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

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

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August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

August 24, 1877:  The Gatling Gun Co.—manufacturers of an early machine gun— wrote to B&O Railroad Co. President John W. Garrett during a strike, urging their product be purchased to deal with the “recent riotous disturbances around the country.” Said GGC, “Four or five men only are required to operate (a gun), and one Gatling … can clear a street or block and keep it clear” [Popular Mechanics story] (see July 1881)

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

The Road to Bethel and the Woodstock Festival

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

First annual Maverick Festival

August 24, 1915: (from The Road to Woodstock, by Michael Lang) the first annual Maverick Festival. A flyer promised “wild sports going on” and the dancer Lada, who “illumes beautiful music like poems, and makes you feel its religion…you cry, it is so esquisite to see….All this in the wild stone-quarry theatre, in the moonlight, with the orchestra wailing in rapture, and the jealous torches flaring int eh wind! In the afternoon, there is also a concert, with a pageant, and strange doings on the stage….There will be a village that will stand but for a day, which mad artists have hung with glorious banners and blazoned in the entrance through the woods.”

Bacchanalian fetes

In the 1920s, “there were bacchanalian fetes, with ecentric celebrants wearing handmade costumes for all-night revelry.” (see Chronology for expanded story)

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Ben Hart

August 24, 1923: from EJI  story…a 34-year-old black farmhand Ben Hart was killed based on suspicion that he was a “Peeping Tom” who had that morning peered into a young white girl’s bedroom window near Jacksonville, Florida. According to witnesses, approximately ten unmasked men came to Hart’s home around 9:30 p.m. claiming to be deputy sheriffs and informing Hart he was accused of looking into the girl’s window. Hart professed his innocence and readily agreed to go to the county jail with the men, but did not live to complete the journey.

Shortly after midnight the next day, Hart’s handcuffed and bullet-riddled body was found in a ditch about three miles from the city. Hart had been shot six times and witnesses reported seeing him earlier that night fleeing several white men on foot who were shooting at him as several more automobiles filled with white men followed.

Police investigating Hart’s murder soon determined he was innocent of the accusation against him; he was at his home 12 miles away when the alleged peeping incident occurred. (next BH, see February 8, 1925; next Lynching, see May 4, 1927 or see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)

SCOTTSBORO BOYS Travesty

August 24, 1952: Haywood Patterson died of cancer. He was 39 years old. (see SB for expanded story)

Emmett Till 

August 24, 1955:  Emmett Till and a group of teenagers entered Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Mississippi to buy refreshments after a long day picking cotton in the hot afternoon sun. What exactly transpired inside the grocery store that afternoon is unknown. Till purchased bubble gum and some of the kids with him would later report that he either whistled at, flirted with, or touched the hand of Carolyn Bryant, the store’s white female clerk and wife of the owne. (see Till for more)

Medgar Evers assassination

August 24, 1992: the Mississippi Supreme Court delayed indefinitely the third trial of Byron De La Beckwith in the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers, civil rights leader. The court said it would decide later if the state may prosecute Beckwith in the 29-year-old case. Beckwith’s lawyers had asked the court to review a lower court’s refusal to dismiss the murder charge, which they say violated Beckwith’s right to a speedy trial and due process. [1994 NYT story] (BH, see, Nov 3; ME, see Dec 16)

Dee/Moore Murders

August 24, 2007: James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced to three life terms for his role in the 1964 abduction and murder of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in Mississippi. [2016 San Diego Union Tribune story on Seale’s death] (BH, see Sept 27; D/M, see September 9, 2008)

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

The Red Scare

August 24, 1954: President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law [text of his statement] the Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party. This was the first American law ever to outlaw a specific political party or group. The law also outlawed membership in the Communist Party or support for a “Communist-action” organization. Apart from two minor cases, no administration tried to enforce it, and the Supreme Court has never ruled on its constitutionality.

This law is not to be confused with the Smith Act, passed on June 29, 1940, which made it a crime to advocate the violent overthrow of the government. The top leaders of the Communist Party were convicted of violating the Smith Act, and on June 4, 1951, in Dennis v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld the convictions and the constitutionality of the Smith Act. NYT article (see Sept 4)

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

France

August 24, 1958: France became the world’s fourth thermonuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific. (see Aug 27)

Korea

August 24, 2018: President Trump abruptly called off a trip to North Korea by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing a lack of progress in nuclear disarmament talks and acknowledging for the first time that his diplomatic overture to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, had run into trouble.

Trump said the negotiations had been hindered by a lack of support from China, which he blamed on its bitter trade dispute with the United States. High-level talks with Pyongyang would not resume, he said, until the United States and China resolved those issues. [NYT article] (see Oct 20)

Fukushima Daiichi

August 24, 2023: workers in Japan started releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The Chinese government announced it was immediately suspending aquatic imports, such as seafood, from Japan.

A review by the UN’s nuclear watchdog said that the discharge would have a negligible radiological impact to people and the environment, but some nations remain concerned. [NPR article] (next N/C N, see )

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & South Vietnam Leadership

Roger Hilsman Jr

August 24, 1963: assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs, Roger Hilsman Jr, took it upon himself to draft a cable to new US Ambassador to Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, stating that the US government could no longer tolerate a situation in which “power lies in Nhyu’s hands.” Lodge was to tell key military leaders that “we must face the possibility that Diem himself cannot be preserved.” Kennedy on vacation and preoccupied with other domestic matters, approved the cable. South Vietnam’s military leaders backed off from a coup. [2014 NYT Hilsman obit] (Vietnam,  see Sept 21; SVL, see Nov 1)

Sterling Hall Bombing

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

August 24, 1970: the Sterling Hall Bombing occurred on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. It was committed by four young people as a protest against the University’s research connections with the US military during the Vietnam War and resulted in the death of a university physics researcher, 33-year-old researcher Robert Fassnacht and injuries to three others. (Vietnam, see Sept 6; Cambodia, see Sept 25)

1964 Democratic National Convention

August 24 – 27, 1964: at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated for a full term with Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate. NYT article

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

August 24 Music et al

The Beatles
Psychedelics

August 24, 1965: Roger McGuinn and David Crosby (of the Byrds) and Peter Fonda among others visited the Beatles in Beverly Hills, CA during a break in their tour. LSD was used by all except Paul McCartney. The Beatles credit the Byrd’s musical influence on the subsequent recording of their subsequent Revolver album. (Beatles, see Aug 25; LSD, see August 31; Revolver, see August 5, 1966)

Mark David Chapman

August 24, 1981: Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. [NY Daily News story] (see February 10, 1986)

Increase in use of psychedelics 

August 24, 2022: data collected by the National Institutes of Health from April 2021 through October 2021 indicated that the percentages of young people who said they used hallucinogens in the past year had been fairly consistent for the past few decades, until 2020 when rates of use began spiking.

In 2021, 8% of young adults said they have used a hallucinogen in the past year, the highest proportion since the survey began in 1988.

Reported hallucinogens included LSD, mescaline, peyote, shrooms, PCP and MDMA (aka molly or ecstasy).

Only use of MDMA declined has decreased, from 5% in 2020 to 3% in 2021. [NPR article] (next LSD, see Dec 27 )

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of the USSR & INDEPENDENCE DAY

August 24, 1991:  Ukraine declared independence from Soviet Union. (see Aug 25)

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

August 24, 2015: Mercy Medical Center in California, part of a Catholic hospital system, operated under binding “ethical and religious directives” issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Applying these directives, which refer to sterilization for the purpose of contraception as “intrinsically evil,” had denied Rachel Miller’s doctor’s request to perform a tubal ligation, but under the threat of a potential lawsuit from the ACLE approved a the doctor’s request. (see Aug 31)

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

August 24, 2021: the Supreme Court refused to block a court ruling ordering the Biden administration to reinstate a Trump-era policy that forces people to wait in Mexico while seeking asylum in the U.S.

With the three liberal justices in dissent, the court said the administration likely violated federal law in its efforts to rescind the program informally known as Remain in Mexico.

The justices said in their unsigned decision that the Biden administration appeared to act arbitrarily and capriciously by rescinding the policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. They also cited last year’s decision in the Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of University of California case. That decision blocked the Trump administration’s effort to undo the Obama-era program protecting young immigrants that came to the U.S. as children. [NPR story] (next IH, see Dec 9)

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

August 24, 2022: data collected by the National Institutes of Health from April 2021 through October 2021 indicated that the amount of people from ages 19 to 30 who reported using marijuana were at the highest rates since 1988 when the NIH first began the survey. The amount of young adults who said in 2021 that they used marijuana in the past year (43%), the past month (29%) or daily (11%) were at the highest levels ever recorded. Daily use — defined in the study as 20 or more times in 30 days — was up from 8% in 2016. The amount of young adults who said they used a marijuana vape in the past month reached pre-pandemic levels, after dropping off in 2020. It doubled from 6% in 2017 to 12% in 2021. [NPR article] (next Cannabis, see Oct 6 or see CAC for expanded chronology )

Crime and Punishment

August 24, 2023: former President Donald J. Trump surrendered at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta and was booked on 13 felony charges for his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia. [NYT article] (next C & P, see )

August 24 Peace Love Art Activism

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

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

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August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Race Riots

Remove term: August 23 Peace Love Activism August 23 Peace Love Activism

August 23, 1917: Houston Riot of 1917, or Camp Logan Riot, was a mutiny by 156 African American soldiers of the Third Battalion of the all-black Twenty-fourth United States Infantry Regiment.

Two Houston police officers stormed into the home of an African American woman, allegedly looking for someone in the neighborhood, after firing a warning shot outside. They physically assaulted her, then dragged her partially clad into the street, all in view of her five small children. The woman began screaming, demanding to know why she was being arrested, and a crowd began to gather. A soldier from the 24th stepped forward to ask what was going on. The police officers promptly beat him to the ground and arrested him as well.

Their official reports and later news reports stated the soldier was charged with interfering with the arrest of a publicly drunk female. Later that afternoon, Corporal Charles Baltimore went to the Houston police station to investigate the arrest, as well as beating of another black soldier, and also to attempt to gain the release of the soldier. An argument began which led to violence, and Corporal Baltimore was beaten, shot at, and himself arrested by the police.

That evening 156 angry soldiers, stole weapons from the camp depot and marched on the city of Houston. They were met outside the city by the police and a crowd of armed citizens, frightened by the reports of a mutiny. A virtual race riot began, which left 20 people dead – four soldiers, four policemen, and 12 civilians. Order was restored the next day, and the War Department disarmed the soldiers. The Third Battalion was sent by rail back to New Mexico.  [2017 Houston Chronicle article] (next BH & HR, see Dec 11)

School desegregation 

August 23, 1954: the small community of Charleston, Ark., admitted 11 African-American students into its schools, becoming the first in the former Confederacy to end segregation in its schools.

Dale Bumpers served as legal counsel and went on to become governor and U.S. senator. He wrote a memoir titled, “Best Lawyer in a One-Lawyer Town.” [NYT obit for Bumpers] (BH, see Sept 22; SD, see May 31, 1955)

Yusef Hawkins

August 23, 1989: 16-year-old Yusef Hawkins and three friends went to the predominately white Bensonhurt section of Brooklyn, New York, to inquire about a used Pontiac for sale. On their way through the neighborhood, the black boys encountered a group of 30 white youths gathered in the street. Armed with baseball bats and at least one handgun, the mob set upon the three boys. While his companions managed to escape the attack without serious injury, Yusef was shot twice in the chest and later pronounced dead at nearby Maimonides Medical Center.

Later investigation revealed that a neighborhood girl, Gina Feliciano, had recently spurned the advances of a young white man in the neighborhood and was rumored to be dating an African American. Angry, the rejected white boy gathered friends to lay in wait for the black boyfriend they believed would be visiting Ms. Feliciano. Yusef Hawkins walked into this scene of racial tension. [2009 NYT article]  (BH, see Oct 1; Hawkins, see May 18, 1990)

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

August 23, 2019: a Florida jury found Michael Drejka guilty of manslaughter for killing Markeis McGlockton, after an argument over a parking spot escalated outside a convenience store in Clearwater, Fla on July 19, 2018..

Citing Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, the county sheriff did not arrest Drejka, who is white, until three weeks after he had fatally shot McGlockton, who was black and unarmed.

Prosecutors in Pinellas County, Fla., eventually charged Mr. Drejkawith one count of manslaughter. He did not testify in the trial, and the six-person jury deliberated for about six hours before reaching a verdict.

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

August 23 Music et al

Keith Moon

August 23, 1946: Keith Moon born.

John & Cynthia marry

August 23, 1962: John Lennon married Cynthia Powell at the Mount Pleasant register office in Liverpool. Brian Epstein was the best man, and George Harrison and Paul McCartney were also in attendance. Absent was John’s aunt Mimi, who disapproved of the union, although Cynthia’s half brother and his wife were there.

As soon as the ceremony began, a pneumatic drill outside the building opposite drowned out all that was said; when the registrar asked for the groom to step forward, Harrison did, which only added to the farce.

At Epstein’s expense, they celebrated afterwards at Reece’s restaurant in Clayton Square, eating a set menu of soup, chicken and trifle. Reece’s was where John’s parents Alf and Julia had celebrated their own wedding in 1938.

John and Cynthia met in 1957 while both were students at Liverpool Art College, and began a relationship the following year.

In mid-1962 she discovered she was pregnant – the pair had never used contraception. John’s reaction when she told him was: “There’s only one thing for it Cyn – we’ll have to get married”.

Brian Epstein thought fans of The Beatles might feel alienated to know one of them was married, and so the Lennons kept the wedding a secret.

Epstein allowed John and Cynthia to live at his flat at 36 Falkner Street free of charge, where they stayed until the birth of Julian in April 1963. Thereafter they effectively moved into Mendips with John’s aunt Mimi, although by that time John was spending much of his time in London with the band.

On their wedding night John played a show with The Beatles at the Riverpark Ballroom in Chester. (see Sept 11)

Second Shea concert

August 23, 1966: on John and Cynthia’s 4th anniversary and a little over a year after their first triumphant appearance at New York’s Shea Stadium, The Beatles returned for a second time.

The concert did not sell out, with 11,000 of the 55,600 tickets still available. Nonetheless, The Beatles made more money from their appearance than they had in 1965, receiving $189,000 – 65 per cent of the gross takings of $292,000.

The lack of a sellout was unsettling and it was against this background that they said, ‘Right, we definitely won’t do any more. We are going to have a break and then we are going into the studio to make a record.’ (George Martin from Anthology)

The support acts were The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes. The Beatles performed 11 songs: Rock And Roll Music, She’s A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Day Tripper, Baby’s In Black, I Feel Fine, Yesterday, I Wanna Be Your Man, Nowhere Man, Paperback Writer and Long Tall Sally.

During the performance of Day Tripper hundreds of fans broke through barriers and attempted to reach the stage. They were held back by security guards and none managed to get close to The Beatles. (see Aug 28)

Are You Experienced?

August 23, 1967: US release of Hendrix’s debut LP, “Are You Experienced?” (see Sept 16)

Cynthia sues for divorce

August 23, 1968: on their 6th wedding anniversary, Cynthia Lennon sued John Lennon for divorce. [Beatles Bible piece] (Beatles, see Aug 28; Lennon, see Nov 8)

Honky Tonk Women

August 23 – September 19, 1969: “Honky Tonk Women” by the Rolling Stones #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Johnny Cash

August 23 – September 19, 1969: Johnny Cash’s At San Quentin the Billboard #1 album.

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

César E. Chávez, Dolores Huerta, & the UFW

August 23, 1966: Farm Workers Organizing Committee (to later become United Farm Workers of America) granted a charter by the AFL-CIO. (see March 10, 1968)

Student Unions

August 23, 2016: the National Labor Relations Board ruled that students who work as teaching and research assistants at private universities have a federally backed right to unionize.

The case arose from a petition filed by a group of graduate students at Columbia University, who were seeking to win recognition for a union that allowed them a say over such issues as the quality of their health insurance and the timeliness of stipend payments. [NYT article] (see March 1, 2017)

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of the USSR

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

August 23, 1989: two million indigenous people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, then still occupied by the Soviet Union, joined hands to demand freedom and independence, forming an uninterrupted 600 km human chain called the Baltic Way.

Hungary

August 23, 1989: Hungary removes border restrictions with Austria.  (see USSR for expanded chronology)

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

August 23, 2003:  while in protective custody at the maximum-security Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, Joseph Druce strangled and stomped John Geoghan to death. Druce was Geoghan’s cell mate. Druce was a self-described white supremacist serving a sentence of life without possibility of parole for killing a man who allegedly made sexual advances toward him. He was said to have planned the murder of Geoghan for more than a month, considering him a “prize.”

The press raised questions about prison officials’ judgment in placing both men in the same unit for protective custody. In addition, officials had been warned by an inmate that Druce had something planned against Geoghan. (see Sept 4)

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Occupy Wall Street

August 23, 2011: Chris (last name incognito) put the idea in motion: “Get a bunch of people to submit their pictures with a hand-written sign explaining how these harsh financial times have been affecting them, have them identify themselves as the ’99 percent’, and then write ‘occupywallst.org’ at the end.” (see Sept 17)

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Kandahar massacre

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August 23, 2013: a six-person jury sentenced Robert Bales to life in prison without parole. He was also demoted to the lowest enlisted rank, dishonorably discharged and forfeited all pay and allowances. Bales is incarcerated at United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth. [NYT article]

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

August 23, 2018: more than 500 migrant children remained separated from their parents and under the federal government’s care, according to court documents.

The numbers only improved slightly from what the federal government had reported a week earlier.

It had been nearly a month since the court-imposed deadline for the Trump administration to reunify all migrant families that were separated as part of its “zero tolerance” policy earlier this spring. The administration was expected to reunify more than 2,600 migrant children, age 0-17, with their parents by July 26. (IH, see Aug 30; children, see Oct 2)

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Space

August 23, 2023: India’s Chandrayaan-3 — a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan — landed in the southern polar region of the moon. The two robots, made India the first country to ever reach that part of the lunar surface in one piece — and only the fourth country ever to land on the moon. [NYT article] (next Space, see )

August 23 Peace Love Art Activism, August 23 Peace Love Art Activism, August 23 Peace Love Art Activism, August 23 Peace Love Art Activism, August 23 Peace Love Art Activism, August 23 Peace Love Art Activism,

Anniversary, Festivals, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

1969 Vancouver Pop Festival

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1969 Vancouver Pop Festival

Paradise Valley Resort
1969 festival #35
August 22, 23, and 24 1969

Vancouver Pop Festival

Each year as I post a short piece about the many rock festivals that took place in 1969, I seem to find a few more. On my latest list, the Vancouver Pop Festival is number 35.

Paradise Valley Resort (now the Cheakamus Centre) is about 40 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Promoter Bert Gartner had planned on selling 30,000 tickets for each of the three days. He sold 15,000. The MC was well-known radio DJ Terry Mulligan. Bikers showed up and “did” security.

1969 Vancouver Pop Festival

Dead or not?

There is some dispute as to whether the Grateful Dead played the event. Some sites state they did; others dispute it. Unusual is that there is no recording of their performance, something that almost always occurred.

The Jerry Garcia’s Middle Finger site comes down on the “did not play” side with the following information:

Here are the listings from the great San Francisco Express Times, vol. 2 no. 32 (August 21, 1969), p. unk. There’s lots of interest here, of course. But I have circled the item that interests me most greatly. It’s under the listings for Sunday, August 24, 1969, and reads as follows:
Hippy Hill: Trans-Cultural Rip-Offs, Inc. presents Steve Gaskin & the Grateful Dead in concert with Shiva Fellowship. Bring dope (the sacrament) and good vibes. noon. free.
“Hippy Hill”, a.k.a. Hippie Hill, is apparently at the far eastern edge of Golden Gate Park, close to the entry from the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. It seems like a perfectly good place to go share a sacrament and a free show by the Dead.

I show the listing referred to below. It is too small to read, but if you click on it you will likely be able to see a larger view:

1969 Vancouver Pop Festival

1969 Vancouver Pop Festival

MC Terry Mulligan

In 2011, MC Terry Mulligan wrote his biography, My Life…So Far. In it he included his memories about the event. He felt it had held much promise, but failed to deliver.  He also said that the Grateful Dead did not play. Among the several paragraphs about the event, Mulligan includes…

I had my own experience with an unruly music event when…I introduced the acts at the Vancouver Pop Festival–three days of rain, cold and miserable hippies….
Nobody was ready for the pissing rain and cold. People were in sleeping bags on the wet ground in a mountain valley that was mostly shielded from the sun.
I was the guy who promoted the event on the air, so many people thought it was my event. Every half-hour there was somebody loud and angry in my face, spittle flying. “My old lady just got robbed.” “These are bogus tickets.” “You took my money, man!”
1969 Vancouver Pop Festival

Vancouver Sun report

Yet like any event, perspectives change with who one was and where one sat. Vancouver Sun reporter Eileen Johnson wrote:

…the music was excellent, the sound system worked fine, the weather couldn’t have been been better, the light show was a delight, and there were so few people…no one could have suffered from overcrowding
1969 Vancouver Pop Festival

Attendee David Chesney

And yet another statement from the same article by attendee David Chesney,

It was like every outlaw motorcycle gang in the Pacific Northwest came to this thing….The bizarre part was when Little Richard came on. All these bikers right up front. …Little Richard was mincing it up big time, and questioning their sexuality while flaunting his.
1969 Vancouver Pop Festival

Next 1969 festival: Isle of Wight