August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Four Lynched
August 10, 1898: a white mob seized Will Sanders, Rilla Weaver, Dennis Ricord, and Manse Castle from a jail in Clarendon, Arkansas, and lynched them before they could stand trial.
A few weeks prior, a white woman named Erneze Orr allegedly hired the four to kill her husband, John T. Orr. After the four were arrested for this alleged offense, a mob of white community members quickly formed—and on three separate occasions, the mob convened at the jail intent on lynching them. Despite these repeated threats, officers refused to move the group to a safer location as they awaited trial.
On August 10, the white mob stormed the jail a final time. Rather than protecting the people in his custody, the sheriff turned the jail keys over to the mob. Newspapers reported that he had been persuaded to open the jail doors and let the mob enter “by their earnestness.”
Mrs. Orr, the white woman who allegedly orchestrated her husband’s murder, was also being held at the jail. She reportedly poisoned herself shortly before the mob’s arrival. Though contemporary reports note that she was still alive when the mob stormed the jail, the mob left her and took only the four Black people from the jail.
The mob hung Mr. Sanders, Ms. Weaver, Mr. Ricord, and Mr. Castle from the tramway of a nearby sawmill with signs affixed to them that read “This is the penalty for murder and rape.” Their bodies were then left on display for hours to terrorize the entire Black community. [EJI article] (next BH, see “In September” ; next Lynching, see April 23, 1899 or see NF for expanded 19th century chronology)
Mamie Smith and Perry Bradford
August 10, 1920: Mamie Smith and Perry Bradford recorded a new song by Bradford called “Crazy Blues.” The song was a cry of outrage by a woman driven mad by mistreatment and spoke with urgency to Black listeners across the country who had been ravaged by the abuses of race-hate groups, the police and military forces in the preceding year — the notorious “Red Summer” of 1919.
“Crazy Blues” became a hit record of unmatched proportions and profound impact. Within a month of its release, it sold some 75,000 copies and would be reported to sell more than two million over time. It established the blues as a popular art and prepared the way for a century of Black expression in the fiery core of American music. [NYT article] (next BH, see March 1, 1921)
Athens, Alabama Race Riot
August 10, 1946: in Athens, Alabama, a mob of white men and teenagers, estimated at 2,000 people, rioted after two white men had been jailed for an unprovoked attack on a black man the day before. Breaking into smaller groups, the mob went into town and began beating any African-American seen the street. State troops, sent by the Governor, arrived at 4:00 pm and restored order by midnight. Nobody was killed, but more than 50 black persons were injured. Sixteen white suspects were later indicted by a county grand jury for the violence. [Trove article] (BH, see “in September”; RR, see July 16, 1964)
Albany Movement
August 10 1962: King agreed to leave Albany, ending his involvement in the Albany Movement. Almost all of Albany’s public facilities remained segregated after King’s departure. (see Albany for expanded story)
Medgar Evers assassination
August 10, 1963: a state judge ordered Byron De La Beckwith released from a mental hospital and transferred to jail to await trial for murder. (BH, see Aug 11; see Evers for expanded chronology)
Irene Morgan Kirkaldy
August 10, 2007, Irene Morgan Kirkaldy died in Gloucester County, Virginia. [NYT obit] (BH, see Sept 27; Morgan, see June 16, 1944)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Cultural Milestone
see Electric guitar for more
August 10, 1937: the United States Patent Office awarded patent #2,089.171 to G.D. Beauchamp for the electric guitar. It would revolutionize jazz, blues and country music and made the later rise of rock and roll possible. It was known as the Rickenbacker Frying Pan.
Inventor G.D. Beauchamp, partner with Adolph Rickenbacher in the Electro String Instrument Corporation of Los Angeles, California, spent more than five years pursuing his patent on the Frying Pan. It was a process delayed by several areas of concern, including the electric guitar’s reliance on an engineering innovation that dated to the 19th century. When a vibrating string is placed within a magnetic field, it is possible to “pick up” the sound waves created by that string’s vibrations and convert those waves into electric current. Replace the word “string” with the word “membrane” in that sentence, however, and you also have a description of how a telephone works. For this reason, Beauchamp’s patent application had to be revised multiple times to clarify which of his individual claims were truly novel and which were merely new applications of existing patents. (see April 1, 1938)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Cold War
August 10, 1949: President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Bill, which established the Department of Defense. As the Cold War heated up, the Department of Defense became the cornerstone of America’s military effort to contain the expansion of communism. [Cornell U article] (see Aug 27)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Native Americans
August 10, 1961: National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) organized following the American Indian Charter Convention in Chicago to encourage greater self-sufficiency and autonomy. [site] (see March 5, 1962)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
August 10 Music et al
Fingertips-Pt 2
August 10 – 30, 1963, recorded in June 1962 during a Motortown Revue performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, “Fingertips-Pt 2” by Little Stevie Wonder was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Wonder was 13-years-old.
Wheels of Fire
August 10 – September 6, 1968: Cream’s Wheels of Fire the Billboard #1 album.
The [bumpy] Road to Bethel
Sunday 10 August 1969
- Chris Langhart assisted by a corps of technical people he knew from summer theaters in Syracuse, began constructing a footbridge over the increasingly congested West Shore Road.
- Howard Hirsch and Peter Leeds begin setting up the exhibition of amateur artists along the festival’s northwestern perimeter.
- stage construction progressed to the point where builders were ready to put the deck on top. (see Chronology for expanded story)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Fair Housing
August 10, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965. It was a major revision to federal housing policy in the United States which instituted several major expansions in federal housing programs. Johnson called it “the single most important breakthrough” in federal housing policy since the 1920s. The legislation greatly expanded funding for existing federal housing programs, and added new programs to provide rent subsidies for the elderly and disabled; housing rehabilitation grants to poor homeowners; provisions for veterans to make very low down-payments to obtain mortgages; new authority for families qualifying for public housing to be placed in empty private housing (along with subsidies to landlords); and matching grants to localities for the construction of water and sewer facilities, construction of community centers in low-income areas, and urban beautification. [LBJ Library article] (see September 9, 1965)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam/Operation Popeye
August 10, 1966: the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed a weather modification program for selected areas of Laos. The Command of US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (COMUSMACV) and the Commander in Chief of US Pacific Command (CINCPAC) concurred. (see Global Security dot com for more) (see Popeye for expanded story)
Manson Family
August 10, 1969: the Manson Family killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, wealthy Los Angeles business people. [2017 Guardian obit] (see January 25, 1971)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Feminism
Equal Rights Amendment
August 10, 1970: The Equal Rights Amendment passed the U.S. House of Representative by a vote of 350 to 15. The proposed amendment provided for equal rights under the constitution regardless of sex. NYT article (Feminism, see Aug 26; ERA, see March 22, 1972)
Women’s Health
August 10, 2015: Oklahoma District Judge Patricia Parrish struck down an Oklahoma law that required doctors to follow label instructions when prescribing abortion-inducing drugs, finding the rule was unconstitutional because it did not apply to other kinds of medication.
A lawsuit argued the law placed unconstitutional restrictions on non-surgical abortion in the earliest weeks of pregnancy and interfered with doctors’ discretion. Opponents contend lower dosages can make the abortion-inducing drugs more effective later in a pregnancy. [NEWSOK article] (see Aug 14)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Japanese Internment Camps
August 10, 1988: Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed by President Reagan and passed by Congress, provided for a Presidential apology and appropriates $1.25 billion for reparations of $20,000 to most internees, evacuees, and others of Japanese ancestry who lost liberty or property because of discriminatory wartime actions by the government. Civil Liberties Public Education Fund created to help teach the public about the internment period. (see Internment for expanded story)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
Domestic Terrorism
Oklahoma City Explosion
August 10, 1995: a grand jury indicted Timothy McVeigh on 11 federal counts, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, use of a weapon of mass destruction, destruction by explosives and eight counts of first-degree murder. (see February 20, 1996)
North Valley Jewish Community Center
August 10, 1999: Buford O. Furrow, Jr. walked into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills and opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon, fired 70 shots into the complex. The gunfire wounded five people: three children, a teenage counselor, and an office worker. Shortly thereafter, Furrow murdered a mail carrier, fled the state. [Daily News photo link] (see January 24, 2001)
August 10 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
August 10, 2015
- The Ohio Supreme Court’s Board for Professional Conduct said that Ohio judges who perform civil marriages may not refuse to conduct a ceremony for a gay couple, nor may they refuse to do all marriages based on personal beliefs opposing gay marriage. The ruling follows the refusal by a judge in Toledo to conduct a same-sex ceremony for a couple in July, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage was a right in all states. Toledo Municipal Judge C. Allen McConnell said in a written statement he was following his personal and Christian beliefs. But the professional conduct board, in an advisory opinion issued Friday and announced Monday, said refusing to perform the ceremony on that basis amounts to a violation of a judge’s oath of office. [Cleveland dot com article]
- Federal Judge Richard Gergel ordered South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson to pay more than $135,000 in legal fees for a couple who challenged the state ban on same-sex marriage. Wilson must reimburse seven attorneys a total of $130,600 for 390 hours of work, or nearly 90 percent of what they requested. Gergel also awarded them the full $4,700 they sought in other court costs and fees, according to court documents. Wilson’s office is reviewing the ruling to decide what to do next, spokesman Mark Powell said. It has 28 days to respond. Gergel called the hours spent on the case reasonable and necessary. Colleen Condon and her partner, Nichols Bleckley, sued last October to get a marriage license. [AP article] (see Aug 12)
