May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

May 25, 1900: President McKinley signed the Lacey Act of 1900. a conservation law that focused on preventing poaching and the introduction of non-native species, making it a federal crime to transport wildlife across state lines that had been taken in violation of state laws. [NWC article] (next EI, see July 1, 1905)

Religion and Public Education

Jon Scopes

May 25, 1925:  a grand jury indicted Jon Scopes for violating Tennessee’s anti-evolution law. (see Scopes for expanded story)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Auto-Lite strike, day 3

May 25, 1934 (Friday): Auto-Lite officials agreed to keep the plant closed in an attempt to forestall further violence and Auto-Lite President Clement Miniger was arrested after local residents swore out complaints that he had created a public nuisance by allowing his security guards to bomb the neighborhood with tear gas. Strike leader Louis Budenz, too, was arrested—again on contempt of court charges.

Meanwhile, rioting continued throughout the area surrounding the Auto-Lite plant. Furious local citizens accosted National Guard troops, demanding that they stop gassing the city. Twice during the day, troops fired volleys into the air to drive rioters away from the plant. A trooper was shot in the thigh, and several picketers were severely injured by flying gas bombs and during bayonet charges. In the early evening, when the National Guard ran out of tear gas bombs, they began throwing bricks, stones and bottles back at the crowd to keep it away.

The AFL’s Committee of 23 announced that 51 of the city’s 103 unions had voted to support a general strike.

That evening, local union members voted down a proposal to submit all grievances to the Automobile Labor Board for mediation. The plan had been offered by Auto-Lite officials the day before and endorsed by Taft. But the plan would have deprived the union of its most potent weapon (the closed plant and thousands of picketing supporters) and forced the union to accept proportional representation. Union members refused to accept either outcome. Taft suggested submitting all grievances to the National Labor Board instead, but union members rejected that proposal as well. [Parallel Narratives article] (see Toledo for expanded chronology)

Foxconn

May 25, 2010: nine employee deaths at Chinese electronics manufacturer, Foxconn, Apple’s main supplier of iPhones, has cast a spotlight on some of the harsher aspects of blue-collar life on the Chinese factory floor. [Libcom dot org article] (see January 20, 2011)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Promotion riot

May 25, 1943: a riot broke out at the Alabama Dry Dock Shipping Company (ADDSCO) after 12 African Americans were promoted to “highly powered” positions.

The Alabama Dry Dock and Shipping Company built and maintained U.S. Navy Ships during World War I and World War II. During World War II, the company was the largest employer in Mobile. In 1941, the company began hiring African-American men in unskilled positions. By 1943, Mobile shipyards employed 50,000 workers and African-American men and women held 7000 of those jobs. This increase in black employees did not please white workers.

In the spring of 1943, in response to President Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Practices Committee issuing directives to elevate African Americans to skilled positions, as well as years of pressure from local black leaders and the NAACP, the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company reluctantly agreed to promote twelve black workers to the role of welder. Shortly after the new welders finished their first shift, an estimated 4000 white shipyard workers and community members attacked any black employee they could find with pipes, clubs, and other dangerous weapons. Two black men were thrown into the Mobile River while others jumped in to escape serious injury. The National Guard was called to restore order. Although no one was killed, more than fifty people were seriously injured, and several weeks passed before African-American workers could safely return to work. Many white employees refused to return to work unless they received a guarantee that African Americans would no longer be hired. However, the federal government intervened and the company created four segregated shipways where African Americans could hold any position with the exception of foreman. African Americans working on the rest of the shipyard were regulated to the low-paying, unskilled tasks they had historically performed. (see May 31)

Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County

May 25, 1964: the US Supreme Court held that the County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia’s decision to close all local, public schools and provide vouchers to attend private schools was constitutionally impermissible as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. [Oyez article] (BH, see May 31; SD, see Sept 9)

Muhammad Ali

May 25, 1965:  the second Ali-Liston fight.  Ali knocked out Liston midway through first round in a controversial knockout [Time dot com article] (see Sept 15)

Jerome Huey beaten to death

May 25, 1966: Jerome Huey, a 17-year-old college student from Chicago, boarded a bus and headed for the town of Cicero to interview at a freight loading company for a job interview to help his support his parents’ grocery store and to pay for his education. On his way back to the bus stop that evening four white teens attacked him with a baseball bat as he walked alone near 25th Street and Laramie Avenue. He died of his injuries on May 29. [court description of event]

In 1967, Frank Hough, Arthur Larson and Martin Kracht were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to nine to 20 years in prison. Each served less than five years.

Prosecutors dropped charges against together with Dominic Mazzone who testified against the others.  [Chicago Tribune article] (next BH, see May 27)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

May 25, 1961: before a special joint session of Congress President Kennedy announced his goal to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. [NASA article] (see July 21)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

May 25 Music et al

Bookends

May 25 – June 14, 1968: Simon and Garfunkel’s Bookends the Billboard #1 album. (see Bookends for expanded story)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

May 25, 1977:  20th Century Fox released Star Wars, the first Star Wars movie. The movie was later re-titled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. [Roger Ebert review] (see March 6, 1981)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Frank Collin

May 25, 1978: the Village of Skokie issued a permit allowing Frank Collin and his band of Nazi sympathizers to demonstrate in front of Skokie’s Village Hall on Sunday 25 June 1978. (see June 2)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Falklands War

May 25, 1982: Argentine aircraft sank HMS Coventry (killing 19) and British Merchant Navy vessel Atlantic Conveyor (killing 12). [2017 BBC article] (see May 28 – 29)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Hands Across America

May 25, 1986, Hands Across America: At least 5,000,000 people form a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California, to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness. [2016 Washington Post article]

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Court Blocks Trump

May 25, 2017: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit left in place the freeze on President Trump’s revised entry ban, handing the administration another legal setback in its efforts to block the issuance of new visas to citizens of six Muslim majority countries. The ruling meant the Trump administration still could enforce its travel order that the government said was urgently needed for national security.

In its 10 to 3 decision, the Richmond-based court said the president’s broad immigration power to deny entry into the U.S. is not absolute and sided with challengers, finding that the travel ban “in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.”

The president’s authority, the court said, “cannot go unchecked when, as here, the president wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation,” according to the majority opinion written by Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory, and joined in part by nine other judges.         The 4th Circuit declined to lift an order from a Maryland federal judge, who ruled against the travel ban on March 16 and sided with opponents who said the ban violated the Constitution by intentionally discriminating against Muslims. The ruling left the injunction in place and meant citizens from Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya can continue entering the United States. [Washington Post article] (next IH, see June 12)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

May 25, 2022: Gov. Dan McKee (D), of Rhode Island signed a bill to legalize marijuana, making it the 19th state to end prohibition.

While it would be at least a few months until adult-use retail sales launched in the Ocean State, adults 21 and older could legally possess up to one ounce of cannabis and grow up to six plants for personal use, only three of which couldn be mature.

There had been months of negotiations between lawmakers, advocates, stakeholders and the governor’s office before a revised version of the legislation was introduced earlier in May, but once the text was released, the identical companion bills in both chambers quickly advanced through committee and were approved on the floor on May 25. [Marijuana Moment article] (next Cannabis see Aug 24 or see CAC for expanded chronology)

May 25 Peace Love Art Activism

 

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

Samuel F. B. Morse

May 24, 1844: Samuel F. B. Morse dispatched the first telegraphic message over an experimental line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. The message, taken from the Bible, Numbers 23:23 and recorded on a paper tape, had been suggested to Morse by Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of a friend. [Atlantic article] (see March 30, 1858)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Laura Nelson & son L.D. Lynched

May 24, 1911: shortly before midnight, a mob of dozens of armed white men broke into the Okfuskee County jail in Okemah, Oklahoma, and abducted Laura Nelson and her young son, L.D. The mob took the Black woman and boy six miles away and hanged them from a bridge over the Canadian River, close to the Black part of town; according to some reports, members of the mob also raped Mrs. Nelson, who was about 28 years old according to census records, before lynching her alongside her son. Their bodies were found the next morning.

Hundreds of white people from Okemah came to view the bodies. Some even posed on the bridge to have their photos taken with the bodies of the dead Black woman and boy. Those photographs were later reprinted as postcards and sold at novelty stores.

When a special grand jury was called to investigate the lynching, the district judge instructed the white jurors to be mindful of their duty as members “of a superior race and greater intelligence to protect this weaker race.” No one was indicted, prosecuted, or held legally accountable for lynching Laura and L.D. Nelson. [EJI article] (next BH and next lynching, see September 5, 1912 or see Lynching for expanded listing)

Freedom Riders

May 24, 1961: the Riders boarded buses from Montgomery to Jackson, MS under National Guard escort. They were jailed upon arrival under the formal charges of incitement to riot, breach of the peace, and failure to obey a police officer. [CRMVET dot org pdf]  (BH, see May 31; FR, see June 12)

Jack Johnson

May 24, 2018:  President Trump issued a posthumous pardon to boxer Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion, who was jailed a century ago due to his relationship with a white woman.

“I believe Jack Johnson is a worthy person to receive a pardon, to correct a wrong in our history,” Trump said. (see May 29)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Toledo Auto-Lite strike day 2

May 24, 1934 (Thursday): Ohio National Guardsmen, most of them teenagers, arrived in a light rain. The troops included eight rifle companies, three machine-gun companies and a medical unit. The troops cleared a path through the picket line, and the sheriff’s deputies, private security guards and replacement workers were able to leave the plant.

Later that morning, Judge Stuart issued a new injunction banning all picketing in front of the Auto-Lite plant, but the picketers ignored the order.

During the afternoon, President Roosevelt sent Charles Phelps Taft II, son of the former president, to Toledo by to act as a special mediator in the dispute. AFL president William Green sent an AFL organizer to the city as well to help the local union leadership bring the situation under control.

During the late afternoon and early evening of May 24, a huge crowd of about 6,000 people gathered again in front of the Auto-Lite plant. Around 10 p.m., the crowd began taunting the soldiers and tossing bottles at them. The militia retaliated by launching a particularly strong form of tear gas into the crowd. The mob picked up the gas bombs and threw them back. For two hours, the gas barrage continued. Finally, the rioters surged back toward the plant gates. The National Guardsmen charged with bayonets, forcing the crowd back. Again the mob advanced. The soldiers fired into the air with no effect, then fired into the crowd—killing 27-year-old Frank Hubay (shot four times) and 20-year-old Steve Cyigon. Neither was an Auto-Lite worker, but had joined the crowd out of sympathy for the strikers. At least 15 others also received bullet wounds, while 10 Guardsmen were treated after being hit by bricks.

A running battle occurred throughout the night between National Guard troops and picketers in a six-block area surrounding the plant.[1][25] A smaller crowd rushed the troops again a short time after Hubay and Cyigon’s deaths, and two more picketers were injured by gunfire. A company of troops was sent to guard the Bingham Tool and Die plant, a squad of sheriff’s deputies dispatched to protect the Logan Gear factory, and another 400 National Guardsmen ordered to the area. Nearly two dozen picketers and troopers were injured by hurled missiles during the night. The total number of troops now in Toledo was 1,350, the largest peace-time military build-up in Ohio history.  [UFCW article] (see Toledo for expanded chronology)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Equal Nationality Treaty

May 24, 1934: the Senate ratified the Equal Nationality Treaty and President signed it thus granting American women the right to transfer their nationality to their children. [Nat’l Women’s Party article] (Feminism, see December 7, 1936; IH, see December 17, 1943)

Fourth Amendment

May 24, 2013: Judge G. Murray Snow of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona ruled that the Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), led by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution by conducting raids and traffic stops that targeted Latinos based on race.

Statistical studies indicated that MCSO officers were between four and nine times more likely to stop a Latino driver than a similar non-Latino driver. In addition, though the MCSO’s authority to enforce federal immigration law was revoked in 2009, the office continued to conduct immigration-related raids and traffic stops for four years afterward, in violation of federal law and the Constitution. A law enforcement expert at the Department of Justice described the MCSO’s actions as the worst example of racial profiling that he had encountered. [USA Today article] (4^th, see Aug 12; Immigration, see Oct 17)

Trump’s Wall

May 24, 2019:  Judge Haywood Gilliam of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction that prevented the Trump administration from redirecting funds under the national emergency declaration issued in February.

Gilliam, who is overseeing a pair of lawsuits over border wall financing, ruled that the administration’s efforts likely overstepped the president’s statutory authority.

The injunction applied specifically to some of the money the administration intended to allocate from other agencies, and it limited wall construction projects in El Paso, Tex., and Yuma, Ariz.

The ruling quoted from a Fox News interview with Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, in which he said that the wall “is going to get built, with or without Congress.” [NYT article] (next IH, see June 11; TW, see July 3)

Family Separations

May 24, 2021: a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report contradicted  assertions  that top Homeland Security Department officials made regarding President Trump’s 2018 “zero tolerance”  policy that separated family units arriving at the border In order to criminally prosecuted the parents Immigration and Customs Enforcement deporting hundreds of individuals while their children remained in the United States.

At the time, DHS and ICE officials consistently stated those parents were all given the choice to take their children with them when they returned to their home countries, but opted to leave them behind.

The DHS report countered that claim, with investigators finding ICE employees made little effort to determine the parents’ preferences, document their choices, or adhere to their decisions if they voiced a preference.

The findings differed from statements of former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, former top ICE official Matt Albence and an agency fact sheet that asserted all of the deported parents opted to leave their children in the United States. [govexec article] (next IH, see July 17)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Senator Barry Goldwater & nuclear weapons

May 24, 1964: Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona), running for the Republican Party nomination in the upcoming presidential election, gave an interview in which he discussed the use of low-yield atomic bombs in North Vietnam to defoliate forests and destroy bridges, roads, and railroad lines bringing supplies from communist China. During the storm of criticism that followed, Goldwater tried to back away from these drastic actions, claiming that he did not mean to advocate the use of atomic bombs but was “repeating a suggestion made by competent military people.” Democrats painted Goldwater as a warmonger who was overly eager to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam. Though he won his party’s nomination, Goldwater was never able to shake his image as an extremist in Vietnam policies. This image was a key factor in his crushing defeat by opponent Lyndon B. Johnson, who took about 61 percent of the vote to Goldwater’s 39 percent. [Daily Kos article] (Vietnam, see June 9; Goldwater & NN, see Sept 7)

South Vietnam Leadership

May 24, 1966: the government of South Vietnam regained full control of Da Nang from the pro-Buddhist Struggle Movement. In the fighting, approximately 150 South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. 23 Americans were wounded (Vietnam, see June Peace…; SVL, see September 3, 1967)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Lamont v. Postmaster General

May 24, 1965: the Supreme Court struck down a federal law that allowed the Post Office to deliver foreign “communist political propaganda” only upon the request of the recipient. The Court unanimously held the law to be an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

Corliss Lamont, who had challenged the Post Office restrictions, was a longtime civil libertarian and served for many years on the ACLU Board of Directors. [Oyez article] (see June 7)

Virginia State Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council

May 24, 1976: the US Supreme Court held that a state could not limit pharmacists’ right to provide information about prescription drug prices. This was an important case in determining the application of the First Amendment to commercial speech. [Oyez article] (see October  4, 1976)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

The Beatles after live performances

May 24 – June 27, 1969: “Get Back” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Get Back for expanded story)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Falklands War

May 24, 1982: frigate HMS Antelope abandoned after bomb detonates while being defused by disposal officer. (see May 25)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

May 24, 1993: Eritrea independent from Ethiopia. (see July 4)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

World Trade Center

May 24, 1994: Judge Kevin T. Duffy sentenced Mohammed A. Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Mahmud Abouhalima and Ahmad M. Ajaj, the four men convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center  to 240 years each in prison. Duffy said they would have no possibility of parole.  [NYT article] (see Dec 30)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Executive Order 13007

May 24, 1996: President Clinton issued Executive Order 13007. It directed federal agencies, to the extent practicable and allowed by law, to allow Native Americans to worship at sacred sites located on federal property and to avoid adversely affecting the physical integrity of such sites. [National Park Service article] (see September 20, 1998)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

Dana Mulhall

May 24, 2013: a Flagler County jury  convicted Paul Miller, 66 of murder in the shooting death of his neighbor Dana Mulhall after an ongoing dispute prosecutors say was over a barking dog and rude remarks. The jury was told Miller went inside his house to retrieve his loaded hand gun off the top of a curio, concealed it by putting it in his back waistband before going outside and shooting Mulhall five times. “Miller’s actions prove he intended to kill Mr. Mulhall. He was combative in his language, gesture and actions,” said Assistant State Attorney Jaquelyn Roys. “If indeed the defendant feared his neighbor, as he claimed, he had an opportunity to call the police when he went inside the house. Instead, Miller chose to confront his neighbor with gunfire.”  Miller had claimed self-defense, saying he lived in fear of his neighbor. The jury deliberated 90 minutes before finding Miller guilty. [News Journal article]  (see June 18)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism 

Nuclear/Chemical News

North Korea

May 24, 2018: North Korea said that it destroyed its only known nuclear test site, three weeks before the scheduled summit meeting between Korean leader, Kim Jong-un and President Trump.

North Korea used explosives to destroy three of its four tunnels at the Punggye-ri test site, according to dispatches by South Korean reporters at the scene.         The fourth tunnel had already been shuttered for fear of contamination after the North’s first nuclear test in 2006.

North Korea did not invite any independent outside nuclear monitors to verify the dismantlement of the Punggye-ri site.

Some analysts played down the significance of North Korea’s decision to shut down the site saying that after six tests, all conducted in deep tunnels, the site had most likely caved in and become too unstable for another test.

Meeting cancelled

May 24, 2018: President Trump notified Kim Jong-un that he had canceled their meeting to discuss steps toward denuclearization and peace because of recent “tremendous anger and open hostility” by Pyongyang toward members of his administration.

Trump left open the possibility that the two could meet in the future. But hours later, Mr. Trump warned that the United States and its allies are prepared to    respond should “foolish or reckless acts be taken by North Korea.” (see June 1)

North Korea

May 24, 2020: North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, convened the country’s top military-governing body, outlining “new policies for further increasing” its nuclear capabilities and promoting top weapons officials.

During the meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim was said to have promoted Ri Pyong-chol to vice chairman of the commission, expanding his influence. Mr. Ri had been in charge of building nuclear weapons and their delivery missiles. [NYT article] (next N/C N, see July 27)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism 

Voting Rights/Crime and Punishment

May 24, 2020:  Judge Robert L. Hinkle of the United States District Court in Tallahassee ruled that a Florida law requiring people with serious criminal convictions to pay court fines and fees before they could register to vote was unconstitutional, declaring that such a requirement would amount to a poll tax and discriminate against felons who cannot afford to pay.

Florida did not explicitly impose a poll tax, Hinkle wrote, but by conditioning felons’ voting rights to fees that fund the routine operations of the criminal justice system, it effectively created “a tax by any other name.”

“The Twenty-Fourth Amendment precludes Florida from conditioning voting in federal elections on payment of these fees and costs,” Judge Hinkle wrote, calling the restriction an unconstitutional “pay-to-vote system.” [NYT article] (follow-up to this story, see Sept 11; next VR, see July 16;  next C & P, see  June 16)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism 

Environmental Issues

May 24, 2021: the Biden administration said it would spend $1 billion to help communities prepare for worsening disasters, the latest sign of the toll that climate change was already taking across the United States.

The change doubled the current size of a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that gives money to state and local governments to reduce their vulnerability before a disaster happens — for example, building sea walls, elevating or relocating flood-prone homes.

“We’re going to spare no expense, no effort, to keep Americans safe,” said President Biden during a visit to FEMA’s headquarters for a briefing on 2021’s hurricane season. “We can never be too prepared.” [NYT article] (next EI, see June 1)

May 24 Peace Love Art Activism