Category Archives: Black history

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

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

January 2, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

January 2, 1839: photography pioneer Louis Daguerre took the first photograph of the moon. see March 30, 1842)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Industrial Union Manifesto

January 2, 1905: conference of 23 industrial unionists in Chicago issued an Industrial Union Manifesto calling for an industrial Union Congress to be held in Chicago June 27. (see Mar 20)

AFL v. American Sash & Door Co

January 2, 1949: in AFL v. American Sash & Door Co, the US Supreme Court ruled against the closed shop, a labor-management agreement that only union members could be hired and must remain members to continue on the job. (see Oct 2)

Sago Mine explosion

January 2, 2006: an underground explosion at Sago Mine in Tallmansville, W. Va., trapped 12 miners and cut power to the mine. Eleven men died, mostly by asphyxiation. The mine had been cited 273 times for safety violations over the prior 23 months. (NYT editorial) (see May 1)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

January 2, 1910: from the New York Times: “Miss Alice Paul of Philadelphia, the suffragette who on December 9 was released from Holloway Jail after serving one month’s imprisonment for her share in the suffragette demonstration at the Lord Mayor’s banquet at the Guildhall, will sail for America some day next week.” On November 11, 1909, UK police had arrested Paul for throwing stones through a window at the Guildhall while the Lord Mayor’s banquet was in Progress. Inside the hall, Lucy Burns found Winston Churchill, waved a tiny banner in his face, and asked him, “How can you dine here while women are starving in prison?” (next Feminism see In February 1910)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Palmer Raids

January 2, 1920: over 500 government agents acting on direction of US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer carried out a massive counter-terror operation in 33 US cities, arresting between six and ten thousand aliens suspected of Communism, radicalism and anarchism. The “Palmer Raids” and the detentions and deportation proceedings that followed them were denounced by a number of prominent lawyers and judges who later established the American Civil Liberties Union. (see December 25, 1921)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Sam Carter lynched

January 2, 1923: a mob of white men kidnapped, tortured, and lynched Sam Carter, a black craftsman from Rosewood, on suspicion that he had helped Jesse Hunter escape. White men continued to terrorize Rosewood searching for Hunter and black residents armed themselves in defense. [Black Past report] (next BH, RR, and Lynching, see Jan 4; see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)

Willie James Howard

January 2, 1944 15-year-old Willie James Howard, a black boy, was kidnapped and lynched by three white men in Suwannee County, Florida, after being accused of sending a love note to the daughter of one of the men.

During Christmas 1943, Willie Howard sent cards to all of his co-workers at the Van Priest Dime Store in Live Oak, Florida. Unlike the other cards, Willie’s card to Cynthia Goff, a white store employee, revealed a youthful crush. His greeting expressed hope that white people would someday like black people and concluded: “I love your name. I love your voice. For a S.H. [sweetheart] you are my choice.”

After reading the card, Cynthia’s father, Phil Goff, brought two friends to the Howard home and demanded to see Willie. Despite his mother’s pleading, the men dragged Willie away, and then kidnapped Willie’s father, James Howard, from work. The men drove the two Howards to the embankment of the Suwanee River, bound Willie’s hands and feet, stood him at the edge of the water, and told him to either jump or be shot. Willie jumped into the cold water below and drowned while his father was forced to watch at gunpoint. Willie’s body was pulled from the river the next day.

Goff and his accomplices admitted to the local sheriff that they took Willie to the river to punish him, but claimed the teen had become hysterical and jumped into the water unprovoked at the thought of being whipped by his father. Fearful for his own life and the other members of his family, James Howard signed a statement supporting Goff’s account. He and his family fled Live Oak three days later. [PBS report] (next BH, see Feb 16; next Lynching, see March 26; for expanded chronology of lynching, see also AL4)

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR

January 2, 1965: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee with the help of Martin Luther King Jr. announced the beginning of a new campaign to help register African-American voters in Selma, Alabama. Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark did his best to stop that. Over the next two months, more than 2,000 people were arrested for attempting to register or encouraging others to vote. (BH, see Jan 11; MLK, see Jan 18)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

January 2, 1952: Rochin v. California. Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies entered Antonio Rochin’s residence without a warrant in early July 1949. Rochin swallowed some pills, and police took him to the emergency room where he was forcibly induced to vomit them up. The pills were morphine and were later used to convict him. The Supreme Court, in Rochin v. California, unanimously overturned his conviction ruling that the methods used to obtain the evidence “shocks the conscience” and violated the due process clause.

The Court: ” . . . we are compelled to conclude that the proceedings by which this conviction was obtained do more than offend some fastidious squeamishness or private sentimentalism about combating crime too energetically. This is conduct that shocks the conscience. Illegally breaking into the privacy of the petitioner, the struggle to open his mouth and remove what was there, the forcible extraction of his stomach’s contents – this course of proceeding by agents of government to obtain evidence is bound to offend even hardened sensibilities. They are methods too close to the rack and the screw to permit of constitutional differentiation.”(see May 23, 1957)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

January 2, 1959: Luna 1 launched from the Soviet Union towards the moon but misses its target. The Soviets had launched lunar probes in 1958 but not announced to the public or acknowledged. This set a pattern for the Soviet space program: missions were not announced until they could be hailed as successes. (see Mar 3)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

JFK announces candidacy

January 2, 1960, John F Kennedy announced his candidacy for President.

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

FREE SPEECH

January 2, 1962: the folk singing group, The Weavers, which had been attacked in the 1950s for the leftist political views of its members, was barred from appearing on the late-night Jack Paar Show (predecessor to The Tonight Show) for refusing to sign a loyalty oath.

Other musicians with left-wing histories also had problems appearing on network television in the 1950s and 1960s because of their political views: Pete Seeger (September 14, 1963); Joan Baez (March 20, 1963).

The insidious aspect of all the loyalty oaths of the Cold War era was that they had nothing to do with any specific criminal or unprofessional conduct on the part of individuals required to sign them. (CW, see Feb 10; FS, see June 25, 1963)

SALT II/Nuclear News

January 2, 1980: in a strong reaction to the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter asked the Senate to postpone action on the SALT II nuclear weapons treaty and recalled the U.S. ambassador to Moscow. These actions sent a message that the age of detente and the friendlier diplomatic and economic relations that were established between the US and Soviet Union during President Richard Nixon’s administration (1969-74) had ended. (CW, see Jan 26; NN, see March 9, 1981)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

January 2 Music et al

19 attend Beatle concert

January 2, 1963: 19 people attend their concert in Dingwall. (see Jan 11)

January 2 – 8, 1965: Elvis Presley’s Roustabout soundtrack the Billboard #1 album. (see Aug 27)

January 2, 1969: police seized 30,000 copies of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins’ at Newark Airport on the grounds that its cover photograph was deemed pornographic. (read more at John Yoko Two Virgins)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Battle of Ap Bac

January 2, 1963: Battle of Ap Bac. Against overwhelming odds, the Viet Cong achieved their first major victory. They successfully stopped the well-equipped South Vietnamese army, supported by a combination of artillery and armored units as well as American air power. The Viet Cong lost 18 soldiers killed and 39 wounded, although hit by more than 600 rounds of artillery, napalm and other ordnance released by 13 warplanes and five UH-1 gunships. Three American advisors died. (NYT article) (see Apr 11)

Bucher v. Selective System Local Boards

January 2, 1970: the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Bucher v. Selective System Local Boards that it was illegal for draft boards to punitively reclassify anti-Vietnam War protesters. The Rev. Henry Hale Bucher and other protesters had turned in their draft cards to protest the Vietnam War, leaving them in violation of Selective System regulations, and they were then punitively reclassified as A-1 Delinquent by their local draft boards, meaning they were top priority for being drafted. The local boards acted according to Memorandum 85, issued by the Director of the Selective Service System on October 24, 1967.

The Court of Appeals ruled that the punitive reclassification constituted “summary punishment,” in violation of the constitutional guarantees of due process in the Fifth and Sixth Amendments (trial by jury, assistance of counsel, etc.), and that the delinquency procedures used against the plaintiffs were not authorized by the 1967 Military Selective Service Act. (see Feb 9)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

Cigarette advertising ban

January 2, 1971: a federal ban on T.V. cigarette ads went into effect.(see October 28, 1974)

Vaping sales limited

January 2, 2020: federal officials said they would forbid the sale of most flavored e-cigarette cartridges, but would exempt menthol and tobacco flavors, as well as flavored liquid nicotine sold in open tank systems at vape shops.

The policy reflected a partial victory for vaping industry groups, but also seemed aimed at appeasing parents (including the crucial voting bloc of suburban mothers) and public health officials worried about nicotine addiction among teenagers. [NYT article] (next CR, see November 3, 2023)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

January 2, 1975: there was no news of Patty Hearst as the date for the final ransom payment of $2 million passed. (see Hearst for expanded chronology)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

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

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

December 30, 2016 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Hampton Johnson

December 30, 1864: a black man named Hampton Johnson ran away from enslavement in Richmond, Virginia. It was in the midst of the Civil War, and nearly two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had rendered Johnson and many other enslaved black people free under the laws of the United States, Nevertheless, in January 1865 Hampton Johnson’s purported “owners” placed an ad in the Richmond Dispatch newspaper, offering a reward for his return.

The ad seeking Hampton Johnson’s return described him as “a Negro boy” of 25 years, 5’6″ tall, 130 lbs, able to read and write “remarkably well,” married but forced to live apart from his wife, and skilled as a mechanic. The advertiser, W.B. Cook, offered $1000 to anyone who captured him “within the enemy’s lines,” and $500 if captured within Virginia. This ad is evidence that black people like Hampton Johnson remained vulnerable to recapture and re-enslavement through the war’s end.

Johnson’s ultimate fate is unknown, but if his decision to flee slavery in December 1864 ended at freedom, he was one of approximately 100,000 enslaved men, women and children who successfully escaped enslavement in the United States before 1865. [EJI article] (next BH, see January 31, 1865)

A year without a lynching

December 30, 1952: for the first time in seventy years, a full year passed with no recorded incidents of lynching. Defined as open, non-judicial murders carried out by mobs, lynching befell people of many backgrounds in the United States but was a frequent tool of racial terror used against black Americans to enforce and maintain white supremacy.

Prior to 1881, reliable lynching statistics were not recorded. But the Chicago Tribune, the NAACP, and the Tuskegee Institute began keeping independent records of lynchings as early as 1882. As of 1952, these authorities reported that 4726 persons had been lynched in the United States over the prior seventy years and 3431 of them were African American. During some years in American history it was not unusual for all lynching victims to be African American.

Lynching in the United States was most common in the later decades of the nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth century, during post-reconstruction efforts to re-establish a racial hierarchy that subordinated and oppressed black people. Before the lynching-free year of 1952, annual lynching statistics were exhibiting significant reductions. Between 1943 and 1951 there were twenty-one lynchings reported nationwide, compared to 597 between 1913 and 1922. After 1952, the number of lynching incidents recorded annually continued to be zero or very low and the tracking of lynchings officially ended in 1968.

Though the diminished frequency of lynching signaled by the 1952 report was encouraging, the Tuskegee Institute warned that year that “other patterns of violence” were emerging, replacing lynchings with legalized acts of racialized inhumanity like executions, as well as more anonymous acts of violence such as bombings, arson, and beatings. Similarly, a 1953 editorial in the Times Daily of Florence, Alabama, noted that, though the decline in lynching was good news, the proliferation of anti-civil rights bombings demonstrated the South’s continued need for “education in human relations.” (next BH, see below; next Lynching, see April 25, 1959; for expanded chronology of lynching, see also AL4)

Jo Ann Robinson

In 1953: Jo Ann Robinson (of Montgomery’s Women’s Political Council) and other local black leaders met with the three commissioners of Montgomery. Robinson’s group complained that the city did not hire any black bus drivers, said that segregation of seating was unjust, and that bus stops in black neighborhoods were farther apart than in white ones, although blacks were the majority of the riders. The commissioners refused to change anything. Robinson and other WPC members met with bus company officials on their own. The segregation issue was deflected, as bus company officials said that segregation was city and state law. The WPC achieved a small victory, as the bus company officials agreed to have the buses stop at every corner in black neighborhoods, as was the practice in white neighborhoods. (next BH, see June 8 ; next Feminism, see May 18, 1954; next MBB, see March 2, 1955)

Montgomery Bus Boycott

December 30, 1955: Montgomery Mayor W. A. Gayle urges Montgomery citizens to patronize city buses or risk losing the bus company’s business (see MBB for expanded chronology)

Attica Prison Riot

December 30, 1976: Governor Carey of New York pardoned seven inmates.(next BH, see June 10, 1977; Attica, see August 29, 2000)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Governor assassinated

December 30, 1905: an assassin’s bomb killed Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg, who had brutally suppressed the state’s miners. Legendary Western Federation of Miners and IWW leader William “Big Bill” Haywood and two other men were put on trial for the death but were ultimately declared innocent.(next LH, see May 15, 1906)

Sit-down strike

December 30, 1936: at 8 p.m. in one of the first sit-down strikes in the US, autoworkers occupied the General Motors Fisher Body Plant Number One in Flint, Michigan. The autoworkers struck to win recognition of the United Auto Workers (UAW) as the only bargaining agent for GM’s workers; they also wanted to make the company stop sending work to non-union plants and to establish a fair minimum wage scale, a grievance system and a set of procedures that would help protect assembly-line workers from injury. In all, the strike lasted 44 days.

Union membership

In 1937: 15.1% of employed workers belong to unions, the first time it had exceeded 10%.

CIO Splits from AFL

In 1937: The Congress of Industrial Organizations splits from the American Federation of Labor over disputes about methods of organizing large industries. The two groups will remain rivals until merging back together as the AFL-CIO in 1955. (next LH, see Jan 11)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

USSR born

December 30, 1922 in post-revolutionary Russia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established, comprising a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation (divided in 1936 into the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian republics). Also known as the Soviet Union, the new communist state was the successor to the Russian Empire and the first country in the world to be based on Marxist socialism.

The USSR eventually consisted of: Russia, Ukraine, Byleorussia, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldovia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Turmenia, and Tajikistan. (see USSR for expanded chronology)

Romania Soviet satellite

December 30, 1947: Soviet-backed Communists forced the abdication of Romania’s King Michael. Communists now control all of Eastern Europe.(next Red Scare, see January 9, 1948; Romania, see December 15, 1989)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

December 30, 1953: first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175. [NYT article] (next TM, see January 1, 1954)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

December 30 Music et al

Beatles ad

December 30, 1963: a two-page ad from Capitol Records pitching the Beatles’ recordings runs in Billboard and Cash Box music industry magazines. Bulk reprints of these ads had already been distributed to Capitol’s sales agents for use with radio stations and in enlarged, easel-scale size for use in music store displays across the country. (next Beatles, see January 3, 1964)

Hello, Goodbye

December 30, 1967 – January 19, 1968: “Hello Goodbye” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (next Beatles, see January 6, 1967)

George Harrison attacked at home

December 30, 1999: at approximately 3 am George Harrison was the victim of an intruder at his home in Oxfordshire, England, when a disturbed 33-year-old Liverpudlian, Michael Abram broke into George’s home and stabbed the former Beatle several times in the chest with a six-inch knife. Abrams thought he was on a ‘mission from God’.

Harrison’s wife, Olivia, attacked Abram with a poker and a bedroom lamp, then held him until the police arrived.

George ended up with a collapsed lung besides the stab wounds.

Abram was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered to a psychiatric hospital. [Independent article] (next Beatles, see November 29, 2001)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Binh Gia

December 30, 1964: South Vietnam’s Fourth Marine Battalion relieved and reinforced the South Vietnamese rangers at Binh Gia. An American helicoptor was shot down killing the four on board. (next Vietnam, see Dec 31)

Nixon orders bombing halt

December 30, 1972: the White House announced that President Nixon had ordered a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam above the 20th Parallel and that Henry A. Kissinger would resume negotiations for a Vietnam settlement with Le Duc Tho in Paris on Jan 8.

The announcement of the renewed efforts to seek a negotiated settlement, ending nearly two weeks of heavy bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong, also said that the technical talks of lower-level American and North Vietnamese experts would resume on January 2 in Paris.

Gerald L. Warren, a deputy White House press secretary, said in answer to a question at a White House briefing for newsmen that “as soon as it was clear that serious negotiations could be resumed at both the technical level and between the principals, the President ordered that all bombing be discontinued above the 20th Parallel.” [NYT article](next Vietnam, see January 8, 1973)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

December 30, 1989: DEA Administrator Jack Lawn overruled the decision of administrative law judge Francis Young who had agreed with marijuana advocates that marijuana should be moved from Schedule I to Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act.

This proposed rescheduling of marijuana would have allowed physicians to prescribe the smoking of marijuana as a legal treatment for some forms of illness. Administrator Lawn maintained that there was no medicinal benefit to smoking marijuana and that marijuana should remain a Schedule I controlled substance.(next Marijuana, see November 5, 1991)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

William R. Higgins

December 30, 1991: the USMC interred the remains of William R. Higgins, USMC in Quantico National Cemetery. (see March 4, 1994)

Women’s Health

December 30, 1994: John Salvi III walked into two separate abortion clinics in Brookline, Massachusetts, and shot workers with a rifle, killing two receptionists and wounding five other employees. He was captured the next day after firing 23 shots at a Norfolk, Virginia, medical clinic. (Salvi found guilty) (next WH, see July 27, 1996; Salvi, see November 29, 1996; next Terrorism, February 7, 1995)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

Saddam Hussain hung

December 30, 2006: Saddam Hussain hung. President George Bush said Saddam had received the kind of justice he denied his victims. Some key US allies expressed discomfort at the execution. And Russia, which opposed the March 20, 2003 invasion to oust the dictator, and the Vatican expressed regret at the hanging which some Muslim leaders said would exacerbate the violence in Iraq. [WP article] (next Death Penalty, see December 17, 2007)

Iraq death toll 2006

In 2006: the death toll for Americans killed in the Iraq war reached 3,000. (next IWII, see January 3, 2007)

Iraq death toll 2007

December 30, 2007: it was announced that 899 American troops had died in Iraq in 2007, making 2007 the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion. (next IWII, see September 9, 2008)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

December 30, 2016: Des Moines County Attorney Amy Beavers requested first-degree murder warrants for the two suspects who allegedly shot and killed Kedarie Johnson, a 16-year-old high school junior on March 2, 2016.

Beavers said the charges were not yet officially filed and that the suspects’ names could not be released until the warrants were executed. [DeMoines Register article] (next LGBTQ, see January 6, 2017; next Johnson, see March 14, 2017)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

2020 Census

December 30, 2020: CNN reported that the Census Bureau announced it would miss the December 31 deadline to produce the population count used to divide seats in Congress between the states.

The announcement was expected and the key question remained whether the Census Bureau and Commerce Department would present the tally to President Donald Trump prior to his departure from office on January 20. There were no penalties associated with missing the December 31 deadline.

The Census Bureau said in a statement that it plans “to deliver a complete and accurate state population count for apportionment in early 2021, as close to the statutory deadline as possible.” (next Census 2020, see January 12, 2021)

December 30 Peace Love Art Activism

Lynching, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

December 27, 2016 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

December 27, 1913: during the bitter Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914 in Michigan, Charles Moyer, president of the Miners Union, was shot in the back and dragged through the streets of Chicago by men in the employ of the mine owners. That evening, detectives escorted him, still bleeding, to a local train and “deported him” (e.g., ran him out of town). State and Congressional investigations were unable to prove the identity of his assailants, and the crime went unsolved.(see January 5, 1914)

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Powell Green lynched

December 27, 1919: after a “prominent” white movie theater owner was shot and killed, authorities arrested 23-year-old African American veteran Powell Green for allegedly committing the crime. While policemen were moving Powell Green from the jail in Franklinton, North Carolina to the larger city of Raleigh, before he could be tried or mount a defense, a mob kidnapped and brutally killed him.

The mob tied Green to a car and dragged him for half a mile before shooting him with dozens of bullets and hanging his body

Newspaper sources suggest this was the case in the lynching of Powell Green; one witness reportedly testified that, though there were five officers in the police vehicle transporting Mr. Green, he was “taken from the car [by the mob] without the least trouble.”

Green’s corpse was found the next morning riddled with bullets and hanged from a small pine tree along a road two miles from Franklinton. According to press accounts, “souvenir hunters” cut buttons and pieces of clothing from the body and later cut down the tree to yield grotesque keepsakes. (next Lynching, see June 15, 1920; for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

This Little Light of Mine

c 1920: Harry Dixon (1895 – 1965) wrote “This Little Light of Mine” as a gospel song. It became a common one sung during the civil rights gathering of the 1950s and 1960s. It continues to be a song of hope today.

This little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Oh, this little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Hallelujah
This little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Ev’ry where I go
I’m going to let it shine
Oh, ev’ry where I go
I’m going to let it shine
Hallelujah
Ev’ry where I go
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

All in my house
I’m going to let it shine
Oh, all in my house
I’m going to let it shine
Hallelujah
All in my house
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

I’m not going to make it shine
I’m just going to let it shine
I’m not going to make it shine
I’m just going to let it shine
Hallelujah
I’m not going to make it shine
I’m just going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Out in the dark
I’m going to let it shine
Oh, out in the dark
I’m going to let it shine
Hallelujah
Out in the dark
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Lyrics: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/this_little_light_of_mine.htm

Sound (Sam Cooke, 1964): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdsIjwwfhjk

Sound (Bruce Springsteen, 2006): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ6SAryPyQk&feature=related

(next BH, see Jan 4; see Early 20th Century News Music for expanded blog piece)

Tallahassee busing

December 27, 1956: Federal Judge Dozier Devane granted temporary injunction restraining Tallahassee city officials from interfering with integration of city buses and said “every segregation act of every state or city is as dead as a doornail.” (see Dec 28)

Tamir Rice

December 27, 2015: a grand jury declined to charge a Cleveland patrolman who fatally shot a 12-year-old boy holding a pellet gun, capping more than a year of investigation into a case that added to national outrage over white officers killing African-Americans.

In announcing the decision, Timothy J. McGinty, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, said he had recommended that the grand jurors not bring charges in the killing of the boy, Tamir Rice, who was playing with the gun outside a recreation center in November 2014.[NYT report] (B & S, see January 18, 2016; Rice, see April 25, 2016)

Vietnam

General Albert C. Wedemeyer

December 27, 1944: U.S. General Albert C. Wedemeyer in Chungking reported that Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley was displeased with aid given to intelligence operatives in Vietnam. Hurley “had increasing evidence that the British, French, and Dutch are working…for the attainment of imperialistic policies and he felt we should do nothing to assist them in their endeavors which run counter to U.S. policy.” Hurley was reflecting President Roosevelt’s January 24 position. (see Dec 31)

Ho Chi Minh

December 27, 1965: Ho Chi Minh addressed the Communist Party Central Committee in Hanoi. Ho said that “politics” was the weak point of the American and South Vietnamese enemy and the domestic situation of the United States will not permit the U.S. to utilize its military and economic power in South Vietnam. The Committee decided that the communist forces in South Vietnam should seek a “decisive victory within a relatively short period of time” but must prepare to defend itself if the U.S. expands its war effort.

JB Lenoir’s “Vietnam Blues”

In 1966: JB Lenoir’s “Vietnam Blues” “Mister President you always cry about peace, but you must clean up your house before you leave” (next Vietnam, see Jan 7; next News Music, see June)

Vatican response to Spellman

On December 23 Cardinal Spellman said the Vietnamese conflict was “a war for civilization—certainly it is not a war of our seeking. It is a war thrust upon us—we cannot yield to tyranny.” Anything “less than victory is inconceivable.”

On December 27, 1966: Vatican sources expressed displeasure with Cardinal Spellman’s statements in Vietnam. One source said, “The Cardinal did not speak for the Pope or the Church.” The Pope had previously called for negotiations and an end to the war in Vietnam.

US forces in Vietnam

By the end of 1966, American forces in Vietnam reached 385,000 men, plus an additional 60,000 sailors stationed offshore. More than 6,000 Americans have been killed in 1966 and 30,000 had been wounded. In comparison, an estimated 61,000 Vietcong have been killed. However, their troops now numbered over 280,000.

Music protests US in Vietnam

In 1967: protest songs of this year included:

“Saigon Bride” by Joan Baez
“Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” by Pete Seeger.
“Backlash Blues” by Nina Simone
“Patriotic” song: “Dear Uncle Sam” by Loretta Lynn

(next Vietnam, see January 8, 1967)

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

see December 27 Music et al for more

Roots of Rock

December 27, 1957: from the NYT: “Twenty thousand shrieking, pushing, stamping teen-agers besieged the Paramount Theatre all day yesterday. The attraction was Alan Freed, a disk jockey and master of ceremonies who was presenting a stage show of rock ‘n’ roll musicians.” (see March 24, 1958)

Leonard Cohen

December 27, 1967: Leonard Cohen released Songs of Leonard Cohen.

see John Wesley Harding for more

December 27, 1967, Bob Dylan released John Wesley Harding album. He had recorded it between October 17 and November 29.

The cover photograph showed Dylan with the brothers Luxman and Purna Das. Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, had brought the Asian musicians to Woodstock. Standing behind Dylan (over his left shoulder) is Charlie Joy, a local stonemason and carpenter.

True to the atmosphere of the time’s conspiracy theorists (e.g. Paul is dead), images of the Beatles were purportedly hidden on the front cover in the knots of the tree. (next Dylan, see January 20, 1968)

see Miami Rock Festival for more

December 27 – 29, 1969: Miami Rock Festival, among the bands playing were: BB King, The Band, Santana, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Johnny Winter, Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, Sweetwater, Vanilla Fudge, Hugh Masakela, Amboy Dukes, The Turtles, Biff Rose, Tony Joe White, and Celebration.

see Mid Winter Pop Festival for a little more

December 27 – 29, 1969, Mid Winter Pop Festival, Blythe, California. The show never happened, but was supposed to have: Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Young Rascals, Vanilla Fudge, Brooklyn Bridge, Neil Diamond, and Johnny Winters.

Someday We’ll Be Together

December 27, 1969 – January 2, 1970 – “Someday We’ll Be Together” by Diana Ross and the Supremes #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

December 27, 2001: U.S. officials announced that Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners would be held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [NYT report] (see January 11, 2002)

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Crime and Punishment

December 27, 2018: Adou Kouadio, a citizen of Ivory Coast, arrived at the Texas border in early 2016 and asked for asylum, claiming that he had been threatened after supporting a political opponent of his country’s president.

But for the nearly three years that his request had remained under consideration while American authorities detained Kouadio, 43, first in Texas and later in New Jersey. In August, he petitioned a court for help.

On this date, Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan said the government had violated Kouadio’s rights.

“This nation prides itself on its humanity and openness with which it treats those who seek refuge at its gates,” the Hellerstein wrote. “By contrast, the autocracies of the world have been marked by harsh regimes of exclusion and detention. Our notions of due process nourish the former spirit and brace us against the latter.”

Detaining Kouadio for 34 months without a bail hearing violated his due process rights as a nonresident immigrant arriving at the border, “limited as those rights are,” the judge said in a ruling some legal experts also considered a rebuke of the Trump administration’s strict immigration policies. [NYT article] (IH, see Dec 31; C&P, see February 20, 2019)

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

PSYCHEDELICS

December 27, 2022: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) formally declared the results of a ballot initiative that voters approved in November 2022 and issued a proclamation that certain psychedelics were officially legal to possess and grow in Colorado under state law,

While there are still several steps that must be taken to fully implement other aspects of the reform—which also involves creating “healing centers” for supervised psychedelic sessions—possession, cultivation and sharing of certain substances by adults 21 and older is now legal under state law. [MM article] (next Psych, see )