July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Feminism
Voting Rights
July 21, 1908: The Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League (1908-1918) established in London. Its aims were to oppose women being granted the vote in United Kingdom parliamentary elections, although it did support their having votes in local government elections. (Oxford Scholarship Online article)
Grace Saxon Mills
In 1909: in the UK, Grace Saxon Mills listed reasons why women should not have the right to vote in the United Kingdom
- Because women already have the municipal vote, and are eligible for membership of most local authorities. These bodies deal with questions of housing, education, care of children, workhouses and so forth, all of which are peculiarly within a woman’s sphere. Parliament, however, has to deal mainly with the administration of a vast Empire, the maintenance of the Army and Navy, and with questions of peace and war, which lie outside the legitimate sphere of woman’s influence.
- Because all government rests ultimately on force, to which women, owing to physical, moral and social reasons, are not capable of contributing.
- Because women are not capable of full citizenship, for the simple reason that they are not available for purposes of national and Imperial defence. All government rests ultimately on force, to which women, owing to physical, moral and social reasons, are not capable of contributing.
- Because there is little doubt that the vast majority of women have no desire for the vote.
- Because the acquirement of the Parliamentary vote would logically involve admission to Parliament itself, and to all Government offices. It is scarcely possible to imagine a woman being Minister for War, and yet the principles of the Suffragettes involve that and many similar absurdities.
- Because the United Kingdom is not an isolated state, but the administrative and governing centre of a system of colonies and also of dependencies. The effect of introducing a large female element into the Imperial electorate would undoubtedly be to weaken the centre of power in the eyes of these dependent millions.
- Because past legislation in Parliament shows that the interests of women are perfectly safe in the hands of men.
- Because Woman Suffrage is based on the idea of the equality of the sexes, and tends to establish those competitive relations which will destroy chivalrous consideration. Because women have at present a vast indirect influence through their menfolk on the politics of this country.
- Because the physical nature of women unfits them for direct com-petition with men. (John Clare dot net article) (see January 19, 1909)
Adm. Lisa Franchetti
July 21, 2023: President Joe Biden chose Adm. Lisa Franchetti to lead the Navy, an unprecedented choice that would make her the first woman to be a Pentagon service chief and the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Biden’s decision went against the recommendation of his Pentagon chief. But Franchetti, the current vice chief of operations for the Navy, had broad command and executive experience and was considered by insiders to be the top choice for the job.
Biden noted the historical significance of her selection and said “throughout her career, Admiral Franchetti has demonstrated extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas.” [AP article] (next Feminism, see July 28)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
35 Black prisoners burn to death
July 21, 1913: thirty-five Black men at Oakley Farm, a segregated prison camp in Mississippi, burned to death when the neglected dormitory they were locked into at night caught fire.
Each night, the men who were forced to labor as convicts at Oakley Farm were locked into the second floor of an all-wooden building, where they slept on the floor together. The second floor had metal bars on each window and the building had only one exit—through a single door on the first floor, where the prison stored hay, molasses, and other flammable materials. The dormitory was referred to as an “antiquated convict cage,” and as one report later noted, “everything was in the fire’s favor.”
Shortly before midnight, two watchmen patrolling the prison noticed flames coming out of the windows of the first floor of one of the prison dormitories. Because the prison did not have any fire extinguishing gear, the watchmen simply stood by as the fire grew, failing to take any measures to try to save the individuals locked inside. As flames quickly engulfed the dormitory, the men imprisoned upstairs began shouting for help. With bars on all the windows and the singular exit blocked by the fire, they were left with no way out, and all 35 of the men in the dormitory burned to death. [EJI article] (next BH, see Sept 6)
The Greensboro Four
July 21, 1960: F.W. Woolworth manager Clarence Harris met with Chairman Zane and the Advisory Committee in his store. He informed them that F.W. Woolworth’s would soon serve all properly dressed and well-behaved people. Kress manager H.E. Hogate was present. (BH, see July 31; see Greensboro for expanded story)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Religion and Public Education
Scopes Trial
July 21, 1925: the final day of the trial opened with Judge Raulston’s ruling that Bryan cannot return to the stand and that his testimony should be expunged from the record. Raulston declared that Bryan’s testimony “can shed no light upon any issues that will be pending before the higher courts.” Darrow then asked the court to bring in the jury and find Scopes guilty — a move that would allow a higher court to consider an appeal. The jury returned its guilty verdict after nine minutes of deliberation. Scopes was fined $100, which both Bryan and the ACLU offer to pay for him.
After the verdict was read, John Scopes delivered his only statement of the trial, declaring his intent “to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my ideal of academic freedom — that is, to teach the truth as guaranteed in our constitution, of personal and religious freedom.” (see Scopes for expanded story)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
Geneva Accords
July 21, 1954: the Geneva Accords concluded the Geneva Conference with the division of Vietnam into two countries along the 17th parallel of latitude with elections scheduled for 1956. [The two countries were not reunited until the fall of Saigon in 1975.] (see Aug 11)
New Zealand
July 21, 1965: members of the New Zealand armed forces were deployed to South Vietnam. (NZ History cot govt article) (see July 24)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
FREE SPEECH
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
July 21, 1959: a U.S. District Court in New York ruled that D.H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover was not obscene. Because of its explicit treatment of sexual intercourse, the novel had been unavailable legally in the U.S. since it was first published in Italy in 1928 (although there were a number of bootlegged editions and some bowdlerized editions that were legally published). The edition in this case, Grove Press v. Christenberry, was published by Grove Press, owned by anti-censorship pioneer Barney Rosset. (Guardian dot com article) (see March 26, 1960)
George Carlin
July 21, 1972: police arrested comedian George Carlin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for public obscenity: reciting his “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television.”
The case, which prompted Carlin to refer to the words for a time as “the Milwaukee Seven,” was dismissed in December of that year; the judge declared that the language was indecent but Carlin had the freedom to say it as long as he caused no disturbance. (see March 19, 1973)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Space Race
July 21, 1961: American astronaut Gus Grissom’s sub-orbital flight is marred when, after splashdown, the hatch of his capsule blows open and the capsule sinks.) (Grissom article from Space dot com) (see Nov 29)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
The Road to Bethel
July 21, 1969: Judge Edward O’Gorman handed down official decision banning the festival from the Wallkill site. That evening, Woodstock Ventures was granted permission to hold their event by unanimous vote of the Bethel council. (see Chronology for expanded story)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Irish Troubles
July 21, 1972: Bloody Friday: 22 bombs planted by the Provisional IRA explode in Belfast, Northern Ireland; nine people are killed and 130 seriously injured. (BBC article) (see Troubles for expanded chronology
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Jack Kevorkian
July 21, 1992: Oakland County Circuit Court Judge David Breck dismisses charges against Kevokian in deaths of Miller and Wantz. (see Kevorkian for expanded story)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
July 21, 1998: the U.S. Court of Appeals holds a hearing on alleged leaks of grand jury information to the media by Ken Starr’s office. The hearings center on Judge Norma Holloway Johnson’s secret sanctions against Starr and his subsequent appeal. The sanctions would require Starr to turn over documents and other evidence related to the alleged leaks. (see Clinton for expanded story)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Employment protection
July 21, 2014: President Obama gave employment protection to gay and transgender workers in the federal government and its contracting agencies, after being convinced by advocates of what he called the “irrefutable rightness of your cause.”
“America’s federal contracts should not subsidize discrimination against the American people,” Obama said at a signing ceremony from the White House East Room. He said it’s unacceptable that being gay is still a firing offense in most places in the United States. (Boston Globe article) (see July 28)
NBA All-Star game
July 21, 2016: the National Basketball Association pulled the February 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina to protest a state law that eliminated anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The move was among the most prominent consequences since the law, which also bars transgender people from using bathrooms in public buildings that do not correspond with their birth gender, was passed in March. (ESPN article) (LGBTQ, see Aug 18; North Carolina, see Sept 16)
Kentucky
July 21, 2017: U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered Kentucky to pay more than $220,000 in legal fees because Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis had refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015.
Bunning ordered the state to pay $222,695 in fees to the attorneys of two same-sex couples and others who sued Davis for refusing to give them marriage licenses. He also awarded $2,008.08 in other costs. Bunning said the county and Davis herself did not have to pay.
“Davis represented the Commonwealth of Kentucky when she refused to issue marriage licenses to legally eligible couples. The buck stops there,” Bunning wrote. [NPR story] (see July 26)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Occupy Wall Street
July 21, 2015: New York City reached a settlement with an Occupy Wall Street protester who was pepper-sprayed and arrested by a city police officer during a peaceful demonstration in 2011.
Debra Lea Greenberger, a lawyer representing protester Kelly Schomburg confirmed that the city agreed to settle the suit for $50,001, in addition to yet-to-be-determined legal fees.
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
July 21, 2020: Planned Parenthood of Greater New York announced that it would remove the name of Margaret Sanger, a founder of the national organization, from its Manhattan health clinic because of her “harmful connections to the eugenics movement.”
Ms. Sanger, a public health nurse who opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brooklyn in 1916, had long been lauded as a feminist icon and reproductive-rights pioneer, but her legacy also included supporting eugenics, a discredited belief in improving the human race through selective breeding, often targeted at poor people, those with disabilities, immigrants and people of color.
“The removal of Margaret Sanger’s name from our building is both a necessary and overdue step to reckon with our legacy and acknowledge Planned Parenthood’s contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color,” Karen Seltzer, the chair of the New York affiliate’s board, said in a statement. [NYT story] (next WH, see January 12, 2021)
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Cannabis
July 21, 2023: the new law legalizing the possession and personal cultivation of marijuana for adults in Luxembourg officially took effect.
This came about a month after Luxembourg’s Parliament passed a legalization bill, making it the second country in the European Union to end cannabis prohibition following Malta’s vote to legalize in 2021. [MM article] (next Cannabis, see Sept 7 or see CAC for expanded Cannabis chronology )
July 21 Peace Love Art Activism
Crime and Punishment
July 21, 2023: Senior Judge Kathryn H. Vratil of the Federal District Court ruled that a “two-step” which Kansas Highway Patrol troopers used often against out-of-state drivers, was part of a “war on motorists” waged and violation of the Fourth Amendment.
When a mundane traffic stop was nearing its end, a state trooper would turn to leave. But after a couple of paces toward the squad car, the trooper would whirl around and go back to the window of the pulled-over driver, hoping to strike up a conversation and find enough reason to scour the car for drugs. Perhaps the driver would say something the trooper deemed suspicious, or perhaps the driver would just agree to a search.
“The war is basically a question of numbers: stop enough cars and you’re bound to discover drugs,” wrote Vratil. “And what’s the harm if a few constitutional rights are trampled along the way?” [NYT article] (next C & P, see July 28)