As the nuclear arms race escalated in the mid-20th century, so did the number of groups who protested that expansion. And as the US participation in Vietnam’s civil war increased, the same became true.
Abzug & Wilson
Bella Abzug (left) and Dagmar Wilson (right) founded Women Strike for Peace on November 1, 1961 when they organized an anti-nuclear weapon protest.
First Conference
At its first national conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1962, Women Strike for Peace adopted the following declaration: “We are women of all races, creeds and political persuasions. We are dedicated to the purpose of general and complete disarmament. We demand that nuclear tests be banned forever, that the arms race end and the world abolish all weapons of destruction under United Nations safeguards. We cherish the Historical Introduction right and accept the responsibility to act to influence the course of government for peace. We join with women throughout the world to challenge the right of any nation or group of nations to hold the power of life and death over the world.” (from >>> Swarthmore edu)
Dorothy Marder
Dorothy Marder
From the same site: Dorothy Marder (1926-2007), was a social realist photographer active during the politically energetic 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. In her photography Dorothy Marder captured the peace, anti-nuclear, social justice, women’s liberation, lesbian/gay pride, and disability rights movements, especially in New York City and Washington, DC. For many years, she was the photographer for the women’s peace group, Women Strike for Peace. Marder’s work has appeared in numerous alternative-press publications, as well as in books, and even a documentary film. Dorothy Marder was not only a photographer, but also a self educated artist and dedicated activist, whose strong passionate for life was reflected in her art.
Long after the 60s
From Wikipedia: WSP remained a significant voice in the peace movement throughout the 1980s and ’90s, speaking out against U.S. intervention in Latin America and the Persian Gulf states. On June 12, 1982, Women Strike for Peace helped organize one million people who demanded an end to the arms race. In 1988 they supported Carolyna Marks in the creation of the Unique Berkeley Peace Wall, as well as similar walls in Oakland, Moscow, Hiroshima and Israel (a joint Jewish and Palestinian children’s Peace Wall). In 1991, they protested the Iraq-Persian Gulf War; afterwards, they urged the American government to lift sanctions on Iraq. In the late 1990s Women Strike for Peace mainly focused on nuclear disarmament.
It was on this date, March 26, in 1969 that Women Strike for Peace demonstrated in Washington, D.C., in the first large antiwar demonstration since President Richard Nixon’s inauguration in January.
More important was the fact that Paul Findley, a Republican from Illinois, had inserted into the daily Congressional Record the 31,379 names of the United States dead in Vietnam. [NYT article]
September 22, 1692: Ann Pudeator, Martha Corey (whose husband had been pressed to death on September 19), Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Wilmott Redd, Margaret Scott and Samuel Wardwell were hanged for witchcraft; the Rev. Nicholas Noyes called them “eight firebrands of hell.” It was the last executions in the Salem witch craze of 1692. [Streets of Salem article] (see October)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Emancipation Proclamation
September 22, 1862: motivated by his growing concern for the inhumanity of slavery as well as practical political concerns, President Abraham Lincoln changed the course of the Civil War by issuing the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
The measure did not technically free any slaves, but it expanded the Union’s war aim from reunification to include the abolition of slavery. The proclamation announced that all slaves in territory that was still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. (see January 1, 1863)
Atlanta massacre
September 22, 1906: after local newspapers reported alleged assaults on four white women by black men, mobs of angry white men gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, streets with the goal of attacking and killing any black man they found. The mobs seized upon street cars, trapped black male passengers, and killed the men by shooting them or brutally beating them to death. When the street cars stopped running, the rioters ransacked black businesses, beating or killing the people inside. The armed white men also chased black men through hotels and white-owned businesses, shooting and killing them in the hallways. The police and fire departments were called upon to quell the unrest but failed, as did the militia.
When asked what he could do to end the violence, Atlanta Mayor James Woodward replied, “The only remedy is to remove the cause. As long as the black brutes assault our white women, just so long will they be unceremoniously dealt with.” Woodward’s ambivalence empowered the mobs and the massacre continued. For a total of four days, black people were chased, beaten, shot, and hung throughout Atlanta and its surroundings. When black citizens of Brownville, a nearby suburb, attempted to arm themselves in defense, Georgia troops raided their homes, taking weapons and arresting those in possession of them. After four days of riots, between 25 and 40 people were dead and countless more were injured. (Georgia encyclopedia article)
Lugenia Burns Hope
In 1908: Lugenia Burns Hope created the Neighborhood Union, the first woman-run social welfare agency for African Americans in Atlanta, which provided medical, recreational, employment, and educational services and became known for its community building and race and gender activism. [Georgia Encyclopedia article] (see Feb 10)
Black Power
September 22, 1954: Richard Wright’s book, Black Power, published. It is a non-fiction account of Wright’s trip to Africa’s Gold Coast before it became the free nation of Ghana.
It is the first known use of the phrase Black Power. [Kirkus review] (see “in October”)
Freedom Riders
September 22, 1961: the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) issued a ruling enforcing the desegregation of interstate travel. The ruling removed “whites only” signs from terminals and enforced the end of segregated seating on interstate bus transit effective November 1, 1961. [related Oyez aticle] (BH, see Sept 25; Freedom Riders, see Nov 1)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
INDEPENDENCE DAYS
Bulgaria
September 22, 1908: Bulgaria independent from the Ottoman Empire. (see December 29, 1911)
Mali
September 22, 1960: Mali independent from France. (see ID for the many other 1960s Independence days)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
Feminism
Immigration History
September 22, 1922: the Cable Act, (the Married Women’s Independent Nationality Act) significantly improved gender equality in nationality law by providing that American women would no longer lose their U.S. citizenship upon marriage to a foreigner—a reversal of the 1907 Expatriation Act, which had essentially declared American women’s citizenship dependent upon their husbands’. [NWP article] (Feminism, see Nov 21; next IH, see Feb 19; Cabel Act, see May 24, 1934)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
September 22, 1940: France’s Vichy government (the German collaborators) signed an armistice with Germany. The allied Germany and Japan allowed Vichy France to controlled most French overseas possessions, including Indochina. Japan agreed to allow Japan to station soldiers in Tonkin. During World War II Japan stationed a large number of soldiers and sailors in Vietnam although the French administrative structure was allowed to continue to function. (see Dec 23)
My Lai Massacre
September 22, 1971: Captain Ernest Medina was acquitted of all charges [murder, manslaughter, and assault ] relating to the My Lai massacre of March 1968. His unit, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) of the 23rd (Americal) Division, was charged with the murder of over 200 Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, at My Lai 4, a cluster of hamlets that made up Son My village in Son Tinh District in Quang Ngai Province in the coastal lowlands of I Corps Tactical Zone.
All charges were dropped when the military judge at the Medina’s court martial made an error in instructing the jury. (next Vietnam, see Oct 29; see Mai Lai for expanded story)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
Cold War
McCarran Act
September 22, 1950: although vetoed by President Truman, the Senate overrode his veto 89 – 11 and the McCarran Act, or Internal Security Act of 1950 became law. Among other things, it authorized the creation of concentration camps “for emergency situations.” (Encyclopedia dot com article) (see Dec 9)
Peace Corps
September 22, 1961: in an important victory for his Cold War foreign policy, President John F. Kennedy signed legislation establishing the Peace Corps as a permanent government agency. Kennedy believed that the Peace Corps could provide a new and unique weapon in the war against communism. [Peace Corps site] (see Oct 4 – 9)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Oliver W. Sipple
September 22, 1975: President Gerald Ford survived a second assassination attempt. Sara Jane Moore had stood among a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco and was about 40 feet away from Mr. Ford as she aimed a .38-caliber pistol at him. Oliver W. Sipple, a former marine who was standing next to her, knocked her arm upward as she fired, sending the bullet well over Mr. Ford’s head; it ricocheted off a building and slightly injured a person in the crowd. (see Sipple for more about his story)
Domestic partnership statute
September 22, 1999: California became the first state to create a domestic partnership statute, allowing same-sex couples to receive some, but not all, of the protections afforded by marriage. The statute has been expanded over time to include more of the protections afforded to different-sex couples, although it is no substitute for marriage itself. [Overall history] (see Dec 9)
Louisiana
September 22, 2014: Louisiana state Judge Edward Rubin ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, in part because it violated equal protection rights. Rubin said the ban violated the 14th Amendment and the constitutional requirement that states give “full faith and credit” to each other’s laws. His ruling came in same-sex adoption case of Angela Costanza and her partner, Chasity Brewer.
The judge said Constanza could adopt her partner’s son and be listed as a parent on his birth certificate. The couple’s lawsuit said the state should recognize their marriage, which took place in California.
Laura Gerdes, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, said the office disagreed with the ruling and started the appeals process. [NOLA article] (see Oct 6)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
IRAQ
September 22, 1980: the command council of Iraq ordered its army to “deliver its fatal blow on Iranian military targets,” initiating the Iran–Iraq War. (see June 7, 1981)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
September 22, 1985: first Farm Aid Concert was held at Champaign, Illinois. The concert was staged to “raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land” and featured a performers from the worlds of country, folk and rootsy rock music. There were the three main organizers: Bob Dylan, for instance, along with Hoyt Axton, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell and Charley Pride. But the first Farm Aid, more than any of the annual Farm Aid concerts since, was a bit of a stylistic free-for-all, featuring artists united only by their interest in supporting a good cause. “As soon as I read in the paper that there was gonna be such a thing,” Sammy Hagar told MTV’s cameras on the day of the show, “I called my manager and said, ‘I wanna do it.’ And he said, ‘It’s all country.’ I said, ‘I don’t care. It’s America. I wanna do it.’ If there was anything more surprising than hearing Hagar perform his hard-rock anthem “I Can’t Drive 55″ on the same stage that had earlier featured the quiet folk of Arlo Guthrie, it was hearing Lou Reed perform “Walk On The Wild Side” on a stage that had featured John Denver. (see Oct 13)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
Irish Troubles
September 22, 1989: Deal barracks bombing: An IRA bomb explodes at the Royal Marine School of Music in Deal, Kent, United Kingdom, leaving 11 dead and 22 injured. (see Troubles for expanded story)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
AIDS
September 22, 1995: CDC reviews Syringe Exchange Programs — United States, 1994-1995. The National Academy of Sciences concluded that syringe exchange programs should be regarded as an effective component of a comprehensive strategy to prevent infectious disease. (see Dec 6)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
STAND YOUR GROUND LAW
September 22, 2012: Kalispell, Montana. Dan Fredenberg, upset with Brice Harper’s romantic involvement with Fredenberg wife, walked through Mr. Harper’s open garage door. Harper aimed a gun at the unarmed Mr. Fredenberg, fired and struck him three times. Fredenberg was dead before morning. (see Oct 9)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
FREE SPEECH & Colin Kaepernick
September 22, 2016: Time magazine featured Colin Kaepernick on the cover in its October 3 issue.
It featured Kaepernick kneeling in his full 49ers uniform. The issue included a cover story from Sean Gregory, where Kaepernick’s protest was a centerpiece in a larger conversation among athletes regarding sports activism and patriotism.
Also on September 22, Houston Texan’s Duane Brown raised a fist while standing during the national anthem
Brown didn’t play due to an injury, but did participate in the protest for the first time that season. He had been vocal about recent police shootings. [Time article] (FS & CK, see Oct 1)
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
Right to Die
September 22, 2020: The NY Times reported that the Vatican reiterated the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia, which it called “intrinsically evil” acts, “in every situation or circumstance.”
The Vatican’s condemnation did not break new ground, but came as legislation in favor of allowing the ending of lives to relieve suffering has been in discussion or been adopted by a growing number of governments around the world, including in traditionally Catholic countries.
“Euthanasia is a crime,” stated the document, written by the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with Pope Francis’ explicit endorsement. The document accuses lawmakers who approve legislation allowing euthanasia or assisted suicide of being “accomplices of a grave sin that others will execute.” (next RtD, see March 28, 2022 )
September 22 Peace Love Art Activism
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
