February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Eli Pigot lynched

February 10, 1908: a mob of more than 2,000 white people in Brookhaven, Mississippi  lynched Eli Pigot, a black man, accused of assaulting a white woman.

According to news reports, police deputies and armed military guards transported Pigot from Jackson to Brookhaven to stand trial. Upon arrival in Brookhaven, the lynch mob briefly scuffled with the military guards before seizing him, kicking and beating him, and then hanging him from a telephone pole less than a hundred yards from the Lincoln County Courthouse. The mob then riddled Mr. Pigot’s corpse with bullets as it swung from the pole. [EJI article] (next BH, see Mar 27; next Lynching, see Aug 14; for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Montgomery Bus Boycott

February 10, 1956; eleven thousand people attending a Citizens’ Council rally in Montgomery cheer Mayor Gayle and Police Commissioner Sellers for their support of segregation on Montgomery buses. (see MBB for expanded chronology)

Civil Rights Bill of 1964

February 10, 1964: the House of Representatives passed the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 by a vote of 290 to 130. (see Feb 15)

Nelson Mandela

February 10, 1985: South Africa’s president, P. W. Botha, offered to free Mr. Mandela if he renounced violence. Mr. Mandela refuses, saying the government must first dismantle apartheid. (SA/A, see Mar 21; Mandela, see December 7, 1988)

Michael Griffith murder

February 10, 1987: authorities charged the three white teen-agers from Queens (Jon Lester, Scott Kern and Jason Ladone) with murder and charged nine others  with lesser crimes in the second attempt by authorities to identify and prosecute participants in the Howard Beach racial attack of Michael Griffith and others.

Their original indictments had been dismissed after the witnesses refused to cooperate in the case. (BH, see Feb 20; Howard Beach, see Dec 21)

Ron Brown

February 10, 1989: Ron Brown elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major US political party. (see July 31)

Barack Obama

February 10, 2007:Barack Obama declared his candidacy for President.

Stop and Frisk Policy

February 10, 2012: Brooklyn area state legislators introduced legislation that would establish an NYPD independent inspector general position. The call for such a move came from NYPD surveillance of the Muslim community and stop-and-frisk. (NYCLU report 2002 – 2016 that points out that nine out of 10 stopped and frisked New Yorkers had been found completely innocent) (see Feb 14)

Lynching in America

February 10, 2015: The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) released Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror, which documented EJI’s multi-year investigation into lynching in twelve Southern states during the period between Reconstruction and World War II. EJI researchers documented 3959 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950 – at least 700 more lynchings of black people in those states than previously reported in the most comprehensive work done on lynching to date. (EJI pdf of report) (next, BH, see Mar 3; next Lynching, see November 22, 2021; for expanded chronology of lynching, see also AL4)

Church Burning

February 10, 2020: CBS News reported that Holden Matthews, the sheriff’s deputy’s son who was arrested in a series of fires set at African American churches in Louisiana in the spring of 2019 pleaded guilty to four federal criminal counts. Matthews, 22, admitted he set the fires to raise his profile as an aspiring “black metal” musician, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

The statement from federal prosecutors said that Matthews pleaded guilty to three counts of intentional damage to religious property, a federal hate crime carrying a possible 20-year sentence per count. He also pleaded to one count of using fire to commit a felony, which has a possible 10-year sentence. He entered the pleas in federal court in Lafayette. Three churches were burned in a span of 10 days, beginning in late March 2019, in an area roughly 140 miles west of New Orleans in St. Landry Parish. (next BH, see June 3; next CB & Matthews, see Nov 2)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Akron rubber strike

February 10, 1914: rubber workers belonging to the Industrial Workers of the World went on strike in Akron, Ohio. The rubber companies broke the strike through heavy-handed tactics, including the organization of a Citizens’ Police Association, comprising 1,000 vigilantes, and institution of martial law. (see Feb 13)

Carpenters shot and killed

February 10, 1963:  eleven members of the Carpenters’ union in Reesor Siding, Northern Ontario are shot, three fatally, by independent local farmer-settlers who were supplying wood to a Spruce Falls Power and Paper Co. plant. Some 400 union members were attempting to block an outbound shipment from the plant. The action came as the company was insisting on a pay freeze and two months of seven-day-a-week work. (see Apr 1)

Staten Island gas explosion

February 10, 1973: a storage tank filled with liquefied gas on Staten Island, NY exploded and killed forty workers. (NYT article) (see May 30)

United Farm Workers

February 10, 1979: 22 days into a bitter vegetable strike, United Farm Workers member, Rufino Contreras, 28, and half a dozen fellow strikers walked into an Imperial Valley lettuce field owned by Mario Saikhon to talk with a crew of imported scabs. Three armed company foremen opened up with a vicious crossfire. Rufino fell face down in a muddy row, shot in the face. His father Lorenzo, brother Jose Luis, and other Saikhon strikers tried to aid Rufino, but they were kept away for more than an hour by continuing gunfire from the foremen. Finally, sheriff’s deputies arrived and called an ambulance. Rufino died in the hospital. in Imperial Valley; moratorium called for 25 days on strike (see Mar 8)

Feminism

Voting Rights

February 10, 1919: U.S. Senate defeated federal woman suffrage amendment by one vote, 33 nays to 63 yeas. (see Feb 15)

The Red Scare

February 10, 1944: the MGM movies released Song of Russia. The plot of the fictional movie is an account of an American Conductor John Meredith (Robert Taylor) and his manager, Hank Higgins (Robert Benchley). They go to Russia shortly before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Meredith falls in love with beautiful Soviet pianist Nadya Stepanova (Susan Peters). They travel throughout the country on a 40-city tour. Along the way, they see happy, healthy, smiling, free Soviet citizens, blissfully living the Communist dream. This bliss is destroyed by the German invasion. (Song of Russia, see October 20, 1947)

Religion and Public Education

In 1945: in the postwar era, Americans flock to church in record numbers, swelling the growth of traditional denominations — Methodists, Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Lutherans and Presbyterians. Church building booms; Bible sales skyrocket. Amid the prosperity, the United States and the Soviet Union face off in the Cold War, a spiritual struggle that pits Christian America against “godless communism.” (Religion, see July 1945; CW, see Feb 4)

James B. Donovan

 

February 10, 1962:  after James B. Donovan negotiated the exchange, U2 pilot Gary Powers and  American student Frederic Pryor were exchanged for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher, who had been jailed as a Soviet spy. Ironically, Donovan had been Fisher’s defense lawyer. (see Feb 16)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

February 10, 1947:  the US Supreme Court ruled in the case of Everson v. Board of Education, Township of Ewing that New Jersey’s law subsidizing the transportation of students to Catholic schools on public buses was not a violation of the establishment clause. The Court argued that transportation, like police and fire protection, appropriately advances the public welfare, and that the child, not the religious school, was the primary beneficiary of the aid. Therefore the state’s practice does not violate the First Amendment. (see June 2)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

February 10 Music et al

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

February 10 – April 6, 1962: soundtrack from Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the Billboard #1 stereo album.

The Beatles

February 10, 1967: Beatles finished the recording of ‘A Day In The Life’ with one of the most famous chords in rock music. The Beatles had originally recorded an ending of their voices humming the chord, but even after multiple overdubs, it wasn’t what they wanted.

To achieve the sound they wanted, all four Beatles and their road manager, Mal Evans, played an E Major chord on 3 separate pianos. They let the chord ring out for as long as possible while producer George Martin had to keep turning up the volume of the mics to capture the sound. If you listen closely on a good stereo, you can hear the sound of studio noises at the end. (see March 18 – 24)

Love Is Blue

February 10 – March 15, 1968: “Love Is Blue” by Paul Mauriat #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The first instrumental to hit number 1 on the Billboard charts since the Tornados hit with “Telstar” in 1962 and the only American number-one single to be recorded in France.

John Lennon

February 10, 1986: release of Live in New York City, John Lennon’s last full-length concert performance. (see January 20, 1988)

Road to Woodstock

February 10, 1969: Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld met with John Roberts and Joel Rosenman the second time. The idea of a concert to promote the proposed recording studio was discussed. (see Road for expanded story)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Qui Nhon

February 10, 1965: Viet Cong guerrillas blew up the U.S. barracks at Qui Nhon, 75 miles east of Pleiku on the central coast, with a 100-pound explosive charge under the building. The blast killed 23 U.S. personnel and two Viet Cong. In response to the attack, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a retaliatory air strike operation on North Vietnam called Flaming Dart II. (see Feb 13)

DRAFT CARD BURNING

February 10, 1966: David Miller was convicted of burning his draft card. (also see David Miller) (Vietnam, see Mar 5 – Apr 8; DCB, see Mar 31)

Nuclear Option

February 10, 1968:   General Westmoreland had activated a secret operation, code-named Fracture Jaw, that included moving nuclear weapons into South Vietnam so that they could be used on short notice against North Vietnamese troops.

On this date, President Lyndon B. Johnson forcefully overruled the activation.

According to Tom Johnson, then a young special assistant to the president and note-taker at the meetings on the issue,  “When he learned that the planning had been set in motion, he was extraordinarily upset and forcefully sent word through Rostow [Walt W. Rostow, the White House national security adviser], …to Westmoreland, to shut it down,” Johnson said in an interview.

Johnson said the president’s fear was “a wider war” in which the Chinese would enter the fray, as they had in Korea in 1950.  (see Feb 13)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

Unsafe at Any Speed

February 10, 1966: Ralph Nader, a young lawyer and the author of the groundbreaking book “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile,” testified before Congress for the first time about unsafe practices in the auto industry. By the mid-1960s, U.S. automakers were still largely unregulated. Nader’s book, which was published in November 1965, accused car companies of designing vehicles with an emphasis on style and power at the expense of consumer safety. One chapter of “Unsafe at Any Speed” focused on handling problems with the Chevrolet Corvair, a car produced by auto giant General Motors (GM).

Shortly after Nader’s congressional testimony, the news media reported that Nader had been followed by detectives. It was later determined that starting in early February 1966, GM sent investigators to spy on Nader and look into his personal life in an effort to discredit him. Nader sued GM for harassment and invasion of privacy and won a settlement. The publicity surrounding GM’s actions helped make “Unsafe at Any Speed” a best-seller and turn Ralph Nader a household name. (NYT 50th anniversary article) (see June 24)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

25th Amendment

February 10, 1967: the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution (presidential succession and disability) ratified.

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 10, 1998: Monica Lewinsky’s mother, Marcia Lewis, appeared before the grand jury. Ken Starr and his investigators suspect Lewis was aware of her daughter’s alleged affair with President Bill Clinton. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Maine

February 10, 1998: voters in Maine repealed a gay rights law passed in 1997 (see April 1, 1998)

SAGE

February 10, 2010: Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced an award totaling $900,000 over three years to Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) to establish the nation’s first national resource center to assist communities across the country in their efforts to provide services and supports for older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) individuals. “The Resource Center will provide information, assistance and resources for both mainstream aging organizations and LGBTQ organizations and will provide assistance to LGBTQ individuals as they plan for future long-term care needs,” said Secretary Sebelius. (SAGE site) (see Mar 3)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

February 10, 2003: Iraq agreed to allow U-2 surveillance flights over its territory, meeting a key demand by U.N. inspectors searching for banned weapons; President George W. Bush brushed aside Iraqi concessions as too little, too late. (see Mar 17)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical Weapons News

February 10, 2005:  North Korea announced that it possessed nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it feels from the US. (Washington Post article) (see March 21,  2008)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

February 10, 2014: Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington State and chairwoman of the Indian Affairs Committee, and Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma and a member of the Native American Caucus sent a strongly worded letter to Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League, urging him to support changing the name of the Washington Redskins because it offended Native Americans and others, with Cantwell saying she might reconsider the league’s tax-exempt status if it does not comply.

Cantwell said in an interview that lawmakers would “definitely” examine the N.F.L.’s tax-exempt status and other ways to pressure the league. “You’re getting a tax break for educational purposes, but you’re still embracing a name that people see as a slur and encouraging it.” (see May 27)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

February 10, 2021: Larry Flynt, a ninth-grade dropout who built a $400 million empire of raunchy publications, strip clubs and “adult” shops around his sexually explicit magazine Hustler, and spent decades battling obscenity and libel charges as a self-promoting champion of freedom of the press, died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 78.

Flynt’s most significant legal victory came in a long fight against the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist and founder of the Moral Majority, who sued for $45 million for libel and emotional distress in 1983 after Hustler published a parody in which he reminisced about a sexual encounter with his mother in an outhouse.

A jury rejected the libel charge, saying the parody was obviously not factual, but awarded Falwell $200,000 for emotional distress.

In 1988, the Supreme Court unanimously threw out the damages, calling the parody constitutionally protected political satire.

Flynt hailed the decision as the most important First Amendment victory since the obscenity ban on James Joyce’s “Ulysses” was overturned in the 1930s. (next FS, see June 23)

February 10 Peace Love Art Activism

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

First gas streetlight

February 7, 1817: the first gaslit streetlights appeared on the streets of Baltimore, MD. (see October 26, 1825)

Space

February 7, 1984: American astronaut Bruce McCandless became the first person to fly un-tethered in space during the flight of the space shuttle Challenger. (NASA bio)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Immigration History

February 7, 1887: the O’Neill bill was passed which amended the Contract Labor Law of 1885. It added three major sections to the original act. The problem was largely that although the law was sweeping in its prohibition of labor contracts, it was virtually impossible to enforce.

The new sections charged the secretary of the treasury with enforcement of the act, gave him power to establish needful rules and regulations, and provided that prohibited persons were to be sent back on arrival. (IH, see March 12, 1888; LH, see Nov 1)

Sugar refinery explosion

February 7, 2008: a huge explosion and fire at the Imperial Sugar refinery northwest of Savannah, Georgia, kills 14 and injures 38 people. The explosion was fueled by massive accumulations of combustible sugar dust throughout the packaging building. An investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board stated that the explosion had been “entirely preventable,” noting that the sugar industry had been aware of the risk of dust explosions since 1926.  (CSB report) (see Feb 13)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Luther Holbert & unidentified woman lynched

February 7, 1904: as hundreds of white people watched and cheered, a black man named Luther Holbert and an unidentified woman were tortured and killed in Doddsville, Mississippi, a Sunflower County town in the Mississippi Delta. Holbert was accused of shooting and killing James Eastland, a white landowner from a prominent, wealthy local family that owned a plantation where many of the area’s black laborers worked. After his shooting, James Eastland’s two brothers led the posse that captured Mr. Holbert and a black woman. Some news reports identified the woman as Mr. Holbert’s wife, but later research suggested she was not; her identity remains unknown.

According to an eyewitness account published in the Vicksburg, Mississippi, Evening Post, Luther Holbert and the unnamed black woman were tied to trees while their funeral pyres were prepared. They were then forced to hold out their hands and watch as their fingers were chopped off, one at a time, and distributed as souvenirs. Next, the same was done to their ears. Mr. Holbert was then beaten so badly that his skull was fractured and one of his eyes hung by a shred from the socket. The lynch mob next used a large corkscrew to bore into the arms, legs, and body of the two victims, pulling out large pieces of raw, quivering flesh. The victims reportedly did not cry out, and they were finally thrown on the fire and allowed to burn to death. The event was described as a festive atmosphere, in which the audience of 600 spectators enjoyed deviled eggs, lemonade, and whiskey. [EJI story] (next BH, see June 13; next Lynching, see Aug 16 or for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Lift Every Voice and Sing

In 1905: John Johnson, the brother of James Weldon Johnson who wrote the poem “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” put music it. (next BH, see April 14, 1906;  see Lift for expanded story) 

Marcus Garvey

February 7, 1923: Edward Young Clarke, Imperial Giant of the Ku Klux Klan, came New York City from Atlanta, GA and appeared before the Federal Grand Jury as a witness against Garvey, who would to be tried on February 20 on a charge of defrauding investors in the Black Star Line. (BH, see Feb 13; see MG for expanded chronology)

Carter G. Woodson

February 7, 1926: Negro History Week, originated by Carter G. Woodson, was observed for the first time. (see Sept 1)

 Medgar Evers & News Music

February 7, 1964: a Jackson, Mississippi jury, trying Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in June 1963, reported that it  could not reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial. The jury Was 7-5 for acquittal. 

Phil Ochs had already released his composition “Ballad of Medgar Evers. (next Black History, see Feb 10; see Evers for extensive chronology; NM, see Mar 21)

UK’s National Front

February 7, 1967: in the UK, the ultra-right National Front political party forms. Its slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children“

Viola Liuzzo

February 7, 1997:  from the NYT, “Last week, a Confederate battle flag was spray-painted on a monument in Hayneville, Ala., to Viola Liuzzo.”  (BH, see May 16;  see VL for expanded chronology)

Alabama & 13th Amendment

February 7, 2013: Charles A. Barth, director of the Federal Register, wrote back to Mississippi Secretary of State, Delbert Hosemann, that he had received the resolution: “With this action, the State of Mississippi has ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”  (see Feb 13)

Emmett Till

February 7, 2023: Emmett Till’s cousin Patricia Sterling of Jackson, Mississippi, filed a federal lawsuit against the current Leflore County sheriff, Ricky Banks. The suit sought to compel Banks to serve the warrant on Carolyn Bryant, now Carolyn Bryant Donham. [AP story] (next BH, see Apr 6; next ET, see  Apr 25, or see Till chronology for expanded story)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

US recognizes Emperor Boa Dai

February 7, 1950: the United States recognized Vietnam under the leadership of Emperor Bao Dai, not Ho Chi Minh who was recognized by the Soviets. (see May 8) 

Viet Cong attack spurs US bombing

February 7, 1965: National Liberation Front commandos attacked a US helicopter base and advisory compound in the central highlands of South Vietnam. The attack killed seven Americans and wounded 80. President Johnson immediately ordered U.S. Navy fighter-bombers to attack military targets just inside North Vietnam. (see Feb 8)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance

February 7, 1954: in the past, some American presidents had honored Lincoln’s birthday by attending services at the church Lincoln attended in Washington, DC, [the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church] by sitting in Lincoln’s pew on the Sunday nearest February 12. On February 7, 1954, with President Eisenhower sitting in Lincoln’s pew, the church’s pastor, George MacPherson Docherty, delivered a sermon based on the Gettysburg Address titled “A New Birth of Freedom.” He argued that the nation’s might lay not in arms but its spirit and higher purpose. He noted that the Pledge’s sentiments could be those of any nation, that “there was something missing in the pledge, and that which was missing was the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life.” He cited Lincoln’s words “under God” as defining words that set the United States apart from other nations.

President Eisenhower, baptized a Presbyterian the previous  February, responded enthusiastically to Docherty in a conversation following the service. (see PoA for expanded chronology)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

February 7 Music et al

Van Gelder Studios

February 7, 1960: Hank Mobley recorded his “Soul Station” album in Van Gelder Studios of Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. After having gained a reputation in the mid-Fifties for the quality of the recordings he made in the living room at his parents’ house in Hackensack, New Jersey, Van Gelder moved to a new facility in Englewood Cliffs in 1959. The structure was inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and bore some resemblance to a chapel, with 39-foot ceilings and fine acoustics. Critic Ira Gitler described the studio in The Space Book (1964) liner notes:”In the high-domed, wooden-beamed, brick-tiled, spare modernity of Rudy Van Gelder’s studio, one can get a feeling akin to religion.” (next TC, see Apr 4; see Van Gelder for expanded story on studio)

The Beatles

Please Please Me

February 7, 1963: “Please Please Me”/ “Ask Me Why” released as single on Vee-Jay label. 

Dick Biondi, a disc jockey on WLS in Chicago and a friend of Vee-Jay executive Ewart Abner, played the song on the radio thus becoming the first DJ to play a Beatles record in the US. It reached No. 35 on WLS music survey in March, but did not chart nationally; not on Billboard. Note the misspelling…Beattles. (see Mar 3)

Beatles arrive in USA

February 7, 1964: arrive in the US and are greeted by thousands of screaming fans at NYC’s Kennedy Airport. (see Feb 9)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

February 7, 1974: Grenada independent of United Kingdom.  (see June 25, 1975)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

February 7, 1983: Elizabeth Dole becomes the first woman to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. (see May 23)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

Iran invades Iraq

February 7, 1983: Iran opened an invasion in the southeast of Iraq.(see March 5, 1984)

US invades Kuwait

February 7, 1991: US ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Kuwait starting the ground phase of the war. (see Feb 23)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of the USSR

February 7, 1990: the Central Committee of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party agreed to endorse President Mikhail Gorbachev’s recommendation that the party give up its 70-year long monopoly of political power. The Committee’s decision to allow political challenges to the party’s dominance in Russia was yet another signal of the impending collapse of the Soviet system. (see Mar 15)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

The Euro

February 7, 1992: members of the European Community signed the Maastricht Treaty in Maastricht, Netherlands. The Treaty created the European Union and eventually to the creation of the single European currency, the euro.

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

February 7, 1995: Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.  (see November 13, 1995)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

February 7, 2005: Paul Shanley convicted of four charges relating to offences committed in the 1980s including rape and indecent assault. (Sexual; abuse, see Feb 15; Shanley, see July 28, 2017)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

February 7, 2012: the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled 2–1 that Proposition 8, the 2008 referendum that banned same-sex marriage in state, was unconstitutional because it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In the ruling, the court said, the law “operates with no apparent purpose but to impose on gays and lesbians, through the public law, a majority’s private disapproval of them and their relationships.” (see Feb 13)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

February 7, 2014: the farms bill signed by President Obama included a provision that legalizes hemp cultivation for research purposes. Under the new law, universities and state departments of agriculture would be authorized to cultivate hemp for research purposes in states where its been legalized; prior to this law, a license from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was required to research hemp, a license which was virtually impossible to receive. Nine states in the U.S. that had legalized hemp cultivation; California, Oregon, Colorado, Montana, West Virginia, Vermont, North Dakota, Kentucky and Maine. (next Cannabis, see Feb 14 or see CCC or expanded chronology)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

February 7, 2017: the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard August E. Flentje , a Justice Department lawyer said courts should not second-guess President Trump’s targeted travel ban.

The appeals court judges sometimes seemed taken aback by the assertiveness of the administration’s position, which in places came close to saying the court was without power to make judgments about Mr. Trump’s actions. (see Feb 9)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Affordable Care Act

February 7, 2018: with ongoing waffling regarding women’s health, University of Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins announced a ban on “abortion-inducing drugs” from its third-party-provided insurance plans.  (WH, see Feb 14; ND & ACA, see June 26)

Access

February 7, 2019: the US Supreme Court blocked a Louisiana law that its opponents say would have left the state with only one doctor in a single clinic authorized to provide abortions.

The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s four-member liberal wing to form a majority. That coalition underscored the pivotal position the chief justice has assumed after the departure last year of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who used to hold the crucial vote in many closely divided cases, including ones concerning abortion. [NYT story] (see Mar 25)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

February 7, 2019: the US Supreme Court allowed the execution of Domineque Ray, a Muslim inmate in Alabama, whose request that his imam be present had been denied.

The vote was 5 to 4, with the four more liberal members of the court in dissent.

The majority offered little reasoning but said that Ray had waited too long to object. Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the dissenters, said the majority was “profoundly wrong.”

Under Alabama’s policy, she wrote, “a Christian prisoner may have a minister of his own faith accompany him into the execution chamber to say his last rites.”

“But if an inmate practices a different religion — whether Islam, Judaism or any other — he may not die with a minister of his own faith by his side,” Justice Kagan wrote. [NYT article] (next DP, see Mar 13; religion & DP, see Feb 27)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment

February 7, 2020:  NBC News reported that President Donald Trump had fired Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and removed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from his White House job.

Both officials had provided critical information about Trump during public hearings, with Sondland saying the president sought a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine’s leader and Vindman criticizing Trump’s conduct during a July 25th phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “improper.”

Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council who testified during the House impeachment inquiry, was ousted from his job and escorted out of the White House. Vindman’s twin brother, who also worked for the NSC, was also removed from his post. (next TI, see or see Trump for expanded chronology)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans/Trump Wall

February 7, 2020: CBS News reported that US border contractors had begun “controlled blasting” at a sacred burial grounds where members of the Tohono O’odham Nation buried their ancestors to make way for President Donald Trump’s US-Mexico border wall

The site is located inside Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on land adjacent to the Tohono O’odham Nation. Archaeologists touring the site before construction said they found human remains dating back 10,000 years.

“The construction contractor has begun controlled blasting, in preparation for new border wall system construction, within the Roosevelt Reservation at Monument Mountain in the US Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector,” the US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement. (next NA, see Apr 17; next Immigration, see Feb 21; next TW,  see June 24,  or see Wall for expanded chronology)

February 7 Peace Love Art Activism

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Dred Scott

February 6, 1838:  Dr Emerson married Eliza Irene Sanford. Emerson sent for the Scotts. (see Dred Scott for expanded story)

Robert Tanner Jackson

February 6, 1867: Robert Tanner Jackson, whose parents had been enslaved in the U.S., graduated from Harvard School of Dental Medicine, becoming the first African American to receive a degree in dentistry. (see May 1)

Thomas Brown lynched

February 6, 1902: Thomas Brown, a 19-year-old black man, was seized from a jail cell and lynched on the lawn of the Jessamine County Courthouse in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Thomas had been arrested for an alleged assault on a white woman but never had the chance to stand trial.

A mob of 200 white men assembled at the jail and seized Thomas Brown from police. They then hung him from a tree in front of the county courthouse. Though news reports identified the young woman’s brother as a leader of the mob, no one was ever prosecuted for Thomas Brown’s murder and authorities concluded that he “met death by strangulation at the hands of parties unknown.” [EJI article]  (next BH, see February 18, 1903; next Lynching, see June 23, 1903 or for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Autherine Lucy

February 6, 1956:  a hostile mob assembled to prevent Autherine Lucy from attending classes. She was struck by eggs while being escorted across the campus and windows of the car in which she rode were smashed. Highway patrol officers slipped her away at the height of the demonstration when more than 3,000 students and others were on the campus..

That same day, the Augusta Chronicle ran an editorial, saying that the tragedy was not that Lucy was being denied her rights, but rather that the courts were usurping states’ rights by interfering with the University of Alabama’s admittance policy. The editorial concluded: It is nothing less than tragic that the Supreme Court has furnished both the dynamite and the match by usurping the power of the various states to operate their schools, and other public facilities, in a manner best fitted to the needs and the welfare of all of their people. For this the court must bear the onus for ushering in an unhappy and tragic era in our history whereas before its decision, all was going well. (BH, see Feb 10; U of A, see Feb 29)

The Greensboro Four

February 6, 1960: more than 1,400 North Carolina A & T students met in Harrison Auditorium that morning After voting to continue the protest, many headed to the F.W. Woolworth store. They filled every seat as the store opened. A large number of counter protesters showed up as well. By noon, more than 1,000 people packed the store.

At 1 p.m., a caller warned a bomb was set to explode at 1:30 p.m. The crowd moved to the Kress store, which immediately closed. Arrests were made outside both stores.  Its manager cleared  and closed the F.W. Woolworth store.

That evening at North Carolina A & T 1,600 students voted to suspend demonstrations for two weeks. Dean William Gamble proclaimed this would give the stores time “to set policies regarding food service for Negro students.” (see G4 for expanded chronology)

Muhammad Ali

February 6, 1967: Ali defeated Ernie Terrell in a 15 round decision. Terrell had refused to refer to Ali by his Muslim name and throughout the fight Ali taunted Terrell shouting, “What’s my name Uncle Tom…What’s my name?”

Many accused Ali of deliberately punishing Terrell and not knocking him out.(2014 Independent article) (BH, see Feb 27; Ali, see April 5)

School Desegregation

February 6, 1986: in Riddick v. School Board of the City of Norfolk, Virginia  a federal court found for the first time that once a school district meets the Green decision factors (1968), it can be released from its desegregation plan and returned to local control.  (June 1986 NYT follow up article) (BH, see “in February 1987”; SD, see January 8, 1989)

DOMESTIC TERRORISM

February 6, 2015: U.S. District Court Judge L. Scott Coogler sentenced Pamela Morris, former secretary of a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Ozark, Alabama, to 10 months in prison and three years of supervised release for committing perjury during a grand jury’s investigation into a racially motivated cross-burning.  (see Apr 8)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

The Red Scare

February 6, 1952: Harvey Matusow, a former Communist Party member and in 1952 an FBI informant, named named Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman, all members of the  The Weavers, as Communists. The Weavers were in the middle of a concert tour and by mutual agreement with the manager, cancelled their scheduled week-long engagement with the Yankee Inn in Akron, Ohio.

Being named as Communists destroyed the Weavers commercial career. They had been one of the most popular groups in America since 1950, with several number one hits, including Leadbelly’s “Goodnight Irene.”

The Weavers soon disbanded, but Pete Seeger developed a very successful career performing on college campuses, which were freer of anti-Communist pressures. He was mainly responsible for teaching that  generation Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.”

With Guy Carawan and others, Seeger also revised “We Will Overcome,” [an old African-American gospel song that had become a labor union organizing song] into “We Shall Overcome.” Carawan taught it to the leaders of the sit-in movement in 1960 and it immediately became the anthem of the civil rights movement.

Matusow had a bizarre career. After being a Communist Party member and FBI informant, he recanted and denied his earlier accusations about who was a Communist. The Justice Department convicted him of perjury and he was sentenced to prison. Upon leaving prison, he became a member of the 1960s counterculture and led a rock group. (see Mar 3)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

February 6, 1958: a recovery effort began for what became known as the Tybee Bomb. The Air Force 2700th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron and 100 Navy personnel equipped with hand held sonar and galvanic drag and cable sweeps mounted a search. (NN, see Feb 17; Tybee, see Apr 16)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

see February 6 Music et al for more

The Beatles

February 6, 1958: George Harrison joined The Quarrymen. The group, consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Len Garry, Eric Griffiths and John Lowe.. George Harrison (recalling those early days): “I was very impressed by John, probably more than Paul, or I showed it more. I suppose I was impressed by all the Art College crowd. John was very sarcastic, always trying to put you down, but I either took no notice or gave him the same back, and it worked.” (see July 15)

All Those Years Ago

Exactly 33 years later,  and 60 days after John Lennon’s murder on February 6, 1981, George Harrison completed the recording of All Those Years Ago, Harrison’s musical tribute to Lennon. Ringo Starr had worked with Harrison on the song in November 1981 intending to use it on his own album, but decided not to. After Lennon’s assassination,  Harrison changed the lyrics and invited Paul McCartney to join on the vocals. 

It was the first time that the three former band mates had appeared on the same recording since “I Me Mine” in 1970. (see Feb 19)

“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”

February 6 – 19, 1965: “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” by the Righteous Brothers #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1999, BMI listed the song as the one most often played on American radio and television in the 20th century, with some 8 million plays. (see Righteous for more)

The Road to the Woodstock

February 6, 1969: Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld met John Roberts and Joel Rosenman for the first time. Lang and Kornfeld propose a music studio retreat in Woodstock, NY that would be an ideal place for musicians to make music in a relaxed atmosphere in an area where many other young musicians live. (see RW for a much expanded chronology)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

LBJ meets with Nguyen Cao Ky

February 6, 1966: accompanied by his leading political and military advisers, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson met with South Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Cao Ky in Honolulu. The talks concluded with issuance of a joint declaration in which the United States promised to help South Vietnam “prevent aggression,” develop its economy, and establish “the principles of self-determination of peoples and government by the consent of the governed.” Johnson declared: “We are determined to win not only military victory but victory over hunger, disease, and despair.”

He announced renewed emphasis on “The Other War”–the effort to provide the South Vietnamese rural population with local security, and economic and social programs to win over their active support.

In his final statement on the discussions, Johnson warned the South Vietnamese that he would be monitoring their efforts to build democracy, improve education and health care, resettle refugees, and reconstruct South Vietnam’s economy. (see Feb 10)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

February 6, 1974: in the face of protests by prison reformers, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons announced  that it was cancelling its controversial Behavior Modification program at the federal prison in Springfield, Missouri.

The program involved attempting to change prisoners’ behavior by locking them in cells for extended hours and denying them all privileges, and then restoring privileges gradually if they behaved themselves. The decision to end the program came just days before a federal judge was expected to rule in a suit challenging the program, which was filed by the National Prison Project of the ACLU. (see January 22, 1976)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

Ryan White

February 6, 1986: Indiana DOE again ruled that White could attend school, after inspection by Howard County health officers. (see White for expanded story)

Arthur Ashe

February 6. 1993: Arthur Ashe, 49, died of AIDS. Ashe was believed to have contracted the virus from a blood transfusion during heart surgery 10 years earlier. (see Dec 23)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

Clinton won’t resign

February 6, 1998: at a news conference, President Bill Clinton said he would never consider resigning because of the accusations against him. “I would never walk away from the people of this country and the trust they’ve placed in me.” 

Monica Lewinsky

February 6, 1999: Americans got a chance to see and hear Monica Lewinsky as House prosecutors and White House lawyers play video excerpts of her testimony in their final summations. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Alan Turing

February 6, 2012: Lord McNally declined to pardon Alan Turing. McNalley’s statement read:

The question of granting a posthumous pardon to Mr Turing was considered by the previous Government in 2009.

As a result of the previous campaign, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an unequivocal posthumous apology to Mr Turing on behalf of the Government, describing his treatment as “horrifying” and “utterly unfair”. Mr Brown said the country owed him a huge debt. This apology was also shown at the end of the Channel 4 documentary celebrating Mr Turing’s life and achievements which was broadcast on 21 November 2011.

A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence. He would have known that his offence was against the law and that he would be prosecuted.

It is tragic that Alan Turing was convicted of an offence which now seems both cruel and absurd-particularly poignant given his outstanding contribution to the war effort. However, the law at the time required a prosecution and, as such, long-standing policy has been to accept that such convictions took place and, rather than trying to alter the historical context and to put right what cannot be put right, ensure instead that we never again return to those times.  (LGBTQ, see Feb 7; Turing, see December 23, 2013)

Boy Scouts of America

February 6, 2013: the Boy Scouts of America said that it would postpone until May their decision regarding homosexual members as talk of gays in the ranks has roiled a storied organization that carries deep emotional connection and nostalgia for millions of Americans. (NYT article) (LGBTQ, see Feb 11; BSA, see April 19)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

February 6, 2014:  the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that local officials in Michigan may not ban the use of medical marijuana within their boundaries — a unanimous landmark ruling expected to overturn local ordinances in Livonia, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, and Lyon Township. (next Cannabis, see Feb 7 or see CCC for expanded cannabis chronology)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump’s Wall

February 6, 2017: some Republican lawmakers were expressing skepticism that the border wall was worth the price tag and asked that Trump offer off-sets for the cost.

Texas Senator, John Cornyn said: “I have concerns about spending un-offset money, which adds to the debt, period. I don’t think we’re just going to be able to solve border security with a physical barrier because people can come under, around it and through it.” (next IH, see Feb 7; next TW, see Feb 9 or see TWall for expanded chronology)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

February 6, 2018: the Supreme Court partly granted a request from North Carolina Republicans to block a voting map drawn by a federal court there. That court had interceded after finding that a map drawn by state lawmakers for the General Assembly had relied too heavily on race and had violated state laws.

The Supreme Court’s order, which was brief and gave no reasons, partly blocked that decision while the justices consider whether to hear an appeal in the case. (see Mar 19)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Toxic chemicals

February 6, 2018: the NY Times reported that more than 2,500 sites that handle toxic chemicals are located in flood-prone areas in every American state and that about 1,400 are located in areas at highest risk of flooding. The article also pointed that that as flood danger grows — the consequence of a warming climate — the risk increased. (see Feb 23 )

Record warmth

February 6, 2019: NASA scientists announced that the Earth’s average surface temperature in 2018 was the fourth highest in nearly 140 years of record-keeping and a continuation of an unmistakable warming trend.

The data meant that the five warmest years in recorded history had been the last five, and that 18 of the 19 warmest years ever recorded have occurred since 2001. The quickly rising temperatures over the past two decades cap a much longer warming trend documented by researchers and correspond with the scientific consensus that climate change is caused by human activity.

“We’re no longer talking about a situation where global warming is something in the future,” said Gavin A. Schmidt, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the NASA group that conducted the analysis. “It’s here. It’s now.” (see Mar 15)

Antarctica record warmth

February 6, 2020: NBC News reported that the U.N. weather agency said that an Argentine research base on the northern tip of Antarctica reported a temperature that, if confirmed, could be a record high for the continent.

World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman Clare Nullis, cited figures from Argentina’s national weather service, said the Esperanza Base recorded 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit) — topping the former record of 17.5 degrees tallied in March 2015. (next EI, see Feb 17)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism/Space

February 6, 2020: Christina Koch returned to Earth holding the record for the longest stay by a female astronaut in space, 328 days. (the American record-holder for the longest single stay was Scott Kelly, with 342 days in space, and the record-holder for cumulative time was Peggy Whitson with 665 days spread over three flights.) Koch had volunteered for this mission as part of a long-duration experiment. At his point  NASA had 48 active-duty astronauts, of which 16 were women.  [NYT story] (next Feminism, see Aug 11; next Space, see  May 30)

February 6 Peace Love Art Activism