Category Archives: Today in history

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Black labor history

January 5, 1869: the nation’s first labor convention of Black workers was held in Washington, D.C., with 214 delegates forming the Colored National Labor Union (Labor, see May 10; BH, see Dec 6)

Scottboro travesty

January 5, 1932: Ruby Bates, one of the two girls who accused the Scottsboro Boys of rape, denied that she was raped. In a letter Bates wrote her then boyfriend, Earl Streetman, she denied having been raped: “those Negroes did not touch me….i hope you will believe me the law dont….i wish those Negroes are not Burnt on account of me.”  (see SBT for expanded chronology)

Coke v. City of Atlanta

January 5, 1960: in Coke v. City of Atlanta the District Court of North Georgia, Atlanta, found that Dobbs House Restaurant, as agent for Atlanta at the airport violated the 14th Amendment rights of H. D. Coke by refusing to serve him in the same area as white patrons. Coke was Black. The judge also dismissed the portion of the suit against Atlanta. (see Jan 18)

Albany Movement

January 5, 1962: groups protested to state and college officials regarding the dismissal of students from Albany State College for participating in anti-segregation demonstrations. (see Albany for expanded chronology)

FBI/MLK, Jr

January 5, 1964,: the FBI installed a listening device in Martin Luther King Jr’s room at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. They installed the devices without Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s approval. He had authorized only wiretaps on October 10, 1963. These listening devices were far more intrusive than wiretaps because they captured conversations in many locations. (BH, see Jan 8; MLK, see Mar 26)

Sonny Liston

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

January 5, 1971: Sonny Liston (b.1932), World Champion boxer (1962-64), was found dead in his Las Vegas home.

Johnnie May Chappell murder

January 5, 2006: the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the Johnnie May Chappell murder case (March 23, 1964)  released its results to attorneys representing Chappell’s son. Those attorneys said the findings contained new evidence and interviews with witnesses never before contacted. (BH & Chappell, see Jan 6)

Homer Plessy Pardon

January 5, 2022: Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (D) granted a posthumous pardon for Homer Plessy, whose refusal on June 7, 1892 to leave a Whites-only railcar led the Supreme Court to uphold state racial segregation laws in what was considered to be one of its most shameful decisions.

Edwards signed the pardon during a ceremony outside the former train station in New Orleans where Plessy boarded a train bound for Covington, Louisiana, before his arrest 130 years ago. The Louisiana Board of Pardons unanimously voted in November to clear Plessy’s record. Descendants of Plessy and John Howard Ferguson, the Louisiana judge who initially upheld the state’s segregation law, forged a friendship and advocated for the posthumous pardon.

“The stroke of my pen on this pardon, while momentous, it doesn’t erase generations of pain and discrimination. It doesn’t eradicate all the wrongs wrought by the Plessy court or fix all of our present challenges,” Edwards said before signing the pardon. “We can all acknowledge we have a long ways to go, but this pardon is a step in the right direction.” [CBS News article] (next BH, see Mar 7)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

January 5, 1914: the Ford Motor Company raised wages from $2.40 for a 9-hour day to $5 for an 8-hour day in effort to keep the unions out. (see Jan 10)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism/Voting Rights

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism
Dora Lewis (center) upon her release from jail, where she participated in hunger strike after arrest at Lafayette Square meeting, supported by Clara Louise Rowe (left) and Abby Scott Baker

January 5, 1919: authorities arrested Annie Arniel, Mary Dubrow, Julia Emory, and Phoebe Munnecke for their part in watch fire demonstrations. They refused to pay bail and the judge sentenced them to 10 days in prison. They began hunger strike. (see Jan 9)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

January 5, 1948: Alfred Kinsey and his team published  Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.  The report generated a national controversy as the study was first scientific study of sexuality and swept away long-standing cultural taboos against frank discussion of the topic. Consistent with those taboos, The New York Times did not report the publication of the book, did not review it, and published no article on it for almost two full years. Particularly controversial were the report’s estimates of infidelity and homosexual encounters. The second report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female was published in September 1953 — the Times did publish several articles on that publication.

The two Kinsey reports had a major impact on civil liberties. They opened the door for candid discussions of sexuality, which in turn led to legal challenges to censorship of books and movies with sexually-related themes. They also underpinned the sexual revolution, which led to challenges to restrictions on access to birth control and abortion. Finally, the evidence on the prevalence of homosexuality opened the door for more candid and morally neutral discussion of same sex relationships. (see November 11, 1950)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Whom We Shall Welcome

January 5, 1953: President Harry Truman praised Whom Shall We Welcome, a report on immigration policy. The report recommended that “the National Origins quota system should be abolished.”  The Immigration Act of 1924, which completely prohibited immigration from Asia, had established the quota system, and discriminated against potential immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as other parts of the world (e.g., immigration from India in the early 1960s, for example, was limited to 100 people a year.). Truman’s President’s Commission on Immigration and Naturalization had prepared the report.

While there was no immediate change, Truman set in motion a long public debate that culminated in the 1965 Immigration Reform Act, which abolished the restrictive quota system. President Lyndon Johnson signed the immigration law on October 3, 1965, in a ceremony at the Statue of Liberty. (see June 17, 1954)

Trump’s Wall

January 5, 2018: with Trump and the Democratic leadership continuing to refuse to change their positions on building a wall, President Trump referenced in a tweet the popular Game of Thrones slogan, Winter Is Coming, with “The Wall is Coming,” with a picture of himself over the wall. (IH & TW, see Jan 6) or see Trump Wall for expanded chronology)

LGBTQ & AIDS

January 5, 2010: the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control on this day removed HIV from the list of illness that bar the granting of visas to people seeking to visit the U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s administration added HIV to the list on August 28, 1987; the result was discrimination against homosexuals, one of the largest groups of people with an HIV/AIDS diagnosis.(next AIDS, see Jan 11;next LGBTQ, see Feb 10; IH, see Oct 14)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Right to Legal Representation

January 5, 1962:  after writing to an FBI office in Florida and next to the Florida Supreme Court, but denied help, Clarence Earl Gideon mailed a five-page hand-printed petition to the US Supreme Court asking the nine justices to consider his complaint. The Supreme Court, in reply, agreed to hear his appeal. Originally, the case was called Gideon v. Cochran. The Supreme Court will eventually rule that a criminal defendant who cannot afford to hire a lawyer must be provided with a one at no cost. (see Gideon for expanded chronology)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam & DRAFT CARD BURNING

January 5, 1968: Attorney General Ramsey Clark announced (NYT article) the indictment of Dr. Benjamin Spock, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., chaplain of Yale University, Michael Ferber, a 23-year-old Harvard University graduate student, Mitchell Goodman, 44, of New York and Temple, Me., an author, and Marcus Raskin, 33, of Washington, co-director of the Institute for Policy Studies, a private research organization on charges of conspiring to counsel young men to violate the draft laws.

According to the indictment, Spock, Coffin, Raskin, and Goodman agreed to sponsor a nationwide draft-resistance program that would include disrupting the induction processes at various induction centers, making public appeals for young men to resist the draft and to refuse to serve in the military services and issuing calls for registrants to turn in their draft cards.

The indictment  accused them of having violated Title 50, Section 462(A) of the United States Code Appendix, a section of the Universal Military Training and Service Act that dated to World War I. It declared that any person was guilty of violating the law if they “knowingly counsels, aids, or abets another to refuse or evade registration or service in the armed forces” or if thee “shall knowingly hinder or interfere or attempt to do so in any way, by force or violence or otherwise,” with the administration of the draft. It also made it a crime to conspire to commit these acts. (see Jan 7)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

January 5, 1982: in McLean v Arkansas Board of Education, a US Federal Court struck down an Arkansas law requiring that “evolution-science” and “creation-science” be given “equal treatment” in the classroom. The court rejected Arkansas’ claim that “creation-science” is a legitimate science and holds that the purpose of the Arkansas law is to advance religion and therefore is impermissible.

Justice Black stated: The “establishment of religion” clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church-attendance or non-attendance. No tax, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause … was intended to erect “a wall of separation between church and State.” (see May 28)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

January 5, 1999: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott announced (NYT article) that President Clinton’s trial would begin January 7, but senators continued to wrangle over how long the trial should be and whether to call witnesses. (see CI for expanded chronology)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

January 5, 2020: Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted details on the legislative action decided upon by Iranian cabinet members in which the country will no longer limit itself to the nuclear restrictions set forth in 2015 by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“As 5th & final REMEDIAL step under paragraph 36 of JCPOA, there will no longer be any restriction on number of centrifuges. This step is within JCPOA & all 5 steps are reversible upon EFFECTIVE implementation of reciprocal obligations Iran’s full cooperation w/IAEA will continue,” Zarif tweeted. [CNN article] (next N/C N see May 21); next Iran, see February 18, 2021)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

January 5, 2023:  the South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the state’s ban on abortion after around six weeks of pregnancy, ruling that the law violated the state’s constitutional right to privacy.

The 3-2 decision came nearly seven months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling voiding the federal constitutional right to terminate pregnancies.

President Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, in a tweet wrote: “We are encouraged by South Carolina’s Supreme Court ruling today on the state’s extreme and dangerous abortion ban.”

“Women should be able to make their own decisions about their bodies,” Jean-Pierre wrote.

The decision by the South Carolina Supreme Court is based on the state’s own constitution, which, unlike the U.S. Constitution, explicitly gives citizens a right to privacy. [CNBC article] (next Women’s Health, see Apr 5)

January 5 Peace Love Art Activism

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Deconstruction

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

January 4, 1876: the Mississippi legislature of 1876, the first former-Confederate-controlled legislature since the start of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, successfully campaigned on a promise to restore law and order through harsher penalties for “black lawlessness” in the state. They were encouraged by the recent success of convict-leasing pioneer Edmond Richardson in the Yazoo Delta region, who in 1868 had entered into a contract with the state to lease prisoners as labor to rebuild his lost cotton fortune. Many legislators saw the model as a perfect solution: convict leasing would simultaneously provide workers to the state’s labor-starved employers, earn revenue for depleted state coffers that could not otherwise afford to maintain the state prison, and provide a means of controlling the state’s recently-freed and largely impoverished black majority.

One of the new legislature’s first acts was to pass the “Pig Law,” which broadened “grand larceny” – an offense punishable by up to five years in state prison – to include theft of any farm animal or any property valued at ten dollars or more. White legislators knew the law would disproportionately affect the state’s black citizens, many of whom remained unemployed and resorted to robbing farms to feed themselves and their families. Within three years, the number of state convicts tripled, from 272 in 1874 to 1,072 in 1877.

The Mississippi legislature soon also passed the Leasing Law, authorizing state prisoners to be leased to “work outside the penitentiary in building railroads, levees or in any private labor or employment.” The law formally codified the practice of convict leasing, and the legislature soon proceeded to lease more than 1000 of its prisoners – the vast majority of them black – in contracts to employers across the state.

Convicts leased to private employers regularly did hard, dangerous work in appalling conditions, sleeping on bare ground and often wearing nothing more than the tattered clothing in which they arrived. Like masters over slaves, employers had broad authority to whip convicts for offenses such as “slow hoeing,” “sorry planting,” and “being light with cotton.” Those who tried to escape were whipped until blood ran down their legs, and sometimes even had metal spurs riveted to their feet.

Under the lease system, employers also had little incentive care for the convicts; if one dropped dead of disease or exhaustion, a replacement was easily obtained from the local jail. “Before the war we owned the negroes,” one Southern employer explained in 1883. “If a man had a good [slave], he could afford to take care of him; if he was sick, get a doctor . . . But these convicts: we don’t own ‘em. One dies, get another.” In the 1880s, the annual mortality rate for Mississippi’s convict population was sometimes as high as 16 percent. (see Mar 27)

Negro National League

January 4, 1920: Andrew Rube Foster organized the first black baseball league, the Negro National League. (see Jan 23)

Dyer anti-lynching bill

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

January 4, 1922: debate on the Dyer anti-lynching bill got under way in the House despite a determined filibuster on the part of its Democratic opponents. Three hours were spent in roll-calls demanded by Representative Garrett of Tennessee, the Democratic leader, in a futile attempt to head off discussion. (BH, see Jan 12; Dyer bill, see Jan 26; see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)

Rosewood Florida riots

January 4, 1923: hundreds of white men began the burning of Rosewood, Fla. Within three days, the entire African-American town had been burned to the ground. By the time the violence ended, six African Americans and two whites had died. No one was ever prosecuted. Survivors later recounted that Fannie Taylor had made false accusations against Jesse Hunter to conceal her extramarital affair with a white man. In 1994, the Florida Legislature voted to compensate victims and their families. (next BH, see Feb 7; next Lynching, see Feb 19; next RR see March 19, 1935; see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)

Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner

January 4, 2014: Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in 2005 for the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to look again at his motion for a new trial. (see Murders for expanded chronology)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

January 4, 1904: the Supreme Court, in Gonzales v. Williams, ruled that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and could enter the United States freely; however, the court stopped short of declaring them U.S. citizens. (see February 23, 1904)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Farmers Holiday Association

January 4, 1933: angered by increasing farm foreclosures, members of Iowa’s Farmers Holiday Association threatened to lynch banking representatives and law officials who instituted foreclosure proceedings for the duration of the Great Depression. (see Mar 4)

Alphabet Workers Union

January 4, 2021: after years of growing activism at one of the world’s largest companies,.more than 225 Google engineers and other workers announced that they had formed a union

The union’s creation was highly unusual for the tech industry, which had long resisted efforts to organize its largely white-collar work force. It followed increasing demands by employees at Google for policy overhauls on pay, harassment and ethics, and was likely to escalate tensions with top leadership.

The new union called itself the Alphabet Workers Union after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was organized in secret for the better part of a year, and elected  its leadership in December 2020. The group is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, a union that represents workers in telecommunications and media in the United States and Canada. [NYT article]  (next LH, see  Apr 9)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Dirk De Jonge

January 4, 1937: a member of the Communist Party, Dirk De Jonge had organized a public meeting on July 27, 1934, where he was arrested. He was then convicted of violating the Oregon Criminal Syndicalism statute, which prohibited advocating the overthrow of the government.

In De Jonge v Oregon, The Supreme Court ruled that convicting him for simply conducting a meeting violated the First Amendment.

In retrospect, the decision on this day was an early sign that the Supreme Court was beginning the process of becoming a strong defender of civil liberties, which it did under the “Roosevelt Court” from 1937 to 1945.(see April 26, 1938)

STUDENT ACTIVISM 

January 4, 1965: the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley, held its first “legal” rally after a long series of protests, demonstrations, and arrests in the fall of 1964. See especially October 1, 1964, and December 2, 1964, for two of the most important events in the dramatic struggle in the fall of 1964. The FSM had been sparked by the university’s promise to “strictly enforce” its ban on on-campus recruiting for off-campus political activity on September 16, 1964. The rally on this day was “legal” in the sense that the university had agreed to abandon the policy and respect the free speech rights of students. Folk singer Joan Baez performed at the rally. (FS, see April 26; SA, see Dec 16)(see Student Free Speech Movement for more)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

January 4 1948: Burma independent from the United Kingdom. (see Feb 4)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

see January 4 Music et al for more

Elvis Presley

January 4, 1954: while still working as a truck driver, Elvis Presley went to the Sam Phillips’s Memphis Recording Service in Memphis, TN, to record a song for his mother’s birthday which was many months away. He recorded “It Wouldn’t Be The Same Without You” and “I’ll Never Stand In Your Way.” This was this recording that would lead Phillips to call Presley back to record for his Sun Records label. The receipt is dated Jan. 6, but the date of the recording was Jan. 4 (see Apr 12)

El Paso

January 4 – 17, 1960: “El Paso” by Marty Robbins #1 Billboard Hot 100. First of three #1 songs in a row in which a person or persons die.

South Pacific

January 4 – 10, 1960: the Soundtrack to South Pacific is the Billboard #1 stereo album.

Kingston Trio

January 4 – February 14, 1960: the Kingston Trio’s Here We Go Again album is Billboard’s #1 mono album.

Bobby Vinton

January 4 – 31, 1964, “There! I’ve Said It Again” by Bobby Vinton #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Doors

January 4, 1967: The Doors release first album, The Doors.

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestones

Hand-held calculator

January 4, 1972: the first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced (price $395).

Color TVs

By the end of 1972: more than half (52.6%) of American households had a color TV set. (see April 3, 1973)

Burj Khalifa

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

January 4, 2010: Dubai opened the world’s tallest skyscraper, the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa. It cost $1.5 billion. (see Jan 27)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

January 4, 1974: citing executive privilege, Nixon refused to surrender 500 tapes and documents which have been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. (see Watergate for much more)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

January 4, 1975: The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. Congress passed the Native American Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act which repudiated the policy of tribal termination that began on August 1, 1953. Termination was a policy by which Native-American tribes were dissolved as independent nations, their status before termination. The policy of termination was intended to help Native-Americans assimilate into the mainstream of American life. President Richard Nixon repudiated the tribal termination policy on July 8, 1970. (next Native Americans see June 26, 1975)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

January 4, 1976: the Ulster Volunteer Force killed six Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The next day 10 Protestant civilians are murdered in retaliation. (see Troubles for expanded chronology)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Kent State Killings

January 4. 1979: an out-of-court settlement was reached in the civil cases and approved by the Ohio State Controlling Board with a vote of 6-to-1. Shortly after the board announced its decision, the judge in the U.S. District Court in Cleveland dismissed a jury that had been called to hear testimony in a second trial against the state.

The plaintiffs receive $675,000 for injuries received in 1970 and this compensation is accompanied by a statement from the defendants, which reads in part, “In retrospect the tragedy of May 4, 1970, should not have occurred…We deeply regret those events and are profoundly saddened by the deaths of four students and the wounding of nine others which resulted.”

The settlement, according to the plaintiffs, “accomplished to the greatest extent possible under present law” their main objectives, not the least of which was financial support for Dean Kahler, who has been paralyzed.

Also sought by plaintiffs was a statement signed by Rhodes and 27 National Guardsmen who were defendants in the case.

The statement, read in court, said: “In retrospect, the tragedy of May 4, 1970 should not have occurred.” It also noted that students protesting the Cambodian invasion by U.S. troops “may have believed they were right” in continuing their protests in spite of a university ban on rallies and an order for the students to disperse. The statement went on to note that those orders had been upheld as “lawful” by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The statement continued: “Some of the guardsmen on Blanket Hill (the campus area where the violence occurred), fearful and anxious from prior events, may have believed in their own minds that their lives were danger. Hindsight suggests another method would have resolved the confrontation. Better ways must be found to deal with such confrontations.

We devoutly wish that a means had been found to avoid the May 4 events culminating in the Guard shootings and the irreversible deaths and injuries. We deeply regret those events, and are profoundly saddened by the deaths of four students and wounding of nine others which resulted. We hope that the agreement to end this litigation will help assuage the tragic moments regarding that sad day.”

Settlement of monies were distributed as follows:

  • Dean Kahler, $350,000
  • Joseph Lewis, $42,500
  • Thomas Grace, $37,500
  • Donald MacKenzie, $27,500
  • John Cleary, $22,500
  • Alan Canfora, Douglas Wrentmore, Robert Stamps, James Russell, $15,000 each
  • Families of the four students slain, $15,000 each
  • Attorneys fees and expenses, $75,000.
January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ & AIDS

January 4, 1982: at a meeting in his living room in New York City, playwright and gay rights activist Larry Kramer and a small group of friends decided to form the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) organization to address the emerging HIV/AIDS epidemic. When someone said, “We have a gay men’s health crisis,” Kramer reportedly exclaimed, “That’s our name!” (GMHC timeline)  (LGBTQ, see Jan 28; AIDS, see Apr 13)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

January 4, 2007: the Spokane diocese in Washington agreed to pay at least $48 m as compensation to people abused by priests. (see July 15)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

January 4, 2007: the number of women serving in the U.S. Senate reached an all-time high of 16 and Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as Speaker of the House , the first woman ever to hold the post. (NBC News article) (see August 8, 2009)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

January 4, 2017:  Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department had withdrawn federal guidelines that effectively limited prosecutions of businesses and individuals who sold pot in a legal manner under state law, even though the drug remains illegal under federal law. Sessions said future prosecutions would be up to individual U.S. attorneys.

The memo reminded prosecutors that “marijuana activity is a serious crime…[and]that] stricter enforcement by prosecutors will help tackle the growing drug crisis, and thwart violent crime across our country.”

Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, where voters approved recreational marijuana in 2012, and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, where pot was decriminalized in 2003 and legalized recreationally since 2014, both denounced the Sessions announcement. (next Marijuana, see Jan 11;  expanded Cannabis chronology, see CCC; Justice Department, see April 13, 2018)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

January 4, 2017: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke proposed a sweeping new offshore drilling plan aimed at opening huge swaths of the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans to oil exploration.

The draft plan released includes 25 of 26 offshore planning areas and mafr available for lease roughly 90 percent of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. The administration had identified 47 potential lease sales, including 19 off the coast of Alaska and 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, Zinke told reporters (see Jan 8)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Haight Street Head Shops

Haight Street Head Shops

On January 3, 1966 the legendary Psychedelic Shop on Haight Street opened its doors. It was likely the first, but no one was keeping track.

Haight Street Head Shops

Haight Street Head Shops

Why “Head” ?

Why did the word “head” come to refer to someone who used marijuana? The association between the word head and drug use goes back at least to 1911 when the writer C B Chrysler wrote in White Slavery Opium smokers, ‘hop fiends,’ or ‘hop heads,’ as they are called, are the fiercest of all the White Slavers.”

In other words, the drug of choice, usually an illegal one, was the prefix for the word “head” until the word alone referred to a drug user.

In the 1960, the most common drug was marijuana, of course, so a “head” commonly referred to that person and that drug.

Haight Street Head Shops

Feed Your HeadHead shops

While that use of the word may have been an underground one, entrepreneurs would still shy away from using that specific a word to name their establishment.

Head shops were not simply a supply store. They were places where so-called underground news was found whether it be in newspapers, flyers, or political conversation.

What were a head shop’s supplies? Black lights for posters that used inks containing phosphors. When the ultraviolet light hit those inks the posters glowed. A nice enhancement to an evening atmosphere in a dorm room or a basement rec room.

The pill case, but not the pills, The grass container, but not the grass.

Candles and incense. The Beatles influence went beyond music, of course, and their delving into Eastern philosophy meant those things associated with the East were automatically interesting.

When tie-dyed clothing became popular, it joined the scene along with other “hip” clothing along side water buffalo sandals.

Haight Street Head Shops

Accouterments

Haight Street Head Shops

Not that a head shop sold the drugs themselves (at least not directly), but the shop sold those things necessary for drug use. Rolling papers (Zig Zag? Big Bambu?), hash pipes, and water pipes (for those harsher cheaper blends that were the only mixes sometimes available or adding a bit of mentholated mouth wash to the water for a cooler drag).

Haight Street Head Shops

On line

Google “on line head shop” and not surprisingly one will discover that that they are there in full. “Smoke Cartel,” “Dankstop,” “Everyonedoesit,”  “Smokesmith Gear“, and many others offer both the new necessities (vapes) and the old school standbys.

As always, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Haight Street Head Shops