March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Dred Scott

March 17, 1848: before the next trial took place, Irene Emerson had the sheriff of St. Louis County take charge of the Scott family. He was responsible for their hiring out, and maintained the wages until such a time as the outcome of the freedom suit was determined (custody of the Scott family would remain with the St. Louis County sheriff until March 18, 1857). (see Dred Scott for expanded story; BH, see December 25, 1848)

Carrollton, Mississippi

March 17, 1886: 23 African Americans were killed in a courthouse massacre in Carrollton, Miss., when 60 armed men charged in and opened fire in a courtroom. Two African-American brothers, Ed and Charley Brown, were testifying against Jim Lidell, Jr., accusing him of assault with intent to kill. The brothers were killed, and no one was ever indicted for their slayings or others that day. (Mississippi Civil Rights Project article) (see Dec 11)

March to Montgomery

March 17, 1965: despite the arguments between the SCLC and the SNCC, King joins Forman in leading a march of 2000 people in Montgomery to the Montgomery County courthouse. After the march, King announced the third Selma-to-Montgomery march. City of Montgomery officials apologized for the assault on SNCC protesters by county and state law enforcement and asked King and Forman to work with them on how best to deal with future protests in the city; student leaders promised they would seek permits for future protest marches. Gov. Wallace continued to arrest protestors who venture on to state-controlled property. (next BH, see Mar 19; see Montgomery for expanded article)

137 SHOTS

March 17, 2015, Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge John P. O’Donnell denied a request by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty’s office to dismiss one of the attorneys representing Michael Brelo, the Cleveland police officer charged with the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. McGinty had argued that it was a conflict of interest for attorney Patrick D’Angelo to represent Brelo since the attorney also represented the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, the union of rank-and-file officers. O’Donnell wrote in his decision that the situation “does not demonstrate an actual conflict of interest,” and that Brelo’s right to an attorney of his choice outweighs any risk of a conflict. (see 137 for expanded chronology)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism & Voting Rights

Alice Paul

March 17, 1913: Alice Paul headed suffrage delegation to President Woodrow Wilson. (PBS article on Alice Paul) (see April 1913)

Loretta Perfectus Walsh

March 17, 1917:  Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first woman to officially enlist in a branch of the US armed forces in a position other than an nurse. She served as a Chief Yeoman. (see Apr 2)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Strategy meeting

March 17, 1964: President Johnson presided over a session of the National Security Council during which Secretary of Defense McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor present a full review of the situation in Vietnam. During the meeting, various secret decisions were made, including the approval of covert intelligence-gathering operations in North Vietnam; contingency plans to launch retaliatory U.S. Air Force strikes against North Vietnamese military installations and against guerrilla sanctuaries inside the Laotian and Cambodian borders; and a long-range “program of graduated overt military pressure” against North Vietnam. President Johnson directed that planning for the bombing raids “proceed energetically.” (see Mar 19)

London demonstration

March 17, 1968: 25,000 people in London demonstrated against Vietnam War. Mick Jagger later  wrote “Street Fighting Man” and John Lennon wrote “Revolution” in response. (BBC article) (see Mar 18)

My Lai Massacre

March 17, 1970: the Army had commissioned a board of inquiry, headed by Lieutenant General Peers. After investigating, Peers reported that U.S. soldiers committed individual and group acts of murder, rape, sodomy, maiming and assault that took the lives of a large number of civilians–he concluded that a “tragedy of major proportions” occurred at My Lai. The Peers report said that each successive level of command received a more watered-down account of what had actually occurred; the higher the report went, the lower the estimate of civilians allegedly killed by Americans. Peers found that at least 30 persons knew of the atrocity (next Vietnam, see Apr 15; see My Lai for expanded story).

Hanoi Hilton

March 17, 1973: the first American prisoners of war (POWs) released from the “Hanoi Hilton” in Hanoi, North Vietnam. (Smithsonian article) (see Mar 29)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

César E. Chávez

March 17, 1966: César E. Chávez and the National Farm Workers Association left Delano for Sacramento, the capital of California, a 340-mile Peregrinácion (pilgrimage) which would take three weeks. They were calling public attention to the plight of farm workers and for their struggle for the right to organize a union. (see April 10, 1966)

KMPX-FM

March 17, 1968: staffers at San Francisco progressive rock station KMPX-FM strike, citing corporate control over what music is played and harassment over hair and clothing styles, among other things. The Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and other musicians request that the station not play their music as long as the station is run by strikebreakers. (see Mar 28)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Skokie anti-Nazi ordinances

March 17, 1978: Judge Bernard Decker granted the Village of Skokie’s motion to stay his order voiding the Skokie anti-Nazi ordinances so as to permit the Village to perfect an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. (see Apr 6)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Refugee Act of 1980

March 17, 1980: President Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980. It aimed at stating a clear-cut national policy and providing a flexible mechanism to meet the changed developments of world refugees. The main objectives of the act were

1. to create a new definition of refugee based on the one created at the UN Convention and Protocol on the Status of Refugees,
2. to raise the limitation from 17,400 to 50,000 refugees admitted each fiscal year,
3. provide emergency procedures for when that number exceeds 50,000,
4. to establish the Office of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs and the Office of Refugee Resettlement
5. established explicit procedures on how to deal with refugees in the U.S. by creating a uniform and effective resettlement and absorption policy. (see June 15, 1982)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ War I

Troops home

March 17, 1991: first U.S. troops arrived home from Iraq. (see Apr 18)

Between Iraq Wars I & II

March 17, 2003: President Bush warned U.N. weapons inspectors to leave the Iraq within 48 hours. They were in country searching for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), conducting 900 inspections at 500 locations in four months.

Bush had given Saddam Hussein the same amount of time to step down from power or suffer the consequences of the planned invasion.

Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, and Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the inspectors had found no WMDs, or any evidence of a renewed Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Despite increasing cooperation from Iraqi authorities relenting to international pressure, the inspectors were unable to complete their work due to the American threat of war. (see Mar 19)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 17, 1998: the White House charged that Kathleen Willey tried to sell her story to a book publisher for $300,000. Willey’s attorney denied the charges. A friend of Lewinsky and the presidential diarist give grand jury testimony. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Michael Fugee

March 17, 2014: acting with uncustomary speed, the Vatican expelled Michael Fugee from the priesthood for repeatedly defying a lifetime ban on ministry to children.

Fugee attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors despite signing a court-sanctioned decree forbidding such activities.

Fugee’s removal came four months after the New Jersey’s Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office agreed to drop criminal charges against him in exchange for his expulsion. He remains under lifetime supervision by the prosecutor’s office. (NJ dot com article) (see May 6)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Same-sex marriage

March 17, 2015:

• District Judge Callie Granade said in a five-page order that Mobile County Probate Court Judge Don Davis must comply with her previous ruling, which found the state’s gay marriage ban to be unconstitutional.  Alabama’s all-Republican Supreme Court had contravened that ruling on March 2. It ordered probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, arguing that the ban was constitutional.
• The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest body of Presbyterians in the country, approved a change in the wording of its constitution to allow gay and lesbian weddings within the church, a move that threatened to continue to split the mainline Protestant denomination. (see Mar 20)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

March 17, 2017: Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson ruled out opening any negotiation with North Korea to freeze its nuclear and missile programs and said for the first time that the Trump administration might be forced to take pre-emptive action “if they elevate the threat of their weapons program” to an unacceptable level. (see Mar 27)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Charles Manson

March 17, 2018: the funeral for Charles Manson took place in Porterville, Calif. Following his cremation at the funeral home, guests listened to covers of Manson’s songs that had been recorded by Guns N’ Roses and the Beach Boys.

The news comes via the Porterville Recorder, who added that the cult leader’s own recordings were also played at the service, which was attended by 20 family members and friends, including Manson Family member Sandra Good. (next CM, see July 11, 2023)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

March 17,2023: The Department of Housing and Urban Development, via a final rule, rescinded a 2020 Fair Housing Act rule and reinstating HUD’s Discriminatory Effects Standard, which dated back to 2013, the agency announced.

“Discrimination in housing continues today and individuals, including people of color and people with disabilities, continue to be denied equal access to rental housing and homeownership,” HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said in a statement. “Today’s rule brings us one step closer to ensuring fair housing is a reality for all in this country.”

The 2020 rule  — HUD’s Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard — never took effect, and the 2013 rule is still in force. Prior to the effective date of the 2020 rule, the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction in Massachusetts Fair Housing Center v. HUD, which stayed HUD’s implementation and enforcement of the rule. [McKnight article] (next FH, see Sept 28)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Freedom’s Journal

March 16, 1827: the Freedom’s Journal newspaper was founded. It was the first Black-owned and operated newspaper in the United States. Started by a group of free Black men in New York City, the paper served to counter racist commentary published in the mainstream press. As a four-page, four-column standard-sized weekly, Freedom’s Journal was established the same year that slavery was abolished in New York State. Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm served as its senior and junior editors. The Journal consisted of news of current events, anecdotes, and editorials and was used to address contemporary issues such as slavery and “colonization,” a concept that was conceived in 1816 to repatriate free Black people to Africa. (Wisconsin Historical Society link to all issues) (see July 5)

March to Montgomery

March 16, 1965: police clashed with 600 SNCC marchers in Montgomery, Alabama. (see MM for expanded chronology)

Thirteenth Amendment

March 16, 1995:  Mississippi ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The amendment was nationally ratified in 1865. (CBS News article) (see Apr 16)

Sean Bell incident

March 16, 2007: a grand jury indicted three of the five police officers involved in the shooting. Officer Gescard Isnora, who fired the first shot, and Officer Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the 50 shots, were charged with manslaughter, reckless endangerment and assault, while Detective Marc Cooper was charged with two counts of reckless endangerment. (NYT search) (B &S, and Sean Bell, see April 25, 2008)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

Robert H. Goddard

March 16, 1926: rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket, in Auburn, Mass. (see January 7, 1926)

Space Race

March 16, 1966: Americans Neil Armstrong and David Scott coupled Gemini 8 to an unmanned Agena vehicle, docking two spacecraft together for the first time. Shortly after this feat, Gemini 8 experienced a stuck thruster, causing the craft to tumble wildly, and the rest of the mission was aborted.

Following reports of Gemini 8’s problems, the Soviet Union revealed that their Voskhod 2 mission the previous March had landed far off course and the astronauts were stranded in a snowy forest for a day before they could be recovered. (NASA article) (see Mar 31)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

United Federation of Teachers

March 16, 1960: the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) was formed in New York to represent New York City public school teachers and, later, other education workers in the city. (UFT site) (see Nov 25)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

March 16 Music et al

Frank Fontaine

March 16 – April 20, 1963: Frank Fontaine’s Songs I Sing on the Jackie Gleason Show the Billboard #1 album.

Otis Redding

March 16 – April 12, 1968: “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Alice Herz

March 16, 1965: Quaker Alice Herz, 82, immolated self in Detroit in protest of the Vietnam war. (CNN article on self immolation) (Vietnam, see Mar 24; Herz, see Mar 22; see Immolation for expanded story)

My Lai Massacre

March 16, 1968: the two Charlie Company platoons in the village begin rounding up approximately 20-50 civilians (mostly women, children and old men,) pushing them along trails to a dirt road south of the village, and placing them under guard. Another group of 70 civilians were moved to the east of the village. Soldiers begin killing the civilians without pretext. Men were stabbed with bayonets or shot in the head. One GI pushed a man down a well and threw an M26 grenade in after him. Over a dozen women and children praying by a temple were shot in the head by passing soldiers.

Two soldiers came across a woman carrying an infant and walking with a toddler; they fire at her. An elderly woman was spotted running down a path with an unexploded M79 grenade lodged in her stomach. One soldier forced a woman around the age of 20 to perform oral sex on him while holding a gun to a four-year-old child’s head. At a drainage ditch into which the civilians had been herded and Lieutenant Calley gave the order to start killing them. Within ten minutes, all are shot down by members of the 1st Platoon. Witnesses to the shooting reported anywhere between 75 and 150 Vietnamese killed. None of the Vietnamese were armed. From his helicopter, a Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson spotted a group of wounded Vietnamese citizens south of My Lai. He marked their positions with smoke grenades and radioed soldiers on the ground to provide medical assistance. Later Thompson will confront officers on the ground at the massacre site. He will succeed in Medevacing some villagers for help. Thompson will also report that day what he has seen. (2018 NYT article) (see My Lai for expanded story; Vietnam, see Mar 16)

Robert F. Kennedy

March 16, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy announced candidacy for President. (text of announcement) (see Mar 17)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

Pruitt-Igoe

March 16, 1972: after years of failed attempts at remedying the many housing issues, the first of the Pruitt-Igoe building was demolished. The second one went down April 22, 1972. After more implosions on July 15, the first stage of demolition was over. As the government scrapped rehabilitation plans, the rest of the Pruitt–Igoe blocks were imploded during the following three years; and the site was finally cleared in 1976 with the demolition of the last block. (see Mar 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Zoia Horn

March 16, 1972: reference librarian Zoia Horn refused to testify against the Harrisburg Seven who were on trial for an alleged conspiracy to kidnap then-National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. Five of the seven were current or former Catholic priests or nuns.

Horn had been implicated by an ex-convict informer placed in the Bucknell University library by the FBI.

Though given immunity from self-incrimination, Zoia objected to the idea that libraries could become places of infiltration and spying. Charged with contempt of court, she was sent to jail for 20 days until a mistrial was declared.

Judith Krug, longtime director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, said that Horn was “the first librarian who spent time in jail for a value of our profession.”

At the trial she asked to read a statement of explanation, but was led away in handcuffs before she had begun her third sentence: “Your Honor, it is because I respect the function of this court to protect the rights of the individual, that I must refuse to testify. I cannot in my conscience lend myself to this black charade. I love and respect this country too much to see a farce made of the tenets upon which it stands. To me it stands on freedom of thought—but government spying in homes, in libraries and universities inhibits and destroys this freedom. It stands on freedom of association—yet in this case gatherings of friends, picnics and parties have been given sinister implications, and made suspect. It stands on freedom of speech—yet general discussions have been interpreted by the government as advocacies of conspiracies.” (see Mar 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

Terry Anderson

March 16, 1985: Terry Anderson was kidnapped on a west Beirut street while leaving a tennis court. His captors took him to the southern suburbs of the city, where he was held prisoner in an underground dungeon for the next six-and-a-half years. (see Dec 24)

Asian killings

March 16, 2021: Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Ga  shot and killed eight people at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area. Authorities said that six of the people killed were Asian, and two were white. All but one were women.

Aaron was captured in Crisp County, about 150 miles south of Atlanta, after a manhunt. [NYT story] (next T, see May 14, 2022)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran–Contra Affair

March 16, 1988: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter were indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. (see Mar 24)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

March 16, 1988:  Milltown Cemetery attack: during a funeral for three Provisional IRA volunteers, Ulster Defence Association (UDA) volunteer Michael Stone attacked the crowd with grenades and pistols, killing three and wounding over sixty. (see Troubles for expanded story)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

Chemical weapons

March 16, 1988: Iraq used chemical weapons against Kurds supporting Iran in Halabja, killing 4000, an attack which begins the Anfal campaigns against Kurdish villages (formally continuing until 6 Sept, though  attacks continued until 1989). Approximately 50,000 to 180,000 Kurds are killed in this campaign, and 1,276 villages are destroyed. (see Aug 20)

Dick Cheney

March 16, 2003: Vice President Dick Cheney predicted on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that American troops would be “greeted as liberators” by the Iraqi people. (see Mar 17)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 16, 1998: Clinton said “nothing improper” happened when he was alone with Kathleen Willey, responding to her accusations aired in an interview on “60 Minutes” the previous night. The White House released letters Willey sent to the president, signed “Fondly, Kathleen” in an effort to cast doubt on her story.

Exactly a year later, on March 16, 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray’s office filed a report stating there is “no substantial and credible evidence” that President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton sought confidential FBI background checks of former GOP White House personnel. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

March 16, 2011: The Respect for Marriage Act, the bill that would overturn the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, introduced.  (see Apr 4  or see or see December 13, 2022 re DoMA)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

Trayvon Martin Shooting

March 16, 2012: Sanford FL police released copies of the 911 calls to the news media. On the recordings, one shot, an apparent warning or miss, is heard, followed by a voice begging or pleading, and a cry. A second shot is then heard, and the pleading stops. (see Mar 21)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Kandahar massacre

March 16, 2012: the military identified the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a 38-year-old father of two who had been injured twice in combat over the course of four deployments and had, his lawyer said, an exemplary military record. Bales was flown from Kuwait to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. According to U.S. Army Colonel James Hutton, Chief of Media Relations, Bales was held in special housing in his own cell and was able to go outside the cell “for hygiene and recreational purposes” (see Mar 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

March 16, 2012: Utah Gov. Gary Herbert vetoed a bill banning public schools from teaching contraception as a way of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The bill, which also sought to bar instruction on homosexuality or other aspects of human sexuality other than the teaching of abstinence, would have been the first of its kind in the nation if it had become law. (see Oct 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Clarence Earl Gideon

March 16, 2013: approaching the 50^th anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision, Gideon v. Wainwright, which guaranteed indigent defendant the right to a lawyer, a NYT article stated, the Legal Services Corporation, the Congressionally financed organization that provides lawyers to the poor in civil matters, says there are more than 60 million Americans — 35 percent more than in 2005 — who qualify for its services. But it calculates that 80 percent of the legal needs of the poor go unmet. In state after state, according to a survey of trial judges, more people are now representing themselves in court and they are failing to present necessary evidence, committing procedural errors and poorly examining witnesses, all while new lawyers remain unemployed… According to the World Justice Project, a nonprofit group promoting the rule of law that got its start through the American Bar Association, the United States ranks 66th out of 98 countries in access to and affordability of civil legal services. (see Gideon for expanded chronology)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

March 16, 2017: in Maryland, Judge Theodore D. Chuang echoed the conclusion of U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson in Hawaii ruling in a case brought by nonprofit groups that work with refugees and immigrants. Chuang stated that the likely purpose of the executive order was “the effectuation of the proposed Muslim ban” that Mr. Trump pledged to enact as a presidential candidate.

Chuang’s decision cited Mr. Trump’s public comments to conclude that there were “strong indications that the national security purpose is not the primary purpose for the travel ban,” and that Mr. Trump may have intended to violate the constitutional prohibition on religious preferences. (IH, see Mar 29; Maryland, see May 25)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Ballie Crutchfield lynched

March 15, 1901: a white mob in Rome, Tennessee, lynched a Black woman named Ballie Crutchfield. Ms. Crutchfield was accused of no crime, and targeted simply because the mob had earlier that night failed in its attempt to lynch her brother.

A week earlier, a white man in Rome had reportedly lost a wallet containing $120. As word spread that a young Black boy had found the wallet and given it to a young Black man named William Crutchfield, white residents accused William of stealing the wallet.

Though there was no evidence supporting the claim that William Crutchfield had stolen the wallet, he was promptly arrested and taken to the local jail. That night, a white mob stormed the jail and abducted Mr. Crutchfield from police custody, but as they prepared to lynch him, he escaped.

The lynch mob searched but failed to find Mr. Crutchfield; determined to take out their vengeance on someone, they instead seized his sister, Ballie Crutchfield, from her home. Though she was not even alleged to be in any way involved with the lost wallet, the mob took Ms. Crutchfield—whose first name was also reported as “Sallie”—to a bridge a short distance from the town, tied her hands behind her back, shot her in the head, and threw her body into the creek below. [EJI article] (next BH, see March 22, 1901, next Lynching, see Oct 31 or see AL2 for expanded chronology)

Julian Bond

March 15, 1960: Julian Bond, civil rights activist and future Georgia state senator, led more than 200 Atlanta area students in the first sit-in protest in Atlanta, challenging segregated public accommodations. They presented “An Appeal for Human Rights” to city officials. (next BH, see Apr 1; Atlanta,  see Greensboro Four  for expanded chronology)

Orangeburg, SC

March 15, 1963: Tom Gaither, Student Council President at Claflin College, and South Carolina State College freshman Charles “Chuck” McDew together led nearly 1,000 students on a peaceful march in downtown in Orangeburg, S.C., to protest segregation and support the sit-ins. Police attacked them with tear gas and fire hoses. Hundreds of marchers were herded behind fences in one of the largest mass arrests in the civil rights movement. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned their convictions. (see Apr 2)

Voting rights

March 15, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of legislation guaranteeing voting rights for all. (BH, see Mar 16; VR, see August 10, 1965)

Hosie Miller

March 15, 1965: in Newton, Georgia Cal Hall, a white farmer, shot Hosie Miller, a black farmer and Baptist deacon, during a livestock dispute. Miller died ten days later. Hall, claimed he killed Miller in self-defense, was charged at least three times in connection with Miller’s death, but grand juries declined to prosecute him each time. (see Mar 16)

Rodney King

March 15, 1991: Sgt. Stacey Koon and officers Laurence Michael Powell, Timothy Wind, and Theodore Briseno indicted by a Los Angeles grand jury in connection with the beating.  (BH, see Apr 24; King, see May 10)

137 SHOTS

March 15, 2018: Cleveland’s Fox 8 reported that defense attorneys for the five Cleveland police supervisors charged in connection with the fatal shootings of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams said that East Cleveland offered to drop their charges if they each paid $5,000,.

The supervisors would still go on trial on dereliction of duty charges, but Law Director Willa Hemmons made the offer to drop the charges if they paid the money. Defense lawyer Henry Hilow told FOX 8 the offer was made to him twice.

“And there’s no basis for it in law, no basis for a practicing attorney. In fact, to a lay person, this would be extortion,” he told the station.

East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King told the station he was aware of it, but waited to comment until the law director was with him.

A letter from Hemmons said she intended to prosecute, but the city also looked to “mitigate charges.” (see Mar 22)

Medgar Evers

March 15, 2019:  Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman Karen Bass of California said Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Phil Bryant was “clearly despicable” for not acknowledging work by Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state’s only black congressman, to get the home of a slain civil rights leader named a national monument.

On Twitter, Gov Bryant praised Trump and Mississippi’s two Republican U.S. senators for the monument designation.

Thompson tweeted back: “Give adequate credit. I’ve worked on this for 16 years.” (next BH, see Mar 26; see ME for expanded chronology)

Jesuit Reparations

March 15, 2021: in one of the largest efforts by an institution to atone for slavery, the Jesuit order of Catholic priests vowed to raise $100 million to benefit the descendants of the enslaved people it once owned and to promote racial reconciliation initiatives across the United States.

The move by the leaders of the Jesuit conference of priests represented the largest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to make amends for the buying, selling and enslavement of Black people, church officials and historians said.

“This is an opportunity for Jesuits to begin a very serious process of truth and reconciliation,” said the Rev. Timothy P. Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. “Our shameful history of Jesuit slaveholding in the United States has been taken off the dusty shelf, and it can never be put back.” [NYT story] (next BH, see Apr 11; also see April 26 for Harvard University’s announcement)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

March 15 Music et al

The Beatles

March 15, 1963: in the US, the Beatles’ “Please Please Me” peaked at number 35 after four weeks on Chicago’s WLS “Silver Dollar Survey” chart. The song did not chart on any of the major national American surveys. (see Mar 22)

Dizzy

March 15 – April 11, 1969: “Dizzy” by Tommy Roe #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

March 15, 1999: Paul McCartney and George Martin inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  (see Dec 30)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

My Lai Massacre

March 15, 1970: the Army pressed charges against 25 men, including Captain Eugene Koutoc (aggravated assault,) Colonel Oran Henderson (dereliction of duty, failure to report a war crime, perjury,) and Brigadier General George Young (dereliction of duty, failure to obey lawful regulations.) (next Vietnam see Apr 2; see My Lai for expanded story)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

March 15, 1981:  Francis Hughes, an Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoner in the Maze Prison, joined Bobby Sands on hunger strike.  (Hughes obit from anphoblacht dot com) (see Irish Troubles for expanded story)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of the USSR & INDEPENDENCE DAY

Lithuania

Lithuania had declared it’s independence on March 11, 1990. On  March 15  the Soviet Union announced that Lithuania’s declaration of independence was invalid. (next Dissolution, see May 4; or see USSR for expanded chronology; next ID, see Mar 21)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Somalia

 

March 15, 1994: U.S. troops begin withdrawing from Somalia. They will complete the withdrawal on March 25. (NYT article)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Occupy

March 15, 2012: Scott Olsen‘s attorney stated that Olsen was hit in the head by a beanbag projectile, not a teargas canister, fired by a policeman during the October protest. “The fact that it was a beanbag shot, which was not what we thought, puts it in a completely different light,” said Mark Martel, who is preparing to file a claim against Oakland. “If he was hit by a tear gas canister, that would just be stupid or negligent. But if it was a beanbag – those are meant to hit people, and it tells me that whoever did it, did it intentionally.” (see July 21, 2015)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

NCAA/South Carolina

March 15, 2017: since Confederate battle flag was no longer flying at the State Capitol in Columbia, South Carolina, the NCAA allowed tournament games to be held in South Carolina for first time in 15 years

Since 2002, the N.C.A.A. had kept its championships out of states flying the flag. When the South Carolina Legislature passed a bill in 2015 ending the flag’s display on the statehouse grounds, the NCAA lifted that restriction.

The timing proved fortuitous when, a year later, the N.C.A.A. imposed a similar championship ban on neighboring North Carolina because of a contentious law seen by its critics as anti-gay. Just like that, tournament games set to be held in Greensboro, N.C., this week needed a new home. Greenville was happy to step in. (LGBTQ & NC, see Mar 30)

Pope Francis/Same-sex unions

March 15, 2021 The Vatican said that the Catholic Church would not bless same-sex unions, in a statement Pope Francis  approved and that threatened to widen the chasm between the church and much of the LGBTQ community.

Explaining their decision in a lengthy note, the Holy See referred to homosexuality as a “choice,” described it as sinful and said it “cannot be recognized as objectively ordered” to God’s plans. The stance is certain to disappoint millions of gay and lesbian Catholics around the world.

“The blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit,” the Vatican’s top doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote in the statement.

God “does not and cannot bless sin,” the statement added. [CNN article] (next LGBTQ, see Mar 24)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Fuel economy rollback

March 15, 2017: President Trump traveled to Detroit to announce a rollback of stringent fuel economy standards for cars and trucks that were put in place by the Obama administration — a welcome message to American automakers but one that could slow the push for a new generation of efficient vehicles. (EI, & Emissions, see Mar 24)

Student protest

March 15, 2019: students worldwide skipped classes to demand that world leaders take action on climate change.

The movement, inspired by the actions of 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, spanned more than 100 countries and 1,500 cities, where students gathered in the streets and at their state capitols to call for action.

“Today, the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of kids who are striking around the world are doing it not because we want to skip school, but because we are scared,” 12-year-old Haven Coleman, who co-founded and co-directed the US Youth Climate Strike, said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

“Climate change is the largest threat to our lives, our future and our world,” she said. [next EI, see Apr 8]

Ice Shelf Collapse

March 15, 2022: the US National Ice Center reported that the Antarctica‘s Conger Ice Shelf (nearly the size of Los Angeles) disintegrated within days of extraordinary warmth on the continent.

The shelf spanned approximately 460 square miles. It was around the time temperatures soared to minus-12 degrees Celsius (10.4 F), more than 40 degrees warmer than normal (-61.6 F), at the Concordia research station.

Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey said, “I don’t think there has been a shelf collapse like this in East Antarctica since we’ve been able to receive satellite data. Conger is a very small ice shelf which has been decreasing in size for many years and this was just the final step which caused it to collapse.” [CNN article] (next EI, see Mar 31)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Refugee ban stayed

March 15, 2017: U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson in Hawaii issued a sweeping freeze of President Trump’s new executive order, hours before it would have temporarily barred the issuance of new visas to citizens of six Muslim-majority countries and suspended the admission of new refugees.

In a blistering, 43-page opinion, Watson pointed to Trump’s own comments and those of his close advisers as evidence that his order was meant to discriminate against Muslims and declared there was a “strong likelihood of success” those suing would prove the directive violated the Constitution.

Watson declared that “a reasonable, objective observer — enlightened by the specific historical context, contemporaneous public statements, and specific sequence of events leading to its issuance — would conclude that the Executive Order was issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion.”

He lambasted the government, in particular, for asserting that because the ban did not apply to all Muslims in the world, it could not be construed as discriminating against Muslims. (Vox dot com article) (see Mar 16)

Trump’s Wall

March 15, 2019: as he had said he would, President Trump vetoed the bill denying his declaration of a national emergency to fund a southern border wall. (next TW, see Mar 26; or see Wall for expanded chronology)

Abused immigrant children

March 15, 2019: Judge John Koeltl of the U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when it denied hundreds of visa applications for immigrants who had been abused, neglected, or abandoned by a parent as minors under the Special Immigrant Juvenile program.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had issued internal guidance that led to a denial of applications for people who applied for SIJ status after they’d turned 18. (next IH, see Mar 19)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

March 15, 2018:  the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism reported that from May 20, 2017, through March 12, 2018 it had found 72 episodes of white supremacists hanging banners in public places, such as from highway overpasses and rooftops, to promote their views.

Before that period, the A.D.L. had not documented any white supremacist banners since Dec. 11, 2016, said Jake Hyman, a spokesman for the group.

Most of those documented in the report were racist or anti-immigrant in nature, with messages ranging from “America first: End immigration” to “‘Diversity’ is a code word for white genocide.” Others were anti-Muslim (a banner displayed on an overpass near Dearborn, Mich., home to one of the largest mosques in North America, read “DANGER: Sharia city ahead”), anti-Semitic (“UNjew HUMANITY”) or misogynistic (“Feminists deserve the rope”). (T, see May 4; IH, see Mar 26, F, see Mar 22; BH, see Mar 25)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

March 15, 2018: Michael Eggers had a personal and family history of mental illness. His brother was institutionalized in a mental hospital with schizophrenia, and family observed that Michael showed symptoms similar to his brother.

In 1985, when he was 17, narcotics officers in California compelled him to make some controlled marijuana purchases. Since then, Mr. Eggers believed that the Mexican Mafia and other outlaw groups, law enforcement agencies, and the government were conspiring to persecute him — following him from California as he fled to eight different states to evade them; checking into the psych ward to torment him when he was involuntarily committed for emergency psychiatric care; and even killing his father in retaliation for the killing of his former employer in Walker County, Alabama, in 2000.

Jail and prison authorities recognized Mr. Eggers’s mental illness and treated him with anti-psychotic medications. Correctional officers observed he was paranoid, delusional, and suicidal, and placed him in protective custody after he tried to kill himself.

Alabama executed Michael Eggers on this date after a judge allowed him to fire his attorneys and abandon his appeals despite his mental illness. (see Mar 19)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

March 15, 2021: Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo, became the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

The Senate voted 51-40 to confirm the Democratic congresswoman to lead the Interior Department, an agency that will play a crucial role in the Biden administration’s ambitious efforts to combat climate change and conserve nature.

Her confirmation was as symbolic as it is historic. For much of its history, the Interior Department was used as a tool of oppression against America’s Indigenous peoples. In addition to managing the country’s public lands, endangered species and natural resources, the department is also responsible for the government-to-government relations between the U.S. and Native American tribes.

“Indian country has shouted from the valleys, from the mountaintops, that it’s time. It’s overdue,” Sandia Pueblo tribal member Stephine Poston told NPR after Haaland was nominated. [NPR story] (next NA, see Mar 30)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism