August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
August 29, 1874: a panel of Coushatta’s leading citizens conducted a trial of the white prisoners arrested on August 27. Late in the day, after hours of grilling, Homer Twitchell, Sheriff Edgerton, and the other white prisoners, in return for a promise of safe passage to Shreveport, resigned their offices and promised in writing to leave the state and never return.
At the same time, the White League issued a proclamation over the signatures of Abney, Pierson, Julius Lisso, and other town leaders, alleging that the prisoners were evil men who had indoctrinated “vicious ideas into the minds of the colored people of Red River, and array[ed] them against the true interest of the country.” [Facing History article] (see Aug 30)
Emmett Till
August 29, 1955: J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant were arrested on kidnapping charges in LeFlore County in connection with Till’s disappearance. They are jailed in Greenwood, Mississippi and held without bond. (see Emmett Till for expanded story)
Voting Rights
August 29, 1957: Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, an ardent segregationist, sustained the longest one-person filibuster in history in an attempt to keep the Civil Rights Act of 1957 from becoming law. His one-man filibuster lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes; he began with readings of every state’s election laws in alphabetical order. Thurmond later read from the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and George Washington’s Farewell Address.
Despite Thurmond’s action, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation since 1875. The legislation set up the US Commission on Civil Rights and the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice. [NPR story] (BH, see September; VR, see Sept 9 )
Bob Moses
August 29, 1961: Bob Moses, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), pursued a voter registration drive in Amite County, Mississippi, where only one African American was allowed to vote. When Moses tried to sign up two more voters, he was attacked and beaten. He filed charges against his white attackers, who were acquitted. [Mississippi Freedom Summer article] (see Sept 22)
Mutual Black Network
August 29, 1979: the Sheridan Broadcasting Company, owned by African-American lawyer and educator Ronald R. Davenport, purchased the Mutual Black Network (MBN).
MBN previously distributed news and public affairs programming to Black-orientate stations around the country, reaching millions of listeners, Encyclopedia of Radio author C. Sterling wrote. The merger marked the beginning of the first completely Black-owned radio network in the world. [Black Then article] (next BH, see Nov 3)
George Whitmore, Jr
August 29, 1993: Richard Robles, 50 years old, had served 29 years in prison, one of the longest sentences in the state penal system. The Parole Board, citing “the seriousness of the crime,” has denied him parole five times. Prison officials said that of the state’s 65,000 inmates, only 20 have been imprisoned longer than Mr. Robles. (see Whitmore for expanded story)
Attica Prison Riot
August 29, 2000: [from the NYT] “Declaring that inmates beaten in the 1971 Attica prison uprising were treated ‘like garbage,’ a federal judge divided an $8 million settlement… to compensate more than 500 inmates and relatives for the abuse that the prisoners suffered. The allotment of the landmark settlement caps one of the longest and most ignominious chapters in American criminal justice history, fleshing out a deal reached in January between New York State and lawyers representing 1,281 former inmates.
At more than 200 pages, the settlement filed…also functions as a harrowing encyclopedia of personal anecdotes, incorporating months of testimony from nearly 200 former inmates who stood before Judge Michael A. Telesca of Federal District Court here and recounted how the uprising and siege at the prison in western New York left 43 people dead, 80 wounded and countless more psychologically scarred.
And now, after almost three decades of waiting and legal maneuvering, the former inmates are scheduled to receive their shares by October, barring an appeal by any inmate.” (BH, see Nov 7; APR, see January 13, 2005)
Jordan Edwards
August 29, 2018: a Texas jury sentenced former police Balch Springs officer Roy Oliver to 15 years in prison for the shooting death of Jordan Edwards, 15, an unarmed African-American teen in a Dallas suburb.
The jury deliberated for 12 hours before deciding the Oliver’s fate. In addition to the prison term, it imposed a fine of $10,000.
Oliver claimed that fired into a car full of teens on April 29, 2017 he believed the car Edwards was a passenger in was moving aggressively toward Oliver’s partner. Oliver’s partner said he’d never felt in danger.
Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson described Oliver as a “killer in blue” who violated his oath to protect citizens. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of at least 60 years while the defense argued for 20 years or less. (see Sept 6)
Antwon Rose
August 29, 2019: Gregory Wagner, charged with driving his Mercedes-Benz through a crowd that was protesting the police shooting of an unarmed black teen Antwon Rose avoided trial.
Wagner’s trial was to get underway on this date, but earlier in the month was admitted into a probationary program for nonviolent, first-time offenders.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the 59-year-old Wagner must also complete 25 hours of community service. (next Black & Shot, see Sept 26; next AR, see Oct 29)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
National Association of Letter Carriers
August 29, 1889: sixty letter carriers from 18 states meet in a room above Schaefer’s Saloon on Plankinton Avenue in Milwaukee. They unanimously adopt a resolution to form a National Association of Letter Carriers. [NALC site] (see Oct 25)
Lusty Lady Club
August 29, 1996: dancers at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady Club vote 57-15 to be represented by SEIU Local 790. Their first union contract, ratified eight months later, guaranteed work shifts, protection against arbitrary discipline and termination, automatic hourly wage increases, sick days, a grievance procedure, and removal of one-way mirrors from peep show booths [LL site] (Labor, see August 19, 1997; Feminism, see Oct 3)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
August 29 Music et al
Roots of Rock
August 29, 1958: Alan Freed’s Big Beat Show opened at the Fox Theatre in Brooklyn. Those performing included Frankie Avalon, Jimmy Clanton, Chuck Berry, Bobby Freeman, Bill Haley and his Comets and The Elegants. (see Dec 25)
The Casbah
August 29, 1959: the opening night of a new social club for teenagers, based in the cellar of a large Victorian house at 8 Hayman’s Green, Liverpool. The club was called The Casbah and run by Mona Best, mother of Pete Best and owner of the house. She had bought it after winning a horse racing bet in the 1954 Epson Derby; it had previously been owned by the West Derby Conservative Club, and had 15 bedrooms and an acre of land.
Mona Best had the idea for opening the club after seeing a television report on the 2i’s Coffee Bar in London’s Soho district. The Casbah was intended as a members-only club for Pete, his younger brother Rory, and their friends.
She charged half a crown for annual membership, and served soft drinks, snacks and cakes. The Casbah also had, unusually for the time, an espresso coffee machine. When there weren’t live performances Mona played records on a small Dansette record player, amplified through a 3″ speaker.
The Les Stewart Quartet, with George Harrison and Ken Brown on guitars, had been booked to perform on the opening night, but they cancelled after Stewart and Brown had an argument: Brown had missed a rehearsal as he had been helping Mona Best decorate the club.
As 300 membership cards had already been sold, Mona Best didn’t want to cause disappointment on the club’s opening night. Harrison suggested the Quarrymen play instead, and so they went round to arrange the booking. At this point their line-up was John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ken Brown. They didn’t have a drummer at the time, so they played without one.
John, Paul and George went around to see Mona, who told them they were welcome to play but she was still painting the cellar for the club’s opening the following week. The three boys grabbed paintbrushes and helped her finish it off. John mistook gloss for emulsion – because of his short sight – which took days to dry. Cynthia Powell also helped, and painted a silhouette of her future husband John Lennon on the wall; it can still be seen there today. (see Oct 31)
Hullabaloo
August 29, 1966: NBC-TV’s Hullabaloo’s last show. Replaced by The Monkees TV show. (see Sept 12)
The Beatles final live concert
August 29, 1966: performed their final live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Park’s capacity was 42,500, but only 25,000 tickets were sold, leaving large sections of unsold seats. Fans paid between $4.50 and $6.50 for tickets.
George Harrison: “We’d done about 1,400 live shows and I certainly felt this was it. It was nice to be popular, but when you saw the size of it, it was ridiculous, and it felt dangerous because everybody was out of hand. Even the cops were out of line….It was a very strange feeling. For a year or so I’d been saying, “Let’s not do this anymore.’ And then it played itself out, so that by 1966 everybody was feeling, ‘We’ve got to stop this.’ I don’t know exactly where in 1966, but obviously after the Philippines we thought, ‘Hey, we’ve got to pack this in.'” (see Sept)
Mark David Chapman
August 29, 2016: the NY State Board of Parole denied parole to Mark David Chapman on the grounds that his crime was premeditated and celebrity-seeking in nature. The board said Chapman’s release would deprecate the seriousness of the crime. (see January 18, 2017)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
DDT
August 29, 1962: the dangerous long-range side-effects of DDT and other pesticides was the subject of a press-conference question to President John F. Kennedy. In his reply, he acknowledged Rachel Carson’s ground-breaking environmental book on the subject (Silent Spring) and stated that the government was taking a closer look at this. [the book was not yet published] (see page for more) (see Sept 27)
Methane emissions
August 29, 2019: the Trump administration laid out a far-reaching plan to cut back on the regulation of methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule aims to eliminate federal requirements that oil and gas companies install technology to detect and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelinesand storage facilities. It would also reopen the question of whether the E.P.A. had the legal authority to regulate methane as a pollutant.
The rollback plan was particularly notable because major energy companies had, in fact, spoken out against it — joining automakers, electric utilities and other industrial giants that had opposed other administration initiatives to dismantle climate-change and environmental rules. (see Sept 12)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
The Cold War & Cuban Missile Crisis
August 29, 1962: a high-altitude U-2 surveillance flight provided conclusive evidence of the existence of missile sites at eight different locations in Cuba. (see CMC for expanded story)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
August 29, 1970: Los Angeles Times journalist Ruben Salazar was shot and killed by Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies at a National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War protest rally. The Moratorium rally was broken up by LASD deputies who used tear gas, and Salazar was shot and killed in the resulting chaos. In 1971 Salazar was posthumously awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. No one was ever prosecuted for the killing, and his death remains an important symbol of discrimination against Latinos in Southern California. (PBS piece) (see Sept 25)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Feminism
August 29, 1983: Columbia College, the last U.S. all-male Ivy League college, and a part of Columbia University, admits women to its freshman class for the first time in its 229-year history. [Columbia article] (see September 17, 1983)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
AIDS
August 29, 1987: having had their house fire-bombed the day before, Louise Ray said that her family would leave DeSoto County. “I never thought it would go this far,” she said. (Rays, see December 13, 1992; AIDS, see Aug 31)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Dissolution of the USSR
August 29, 1991: after three hours of anguished debate, the Soviet Parliament voted to suspend all activities of the Communist Party pending an investigation of its role in the coup. It was an action that confirmed the demise of the old regime even as the search quickened for new forms of association and order. The fate of the party was already sealed before Parliament’s vote. Individual republics had closed its offices and seized its vast properties and funds and President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had quit as its General Secretary and had called on the leadership to step down. But Parliament was the only national institution with the formal powers to act against the entire organization, and its decision served to confirm the indictment already passed by the people. (see Aug 30)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Nominations
August 29, 1996, Democrats re-nominated Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Hurricane Katrina
August 29, 2005: Katrina’s storm surge causes 53 different levee breaches in greater New Orleans, submerging eighty percent of the city. (see Katrina for expanded chronology)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Iraq War II
August 29, 2006: Donald Rumsfeld calls war critics “quitters” who “blame America first” for giving “the enemy the false impression Americans cannot stomach a tough fight” (see Sept 8)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Cannabis
August 29, 2013: the federal government took an historic step back from its long-running drug war when Attorney General Eric Holder informed the governors of Washington and Colorado that the Department of Justice would allow the states to create a regime that would regulate and implement the ballot initiatives that legalized the use of marijuana for adults.
Holder told the governors in a joint phone call early Thursday afternoon that the department would take a “trust but verify approach” to the state laws. DOJ is reserving its right to file a preemption lawsuit at a later date, since the states’ regulation of marijuana is illegal under the Controlled Substances Act. (see Sept 2, or see CCC for expanded chronology)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
IRS
August 29, 2013: the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced that they will recognize all legally married same-sex for federal tax purposes, regardless of whether the state where they live recognizes the marriage.
The federal rules change was one of many stemming from the landmark Supreme Court decision in June that struck down the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. That ruling found that same-sex couples were entitled to federal benefits, but left open the question of how the federal government would actually administer those benefits.
“Imagine a pair of women who marry in Albany and then move to Alabama,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote at the time of the decision. “May they file a joint federal income tax return? Does the answer turn on where they were married or where they live?” [IRS article] (see Aug 30 or see December 13, 2022 re DoMA)
Justice delayed
August 29, 2017: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis kicked President Trump’s proposed ban on transgender people serving in the military down the road, announcing that transgender service members would continue to be allowed to serve pending the results of a study.
Mr. Mattis said that he was establishing a panel of experts, serving within the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department, whose task would be to “provide advice and recommendations on the implementation of the president’s direction.” [NYT article]
Evangelical bias
August 29, 2017: a coalition of over 150 evangelical leaders released a manifesto reiterating their belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Titled the “Nashville Statement,” the document also asserts that God created two distinct sexes, that sex should only occur within the bounds of heterosexual marriage, and that “it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism.”
The statement emerged out of a meeting convened by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s annual conference in Nashville. It consisted of 14 statements of affirmation and denial relating to human sexuality. [Huff Post article] (see Oct 15)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
FREE SPEECH
August 29, 2017: U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed a lawsuit against the New York Times by former U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who claimed the newspaper had defamed her in an editorial linking her to a 2011 mass shooting.
Rakoff, in Manhattan, said that while the June editorial may have contained errors, it was not plausible those errors were made maliciously, which a public figure like Palin must prove to win a defamation lawsuit. [NYT article] (see May 23, 2018)
Marion County Record
August 29, 2023: a judge ordered that Kansas authorities must destroy all electronic copies they made of a small newspaper’s files when police raided its office on August 11 and nearly two weeks after computers and cellphones seized in the search were returned.
The searches of the Marion County Record’s office and the homes of its publisher and a City Council member had been sharply criticized, putting Marion, a central Kansas town of about 1,900 people, at the center of a debate over the press protections offered by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Attorney Bernie Rhodes, who represents the newspaper, said a judge ordered authorities to hand over those electronic records and destroy any copies they have of them along with all photographs that officers took during the raids. [AP article] (next FS, see )
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Native Americans
August 29, 2019: on December 29,1835, a minority party of the Cherokee Nation met government officials to sign the Treaty of New Echota, which laid out the terms for the removal of the Cherokee from the nation’s ancestral lands in the southeastern United States. Many Cherokee people opposed the treaty, and few willingly departed.
Among the compensation promised to the Cherokee as part of the devastating treaty was the right to send a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. For nearly 200 years, the position remained unfilled.
On this date, the Cherokee Nation’s council approved Kimberly Teehee as its first official representative to Congress.
She was the first delegate of a sovereign Native American government. Her role would be a non-voting one, and may be similar to the positions held by representatives of Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. These delegates can’t vote on the House floor, but are able to introduce legislation, debate on the floor and vote within their committees. (next NA, see February 7, 2020)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Voting Rights
August 29, 2020: Representatives from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the House and Senate Intelligence Committees they they were tightening control over the flow of sensitive intelligence about foreign threats to November’s election, telling Congress that they would no longer provide in-person briefings about election security and would rely solely on written updates instead.
Chief of the intelligence office, John L. Ratcliffe, framed the move as an attempt to “ensure clarity and consistency” in intelligence agencies’ interactions with Congress and to crack down on leaks that have infuriated some intelligence officials.
“I believe this approach helps ensure, to the maximum extent possible, that the information O.D.N.I. provides the Congress in support of your oversight responsibilities on elections security, foreign malign influence and election interference is not misunderstood nor politicized,” he wrote, according to a copy obtained by The New York Times. “It will also better protect our sources and methods and most sensitive intelligence from additional unauthorized disclosures or misuse.” [NYT article] (next VR, see Sept 11)
August 29 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration
August 29, 2020: U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents lack the training to take over the initial processing of asylum claims.
For nearly 20 years officers from Citizenship and Immigration Services had conducted all interviews with asylum seekers and made what are called “credible fear determinations” for those who arrive at the nation’s borders fleeing to the U.S. to escape persecution.
But in January, Department of Homeland Security officials issued a memorandum delegating authority from CIS to Customs and Border Protection to allow CBP agents to handle the early screenings, arguing their training was comparable to that of CIS. CBP and CIS are both agencies within the department.
“Poppycock!” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote in his opinion blocking CBP from conducting the interviews of asylum seekers. [NPR story] (next IH, see Sept 4)
