July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Silent protest
July 28, 1917: up to 10,000 African Americans silently paraded down New York City’s Fifth Avenue to protest lynchings in the South and race Revolts in the North. The NAACP and Harlem leaders organized the protest as the U.S. was going to fight “for democracy” in World War I. One parade banner read: “Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy?” (HuffPost article) (next BH, see Aug 23; next lynching, see “In April 1918″; silent protest, see June 17, 2012; for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)
Albany Movement
July 28, 1962: Martin Luther King Jr and, twenty-seven were arrested and jailed during two prayer protests in fron of Albany City Hall. (BH, see July 28; see Albany for expanded story)
James H Meredith
July 28, 1962: the US Court of Appeals ordered the University of Mississippi officials to enroll Meredith, a 29-year-old African American and who served nine years in the Air Force. (see September 13, 1962)
George Whitmore, Jr
July 28, 1970: The Supreme Court’s Appellate Division unanimously affirmed George Whitmore, Jr.’s third conviction in the Elba Borrero case. (see Whitmore for expanded story)
Stop and Frisk Policy
- July 28, 2007: New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the NYPD was not meeting its legal obligation to publicly release all its stop-and-frisk data. (see Nov 20)
- July 28, 2015: NYPD officers conducted nearly 50 percent fewer stop-and-frisk encounters in the first quarter of 2015 year than they did in 2014, but the percentage of minorities stopped was still greater than 80 percent, close to the level reported in previous quarters, the latest statistics show. Keeping in line with Commissioner William Bratton’s policy of reducing the number of stops, the NYPD performed a total of 7,135 stop-and-frisks in the first quarter of 2015, down from 14,261 in the same period last year, a decline of 49.9 percent, police data showed. (see April 4, 2016)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Feminism
Long Beach, LI
July 28, 1920: the police chief of Long Beach, New York, on Long Island, announced that women would be permitted to wear one-piece bathing suits, without either shoes or stockings. He added, however, that “there must be no immorality,” and that his officers “will see to that.” (see Aug 20)
Hillary Clinton
July 28, 2016: Hillary Clinton became the first woman to become a major party’s nominee for the presidency of the United States. [transcript of acceptance speech] (see Aug 18)
Salem Witchcraft Exoneration
July 28, 2022: Elizabeth Johnson Jr, who had confessed to practicing witchcraft during the 1693 Salem witch trials, was the only remaining person convicted during those trials whose name had not been cleared. Though she was sentenced to death, after she and more than 20 members of her extended family faced similar allegations, she was granted a reprieve and avoided the death sentence.
The exoneration came 329 years after her conviction, tucked inside a state budget signed by Gov. Charlie Baker. The exoneration was the product of a three-year lobbying effort by a civics teacher and her eighth-grade class, along with a state senator who helped champion the cause.
“I’m excited and relieved,” Carrie LaPierre, the teacher at North Andover Middle School, said in an interview on Saturday, “but also disappointed I didn’t get to talk to the kids about it,” as they are on summer vacation. “It’s been such a huge project,” Ms. LaPierre added. “We called her E.J.J., all the kids and I. She just became one of our world, in a sense.” [NYT article] (next Feminism, see July 21, 2023)
Feminism & Crime and Punishment
July 28, 2023: President Joe Biden signed an executive order giving decisions on the prosecution of serious military crimes, including sexual assault, to independent military attorneys, taking that power away from victims’ commanders.
The order formally implements legislation passed by Congress in 2022 aimed at strengthening protections for service members, who were often at the mercy of their commanders to decide whether to take their assault claims seriously. [AP article] (next Feminism, see January 11, 2024 ; next C & P, see Aug 24)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Bonus March
July 28, 1932: President Herbert Hoover ordered the army, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, to forcibly evict the Bonus Marchers. MacArthur’s men set camps on fire and drove the veterans from the city. Public and press criticized Hoover, increasingly regarded as insensitive to the needs of the nation’s many poor, for the severity of his response. (Washington Post article) (see June 22, 1944)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Religion and Public Education
July 28, 1948: a challenge was filed to a New York state law that permitted public school students to be released so that they could take religious instruction classes at religious institutions. The suit claimed that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. (R & PE, see Sept 27 ; release time, see April 28, 1952)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
McCarthyism
July 28, 1954: the film, On the Waterfront, directed by Elia Kazan, premiered in New York City. Kazan had been criticized for “naming names” to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), on April 10, 1952. The film was regarded as his statement on the importance of giving testimony to investigating committees, and a reply to his former theater colleague and friend Arthur Miller. Miller’s play, The Crucible (see, January 22, 1953). (RS see Aug 18; Kazan, see March 21, 1999)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Sodomy laws repealed
July 28, 1961: Illinois repeals its sodomy laws, becoming the first U.S. state to decriminalize homosexuality. The repeal went into effect on January 1, 1962. (ACLU article on history of sodomy laws)(see September 11, 1961)
Virginia
July 28, 2014: Judge Henry F. Floyd ruled that Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional in the first such decision by a federal appellate court in the South.
“We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable. However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws,” wrote Floyd.
The 2-1 ruling applied throughout the circuit that also includes West Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas. (Washington Post article) (see Aug 4)
Tennessee
July 28, 2015: Tennessee State Rep. Rick Womick announced that he had advised 95 county clerks in a letter to ignore the June 26 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows gays to get married.
“I write to you today regarding the recent Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) opinion on the definition of marriage,” states the letter by Womick, a Republican from Rutherford County’s Rockvale community southwest of Murfreesboro. “It has come to my attention that most, if not all of you, have been contacted by AG (attorney general) Herbert Slatery and the (Gov. Bill) Haslam administration and have been told to uphold the SCOTUS opinion or face a discrimination lawsuit.”
Womick had suggested that the governor, also a Republican, should be impeached for failing to enforce the Tennessee Constitution that bans gay marriage due to an amendment approved in a voter referendum in 2006. (DNJ article) (see Aug 5)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
Troop increase
July 28, 1965: President Johnson announced his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000 and to double the number of men drafted per month from 17,000 to 35,000. (see Aug 3)
Operation Popeye
July 28, 1972: sponsored by Senators Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and Clairborne Pell, the US Senate voted for an amendment to cut off Defense Department funds for any use of rainmaking or creation of forest fires as a weapon of war.
The US Dept of Defense continued to deny such operations and also refused to discuss the operational aspects in Vietnam (V, see Aug 11; see Popeye for expanded story)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
July 28 Music et al
Road to Bethel/July 28, 1969
- a benefit was held at the Village Gate (NYC) to raise money for scholarship funds to enable young artists to exhibit at Woodstock. Performers at the benefit included Marian McPartland, Les McCann, and Robert Flack. (see July 28)
- Bethel town meeting for presentation of the all-inclusive draft of festival to NY State Health Department lasted 8-hours as many residents challenged each part of presentation, but all questions were answered. The Bethel Businessman’s Association voted to support festival. (see Chronology for expanded story)
Cultural Milestone
July 28, 1973: “The Summer Jam” at Watkins Glen, NY held. The rock festival once received the Guinness Book of World Records entry for “Largest audience at a pop festival.” An estimated 600,000 rock fans came to the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway outside of Watkins Glen, to see The Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead and The Band perform.
Similar to the 1969 Woodstock Festival, an enormous traffic jam created chaos for those who attempted to make it to the concert site. Long and narrow country roads forced fans to abandon their vehicles and walk 5–8 miles on a hot summer day. 150,000 tickets were sold for $10 each, but for all the other people it was a free concert. The crowd was so huge that a large part of the audience was not able to see the stage; however, twelve huge sound amplifiers, installed courtesy of legendary promoter Bill Graham, allowed the audience to at least hear. (next Cultural Milestone, see June 26, 1974; see Watkins for expanded story)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Weather Underground
July 28 , 1970: Bank of America HQ in NYC is bombed around 3:50 AM. WUO claims responsibility. (see Weather for expanded story)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
July 28, 1998: the United Auto Workers union ended a 54-day strike against General Motors. The strike caused $2.8 billion in lost revenues. (World Socialist Web site article) (see Oct 13)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
Immunity
July 28, 1998: in a dramatic breakthrough, lawyers for Lewinsky and Starr worked out a full immunity agreement covering both Lewinsky and her parents, Marcia Lewis and Dr. Bernard Lewinsky.
Filegate
July 28, 2000: the final report on the so-called “filegate” scandal unsealed by a federal appeals court, and Whitewater Independent Counsel Robert Ray said the report shows no evidence of misconduct by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton or former White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum. (see Clinton for expanded story)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Irish Troubles
July 28, 2005: the Provisional IRA issued a statement formally ordering an end to the armed campaign it has pursued since 1969 and ordering all its units to dump their arms. (see Troubles for expanded story)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Nuclear/Chemical News
July 28, 2012: Michael Walli, Sister Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed cut through three fences and broke into a $548 million storage bunker for nuclear weapons. Inside the most secure part of complex they defaced a bunker holding bomb-grade uranium, hung banners, strung crime-scene tape, and hammered off a small chunk of the fortress-like Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. (NYT article) (Nuclear and Rice, see May 8, 2013)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Women’s Health
Mississippi blocked
July 28, 2014: a federal appeals panel blocked a Mississippi law that would have shut the sole abortion clinic in the state by requiring its doctors to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals, something they had been unable to do.
By a 2-to-1 vote, the panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that by imposing a law that would effectively end abortion in the state, Mississippi would illegally shift its constitutional obligations to neighboring states. The ruling was the latest at a time when states, particularly in the South, were increasingly setting new restrictions that supporters say address safety issues and that critics say are intended to shut clinics.
“A state cannot lean on its sovereign neighbors to provide protection of its citizens’ federal constitutional rights,” Judge E. Grady Jolly wrote. “Pre-viability, a woman has the constitutional right to end her pregnancy by abortion,” he continued. This law “effectively extinguishes that right within Mississippi’s borders.”
Mississippi officials had argued that women seeking abortions could always drive to neighboring states, such as Louisiana or Tennessee, to obtain the procedure, an argument the panel rejected.
The decision did not overturn the Mississippi law or explore whether the admitting-privilege requirement was justified on safety grounds. Rather, the panel said, the law could not be used to close the sole clinic in the state. (NYT article) (see Aug 4)
State of Washington
June 28, 2016: the Supreme Court allowed Washington state to require pharmacies to dispense Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, rejecting an appeal from pharmacists who said they had religious objections to providing the drugs.
The justices’ order left in place rules first adopted in 2007 following reports that some women had been denied access to emergency contraceptives that are effective when taken within a few days of unprotected sex. Pharmacies must fill lawful prescriptions, but individual pharmacists with moral objections can refer patients to another pharmacist at the same store. (Washington State AG article) (see Aug 18)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
Paul Shanley released
July 28, 2017: after 12 years behind bars, Paul Shanley, the former Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of child rape charges was released from prison according to Jay Dias of the Massachusetts Department Of Correction.
Shanley, 86, was convicted in 2005 of two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child and two counts of rape and abuse of a child, according to the sex offender registry. With his release, he would begin 10 years of supervised probation, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement.
Shanley was one of a number of priests convicted of abuse charges in the wake of reporting from The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team that revealed the Catholic Church’s pedophile priest scandal.
Shanley’s release sparked backlash from a group representing victims of the scandal. “Age, a change of title or location doesn’t change a pedophile,” said Barbara Dorris, managing director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “For now, I just hope the officials who housed him, employed him, and protected him have an obligation to make sure this never happens again.” (Boston Globe story) (next SAC, see Nov 22)
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick charged
July 28, 2021: former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked after a Vatican investigation confirmed he had sexually molested adults as well as children, has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy during a wedding reception in 1974, court records show.
McCarrick was charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14, according to documents filed in the Dedham District Court (MA).
He was the first cardinal in the U.S. to ever be criminally charged with a sexual crime against a minor, according to Mitchell Garabedian, a well-known lawyer for church sexual abuse victims who is representing the man alleging the abuse by McCarrick.
“It takes an enormous amount of courage for a sexual abuse victim to report having been sexually abused to investigators and proceed through the criminal process,” Garabedian said in an email. “Let the facts be presented, the law applied, and a fair verdict rendered.” [AP article] (next SAC, see Dec 13); next McCarrick, see August 30, 2023)
July 28 Peace Love Art Activism
Immigration History
July 28, 2020: the Trump administration continued its push to roll back DACA — the program that protects young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children — by refusing to accept new applicants.
“I have concluded that the DACA policy, at a minimum, presents serious policy concerns that may warrant its full rescission,” said Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf in a memo explaining the administration’s decision.
According to that memo, the administration will continue to renew DACA protections for the roughly 640,000 immigrants who already have them — but only for one year, not for two years, as was previously the policy. [NPR story] (next IH, see Aug 16; next DACA, see Nov 14)