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

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

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December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

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

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Powell Green lynched

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

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

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

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

This Little Light of Mine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tallahassee busing

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

Tamir Rice

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

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

Vietnam

General Albert C. Wedemeyer

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

Ho Chi Minh

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

JB Lenoir’s “Vietnam Blues”

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

Vatican response to Spellman

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

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

US forces in Vietnam

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

Music protests  US in Vietnam

In  1967: protest songs of this year included:

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

(next Vietnam, see January  8, 1967)

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

see December 27 Music et al for more

Roots of Rock

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

Leonard Cohen

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

see John Wesley Harding for more

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

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

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

see Miami Rock Festival for more

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

see Mid Winter Pop Festival for a little more

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

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

Someday We’ll Be Together

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

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

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

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Crime and Punishment

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

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

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

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

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

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism

PSYCHEDELICS

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

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

December 27 Peace Love Art Activism
Music et al, Music of the 60s, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

December 26 Music et al

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December 26 Music et al

GI Blues

December 26 Music et al

December 26, 1960 – January 8, 1961:   Presley’s GI Blues album Billboard #1 for a second time.

I Want to Hold Your Hand

December 26 Music et al

December 26, 1963:  release of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (“I Saw Her Standing There” B-Side) as a single released in US. Capitol Records began distributing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to radio stations in major U.S. cities where it was played regularly.  With the target demographic (young teens) home for Christmas-New Years break, and the constant air play, the record begins selling like crazy.  In New York City, 10,000 copies per hour. In the first three days, 250,000 copies were  sold.  Capitol’s production was so overloaded it contracted Columbia Records and RCA to help with the pressings.

I Feel Fine

One year later, on December 26, 1964, their “I Feel Fine” was the Billboard #1 single. Their sixth #1 song of 1964 in which they had 30 entries on the chart, giving them a total of 18 weeks at the top of the charts. (see I Feel Fine)

December 26  Music et al

Magical Mystery Tour

Four years later, on December 26, 1967, was the premiere of Magical Mystery Tour.  There had been 10 hours of footage trimmed to 55 minutes. Though filmed in color, BBC broadcast the show in black and white. The critical reaction was overwhelmingly negative. (see Beatles Magical Mystery Tour)

Al Green

In 1969 Al Green covered “I Want to hold Your Hand.” It’s so good, that if you didn’t know it already, you might think the Beatles had covered Green.

Jimi Hendrix

December 26, 1966: while in the dressing room of The Uppercut Club in London, Jimi Hendrix wrote the lyrics to “Purple Haze”. The original title for the song was “Purple Haze / Jesus Saves”.  He changed the title by the time he recorded it (obviously).

Monterey Pop

December 26, 1968, Monterey Pop movie released.

December 26  Music et al

Led Zeppelin

December 26, 1969  – January 2, 1970: Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin II is the Billboard #1 album.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic.com’s review said, Recorded quickly during Led Zeppelin’s first American tours, Led Zeppelin II provided the blueprint for all the heavy metal bands that followed it.

December 26  Music et al
Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

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December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

On August 18,1862 a Sioux Uprising had began in Minnesota. It resulted in more than 800 white settlers dead and 38 Sioux Indians condemned and hanged. The Minnesota Uprising began when four young Sioux murdered five white settlers at Acton. The Santee Sioux, who lived on a long, narrow reservation on the south side of the Minnesota River, were reacting to broken government promises and corrupt Indian agents.

A military court sentenced 303 Sioux to die, but President Abraham Lincoln reduced the list. after President Abraham Lincoln reviewed the list of the condemned and reduced the number.

On December 26, 1862 38 Sioux were hung in Mankato, Minn. The mass execution was performed publicly on a single scaffold platform. After regimental surgeons pronounced the prisoners dead, they were buried en masse in a trench in the sand of the riverbank. (June 24, 1864)

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear and Chemical Weapons

December 26, 1898:  Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium. (see July 22, 1927)

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Jack Johnson

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

December 26, 1908: Jack Johnson became the first black heavyweight boxing champion when he knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia. (see February 12, 1909)

Wade Thomas lynched

December 26, 1920: Wade Thomas was a native of Jonesboro County, Arkansas. On Christmas night 1920, Thomas was armed with a pistol and was playing a game of craps with his neighborhood black friends. Police officer Elmer “Snookums” Ragland raided the game, and shots were fired. Ragland was killed and Thomas was injured. Thomas escaped to the next county but was arrested there and brought back to Jonesboro County.

A coroner’s jury  indicted Thomas for murder. Allegedly, Thomas confessed to killing Policeman Ragland, but claimed that he did not shoot until after he had been wounded twice.  An angry mob stormed the court and told the judge to leave unless he wanted to witness the lynching. After Thomas was taken from his jail cell, a noose was draped around his neck and he was led to a telephone pole and hung. [Black Then article] (next BH, see March 1, 1921; next Lynching, see March 4, 1921 or  for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Fred Shuttlesworth

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

December 26, 1956: after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the integration of city buses in Montgomery, Ala., Fred Shuttlesworth and others challenged the law in Birmingham, Ala. He boarded the bus hours after his own home was bombed. (see Dec 27)

Dr Maulana Karenga

December 26, 1966: the first day of the first Kwanzaa celebrated in Los Angeles under the direction of Dr Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach. The seven-day holiday, hd  strong African roots. Karenga designed it as a celebration of African American family, community, and culture. (see In January 1967)

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

December 26, 2021:  Desmond M. Tutu, 90, died in Cape Town.

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa called the archbishop “a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead.”

The cause of death was cancer, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said, adding that Archbishop Tutu had died in a care facility. He was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, and was hospitalized several times in the years since, amid recurring fears that the disease had spread.

As leader of the South African Council of Churches and later as Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, Archbishop Tutu led the church to the forefront of Black South Africans’ decades-long struggle for freedom. His voice was a powerful force for nonviolence in the anti-apartheid movement, earning him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. [NYT article]

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

December 26 Music et al

GI Blues

December 26, 1960 – January 8, 1961: Elvis Presley’s GI Blues album Billboard #1 for a second time.

“I Want to Hold Your Hand”

December 26, 1963:  release of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (“I Saw Her Standing There” B-Side) as a single released in US. Capitol Records begins distributing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to radio stations in major U.S. cities where it was played regularly.  With teens home for Christmas-New Years break, radios get full-time use, and the record begins selling like crazy.  In New York City, 10,000 copies are sold every hour.  In the first three days, 250,000 copies are  sold.  Capitol was so overloaded it contracted Columbia Records and RCA to help with the pressings. (see Dec 28)

“I Feel Fine”

December 26, 1964 – Jan 15, 1965, The Beatles’: their first year on the Billboard Hot 100 charts ends with “I Feel Fine” at #1—their 6th. (see January 9, 1965)

Jimi Hendrix

December 26, 1966: while in the dressing room of The Uppercut Club in London, Jimi Hendrix wrote the lyrics to “Purple Haze”. The original title for the song was “Purple Haze / Jesus Saves”. He changed the it by the time he recorded it. (see March 31, 1967)

Magical Mystery Tour

December 26, 1967: having been edited from 10 hours of footage to 55 minutes, The Beatles’ television film Magical Mystery Tour had its world première on BBC 1. Though filmed in color, BBC broadcast the show in black and white. The critical reaction was overwhelmingly negative. (see Dec 30)

Monterey Pop

December 26, 1968, Monterey Pop movie released.

Led Zeppelin

December 26, 1969  – January 2, 1970: Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin II is the Billboard #1 album.

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

December 26,1970:  President Richard Nixon signed into law the Public Health Services Act, which included federal support for family planning services. A Republican, Nixon was a strong supporter of government aid for family planning services. These services were contained in Title X of the law, and today discussions of the subject today refer to “Title X” funding.

In the early 1970s, President Nixon and many other Republicans supported government support for family planning services. That changed beginning with President Ronald Reagan, when the Republican Party embraced the neo-conservative social agenda that opposed abortion and government-supported family planning services. (see March 22, 1972)

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

December 26, 1974: the 7th North Vietnamese Army division captured Dong Xoai. (see January 22, 1975)

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of the USSR

December 26, 1991: the official dissolution of the USSR. (see April 16, 2003)

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

December 26, 2004: a 9.3 magnitude earthquake hit the entire Indian Ocean region. Epicentered just off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, it generates tsunami waves of up to  100 ft that crashed into the coastal areas of a number of nations including Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. The event killed 230,000–280,000 people in 14 countries. (see February 2, 2007)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDL_IofTQo4

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

December 26, 2009: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab appeared in front of Judge Paul D. Borman of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit and was formally charged with attempting to blow up and placing a destructive device on an American civil aircraft. The hearing took place at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was receiving treatment for the burns he suffered when he attempted to detonate the device. (Terrorism & Abdulmutallab: see January 6, 2010)

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

December 26, 2013: a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled that Msgr. William J. Lynn, a Roman Catholic church official, had been wrongly convicted of child endangerment over his handling of sexual-abuse complaints against priests. Mr. Lynn’s lawyer argued that the state’s child-endangerment law at the time applied only to parents and caregivers, not to supervisors. (see Dec 31)

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

December 26, 2014: according to an Associated Press survey, most of Florida’s 67 clerks of court planned not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples on January. 6. They said that they were confused over whether a ban on same-sex marriage was being lifted across the whole state that day.

The overwhelming majority of clerks who responded to AP’s inquiry said they wouldn’t offer marriage licenses to same-sex couples without further clarification from a federal judge on whether his ruling applied beyond Washington County.  A lawsuit filed in the remote Panhandle county by two men seeking to be married became a key basis for U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s decision ruling the state’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. (see January 1, 2015)

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

December 26, 2021: federal judge Paul A. Engelmayer ordered New York City officials to install more than 9,000 signal devices at intersections to make it easier for pedestrians who are visually impaired to safely cross the streets.

Engelmayer criticized city officials for failing to make the vast majority of New York’s more than 13,000 intersections safe for thousands of blind and visually impaired residents. He ordered the appointment of a federal monitor to oversee the installation of the signal devices, which use sounds and vibrations to inform people when it is safe to cross a roadway.

“There has never been a case like this. We can finally look forward to a day, not long from now, when all pedestrians will have safe access to city streets,” said Torie Atkinson, a lawyer for the American Council of the Blind and two visually impaired New Yorkers, who filed the suit. “We hope this decision is a wake-up call not just to New York City, but for every other transit agency in the country that’s been ignoring the needs of people with vision disabilities.” [NYT article] (next ADA, see )

December 26 Peace Love Art Activism