July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

William Hamilton

July 5, 1827: a day after slaves were freed in the state of New York, 4,000 African Americans marched along Broadway through downtown streets to the African Zion Church, where abolitionist leader William Hamilton said, “This day we stand redeemed from a bitter thralldom.” Celebrations took place as far away as Boston and Philadelphia. In New York’s capital, Nathaniel Paul, pastor of the First African Baptist Society, declared, “We look forward … (to) when this foul stain will be entirely erased, and this, worst of evils, will be forever done way … God who has made of one blood all nations of men, and who is said to be no respecter of persons, has so decreed; I therefore have no hesitation in declaring this sacred place, that not only throughout the United States of America, but throughout every part of the habitable world where slavery exists, it will be abolished.”

Dred Scott

In 1830: after Peter Blow’s failure to farm in Alabama, he moved to Missouri with his slaves (including Dred Scott). (see Scotts for expanded story)

The Nation

July 5, 1865: The Nation magazine founded. Started by abolitionists as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison’s militant anti-slavery paper, The Liberator—it inherited his subscription list. [Nation history] (see July 6)

Elizabeth Lawrence lynched

July 5, 1933: Elizabeth Lawrence was walking home in Jefferson County, Alabamaa when a group of white schoolchildren threw rocks at her. She verbally reprimanded the children and continued walking. Later that evening, an angry mob went to Lawrence’s home, seized her, and burned her house to the ground. She was lunched that night for her perceived social transgression.

Her son Alexander sought the arrest of his mother’s murderers, but the mob reorganized an dpersued him, causing him to flee for his life to Boston, Massachusetts (next BH & Lynching, see Oct 18 or see Chronology for expanded Lynching history)

Scottsboro Nine

July 5, 1938: Alabama Governor Graves reduced Clarence Norris’s death sentence to life in prison. (see SB for expanded story)

Albany Movement

July 5, 1964: police arrested thirteen blacks in a test of a privately owned swimming pool.

Police Chief Laurie Pritchett said he had arrested 10 adults and three juveniles and charged them with idling and loitering after having been asked by the pool manager to leave.

James Peterson, a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, said the incident was a planned test of the swimming pool. (next BH, see July 9; see AM for expanded story)

Nelson Mandela

July 5, 1989: Mandela met informally with Mr. Botha at the presidential office in Cape Town. It is the first publicly acknowledged meeting between Mr. Mandela and a government official outside prison, and leads to speculation that he will soon be released. (SA/A, see Aug 15; Mandela, see Oct 15)

James Fowler

July 5, 2015: James Fowler, 81, died in Geneva County, Ala., said John Fleming, the journalist who conducted the critical interview with the former state trooper a decade ago. The cause was not immediately available, said Fleming, a former editorial page editor for the Anniston Star in Alabama who is executive editor of the Center for Sustainable Journalism in Kennesaw, Ga. [WP obit] (see July 15)

Alton B. Sterling

July 5, 2016: Baton Rouge (Louisiana) officers (both white), Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II responded to a report that a black man in a red shirt selling CDs outside the Triple S Food Mart had threatened the caller with a gun.

In a cellphone video, showed an officer pushing Alton B. Sterling (black) onto the hood of the car and tackling him to the ground. Sterling was pinned to the ground by both officers, one kneeling on his chest and the other on his thigh, both attempting to control his arms.

Saying that Sterling had a gun and was going for it, they shot him. An autopsy indicated that Sterling had died from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and back. (B & S, see March 26, 2017; Sterling, see May 2, 2017)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

July 5, 1917: on May 28, after the Bloomington & Normal Street Railway had refused to grant their demand, transit workers in Bloomington, IL went on strike for shorter hours, more pay, and, most importantly, union recognition.

After more than a month of frustrating strike limintation imposed by the court, the strikes invited Mary “Mother” Jones to speak at a rall.

On this date, she spoke and ended her address with the words, “Go out and get ’em.”

A riot ensued with strikers attacking streetcars and attempting to shut down the electric power station, but on July 9, the union was recognized, the strikers reinstated to their jobs.  The workers won a 35-cents a day increase and their work day was decreased from 9 and-a-half hours to nine. (next LH, see Aug 1)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Red Scare

July 5, 1952: Congress, passed the Gwinn Amendment, which required a loyalty oath of all residents of public housing who received federal funds. The oath requirement led to the highly publicized case of James Kutcher, a World War II veteran, who had lost both of his legs in the war, and who was a member of the Socialist Workers Party (see Dec 29).

The insidious aspect of all loyalty oaths of the Cold War era was that they had nothing to do with any specific criminal or unprofessional conduct on the part of individuals required to sign them.

Loyalty oaths were a special mania during the anti-Communist frenzy of the Cold War. Unlike traditional oaths of office, which involve an oath to uphold the Constitution and the country’s laws, Cold War loyalty oaths required people to swear that they were not members of the Communist Party and/or other radical parties or movements. Thus, they were oaths regarding membership and beliefs without reference to any actual or planned illegal action.  [Justia article]

Nuclear/Chemical News

From October 1952 through July 1958:  the United States tested nuclear weapons above ground nine times. (CW & NC, see Oct 3)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAYS

Algeria

July 5, 1962: Algeria Independent from France. [Global article] (see ID for full listing of 1960s Independence Days)

Cape Verde

July 5, 1975: Cape Verde independent of Portugal. [Pan African article] (see July 6)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

July 5 Music et al

Future Woodstock Performers

July 5, 1968: Creedence Clearwater Revival released first album, Creedence Clearwater Revival. John Fogarty, age 23) (see In November)

Rock Venues

July 5, 1968: Bill Graham opened the Fillmore West concert venue in San Francisco. The hall was formerly called the Carousel Ballroom and was the home to many concerts. Graham stopped doing shows at the original Fillmore because of the neighborhood and the place needed work. (see June 27, 1971)

1969 Festivals

July 5 and July 11 – 12: Spectrum Summer Music Festival (Philadelphia, PA) (see Spectrum for expanded story)

Rolling Stones

July 5, 1969: the Rolling Stones proceed with a free concert in Hyde Park, London, as a tribute to Brian Jones; it is also the band’s first concert with guitarist Mick Taylor. Estimates of the audience range from 250,000 to 400,000.

The [bumpy] Road to Bethel

July 5, 1969: John Fabbri and Don Ganoung meet with transportation representatives from All-State Bus Corporation to discuss transportation for festival attendees. Fabbri and Ganoung also meet with NYCPD Chief Inspector McManus to help mobilize the Peace Service Corps. (see Road for expanded story)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Voting Rights

July 5, 1971: the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, formally certified by President Nixon, lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. [NYT article]

Operation Ranch Hand

The summer of 1971, though the U.S. Department of Agriculture had banned herbicides containing Dioxinin 1968, spraying of Agent Orange continued in Vietnam until 1971. Operation Ranch Hand had sprayed 11 million gallons of Agent Orange — containing 240 pounds of the lethal chemical Dioxin — on South Vietnam. More than one seventh of the country’s total area has been laid waste.  [NCBI article] (Vietnam, see Aug 20; VR, see March 21, 1972)

Operation Popeye

July 5, 1972: the program ended. (next V, see July 10 > 14; see OP for full story)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

AIDS

July 5, 1981: The New York Times printed the first story of a rare pneumonia and skin cancer found in 41 gay men in New York and California. The CDC initially refered to the disease as GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency Disorder. When the symptoms were found outside the gay community, Bruce Voeller, biologist and founder of the National Gay Task Force, successfully lobbied to change the name of the disease to AIDS. (AIDS, see “by December 31, 1981”; LGBTQ, see January 28, 1982)

Barry Winchell

July 5, 1999: because of his being gay, Calvin Glover bludgeoned U.S. Army Pfc. Barry Winchell in his sleep with a baseball bat at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Winchell died the next day from his injuries. Glover was later convicted for the murder of Winchell and is serving a life sentence. [Vanity Fair article] (see September 22, 1999)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

July 5, 1993: marital rape became a crime in all 50 states, in at least one section of the sexual offense codes, usually regarding force.  [NCJRS article] (next Feminism  see August 5, 1993)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

July 5 – 9, 2017: according to Gallup’s July 5 – 9 survey, 45% of Americans had tried marijuana. If accurate and utilizing 2016 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 112 million adults had tried marijuana at least once in their lives.

Gallop began polling about marijuana in 1969. In 1969, 4% of respondents claimed to have tried the drug. By 1999 (three years after California became the first state to legalize medical cannabis for compassionate use), 34% of respondents had claimed to have tried marijuana. Between the mid-1980s and 2010, that figure was essentially static, give or take a few percent. (next Cannabis, see July 24 or see CCC for expanded chronology)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

July 5, 2018:

• Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar reported that no immigrant children separated from their parents had been reunited with each other despite a looming court order deadlines to do so.
• Azar said there were somewhat fewer than 3,000 children who were separated from their parents when they jointly tried to illegally cross the border with Mexico.
• HHS has until July 10 to begin placing some of those children with their parents.
• U.S. District Judge John Mendez of Sacramento upheld the core of California’s sanctuary laws , restricting state and local cooperation with federal immigration agents, and sent a terse message to the Trump administration: Solutions to the immigration impasse must come from Congress, not the courts.Mendez halted enforcement of one new state law that penalizes private employers who allow immigration agents into their workplaces. But he said the state  was not interfering with U.S. immigration policy in its main sanctuary law, which prohibits police and sheriff’s offices and state authorities from notifying federal agents of the upcoming release dates of undocumented immigrants in local custody.  “California’s decision not to assist federal immigration enforcement in its endeavors is not an ‘obstacle’ to that enforcement effort,” said the judge. “Standing aside does not equate to standing in the way.” [SF Chronicle article] (next IH, see July 9; lawsuit, see April 18, 2019)

July 5 Peace Love Art Activism

July 4 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Sidney Randolph lynched

July 4, 1896: Sidney Randolph, a native of Georgia in his mid-twenties, was lynched in Rockville, Maryland on July 4, 1896 by an officially-unidentified group of white men from Montgomery County. The full story of Sidney Randolph’s murder was connected to the mystery involving an axe-wielding attack on the Buxton family of Gaithersburg in May of that same year, and the subsequent death of the youngest child, Sadie Buxton. Though professional detectives were brought in from both Washington and Baltimore to investigate the case, local residents of Gaithersburg took it upon themselves to find and/or create circumstantial evidence implicating Sidney Randolph, a stranger to the area who had no motive and consistently maintained his innocence. Removed to the jail in Baltimore to avoid an immediate lynching, Randolph survived repeated interrogations while imprisoned from May 25 until July 4, when a masked mob of white men dragged him from his cell in the Rockville jail, brutally beat him, and hanged him from a tree just outside of town along Route 355. His murderers were never identified or brought to justice for this crime. [Montgomery History article] (next BH, see July 31; next Lynching, see December 10, 1897 or see Never for expanded 19th century lynching chronology)

Robert Mallard continued

July 4, 1949:  on November 20, 1948, the KKK had killed Robert Mallard.

Why was open to speculation, but his wife, Amy Mallard, later testified that she and her husband had received a warning not to vote in the November election. Other speculations were that Amy Mallard, driving their new Frazer, honked the car horn in an attempt to have a white churchgoers move a car obstructing traffic, which was not acceptable behavior from a black person. But, most people believed the KKK killed Robert Mallard because white neighbors resented his prosperity, and were jealous of his new car.

Authorities initially did nothing. Amy Mallard spoke out and eventually testified in front of a grand jury.

A trial in January had quickly acquitted those accused.

On this date, the Ku Klux Klan burned down the Mallard home in Lyons. The local sheriff was reported as saying, “It was just an accident. That woman hasn’t been back here to look after her property since she left.”

Amy Mallard and her son left Lyons for good, and relocated to Buffalo, New York. (next BH, see July 16)

Clyde Kennard

July 4, 1963: while still incarcerated, Clyde Kennard (see September 8, 1959) died of colon cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated in prison; he was 36 years old. [SMN article] (see July 6)

July 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Hawaii

July 4, 1960: US flag with 50 stars (Hawaii, 1959) is first flown [Philadelphia, PA] [Baltimore Sun article]

July 4 Peace Love Art Activism

July 4 Music et al

I Get Around

July 4 – 17, 1964: the single released in May, “I Get Around” by The Beach Boys #1 on Billboard Hot 100. [the first of (only) three Billboard Hot 100 #1 songs for them during the 1960s. Not until November 1988 will they have another with “Kokomo” – their last. (see December 5, 1964 – January 1, 1965)

see Atlanta International Pop Festival for more

July 4 – 5, 1969 – Atlanta International Pop Festival. (Atlanta International Raceway, Hampton, GA).

Road to Bethel

July 4 – 5, 1969: a NYT article stated that the event presented “an impromptu but efficient commodities exchange in marijuana and LSD, where buyers and sellers let supply and demand establish prices.”

Such news only added to the Wallkill residents’ aggressive confrontation of the Woodstock Festival. (see Chronology for expanded story)

see Saugatuck Pop Festival for more

July 4  – 5, 1969: Saugatuck Pop Festival (Pottawattamie Beach, Saugatuck, MI).

see Bullfrog Lake Music Festival for more

July 4, 5, & 6: Estacada, CA

July 4 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Reminder Day

July 4, 1965: at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, picketers begin staging the first Reminder Day to call public attention to the lack of civil rights for LGBTQ people. The gatherings will continue annually for five years. [LGBTQ Nation article] (see October 17, 1963)

Rev. Jerry Falwell

July 4, 1983:  Rev. Jerry Falwell described AIDS as a “gay plague.”  (AIDS, see July 25)

Oliver W. Sipple

In 1984  the California Supreme Court dismissed Sipple’s suit, which upheld a lower court’s finding that the sexual orientation of Oliver W. Sipple (the former marine who thwarted an assassination attempt on President Gerald R. Ford) had been known to ”hundreds of people” before the news accounts, but Mr. Sipple’s protest spurred a debate among news organizations obout the individual’s right to privacy versus freedom of the press. (LGTBQ, see November 14, 1985)

July 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Free Speech

Freedom of Information Act

July 4, 1966: President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  He had opposed the bill, but signed it nonetheless.  [FOIA site]

By allowing citizens to obtain records about government actions, FOIA is regarded as one of the most important legislative contributions to democracy in American history. The FOIA bill had virtually unanimous support in Congress. The Senate first approved it on a voice vote without dissent in October 1965 and passed it again on a voice vote in July 1966. The House approved it, 306–0, in late June 1966. (see January 23, 1967)

July 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

July 4, 1971: the American Indian Movement staged a Fourth of July counter-celebration by occupying the Mount Rushmore National Monument. [ICT article] (see Dec 23)

July 4 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

July 4, 1993: Abkhazia de facto independence from Georgia. Officially declared in 1999. (see May 20, 2002)

July 4 Peace Love Art Activism

World Trade Center

July 4, 2004, Groundbreaking for the then-called Freedom Tower begins at Ground Zero in New York City. (see April 27, 2006)

July 4 Peace Love Art Activism

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Deborah Sampson

July 3, 1782: Deborah Sampson wounded outside Tarrytown, NY receiving two musket balls in her thigh and a forehead wound from a sabre slash. She begged her fellow soldiers to let her die and not take her to the hospital, but they refused to abandon her. Doctors treated her head wound, but she left the hospital before they could attend to the musket balls. Fearful that her true identity would be discovered, she removed one of the balls herself with a penknife and sewing needle, but her leg never fully healed because the other musket ball was too deep for her to reach. (see Deborah for expanded story)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

July 3, 1893: the government of India commenced a study of the effects of hemp drugs in the province of Bengal. W. Mackworth Young was the commission’s President. When released (1894) the Commission will state in part: “It has been clearly established that the occasional use or hemp in moderate doses may be beneficial; but this use may be regarded as medicinal in character” as well as “The moderate use practically produces no ill effects. In all but the most exceptional cases, the injury from habitual moderate use is not appreciable.” (see CC for expanded chronology)

INDEPENDENCE DAY

July 3, 1944;  Belarus independent from German occupation. [Belarus article] (see May 5, 1945)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

see July 3 Music et al for more

Muddy Waters

July 3, 1960: Muddy Waters records “At Newport 1960” album at Newport Jazz Festival. The album itself is released in November 1960.

Beatles

July 3, 1961: the Beatles return to England from Hamburg. (see August)

Four Tops

July 3 – 9 – “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” by the Four Tops #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Brian Jones

July 3, 1969: Brian Jones found dead in the swimming pool at his home in Sussex, England (see July 5)

see Newport Jazz Festival for more

July 3 – 6, 1969: the festival’s 1969 program was an experiment in fusing jazz, soul and rock music and audiences. Its lineup included, besides jazz, Friday evening appearances by rock groups Jeff Beck, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Ten Years After, and Jethro Tull. Saturday’s schedule mixed jazz acts such as Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck with others including John Mayall and Sly & the Family Stone. James Brown was among those who appeared Sunday afternoon, followed in the evening by Johnny Winter, Herbie Hancock, B. B. King, and Led Zeppelin.

Jim Morrison

July 3, 1971: Jim Morrison died.

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & Operation Popeye

July 3, 1972:  a NY Times article on Operation Popeye appeared. It’s lead paragraph stated that “The United States has been secretly seeding clouds over North Vietnam, Laos and South Vietnam to increase and control the rainfall for military purposes.” 

A second NYT article quoted Dr. Matthew Meseison, a professor of biology at Harvard University, from the June 16 issue of the magazine Science:

“It is obvious that weather modification used as a weapon of war has the potential for causing large‐scale and quite possibly uncontrollable and unpredictable destruction. Furthermore, such destruction might well have a far greater impact on civilians than on combatants. This would be especially true in areas where subsistence agriculture is practiced, in food‐deficit areas, and in areas subject to flooding.”

A third NYT article stated: Two former high‐ranking officials of the Johnson Administration said…that Robert S. McNamara, while Secretary of Defense, specifically ordered the Air Force to stop all rainmaking late in 1967….But other officials, who served in both the Johnson and Nixon Administrations, said they recalled no such clear‐cut order.It was not clear whether Mr. McNamara’s order was dis obeyed, ignored, or—as one of ficial suggested—“there was a kind of slippage” in putting it into effect. (see Operation Popeye for expanded story)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

July 3, 1978:  comedian George Carlin had developed a routine that used a host of dirty words, to great comic effect. At one point the monologue was broadcast on WBAI, a nonprofit radio station in New York City. A listener complained and the FCC issued WBAI a citation for broadcasting obscene material. The Pacifica Foundation, which owned WBAI, took an appeal to the Supreme Court.

In FCC v Pacifica Foundation, decided on this day, the Court upheld the FCC in a 5–4 vote, singling out the seven words, The seven words are: shit, piss, cunt, fuck, tits, cocksucker, and motherfucker. You can find the words in the Supreme Court’s opinion, but you just can’t hear them on the radio (or network television).

In the decision it was written: “As Mr. Justice Sutherland wrote, a ‘nuisance may be merely a right thing in the wrong place, like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard’ . . . We simply hold that when the Commission [the FCC]  finds that a pig has entered the parlor, the exercise of its regulatory power does not depend on proof that the pig is obscene.” (see July 9)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Toxteth  & Merseyside revolts

July 3, 1981: the Merseyside police force had a poor reputation within the black community for stopping and searching young black men in the area, under the “sus” laws, and the perceived heavy-handed arrest of Leroy Alphonse Cooper watched by an angry crowd, led to a disturbance in which three policemen were injured. [Echo story] (see July 9)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

July 3, 1988: U.S. missiles shot down Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian jet airliner over the Strait of Hormuz. All 290 passengers and crew aboard died. [Washington Post story] (see Dec 21)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

July 3, 2006: Pfc. Steven Green charged with the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl. (see July 8)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

July 3, 2017: Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch found Florida’s recently updated “stand your ground” law to be unconstitutional, rolling back a defendant-friendly change to an already defendant-friendly law.

The new version of the statute made it easier for defendants to claim self-defense in shootings and potentially have the case against them thrown out. Under the revised law, prosecutors had the burden to prove that defendants who claim they shot in self-defense were wrong, rather than defendants having to prove they’re right.

If a defendant acted in self-defense, the judge could dismiss related criminal charges. The National Rifle Association played a major hand in pushing through the new legislation.

Hirsch held that under the state’s constitution, this change to the law could be made only by the Florida Supreme Court and not by the legislature. [M H article] (see Aug 11)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

July 3, 2017: a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel rebuffed Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s contention that stakeholders didn’t have a chance to object before the Obama administration in August set in motion requirements that energy companies monitor and reduce emissions of planet-warming methane. Pruitt in May announced a 90-day delay of the regulation, part of a widespread Obama administration effort to curb methane.

“The administrative record thus makes clear that industry groups had ample opportunity to comment on all four issues on which EPA granted reconsideration, and indeed, that in several instances the agency incorporated those comments directly into the final rule,” two of the three appeals judges wrote in the split opinion.

“Because it was thus not ‘impracticable’ for industry groups to have raised such objections during the notice and comment period [the Clean Air Act] did not require reconsideration and did not authorize the stay.”

The rule took effect immediately. [NYT article] (see July 16)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

July 3, 2018: the Trump administration announced that it would encourage the nation’s school superintendents and college presidents to adopt race-blind admissions standards, abandoning an Obama administration policy that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses

The reversal would restore the policy set during President George W. Bush’s administration, when officials told schools that it “strongly encourages the use of race-neutral methods” for admitting students to college or assigning them to elementary and secondary schools. (see  July 11)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Victor Jara

July 3, 2018: statement from Chile’s courts authority said that Judge Miguel Vázquez  sentenced eight retired Chilean military officers to 15 years in prison for the murder of Victor Jara. Vázquez handed down the sentences after leading a long-running inquiry into Jara’s death on Sept. 16, 45 years ago.

A ninth suspect was jailed for five years for his role in covering up the killings. (see Jara for expanded chronology)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

July 3, 2019: state news outlets reported that President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will “take the next step” and begin to enrich uranium beyond the levels specified under its 2015 accord with the United States and other global powers.

Rouhani’s pledge to accelerate the country’s uranium enrichment was the latest step in an escalating confrontation with the United States over President Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear pact and imposition of crippling economic sanctions on Iran.   [NYT article] (next N/C N, & Iran, see July 8)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

July 3, 2019: in a case that stirred national outrage, prosecutors in Alabama said that they were dropping a manslaughter charge against Marshae Jones over the death of the fetus she was carrying when she was shot in the belly,.

Jones, was accused of beating up a co-worker who ultimately drew a gun and fired it, wounding Ms. Jones in the stomach and killing her five-month-old fetus. A grand jury in Jefferson County, convened by District Attorney Lynneice Washington, dismissed charges against the co-worker, saying she had acted in self-defense. But it indicted Ms. Jones for “initiating a fight knowing she was five months pregnant.”

Under Alabama law, a fetus was considered to have the same rights as a child who has already been born. The grand jury sought to hold someone accountable for its death and Ms. Jones was arrested.

Washington, who had signed the indictment, said in a brief news conference that she had weighed the evidence and decided to dismiss the case. (see July 15)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Census

July 3, 2019: a day after pledging that the 2020 census would not ask respondents about their citizenship, Justice Department officials reversed course and said they were hunting for a way to restore the question on orders from President Trump.

Justice Department officials told the judge that their plan had changed in the span of 24 hours: They now believed there could be “a legally available path” to restore the question to the census, and they planned to ask the Supreme Court to help speed the resolution of lawsuits that are blocking their way. [NYT article] (next Census, see July 9)

Trump’s Wall

July 3, 2019: the Ninth Circuit federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld a block on President Trump’s attempt to use $2.5 billion from the Department of Defense to construct a wall along the southwestern border.

The divided three-judge panel agreed with a lower court’s decision that ruled the Trump administration did not have the authority to reallocate the funds without congressional approval. The administration immediately appealed.

Two of the three judges on the panel affirmed that the administration could not build the barriers during future challenges.

“We conclude that it is best served by respecting the Constitution’s assignment of the power of the purse to Congress, and by deferring to Congress’s understanding of the public interest as reflected in its repeated denial of more funding for border barrier construction.” (next IH, see July 9; see TW for expanded chronology)

July 3 Peace Love Art Activism