All posts by Woodstock Whisperer

Attended the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969, became an educator for 35 years after graduation from college, and am retired now and often volunteer at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts which is on the site of that 1969 festival.

Black history, Desegregation, Emmett Till, Music et al, Native Americans, Peace Love Art and Activism, Sexual abuse of children, Today in history

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

September 23, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Battle of Wood Lake

September 23, 1862: the Battle of Wood Lake. After delays due to forces needed for the Civil War, a large regular army contingent overwhelmingly defeated the Dakota forces. [US Dakota War article] (see December 1862)

Veronica

September 23, 2013: Veronica, the Cherokee girl at the center of a long custody dispute, was handed over to her adoptive parents, Matt and Melanie Capobianco, of South Carolina. Veronica, 4, had been living in the Cherokee Nation with her father, Dusten Brown, since she was 2. Before that, she lived with the Capobiancos. Her adoption was made final earlier this year, but Mr. Brown had appealed. The girl was handed over after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled it would not intervene.

Cherokee Nation spokeswoman Amanda Clinton confirmed the announcement via social media about an hour after the handover. “It is with a heavy heart that I can confirm Veronica Brown was peacefully handed over to Matt and Melanie Capobianco (this) evening,” she tweeted. “Updates will be forthcoming, but the transition was handled peacefully and with dignity by all parties. Please keep Veronica in your prayers.” (see Veronica for expanded story)

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

September 23, 1886: a coalition of Knights of Labor and trade unionists in Chicago launched the United Labor party, calling for an 8-hour day, government ownership of telegraph and telephone companies, and monetary and land reform. The party elected seven state assembly men and one senator. [Encyclopedia of Chicago article] (see Dec 8)

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism in the US

Leon Czolgosz

September 23, 1901: Leon Czolgosz was put on trial for assassinating US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. [Open Edition article on Czolgosz] (see Sept 24)

Colorado Fuel and Iron Company

September 23, 1913: miners working for the John D. Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Company went on strike. Organized by the United Mine Workers Association, the miners moved their families to union tent colonies in the countryside away from the mining camps. [Colorado Encyclopedia article] (see April 20, 1914)

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

September 23, 1943: six conscientious objectors, in prison for refusing to cooperate with the draft during WW II, began a hunger strike to protest the censorship of mail and reading material in prison. The strike ended in December 1943.

James V. Bennett, head of the federal Bureau of Prisons, ended the censorship but retained the right to open and read mail for security purposes.

One participant in the hunger strike, David Dellinger, who in the 1960s became a leader in the anti-Vietnam War movement. [2004 NYT obit] (FS, see April 4, 1944; Dellinger, see below with Vietnam & see March 20, 1969)

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Major General Douglas Gracy

September 23, 1945: after the Viet Minh called for a general strike and mass demonstrations, British Major General Douglas Gracy imposed martial law, then rleased and armed fourteen hundred French prisoners of war. The released prisoners and an accompanying French mob stormed throught the streets clubbing any Vietnamese in sight. They lynched Viet Minh officials and raised the French flag. (see Sept 24)

Chicago 8

September 23, 1969: the Chicago Eight trial began. The defendants included David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee (NMC); Rennie Davis and Thomas Hayden of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, founders of the Youth International Party (“Yippies”); Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers; and two lesser known activists, Lee Weiner and John Froines. The group was charged with conspiracy to cross state lines with intent to incite a riot. All but Seale were represented by attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass.

Early in the trial, presiding Judge Julius Hoffaman (no relation to Abbie) ordered Bobby Seale bound and gagged in the courtroom because of his outbursts. Seale’s trial will eventually be separated from the others’. (Chicago Eight, see Oct 28; Vietnam, see Oct 5)

BLACK HISTORY

Emmett Till

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism — Mr. & Mrs. Roy (Carolyn) Bryant (left) with Mr. & Mrs. J.W. Milam showed happiness at a the verdict delivered in Sumner, Miss. Friday, September 23, 1955.

September 23, 1955: the jury acquitted Milam and Bryant of murdering Emmett Till after the jury deliberates 67 minutes. One juror told a reporter that they wouldn’t have taken so long if they hadn’t stopped to drink pop. Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam stand before photographers, light up cigars and kiss their wives in celebration of the not guilty verdict.

Moses Wright and another poor black Mississippian who testified, Willie Reed, leave Mississippi and were smuggled to Chicago. Once there, Reed collapsed and suffered a nervous breakdown. (see Emmett Till; Willie Reed, see July 18, 2013)

School Desegregation

September 23, 1957: nine black students who had entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas were forced to withdraw because of a white mob outside. (History dot com article) (see Sept 24)

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

September 24 Music et al

LSD

September 23, 1967: Saturday Evening Post cover features a “Hippie” and a story about the so-called Hippie Cult. (see November)

The Letter

September 23 – October 20, 1967: “The Letter” by the Boxtops #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

…and a great cover by Joe Cocker w Leon Russell.

Whatever Get You Through the Night

September 23, 1974: Lennon single, Whatever Get You Through the Night released. It would be Lennon’s only solo #1 single in the US during his lifetime.

Lennon was the last member of The Beatles to achieve an American number one solo hit. The recording featured Elton John on harmony vocals and piano. While in the studio, Elton bet Lennon that the song would top the charts. (see Nov 16)

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

September 23, 2010: Virginia executed Teresa Lewis for arranging the killings of her husband and a stepson over a $250,000 insurance payment. The 41-year-old was the first woman to be executed in the United States in five years. More than 7,300 appeals to stop the execution – the first of a woman in Virginia since 1912 – had been made to the governor in a state second only to Texas in the number of people it executes. Texas held the most recent U.S. execution of a woman in 2005. Out of more than 1,200 people put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, only 11 have been women.

Lewis, who defense attorneys said was borderline mentally disabled, had inspired other inmates by singing Christian hymns in prison. Her execution stirred an unusual amount of attention because of her gender, claims she lacked the intelligence to mastermind the killings and the post-conviction emergence of defense evidence that one of the triggermen manipulated her.” Under US law, anyone with an IQ under 70 cannot be executed. Lewis was judged to have an IQ of 72. (ABC news article)(see January 21, 2011)

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

September 23, 2014: Vatican officials announced that Pope Francis had ordered the arrest of former Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, accused of child sex abuse in the Dominican Republic.

A Vatican tribunal had defrocked Wesolowski earlier in the year. He was under house arrest inside Vatican City due to the “express desire” of Pope Francis, the Vatican said in a statement.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said, “The seriousness of the allegations has prompted the official investigation to impose a restrictive measure that … consists of house arrest, with its related limitations, in a location within the Vatican City State.” [Washington Post article] (see Oct 14)

September 23 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS, Black history, Cold War, Death penalty, Feminism, LGBTQ, Music et al, Nuclear News, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

September 22, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Feminism

September 22, 1692: Ann Pudeator, Martha Corey (whose husband had been pressed to death on September 19), Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Wilmott Redd, Margaret Scott and Samuel Wardwell were hanged for witchcraft; the Rev. Nicholas Noyes called them “eight firebrands of hell.” It was the last executions in the Salem witch craze of 1692. [Streets of Salem article] (see October)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Emancipation Proclamation

September 22, 1862: motivated by his growing concern for the inhumanity of slavery as well as practical political concerns, President Abraham Lincoln changed the course of the Civil War by issuing the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

The measure did not technically free any slaves, but it expanded the Union’s war aim from reunification to include the abolition of slavery. The proclamation announced that all slaves in territory that was still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. (see January 1, 1863)

Atlanta massacre

September 22, 1906: after local newspapers reported alleged assaults on four white women by black men, mobs of angry white men gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, streets with the goal of attacking and killing any black man they found. The mobs seized upon street cars, trapped black male passengers, and killed the men by shooting them or brutally beating them to death. When the street cars stopped running, the rioters ransacked black businesses, beating or killing the people inside. The armed white men also chased black men through hotels and white-owned businesses, shooting and killing them in the hallways. The police and fire departments were called upon to quell the unrest but failed, as did the militia.

When asked what he could do to end the violence, Atlanta Mayor James Woodward replied, “The only remedy is to remove the cause. As long as the black brutes assault our white women, just so long will they be unceremoniously dealt with.” Woodward’s ambivalence empowered the mobs and the massacre continued. For a total of four days, black people were chased, beaten, shot, and hung throughout Atlanta and its surroundings. When black citizens of Brownville, a nearby suburb, attempted to arm themselves in defense, Georgia troops raided their homes, taking weapons and arresting those in possession of them. After four days of riots, between 25 and 40 people were dead and countless more were injured. (Georgia encyclopedia article)

Lugenia Burns Hope

In 1908: Lugenia Burns Hope created the Neighborhood Union, the first woman-run social welfare agency for African Americans in Atlanta, which provided medical, recreational, employment, and educational services and became known for its community building and race and gender activism. [Georgia Encyclopedia article] (see Feb 10)

Black Power

September 22, 1954: Richard Wright’s book, Black Power, published. It is a non-fiction account of Wright’s trip to Africa’s Gold Coast before it became the free nation of Ghana.

It is the first known use of the phrase Black Power. [Kirkus review] (see “in October”)

Freedom Riders

September 22, 1961: the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) issued a ruling enforcing the desegregation of interstate travel. The ruling removed “whites only” signs from terminals and enforced the end of segregated seating on interstate bus transit effective November 1, 1961. [related Oyez aticle] (BH, see Sept 25; Freedom Riders, see Nov 1)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAYS

Bulgaria

September 22, 1908: Bulgaria independent from the Ottoman Empire. (see December 29, 1911)

Mali

September 22, 1960: Mali independent from France. (see ID for the many other 1960s Independence days)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Immigration History

September 22, 1922: the Cable Act, (the Married Women’s Independent Nationality Act) significantly improved gender equality in nationality law by providing that American women would no longer lose their U.S. citizenship upon marriage to a foreigner—a reversal of the 1907 Expatriation Act, which had essentially declared American women’s citizenship dependent upon their husbands’. [NWP article] (Feminism, see Nov 21; next IH, see Feb 19; Cabel Act, see May 24, 1934)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

September 22, 1940: France’s Vichy government (the German collaborators) signed an armistice with Germany. The allied Germany and Japan allowed Vichy France to controlled most French overseas possessions, including Indochina. Japan agreed to allow Japan to station soldiers in Tonkin. During World War II Japan stationed a large number of soldiers and sailors in Vietnam although the French administrative structure was allowed to continue to function. (see Dec 23)

My Lai Massacre

September 22, 1971: Captain Ernest Medina was acquitted of all charges [murder, manslaughter, and assault ] relating to the My Lai massacre of March 1968. His unit, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) of the 23rd (Americal) Division, was charged with the murder of over 200 Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, at My Lai 4, a cluster of hamlets that made up Son My village in Son Tinh District in Quang Ngai Province in the coastal lowlands of I Corps Tactical Zone.

All charges were dropped when the military judge at the Medina’s court martial made an error in instructing the jury. (next Vietnam, see Oct 29; see Mai Lai for expanded story)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

McCarran Act

September 22, 1950: although vetoed by President Truman, the Senate overrode his veto 89 – 11 and the McCarran Act, or Internal Security Act of 1950 became law. Among other things, it authorized the creation of concentration camps “for emergency situations.” (Encyclopedia dot com article) (see Dec 9)

Peace Corps

September 22, 1961: in an important victory for his Cold War foreign policy, President John F. Kennedy signed legislation establishing the Peace Corps as a permanent government agency. Kennedy believed that the Peace Corps could provide a new and unique weapon in the war against communism. [Peace Corps site] (see Oct 4 – 9)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Oliver W. Sipple

September 22, 1975: President Gerald Ford survived a second assassination attempt. Sara Jane Moore had stood among a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco and was about 40 feet away from Mr. Ford as she aimed a .38-caliber pistol at him. Oliver W. Sipple, a former marine who was standing next to her, knocked her arm upward as she fired, sending the bullet well over Mr. Ford’s head; it ricocheted off a building and slightly injured a person in the crowd. (see Sipple for more about his story)

Domestic partnership statute

September 22, 1999: California became the first state to create a domestic partnership statute, allowing same-sex couples to receive some, but not all, of the protections afforded by marriage. The statute has been expanded over time to include more of the protections afforded to different-sex couples, although it is no substitute for marriage itself. [Overall history] (see Dec 9)

Louisiana

September 22, 2014: Louisiana state Judge Edward Rubin ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, in part because it violated equal protection rights. Rubin said the ban violated the 14th Amendment and the constitutional requirement that states give “full faith and credit” to each other’s laws. His ruling came in same-sex adoption case of Angela Costanza and her partner, Chasity Brewer.

The judge said Constanza could adopt her partner’s son and be listed as a parent on his birth certificate. The couple’s lawsuit said the state should recognize their marriage, which took place in California.

Laura Gerdes, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, said the office disagreed with the ruling and started the appeals process. [NOLA article] (see Oct 6)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

September 22, 1980: the command council of Iraq ordered its army to “deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets,” initiating the Iran–Iraq War. (see June 7, 1981)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

September 22, 1985: first Farm Aid Concert was held at Champaign, Illinois. The concert was staged to “raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land” and featured a performers from the worlds of country, folk and rootsy rock music. There were the three main organizers: Bob Dylan, for instance, along with Hoyt Axton, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell and Charley Pride. But the first Farm Aid, more than any of the annual Farm Aid concerts since, was a bit of a stylistic free-for-all, featuring artists united only by their interest in supporting a good cause. “As soon as I read in the paper that there was gonna be such a thing,” Sammy Hagar told MTV’s cameras on the day of the show, “I called my manager and said, ‘I wanna do it.’ And he said, ‘It’s all country.’ I said, ‘I don’t care. It’s America. I wanna do it.’ If there was anything more surprising than hearing Hagar perform his hard-rock anthem “I Can’t Drive 55″ on the same stage that had earlier featured the quiet folk of Arlo Guthrie, it was hearing Lou Reed perform “Walk On The Wild Side” on a stage that had featured John Denver. (see Oct 13)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

September 22, 1989: Deal barracks bombing: An IRA bomb explodes at the Royal Marine School of Music in Deal, Kent, United Kingdom, leaving 11 dead and 22 injured. (see Troubles for expanded story)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

September 22, 1995: CDC reviews Syringe Exchange Programs — United States, 1994-1995. The National Academy of Sciences concluded that syringe exchange programs should be regarded as an effective component of a comprehensive strategy to prevent infectious disease. (see Dec 6)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

September 22, 2012: Kalispell, Montana. Dan Fredenberg, upset with Brice Harper’s romantic involvement with Fredenberg wife, walked through Mr. Harper’s open garage door. Harper aimed a gun at the unarmed Mr. Fredenberg, fired and struck him three times. Fredenberg was dead before morning. (see Oct 9)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH & Colin Kaepernick

September 22, 2016: Time magazine featured Colin Kaepernick on the cover in its October 3 issue.

It featured Kaepernick kneeling in his full 49ers uniform. The issue included a cover story from Sean Gregory, where Kaepernick’s protest was a centerpiece in a larger conversation among athletes regarding sports activism and patriotism.

Also on September 22, Houston Texan’s Duane Brown raised a fist while standing during the national anthem

Brown didn’t play due to an injury, but did participate in the protest for the first time that season. He had been vocal about recent police shootings. [Time article] (FS & CK, see Oct 1)

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Right to Die

September 22, 2020: The NY Times reported that the Vatican reiterated the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia, which it called “intrinsically evil” acts, “in every situation or circumstance.”

The Vatican’s condemnation did not break new ground, but came as legislation in favor of allowing the ending of lives to relieve suffering has been in discussion or been adopted by a growing number of governments around the world, including in traditionally Catholic countries.

“Euthanasia is a crime,” stated the document, written by the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with Pope Francis’ explicit endorsement. The document accuses lawmakers who approve legislation allowing euthanasia or assisted suicide of being “accomplices of a grave sin that others will execute.” (next RtD, see March 28, 2022 )

September 22 Peace Love Art Activism

James Byrd, Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

September 21, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Snowtown Riots

September 21 – 24, 1831: the Snowtown riots [Providence, RI] were sparked by a saloon brawl. A white sailor was shot by a black; a mob then sacked houses on Olney’s Lane. The next day, it pulled down more houses. On the third day, the militia maintained calm. On the fourth, a thousand rioters crossed the Moshassuck River to attack Snowtown, almost overwhelming the 140 members of the First Light Infantry. After rioters ignored warnings from the sheriff and Gov. Lemuel Arnold, the militia fired first into the air, with no effect, and then into the mob, killing four whites. [Providence Journal article] (next BH, see Oct 30)

Emmett Till

September 21, 1955: Moses Wright, Emmett Till’s great uncle, does the unthinkable–he accused two white men in open court. While on the witness stand, he stands up and points his finger at Milam and Bryant, and accuses them of coming to his house and kidnapping Emmett. (see Till for expanded story)

James Byrd

September 21, 2011: Lawrence Brewer, murderer of James Byrd, Jr, executed. Shawn Berry was sentenced to life in prison. John King remained on death row. (News media report)

Troy Davis

September 21, 2011: the State of Georgia executed Troy Davis despite evidence of his innocence. Davis, a black man, was sentenced to death in the 1989 fatal shooting of white off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. Supporters of Davis, including the NAACP, Amnesty International, former President Jimmy Carter, and Pope Benedict XVI, had been encouraged by a 2009 United States Supreme Court ruling permitting him to present evidence of his innocence in court, but when the federal trial judge denied relief, the Court refused to review the case and an execution date was set. Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles, not the governor, has exclusive authority to grant clemency. Two days before Davis’s scheduled execution, the board held a full clemency hearing, where it heard from Davis’s attorneys and supporters, prosecutors, and the victim’s family. By that time, seven of the prosecution’s nine key witnesses against Davis had either recanted or backed off their trial testimony and others had come forward to give sworn statements that the State’s main witness had himself confessed to the shooting. The evidence undercutting Davis’s guilt was so compelling that three jurors who sentenced him to death at his 1991 trial urged the board to stop the execution. In addition, more than 600,000 people worldwide signed petitions urging the board to commute Davis’s sentence, citing concerns that executing a man amid so much uncertainty about his guilt would deeply undermine the public’s confidence in the justice system. The board denied clemency on September 20, 2011. In his final words, Davis professed his innocence, expressed condolences to Officer MacPhail’s family, and expressed appreciation to his family and supporters. He was executed by lethal injection on September 21, 2011, and pronounced dead at 11:08 p.m. (CNN report) (BH, see Oct 16; DP, see April 25, 2012)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

September 21, 1921: a collector from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now the Internal Revenue Service) assessed $6,312.79 in excise taxes against Drexel, a furniture manufacturing company in North Carolina, for employing a child under fourteen during the 1919 tax year. Drexel paid the tax under protest and sued for a refund. [court case] (Nov 3)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Daughters of Bilitis

September 21, 1955: In San Francisco, the Daughters of Bilitis became the first lesbian rights organization in the US. The organization hosted social functions, providing alternatives to lesbian bars and clubs, which were frequently raided by police.

The name Bilitis is the name given to a lesbian contemporary of Sappho by the French poet Pierre Louÿs in his collection, The Songs of Bilitis (1894). [Rainbow History article] (LGBTQ, see August 30, 1956; Bilitis, see September 7, 1957)

Defense of Marriage Act

September 21, 1996: President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law. The law defined marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman and that no state is required to recognize a same-sex marriage from out of state. It established a Federal definition of: (1) ‘marriage’ as only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife; and (2) ‘spouse’ as only a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife.” [Gov Track article on DOMA] (see February 21, 1997 or see December 13, 2022 for DoMA)

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

September 21, 2010: The US Senate struck down a bill that would end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell with a vote of 56–43, almost completely along party lines. (see Oct 13)

Kentucky

September 21, 2015: gay couples in Kentucky said altered marriage licenses issued by Kim Davis were invalid and a federal judge should order her office to reissue them or put the office in receivership and have someone else do it. When Davis returned to work, she altered the license forms to say they were issued under the authority of the federal court instead of her office.

On this date, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union asked the judge to force the clerk’s office to reissue the licenses. (see Sept 24)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

September 21, 1963: President John Kennedy sent Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Maxwell Taylor to investigate the situation in South Vietnam. He asked for “the best possible on the spot appraisal of the military and paramilitary effort to defeat the Viet Cong”. (see Oct 11)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

September 21 Music et al

“Blue Velvet”

September 21 – October 11, 1963, “Blue Velvet” by Bobby Vinton #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Written in 1950, it had been recorded already by Tony Bennett (1951) and The Clovers (1955).

“Harper Valley, PTA”

September 21 – 27, 1968: “Harper Valley, PTA” by Jeannie C Riley #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAYS

Malta

September 21, 1964: Malta independent from United Kingdom. [InterContinental Malta site] (see ID for expanded list of 1960s Independence days)

Belize

September 21, 1981: Belize independent of the United Kingdom. [Belize dot com article] (see Nov 1)

Armenia

September 21, 1991: Armenia declared independence from the Soviet Union. [LA Times article] (Dissolution, see Oct 27; ID, see Oct 8)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

United Farm Workers

September 21, 1983: Rene Lopez, a 21 year old, farm worker, was fatally wounded after voting in an election at the Sikkema Dairy Ranch. The UFW charged that Lopez was shot by the brother-in-law of owner, Ralph Sikkema and an accomplice, Donato Estrada. David Stirling, the General Counsel to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, dismissed charges on the basis of lack of evidence. [WFW article] (see October 8, 2012)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

September 21, 1998: the Judiciary Committee released and many television networks immediately broadcast more than four hours of President Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony. Along with the videotape, the Judiciary Committee also releases the appendix to the Starr’s report which includes 3,183 pages of testimony and other evidence, including a photograph of Lewinsky’s semen-stained dress. (see Clinton for expanded story)

Native Americans

September 21, 2004: the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) opened with a Native Nations Procession in which over 20,000 indigenous people from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America united and walked along the National Mall to the museum’s entrance. The opening ceremonies lasted from September 21 to 26 with over 300 performances by indigenous representatives. [NMAI article] (next NA, see February 11, 2008)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Hurricane Katrina

September 21, 2005: the official death toll was raised to 1,036, with 63 additional deaths recognized in Louisiana. This marked the first time since 1928 that a natural disaster in the U.S. had been officially acknowledged to have killed at least 1,000 people. State-by-state death tolls: Louisiana 799, Mississippi 218, Florida 14, Alabama 2, Georgia 2, Tennessee 1. (see Katrina for expanded story)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Emissions cheating

September 21, 2015: Volkswagen said that 11 million diesel cars worldwide were equipped with the same software that was used to cheat on emissions tests in the United States. The company issued a de facto profit warning because of the costs of repairing vehicles to comply with pollution standards. [NYT article] (see Oct 1)

Arctic Ocean Melt

September 21, 2023: according to a new scientific study, the first summer on record that melts practically all of the Arctic’s floating sea ice could occur as early as the 2030s, — about a decade sooner than researchers previously predicted.

The peer-reviewed findings also showed that this milestone of climate change could materialize even if nations managed to curb greenhouse gas emissions more decisively than they were currently doing. [NYT article] (next EI, see )

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH & Colin Kaepernick

September 21, 2016

Iman Shumpert

Cleveland Cavaliers player Iman Shumpert announced he would raise money for families impacted by police fatalities

On his Twitter and Instagram accounts, Shumpert announced that, for every steal he makes during the 2016-17 NBA season, he will donate money to organizations that aim to “improve the struggle between the badge and the citizen.” While showing support for Kaepernick, he also noted that he would not be kneeling during the national anthem, despite originally hinting at it in a song he released on Sept. 16 titled “His Story,” saying “I no longer believe taking a knee is the answer.”

WNBA

In the Women’s National Basketball Association, the entire Indiana Fever team and two Phoenix Mercury players knelt during the national anthem

Before the first game of the WNBA playoffs, every player on the Indiana Fever locked arms and kneeled during the national anthem, while the Mercury’s Kelsey Bone and Mistie Bass joined them on the other side. Afterward, Fever coach Stephanie White told her team that she was “proud of y’all for doing that together.” (FS & CK, see Sept 22)

September 21 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

September 21, 2020: an NPR article reported that their reporters had obtained 305 autopsy reports of inmates executed in nine states between 1990 and 2019. Nearly all autopsies were gathered through public records requests; several were taken from public evidence submitted in federal court cases. The states included Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia.

NPR then consulted with pathologists, pulmonologists and anesthesiologists to interpret the autopsies. Lung analysis was based on the internal examination notes written by medical examiners, and, when available, microscopy provided in the reports. Prevalence of pulmonary edema was determined, in consultation with doctors, by the presence of terms such as “pulmonary edema,” “edema/edematous,” “froth,” “foam” and “congestion.”

In the large majority of cases, there was such a presence indicating that the executed likely experienced the feeling of suffocation or drowning. (next DP, see January 13, 2021)