Category Archives: Black history

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

January 26, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party

Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party casts a long shadow in American history. While today’s GOP does not emphasize inclusion in its platform, for decades after the Civil War Lincoln’s party tried to give actual freedom to the legally freed Black population in the southern States. The Democratic party in those states gradually regained control, created Black Codes, and became an increasingly important piece of the national Democratic party’s evolving success.

On the face of it, introducing a bill in the early 20th century that made lynching a federal crime seems a sure thing.

It was not.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

Leonidas C. Dyer

Missouri’s Leonidas C. Dyer served 11 terms in the U.S. Congress from 1911 to 1933. He had served in the Spanish-American War in 1898 entering as a private and rising to the rank of colonel.

Dyer was both a Republican and a progressive, terms that today seem antithetical. The 1917 race riots in Missouri as well as the continual reports of lynchings in the south brought him to the point of introducing the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill in April 1918 .

It called for the prosecution of lynchers in federal court and that State officials who failed to protect lynching victims or prosecute lynchers could face five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The victim’s heirs could recover up to $10,000 from the county where the crime occurred.

In 1920 the Republican Party supported such legislation in its platform from the National Convention.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

No official record

Here is a look at the long and frustrating path the bill took. Keep in mind that according to the site, Chestnutt Archieve, there had been thousands of lynchings that had taken place in the United States since 1882! Like police shootings today, there was no official record kept of such killings. More than 70% of the lynchings were done by Whites against Blacks. Those Whites lynched (also by Whites) were done typically when the White person was perceived as having aided a Black person in some way.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

House Judiciary Committee

October 20, 1921: the House Judiciary Committee supported the bill.

October 26, 1921: President Warren G. Harding spoke at the 50th Anniversary celebration of the founding of Birmingham, Alabama. Before a crowd of about 100,000 whites and African-Americans, he gave a strong civil rights message: “Let the black man vote when he is fit to vote; prohibit the white man voting when he is unfit to vote.” Reportedly his statement was greeted with complete silence.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

Representative Finis Garrett of Tennessee

December 20, 1921: although outnumbered in the House membership by more than two to one, Democrats under the leadership of Representative Finis Garrett of Tennessee filibustered successfully against consideration of the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill. Republican floor leader, Rep Franklin Mondell, gave in to the filibuster and agreed to postpone debate on the the bill until after the Christmas holidays.

January 4, 1922: debate on the Dyer anti-lynching bill got under way in the House. Democratic House leader, Representative Garrett of Tennessee, spent three hours demanding roll calls in an attempt to postpone debate.

January 26, 1922: after more than three weeks, the House passed the Dyer Bill by a vote of 230 to 119.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

Senate Committee on the Judiciary

May 23, 1922: the Senate Committee on the Judiciary concluded that the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill was unconstitutional and for that reason should not be reported to the Senate.

Silent March

June 14, 1922: Blacks from Washington, DC staged a silent parade to protest continued lynchings and in an effort to promote action by Congress on the Dyer anti-lynching bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

June 23, 1922: at its thirteen annual conference in Newark, the NAACCP pledged the Association membership to “punish” those who oppose the Dyer bill. “The Republican Party has always received the bulk of the negro vote; the Republican Party is in power; the Republican Party has promised by its platform and its President to pass the Dyer bill. Unless the pledge is kept we solemnly pledge ourselves to use every avenue of influence to punish the persons who defeat it. We will regard no man as our friend who opposes this bill.”

June 30, 1922: the Senate Judiciary Committee, to the surprise of the Senate, voted 8 to 6 to favorably report the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill, which would permit the Federal Government to assume prosecution of lynchings when States fall or neglect to prosecute. It was fully understood that the Senate would allow this bill to die because it stirred up so much feeling during its progress in the House.

August 14, 1922: a delegation of Black women met with President Harding to urge final Congressional action on the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill. He expressed doubt about the bill’s passage.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

National Equal Rights League

September 24, 1922: the National Equal Rights League sent a telegram to President Harding calling for a special session of Congress to act on the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill. Congress had adjourned without completing consideration of the bill.

November 4, 1922: the National Equal Rights League presented a petition signed by thousands of people from fifteen States calling for Congress to consider the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

Democrat filibuster

November 28, 1922: a Democrat filibuster completely deadlocked the US Senate as a result of the Republican attempt to have the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill made the unfinished business of the Senate. Senator Oscar Underwood, the Democratic leader, stated that the minority world filibuster to the end of the session if necessary, adding that so long as the majority persisted in trying to bring the bill before the Senate the opponents of the bill would refuse to permit the consideration of any other legislation.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

Bill lynched

December 2, 1922: the Republican caucus voted to drop the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill. Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts stated, “The conference was in session nearly three hours and discussed the question very thoroughly. Of course the Republicans feel very strongly, as I do, that the bill ought to become a law. The situation before us was this: Under the rules of the Senate the Democrats, who are filibustering, could keep up that filibuster indefinitely, and there is no doubt they can do so.

An attempt to change the rules wold only shift the filibuster to another subject. We cannot pass the bill in this Congress and, therefore, we had to choose between giving up the whole session to a protracted filibuster or going ahead with regular business of the session….The conference decided very reluctantly that it was our duty to set aside the Dyer bill and go on with the business of the session.”

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

Lynchings continue

July 13 1923: Dyer stated that he was not surprised at the acquittal of a George Barkwell at Columbia, Missouri on the charge of murder in connection with the lynching of James Scott, a Black. Dyer referred to statistics which, he said, showed that 3,824 lynchings had been recorded during the last thirty-five years and that in all those cases there had scarcely been a conviction.

August 24, 1923: a 34-year-old black farmhand Ben Hart was killed based on suspicion that he was a “Peeping Tom” who had that morning peered into a young white girl’s bedroom window near Jacksonville, Florida. According to witnesses, approximately ten unmasked men came to Hart’s home around 9:30 p.m. claiming to be deputy sheriffs and informing Hart he was accused of looking into the girl’s window. Hart professed his innocence and readily agreed to go to the county jail with the men, but did not live to complete the journey.

Shortly after midnight the next day, Hart’s handcuffed and bullet-riddled body was found in a ditch about three miles from the city. Hart had been shot six times and witnesses reported seeing him earlier that night fleeing several white men on foot who were shooting at him as several more automobiles filled with white men followed.

Police investigating Hart’s murder soon determined he was innocent of the accusation against him; he was at his home 12 miles away when the alleged peeping incident occurred.

October 6, 1923: a delegation from the National Equal Rights League asked President Coolidge to recommend to Congress the enactment of the Dyer bill.

The President declared his unalterable stand in behalf of the full rights of all citizens.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

Legacy

Other legislators proposed anti-lynching bills, but the powerful southern Democratic coalition in the Senate continued to bloc each bill.

Efforts to pass similar legislation were not taken up again until the 1930s with the Costigan-Wagner Bill. The Dyer Bill influenced the text of anti-lynching legislation promoted by the NAACP into the 1950s, including the Costigan-Wagner Bill.

On June 13, 2005, in a resolution the US Senate formally apologized for its failure to enact this and other anti-lynching bills “when action was most needed.

The resolution was the first time that members of Congress, who had apologized to Japanese-Americans for their internment in World War II and to Hawaiians for the overthrow of their kingdom, had apologized to African-Americans for any reason.

Here is a link to the full text of the 1922 Anti Lynching Bill.

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

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

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

January 25, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

UMW

January 25, 1890: in Columbus, Ohio, the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union merged to form the United Mine Workers of America. (see July 2)

Harwick mine explosion

January 25, 1904: an explosion at the Harwick mine in Cheswick, Pa killed two hundred miners. Many of the dead lie entombed in the sealed mine to this day. (see Mar 27)

Coppage v. Kansas

January 25, 1915: the U.S. Supreme Court held that employers could make contracts that forbid employees from joining unions so-called “Yellow-dog” contracts. This case was decided in the era prior to the American Great Depression when the Supreme Court invalidated laws that imposed restrictions on contracts, especially those of employment. During this time, liberty of contract was viewed as a fundamental right, and therefore, only in extreme circumstances, could this right be abridged. (see Mar 3)

César E. Chávez, Dolores Huerta, UFW

January 25, 1972: a double trailer truck driven by a scab driver struck and killed 18-year old Nan Freeman – a college student who responded to appeals for help by striking farm workers at the Talisman Sugar plant near Belle Glade, Florida. Pickets had complained to the police about scab drivers speeding by the picket lines through stop signs at the plant gates to splash rain and mud on the striking workers. César Chávez wrote of Freeman, “…she is a sister who picketed with farm workers in the middle of the night because of her love for justice…to be honored and remembered for as long as farm workers struggle for justice.” (LH, see Apr 1; UFW, see Feb 21)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Cleo Wright lynched

January 25, 1942: a black man named Cleo Wright was arrested on charges of assaulting a white woman. Wright was shot several times by a city night marshal during his arrest, but the local hospital refused to admit him for treatment due to his race. Police initially brought the ailing Wright to his home to die, but later returned him to the city jail.

By the morning a mob of 75 white men had formed at the jail. They soon overcame city and state police officers and abducted the nearly unconscious Cleo Wright from his cell. The mob then dragged him through the streets of Sunset Addition, Sikeston’s predominantly black neighborhood, where the mob forced Wright’s wife to examine his body, then burned the corpse in front of two black churches in the presence of hundreds of black churchgoers.

A grand jury refused to indict the perpetrators, and no one was ever convicted. [EJI article] (next BH, see July 1)

Annie Lee Cooper fights back

January 25, 1965: King led another march of about 250 people to the courthouse. When Sheriff Clark painfully twists the arm of Annie Lee Cooper, 54, and shoved her, she hit him — twice. (BH, see Jan 26; MLK, see Feb 1)

Shirley Chisholm

January 25, 1972: Shirley Chisholm, the first African American Congresswoman, announced her candidacy for President. (see Feb 28)

137 SHOTS

January 25, 2016: Cleveland officials said they were firing six police officers involved in a 137-shot barrage that killed two unarmed black people after a high-speed chase.

Those officers included Michael Brelo, a patrolman acquitted of manslaughter charges in May for having fired the last 15 shots of the barrage in East Cleveland on Nov. 29, 2012. The chase began when officers standing outside police headquarters mistook the sound of a beat-up Chevrolet Malibu backfiring as a gunshot.

Six more officers who fired during the barrage face suspensions ranging from 21 to 30 days, said Public Safety Director Michael McGrath, the former police chief. A total of 13 officers had been notified they faced administrative discipline, and one of them has retired, McGrath said. [Guardian article] (see August 8, 2017)

Jackie Robinson statue vandalized

January 25, 2024: vandals entered McAdams Park in Wichita, KS and cut down a statue of Jackie Robinson at its ankles. All that remained was a pair of bronze shoes standing on a base.

A few days later, police received reports of a fire in a trash can at Garvey Park, located roughly seven miles away. When they responded, they found charred pieces of the statue.

In early 2021, League 42, a youth baseball nonprofit in Wichita, unveiled the statue to commemorate the pioneering civil rights leader and professional baseball player. Robinson’s jersey number, 42, is the league’s namesake. [Smithsonian article] (next BH, see Feb 22)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

The Red Scare

January 25, 1956: in a long interview with visiting American attorney Marshall MacDuffie, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev adopted a friendly attitude toward the United States and indicated that he believed President Dwight Eisenhower was sincere in his desire for peace. MacDuffie, a long-time acquaintance of the Soviet leader and a proponent of closer relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, had spent three hours conducting the interview. During the discussion, Khrushchev indicated that it was his desire that “We should have disarmament and we should think how to avoid a new war.” He was critical of some U.S. officials that he accused of making belligerent statements towards the Soviet Union, but he was also quick to point out that he did not hold Eisenhower responsible for those statements. In fact, the Soviet leader praised the president’s leadership, and apparently hoped that Eisenhower might negotiate seriously on a number of issues. (see Mar 8)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

January 25 Music et al

January 25, 1963: Vee-Jay record label of Chicago obtained a contract to release limited number of Beatles records in the U.S. for a limited time period. (see Feb 2)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

January 25, 1969: the first fully attended meeting of the formal Paris peace talks was held. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, the chief US negotiator, urged an immediate restoration of a genuine DMZ as the first “practical move toward peace.” Lodge also suggested a mutual withdrawal of “external” military forces and an early release of prisoners of war. Tran Buu Kiem and Xuan Thuy, heads of the National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese delegations respectively, refused Lodge’s proposals and condemned American “aggression.” (see February 1969)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Hiring discrimination

January 25, 1971: in Phillips v. Martin Marietta the Supreme Court ruled that it is contrary to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for a company to refuse to hire a woman because she has pre-school aged children when it does not impose a similar restriction on hiring men, even where there is no showing of discrimination against women overall. (next Feminism, see Mar 21)

Janet Yellen

January 25, 2021: lawmakers confirmed Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary, making her the first woman in American history to hold the position. {CNN article] (next Feminism, see Mar 8)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Charles Manson

January 25, 1971: in Los Angeles, California, cult leader Charles Manson was convicted, along with followers Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkle, of the brutal 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others. (see Mar 29)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Herrera v. Collins

January 25, 1993: the Supreme Court in Herrera v. Collins held in a 6-3 vote that a death-row inmate was not ordinarily entitled to relief where a claim of innocence was based on newly discovered evidence, unless the claim also includes an independent constitutional violation. The Supreme Court found that there is no due process violation in the execution of someone who was arguably innocent. (see June 28, 1993)

Bill Bailey hung

January 25, 1996: Delaware executed convicted double-murder Bill Bailey by hanging. Bailey was the third person executed by hanging since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 and the first hanging in Delaware since 1946. Bailey was the last person executed by hanging in the US. (see April 24, 1996)

Nitrogen Gas

January 25, 2024: Alabama carried out the first American execution using nitrogen gas, killing Kenneth Smith, 58, a convicted murderer, whose jury had voted to spare his life and opening a new frontier in how states execute death row prisoners.

The execution of Smith began at 7:53 p.m. Central time, and he was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. in an execution chamber in Atmore, Ala., according to John Q. Hamm, the state prison system’s commissioner. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution to move forward over the objections of its three liberal justices and concerns from death penalty opponents that the untested method would cause Mr. Smith to suffer. [NYT article] (next DP, see January 26)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear news

Almost Armageddon

January 25, 1995: Russia’s early-warning defense radar detected an unexpected missile launch near Norway, and Russian military command estimated the missile to be only minutes from impact on Moscow. Moments later, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, his defense minister, and his chief of staff were informed of the missile launch. The nuclear command systems switched to combat mode, and the nuclear suitcases carried by Yeltsin and his top commander were activated for the first time in the history of the Soviet-made weapons system. Five minutes after the launch detection, Russian command determined that the missile’s impact point would be outside Russia’s borders. Three more minutes passed, and Yeltsin was informed that the launching was likely not part of a surprise nuclear strike by Western nuclear submarines.

These conclusions came minutes before Yeltsin and his commanders should have ordered a nuclear response based on standard launch on warning protocols. Later, it was revealed that the missile, launched from Spitzbergen, Norway, was actually carrying instruments for scientific measurements. Nine days before, Norway had notified 35 countries, including Russia, of the exact details of the planned launch. The Russian Defense Ministry had received Norway’s announcement but had neglected to inform the on-duty personnel at the early-warning center of the imminent launch. The event raised serious concerns about the quality of the former Soviet Union’s nuclear systems. [BI article] (see May 11)

US/India agreement

January 25, 2015: President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled plans to unlock billions of dollars in nuclear trade and to deepen defense ties, steps they hoped would establish an enduring strategic partnership.

The two countries reached an understanding on two issues that, despite a groundbreaking 2006 agreement, had stopped U.S. companies from setting up reactors in India and had become one of the major irritants in bilateral relations.

“We are committed to moving towards full implementation,” Obama told a joint news conference with Modi. “This is an important step that shows how we can work together to elevate our relationship.”

The new deal resolved differences over the liability of suppliers to India in the event of a nuclear accident and U.S. demands on tracking the whereabouts of material supplied to the country, U.S. ambassador to India Richard Verma told reporters.

Jeffrey A. Sterling convicted

January 25, 2015: Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was convicted of espionage on charges that he told a reporter for The New York Times about a secret operation to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.

The case revolved around a C.I.A. operation in which a former Russian scientist provided Iran with intentionally flawed nuclear component schematics. Mr. Risen revealed the operation in his 2006 book, “State of War,” describing it as a mismanaged, potentially reckless mission that may have inadvertently aided the Iranian nuclear program. (next N/C N, see Mar 9; next Iran, see Mar 9)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

Immunity

January 25, 1998: Lewinsky lawyer Ginsburg said she will “tell all” in exchange for immunity. Clinton political adviser James Carville said “a war” will be waged between Clinton supporters and Kenneth Starr over Starr’s investigation tactics.

Dismissal

January 25, 1999: Senators hear arguments about dismissing the charges against President Clinton and then deliberate in secret. (see Clinton for expanded story)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Occupy Wall Street

January 25, 2012: recalling the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Adbusters published an ad calling for fifty thousand protesters to Occupy the G8 summit scheduled for May 2012. (see Sept 15)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Americans With Disabilities Act

January 25, 2013: Education Department stated that students with disabilities must be given the opportunity to play on a traditional sports team or have their own leagues. Disabled students who want to play for their school could join traditional teams if officials can make “reasonable modifications” to accommodate them. If those adjustments would fundamentally alter a sport or give the student an advantage, the department is directing the school to create parallel athletic programs that have comparable standing to traditional programs. (see Nov 7)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

January 25, 2014: an attorney for Steven Joshua Dinkle notified a judge that Dinkle intended to plead guilty at a court hearing. Prosecutors said Dinkle conspired with another person to burn a 6-foot cross in a black neighborhood in an attempt to intimidate its residents. Dinkle was also accused of lying to investigators. Dinkle said that he withdrew from the KKK months before the cross burning.

Dinkle was charged with conspiracy to violate housing rights, criminal interference with the right to fair housing, using fire to commit a federal felony and two counts of obstruction of justice. He will be sentenced in May. (DoJ article) (see Feb 3)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

Death-in-prison sentences for juveniles

January 25, 2016: the United States Supreme Court decided that states must retroactively apply the ban on mandatory death-in-prison sentences for juveniles.

On June 24, 2012, the US Supreme Court had struck down automatic life-without-parole sentences for children in Miller v. Alabama. Most state courts applied Miller retroactively to people already serving the banned sentence and granted them a new sentencing hearing, but states including Louisiana and Alabama refused to do so.

This Montgomery v. Louisiana decision required all states to apply Miller retroactively, which meant that hundreds of people in Louisiana, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and several other states which had sentenced people to die in prison for crimes committed as children were entitled to a new sentencing hearing.

Solitary confinement for juveniles

January 25, 2016: President Obama announced a ban on solitary confinement for juveniles in the federal prison system, a practice he said is “increasingly overused . . . with heartbreaking results.”

In a Washington Post op-ed, the president wrote that solitary confinement can have “devastating, lasting psychological consequences,” including an increased risk of suicide, especially for juveniles and people with mental illnesses. (Washington Post article) (see Mar 23)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

January 25, 2016: the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review North Dakota’s ban on abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy—allowing a July 2015 ruling from an appellate court striking the measure to stand.

The U.S. Supreme Court had consistently held—first in Roe v. Wade and again in Planned Parenthood v. Casey—that women have a constitutional right to decide whether to end or continue a pregnancy and states cannot ban abortion prior to viability. The Supreme Court refused to review a decision permanently blocking Arizona’s ban on abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy in 2013, and courts in Idaho and Georgia have also blocked similar pre-viability bans. (see Mar 4)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Trump’s Wall 1

January 25, 2017: President Trump signed an order to start building a border wall with Mexico and planned to indefinitely block Syrian refugees from entering the United States and to institute a temporary halt on all refugees from the rest of the world. The refugee policies were part of an executive order he was expected to issue on January 26.

The order required tougher vetting of foreigners fleeing persecution and placed a month-long ban on allowing any person into the United States from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen. Refugee admissions would be halted for 120 days while a review of screening procedures was completed. Upon resumption, the program would be far smaller, with the total number of refugees resettled in the United States more than halved to 50,000 from 110,000.

The mayors of American cities large and small reacted with outrage to the order which said he would halt funding to municipalities that did not cooperate with federal immigration officials. The defiant officials — from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and smaller cities, including New Haven; Syracuse; and Austin, Tex., said they were prepared for a protracted fight.

“We’re going to defend all of our people regardless of where they come from, regardless of their immigration status,” Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York said at a news conference with other city officials. (BBC article) (IH & TW, see Jan 26)

Trump’s Wall 2

January 25, 2019: President Trump agreed to reopen the federal government for three weeks while negotiations continued over how to secure the nation’s southwestern border, backing down after a monthlong standoff failed to force Democrats to give him billions of dollars for his long-promised wall. (next IH & TW, see Feb 5) or see TW for expanded chronology)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

January 25, 2018: Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers filed an emergency application asking the US Supreme Court to stay the State Court’s order to redistrict voting districts because they believed that federal law partly governed the case.

The lawmakers pointed to Article I, Section 4 of the United States Constitution, which said that the times, places and manners of congressional elections “shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.”

The lawmakers said the State Supreme Court had thus usurped the legislature’s role in violation of federal law. (VR & PA, see Feb 5)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

January 25, 2019: during the government shutdown, in which 800,000 federal workers worked without pay or were furloughed for five weeks alongside 1.2 million federal contractors, the Department of Housing and Urban Development was shuttered, with 95 percent of its staff furloughed. The effects reverberated throughout the country.

Programs like the Fair Housing and Equality Office, which is charged with eliminating housing discrimination, and the Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes Office, which helps local governments reduce lead-based paint hazards, were stalled. Vital services, including processing and investigating housing discrimination claims and providing funding for the fair-housing organizations that handle discrimination complaints, disappeared, leaving the patchwork system of federal employees and nonprofit advocates who fight for the victims of housing discrimination unable to serve their most vulnerable clients. (next FH, see July 15)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment

January 25, 2020: the NYT reported that President Trump’s lawyers wrapped up a brief opening argument against his impeachment much as they had begun, seeking to turn accusations of wrongdoing back on Democrats and insisting that there were innocent explanations for Trump’s actions toward Ukraine.

“They’ve come here today and they’ve basically said, ‘Let’s cancel an election over a meeting with the Ukraine,’” said Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel. “It would be a completely irresponsible abuse of power to do what they’re asking you to do: to stop an election, to interfere in an election and to remove the president of the United States from the ballot.” (next TI, see Jan 27 or see Trump for expanded chronology)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

January 25, 2021: President Biden reversed former President Trump’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military, administration.

With Lloyd J. Austin III, his new defense secretary, by his side in the Oval Office, Biden signed an executive order restoring protections first put in place by former President Barack Obama that opened up the ranks of the armed services to qualified transgender people.

“What I’m doing is enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform,” Mr. Biden said from behind the Resolute Desk moments before putting his signature on the document. [NYT article] (next LGBTQ, see Feb 11)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

January 25, 2022: more than 500 acres of California redwood forestland was officially returned to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council whose ancestors were expelled from it generations ago.

The land, formerly known as Andersonia West, was purchased by San Francisco conservation group Save the Redwoods League and donated to the the league announced.

The Sinkyone Council consists of 10 federally recognized Northern California tribal nations including the Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria, the Pinoleville Pomo Nation, and the Round Valley Indian Tribes.

People Indigenous to the land, located in Northern California’s Mendocino County, were “forcibly removed” by European American colonists, according to the league. But today, the Sinkyone people have been empowered with the ability to reclaim — and rename — the land they believe rightfully belongs to them.

“Renaming the property Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ lets people know that it’s a sacred place; it’s a place for our Native people,” Sinkyone Council board member and tribal citizen Crista Ray said in a statement. “It lets them know that there was a language and that there was a people who lived there. [CNN article] (next NA, see Feb 22)

Space

January 25, 2023: after completing 72 historic flights on Mars over three years, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter mission ended.

Originally designed as an experiment, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to operate and fly on another world, lifting off on April 19, 2021.

Imagery and data returned to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, showed that one or more of the chopper’s carbon fiber rotor blades was damaged while landing during its final flight this month. The team determined that the helicopter is no longer able to fly, according to the space agency.

Ingenuity, which had traveled to Mars as the Perseverance rover’s trusty sidekick, sits upright on the surface of Mars and mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory had been able to maintain communications with the rotorcraft. [CNN article] (next Space, see Feb 12)

January 25 Peace Love Art Activism

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

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

January 23, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Elizabeth Blackwell

January 23, 1849: Geneva College in New York granted a medical degree to Elizabeth Blackwell. She became the first female officially recognized as a physician in U.S. history. (see June 21, 1851)

Madeleine Korbel Albright

January 23, 1997: born in what was then Czechoslova, American diplomat Madeleine Korbel Albright was sworn in as the first female U.S. Secretary of State. With this appointment, she became the highest-ranking woman in the United States government. (next Feminism see June 21, 1997)

Women in combat

January 23, 2013: Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta lifted the military’s ban on women in combat, which opened up hundreds of thousands of additional front-line jobs to them. (see Feb 2)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

January 23, 1907: Charles Curtis, of Kansas, began serving in the US Senate. He was the first American Indian to become a U.S. Senator. He resigned in March of 1929 to become U.S. President Herbert Hoover’s Vice President. (see January 29, 1908)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Silk Weavers strike

January 23, 1913: approximately 800 broad-silk weavers at the Doherty Company mill in Paterson, New Jersey leave work. Within a month, between 4,000 and 5,000 silk workers join them in protest of the introduction of the multiple-loom system, leading to a drop in wages, and the Paterson Silk Strike begins.

Clothing Workers Strike

January 23, 1913: some 10,000 clothing workers strike in Rochester, N.Y., for the 8-hour day, a 10-percent wage increase, union recognition, and extra pay for overtime and holidays. Daily parades were held throughout the clothing district and there was at least one instance of mounted police charging the crowd of strikers and arresting 25 picketers. Six people were wounded over the course of the strike and one worker, 18-year-old Ida Breiman, was shot to death by a sweatshop contractor. The strike was called off in April after manufacturers agreed not to discriminate against workers for joining a union. (see Feb 10)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Marcus Garvey

January 23, 1920: Marcus Garvey incorporated the Negro Factories Corporation. It was the finance arm of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and a cornerstone of Garvey’s vision for black economic independence. The Corporation’s goal was to support businesses that would employ African Americans and produce goods to sell to black consumers. Garvey envisioned a string of black-owned factories, retailers, services and other businesses, and hoped that the corporation would eventually be strong enough to power and sustain an all-black economy with worldwide significance. (BH, see June 7; see MG for expanded chronology)

Hawood Patterson

January 23, 1936: Haywood Patterson convicted for a fourth time of rape and sentenced to 75 years in prison. This was the first time in Alabama history a black man was sentenced to anything other than death for the rape of a white woman. (NYT article) (see Scottsboro for expanded story)

The tragedy of Willie Edwards Jr.

January 23, 1957: just before midnight on January 23, 1957, four Klansmen forced Willie Edwards Jr. to jump to his death from the Tyler Goodwin Bridge near Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Edwards, a black resident of Montgomery, was driving back from his first assignment as a deliveryman for a Winn-Dixie grocery store when he stopped for a soft drink. As he read his log book under the console light in his truck, four armed white men approached the vehicle, forced Mr. Edwards to exit the truck at gunpoint, and ordered him to get into their car.

Accusing Mr. Edwards of “offending a white woman,” the men proceeded to shove and slap him as they drove. One man pointed his gun at Mr. Edwards and threatened to castrate him. Sobbing and begging the men not to harm him, Mr. Edwards repeatedly denied having said anything to any white woman. Eventually the men reached the bridge and ordered Mr. Edwards out of the car. Ordered to “hit the water” or be shot, Mr. Edwards climbed the railing of the bridge and fell 125 feet to his death.

The next morning, Mr. Edwards’s truck was found in the store parking lot, the console light still on. Mr. Edwards’ pregnant twenty-three-year-old wife, Sarah Salter, was left to raise their two young daughters. Initially hopeful that her husband may have left for California, where he had always wanted to go, Mrs. Salters learned three months later that her husband was dead when two fisherman found his decomposed body in April 1957.

Nearly twenty years later, in 1976, Attorney General Bill Baxley prosecuted three known Klansmen for Mr. Edwards’s murder, after a fourth man confessed in exchange for immunity. After the indictments were quashed twice for failure to specify a cause of death, the FBI informed Baxley that one of the men charged, Henry Alexander, was their primary Klan informant in the area and asked Baxley to give him “some consideration.” Alexander had been indicted for four church bombings, the bombings of two homes, and the assault of a black woman riding on a bus but he was never prosecuted. Baxley abandoned their case against the men and all charges were dropped.

Not until 1993, when Alexander confessed to his wife on his deathbed that he and three other Klansmen were responsible for “the truck driver’s” death, did the truth of Mr. Edwards’ last moments come to light. Alexander told his wife, “That man never hurt anybody. I was just running my mouth. I caused it.” In 1997, the Alabama Department of Vital Statistics changed Mr. Edwards’s cause of death from “unknown” to “homicide.”

A 1999 Montgomery County grand jury declined to indict any of the surviving suspects for the murder of Willie Edwards Jr. [see WE, Jr for expanded story] (see Feb 14)

Voting Rights

January 23, 1964: thirteen years after its proposal and nearly 2 years after its passage by the US Senate, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, was ratified. (see Feb 17)

FREE SPEECH

January 23, 1964: a group protested racial voting discrimination and encouraged Negro registration by picketing the Forrest County, Mississippi, voting registration office in the county courthouse each weekday from January 23 to May 18, 1964. They walked in a “march route” set off by the sheriff with barricades to facilitate access to the courthouse. (see Mar 9)

Harlem Revolt

January 23, 1968: the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of William Epton, the leader of the Harlem Progressive Labor Movement, who was convicted of encouraging rioting in Harlem in July, 1964. (BH, see Feb 8; RR, see Feb 29; Harlem Riot, see Apr 25)

Clarence Norris

January 23, 1989: Clarence Norris, the last surviving Scottsboro boy, died at age 76. (see Scottsboro for expanded story)

Colin Kaepernick

January 23, 2018: Colin Kaepernick was named a finalist for an award honoring players for their community service work.

Kaepernick and four other players were announced as finalists for the NFL Players Association’s (NFLPA) Byron “Whizzer” White Community MVP award. (see Apr 21)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestones

Wham-O

January 23, 1957: machines at the Wham-O toy company rolled out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs–Frisbees. (see May 1)

Roots mini-series

January 23, 1977: the TV mini-series “Roots,” based on the Alex Haley novel, began airing on ABC. . (see September 7, 1979)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

January 23 Music et al

Roots of Rock

January 23, 1959: the Winter Dance Party tour, featuring Buddy Holly , Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and Dion and the Belmonts, played its first date at Milwaukee’s Million Dollar Ballroom. It would become the most famous tour in the history of Rock and Roll, but would only last for 10 shows with the original lineup. (see Feb 3)

Wonderland by Night

January 23 – February 12, 1961: Bert Kaempfert’s Wonderland by Night is Billboard #1 album.

Janis Joplin and the Road to Bethel

January 23, 1963: Janis Joplin, a 20-year-old college dropout from Port Arthur, TX began hitchhiking to San Francisco in order to become a singer, along with her friend Chet Helms. Chet would become one of the major concert promoters in San Francisco with his “Family Dog” series of concerts. (see Janis Joplin for more) . (see June 13, 1967)

Downtown

January 23 – February 5, 1965: “Downtown” by Petula Clark #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Crawdaddy

January 23 – February 7, 1966: first issue of Crawdaddy! magazine: You are looking at the first issue of a magazine of rock and roll criticism. Crawdaddy! will feature neither pin-ups nor news-briefs; the specialty of this magazine is intelligent writing about pop music….” see Paul Williams Crawdaddy for more) (see October 18, 1967)

Ken Kesey/LSD

January 23, 1966: Ken Kesey fakes suicide and flees to Mexico to avoid imprisonment. (see Jan 29)

First R & R Hall of Fame inductions

January 23, 1986: the first annual induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was held in New York City. Inductees were:

Chuck Berry
James Brown
Ray Charles
Sam Cooke
Fats Domino
The Everly Brothers
Alan Freed
John Hammond

Buddy Holly
Rober Johnson
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Sam Phillips
Elvis Presley
Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmy Yancey

(see May 5)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Ruptured storage tank

January 23, 1963: in Mankata Minnesota a storage tank ruptured and spilled three million gallons of soybean oil and flooded streets. The oil eventually flowed into the Mississippi River. In the spring, more than 10,000 ducks were found dead in the wetlands along the river. (see Dec 17)

Wetlands protections removed

January 23, 2020: the Trump administration finalized a rule to strip away environmental protections for streams, wetlands and other water bodies, handing a victory to farmers, fossil fuel producers and real estate developers who said Obama-era rules had shackled them with onerous and unnecessary burdens.

From Day 1 of his administration, President Trump vowed to repeal President Barack Obama’s “Waters of the United States” regulation, which had frustrated rural landowners. His new rule was the latest step in the Trump administration’s push to repeal or weaken nearly 100 environmental rules and laws, loosening or eliminating rules on climate change, clean air, chemical pollution, coal mining, oil drilling and endangered species protections. [NYT article] (next EI, see Feb 6)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

January 23, 1967: in Keyishian v. Board of Regents the US Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a New York State law that prohibited members of “seditious” groups from teaching in the state. The Court held that academic freedom “does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom.” The law required an answer to the question: “Have you ever advised or taught or were you ever a member of any society or group of persons which taught or advocated the doctrine that the Government of the United States or of any political subdivisions thereof should be overthrown or overturned by force, violence or any unlawful means?” Sedition is generally defined to mean actions or direct incitement to challenge the established order and/or to advocate the overthrow of the government. (NYT article) (CW, see Feb 15; FS, see May 8)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

January 23 1973: Nixon announced that Henry A. Kissinger and North Vietnam’s chief negotiator, Le Duc Tho, had initialed an agreement in Paris “to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.” (see Jan 27)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

Clinton claims innocence

January 23, 1998: President Clinton assured his Cabinet of his innocence. Judge Susan Webber Wright put off “indefinitely” a deposition Lewinsky was scheduled to give in the Jones lawsuit. Clinton’s personal secretary, Betty Currie, and other aides were subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. Lewinsky’s lawyar, William Ginsburg, said whe was being “squeezed” by Starr and was now a target of the Whitewater investigation.

Monica Lewinsky

January 23, 1999: a judge ordered Monica Lewinsky to cooperate with House prosecutors; Lewinsky returns to Washington, D.C., from California. (see Clinton for expanded story)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

January 23, 2002: John Walker Lindh returned to the U.S. under FBI custody. Lindh was charged with conspiring to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorists and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban while a member of the al-Quaida terrorist organization in Afghanistan. (T, see Feb 21; JWL, see July 15)

Shannon Conley

January 23, 2015: Judge Raymond Moore sentenced 19-year-old Shannon Conley to four years in prison. She had tried to go to Syria to help Islamic State militants. Conley pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization in September under a deal that requires her to divulge information she may have about other Americans with similar intentions. Wearing a black and tan headscarf with her jail uniform, she tearfully told the judge that she had disavowed jihad and that the people who influenced her misconstrued the Quran. (NYT article) (see Feb 6)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Virginia ban on same-sex marriage

January 23, 2014: Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring concluded that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and would no longer defend it in federal lawsuits. Virginia would instead side with the plaintiffs who were seeking to have the ban struck down. “After a thorough legal review of the matter, Attorney General Herring… concluded that Virginia’s current ban… in violation of the U.S. constitution and he will not defend it,” spokesman wrote. [NYT article] (see Jan 30)

Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage

January 23, 2015: U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade ruled that Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Granade, ruled that Alabama’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, known as the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment, violated the 14th Amendment’s due process and equal protection clauses.

“If anything, Alabama’s prohibition of same-sex marriage detracts from its goal of promoting optimal environments for children,” Granade writes. “Those children currently being raised by same-sex parents in Alabama are just as worthy of protection and recognition by the State as are the children being raised by opposite-sex parents. Yet Alabama’s Sanctity laws harms the children of same-sex couples for the same reasons that the Supreme Court found that the Defense of Marriage Act harmed the children of same-sex couples.” The suit was brought against the state by two women, Cari Searcy and Kimberly McKeand, who had traveled out of state to get married in order to become the legal parents of their son. [NYT article] (see Feb 3 or see December 13, 2022 re DoMA)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

January 23, 2015: the US Supreme Court agreed to review Oklahoma’s method of execution by lethal injection, taking up a case brought by Richard Glossip, John Grant and Benjamin Cole, three death row inmates, who accused the state of violating the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The three-drug process used by Oklahoma prison officials for carrying out the death penalty had been widely debated since the April 29, 2014 botched execution of inmate Clayton Lockett, a convicted murder. He was seen twisting on the gurney after death chamber staff failed to place the IV properly. The inmates challenging the state’s procedures argued that the sedative used by Oklahoma, midazolam, cannot achieve the level of unconsciousness required for surgery and was therefore unsuitable for executions.

Glossip, Grant, and Cole want the court to decide whether its decision in Baze v. Rees (see April 16, 2008) in which the justices upheld the three-drug execution protocol used by Kentucky applied to Oklahoma’s procedures. Lawyers for the inmates said that the Oklahoma protocol was different, so the reasoning of the 2008 ruling should not apply. (see Jan 28)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

January 23, 2017: President Donald Trump signed off on the first anti-abortion policy of his term.

It was expected as almost immediately upon entering office, every new administration since 1984 had repealed or reinstated, according to its party’s position on abortion rights, a rule that prohibited foreign organizations that received U.S. family-planning funds “from providing counseling or referrals for abortion or advocating for access to abortion services in their country.” This rule, known as the Mexico City policy, blocks U.S. family-planning assistance to these groups, even if their abortion-related activities—including information, referrals, or services—were conducted with non-U.S. funds.

Opponents to the restriction dubbed it the “Global Gag Rule” because it hindered communication between health-care providers and patients. (NYT article) (see Jan 27)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

January 23, 2018: NJ Governor Phil Murphy signed an Executive Order directing the New Jersey Department of Health and the Board of Medical Examiners to review the state’s existing medical marijuana program. The goal of the review was to eliminate barriers to access for patients who suffer from illnesses that could be treated with medical marijuana.

“We need to treat our residents with compassion,” Governor Murphy said. “We cannot turn a deaf ear to our veterans, the families of children facing terminal illness, or to any of the other countless New Jerseyans who only wish to be treated like people, and not criminals. And, doctors deserve the ability to provide their patients with access to medical marijuana free of stigmatization.” [text of order] (next Cannabis see Jan 31) or see CCC for expanded chronology)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

January 23, 2020: the State Department gave visa officers more power to block pregnant women abroad from visiting the United States and directed them to stop “birth tourism” — trips designed to obtain citizenship for their children.

The administration used the new rule to push consular officers abroad to reject women they believe were entering the United States specifically to gain citizenship for their child by giving birth. The visas covered by the new rule were issued to those seeking to visit for pleasure, medical treatment or to see friends and family. [NYT article] (next IH, see Jan 27)

January 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment

January 23, 2020: House Democrats sought to pre-emptively dismantle President Trump’s core defenses in his impeachment trial, invoking his own words to argue that his pressure campaign on Ukraine was an abuse of power that warranted his removal.

On the second day of arguments Democrats sought to make the case that Trump’s actions were an affront to the Constitution. And they worked to disprove his lawyers’ claims that he was acting only in the nation’s interests when he sought to enlist Ukraine to investigate political rivals. [NYT article] (next TI see Jan 24 or see Trump for expanded chronology)