September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Feminism

September 27, 1909: New York shirtwaist strike of 1909, also known as the Uprising of the 20,000, was a labor strike primarily involving Jewish women working in New York shirtwaist factories. Led by Clara Lemlich and supported by the National Women’s Trade Union League of America (NWTUL). [JWA article] (Labor, see Nov 22; Feminism see Jan 2, 1910)

Change to Win

September 27, 2005: the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Teamsters, and other activist unions leave the AFL-CIO to form a new labor coalition called Change to Win. The move represents a new emphasis on organizing workers to bring them into a labor movement starved for members. (January 2, 2006)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Emma Goldman

September 27, 1919: Goldman posted bond and was released from federal prison. She left for Rochester, NY, knowing she would soon receive deportation orders. [NYT article] (see Goldman for expanded story)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Gary Indiana School Desegregation

September 27, 1927: in Gary Indiana, the crowd swelled to about 800 students. Superintendent Wirt hedged his bets by telling the angry crowd that “possibly when a new black school was erected on the east side, Emerson would be again segregated.” (see Sept 28)

A Philip Randolph

September 27, 1940:  civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House to demand racial integration of the U.S. Armed forces. Congress had created a draft in response to the outbreak of war in Europe, which was to take effect on October 16, 1940. The law contained a provision prohibiting race discrimination, but Randolph felt the military was not honoring it. The meeting with Roosevelt did not go well, and afterwards the administration issued a false report that Randolph had accepted the president’s plan, for which it quickly had to apologize.

U.S. armed forces remained segregated during World War II. Winfred Lynn’s challenge to the segregated draft was unsuccessful (Armed services, see December 4, 1942 &  February 3, 1944). (next BH, see Nov 13)

School Desegregation

SEPTEMBER 27, 1958: following the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, school boards across the country were ordered to draft desegregation plans. The school board in Little Rock, Arkansas, drafted a plan and agreed to implement it during the 1957-1958 school year. When nine black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, made their way to Central High School as part of Arkansas’s gradual desegregation plan, they were met by angry crowds and the Arkansas National Guard blocking their entry. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus encouraged the protesters and did everything in his power to hinder integration. Eventually, President Dwight Eisenhower deployed federal troops to Arkansas and commanded the Arkansas National Guard to escort the students to school.

Not yet through with his attempts to thwart integration, Faubus devised another plan. Following the 1957-1958 school year, the Little Rock School Board petitioned for a delay in the implementation of its desegregation plan. A federal district judge granted a delay until 1961, which the NAACP promptly appealed. The case made its way to the Supreme Court where, on September 12, 1958, the Court ordered immediate integration.

By that time, the Arkansas Legislature had passed a law allowing Governor Faubus to close public schools and later hold a special election to determine public support. Immediately after the Supreme Court released its decision, the governor ordered all four public high schools closed pending a public vote. On September 27, 1958, the people of Arkansas voted overwhelmingly (19,470 to 7561) to keep the schools closed rather than integrate. The schools would remain closed for the entire 1958-1959 academic term, known as “the lost year.” (BH, see Oct 14; SD, see Oct 25)

James H Meredith

September 27, 1962: a fourth attempt to enroll. Meredith in the University of Mississippi was canceled after it became evident that his life would be endangered. (see September 28, 1962)

Medgar Evers

September 27, 1973: New Orleans police arrested Byron De La Beckwith who had a bomb and several rifles in his car. He stated he had come to New Orleans to sell china. Police stated that De La Beckwith intended to blow up the home of A I Botnick, head of the New Orleans chapter of B’nai B’rith. It was the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Botnick had moved his family out of New Orleans several days earlier after receiving threatening calls. (see Oct 11)

Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act

September 27, 2007: the Senate passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act  as an amendment to another bill. President George W Bush indicated he would veto the legislation if it reached his desk. The amendment was dropped by the Democratic leadership because of opposition from conservative groups and President George Bush, and due to the measure being attached to a defense bill there was a lack of support from antiwar Democrats. (LGBTQ, see Nov 8; BH, see March 26, 2008; Shepard, see April 2, 2009)

NY Met/1st Black Composer

September 27, 2021: the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the country’s largest performing arts institution, opened in 1883, and in its 138 years had put on some 300 titles. Not one had been by a Black composer.

On this date, the Met opened its 2021 – 22 season with with “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” by Terence Blanchard, a Black jazz trumpeter and composer. [NYT article]  (next BH, see Nov 18)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

September 27, 1948: Circuit Judge Grover Watson ordered the Champaign school board to stop all religious education in all public school buildings. NYT article (see November 20, 1948)

Environmental Issues

September 27, 1962: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring published. The book is widely credited with helping to launch the contemporary American environmental movement. The New Yorker magazine had started serializing Silent Spring in June 1962. Rachel Carson was already a well-known writer on natural history, but had not previously been a social critic. The book was widely read—especially after its selection by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the New York Times best-seller list—and inspired widespread public concerns with pesticides and pollution of the environment. Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT[3] for agricultural use in 1972 in the United States. NYT article (see Dec 7)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War  & Nuclear/Chemical News

September 27, 1962: Soviet Union above ground nuclear test. 10 – 30 megaton. (CW, see Oct 7; NN, see Oct 22)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

JFK Assassination

September 27, 1964: the report of the Warren Commission chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren on the Kennedy assassination was released. The report essentially concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. [text of report] (see October 5, 1966)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

September 27, 1967: an advertisement headed “A Call To Resist Illegitimate Authority,” signed by over 320 influential people (professors, writers, ministers, and other professional people), appeared in the New Republic and the New York Review of Books, asking for funds to help youths resist the draft.

“A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority” was one of the most powerful and important indictments of the Vietnam War by the anti-war movement. It declared that “the war is unconstitutional and illegal. Congress has not declared a war as required by the Constitution.” Additionally, “this war violates international agreements, treaties and principles of law which the United States Government has solemnly endorsed.” The Call was published in the New York Review of Books, The Nation, and other publications. [text] (see Sept 29)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

September 27, 2004: Bishop Thomas Dupre was indicted on child rape charges, becoming the first bishop to face charges in the church sex abuse scandal. Dupree was the head of the Springfield, Mass., diocese, but resigned in February after the allegations came to light. His two alleged victims have said Dupre sexually abused them for years in the 1970s and asked them to keep quiet about the abuse when he was made auxiliary bishop in 1990. (NYT article) (see Nov 15)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Affordable Care Act

September 27, 2017

• US Senators Cory Booker, Brian Schatz, Chris Murphy, and Elizabeth Warren wrote to Seema Verma, the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In the letter they expressed concern for the Trump administration’s decision to shut down the Affordable Care Act website for 12 hours nearly every Sunday during the upcoming open enrollment. [Star Advertiser article]
• the Department of Health and Human Services told stated that for the first time it would not be sending its regional directors to help states with planning for the upcoming open enrollment period. [BuzzFeed article]  (see Dec 21)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Trump blocked (1)

September 27, 2019: Judge Dolly Gee of Federal District Court for the Central District of California  rejected new regulations that would have allowed the government to hold children and their parents in detention for indefinite periods, one of the Trump administration’s signature efforts to curtail the large number of families arriving from Central America.

Describing the government’s defense of its proposed new policy as “Kafkaesque” in some of its reasoning, Gee said it was up to Congress, not the administration, to supplant a 20-year-old consent decree that requires children to be held in state-licensed facilities and released in most cases within 20 days. [NYT article]

Trump blocked (2)

September 27, 2019: U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson blocked the Trump administration’s effort to expand use of a process that had fast-tracked undocumented immigrants for deportation without the involvement of immigration courts.

The “expedited removal” procedure had previously been used to quickly send recent border-crossers back to Mexico, with policies limiting its use to individuals apprehended within 100 miles of the U.S. border and who were determined to have crossed into the U.S. illegally in the past two weeks.

Jackson halted the policy shift, declaring that the Trump administration’s decision-making process leading to the change appeared to have violated federal law.   She said the decision seemed arbitrary and faulted officials for failing to carry out a formal notice-and-comment practice required for major changes to federal rules.

“Government actors who make policy decisions in their official capacities cannot succumb to whims or passions while rulemaking,” wrote Jackson. “If a policy decision that an agency makes is of sufficient consequence that it qualifies as an agency rule, then arbitrariness in deciding the contours of that rule—e.g., decision making by Ouija board or dart board, rock/paper/scissors, or even the Magic 8 Ball—simply will not do.” (next IH, see Oct 4)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment Inquiry

September 27, 2019: Kurt Volker, the US special envoy for Ukraine, stepped down, which meant a key player in Trump’s interactions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had left the administration. (see TII for expanded chronology)

September 27 Peace Love Art Activism

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

September 26, 1908: the first production Ford Model T left the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Mich. It was the first car ever manufactured on an assembly line, with interchangeable parts. The auto industry was to become a major U.S. employer, accounting for as many as one of every eight to 10 jobs in the country (see December 19, 1910)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Mother Earth magazine

September 26, 1917: the U.S. Post Office directed Mother Earth, the magazine founded and edited by Emma Goldman, the famous anarchist and opponent of U.S. involvement in World War I, to show cause on this day why it should not be barred from the mails because of its opposition to the war.

Goldman had already been arrested for opposing the draft, in violation of the Espionage Act, passed on June 15, 1917. The Post Office subsequently denied Mother Earth 2nd Class mailing privilege (a device that was widely used during World War I, and effectively denied use of the mails for publications), and Mother Earth suspended publication.

Goldman would be deported from the U.S. to the Soviet Union on the so-called “Red Ark” on December 21, 1919, along with 249 other alleged alien radicals. (see Goldman for expanded story)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

School Desegregation

September 26, 1927: Gary, Indiana School Superintendent Dr. William A Wirt faced a dilemma in the 1910 – 20′s as the city’s black population greatly increased. The East Pulaski and Virginia Street School served the black population, but were segregated and in deplorable condition. The spillover caused nominal numbers of black students to receive education in predominately white schools throughout the city, but they were limited in which facilities they could use.

In the 1926 – 27 school year six black students had attended classes at Emerson High School. To help ameliorate the student overpopulation at Virginia Street School the district transferred 18 black students to Emerson in 1927.

White students outraged at the presence of more black students in their  took to the streets. On Monday, September 26 some 600 students walked out of class. Those who remained inside were heckled incessantly until they joined the throngs of protesters. As the demonstration gained momentum signs saying, “WE WON’T GO BACK UNTIL EMERSON IS WHITE. . . . NO NIGGERS FOR EMERSON. . . . EMERSON IS A WHITE MAN’S SCHOOL”. (see Sept 27)  

James H Meredith

September 26, 1962: the chief US Marshal and Mississippi Lieut. Governor scuffled repeatedly as State officials prevented the registration of Meredith for the third time. (see September 27, 1962)

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing

September 26, 1977: reported in the NYT: A 73-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman was indicted today on four counts of first-degree murder in the bombing of a Birmingham church 14 years ago that killed four young black girls attending Sunday school. Robert Chambliss of Birmingham was being held without bond in Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham. (see November 16)  

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

September 26, 1986: President Reagan vetoed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. The law would have imposed sanctions against South Africa and stated five preconditions for lifting the sanctions that would essentially end the system of apartheid. [Politico article]  (see Sept 29)

Stop and Frisk Policy

September 26, 2012: Ligon v. City of New York — a lawsuit brought on behalf of people who say they were illegally stopped, ticketed or arrested for trespassing, some in their own buildings — showed that the Bronx district attorney’s office had serious concerns about such arrests as far back as three years ago.

These arrests were made in public housing developments or under the Clean Halls program, which allows police to patrol the hallways of private buildings to prevent crime. [ACLU article] (BH, see Oct 2; Stop and Frisk, see December 20)

Stephon Clark

September 26, 2019: the Sacramento Police Department cleared Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, who fatally shot Stephon Clark on March 18, 2018, saying they did not violate department policy or training.

“This incident has been thoroughly investigated by law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal levels,” Chief Daniel Hahn said in a prepared statement. “Every one of these independent examinations has reached the same finding – the use of deadly force in this case was lawful. Our internal investigation concluded that there were no violations of department policy or training.” [Sacramento Bee article] (next B & S, see Oct 1; next SC, see Oct 8)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Lt. Col. Peter Dewey

September 26, 1945: Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. Army officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Vietnam and trying to help arrange negotiations between the Viet Minh and France, was unintentionally shot and killed in Saigon by the Viet Minh.

Dewey was the head of a seven-man team sent to Vietnam to search for missing American pilots and to gather information on the situation in the country after the surrender of the Japanese. Dewey is not listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. because the United States Department of Defense has ruled that the war officially started, from a U.S. perspective, on November 1, 1955, after the U.S. took over following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. (Blog article) (Oct 4)

Scranton Commission

September 26, 1970:  the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest (the Scranton Commission) appealed to President Nixon to lead Americans back from the brink of what it described as a chasm in society so dangerous that it threatened the survival of the nation. The Commission concluded that the shootings at Kent State were unjustified. The report said: Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline on Blanket Hill. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators. [text of report] (see Sept 29)

Henry A. Kissinger

September 26 – 27, 1972: for the 18th time since August, 1969, Henry A. Kissinger, President Nixon’s adviser on national security, met privately in Paris with Le Duc Tho, a Hanoi Politburo member, and Xuan Thuy, North Vietnam’s chief delegate to the Paris peace talks. (see Oct 9)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Politics

September 26, 1960: Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, participate in the first (of four) televised presidential election debates. [Mary Ferrell Foundation article]

         

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

see September 26 Music et al for more

Connie Francis

September 26 – October 9, 1960: “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” by Connie Francis #1 Billboard Hot 100

Kingston Trio

September 26 – October 30, 1960: the Kingston Trio’s String Along is their 3^rd Billboard #1 album in 1960.

Bob Dylan

September 26, 1961: Dylan started as opening act for the Greenbriar Boys. He stayed two weeks. (see Sept 29)

Oh Pretty Woman

September 26 – October 16, 1964: “Oh Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The title was inspired by Orbison’s wife Claudette interrupting a conversation to announce she was going out; when Orbison asked if she was okay for cash, his co-writer Bill Dees interjected “A pretty woman never needs any money.

Brian Epstein

September 26, 1966: Brian Epstein,  hospitalized in a London clinic. The official given reason was that it was a check-up, although it later transpired that he had overdosed on prescribed drugs.

Epstein had been suffering from depression and anxiety for some time, a condition exacerbated by his use of drugs – both prescribed and illegal. His anxiety had heightened following The Beatles decision to stop touring, which left Epstein with less involvement in their careers. Each member was undertaking individual projects in the late summer of 1966 and he had intended to join John Lennon in Spain on the set of How I Won The War.

However, as a result of the hospitalization, he was forced to cancel his visit to Spain. Although Epstein is known to have made later suicide attempts, it is believed that this overdose was accidental. (see Oct 3)

Abbey Road

September 26, 1969: UK release of Abbey Road album. Though recorded after material for the Let It Be lp had already been recorded, it is released before Let It Be. (see Oct 1)

Walls and Bridges

September 26, 1974: US release of John Lennon’s fifth album, Walls and Bridges  (UK release will be 4 October)

Written, recorded and released during his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono (June 1973–January 1975), the album captured Lennon in the midst of his “Lost Weekend”.

Walls and Bridges became an American Billboard number 1 album. (see Nov 16)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

1973 Rehabilitation Act

September 26, 1973: the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, passed by Congress and signed into law on this day, was an important milestone in federal programs for disabled persons. It replaced previous laws in 1954 and 1965. Section 504 of the law was particularly important, expanding the rights of persons with disabilities, greatly expanded grants to the states for vocational rehabilitation, and also expanding federal research and training related to persons with disabilities.

When the Department of Health, Education & Welfare (HEW) failed to issue regulations implementing Section 504, disability rights activists protested with a sit-in on April 5, 1977. HEW issued the regulations three weeks later.

The campaign for the rights of the disabled culminated in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed by President George H. W. Bush on July 26, 1990. The ADA served as the model for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was signed on March 30, 2007. The U.S. Senate has still not ratified the Convention, however, because of conservative opposition. [US Access Board article]

“Ugly Law”

In 1974, Chicago repealed last “Ugly Law” . These laws had allowed police to arrest and jail people with “apparent” disabilities for no reason other than being disfigured or demonstrating some type of disability. (see January 8, 1974)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

September 26, 1975: President Ford sent a letter to Oliver W Sipple expressing his “heartfelt appreciation” for the former marine’s help during an attack on the President in San Francisco. (see Sipple for expanded story)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

False alarm

September 26, 1983: in the early hours of the morning, the Soviet Union’s early-warning systems detected an incoming missile strike from the United States. Computer readouts suggested several missiles had been launched. The protocol for the Soviet military would have been to retaliate with a nuclear attack of its own.

But duty officer Stanislav Petrov – whose job it was to register apparent enemy missile launches – decided not to report them to his superiors, and instead dismissed them as a false alarm.

This was a breach of his instructions, a dereliction of duty. The safe thing to do would have been to pass the responsibility on, to refer up. His decision may have saved the world. The detection was false.  [BBC article on “The Man Who Saved the World”] (next N/C N, see April 4, 1984; next Iran, see Oct 13)

Trump/Iran

September 26, 2017: President Donald Trump had been declaring that Iran was in violation of the Iran nuclear pact, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but his criticism of the deal was contradicted by Marine Gen. James Dunford, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Dunford’s comments came in a written Q&A submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee in advance of a hearing on threats to the US. When asked by the committee whether Iran was complying with JCPOA, Dunford unequivocally said yes.

“The briefings I have received indicate that Iran is adhering to its JCPOA obligations,” he said.

Dunford went even further. Asked if the deal was working as intended — making it harder for Iran to get nuclear weapons — he said that it had. “The JCPOA has delayed Iran’s development of nuclear weapons,” Dunford wrote. [PBS article]  (next N/C N, see Oct 6; next Iran, see Oct 13)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Kevorkian

September 26, 1992: Lois Hawes, 52, a Warren, Michigan, woman with lung and brain cancer, died from carbon monoxide poisoning at the home of Kevorkian’s assistant Neal Nicol in Waterford Township, Michigan. (see JK for expanded story)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

September 26, 1996:  the last Magdalene asylum, in Waterford, Ireland, closed. Magdalene asylums were institutions from the 18th to the late-20th centuries ostensibly for “fallen women”, a term used to imply sexual promiscuity. The first asylum in Ireland opened in Dublin in 1765. In Belfast there was a Church of Ireland run Ulster Magdalene Asylum (founded in 1839) Initially the mission of the asylums was often to rehabilitate women back into society, but by the early 20th century the homes had become increasingly punitive and prison-like. In most of these asylums, the inmates were required to undertake hard physical labor, including laundry and needle work. They also endured a daily regime that included long periods of prayer and enforced silence. In Ireland, such asylums were known as Magdalene laundries. It has been estimated that up to 30,000 women passed through such laundries in Ireland. (see Magdalene for more; next Sexual Abuse date, see Dec 3, 1996)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

September 26, 2011: Pastor Manuel Hernández was pulled over by an undercover detective in a rural area near Warrior, Alabama, and became the first person arrested under Alabama’s new anti-immigration law, just hours after a federal judge upheld the law’s key passages.

Pastor Hernández, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, worked at the Prayer Center for All Nations in Anniston, Alabama. When the detective asked to see his identification, Hernàndez provided his Mexican passport and Mexican Consular ID card, as well as a card issued by the American Association of Chaplains. The detective questioned the validity of these documents and accused Hernàndez of committing a felony by carrying the chaplain card because it had the state seal on it but was an unofficial form of identification.

Though the detective claimed to have pulled Pastor Hernández over for excessive speeding, he never issued a ticket. Hernández was arrested under suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant and spent several days in jail, where he felt discriminated against as a Latino. Hernández said officials refused to give him a Spanish language Bible and, thinking he could not speak English, said in his presence, “He is an illegal and should be treated as an illegal.” After a few days of incarceration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials released Pastor Hernández with orders to return to immigration court at a later date. (see June 15, 2012)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Occupy Wall Street

September 26, 2012: the University of California agreed to pay about $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by UC-Davis students who were pepper-sprayed by campus police during an Occupy-style protest on campus last November. The settlement also calls for a personal written apology from UC-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to each person hit with the spray.  [CBS News article] (see July 21, 2015)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Affordable Care Act

September 26, 2017: Senator Mitch McConnell officially pulled the plug on the latest plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, telling senators they would not vote on the measure and effectively admitted defeat in the last-gasp drive to fulfill a core promise of President Trump and Republican lawmakers.

McConnell’s announcement came less than 24 hours after a pivotal Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, declared firm opposition to the repeal proposal, all but ensuring that Republican leaders would be short of the votes they needed. [Politico article] (see Oct 12)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

September 26, 2017:  the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of Keith Leroy Tharp, a Georgia inmate who had been on death row for a quarter-century, halting the lethal injection after his attorneys raised questions of racial bias in the case.

Georgia sentenced Tharpe to death in 1991 for killing Jaquelin Freeman, his sister-in-law. Tharpe’s wife left him in August 1990 and moved in with her mother, and he made violent threats against them before fatally shooting Freeman and raping his wife, according to a summary of the case from the Georgia Supreme Court. He was sentenced to death the following January.

Attorneys for Tharpe sought to stop his execution which had been set for that night, writing in a Supreme Court filing that “racism played [a] pivotal role in his death sentence.” [US News article] (see Nov 6)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Inquiry

September 26, 2019:  according to a whistle-blower complaint, President Trump used the power of his office to try to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election to investigate a political rival “for personal gain,” Attorney General William P. Barr and the president’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani were central to the effort, the complaint said.

In addition, the complaint said that whistle-blower, an unidentified intelligence officer, learned from multiple American officials that “senior White House officials had intervened to ‘lock down’ all records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced as is customary by the White House Situation Room.” [NYT article]

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

September 26, 2021: the New York Times reported that when Hurricane Ida barreled into the Louisiana coast with near 150 mile-per-hour winds on Aug. 30, it left a trail of destruction. The storm also triggered the most oil spills detected from space after a weather event in the Gulf of Mexico since the federal government started using satellites to track spills and leaks a decade ago. (next EI, see Sept 29)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History/Crime and Punishment

September 26, 2022: thousands of Alabama inmate workers began a labor strike to protest poor prison conditions across the state, where facilities were overcrowded, understaffed and notoriously dangerous.

The protest also called for broader criminal justice reforms. Diyawn Caldwell, the president of Both Sides of the Wall, an advocacy group, said the organization was coordinating the strike with inmates across the state and predicted that about 80 percent of the roughly 25,000 people in prison would participate in the strike, forgoing their usual jobs as cooks and cleaners. [NYT article] (next C & P, see July 21, 2023; next LH, see April 10, 2023)

US Labor History

September 26, 2023: President Biden traveled to Michigan to join a group of striking autoworkers on the picket line, the first time a sitting President had done such  gesture of support to a labor union. [NYT article] (next LH, see Oct 4; auto strike, see Oct 30)

September 26 Peace Love Art Activism

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

September 25, 1956: the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable went into service. [Atlantic Cable article] (see August 3, 1958)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

School Desegregation

September 25, 1957: in a dramatic and unprecedented move, President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to ensure the racial integration of Central High School. The Little Rock crisis was one of the most dramatic events in the history of the civil rights movement.

Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and local authorities had resisted integration in the face of a court order to implement the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision on May 17, 1954. Mobs had prevented the enrollment of nine African-American students (the “Little Rock Nine”) on September 23, as local authorities failed to maintain public order. Central High School was successfully integrated on this day because of the federal troops.

In 1958, however, local officials resisted another court order, and that issue resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision asserting the authority of the federal courts to enforce lawful court orders, Cooper v. Aaron, on September 12, 1958. Nonetheless, the Little Rock school board (which was not directly affected by the court decision) voted to close the schools rather than integrate, and the 1958–1959 academic year is known as the “lost year.” The schools opened the following year. (BH & SD, see Oct 5; Central High School, see February 9, 1960)

Herbert Lee murdered

September 25, 1961: E.H. Hurst – a local white state legislator – shot and killed Herbert Lee in front of several eyewitnesses. Mr. Lee was a member of the Amite County, Mississippi, NAACP and worked with Bob Moses of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on a voter registration drive. Louis Allen, a black man who witnessed the murder, was initially coerced into saying that Hurst killed Herbert Lee in self defense; he later recanted and said Hurst had actually shot Lee for registering black voters.

Louis Allen spoke with the FBI about Lee’s murder, but told federal authorities that he would need protection if he were to agree to cooperate in their investigation. The FBI refused to provide protection, and Allen did not testify against Hurst. However, news spread in the local community that Allen had spoken with federal investigators.

Beginning in 1962, Mr. Allen was targeted for harassment and violence: local whites cut off business to his logging company; he was jailed on false charges; and on one occasion, Sheriff Daniel Jones broke Allen’s jaw with a flashlight. The son of a high ranking local Klansman, Sheriff Jones was suspected to also be a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Louis Allen filed complaints and testified before a federal grand jury regarding the abuse he suffered at the hands of Sheriff Jones, but his claims were dismissed. [Black Past article] (BH, see May 5, 1962; Lee, see January 31, 1964)

St. Matthew’s Baptist Church burned down

September 25, 1962: a pre-dawn fire at St. Matthew’s Baptist Church destroyed the building. It was the fifth black church to burn in the past month. (BH, see Sept 25;  see Albany for expanded story)

James H Meredith

September 25, 1962: Mississippi Governor Ross R Barnett’s responded with two proclamations.

To sheriffs and law enforcement officers:  They were “authorized and directed to proceed to do all things necessary that the peace and security of the people of the State of Mississippi are fully protected.”

The second, directed at Meredith stated in part that “in order to prevent violence and a breach of the peace…do hereby and finally deny you admission to the University of Mississippi.” (see September 26, 1962)

Johnnie May Chappell

September 25, 1964:  soon after obtaining the confessions (see Aug 11), detectives Cody and Coleman were ordered to stop their investigation. Afterwards, Cody was not sure anything else was done to develop the case, but on this date a grand jury indicted all four men on the evidence in the murder of Johnnie May Chappell.

J.W. Rich was the first to go on trial. He says now that the prosecution didn’t have anything on him. It’s true that the case may have looked slim to a jury. The .22-caliber gun that Cody and Coleman recovered was never introduced at trial (it later disappeared from the evidence room). Cody himself wasn’t called to testify. The other men’s statements weren’t submitted in court. The bullet taken from Chappell’s body was introduced in a plain white envelope, not an evidence bag showing the date it had been recovered and from where. Perhaps unwilling to press for a first-degree murder charge in the death of a black woman, the prosecutor told jurors they could find Rich guilty on a lesser count. The jury found him guilty of manslaughter and the judge gave Rich 10 years. He would serve 3.

The State Attorney’s Office released Wayne Chessman, Elmer Kato, and Alex Davis from prosecution for lack of evidence, despite their confessions. (BH, see Oct 14; Chappell, see December 4, 2002)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

Eisenhower/Khrushchev

September 25, 1959: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev met with President Eisenhower. The two men came to general agreement on a number of issues, but a U-2 spy plane incident in May 1960 crushed any hopes for further improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations during the Eisenhower years. (NYT article) (see May 1)

Nuclear/Chemical News

September 25, 1962: Soviet Union above ground nuclear test. 19.1 megaton. (see Sept 27)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

September 25 Music et al

see The Beatles cartoon series for more

September 25, 1965: a cartoon series featuring The Beatles began in the US. Simply titled The Beatles, it ran until 1969 on the ABC network with 39 episodes produced over three seasons. The series was shown on Saturday mornings at 10.30am until 1968, when it was moved to Sunday mornings. Each episode was named after a Beatles song, with stories based on the lyrics. The Beatles themselves were not directly involved in the production, which was created by Al Brodax and Sylban Buck, and produced by King Features Syndicate. American actor Paul Frees provided the voices for John Lennon and George Harrison, while British actor Lance Percival did the same for Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. (see Oct 9)

Eve of Destruction

September 25 – October 1, 1965: “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Sept 30)

Eighth Big Sur Folk Festival

September 25, 1971:  the final one featured: Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Mimi Fariña and Tom Jans, Mickey Newbury, Big Sur Choir, Lily Tomlin & Larry Manson

U2

September 25, 1976: the Irish rock band U2 formed after drummer Larry Mullen Jr. posted a note seeking members for a band on the notice board of his Dublin school.

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & Operation Popeye

September 25, 1968: the southern region of North Vietnam was added to the operational area. (V, see Oct 14; see OP for expanded story)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Sandra Day O’Connor

September 25, 1981: Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court. [Makers dot com article] (see Nov 12)

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

September 25, 2020: Ruth Bader Ginsburg lain in state inside the US Capitol. The first person given that honor was Henry Clay in 1852, a Kentucky Senator who died during his term. Since then, the 33 men who have lain in state at the US Capitol had all been high-profile statesmen, like President Abraham Lincoln, or military members.

Ginsburg was the first woman and only the second justice from the top court to be given the honor. The first was William Howard Taft, who was also a US president. [BBC story] (next Feminism, see January 19, 2021)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

Maze Prison escape

September 25, 1983: 38 Irish republican prisoners, armed with six handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of HMP Maze, in the largest prison escape since World War II and in British history. [BBC article]

Irish Republican Army

September 25, 2005:  two months after announcing its intention to disarm, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) gave up its weapons in front of independent weapons inspectors. The decommissioning of the group s substantial arsenal took place in secret locations in the Republic of Ireland. One Protestant and one Catholic priest as well as officials from Finland and the United States served as witnesses to the historic event. Automatic weapons, ammunition, missiles and explosives were among the arms found in the cache, which the head weapons inspector described as “enormous.” (see Troubles for expanded story)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment Inquiry

September 25, 2019: the White House released a reconstruction of the call that President Trump made to Urkraine  President  Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump encouraged Zelensky to work with Attorney General William P. Barr and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, on corruption investigations connected to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other Democrats.

Although there was no explicit quid pro quo in the conversation, Trump raised the matter immediately after Zelensky spoke of his country’s need for more help from the United States. The call came only days after Mr. Trump had blocked $391 million in aid to Ukraine, a decision that perplexed national security officials at the time and for which he gave conflicting explanations. [NYT article] (see TII for expanded chronology)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Climate Change

September 25, 2019: according to the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders in policy making, climate change was heating the oceans and altering their chemistry so dramatically that it threatened seafood supplies, fueling cyclones and floods and posing profound risks to the hundreds of millions of people living along the coasts.

The report concluded that the world’s oceans and ice sheets were under such severe stress that the fallout could prove difficult for humans to contain without steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Fish populations were already declining in many regions as warming waters threw marine ecosystems into disarray. [NYT article] (next EI, see Oct 29)

William Perry Pendley

September 25, 2020: U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled that President Trump’s leading steward of public lands had been serving unlawfully, blocking him from continuing in the position in the latest pushback against the administration’s practice of filling key positions without U.S. Senate approval.

U.S. Interior Department Bureau of Land Management acting director William Perry Pendley served unlawfully for 424 days without being confirmed to the post by the Senate as required under the Constitution, Morris determined.

The ruling came after Montana’s Democratic governor in July sued to remove Pendley, saying the former oil industry attorney was illegally overseeing an agency that manages almost a quarter-billion acres of land, primarily in the U.S. West.

“Today’s ruling is a win for the Constitution, the rule of law, and our public lands,” Gov. Steve Bullock said Friday. Environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers from Western states also cheered the judge’s move after urging for months that Pendley be removed. [NBC Montana story]

Drilling ban

September 25, 2020: President Trump expanded a ban on exploratory drilling off the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia, his latest extension of an existing offshore drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.

The memorandum “prevents consideration of this area for any leasing for purposes of exploration, development, or production during the 10-year period beginning on July 1, 2022, and ending on June 30, 2032.”

The memo makes clear that the ban on leasing does not apply if it’s for “environmental conservation purposes, including the purposes of shore protection, beach nourishment and restoration, wetlands restoration, and habitat protection.”

It stands in contrast to the Trump administration’s record of supporting oil and gas production and rolling back rules on greenhouse gas emissions. [NPR story] (next EI, see Nov 4)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Census

September 25, 2020: after a September 22 hearing, on this date in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Lucy H. Koh barred the Trump administration from ending the 2020 census a month early.

Koh  had issued a preliminary injunction on September 5 preventing the administration from winding down the count by September 30, a month before the scheduled completion date of October 31. She also barred officials from delivering completed population data to the White House on Dececember. 31 rather than the April 2021 delivery date that had previously been set out.

The ruling came after evidence filed this week showed that top Census Bureau officials believed ending the head count early would seriously endanger its accuracy. [NYT story] (next Census, see Oct 13)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ+

September 25, 2023: in a letter from the Vatican Pope Francis suggested for the first time that some people in same-sex unions could be blessed by Catholic priests. On the topic of homosexual unions, the pontiff had previously reiterated that the Church only recognized marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but the letter appears to show some willingness to open the door to such blessings. This was a seeming reversal of previous statements in March, when the Pope said the Church could not bless same-sex unions, because they could “not bless sin.” The latest development appears to be a nod to a decision made by the German Church, in which same-sex unions received a Catholic blessing from several priests. [CNN article]  (next LGBTQ, see March 11, 2024)

September 25 Peace Love Art Activism, September 25 Peace Love Art Activism, September 25 Peace Love Art Activism, September 25 Peace Love Art Activism, September 25 Peace Love Art Activism,