Category Archives: Cultural milestone

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

STUDENT ACTIVISM

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

September 12, 1905: The Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS) began. It was a national non-party group dedicated to the organization of current and former collegians for the socialist cause and the spreading of socialist ideas on campus. [Marxist History dot org article] (see December 2, 1964)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Woonsocket strike

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

September 12, 1934: National Guardsmen fired on “sullen and rebellious” strikers at the Woonsocket (Rhode Island) Rayon plant, killing one and injuring three others. A correspondent said the crowd of about 2,000 “went completely wild with rage.” Word spread, 6,000 more workers arrived at the scene and the city was put under military rule. The governor declared that “there is a Communist uprising and not a textile strike” in the state. [RI History article]  (see April 8, 1935)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Cooper v. Aaron

September 12, 1958:  the Supreme Court asserted the supremacy of the Constitution as the law of the land and the authority of the federal courts to enforce lawful court orders. The case arose from the 1957 conflict over the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the face of opposition from local officials and a pro-segregation mob.

Important as it was in terms of constitutional law, Cooper v. Aaron did not end the school integration crisis in Little Rock. The decision applied only to orders from the lower courts. In the summer of 1958, segregationists who controlled the Little Rock school board voted to close the schools rather than integrate them. Thus, in what is known as “the lost year,” the city’s public schools were closed for the 1958–1959 academic year. They reopened in the fall of 1959 after citizens and business leaders, concerned about the impact of closed public schools on the city’s future, captured control of the school board and reopened the schools. (additional info via PBS) (BH, see Sept 20; SD, see Sept 27)

Albany Movement

September 12, 1962: Martin Luther King Jr. decried the pace of civil rights progress in the United States. He also said that “no President can be great, or even fit for office, if he attempts to accommodate injustice to maintain his political balance.” (BH, see Sept 13; see Albany for expanded story)

Birmingham West End High School

September 12, 1963: white students in Birmingham, Alabama, drag an African American effigy past West End High School. Two African American girls attended the desegregated school and a majority of the white students were staying away from classes. Police stopped this car in a segregationist caravan in front of the school to caution them about fast driving and blowing auto horns in front of a school. [Alabama dot com article] (BH, see Sept 15; SD, see Oct 22)

Grenada, Mississippi

Twelve years after the United States Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling holding school segregation unconstitutional, the city of Grenada, Mississippi, continued to operate a segregated school system. In August of 1966, a federal judge ordered that African American students be permitted to enroll in the formerly whites-only schools. Approximately 450 African American students enrolled prior to the scheduled start of the school year on September 2, 1966.

On September 2, the school district postponed the start of school by ten days. White leaders used that time to attempt to coerce African American parents into withdrawing their children from the white schools by threatening them with firing or eviction; as a result, 200 students withdrew.

On September 12, 1966, the Grenada schools opened, and 250 African American students attempted to integrate the schools. A large white mob surrounded the school and turned away most of the African American students. As the students retreated, members of the mob pursued them through the streets, beating them with chains, pipes, and clubs. At lunchtime, the mob returned to the school to attack the few African American students who had successfully entered. As the students left for lunch, members of the mob attacked them, leaving some hospitalized with broken bones. Reporters covering the story were also beaten.

The mob violence continued for several days, with no intervention from law enforcement. On September 16, a federal judge ordered protection for the students, and on September 17, thirteen members of the mob were arrested by the FBI. [Black Then article]  (BH, see Oct 15; SD, see May 27, 1968)

Boston

September 12, 1974: in Boston, opposition to court-ordered school busing turned violent on the opening day of classes. School buses carrying African-American children were pelted with eggs, bricks and bottles, and police in combat gear fought to control angry white protesters besieging the schools. The protests continued, and many parents, black and white, kept their children at home. In October, the National Guard was mobilized to enforce the federal desegregation order. [WBUR article] (BH, see Oct 3; SD, see February 6, 1986)

Steven Biko

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

September 12, 1977: Steve Biko died while in police custody. Police had driven him naked in a truck 700 miles to Pretoria where he died in a prison cell. (see Peter Gabriel – “Biko” (1980) [Overcoming Apartheid article] (SA/A, see March 28, 1982; Biko, see January 28, 1997)

BLACK & SHOT/Freddie Gray

September 12, 2017: the Justice Department announced that six Baltimore police officers would face no federal charges in the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died of a severe spinal cord injury while in custody.

“After an extensive review of this tragic event, conducted by career prosecutors and investigators, the Justice Department concluded that the evidence is insufficient,” the department said in a statement, adding that it was unable to prove the officers “willfully violated Gray’s civil rights.”

The closure of the criminal civil rights investigation into Mr. Gray’s death, which prompted unrest in Baltimore, a predominantly black city, and a federal examination of its police department’s practices, means that no officers will be held criminally responsible in his death. [NYT article]  (next B & S, see March 19, 2024)

BLACK & SHOT/Tyre Nichols

September 12, 2023: the Justice Department announced indictments of the former Memphis police officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith– accused of brutally beating Tyre Nichols on federal criminal charges in connection with Nichols’s death.

The four charges, handed up by a grand jury in the Federal District Court in Memphis, accuse each of the five men of various civil rights, conspiracy and obstruction offenses.

They faced two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, as the grand jury found that on January 7, 2023 the officers had unlawfully assaulted Nichols, refused to intervene, and had failed to provide medical aid or tell medical responders about his injuries. The indictment said  that the two offenses led to Nichols’s severe injuries and death. [NYT article] (next B & S, see ; next Nichols, see )

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

September 12, 1962: President Kennedy gave a speech at Rice University, future home of the Manned Spacecraft Center (which later will be renamed Johnson Space Center)

In it he famously stated:  We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. [text of entire speech](see Dec 13)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

September 12 Music et al

The Beatles

September 12, 1965: an August 14 taped performance broadcast on  “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Taped before a live studio audience at Studio 50 in NY. The Beatles perform: 1) I Feel Fine 2) I’m Down 3) Act Naturally 4) Ticket to Ride 5) Yesterday 6) Help! (see Sept 13)

see The Monkees for more

September 12, 1966: the made-for-TV show band, The Monkees, premiered on NBC. (see Oct 10)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Maude

September 12, 1972:  Maude, a spin-off of All in the Family, premiered, starring Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, a leftist feminist who supports abortion and civil rights. (next Feminism see Oct 25)

Malala Yousafzai

September 12, 2014: the Pakistani army announced that 10 Taliban militants who tried to kill teenage activist Malala Yousufzai for her outspoken views on girls’ education in the country’s troubled northwest in 2012 had been arrested. [USA Today article] (see Oct 10)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Hurricane Katrina

September 12, 2005: in the wake of what was widely believed to be incompetent handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by state, local and federal officials, FEMA director, Michael Brown, resigned, saying that it was “in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the president.” His standing had also been damaged when the Boston Herald revealed his meager experience in disaster management before joining FEMA. (see Katrina for expanded story)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

September 12, 2011:  Macoule nuclear site (France). One person is killed and four are injured – one with serious burns – after an explosion in a furnace used to melt down nuclear waste and recycle it for energy. No radiation leaks nor damage to the plant were detected. [Reuters article] (see January 30, 2012)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Terry Jones

September 12, 2013:  after being arrested on September 11, Terry Jones was released from the Polk County Jail after posting a $1,250 bond. (see Oct 15)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

 FREE SPEECH & Colin Kaepernick

September 12, 2016: Eric Reid knelt alongside Colin Kaepernick. 49ers teammates and Rams players raise their fists

Kaepernick maintained his protest, and was joined by several players set to take the field before Monday Night Football. As expected, safety Eric Reid knelt next to the quarterback during the national anthem, just as he did during the last week of the preseason. 49ers linebacker Eli Harold and safety Antoine Bethea stood, but with their fists raised in the air.

The 49ers players were joined by their opponents. Rams defensive end Robert Quinn (No. 94) and wide receiver Kenny Britt (No. 18) also stood with their fists in the air.  [USA Today article] (FS & CK, see Sept 16)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

September 12, 2016: responding to a contentious North Carolina law that curbed anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, the N.C.A.A announced that it would relocate all championship tournament games scheduled to take place in the state over the coming academic year. Among the events affected was the Division I men’s basketball tournament, the N.C.A.A.’s most prominent annual event, which had six first- and second-round games scheduled to be played in Greensboro in March.

The announcement followed the N.B.A.’s decision in July to move its 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte but was seen as a particularly substantial blow to officials in North Carolina, where college basketball is central to the state’s culture and pride. North Carolina had hosted more men’s basketball tournament games than any other state, an N.C.A.A. spokesman said. [NYT article] (LGBTQ & NC, see Sept 14)

NYC/Conversion therapy

September 12, 2019: nearly two years ago, the New York City Council passed a far-reaching ban on conversion therapy, a discredited practice to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

On this date, Corey Johnson, the Council speaker, who is gay, said the Council would act swiftly to repeal the ban.

The move was a gambit designed to neutralize a federal lawsuit filed against the city by a conservative Christian legal organization; if the case were to be heard by the Supreme Court, advocates for the L.G.B.T. community fear that the panel could issue a ruling that could severely damage attempts to ban or curtail conversion therapy. [NYT article] (next LGBTQ, see January 21, 2020)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

September 12, 2017: the Supreme Court agreed with the Trump administration and put on hold the September 7 lower-court decision that would have allowed more refugees to enter the country.

The court issued a one-paragraph statement granting the administration’s request for a stay. There were no recorded dissents to the decision. [Washington Post article] (see Sept 14)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Marijuana

September 12, 2018: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. asked a court to scrap 3,042 warrants for people who missed court dates and to toss out the cases themselves. He had recently decided to stop prosecuting many minor pot possession cases and argued it made sense to spare people potential arrests in old ones.

The cases included misdemeanor and violation-level pot possession cases that had sat open for as long as 40 years. [Eagle article] (see Sept 13)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

September 12, 2018: Pope Francis announced that he had summoned bishops from around the world to Rome for an unprecedented meeting focused on protecting minors.

It would be the first global gathering of church leaders to discuss the crisis. [Washington Post article] (next SAoC, see Oct 12; gathering, see February 21, 2019)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

September 12, 2019: the Trump administration completed the legal repeal of a major Obama-era clean water regulation, which had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands and water bodies.

The rollback of the 2015 measure, known as the Waters of the United States rule, had been widely expected since the early days of the Trump administration, when President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to begin the work of repealing and replacing it. [NYT article] (see Sept 17)

September 12 Peace Love Art Activism

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Lattimer Mines massacre

September 10, 1897: in Pennsylvania, Polish, Lithuanian and Slovak miners are gunned down by the Lattimer Mine’s sheriff deputies—19 dead, more than 50 wounded—during a peaceful march from Hazelton to Lattimer. Some 3,000 were marching for collective bargaining and civil liberty. The shooters were tried for murder but the jury failed to convict . [PSU article] (see Sept 11)

Chicago teacher strike

September 10, 2012: the Chicago teachers union strike the nation’s third largest school system. [Mother Jones article] (see Sept 18)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Emma Goldman

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

September 10, 1901: a warrant was issued for Goldman’s arrest in connection with the (then) assassination attempt. Goldman gave herself up and was subjected to intensive interrogation. Though initially denied, bail was set at $20,000. She was never officially charged with a crime. (see Goldman for expanded story)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

September 10, 1915: William Sanger convicted re birth control literature. (from the NYT) Turbulent scenes followed the conviction…in Special Sessions of William Sanger, artist and architect, of having violated the Criminal Code in giving away a single copy of “Family Limitation,” a pamphlet on birth control written by Margaret Sanger, his wife. He spent 30 days in jail. (see March 1, 1916)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

School desegregation

September 10, 1963: in January 1963, African American parents of students in Macon County, Alabama, sued the Macon County Board of Education to desegregate the county’s public schools. Though the United States Supreme Court had declared school segregation unconstitutional nearly nine years earlier, the board had taken no steps integrate local schools. In August 1963, Federal District Judge Frank Johnson ordered the school board to begin integration immediately.

The school board selected 13 African American students to integrate Tuskegee High School that fall. On September 2, 1963, the scheduled first day of integrated classes, Alabama Governor George Wallace had ordered the school closed due to “safety concerns.” The school reopened a week later, and on September 10, 1963, the second day of classes, white students began to withdraw. Within a week, all 275 white students had left the school.

Most fleeing white students enrolled at Macon Academy, a newly formed, all-white private school. In support of the school and its efforts to sidestep federal law to maintain school segregation, Governor Wallace and the school board approved the use of state funds to provide white students abandoning the public school system with scholarships to attend Macon Academy. Meanwhile, the Macon County School Board ordered Tuskegee High School closed due to low enrollment and split its remaining African American students among all-white high schools in Notasulga and Shorter, Alabama. White students in those high schools boycotted for several days and many eventually transferred to Macon Academy.

Macon-East Academy, the school relocated near Montgomery, Alabama, in 1995, and today (2015) operates as one of several private schools in the Alabama Black Belt with origins rooted in resistance to integration. As of the 2007 – 2008 school year, Macon-East Academy’s student population of more than 400 was 98% white and less than 1% African American. [NYT article] (see Sept 12)

Earle Race Riot of 1970

September 10, 1970: a group of whites armed with clubs, guns, and other weapons attacked a group of unarmed African-Americans marching to Earle County (Arkansas) city hall to protest segregated conditions in the town’s school system. Five black residents were injured, including two women who were shot, and one was in serious condition but survived.

Over 30 protesters from the ages of 13 to 20 were arrested, all of whom were students except two. Police charged the protesters with marching without a permit. [Black Then article] (next BH, see Sept 24)

BLACK & SHOT

September 10, 2014: Darrien Hunt was shot seven times by Saratoga Springs, Utah, police who were investigating reports of a man with a sword on at a shopping center. Hunt’s family said the sword was a replica. Police said Hunt refused to give up his sword and then started swinging it at them. An autopsy report determined that Hunt was shot seven times by officers, including several times in the back as he fled from police. The Hunt family’s attorney, Bob Sykes, disputed assertions from cops that the 22-year-old acted aggressively. “I think it’s a whitewash. I think it’s an exaggeration,” Sykes said. “I think they ignored good hard evidence to the contrary.” [NY Daily News story] (see Oct 20)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

September 10, 1945: the opening argument by Vashti McCollum’s attorney, Landon Chapman, suggested the program was sectarian and social pressure from students and teachers was used to get all students to participate. Defense attorney John Franklin indicated similar programs existed in 46 states and 80 Illinois communities.

The Baptist Joint Committee submitted an amicus brief in support of McCollum, saying, “We must not allow our religious fervor to blind us to the essential fact that no religious faith is secure when it meshes its authority with that of the state.” [NYT obit for McCollum] (see January 26, 1946)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

September 10, 1963: a New York state court ruled on this day that “trashy” novels “have a place in our society,” and deserved the same constitutional protection as recognized literary classics.

The judge dismissed obscenity charges against three book distributors and their executives charged with selling obscene publications. He agreed that the 25 books in question were “poor writings, bad in taste, profane, offensive, disgusting and plain unvarnished trash.” Nonetheless, he ruled, they are entitled to First Amendment protection. [Today In Civil Liberties article] (see January 6, 1964)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

September 10 Music et al

You Can’t Hurry Love

September 10, 1966, the Supremes’ ”You Can’t Hurry Love” is Billboard #1 single.

Revolver

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

September 10 – October 21, 1966:  Revolver became Billboard’s #1 album. Released in the US on August 8, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote: All the rules fell by the wayside with Revolver, as the Beatles began exploring new sonic territory, lyrical subjects, and styles of composition. It wasn’t just Lennon and McCartney, either — Harrison staked out his own dark territory with the tightly wound, cynical rocker “Taxman”; the jaunty yet dissonant “I Want to Tell You”; and “Love You To,” George‘s first and best foray into Indian music. Such explorations were bold, yet they were eclipsed by Lennon‘s trippy kaleidoscopes of sound.

Side 1

  • “Taxman” (George Harrison)
  • “Eleanor Rigby”
  • “Love You To” (Harrison)
  • “Here, There and Everywhere”
  • “Yellow Submarine”
  • “She Said She Said”

 Side 2

  • “Good Day Sunshine”
  • “For No One”
  • “I Want to Tell You” (Harrison)
  • “Got to Get You into My Life”
  • “Tomorrow Never Knows”

From Rolling Stone magazine: Revolver signaled that in popular music, anything – any theme, any musical idea – could now be realized. And, in the case of the Beatles, would be. (see Sept 26)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & Cultural Milestone

September 10, 1967:  the second season of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Show begins with Pete Seeger appearing for the first time in 17 years since his 1950s blacklisting. He sang Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, but CBS dropped the performance when Seeger refused to edit the obviously anti-Viet Nam sentiments the old song presented. (CM, see Sept 17; Seeger, see February 25, 1968; Vietnam, see Sept 27)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of the USSR

September 10, 1989:  thousands of East Germans cross the Austria-Hungary frontier after Budapest waived border restrictions amid the largest legal exodus from eastern Europe since 1945.Video on East German exodus  (see USSR for expanded chronology)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

September 10, 2008:  a judge ordered that New York City and the NYPD  turn over all UF-250 (stop-and-frisk) data for the past 10 years.

By December 2008, 531,159 police had stopped New Yorkers. 271,602 were black (51 percent); 167,111 were Latino (32 percent); 57,407 were white (11 percent) (see May 1, 2009)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Alan Turing

September 10, 2009: British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the way in which Turing was treated after the war. The statement read, in part: Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time, and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair, and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted, as he was convicted, under homophobic laws, were treated terribly. full statement[] (Turing, see December, 2011; LGBTQ, see Oct 28)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Terry Jones

September 10, 2010:  Jones told NBC’s “Today” show that he will cancel Koran burning if he could meet with Rauf. Rauf insists no meeting has been planned with Jones and that he is committed to meeting with anyone “seriously committed to pursuing peace.” [Reuters article] (see Sept 11)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Native Americans & Voting Rights

September 10, 2015: Alaska agreed to provide increased language assistance for voters who speak Yup’ik and Gwich’in. Natalie Landreth with the Native American Rights Fund said: “The choices that were made in the settlement open the door for Alaska Native access to the polls in a way that we have not seen before.”

Landreth said that the centerpiece of the settlement was translating the state’s official election pamphlet into Gwich’in and up to six different dialects of Yup’ik.

The pamphlet contains pre-election information on how to vote, biographical information on candidates and ballot measures. [Alaska Public article] (NA, see August 1, 2016; voting suit, see August 16 2016)

Native Americans & Environmental Issues

September 10, 2016:  the federal government ordered work to stop on one segment of the project in North Dakota and asked the Texas-based company building it to “voluntarily pause” action on a wider span that an American Indian tribe says holds sacred artifacts.

The government’s order came minutes after a judge had rejected a request by the Standing Rock Sioux to halt construction of the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline.

The tribe, whose cause drew thousands to join their protest, had challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for the pipeline at more than 200 water crossings. Tribal leaders alleged that the project violated several federal laws and wouldharm water supplies. The tribe also said ancient sites had been disturbed during construction. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article] (NA, & EI, see Dec 4)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Unaccompanied alien children

September 10, 2019:  the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG)’s new report found the Trump administration’s policy changes in 2018 exacerbated the mental health needs of “unaccompanied alien children” in their custody. The unaccompanied alien children in this study were overwhelmingly asylum seekers from Central America.

The OIG found two particular policies — separating children from their parents and prolonging the time children are in custody — were especially harmful to the children’s mental health. (see Sept 11)

Census 2020

September 10, 2020:  a special three-judge court in New York blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to make an unprecedented change to who is included in the census numbers that determine each state’s share of seats in Congress.

The president, the court concluded, cannot leave unauthorized immigrants out of that specific count.

The decision comes after the July release of a memorandum by President Trump that directs Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the U.S. Census Bureau, to provide Trump with information needed to exclude immigrants who are living in the United States without authorization from the apportionment count.

The panel of judges — including U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Wesley, Circuit Judge Peter Hall and District Judge Jesse Furman — noted the president does have some direction over the census and how the results of the count are used for reapportionment. But that authority, which is delegated from Congress, is limited.

A “tabulation of total population” is what the commerce secretary is directed to report to the president from the once-a-decade census, under Title 13 of the U.S. Code. According to Title 2, the president, in turn, is supposed to hand off to Congress “a statement showing the whole number of persons in each State.” [NPR article] (next IH, see Oct 1; next Census, see Sept 25)

September 10 Peace Love Art Activism

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Avondale Mine disaster

September 6, 1869: one of the worst disasters in the history of U.S. anthracite mining occurred at the Avondale Mine, near Scranton, Pa., when a fire originating from a furnace at the bottom of a 237-foot shaft roared up the shaft, killing 110 miners. (see Dec 28)

National textile strike of 1934

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

September 6, 1934: strikebreakers and special deputies opened fire on the 300 textile workers picketing the Chiquola Mill in Honea Path, South Carolina, killing six people and wounding dozens of others; a seventh man died the next day from his wounds. The national textile strike of 1934 saw nearly half a million textile workers from New England, the Mid Atlantic, and the South walk off the job to demand better wages and working conditions. (see Sept 12)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism in the US

September 6, 1901: Leon Czolgosz, a Polish citizen associated with the Anarchist movement  shot President William McKinley twice in the stomach while McKinley was attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley had been greeting the public in a receiving line. Czolgosz later confessed to the crime, signing a statement saying that the last public speaker he had heard was Emma Goldman, but added she had never told him to kill the president. (Biography article) (see Sept 10, 1901)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

September 6, 1916: Clarence Saunders opened the first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, in Memphis, Tenn. [Piggly Wiggly site] (see October 28, 1919)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

12 Prisoners suffocated

September 6, 1913: twelve Black men held at a prison farm in Richmond, Texas, were placed in an underground cell as punishment for not picking cotton fast enough. Eight of those men died of asphyxiation. The cell was nine feet long, seven feet wide, and seven feet high, and temperatures outside neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The only ventilation in the cell came from four small holes connected to pipes in the ceiling that were “just large enough to admit a quarter.” The next day, inspectors found that one of the holes had been plugged. [EJI story] (next BH, see March 31, 1914)

Emmett Till

September 6, 1955: Emmett Till was buried at Burr Oak Cemetery. The same day, a grand jury in Mississippi indicted Milam and Bryant for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. They both plead innocent. They will be held in jail until the start of the trial.  (see Emmett Till)

Mississippi Southern College

September 6, 1965: after previous failed attempts, Clyde Kennard, Raylawn Young Branch, and Elaine Armstrong became the first African-American students enrolled at Mississippi Southern College (now University of Southern Mississippi). Branch had served as Forrest County NAACP secretary and as an active member of SNCC, CORE and SCLC. [more on Clyde Kennard] (see Sept 8)

Atlanta revolt

September 6, 1966: 4 days of rioting in Atlanta, GA. Authorities blamed without evidence SNCC and its leader Stockley Carmichael. (BH, see Sept 12; RR, see June 2, 1967)

Equal Justice Initiative

September 6, 2010: in September 2010, lawyers at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a nonprofit civil rights law firm in Montgomery, Alabama, mailed a copy of Slavery by Another Name to client Mark Melvin, then incarcerated at Kilby Correctional Facility. Written by award-winning journalist Douglas Blackmon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book documents the little known history of convict leasing in Alabama in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the book’s title suggests, the exploitative and inhumane convict leasing system strongly resembled slavery. Under the pretext of criminal punishment, African Americans arrested on frivolous charges were sold to plantations, turpentine farms, mining companies, and railroads and forced to work in perilous conditions to pay off “debt” accumulated from unjust court costs and fines.

Deciding that the book’s title was “too provocative,” Kilby prison officials prohibited Mark Melvin from receiving Slavery by Another Name when it arrived in the mail. When Melvin used the internal grievance process to appeal the book’s banning, prison officials defended their decision and insisted the book was properly banned under a rule prohibiting material that incites “violence based on race, religion, sex, creed, or nationality, or disobedience toward law enforcement officials or correctional staff.” Alabama prison officials had previously limited prisoners’ access to portrayals of Southern racial history; in the early 2000s, wardens in some Alabama prisons prohibited prisoners from watching a re-broadcast of the Roots miniseries.

In September 2011, represented by EJI lawyers, Mark Melvin sued the Alabama Department of Corrections to be able to read Slavery By Another Name. The civil litigation was settled in February 2013, when state officials finally agreed to allow prisoners to read the book.  [EJI site] (see Nov 15)

BLACK & SHOT

September 6, 2018: Dallas police officer Amber Guyger fatally shot Botham Shem Jean, a neighbor inside his apartment. Police said that Guyger claimed that she mistook his apartment for her own and believed he was an intruder.

After completing her shift, Guyger, still in her uniform, went to her apartment building across the street from the Dallas Police Department’s headquarters, but she  did not go to her own unit and instead tried to enter the residence of Jean.

She then shot him, the authorities said. (B & S and BSJ, see Sept 9)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

September 6, 1966: Margaret Sanger, the most famous advocate of birth control in American history, died on this day at age 86. She opened the first birth control clinic in the US, on October 16, 1916, and was arrested for doing so a week later, along with her sister. She rejected a plea bargain and served one month in jail. Sanger’s career as a birth control advocate was filled with many dramatic events in addition to her arrest and jailing. Her magazine, Woman Rebel, was banned from the mails.  After her release from jail in 1917, she produced a short film, Birth Control, which had one private showing on May 16, 1917, after which it was banned. No print is known to survive. She was prevented from speaking on a number of occasions. Sanger’s organization, the American Birth Control League, evolved into today’s Planned Parenthood Federation. (NYT obit) (next WH, see April 6, 1967; Sanger, see July 21, 2020)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

September 6, 1968: Swaziland independent from United Kingdom. [2018 Guardian article on name change] (see IDs for full list of 1960s Independence days)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

September 6 Music et al

Midwest Pop

September 6, 1969: First Annual Midwest Mini-Pop Festival, (Cleveland Zoo) (see Midwest for more))

Jimi Hendrix

September 6, 1970: Hendrix played at the Love and Peace Festival on the Isle of Fehmarn in Germany. He was supposed to play the day before but couldn’t because of bad weather. The festival was not very successful financially and many of the scheduled bands didn’t perform. Hendrix decided to stick around. He had been paid in advance. There were only about 10,000 people that saw him perform. They did not realize that they were watching history being made. It was the last concert Jimi would ever play. (see JH for more)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

September 6, 1978: US scientists announced the production of human-type insulin by a strain of E. coli bacteria, that had been genetically engineered after months of creative use of gene-splicing techniques. The work was a joint effort by research teams in California at the biochemical firm, Genentech Inc, San Francisco and the City of Hope National Medical Center, Los Angeles. A normal body’s production of insulin takes place within cells of the pancreas, programmed by certain genes (segments of DNA). The scientists synthesized copies of these genes and inserted them into a weakened lab strain of the intestinal microbe Escherichia coli. In 1982, insulin was the first recombinant DNA drug to be marketed, Humulin by Eli Lilly & Co [Gene dot com article] (see July 2, 1979)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

September 6, 1988: Administrative law judge Francis Young was asked by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1988 to comment on the merits of rescheduling marijuana in response to NORML’s 1972 petition. Young suggested that marijuana be rescheduled from schedule I to schedule II for nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy. He also concluded that the evidence was insufficient to warrant the use of crude marijuana for glaucoma or pain. (next Cannabis, see December 30, 1989 or see CCC for expanded chronology)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

September 6, 2005: the California legislature became the first state legislature to pass a freedom to marry bill. The landmark bill was vetoed soon after passage by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Two years later, the legislature again passed a marriage bill, and again, it was vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger.  [Washington Post article] (California, see May 15, 2008; LGBTQ, see Oct 1, 2005)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Terry Jones

September 6, 2010:  an Afghan imam in Kabul convened a demonstration in which protesters burn an effigy of Jones and chant “Death to America.” (see Sept 7)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

September 6, 2011: a day after being stopped and detained by the NYPD, City Councilman Jumaane Williams and others urge for reforms to the stop-and-frisk policy. (see Oct 19)

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

September 6, 2023: the Biden administration announced that it would prohibit drilling in 13 million acres of pristine wilderness in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and cancel all drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The new regulations would ensure what the administration called “maximum protections” for nearly half of the petroleum reserve but would not stop the enormous $8 billion Willow oil drilling project in the same vicinity, which President Biden approved this year. [NYT article]

Hottest Summer on Record

September 6, 2023: according to data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2023’s June to August was the planet’s warmest such period since records began in 1940,.

The global average temperature for the summer was 16.77 degrees Celsius (62.19 Fahrenheit), according to Copernicus, which was 0.66 degrees Celsius above the 1990 to 2020 average – beating the previous record, set in August 2019, by nearly 0.3 degrees Celsius.

Typically these records, which track the average air temperature across the entire world, were broken by hundredths of a degree. [CNN article] (next EI, see Oct 11 )

September 6 Peace Love Art Activism