April 3, 1955: the American Civil Liberties Union announced it would defend Allen Ginsberg’s book Howl against obscenity charges.
A few weeks earlier, U.S. Customs Department had seized 520 copies of the book arriving from England and arrested its publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti after undercover cops purchased “Howl” at his bookstore. (see Oct 7)
April 3 Music et al
Elvis Presley
Milton Berle Show
April 3, 1956: Elvis Presley performed on “The Milton Berle Show.” The show was broadcast live from the aircraft carrier USS Hancock. Elvis played the songs “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Money, Honey,” and “Blue Suede Shoes.” An estimated 25% of the American population tuned in to hear him. (seeApr 4)
April 3 Music et al
Marcels
“Blue Moon”
From songfacts.com: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart began writing Blue Moon for the 1933 movie musical Hollywood Party, but it was cut from the film.
The following year, it was used in Manhattan Melodrama – starring Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy – where it was performed by Shirley Ross in a nightclub scene. The song was originally called “The Bad in Every Man,” befitting the story of Gable’s kind-hearted criminal, but was rejected by MGM until it was re-worked as “Blue Moon.”
Blue Moon” by the Marcels was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from April 3 – 23, 1961,
John Lennon
April 3, 1973: John Lennon appealed the order to leave the United States by May 21 and sought to show that the Justice Department’s legal arguments in the action against him had made it “not just a John-and-Yoko case” but one where “many cases hinge on the outcome.”
Lennon’s fight to stay in the country will eventually lead to Preident Obama’s Deferred Action Policy. [2016 NPR story] (see “in May”)
April 3, 1851: in 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act (see September 18, 1850), which sought to force Northern officials to apprehend alleged runaway slaves and ensure their return to slavery in the South. Any official who would “hinder or prevent” the arrest of a runaway slave or “harbor or conceal” a fugitive slave faced a fine of $1000 or six months imprisonment. Captured fugitives – as well as the many free blacks who were erroneously captured under the law as runaway slaves – had no right to a trial by jury and could not defend themselves in court.
In early 1851, Thomas Sims, a slave from Savannah, Georgia, successfully escaped and fled to Boston, Massachusetts, where slavery had been abolished. Only a few weeks later, on April 3, 1851, a United States Marshal and members of the local police force arrested Sims and took him to the federal courthouse. Fearing riots or an escape attempt, authorities surrounded the courthouse with chains and a heavy police force.
The morning after his capture, attorneys for James Potter, the man who purported to own Sims, presented a complaint to the United States Commissioner. After a short proceeding in which several individuals testified that Sims was the slave who had escaped from Potter’s possession, the Commissioner issued an order remanding Sims back to Georgia. Sims sought review from both the Massachusetts Supreme Court and the United States District Court in Boston, but was unsuccessful. On April 12, Sims left Boston and was returned to Savannah, where he promptly received 39 lashes as punishment for seeking freedom. The marshals who escorted Sims to Georgia received praise and a public dinner for their service.
After the Emancipation Proclamation and in the midst of the Civil War, Thomas Sims again escaped from slavery in 1863, this time fleeing Vicksburg, Mississippi, to return to Boston. (BH, see June 21; SR, see Oct 1)
Smith v Allwright
April 3, 1944: the US Supreme Court overturned the Texas state law that authorized the Democratic Party to set its internal rules, including the use of white primaries. The court ruled that the state had allowed discrimination to be practiced by delegating its authority to the Democratic Party. This affected all other states where the party used the rule.
The Democrats had excluded minority voter participation by this means, another device for legal disfranchisement of blacks across the South beginning in the late 19th century.(Oyez article) (BH, see Apr 22; see June 10, 1946)
Thurgood Marshall
April 3, 1960: speaking at Bennett College, NAACP legal counsel Thurgood Marshallurged attendees not to compromise. The protests strengthened after an economic boycott of the two stores was organized by local leaders. (see Greensboro for expanded story)
Military desegregation
April 3, 1962: President Harry Truman had desegregated the U.S. armed services on July 26, 1948. His order did not cover the Reserves or the National Guard, however. The Defense Department on this day corrected that problem with regard to the Reserves and ordered them racially integrated. National Guard units, however, were still not covered. Although some states began integrating National Guard units in 1947, full integration did not come until the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The issue of whether the federal government or the states control state National Guard units arose again in 2013, when several states refused to comply with Pentagon policy that same-sex spouses of military personnel were entitled to military identification cards. (see Apr 9)
“B Day”
April 3, 1963: “B Day” (for Birmingham) marked the beginning of massive civil rights demonstrations protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The Birmingham campaign was Rev. Martin Luther King’s major project for 1963. King and other leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began a freedom campaign of nonviolent direct action to demand an end to segregation in Birmingham public facilities and employment discrimination in the city. The Birmingham protests became one of the iconic events of the civil rights movement, marked by the use of police dogs and fire hoses against civil rights demonstrators, on May 3, 1963. Images of the protests sparked national and international protest.
The demonstrations led directly to President John F. Kennedy’s nationally televised speech, on June 11, 1963, when he called for a federal civil rights bill. The bill eventually became law on July 2, 1964. (BH, see Apr 4; MLK, see Apr 12)
Viola Liuzzo
April 3, 1965: Mrs C L Wilkins, the mother of Collie Leory Wilkins, one of four men held in connection with the death of Mrs. Viola Liuzzo, told President Johnson that he made it impossible for her son to have a fair trial. (seeLiuzzo for expanded story)
“I Have Been to the Mountaintop”
April 3, 1968: Martin Luther King spoke publicly for the last time. He delivered the “I Have Been to the Mountaintop.” speech at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee. [Text] (see Ap4 4]
Rep John Conyers
April 3, 2001: Rep. John Conyers introduced the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. It was referred to the Subcommittee on Crime. The bill died when it failed to advance in the committee. (next BH, see Apr 7; LGBTQ, see March 28, 2002; Byrd & MSM, see April 2, 2004)
April 3, 2015: (from the NYT) nearly 30 years after the Alabama authorities relied on analyses of a handgun and bullets to send him to death row, Anthony Ray Hinton was freed after experts undermined the state’s case.
Hinton’s release from the Jefferson County jail, where he was being held awaiting a new trial that was ordered last year, came close to three decades after a court-appointed lawyer mounted such a feeble defense that the United States Supreme Court ruled it was “constitutionally deficient.”
At the time of Mr. Hinton’s initial trial, his lawyer used a visually impaired civil engineer with little expertise in firearms to rebut prosecutors whose case hinged on linking the handgun found in Mr. Hinton’s home to a string of shootings in and around Birmingham.
Despite pleas by Mr. Hinton’s lawyers, who cited conclusions by newly enlisted specialists, the state refused for years to reconsider the evidence. And so it was not until Friday at 9:30 a.m., one day after a Circuit Court judge ordered his release, that Mr. Hinton exited the jail to hugs, tears and wails of “Thank you, Lord!”
“The State of Alabama let me down tremendously,” Mr. Hinton said in his first interview after his release. “I have no respect for the prosecutors, the judges. And I say that not with malice in my heart. I say it because they took 30 years from me.” (next death penalty, see Apr 29)
April 3, 1896: Havelock Ellis was among the pioneering investigators of psychedelic drugs and the author of one of the first written reports to the public about an experience with mescaline, which he conducted on himself on April 3, 1896. He consumed a brew made of 3 Echinocacti (peyote) in the afternoon of Good Friday alone in his apartment in Temple, London.
During the experience, lasting for about 24 hours, he noted a plethora of extremely vivid, complex, colourful, pleasantly smelling hallucinations, consisting both of abstract geometrical patterns and definite objects such as butterflies and other insects. He published the account of the experience in The Contemporary Review in 1898 (Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise).
The article’s title alludes to an earlier work on the effects of mind-altering substances, the 1860 book Les Paradis artificiels by French poet Charles Baudelaire (containing descriptions of experiments with opium and hashish). (see November 16, 1938)
Elvis Presley
On April 3, 1956: NBC broadcast the Milton Berle Show live from the deck of the USS Hancock while it was docked at the Naval Air Base in San Diego, California. The show was one of the most popular programs on TV. This one starred Esther Williams, Berle’s comedy sidekick, Arnold Stang and the Harry James Orchestra featuring Buddy Rich.
More importantly, Elvis appeared. Afterwards the Elvis Presley Fan Club sent members a 12″ x 18 1/2″ TV/Concert double-sided announcement / promotional handbill from the Colonel to publicly thank Milton Berle for having Elvis perform on his program and to promote the upcoming concerts in San Diego.
Elvis played “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Money, Honey,” and “Blue Suede Shoes.” An estimated 25% of the Americans tuned in to hear him. (see Apr 4)
Howl
April 3, 1957: the American Civil Liberties Union announced it would defend Allen Ginsberg’s book Howl against obscenity charges. (see June 3)
“Blue Moon”
April 3 – 23, 1961: written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934, “Blue Moon” by the Marcels #1 Billboard Hot 100.
The song had been a hit twice already in 1949 with by Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé.
Over the years, “Blue Moon” has been covered by various artists including versions by Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Elvis Presley, the Mavericks, Dean Martin, The Supremes, and Rod Stewart.
John Lennon
April 3, 1973: John Lennon appealed of the order to leave the United States by May 21 and sought to show that the Justice Department’s legal arguments in the action against him had made it “not just a John-and-Yoko case” but one where “many cases hinge on the outcome.” (see “in May”)
April 3 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
April 3, 1965: an American campaign against North Vietnam’s transport system began. In a month-long offensive, Navy and Air Force planes hit bridges, road and rail junctions, truck parks and supply depots. (see April 6)
April 3 Peace Love Art Activism
Technological Milestone
April 3, 1973: in New York City Martin Cooper made the first handheld cellular phone call . (2010 CNN article) (see December 17, 1976)
April 3 Peace Love Art Activism
Symbionese Liberation Army
April 3, 1974: In a fifth tape recording, sent to KSAN radio station 59 days after the kidnapping, Patty Hearst denounces her family and claims allegiance to the S.L.A. She takes the guerrilla name “Tania.” Her family claims she has been brainwashed. (see Patty Hearst for expanded story)
April 3, 2003: U.S. forces seized control of Bagdad’s Saddam International Airport. (see April 9)
April 3 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
April 3, 2009: the Iowa Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in favor of the freedom to marry in Varnum v. Brien. The ruling went into effect on April 27, and same-sex couples begin marrying. (see April 7)
April 3 Peace Love Art Activism
Environmental Issues
April 3, 2018: the E.P.A. announced that it would reconsider and most likely roll back, Obama-era rules requiring automakers to hit ambitious emissions and mileage standards by 2025. The statement also implied that the Trump administration would take on California’s authority to set its own rules. (see May 1)
Barr Expands Early Release of Inmates at Prisons Seeing More Coronavirus Cases
April 3, 2020: Attorney General William P. Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons to expand the group of federal inmates eligible for early release and to prioritize those at three facilities where known coronavirus cases had grown precipitously, as the virus threatens to overwhelm prison medical facilities and nearby hospitals.
Barr wrote in a memo to Michael Carvajal, the director of the Bureau of Prisons, that he was intensifying the push to release prisoners to home confinement because “emergency conditions” created by the coronavirus have affected the ability of the bureau to function.
He directed the bureau to prioritize the release of prisoners from federal correctional institutions in Louisiana, Connecticut and Ohio, which comprise the bulk of the system’s 91 inmates and 50 staff members who have tested positive for the coronavirus. [NYT article] (next C & P, see May 24)
April 3 Peace Love Art Activism
Trump Impeachment
April 3, 2020: NPR reported that President Trump fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson.
In a letter to the Senate Intelligence committee chairs, Trump said he “no longer” has the fullest confidence in Atkinson. The letter said the removal will be effective “30 days from today.”
Atkinson first raised concerns about a complaint involving President Trump’s communications with Ukraine, which led to the impeachment inquiry. (next TI, see or see TIA for expanded chronology)
That was the latest detail that surfaced in reporting on the new seven-year collective bargaining agreement which was also expected to remove drug testing requirements for marijuana.
I try to be precise and factual with my the many events I attach to a date, but sometimes the best I can find is that something occurred in a month. Such are today’s entries. All the following happened in some past April. If you have the actual date, please let me know.
April Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Dred Scott
In April 1838: the Scotts joined Dr & Mrs Emerson in Louisiana. When the Scotts arrived in Louisiana they might have sued for their freedom in that state. For more than twenty years Louisiana courts had upheld the freedom claims of slaves who had lived in free jurisdictions. Had the Scotts claimed their freedom in Louisiana in 1838, theirs would have been an open-and-shut case. But, once again, they did not seek their freedom. It is likely that they simply had no knowledge that the Louisiana courts routinely freed slaves who had lived in free jurisdictions. (BH, seeSeptember 3, 1838; see Scotts for expanded story)
School Desegregation
In April 1850: the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its ruling in Roberts v. Boston regarding Sarah Roberts, a black child. Chief Justice Shaw decided the case on narrow legal groups, ruling in favor of the right of the school committee to set education policy as it saw fit. Shaw could find no constitutional reason for abolishing Black schools. Boston’s schools would remain segregated. (see Sarahfor expanded story)(BH, see Sept 18; SD, see April 28, 1855)
Leonidas C Dyer
In April 1918: Congressman Leonidas C. Dyer (R-Missouri) introduced an anti-lynching bill in the House of Representatives, based on a bill drafted by NAACP founder Albert E. Pillsbury in 1901. The bill called for the prosecution of lynchers in federal court. State officials who failed to protect lynching victims or prosecute lynchers could face five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The victim’s heirs could recover up to $10,000 from the county where the crime occurred. (Bio Guide dot Congress bio) (next BH & Lynching, see May 18; next Dyer bill, see October 20, 1921; for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)
Aurelia Browder
In April 1955: police arrested Aurelia Browder (36 years old) for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white rider in Montgomery, AL. She will be the lead plaintiff in the Browder v. Gayle action lawsuit. (1998 Washington Post article) (BH, see May 7; Feminism, see Oct 21; B v G, see February 1, 1956; see Boycottfor expanded )
Muhammad Ali
Passion of Muhammad Ali cover by George Lois
In April 1968: Esquire magazine’s cover portrayed Muhammad Ali as a martyr akin to St Sebastian. Kurt Andersen, host of NPR’s Studio 360, stated that “George Lois’s covers for Esquire in the 60s are classic. His April 1968 image of Muhammad Ali to dramatize the boxer’s persecution for his personal beliefs, is the greatest magazine cover ever created, making a political statement without being grim or stupid or predicable.” (BH, see Apr 3; Ali, see, April 6, 1969) (see Passion of Muhammad Alifor expanded story)
Nathan Bedford Forrest Rangers
In April 1973: the Pontiac, Michigan school bus bomb case came to trial with Robert Miles, Wallace Fruit, Alex Distel, Dennis Ramsey, and Raymond Quirk as defendants. The government’s star witness, Jerome Lauinger, a Pontiac fireman and licensed gun dealer, told the court that he had infiltrated “Unit 5” of the KKK on behalf of the FBI some three-and-a-half years earlier. He reported that the KKK had a military arm called the “Nathan Bedford Forrest Rangers” and that he was a member of it as well. (BH, see Apr 10; SD, see “In May”)
Rodney King
In April 2012: King’s autobiography, “The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption. Learning How We Can All Get Along” published. (see June 17, 2012)
In April 1913: Alice Paul and Lucy Burns founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU), which later became the National Woman’s Party. The NWP put its priority on the passage of a constitutional amendment ensuring women’s suffrage. (Crusade for the Vote dot org article) (see July 31)
Woman’s Peace Party
In April 1915: opposed to the War, Woman’s Peace Party representatives Jane Addams and Emily G Balch attended the International Congress of Women at The Hague in the Netherlands. The meeting was significant for its founding of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. (see Oct 23)
April Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
In April 1943: U.S. Navy Commodore Milton E. Miles, stationed in Chungking, China proposed that the US parachute twenty Office of Strategic Services (OSS) into the Central Highlands of Vietnam to organize guerrilla bands among the highland peoples to oppose the Japanese forces. The plan was approved, but never implemented. The United States, however, established a network of Vietnamese and French colonials for intelligence and espionage. (valor dot military times article) (see January 24, 1944)
Increased Air Power
April – June, 1964: the US massively reinforced its air power in Southeast Asia. Two aircraft carriers arrived off the Vietnamese coast prompted by a North Vietnamese offensive in Laos. (see Apr 25)
Increased troop strength
In April, 1965: 25,000 U.S. troops stationed in Vietnam (see Apr 3)
543,000 US troops
In April 1969: 543,000 US troops in Vietnam. 33,641 Americans have been killed, a greater total than the Korean War. (seeApr 2)
Sons and Daughters In Touch
Spring 2003: Sons and Daughters In Touch led an historic two week journey to Vietnam. Guided by Vietnam combat veterans and nurses who served in the war, more than 50 Gold Star ‘sons and daughters’ were able to stand in the precise location where their fathers were lost. While in Vietnam, the SDIT delegation also visited Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta, Cu Chi, Da Nang, Quang Tri, Khe San, China Beach, Hue City and Hanoi. (seeAugust 20, 2009)
April Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Dale Jennings
In spring 1952: Dale Jennings, a member of the Mattachine Society, arrested for allegedly soliciting a police officer.
American Psychiatric Association
In April 1952: the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance in its first publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Immediately following the manual’s release, many professionals in medicine, mental health and social sciences criticized the categorization due to lack of empirical and scientific data. (see June 23, 1952)
April Peace Love Art Activism
Cold War
Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy
In April 1957: the escalating nuclear arms race of the late 1950s led Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review, along with Clarence Pickett of the American Society of Friends (Quakers), to found the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE). (Red, see May 2; Nuclear, see Apr 29)
Cuban Missile Crisis
In April 1962: U.S. Jupiter missiles in Turkey became operational. All positions were reported “ready and manned” by U.S. personnel. (next Cold War, see Apr 14; see Cuban Missile Crisis for expanded story)
In April 1962: Ray Charles successfully combined country music with soul and crosses into the pop realm with the album “Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music” – the #1 album of 1962.
LSD
In April, 1966: Sandoz Pharmaceutical recalled the LSD it had previously distributed and withdrew its sponsorship for work with LSD. (seeSeptember1966)
Future Woodstock Performers
In April 1967: Country Joe (age 25 ) and the Fish released first album, Electric Music for the Mind and Body.
Ken Kesey
In April 1967: Ken Kesey re-tried. Hung jury. Pled guilty to a lesser charge. Given 6 months on work farm. (see June 1967)
The Road to Bethel
In April 1969: Allan Mann met with Elliiot Tibor who offered a barn for a theater from free if Mann would rent a nearby 6-room Victorian for the summer for $800. Paul Johnson, a friend of Mann, agreed to put the down payment of $200 for the house in exchange for a room there for the summer. [keep in mind, this agreement was made before Wallkill evicted the festival. (see Chronology for full list of dates)
April Peace Love Art Activism
STUDENT ACTIVISM
“People’s Park”
In April, 1969: UC Berkeley students with local residents began to build a “People’s Park” on college-owned land that had remained unused despite plans to build a park and sports field. (2017 Rolling Stone magazine article) (see Apr 9)
April Peace Love Art Activism
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
In April 1995: the “Does” filed suit against Santa Fe Independent School District (TX) in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Texas. For some time prior to the onset of this litigation, the “Does’ believed that SFISD was pursuing policies that were in contravention of the Establishment Clause, mainly because for an undisclosed period of time leading up to and including the 1992-93 and 1993-94 school years, SFISD allowed students to read overtly Christian prayers from the stage at graduation ceremonies, and over the public address system at home football games. The “Does” demanded prospective injunctive and declaratory relief in addition to money damages. (see June 25, 1997)
April Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
In April 1996: then-Deputy White House Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman transfered Lewinsky to a job as an assistant to Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon. Lieberman told The New York Times the move was due to “inappropriate and immature behavior” and inattention to work. At the Pentagon, Lewinsky met Linda Tripp, a career government worker. (see Clinton for expanded story)
April Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
Boston Archdiocese
In April 2003: the Boston Archdiocese avoided bankruptcy by agreeing to sell land and buildings for over $100m to fund legal settlements to more than 500 abuse victims. (see May 3)
April Peace Love Art Activism
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
April 3, 1955: the American Civil Liberties Union announced it would defend Allen Ginsberg’s book Howl against obscenity charges. 
April 3, 1956: Elvis Presley performed on “The Milton Berle Show.” The show was broadcast live from the aircraft carrier USS Hancock. Elvis played the songs “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Money, Honey,” and “Blue Suede Shoes.” An estimated 25% of the American population tuned in to hear him. (see Apr 4)
