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Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

March 24, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

March 24, 1826 – March 18, 1898

Early life

According to the Matilda Josyln Gage Foundation site: Matilda Joslyn Gage was born on March 24, 1826, in Cicero, New York. An only child, she was raised in a household dedicated to antislavery. Her father, Dr. Hezekiah Joslyn, was a nationally known abolitionist, and the Joslyn home was a station on the Underground Railway.

If we were to stop there, we would limit her life to that of an abolitionist, a worthy cause, but she was so much more. She fought for the rights of anyone oppressed as well as the separation of church and state.

Her adult life began 19th century-conventionally: she married Henry Gage when she was 18 and eventually gave birth to five children–four of whom lived. Gage was an unusual husband in that he gave his wife a freedom few wives of that time could ever hope for.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Abolitionist

That personal freedom was not only in great contrast to women, but of course to enslaved men and women.

On October 4, 1850 Gage [24 years old] signed petition stating that she would face a 6-month prison term and a $2,000 fine rather than obey the Fugitive Slave Act.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Women’s Rights

She would have attended the first Women’s Wights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY (July 19, 1848) but she was pregnant and about to give birth to her son Thomas.

Two years later in September 1852 she gave her first public address at the third national women’s rights convention in Syracuse stating: While so much is said of the inferior intellect of woman, it is by a strange absurdity conceded that very many eminent men owe their station in life to their mothers.

She also said that, “Custom has been, and is now, the mistress who plants her foot on the too willing neck of prostrate womanhood.”

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

American Civil War

Gage was very capable of juggling more than one cause at at time. In 1862 she gave a Flag Presentation Speech to the 122nd New York Volunteer Infantry known as the “Onondagas” [named from their home area, Onondaga County, New York] as they went off to the Civil War. Opposing President Lincoln, who said that the war was being fought to preserve the union, Gage told soldiers they were fighting for an end to slavery and freedom for all citizens.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Suffragist

In 1869 with Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gage founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. She helped found New York State Woman Suffrage Association; served as its president for nine years.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Feminist

In 1870 Gage researched and published “Woman as Inventor.” In it, Gage credited the invention of the cotton gin Catherine Littlefield Greene. Gage claimed that Greene suggested to Whitney the use of a brush-like component instrumental in separating out the seeds and cotton. [Gage provided no source for this claim and to date there has been no independent verification of Greene’s role in the invention of the gin. However, many believe that Eli Whitney received the patent for the gin and the sole credit in history textbooks for its invention only because social norms inhibited women from registering for patents.]

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Native Americans

In the 1870s: Gage wrote a series of articles speaking out against United States’ unjust treatment of American Indians and describing superior position of native women. “The division of power between the sexes in this Indian republic was nearly equal,” Gage wrote of the Iroquois. In matters of government, “…its women exercised controlling power in peace and war … no sale of lands was valid without consent” of the women, while “the family relation among the Iroquois demonstrated woman’s superiority in power … in the home, the wife was absolute … if the Iroquois husband and wife separated, the wife took with her all the property she had brought … the children also accompanied the mother, whose right to them was recognized as supreme.” “Never was justice more perfect, never civilization higher,” Gage concluded.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

More…

On May 10, 1876 she chaired at the Ninth Annual Convention of the National and New York State Woman Suffrage Associations. In her opening address she said that during the past 100 hundred years man had had his share of the advantages of the Declaration of Independence, but woman at the outset of the second century of the Republic stood just where she had in 1776.

History of Woman Suffrage was produced by Gage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Ida Husted Harper. History was published in six volumes from 1881 to 1922.

Its more than 5700 pages are the major source for primary documentation about the women’s suffrage movement from its beginnings through the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which enfranchised women in the U.S. in 1920. Written from the viewpoint of the wing of the movement led by Stanton and Anthony, its coverage of rival groups and individuals is limited.

The first three volumes, which cover the history of the movement from its beginnings to 1885, were written and edited by Stanton, Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage. Volume 1 (1848–1861) appeared in 1881, Volume 2 (1861–1876) in 1882 and Volume 3 (1876–1885) in 1886. Some early chapters first appeared in Gage’s newspaper, The National Citizen and Ballot Box.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Female Liability

From Starter Home: Discovering the Past in Central New York By Peter Svenson: In 1877, having singlehandedly developed a strategy that mimicked a convicted male felon’s right to petition Congress to regain his right to vote, Gage petitioned Congress in person to grant her “relief from her political liabilities,” i.e., her womanhood. A bill to enfranchise her was introduced on the House floor, but defeated. …Gage was considered more radical that either [Susan B] Anthony or [Elizabeth C] Stanton.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Freethinker

In 1878 Gage was a speaker at the Freethought convention in Watkin’s Glen, NY; an arrest under the Comstock Laws occurs there for the sale of a birth control manual.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Continued activism

From 1878 – 1881 Gage published The National Citizen and Ballot Box, official paper of the NWSA.

In 1880 Gage wrote “Who Planned the Tennessee Campaign of 1862?” Gage argued that a woman, Anna Ella Carroll, planned that campaign in detail. [In the fall of 1861, Carroll had traveled to St. Louis to work with secret agent, Judge Lemuel Dale Evans, who had been appointed by Secretary of State William H. Seward. Carroll gathered information and based on it and in late November 1861 wrote a memorandum that she sent to Assistant Secretary of War Thomas A. Scott and Attorney General Edward Bates, advocating that the combined army-navy forces change their invasion route from the Mississippi to the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.]

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

The future Wizard of Oz

November 9, 1882 Gage’s daughter, Maud, married L. Frank Baum in the parlor of the Gage home. Under the influence of his wife and mother-in-law, Baum became an enthusiastic convert to feminism. He was, ”a secure man who did not worry about asserting his masculine authority,” and he was not bothered that Maud had the upper hand in the marriage; in fact he seemed to welcome her take-charge attitude. His feminist beliefs would have a profound effect on his fiction. Nearly all of his child heroes were girls, girls who rely on their own resources and not on the aid, or validation, of men. He thought men who did not support feminist aspirations ”selfish, opinionated, conceited or unjust — and perhaps all four combined,” as he wrote in a newspaper editorial. ”The tender husband, the considerate father, the loving brother, will be found invariably championing the cause of women.”

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

International Council of Women

March 1886 an organizer of the International Council of Women, chaired one session. Convention attended by Woman Christian Temperance Union President Frances Willard, whom Gage called “the most dangerous woman in America,” because of her work with the religious right, trying to destroy the wall of separation between church and state by placing the Christian God as the head of the government.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Statue of Liberty protest

October 28, 1886 she participated in the New York City Woman Suffrage Association’s protest at the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty. Suffragists called it the greatest hypocrisy of the 19th century that liberty is represented as a woman in a land where not a single woman has liberty.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Woman’s National Liberal Union

In 1890 Gage left NWSA after its merger with the American Woman Suffrage Association and established the Woman’s National Liberal Union, dedicated to maintaining the separation of church and state.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Woman, Church, and State

In 1893 Gage published her magnum opus, Woman, Church, and State.

Gage also spoke of organized religion: “The greatest evils to women in all ages have come through the bondage of the Church. Women must think for themselves and realize that the story of the creation with the pair in the garden and the speaking serpent standing on his tail was a myth.”

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Woman’s Suffrage League

December 8, 1893 at a meeting of the Woman’s Suffrage League, Gage reacted to a statement made by the Rev Dr Parkhurst about women turned out to get a night’s lodging—that they might “starve or freeze on the streets,” with his consent, if it only brought them to a proper state of repentance. Gage stated, “For every 2,000 women who are turned homeless and friendless into the cold wintry streets, with every man’s hand against them , there are 20,000 men as guilty who are stting in comfortable homes, surrounded with luxury, who pose as honored and respected members of society.”

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

The Woman’s Bible

In 1895 Gage contributed to Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s The Woman’s Bible, writing interpretations of three Biblical passages pertinent to women. TWB is a major criticism of standard biblical interpretation from a radical feminist point of view.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Gage dies

March 18, 1898 Gage died in Chicago at the home of her daughter, Maud Gage Baum. Gage was 72. Written on her gravestone:

THERE IS A WORD SWEETER
THAN MOTHER
HOME OR HEAVEN
THAT WORD IS LIBERTY

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Legacy

Wizard of Oz

May 17, 1900 L Frank Baum published Wizard of Oz. A young girl named Dorothy is the hero at a time when such a thing was unheard of.

“The Matilda effect”

In May 1993 science historian Margaret W. Rossiter described and names “The Matilda effect.”

The abstract of the article stated: Recent work has brought to light so many cases, historical and contemporary, of women scientists who have been ignored, denied credit or otherwise dropped from sight that a sex-linked phenomenon seems to exist, as has been documented to be the case in other fields, such as medicine, art history and literary criticism. Since this systematic bias in scientific information and recognition practices fits the second half of Matthew 13:12 in the Bible, which refers to the under-recognition accorded to those who have little to start with, it is suggested that sociologists of science and knowledge can add to the ‘Matthew Effect’, made famous by Robert K. Merton in 1968, the ‘Matilda Effect’, named for the American suffragist and feminist critic Matilda J. Gage of New York, who in the late nineteenth century both experienced and articulated this phenomenon. Calling attention to her and this age-old tendency may prod future scholars to include other such ‘Matildas’ and thus to write a better, because more comprehensive, history and sociology of science.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation

In 2000 The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation began “when Sally Roesch Wagner, the leading authority on Gage, brought together a nationwide network of diverse people with a common goal: to bring Gage’s vitally important suffragist back to her rightful place in history.”

The foundation’s mission is: dedicated to educating current and future generations about Gage’s work and its power to drive contemporary social change.

Activist Matilda Josyln Gage

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

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

March 9, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Amistad case

March 9, 1841: In the Amistad case the U.S. government eventually appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Former president John Quincy Adams, who represented the Amistad Africans in the Supreme Court case, argued in his defense that it was the illegally enslaved Africans, rather than the Cubans, who “were entitled to all the kindness and good offices due from a humane and Christian nation.”

The Amistad survivors were aided, in their defense, by the American Missionary Association, an organization affiliated with the effort to colonize freed slaves overseas. African-American Mosaic includes information about the history of the colonization movement, the colonization of slaves in Liberia, and personal stories of former slaves who chose to move overseas.

The Supreme Court issued a ruling freeing the remaining thirty-five survivors of the Amistad mutiny. Although seven of the nine justices on the court hailed from Southern states, only one dissented from Justice Joseph Story’s majority opinion. Private donations ensured the Africans’ safe return to Sierra Leone in January 1842.

Adams’s victory in the Amistad case was a significant success for the abolition movement. (archives dot gov article) (see Nov 7)

Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, & Henry Steward lynched

March 9, 1892: three young black men, Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Steward, had opened the People’s Grocery Company in Memphis, Tennessee. Located across the street from a white-owned grocery store that had been the local black community’s only option, the new business reduced the white store’s profits and threatened the racial order by forcing whites to compete economically with blacks.

A white mob formed, intent on using force to put the black grocery out of business, and the black grocers armed themselves for defense. When the mob attacked, shots were fired and three white men were wounded. Moss, McDowell, and Steward were arrested and sensational newspaper reports published the next day fanned the flames of racial outrage. On March 9, 1892, a white mob stormed the Memphis jail, seized all three men and brutally lynched them. No one was punished for the killings.

Ida B. Wells, a 29-year-old black schoolteacher and journalist living in Memphis, was a friend of the three murdered men and was deeply impacted by their deaths. She published an editorial urging local blacks to “save our money and leave a town which will neither protect our lives and property, nor give us a fair trial in the courts, but takes us out and murders us in cold blood when accused by white persons.” As a result, a white mob destroyed her office (see May 27) and printing press. The mob had intended to lynch her but she was visiting Philadelphia at the time.

More than 6000 African Americans heeded her call. Wells would devote her entire life to documenting and challenging the injustice of lynching through research, writing, speaking, and activism. (NYT obit for Ida B Wells) (next BH & Lynching, see Apr 6 or see 19th century for expanded lynching chronology; next Wells, see May 27)

Congress of Racial Equality

March 9, 1942: the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), was founded in Chicago on this day as an offshoot of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (founded on November 11, 1915). The new group conducted sit-ins challenging segregated restaurants in Chicago in 1943. (CORE site) (see July 1)

Albany Movement

March 9, 1963: four Black girls took seats at a white lunch counter at Albany, GA’s Lee Drugs. There were asked to leave and the police were called. The girls were arrested a block away and charged with violating an anti-trespassing ordinance. (see Albany for expanded story)

Muhammad Ali

March 9, 1964: Ali said he would take another Selective Service examination in Louisville March 13.. Ali had taken a test earlier but there were reports he failed to pass the mental examination. (see Mar 20)

Turnaround Tuesday

March 9, 1965: King led another march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. About 2,000 people, more than half of them white and about a third members of the clergy, participate in the second march. King led the march to the bridge, then told the protesters to disperse. The march became known as Turnaround Tuesday.

That night White supremacists beat up white Unitarian Universalist minister James J. Reeb in Selma. (see March for expanded story; MLK, see Mar 21)

George Whitmore, Jr

March 9, 1965: Police Sergeant Thomas J. Collier, who took the initial report from Elba Borrero, testified that Borrero did not mention the attempted rape but rather alleged only that her assailant “attempted to take her pocketbook.” (see Whitmore for expanded story)

Rodney King grand jury

March 9, 1991: [from NYT] A Los Angeles County grand jury undertook an investigation of all 15 police officers present when King was clubbed, kicked and stomped by three officers who did not realize that they were being videotaped.

King’s doctor, Edmund Chein, said at a news conference that the beating had left the victim with a fractured eye socket, a broken cheekbone, a broken leg, bruises, facial nerve damage, a severe concussion and burns from a police stun gun. (BH & RK, see Mar 1)

Rodney King testifies

March 9, 1993: King testified at the federal trial of 4 Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating his civil rights when they beat him during an arrest. (NYT article) (see March 15)

Amadou Diallo

March 9, 1999: in the wake of the shooting of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, the first class action was filed against New York City for what plaintiffs call unlawful stop and frisk practices and racial profiling by police officers. Through the lawsuit, Daniels, et al. v. The City of New York, et al., the Center of Constitutional Rights requested that the court disband the NYPD’s Street Crime Unit. (S & F, see Mar 19; Diallo, see Mar 31)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Westmoreland County Coal Strike

March 9, 1910: the Westmoreland County Coal Strike of 1910 – 1911 was a strike by coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers of America. The strike is also known as the “Slovak strike” because about 70 percent of the miners were Slovak immigrants.

It began in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on March 9, 1910, and ended on July 1, 1911. At its height, the strike encompassed 65 mines and 15,000 coal miners. Sixteen people were killed during the strike, nearly all of them striking miners or members of their families. The strike ended in a defeat for the union. (libcom dot org article) (see Oct 1)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire

In late November 1941 Walter Chaplinsky, a Jehovah’s Witness, was was passing out pamphlets and preaching that organized religion was a “racket.” The rhetoric eventually sparked a gathering of a throng, which in turn, caused a scene. A police officer removed Chaplinsky. Along the way, he met the town marshal, who had earlier warned Chaplinsky to keep it down and avoid causing a commotion. Chaplinsky attacked him verbally. He was arrested. The complaint against Chaplinsky charged that he had shouted: “You are a God-damned racketeer” and “a damned Fascist”. Chaplinsky admitted that he said the words charged in the complaint, with the exception of the name of the deity

On March 9, 1942: Chaplinsky v New Hampshire. The US Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, upheld the Chaplansky’s arrest. Writing the decision for the Court, Justice Frank Murphy advanced a “two-tier theory” of the First Amendment. Certain “well-defined and narrowly limited” categories of speech fall outside the bounds of constitutional protection. Thus, “the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous,” and (in this case) insulting or “fighting” words neither contributed to the expression of ideas nor possessed any “social value” in the search for truth.

Murphy wrote: There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or “fighting” words those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality. (see Apr 13)

New York Times v. Sullivan

March 9, 1964: New York Times v. Sullivan. The First Amendment, as applied through the Fourteenth, protected a newspaper from being sued for libel in state court for making false defamatory statements about the official conduct of a public official, because the statements were not made with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth. Supreme Court of Alabama reversed and remanded, i.e. the Court held that defamatory falsehoods about public officials can be punished — only if the offended official can prove the falsehoods were published with “actual malice,” i.e.: “knowledge that the statement was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” Other kinds of “libelous statements” are also punishable. (FS, see Mar 30; Sullivan, see Apr 6)

Frank Wilkinson

March 9, 1966: defying the North Carolina law that banned from speaking on state college and university campuses “known” Communists, “known” advocates of the violent overthrow of the state, and persons who took the Fifth Amendment regarding Communist Party membership, Frank Wilkinson, leader of the campaign to abolish the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), and Herbert Aptheker, a historian and member of the Communist Party, mocked the ban by speaking to students from the other side of the low wall that circles the University of North Carolina campus. In February 1968, a three-judge District Court panel deliberated for 10 minutes and then declared the ban unconstitutional. (FS, see Mar 21; Red Scare, see February 8, 1968; North Carolina, see February 19, 1968)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Japanese massacre French

March 9, 1945: fearful that the successful American Pacific campaign might include Vietnam, the Japanese start a coup d’état killing some two thousand French officers and disarmed and interned twelve thousand more—and then, in an attempt to win Vietnamese support, declared Vietnam “independent” and allowed the puppet emperor, Bao Dai, to remain on the throne so long as he did their bidding. (see Aug 16)

Napalm

March 9, 1965: President Johnson authorized the use of Napalm, the petroleum based anti-personnel bomb. (see Mar 16)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

“A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy”

March 9, 1954: CBS TV News correspondent, Edward R Murrow, Fred Friendly, and their news team produced a half-hour See It Now special entitled “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy”. Murrow used excerpts from McCarthy’s own speeches and proclamations to criticize the senator and point out episodes where he had contradicted himself. Murrow and Friendly paid for their own newspaper advertisement for the program; they were not allowed to use CBS’s money for the publicity campaign or even use the CBS logo. (see Apr 6)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Ruth Handler

March 9, 1959: the first Barbie doll went on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Created by Ruth Handler, Handler subsequently designed a prosthetic breast that resembled a natural one. The name of the prosthetic company is Nearly Me. (see November 20, 1961)

March for Women’s Lives

March 9, 1986: National Organization for Women coordinated the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D. C., for the purpose of keeping abortion and birth control legal.

With some 125,000 participants, it was the largest march for women’s rights in the U.S. to this date. Seven other marches for women’s rights also take place in 1986, in Los Angeles, CA; Denver, CO; Harrisburg, PA; Trenton, NJ; Boston, MA; Seattle, WA; and Portland, OR. (next Feminism June 11)

Dr. Antonia Novello

March 9, 1990: Dr. Antonia Novello sworn in as the U.S. Surgeon General, becoming the first woman (and first Hispanic) to hold this office. (cfmedicine site bio) (see March 20, 1991)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

March 9 Music et al

March 9 – 15, 1963: Allan Sherman’s My Son the Celebrity is the Billboard #1 album.

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

Tsuruga, Japan

March 9, 1981: a nuclear accident at a Japan Atomic Power Company plant in Tsuruga, Japan, exposed 59 workers to radiation on this day in 1981. The officials in charge failed to timely inform the public and nearby residents. (see June 7)

Iran

March 9, 2015: in a rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations, the 47 Republican senators signed an open letter addressed to “leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” declaring that any agreement without legislative approval could be reversed by the next president “with the stroke of a pen.” (next N/C N & Iran, see Apr 2)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

March 9, 1985: the first-ever Adopt-a-Highway sign was erected on Texas’s Highway 69. The highway was adopted by the Tyler Civitan Club, which committed to picking up trash along a designated two-mile stretch of the road. (see May 16)

Mustafa Ali

March 9, 2017: Mustafa Ali, who has worked at the EPA for 24 years, and was head of the Environmental Protection Agency program aimed at protecting minority populations from pollution resigned. The Trump administration had proposed to completely defund environmental justice efforts at the EPA. Ali submitted a resignation letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in which he implored the agency’s new leader to take seriously the concerns of minority communities, which often bear the brunt of air and water pollution and live in areas near major industrial centers.

Scott Pruitt

March 9, 2017: Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that carbon dioxide was not a primary contributor to global warming, a statement at odds with the global scientific consensus on climate change. Speaking of carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas produced by burning fossil fuels, Mr. Pruitt told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.” (see Mar 15)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 9, 1998: U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright rejected a request by Paula Jones’ attorneys to include evidence of a Monica Lewinsky affair during a Jones trial. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

March 9, 2009: the U.S. military announced that 12,000 American soldiers would withdraw from Iraq by September, marking the first step in the Obama administration’s plan to pull U.S. combat forces out of the country by August 2010. [Washington Post, 3/9/09] (see March 12)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Affordable Care Act

March 9, 2015: the U.S. Supreme Court told a lower court to reconsider whether the University of Notre Dame must comply with Obama administration regulations for the Affordable Care Act that aim to ensure contraceptive coverage for employees and students.

The order gave the Catholic university a new chance to argue that it is being improperly forced to violate its religious beliefs by facilitating what it considers to be abortion. A federal appeals court said Notre Dame had to comply with the regulations, which implement the 2010 Affordable Care Act. (BC, see Mar 20; ACA, see Mar 31; Notre Dame, see May 19)

March 9 Peace Love Art Activism

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

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

February 22, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Act to Regulate…

February 22, 1847: the US Congress enacted an Act to regulate the Carriage of Passengers in Merchant Vessels. Ships brought US products to Europe often used “passengers” as ballast for the return trip. In other words, the ship treated the passengers as cargo, not as people. Thousands became sick and died, particularly of typhus. This act was an attempt to curb such mistreatment.

Because of the Act’s limitations, ship owners increased their trips from Europe to Canada to bypass the law. The increase did not mean better conditions, but rather mean more crowded conditions and more deaths.

On August 15, 1909 the Ancient Order of Hiberians dedicated a Celtic Cross on the Grosse Island the site of a quarantine station and the site of graves for 5,000 Irish immigrants who had died at the station. (next IH, see January 31, 1848)

Nation of immigrants

February 22, 2018: the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services stopped characterizing the United States as “a nation of immigrants.”

Agency director, L. Francis Cissna informed employees that its mission statement had been revised to “guide us in the years ahead.” Gone was the phrase that described the agency as securing “America’s promise as a nation of immigrants.”

The original mission statement, created in 2005, said,: “U.S.C.I.S. secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.”

The new version says: “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland and honoring our values.”

Cissna’s mother immigrated to the United States from Peru and his wife’s mother came from the Middle East. He grew up speaking Spanish at home and speaks it exclusively with his children. (see Feb 26)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Frazier Baker lynched

February 22, 1898: Frazier Baker, an African American who had recently been appointed postmaster of Lake City, S.C., and his infant daughter, Julia, were killed and his wife and three other daughters were maimed for life when a lynch mob set after them. Citizens of the small town of 500 residents set fire to the post office, where the Bakers lived, and shot them as they ran out.

The accused were indicted on twenty-four counts including “a conspiracy to injure and oppress Frazier B. Baker in the free exercise” of his civil rights.

Twenty-three of the counts charged conspiracy, but the count for the destruction of the mail did not. The trial started on April 10, 1899 in the Federal District Court of Charleston, South Carolina. Three of the men were found not guilty and the all-white jury remained deadlocked on a verdict for the other eight. The judge declared a mistrial and the federal prosecutors did not reopen the case. (Postal Museum article) (next BH, see Apr 25; see 19th century for expanded lynching chronology)

Frank George Pinkston and Charles Melvin Sherrod

February 22, 1960: about 200 students, led by Frank George Pinkston and Charles Melvin Sherrod, marched from the Virginia Union University campus to downtown Richmond, shutting down the shopping district. Police arrested 34 students taking part in sit-ins and pickets at Thalhimer’s Department Store.

The Greensboro Four

February 22 – 28, 1960: the lunch counters at F.W. Woolworth and Kress stores reopened, but were still segregated. Greensboro Mayor George H. Roach introduced the Greensboro Advisory Committee on Community Relations representing the City Council, the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants Association. Chairman Ed Zane worked to increase public support for integration of lunch counters, encouraging people to write and express their opinions on the racial situation.

By the end of February, the sit-in movement had spread to more than 30 cities in eight states. ( see G4 for expanded chronology; next BH, see Mar 1)

Muhammad Ali

February 22, 1964: three days before the fight, a New York Times article stated that, “At the moment Cassius Marcellus Clay may very well be — to borrow his own florid description of himself — the “prettiest and greatest” of all heavyweight fighters. Before Tuesday midnight, however, the situation could very well undergo a rather violent metamorphosis.

On that evening the loud mouth from Louisville is likely to have a lot of vainglorious boasts jammed down his throat by a ham-like fist belonging to Sonny Liston, the malefic destroyer who is the champion of the world. The irritatingly confident Cassius enters this bout with one trifling handicap. He can’t fight as well as he can talk. (see Feb 25)

Katherine Johnson

February 22, 2019: NASA officially renamed a facility in West Virginia after Katherine Johnson, an African-American mathematician and centenarian whose barrier-breaking career was depicted in the film “Hidden Figures.”

The 2016 film, based on a book released earlier that year, depicted the struggle of Ms. Johnson and other black women for equality at NASA during the height of the space age and segregation. The mathematician tracked the trajectories of crucial missions in the 1960s.

“I am thrilled we are honoring Katherine Johnson in this way as she is a true American icon who overcame incredible obstacles and inspired so many,” Jim Bridenstine, the administrator of NASA, said in a statement. (see Feb 27)

Houston Race Revolt Restitution Attempt

February 22, 2024: in 1917 the US Army convicted 110 Black soldiers of murder, mutiny and other crimes at three military trials held at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Nineteen were hanged, including 13 on November 13, 1917, the largest mass execution of American soldiers by the Army.

On this date, several descendants of those soldiers gathered at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery as the Department of Veterans Affairs dedicated new headstones for 17 of the executed servicemen.

The new headstones acknowledged each soldier’s rank, unit and home state — a simple honor accorded to every other veteran buried in the cemetery. They replaced the previous headstones that noted only their name and date of death.

The families of the other two who were hanged reclaimed their remains for private burial. [NYT article] (next BH, see May 28; next RR, see )

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

National Bail Fund

February 22, 1922: Roger Baldwin, Director of the ACLU, organized the National Bail Fund for Civil Liberties on this day to assist people being prosecuted in civil liberties cases. Baldwin announced a goal of raising $100,000, and said that $60,000 had already been raised. The Fund became one of the principal sources of bail assistance for civil liberties cases in the 1920s. (see March 31, 1958)

Pre-Trial Fairness Act

February 22, 2021: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Illinois Pre-Trial Fairness Act making Illinois the first state to abolish cash bail payments for jail release for people who have been arrested and are waiting for their case to be heard.

The practice had long been controversial with criminal justice reform advocates who call cash bail a “poor people’s tax” that had a disproportionately negative impact on people of color. It left those who can’t come up with the money in jail for weeks or longer or even accepting plea deals as a way to get out.

Some of the provisions include requiring police officers to be licensed by the state and to wear body-cams by 2025, expanding training opportunities for officers, making it easier to decertify police officers who commit misconduct, and improving a victims compensation program by making resources more readily available to survivors. [NPR story] (next C & P, see Apr 22)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

February 22 Music et al

Roots of Rock

February 22, 1957: according to a NYT report, “Teenage rock ‘n’ roll enthusiasts stormed into Times Square area before dawn…and all day long they filled sidewalks, tied up traffic, and eventually required the attention of 175 policemen.

“They begin lining up at 4 A.M. to see the show at the Paramount Theatre. It wasn’t until 18 and a half hours later—at 10:30 P.M.—that the last of the line entered the theatre….The show featured Alan Freed.” (see Feb 25)

Billboard #1

February 22 – April 24, 1960: “Theme from a Summer Place” by Percy Faith #1 Billboard Hot 100.

Beatles Please

February 22, 1963: “Please Please Me” reached #1 in the UK. (see Mar 3)

Beatles Return

February 22, 1964: after a hectic but successful tour to the US, the Beatles returned to England. (see Beatles Back in the UK)

Beat Generation

February 22, 2021: Lawrence Ferlinghetti died. (next Beat, see )

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

South Vietnam Leadership

February 22, 1965: Gen Nguyen Khanh announced that he had accepted the council’s decision. Although he was hastily given the title of ambassador at large, General Khanh would never again play a significant role in his country’s future. (Vietnam, see Feb 26; SVL, see June 14)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Alcatraz

February 22, 1970: after three months, not more than 100 were still occupying Alcatraz and boredom was the biggest problem. (NYT article) (see May 31)

Environmental Issues

February 22, 2108: federal District Court Judge William Orrick ruled against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s attempt to delay the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Waste Prevention Rule.

The Environmental Defense Fund and a coalition of conservation and tribal citizen groups had asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for a preliminary injunction to prevent Zinke from delaying the rule.

Orrick granted the request.

“The court’s decision to block Secretary Zinke’s unlawful suspension ensures the Waste Prevention Rule remains in place, protecting tribes, ranchers and families across the West,” said EDF Lead Attorney Peter Zalzal. “The protections restored by this decision will help to prevent the waste of natural gas, reduce harmful methane, smog-forming and toxic pollution, and ensure communities and tribes have royalty money that can be used to construct roads and schools.” (EI, see Feb 27; NA, see Apr 13)

Derogatory Term Removed

February 22, 2022: the Department of the Interior announced that it was moving forward with removing and replacing a derogatory term for Indigenous women used for decades across the US, the department said Tuesday.

On November 19, 2021, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued an order declaring “squaw” derogatory. The term had historically been used as an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur towards Indigenous women.

Haaland, who is the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, established a 13-member task force to rename more than 600 geographic features that contain the term through that order. (next NA, see Apr 1)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

February 22, 1974: the first day of food distribution for People in Need ended in riots. Randolph Hearst stated that $6 million was beyond his capabilities. “The matter is now out of my hands,” he said. His representative made an offer to pay $2 million upon the immediate release of Patty Hearst and an additional $2 million in January 1975. (see PH for expanded chronology)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

February 22, 1979: Saint Lucia independent of United Kingdom. (next ID, see Oct 27)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

February 22, 1983: The Report of the Commission of Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), entitled Personal Justice Denied, concluded that the exclusion, expulsion, and incarceration of Japanese-Americans were not justified by military necessity, and the decisions to do so were based on race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. (see Internment for expanded chronology)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Euro arrives

February 22, 2002: the ex-currencies of all euro-using nations cease to be legal tender in the European Union.

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Foxconn

February 22, 2011: when Apple released its annual review of labor conditions at its global suppliers, one startling revelation stood out: 137 workers at a China factory had been seriously injured by a toxic chemical used in making the signature slick glass screens of the iPhone. (see February 13, 2012)

WV Teacher Strike

February 22, 2018: West Virginia teachers’ strike began with a call from the West Virginia branches of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association for teachers across West Virginia to strike. The strike was called in response to the comparatively low pay of West Virginia teachers, a pay raise passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Jim Justice that provided only a 2% raise for next year, and 1% raise for 2020 and a 1% raise for 2021 and a freeze on premiums for 16 months to benefits. Every public school district in the state closed. (USLH & WV, see Feb 27)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Same-sex rights

February 22, 2012: U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White ruled in Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management, declaring that DOMA’s Section 3, which restricts marriage to different-sex couples, was unconstitutional. [Wikipedia article] (see Mar 1)

Transgender protection

February 22, 2017: overruling his own education secretary, President Trump rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.

In a joint letter, the top civil rights officials from the Justice Department and the Education Department rejected the Obama administration’s position that nondiscrimination laws required schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice.

That directive, they said, was improperly and arbitrarily devised, “without due regard for the primary role of the states and local school districts in establishing educational policy.” (see Mar 6)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Violence Against Women Act

February 22, 2013: The House of Representatives introduced its version of the Violence Against Women Act. It came under sharp criticism from Democrats and women’s and human rights groups for failing to include protections in the Senate bill for gay, bisexual or transgender victims of domestic abuse. The House bill eliminated “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from a list of “populations” that face barriers to receiving victim services — and also stripped certain provisions regarding American Indian women on reservations. (see Feb 28)

Equal Pay

February 22, 2022: US Soccer and the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) reached an agreement to end a dispute over equal pay

The dispute dated back to March 2019 when the USWNT filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against US Soccer.

The agreement would see the women’s and men’s national teams receive an equal rate of pay in all friendlies and tournaments, including the World Cup.

A joint statement said, “We are pleased to announce that, contingent on the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement, we will have resolved our longstanding dispute over equal pay and proudly stand together in a shared commitment to advancing equality in soccer.”

As part of the agreement, US Soccer paid $22 million to the players in the case as well as an “additional $2 million into an account to benefit the USWNT players in their post-career goals and charitable efforts related to women’s and girls’ soccer.” [CNN article] (next Feminism, see )

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

February 22, 2017: the Supreme Court sided with Ehlena Fry, a 13-year-old Michigan girl with cerebral palsy, who spent years battling school officials for the right to bring her service dog — a goldendoodle named Wonder — to class. The justices ruled unanimously that federal disability laws might allow Ehlena Fry to pursue her case in court without first having to wade through a lengthy administrative process.

Fry’s family had obtained a goldendoodle to help her open doors and retrieve items. Her school district initially refused to allow Wonder at school. Officials relented a bit in 2010, but they placed many restrictions on Wonder. Ehlena and her dog later transferred to another school.

Her family sued the school district for violations of federal disability laws. The case was dismissed after a judge said the Frys first had to seek an administrative hearing. An appeals court last year upheld that decision 2-1. (see Mar 20)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

February 22, 2017: the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a death row inmate Duane Buck in Texas whose own lawyers introduced evidence at trial that he was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he is black. The court ruled that ane Buck, would be able to go back into a lower court and argue that he should have a new sentencing hearing.

In a 6-2 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion holding that Buck has “demonstrated both ineffective assistance of counsel” and has an “entitlement to relief.” (see Feb 27)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

February 22, 2017: at the Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kan, Adam W. Purinton shot Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, two immigrants from India, as well as Ian Grillot who had tried to come to their aid.

Purinton had earlier said racial slurs to the two Indians, was escorted out of the bar, but returned with a gun. Kuchibhotla died. Madasani and Grillot were wounded. [NYT story] (see Mar 3)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

February 22, 2021: months after voters approved legalization and months of wrangling over legislative language, New Jersey finally became the 13th state to legalize marijuana.

It wasn’t just the state’s social justice activists, entrepreneurs and the state’s most ardent weed enthusiasts waiting with bated breath. Legal weed advocates nationwide had kept a close eye on New Jersey, seen as a vital domino that could soon send the entire East Coast cascading toward marijuana legalization.

And, eventually, the rest of the country.

“New Jersey could be the game changer for the Northeast and for the Mid-Atlantic. It is a huge state, there will be a large market there and it will undoubtedly put pressure on surrounding states to rethink their positions and create momentum for cannabis reform,” said Steve Hawkins, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a national advocacy group for marijuana legalization. (next Cannabis, see , or see Cannabis Dominoes for expanded chronology) (next Cannabis, see Mar 31, or see CAC for expanded chronology)

February 22 Peace Love Art Activism

What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?