the country’s borders, delegated by Congress over decades of immigration lawmaking, was not undermined by Trump’s history of incendiary statements about the dangers he said Muslims pose to the US. (see July 5)

Japanese Internment Camps

June 26, 2018: an unexpected effect of the ruling was the official overruling of Korematsu—which upheld the exclusion of persons of Japanese ancestry, including US citizens, from their west coast homes during World War II. Although Korematsu had been widely condemned, the Court had never formally overruled it. Quoting Justice Jackson’s dissent, Chief Justice Roberts took “the opportunity to make express what is already obvious: Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and—to be clear—’has no place in law under the Constitution.’ ” (next JIC, see June 11, 2019)

Nationwide Injunction

June 26, 2018: Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the Federal District Court in San Diego issued a nationwide injunction temporarily stopping the Trump administration from separating children from their parents at the border and ordered that all families already separated be reunited within 30 days.Sabraw said children under 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days and he ordered that all children must be allowed to talk to their parents within 10 days.The judge wrote taht “The unfortunate reality is that under the present system, migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property.” (next IH, see July 5; next Judge Sabraw, see July 16)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

NIFL v AG of CA

June 26, 2018:  ruling for opponents of abortion on free speech grounds, the US Supreme Court said in National Institute of Family and Life v Attorney General of Californina that the State of California may not require religiously oriented “crisis pregnancy centers” to supply women with information about how to end their pregnancies. The case was a clash between state efforts to provide women with facts about their medical options and First Amendment rulings that place limits on the government’s ability to compel people to say things at odds with their beliefs. (see June 29)

Affordable Care Act

June 26, 2018: students at the University of Notre Dame sued the Indiana school and the Trump administration over a move this year to drop coverage for some forms of birth control from the university’s health insurance plan, citing religious objections. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in South Bend, Indiana, where the school is located, asked the court to block the school from enforcing the new Notre Dame said it would seek to have the suit dismissed.  (WH, see June 29; ACA, see July 24)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

June 26, 2018: voters in Oklahoma approved a ballot measure making the state the 30th in the nation to allow broad access to medical marijuana. (see July 24 or see CCC for expanded cannabis chronology)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

June 28, 2023: the Supreme Court lifted its hold on a Louisiana political remap case, increasing the likelihood that the Republican-dominated state will have to redraw boundary lines to create a second mostly Black congressional district.

For more than a year, there had been a legal battle over the GOP-drawn political boundaries, with a federal judge, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and opponents saying that the map is unfair and discriminates against Black voters.

The map, which was used in Louisiana’s November congressional election, had white majorities in five of six districts, all currently held by Republicans. This is despite Black people accounting for one-third of the state’s population. Another mostly Black district could deliver another congressional seat to Democrats. [AP article] (next VR, see June 27)

June 26 Peace Love Art Activism

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Thomas Bird

June 25, 1790: the first federal execution. U.S. Marshall Henry Dearborn coordinated the hanging of Thomas Bird in Massachusetts. Bird was convicted of murdering his master, John Connor, captain of the slave ship Mary, off the coast of Africa. Dearborn spent five dollars and fifty cents for the construction of a gallows and a coffin. (see July 9, 1868)

Kennedy v. Louisiana

June 25, 2008:  a divided U.S. Supreme Court barred the death penalty for the crime of child rape, saying a Louisiana man’s execution would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The justices, voting 5-4 in Kennedy v. Louisiana spared Patrick Kennedy from becoming the first person since 1964 to be executed in the U.S. for a crime other than murder. Kennedy was convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court. The ruling extended a line of Supreme Court cases that had restricted the circumstances in which the death penalty can be applied. It also underscores Kennedy’s significance as the court’s deciding vote on many social issues.

The court divided along ideological lines. Justices Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined the majority. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito,  Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas dissented. [Oyez article] (see March 18, 2009)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Alien and Sedition Act of 1798

June 25, 1798: Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798, which empowered the President to deport any alien he found dangerous to the peace and safety of the Nation. These laws included new powers made it harder for new immigrants to vote. Previously a new immigrant would have to reside in the United States for five years before becoming eligible to vote, but a new law raised this to 14 years. (see March 2, 1819)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Olympia Brown

June 25, 1863: Olympia Brown ordained by the St. Lawrence Universalist Association, becoming possibly the first woman minister in the US ordained with full denominational authority [Harvard article] (see May 10, 1866)

Mann Act

June 25, 1910: Congress passed the White Slavery Act, popularly known as the Mann Act, to fight interstate prostitution. The law made it a crime to transport across state lines “any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” (The law was named for Rep. James Mann of Illinois.) It was a sign of the cultural and racial politics of the time that the law applied only to the transport of women and had the title, “White Slavery Act.” The law interfered with the right of unmarried people to cross state lines and to have sexual relations; because its terms were so vague and potentially expansive, for decades it was enforced in a highly arbitrary manner.

A number of prominent Americans fell victim to prosecution. They included the famed African-American boxer Jack Johnson (convicted in a racially motivated prosecution); the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright (charges dropped in 1926); silent film star Charlie Chaplin (acquitted in 1944); and rock and roll star Chuck Berry (convicted in 1962 and sentenced to three years in prison for transporting a 24-year-old). (Feminism, see Dec 1910; BH, see Sept 29)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Battle of the Greasy Grass

June 25, 1876: George A. Custer led an army detachment, encountered an encampment of Sioux and Cheyenne at the Little Bighorn River. The Native Americans annihilated Custer’s detachment, but the US continued its battle against the Sioux in the Black Hills until the government confiscated the land in 1877. [Indian Country Today article] (see Aug 15)

Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, a Minor Child Under the Age of Fourteen Years

June 25, 2013: the US Supreme Court decided that a Native American child did not have to be taken away from her adoptive parents and given to her biological father. The justices ruled 5-4 in a case about a federal law intended to keep Indian children from being taken from their homes and typically placed with non-Indian adoptive or foster parents. South Carolina courts had said that the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act favored the biological father of the girl. The South Carolina couple who raised her for the first 27 months of her life had appealed that decision. (see July 15)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Anarchism in the US

June 25, 1893: the Haymarket Martyrs Monument was dedicated at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, to honor those framed and executed for the bombing at Chicago’s Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886. More than 8,000 people attended the dedication ceremony. At the base of the monument are the last words of Haymarket martyr August Spies: “The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.” [ILHS article] (next Anarchism, see  June 26; next Labor, see Sept 2)

Fair Labor Standards Act 1938

June 25, 1938: Franklin D Roosevelt signed The Fair Labor Standards Act 1938. The FLSA established a national minimum wage, guaranteed ‘time-and-a-half’ for overtime in certain jobs, and prohibited most employment of minors in “oppressive child labor,” a term that is defined in the statute. [US DoL article] (see January 7, 1939)

Executive Order 8802

June 25, 1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which established a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to ensure equal employment opportunity for African Americans in the defense industries. It was the first-ever federal rule prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of race. [text via Our Documents] (see January 12, 1942)

“Freedom’s Road”

In 1942, Langston Hughes wrote the lyrics, Emerson Harper wrote the music, and Josh White sang “Freedom’s Road” in which they attempted to link the war abroad to the struggle for racial justice at home.

That’s why I’m marching, yes, I’m marching, Marching down freedom’s road. Ain’t nobody gonna stop me, nobody gonna keep me, From marching down freedom’s road.  Hand me my gun, let the bugle blow loud, I’m on my way with my head a-proud, One objective I’ve got in view, Is to keep a hold of freedom for me and you That’s why I’m marching, yes, I’m marching, Marching down freedom’s road. Ain’t nobody gonna stop me, nobody gonna keep me, From marching down freedom’s road.  Ought to be plain as the nose on your face, There’s room in this plan for every race, Some folk think that freedom just ain’t right,

Those are the very people I want to fight. That’s why I’m marching, yes, I’m marching, Marching down freedom’s road. Ain’t nobody gonna stop me, nobody gonna keep me, From marching down freedom’s road. Now, Hitler may rant, Hirohito may rave, I’m going after freedom if it leads me to my grave. That’s why I’m marching, yes, I’m marching, I’m marching down freedom’s road.  United we stand, divided we fall, Let’s make this land safe for one and all. I’ve got a message, and you know it’s right, Black and white together unite and fight.  That’s why I’m marching, yes, I’m marching, Marching down freedom’s road. Ain’t no fascists gonna stop me, no Nazis gonna keep me, From marching down freedom’s road.

Link to recitation of “Freedom Road”

Smith-Connally Act

June 25, 1943: enacted over President Roosevelt’s veto, Congress passed the Smith-Connally Act  (also called the War Labor Disputes Act) allowing the government to take over critical industries hit by strikes. It also prevented unions from contributing to political campaigns. [Cambridge U Press article] (see August 1, 1944)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Jack Johnson

June 25, 1913: boxer Jack Johnson skipped bail and left the country, joining wife Lucille in Montreal, before fleeing to France. In order to flee to Canada to skip his bail, Johnson posed as a member of a black baseball team. For the next seven years, they lived in exile in Europe, South America and Mexico. [2016 Washington Post article] (next BH, see July 21; next JJ, see July 20, 1914)

Baton Rouge bus boycott

June 25, 1953: to end the Baton Rouge bus boycott, the city agreed to a compromise: the two side front seats of buses were to be reserved for whites and the long rear seat was for African Americans. The remaining seats were to be occupied on a first-come-first-served basis. The Black community agreed to the compromise and the boycott ended. [Black Past article] (see Aug 13)

Church burning

June 25, 1964: Williams Chapel in Ruleville, Mississippi, was firebombed in the middle of the night. The chapel, located a few miles from the home of then-candidate for Congress Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, was a site of voter registration activity. The fire caused slight damage, but volunteer firefighters quickly controlled and eliminated the blaze. Eight containers of gasoline were found later at the scene. (Burning, see June 21, 1995)

St. Augustine, Florida

June 25, 1964: in the summer of 1964, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Southern Christian Leadership Conference leaders began anti-segregation work in St. Augustine, Florida. They held weeks of civil rights demonstrations and marches, and many demonstrators, including Dr. King, were arrested. After weeks of activism and outbreaks of violence between segregationists and anti-segregationists, Florida Governor Farris Bryant, a segregationist, issued a ban on evening demonstrations held after 8:30 p.m.

On June 25, 300 anti-segregationist marchers who had spent the afternoon rallying at the site of St. Augustine’s former slave market, Slave Market Square, were violently attacked by over 200 white segregationists. The segregationists easily evaded police and physically assaulted the marchers. As the marchers fled, they were chased and attacked across the city’s downtown area. Close to fifty of the marchers were injured, and fifteen were treated at the city’s hospital. Several hours before the attacks on the marchers, seventy-five white segregationists had attacked a group of 100 African Americans who attempted to wade into the ocean at a local “white beach,” and twenty people were arrested. Such violent clashes between anti-segregationists and segregationists in St. Augustine continued throughout June 1964. (see June 29)

James H Meredith

June 25, 1966: Meredith returned to head his march through Mississippi. [American Heritage article] (see June 26)

Norwood v. Harrison

June 25, 1973: the US Supreme Court ruled that states cannot provide textbooks to racially segregated private schools to avoid integration mandates.  [Justia article] (BH, see June 27; SD, see July 21, 1974)

School Desegregation

June 25, 1976: Bobbe’s School denied admission to Michael McCrary and Colin Gonzales, two African American students.  Fairfax-Brewster School had also denied admission to Gonzales.

Their parents filed a class action lawsuit against the schools. A federal district court ruled for McCrary and Gonzales, finding that the school’s admission policies were racially discriminatory. The United States Court of Appeals affirmed the decision.

On this date the US Supreme Court held 7 – 2 that federal law prohibited private schools from discriminating on the basis of race. [Oyez article] (BH, see July 12; SD, see February 6, 1986)

Clement A. Lloyd

June 25, 1991: a Florida state appeals court overturned the manslaughter conviction of police officer William Lozano whose 1989 killing of a black motorcyclist Clement A. Lloyd set off three days of racial disturbances that scorched the city.

Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals also ordered a new trial, ruling that a lower court had erred by not considering a defense motion to move the trial out of racially charged Miami. (BH, see July 1; RR, see May 28, 1993)

Shelby County, Alabama v Holder, Attorney General, Et Al

June 25, 2013: the Supreme Court struck down a central portion of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) effectively ending the practice in which some states with a history of racial discrimination must receive clearance from the federal government before changing voting laws. The vote was five to four, with the five conservative-leaning judges in the majority and the four liberal-leaning justices in the minority. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the decision. The majority held that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, originally passed in 1965 and since updated by Congress was unconstitutional. The section includes a formula that determines which states must receive pre-approval. The court did not strike down Section 5, which allows the federal government to require pre-approval. But without Section 4, which determines which states would need to receive clearance, Section 5 is largely without significant — unless Congress chooses to pass a new bill for determining which states would be covered.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted in dissent that covered jurisdictions continued to propose voting law changes that were rejected under the VRA, “auguring that barriers to minority voting would quickly resurface were the preclearance remedy eliminated.”  [Cornell Law School article] (BH, see July 12; VR, see October 1, 2014)

Voting Rights

June 25, 2013:  the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional key sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, eliminating what most experts regarded as the crucial enforcement mechanism of the law. At issue were Section 5 and Section 4b. Section 5 required certain states or local jurisdictions to obtain pre-clearance from the Justice Department about any change in voter registration requirements or voting district composition. Section 4b prescribed the formula to be used to determine which jurisdictions are covered by Section 5. The data in Section 4b is used to identify jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination in voting. The Supreme Court held that the 4b formula was based on data that are 40 years old and therefore no longer relevant to current conditions.

The Court ruled 5–4 that the result was a constitutionally impermissible burden on the affected jurisdictions, based on principles of federalism’s equal sovereignty of the states. The Court did not declare Section 5 unconstitutional but, without the Section 4b formula, no state would be subject to Section 5 (unless, that is, Congress enacted a new formula). [NYT article] (see October 1, 2014)

Michelle Obama/White House/Slavery

June 25, 2016: First Lady Michelle Obama gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention acknowledging the history of American slavery. Reflecting on our national history, Mrs. Obama remarked during her July 25th speech:  “The story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation” she explained, “is the story of striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.”

Following her truthful statement, many Republicans and conservatives denounced her statement, thought others realized that their questions were actually an attempt to avoid the truth rather than reveal it. [EJI article] (next BH, see Nov 2)

Gerrymandering

June 25, 2018:  the Supreme Court passed up an opportunity to take another look at whether the Constitution bars extreme partisan gerrymandering, returning a case from North Carolina to a trial court there for a further examination of whether the challengers had suffered the sort of direct injury that would give them standing to sue. (VR & NC, see Aug 27)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

June 25, 1950: Communist North Korean troops invaded South Korea, beginning the Korean War. [CNN summary of war] (see June 26)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

June 25, 1951: the first commercial color broadcast took place at 4:35 PM when CBS offered an hour-long program entitled “Premiere” to an ad-hoc network of five stations in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Among those participating in the program were Arthur Godfrey, Ed Sullivan, Robert Alda, Faye Emerson, William S. Paley and Frank Stanton (the latter two board chairman and president of CBS, respectively)

Thousands were able to watch the first color broadcast in auditoriums, department stores and hotels in the five cities, but the general public was left in the dark — literally. Because the CBS color system was incompatible with existing black and white television sets, for the hour the color special was on the air, viewers tuned to CBS in any of the five cities saw only a blank screen. (see Sept 4)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

June 25 Music et al

Bill Evans

June 25, 1961, Bill Evans’s album Sunday at the Village Vanguard recorded.

“Paperback Writer”

June 25 – July 1, 1966, The Beatles “Paperback Writer” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see July 29)

Our World broadcast

June 25, 1967:  Our World broadcast. It was the first live, international, satellite television production. Creative artists, including The Beatles, opera singer Maria Callas, and painter Pablo Picasso, representing nineteen different nations were invited to perform or appear in separate segments featuring their respective countries. The two-and-half-hour event had the largest television audience ever up to that date: an estimated 400 million people around the globe watched the broadcast Beatles perform  “All You Need Is Love.” The program was watched by 400 million in 26 countries. The BBC had commissioned the Beatles to write a song for the United Kingdom’s contribution.

Broadcast live around the world from the Abbey Road Studios in London, it featured the band singing and playing along to a pre-recorded track, joined in the studio by guests Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, George’s wife Pattie, Paul’s fiance Jane Asher and his brother Mike, Graham Nash and his wife, and others. (see July 1)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Engel v. Vitale

June 25, 1962:  the US Supreme Court ruled that the Regents’ Prayer, recited daily in New York public schools, violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Despite claims that the prayer was denominationally neutral and that students could choose to remain silent or leave the room, the Court argued that in composing an “official prayer” and coordinating a daily religious observance, the state had violated the First Amendment. [Oyez article] (see June 27)

Boerne v. Flores

June 25, 1997: the US Supreme Court held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), enacted on November 16, 1993, was unconstitutional as it applied to the states.

The controversy originated with the Supreme Court decision in Employment Division v. Smith, decided on April 17, 1990, in which the Court upheld the denial of unemployment benefits to Alfred Smith because he used peyote. Smith claimed that he used peyote as part of a traditional Native American religious ritual. That decision outraged leaders from many different religions across the country, leading to the enactment of RFRA.

The Boerne case involved a zoning dispute in the city of Boerne, Texas, near San Antonio, in which the city sought to prevent the expansion of a church because it was located in an historic district; the church responded that the city could not restrict its free exercise of religion under RFRA. The Supreme Court decided in favor of the city, holding that RFRA exceeded the powers allowed it under the Fourteenth Amendment. [Justia article]

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

June 25, 1962: Manual Enterprises v. Day: The United States Supreme Court ruled that photographs of nude men are not obscene, decriminalizing nude male pornographic magazines. [Oyez article] (see July 9)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Mary Hamilton

June 25, 1963:  Mary Hamilton (October 13, 1935—November 11, 2002) was a field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality in Alabama. Along with hundreds of others, she had been arrested during civil rights protests in Gadsden. At a hearing on June 25 challenging the legitimacy of those arrests, she refused to answer questions on the witness stand until she was addressed with the same courtesy accorded white witnesses. At that time, in the South and in many other parts of the nation, it was customary for judges and prosecutors to address white witnesses by last name and courtesy titles such as “Mr. Jones” or “Mrs. Smith”, while addressing all nonwhite witnesses by the first name without honorific. When the county prosecutor addressed Hamilton by her first name only, she said she would not answer any questions unless she were addressed as “Miss Hamilton”. When she persisted in her demand to be addressed in this manner, the judge held her in contempt of court and sentenced her to five days in jail and a $50 fine. [2013 NPR article] (BH, see June 26; Hamilton, see March 30, 1964)

The Red Scare

June 25, 1963: North Carolina enacted a law that banned from speaking on state college and university campuses “known” Communists, “known” advocates of the violent overthrow of the state, and persons who took the Fifth Amendment regarding Communist Party membership.

On March 9, 1966, Frank Wilkinson, leader of the campaign to abolish the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), and Herbert Aptheker, a historian and member of the Communist Party, mocked the ban by speaking to students from the other side of the low wall that circles the University of North Carolina campus. In February 1968, a three-judge District Court panel deliberated for 10 minutes and then declared the ban unconstitutional. (FS, see Sept 10; North Carolina and Red Scare, see March 9, 1966)

American flag upside down

June 25, 1974: on May 10, 1970, to protest the Vietnam War, a college student (Spence) had hung an American flag upside down outside his apartment window. He had attached a peace symbol to the flag with removable tape. He was convicted under a Washington State law forbidding attaching anything to the U.S. flag. The Supreme Court on this day, in Spence v. Washington, reversed his conviction on the grounds that it infringed on his freedom of expression. [Oyez article] (see Nov 27)

Frank Collin and Nazi sympathizers

June 25, 1978: Frank Collin and Nazi sympathizers were to march in front of Skokie’s Village Hall. The march was called off when the City of Chicago relented and permitted the group to march in Marquette Park on July 9.  (FS, see July 3; Frank Collin, see July 9)

Island Trees v. Pico

June 25, 1982: the case  involved a challenge to the removal of noted literary works from the library of the New York Island Trees School District because the Board of Education deemed them “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Sem[i]tic, and just plain filthy.” The censorship included such recognized classics as Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five; Richard Wright’s, Black Boy; and an anthology of Best Negro Short Stories edited by the famed African-America poet Langston Hughes, among others. The Supreme Court split 4–4 on this day, with one Justice holding that the Court did not need to decide the issue. The result left the lower court ruling favoring the school district’s position. [Justia article] (see Aug 12)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAYS

Mozambique

June 25, 1975: Mozambique independent of Portugal. [Face to Face Africa article] (see July 5)

Croatia and Slovenia

June 25, 1991: Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia. [UPI article] (see Sept 8)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

June 25, 1996: Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: truck bomb exploded outside Khobar Towers military complex, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds of others. 13 Saudis and a Lebanese all alleged members of Islamic militant group Hezbollah, were indicted on charges relating to the attack in June 2001.  [NYT article] (see Nov 29)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

AIDS

June 25, 1998:  in Bragdon v. Abbott,the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) covers those in earlier stages of HIV disease, not just those who have developed AIDS. [law dot uh dot edu article] (ADA, see Dec 31; AIDS, see Nov 12)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

June 25, 1998

• the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that attorney-client privilege extends beyond the grave, exempting Vince Foster’s conversations with his lawyers from being called as evidence in Ken Starr’s presidential investigations.
• White House communications aide Sidney Blumenthal testified before Ken Starr’s grand jury for the third time. Blumenthal complained that Starr’s inquiry focused on what the White House was saying about his prosecution rather than Blumenthal’s conversations with the president. (see Clinton for expanded story)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

June 25, 2012: in Miller v. Alabama, the US Supreme Court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. The ruling extended beyond the Graham v. Florida (May 17, 2010) case, which had ruled juvenile life without parole sentences unconstitutional for crimes excluding murder. [Oyez article] (see June 26, 2015)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

June 25, 2014

Same sex marriage appeal upheld

The three-judge 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Denver ruled 2-1 that states cannot deprive people of the fundamental right to marry simply because they want to be wedded to someone of the same sex. The panel found that the Constitution protects same-sex relationships. The judges added they don’t want to brand as intolerant those who oppose gay marriage, but said there is no reasonable objection to the practice.

“It is wholly illogical to believe that state recognition of love and commitment of same-sex couples will alter the most intimate and personal decisions of opposite-sex couples,” they wrote, addressing arguments that the ruling could undermine traditional marriage.

The decision upheld a lower court ruling that struck down Utah’s gay marriage ban. However, the panel immediately put Wednesday’s ruling on hold so it could be appealed, either to the entire 10th Circuit or directly to the nation’s highest court. [WTOP article]

Same sex marriage ban ruled unconstitutional

U.S. District Judge Richard Young ruled that Indiana’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, immediately allowing same-sex couples across the state to receive marriage licenses.

 Young did not issue a stay on his ruling. However, a spokesman for Attorney General Greg Zoeller, whose office represented the state, said they would “quickly ask for a stay of today’s ruling pending appeal.”

Marion County Clerk Beth White said she was prepared to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in her office at the City-County Building in Downtown Indianapolis. [USA Today article] (see July 18)

Arlene’s Flowers v. Washington

June 25, 2018, LGBTQ: in the case of Arlene’s Flowers v. Washington (a florist who argued that requiring her to create custom floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding would violate her religious beliefs) the US Supreme Court vacated and remanded the State Supreme Court decision that an antigay florist had violated the state’s nondiscrimination laws by refusing to serve a gay couple.

“The Supreme Court…asked the Washington courts to re-examine our clients’ case in light of the recent decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop,” said James Esseks, director of ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project. [ACLU article] (see July 13)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

Riley v. California

June 25, 2014: the US Supreme Court unanimously held that the warrantless search and seizure of digital contents of a cell phone during an arrest was unconstitutional. [Harvard Law Review article] (see Dec 11)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Affordable Care Act

June 25, 2015: in King v Burwell, the US Supreme Court voted 6 – 3 and upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act and agreed with the Obama administration that government subsidies that make health insurance affordable for millions of Americans should be available to all.

The court affirmed an Internal Revenue Service ruling that subsidies should be available not only in states that have set up their own health insurance exchanges, but also in those where consumers rely on the federal government exchange.

The decision for the second time defused a potential conflict between President Obama and the Supreme Court over his most notable domestic achievement. While there are more challenges to come, an adverse ruling in this case would have been close to a mortal blow to the act that continue to divide the nation and its political conversation. [Oyez article] (see March 13, 2017)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

June 25, 2015: in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, the US Supreme Court voted 5 – 4  and gave an unexpected reprieve to civil rights groups, ruling that housing discrimination need not be intentional in order to be illegal.

The justices said people objecting to lending, zoning, sales, and rental practices only need to show that they had a disparate impact on blacks or other minorities under a federal fair-housing law.

The decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, was an unlikely conclusion to a years-long effort by opponents of the civil rights-era law to reduce its effectiveness against housing policies and practices used by many builders, lenders and insurers. Twice before, the justices had agreed to hear a challenge to the law, only to see the cases withdrawn or settled before reaching court.

“The Court acknowledges the Fair Housing Act’s continuing role in moving the nation toward a more integrated society,” Kennedy wrote. [USA Today article] [Oyez article] (see July 8)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

June 25, 2018: Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection said that his agency had temporarily stopped handing over migrant adults who cross the Mexican border with children for prosecution, undercutting claims by other Trump administration officials that “zero tolerance” for illegal immigration is still in place.

McAleenan said his agency and the Justice Department should agree on a policy “where adults who bring their kids across the border — who violate our laws and risk their lives at the border — can be prosecuted without an extended separation from their children.” [NYT article] (see June 26)

June 25 Peace Love Art Activism

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

King Philip’s War

June 24, 1675: in colonial New England, King Philip’s War began when a band of Wampanoag warriors raided the border settlement of Swansee, Massachusetts, and massacred the English colonists there.

In the early 1670s, 50 years of peace between the Plymouth colony and the local Wampanoag Indians began to deteriorate when the rapidly expanding settlement forced land sales on the tribe. Reacting to increasing Native American hostility, the English met with King Philip, chief of the Wampanoag, and demanded that his forces surrender their arms. The Wampanoag did so, but in 1675 a Christian Native American who had been acting as an informer to the English was murdered, and three Wampanoag were tried and executed for the crime.

King Philip responded by ordering the attack on Swansee, which set off a series of Wampanoag raids in which several settlements were destroyed and scores of colonists massacred. The colonists retaliated by destroying a number of Indian villages. The destruction of a Narragansett village by the English brought the Narragansett into the conflict on the side of King Philip, and within a few months several other tribes and all the New England colonies were involved.  [History of Massachusetts article] (see August 12, 1676)

Colorado Gov Evans invites citizens to murder Native Americans

June 24, 1864: Colorado Governor John Evans warned that all peaceful Indians in the region must report to the Sand Creek reservation or risk being attacked. Evans’ offer of sanctuary was at best halfhearted. His primary goal in 1864 was to eliminate all Native American activity in eastern Colorado Territory, an accomplishment he hoped would increase his popularity and eventually win him a U.S. Senate seat. Immediately after ordering the peaceful Indians to the reservation, Evans issued a second proclamation that invited white settlers to indiscriminately “kill and destroy all…hostile Indians.” At the same time, Evans began creating a temporary 100-day militia force to wage war on the Indians. He placed the new regiment under the command of Colonel John Chivington, another ambitious man who hoped to gain high political office by fighting Indians. (see Nov 29)

Leonard Peltier

June 24, 1987: two Soviet ophthalmologists, Eduard Avetisov and Lev Katselson, examined Leonard Peltier and recommended treatment with drugs they said were available only in their country. Soviet bloc officials regarded him as a political prisoner. (see August 21, 1987)

Unmarked Graves

June 24, 2021: leaders of Indigenous groups in Canada said investigators had found more than 600 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children — a discovery that follows last month’s report of 215 bodies found at another school.

The bodies were discovered at the Marieval Indian Residential School, which operated from 1899 to 1997 where the Cowessess First Nation is now located, about 85 miles (135 kilometers) east of Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan.

A search with ground-penetrating radar resulted in 751 ’’hits,″ indicating that at least 600 bodies were buried in the area, said Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess. The radar operators have said their results could have a margin of error of 10%.

“We want to make sure when we tell our story that we’re not trying to make numbers sound bigger than they are,” Delorme said. “I like to say over 600, just to be assured.” [AP article] (next NA, see Aug 25)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Berlin Airlift

June 24, 1948: the Soviets blockaded West Berlin, leaving the city—which was surrounded on all sides by Communist East Germany—without access to food and supplies. [Truman Library article] (see June 26)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Roth v. United States

June 24, 1957: the US Supreme Court (in a 6-to-3 decision written by Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. ) held that obscenity was not “within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.” The Court noted that the First Amendment was not intended to protect every utterance or form of expression, such as materials that were “utterly without redeeming social importance.” The Court held that the test to determine obscenity was “whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest.” The Court held that such a definition of obscenity gave sufficient fair warning and satisfied the demands of Due Process. Brennan later reversed his position on this issue in Miller v. California (June 26, 1975) [Oyez article] (LGBTQ, see Sept 7; FS, see Oct 3)

Village of Skokie

June 24, 1977: the Village of Skokie denied the Nazis the right to a permit to march in military style uniforms. (see Oct 21)

Rankin v. McPherson

June 24, 1987: Ardith McPherson was a deputy constable working in Texas’s Harris County Constable’s office. McPherson had the radio on in her office, when she learned of an assassination attempt on President Reagan (March 30, 1981). During a conversation with another office worker, Lawrence Jackson, she remarked, “Shoot, if they go for him again, I hope they get him.” This comment, unbeknownst to McPherson, had been overheard by another deputy constable, who had then reported what he heard to Constable Rankin, effectively in charge of all those in the office. He requested to speak with McPherson, who admitted to him what she had said, stating, “Yes, but I didn’t mean anything by it.” After the conversation, Constable Rankin terminated her employment.

The Supreme Court affirmed the position of the Court of Appeals. The Court reasoned that, even though McPherson was a probationary employee who could be, as a condition of her hire, be fired for any reason the employer decided — even no reason at all — she deserved to be reinstated if she had been fired for merely exercising a right enshrined in the Constitution. Even though the state, as an employer, certainly has the right to determine certain modes of appropriate conduct among employees, the Court did not believe that this right balanced fairly against an employee’s right to discuss matters of “public concern.” The life or death of the President was deemed an obvious matter of public concern, which placed McPherson’s comments into the realm of protected speech, further bolstered by the fact that her comment did not amount to a bona fide threat on the President’s life. Just because a statement is incorrect, unpopular, or ill-advised, the Court determined, it does not mean it is beyond constitutional protection. [Justia article] (see January 6, 1988)

Iancu v. Brunetti

June 24, 2019:  in Iancu v. Brunetti, the US Supreme Court voted 6 – 3 and struck down a ban on trademarking words and symbols that are “immoral” or “scandalous.”

Clothing designer Erik Brunetti brought the case. He sought to trademark the phrase FUCT. The decision paved the way for him to get his brand trademarked.

The court struggled with how to deal with the word — in particular, its pronunciation. Justice Elena Kagan described it in her majority opinion: The clothing brand “is pronounced as             four letters, one after the other: F-U-C-T. … But you might read it differently and, if so, you would hardly be alone.”

She noted that it has been described “as ‘the equivalent of [the] past participle form of a well-known word of profanity.’ ”

The five justices who joined Kagan’s majority opinion: Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaug.  [NPR story] (see July 9)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Voting Rights

June 24, 1964:  thirty Freedom Summer workers from Greenville, Miss. made the first effort to register black voters in Drew, Miss., and local whites resisted with open hostility. Whites circled the workers in cars and trucks, some equipped with gun racks, making violent threats. One white man stopped his car and said, “I’ve got something here for you,” flaunting his gun. (BH, see June 25; VR, see August 6, 1965)

Poor People’s Campaign

June 24, 1968: Washington, D.C. police evicted remaining protesters from Resurrection City, formed by the Poor People’s Campaign.  [WTOP article] (Sept 8)

Springboks

June 24, 1995:  South Africa’s national rugby team, the Springboks, won the World Cup final. The team had been banned from international competition until 1992, and was long seen as a symbol of oppression by many black South Africans. Mr. Mandela’s call for blacks to support the team was hailed as a masterly move toward racial reconciliation. He congratulated the team while wearing a green Springboks jersey, in a stadium full of cheering white rugby fans. (SA/A, see Nov 1;  see Mandela for his expanded chronology)

Church burning

June 24, 2015: arson fire occurred in the predawn hours at the Briar Creek Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. (BH, see June 29; CB, see June 30)

Ahmaud Arbery

June 24, 2020: CNN reported that Cobb District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes had announced that Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and William R. Bryan were indicted by a grand jury.

“We will continue to be intentional in the pursuit of justice for this family and the community at large as the prosecution of this case continues,” said Holmes, the specially appointed prosecutor in the case.

The charges also include aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, according to the indictment. (next B & S and AA, see or see AA for expanded chronology)

Mary Jackson honored

June 24, 2020: the NY Times reported that NASA had announced that it would name its Washington, D.C., headquarters after Mary Jackson, the organization’s first black female engineer and a pivotal player in helping U.S. astronauts reach space.

Jim Bridenstine, the administrator of NASA, said the agency would continue to honor those whose histories have long been overlooked.

“Today, we proudly announce the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building,” Mr. Bridenstine said in a statement. “It appropriately sits on ‘Hidden Figures Way,’ a reminder that Mary is one of many incredible and talented professionals in NASA’s history who contributed to this agency’s success.” (next BH, see June 28)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

Cigarette package warning

June 24, 1964: the Federal Trade Commission announced that starting in 1965, cigarette manufactures would be required to include warnings on their packaging about the harmful effects of smoking. (see November 5, 1965)

National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act

June 24, 1966: the US Senate voted 76-0 for the passage of what will become the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 9, the act created the nation’s first mandatory federal safety standards for motor vehicles.

The origins of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act can be traced directly of the efforts of consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who in 1965 published the bestselling “Unsafe at Any Speed.”  [US DoT article] (see Sept 9)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

June 24 Music et al

A Spaniard in the Works

June 24, 1965: A Spaniard in the Works, John’s second book, published. (see July 10)

see The Beach Boys Summer Spectacular for more

June 24 & 25, 1966,  San Francisco FM radio station KFRC sponsored the “The Beach Boys Summer Spectacular” at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Future Woodstock Music and Art Fair performers were: Jefferson Airplane and John Sebastian from the Lovin’ Spoonful. (see March 25, 1967)

Performers The Beach Boys Neil Diamond The Byrds Jefferson Airplane Lovin’ Spoonful

The Leaves The Sunrays Percy Sledge The Sir Douglas Quintet Chad and Jeremy The Outsiders

Headquarters

June 24 – 30, 1967: The Monkees Headquarters is the Billboard #1 album.

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Ring v. Arizona

June 24, 2002:  the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that juries, rather than judges, must make the crucial factual decisions as to whether a convicted murderer should receive the death penalty. Ring v. Arizona overturned the law of Arizona and four other states – Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Nebraska – where judges alone decided whether there were aggravating factors that warrant capital punishment. The decision also raised questions about the procedure in four other states – Alabama, Delaware, Florida, and Indiana – where the judge decided life imprisonment or death after hearing a jury’s recommendation. The Ring opinion also said that any aggravating factors must be stated in the indictment, thus also requiring a change in federal death penalty laws. [DPIC article] (see January 11, 2003)

New York State death penalty unconstitutional

June 24, 2004: New York State’s highest court ruled that a central provision of the state’s capital punishment law violated the State Constitution. Lawyers said the ruling would probably spare the lives of the four men on death row and effectively suspended the death penalty in New York. The 4-to-3 ruling from the State Court of Appeals in Albany went well beyond the particulars of a single case, giving opponents of the law an important victory. Besides the four death-row inmates, lawyers said, it could spare the lives of nine defendants fighting capital cases and more than 30 others whose murder cases are in early stage. The court’s majority said, ‘Under the present statute, the death penalty may not be imposed” [NYT article] (see March 1, 2005)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

NYS same-sex marriage

June 24, 2011: New York State passed a law allowing same-sex marriage making New York the largest state that allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry. The vote came on the eve of the city’s annual Gay Pride Parade and gave new momentum to the national gay-rights movement. The marriage bill was approved 33 to 29. Cheering supporters greeted Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he arrived on the Senate floor to sign the measure at 11:55pm, just moments after the vote. [NYT article]  (see September 19, 2011)

Frank Schaefer

June 24, 2014: a United Methodist Church appeals panel overturned a decision to defrock Frank Schaefer. It permitted his return to the pulpit. Schaefer was the pastor who presided over his son’s same-sex wedding ceremony and vowed to perform other gay marriages if asked.

The nine-person appeals panel ordered the church to restore Schaefer’s pastoral credentials, saying the jury that convicted him of breaking church law erred when fashioning his punishment.

The appeals panel upheld a 30-day suspension that Schaefer has already served and said he should get back pay dating to when the suspension ended in December.

The appeals panel concluded that the jury’s punishment was illegal under church law, writing in its decision that “revoking his credentials cannot be squared with the well-established principle that our clergy can only be punished for what they have been convicted of doing in the past, not for what they may or may not do in the future.” (LGBTQ, see June 25; Schaefer, see Oct 27)

Christopher Park

June 24, 2016: President Obama announced that he was officially declaring a national monument at the Stonewall Inn, commemorating the historic rise of the modern LGBTQ movement that started there. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the gay bar, spurring the LGBTQ patrons to riot and begin organizing resistance efforts that turned into what is now known as Pride.

Technically the new national park was Christopher Park, the area directly across from the Stonewall Inn. Obama’s proclamation notes that the park has become “a popular destination for LGBTQ youth, many of whom had run away from or been kicked out of their homes,” as well as a place of organizing for other LGBTQ milestones:

Christopher Park and its environs have remained a key gathering place for the LGBTQ community. For example, on June 26, 2015, within moments of the issuance of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, LGBTQ people headed to Christopher Park to celebrate the Court’s recognition of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. A few days later, Governor Cuomo continued that celebration by officiating at the marriage of two gay men directly outside the Stonewall Inn. Within minutes of the recent news of the murders of 49 people in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida — one of the most deadly shootings in American history — LGBTQ people and their supporters in New York headed again to Christopher Park to mourn, heal, and stand together in unity for the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country. (see June 30)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

June 24, 2022: the U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists.

Writing for the court majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that the 1973 Roe ruling and repeated subsequent high court decisions reaffirming Roe “must be overruled” because they were “egregiously wrong,” the arguments “exceptionally weak” and so “damaging” that they amounted to “an abuse of judicial authority.”

The decision, most of which was leaked in early May, meant that abortion rights will be rolled back in nearly half of the states immediately, with more restrictions likely to follow. For all practical purposes, abortion will not be available in large swaths of the country. [NPR article] (next Feminism, see July 28)

June 24 Peace Love Art Activism