March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

American Birth Control Federation

March 5, 1942: the leaders of the American Birth Control Federation, the leading birth control advocacy and service organization in the U.S., announced on this day, that it was changing its name to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the name by which it is known today.

The origins of the American Birth Control Federation reached back to November 1, 1921, when Margaret Sanger created the American Birth Control League, the first national birth control organization in the country. It changed its name to the American Birth Control Federation on January 18, 1939.

Adoption of the name “Planned Parenthood” generated some controversy. Margaret Sanger had always insisted on the term “birth control,” and opposed euphemism, which she thought “family planning” was. The leaders who adopted the term “planned parenthood,” in fact, regarded it as a euphemism, believing that “birth control” alienated many people and potential supporters.  (Planned Parenthood site) (see February 1, 1943)

Michael F. Griffin

March 5, 1994: a jury in Pensacola, Fla., convicted anti-abortion activist Michael F. Griffin of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Dr. David Gunn; Griffin was sentenced to life in prison. (see Apr 26)

South Carolina

March 5, 2021: U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis extended a temporary restraining order on South Carolina’s newly passed bill designed to ban most abortions in the state.

Lewis filed the order the day the initial February 19 order was set to expire.

The new order will continue for 14 days, according to court documents, meaning it will continue through March 19. [NBC News article] (next WH, see June 16)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Lena Baker

March 5, 1945: Georgia executed Lena Baker at the Georgia State Prison in Reidsyille. Baker was an African American mother of three.

She was convicted for the fatal shooting of E. B. Knight, a white Cuthbert, GA mill operator she was hired to care for after he broke his leg. She was 44 and the only woman ever executed in Georgia’s electric chair. For Baker, a Black maid in the segregated south in the 1940’s, her story was a tough sell to a jury of 12 white men. And rumors that she was romantically involved with victim E. B. Knight did not help.

Her murder trial lasted just a day, without a single witness called by her court-appointed lawyer. She was convicted and sentenced to death. John Cole Vodicka, director of an Americus-based inmate advocacy program known as the Prison and Jail Project, said Knight had kept Ms. Baker as his “virtual sex slave.” She was his paramour, she was his mistress, and, among other things, his drinking partner. If you read the transcript and have any understanding of black-white relations, Black women were often subjected to the sexual whims of their white masters, their white bosses, or some white man who had control over their lives or the lives of their families. “Here is one who resisted and paid the price.”

The undertaker who brought her body back to Cuthbert buried her in a grave that went unmarked for five decades, until the congregation of Mount Vernon Baptist Church raised money for a concrete slab and marker. 

Lena Baker, who had a sixth-grade education, stated publicly her innocence to the very end. “What I done, I did in self-defense,” she said in her final statement. “I have nothing against anyone. I am ready to meet my God.”

On August 25, 2005 the State of Georgia granted Lena Baker a pardon.

On August. 30, 2005, Georgia authorities presented a proclamation to her descendants, including her grandnephew Roosevelt Curry, who led the drive to clear her name.  (2005 NPR article) (next BH, see Apr 16; DP, see January 13, 1947)

21 Black teenagers die

March 5, 1959:  21 Black teenagers died at the Negro Boys Industrial School (NBIS) building fire after being left alone and locked inside of their dormitory at a neglected and segregated “reform” school.

The night of the fire at NBIS, the boys’ dormitory was completely abandoned by staff members, and was locked from the outside, as it was each night, making it impossible for 21 of these Black teenagers to escape.

While 48 of the Black teenagers in the dormitory that night managed to break their way out of the burning building by jumping out of a window, 21 teenagers remained trapped and burned to death. A committee investigated the fire but no one was ever held responsible.

The NBIS was a juvenile work farm located just outside the predominantly Black town of Wrightsville, Arkansas. Boys between the ages of 13 and 17 who were orphaned, homeless, or considered delinquent because of extremely minor “crimes” were sent to live at NBIS. At the time, any action by a Black person that threatened the racial hierarchy could be deemed criminal. One boy had been sent to NBIS for riding a white boy’s bicycle, even though the white boy’s mother told law enforcement that the Black boy had permission to ride the bike. Another Black boy had been sent to NBIS for a Halloween prank—soaping windows. [EJI article] (next BH, see Apr 18)

Stephon Clark

March 5, 2019:  California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that he would not file criminal charges officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, who shot and killed Stephon Clark in his grandmother’s backyard while responding to a call for vandalism on March 18, 2018.

The California Department of Justice had conducted an independent investigation and decided the officers acted lawfully.

“Our investigation has concluded that no criminal charges against the officers involved in the shooting can be sustained,” Becerra said.

Demonstrations in California’s capital the last few days after District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced on March 2 that prosecutors would not charge Mercadal and Robinet in Clark’s death. (SC, see June 18)

Botham Shem Jean

March 5, 2019:  the Botham Jean foundation was officially launched in memory of 26-year old Botham Shem Jean who was shot dead by Dallas police officer Amber Guyger on September 6, 2019.

The President of the Botham Jean Foundation, Allisa Findley, told St Lucia Times that the organisation it was created to continue what her late brother started in his life.

Findley said this includes giving back to the less fortunate and to vulnerable communities, as well as helping families impacted by police brutality. [BSJ Foundation Facebook page] (B & S, see Mar 5; BSJ, see Apr 25)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

“Iron Curtain”

March 5, 1946: Iron Curtain Speech. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivers his famous “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,” Churchill declared, “an Iron Curtain has descended across the Continent” of Europe. Many people consider Churchill’s “iron curtain speech” the beginning of the Cold War. (Winston Churchill site article) (see Mar 28)

Josef Stalin

March 5, 1953,: Soviet Communist leader Josef Stalin died of a stroke. (see Mar 6)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

March 5 Music et al

Elvis Presley

March 5, 1960: Elvis Presley [had begun active duty Mar 24, 1958] officially discharged from the Army. (see Apr 4)

“The Ballad of the Green Beret”

March 5 – April 8, 1966: “The Ballad of the Green Beret” by SSgt Barry Sadler #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Vietnam & News Music, see March 12 – April 15)

Herb Albert

March 5 – 11, 1966: Herb Albert’s Going Places is the Billboard #1 album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ2GqpvbDmE&list=PL7CE6B0E8FE97B54D

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

National Congress of American Indians

March 5, 1962: the National Congress of American Indians on this day announced Operation Constitution, an attack on discrimination against Native-Americans. The issues to be addressed included the lack of adequate law enforcement and police brutality on Indian reservations, discrimination in state welfare programs and admissions to state hospitals, among others. Legal support would be provided in test cases. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy reportedly pledged “full cooperation” with the program. Meanwhile, Senator Sam J. Ervin (D– North Carolina) called for his Judiciary Subcommittee to undertake the first such Congressional investigation into “this most important and all-too-long-neglected area of the law.” (1963 U of Chicago article) (see December 23, 1963)

National Wildlife Federation

March 5, 1965: the National Wildlife Federation passed a resolution on this day to oppose Native-American fishing rights in areas where fishing was not permitted. The resolution was in response to rising activism among Native-Americans, who made the right to fish in their traditional waters one of their early issues. See the “fish-in” protests on March 2, 1964. (see “in October 1966”)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

March 5, 1963: the Hula-Hoop, the toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, was patented by the company’s co-founder, Arthur “Spud” Melin.  An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. (see July 1)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

March 5, 1970: forty-three nations ratified a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. (see Dec 18)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

March 5, 1973: Donald DeFreeze, a.k.a. “General Field Marshal Cinque” simply walked away from Soledad State Prison while on work duty in a boiler room outside the perimeter fence. He had been serving 5–15 years for robbing a prostitute. DeFreeze took the name Cinque from the leader of the slave rebellion who took over the slave ship Amistad in 1839. (see SLA for more)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

March 5, 1984: Iran accused Iraq of using chemical weapons. (see June 28, 1987)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

March 5, 1984: in Lynch v. Donnelly the U.S. Supreme Court held that a nativity scene built on public land by the City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from passing any “law respecting an establishment of religion”.  (see Aug 11)

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 5, 1998: Lawyers for Monica Lewinsky battle with Ken Starr over whether Lewinsky has a binding immunity agreement. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News & ICAN

March 5, 2012: the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN] released a report that identified more than 300 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers in 30 countries with substantial investments in nuclear arms producers. The 180-page study, Donʼt Bank on the Bomb: The Global Financing of Nuclear Weapons Producers, provided details of financial transactions with 20 companies that were heavily involved in the manufacture, maintenance and modernization of US, British, French and Indian nuclear forces. (ICAN report) (Nuclear & ICAN, see In March 2013)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

March 5, 2013: NYC agreed to pay $14,000 to Jurard St. Hillaire, 21, who claimed he was illegally stopped and frisked. Hillaire found a surveillance video backing his accusation against Officer Leonard Clarke of the 70th Precinct in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The video showed the cop pushing St. Hillaire against a building. A city lawyer to conceded in January that there appeared to be no legal basis for the stop. (see March 14)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ & Fair Housing

March 5, 2018: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson changed the mission statement of his agency, removing promises of inclusive and discrimination-free communities.

In a memo addressed to HUD political staff, Amy Thompson, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, explained that the statement was being updated “in an effort to align HUD’s mission with the Secretary’s priorities and that of the Administration.”

The new mission statement read: HUD’s mission is to ensure Americans have access to fair, affordable housing and opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency, thereby strengthening our communities and nation.

“An organization’s mission is never static,” Thompson wrote in the memo. “A mission statement describes an organization’s purpose, what it intends to do, and whom it intends to serve. Most importantly, an organization’s activities must be embodied in its mission.” (LGTBQ, see Mar 6; FH, see Dec 3)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance & Student Rights

March 5, 2019:  Jabari Talbot, the 11-year-old student arrested for causing a disturbance at school and resisting arrest, has had the case against him closed said his attorney, Roderick Ford of Tampa.

Ford provided a February 26 letter from Polk County Teen Court Director Clever English, showing the “case is closed and there are no issues pending.”

English also told Talbot’s mother, Dhakira Talbot, in the letter that the case was not entered into a criminal database and no delinquency record was created.

“Although we are very thankful that the Polk County Juvenile Court has closed the file, and there will be no criminal prosecution by the Polk County State Attorney’s Office, our journey to justice against the perennial criminalization of millions of black youth who attend public schools continues, as a civil rights complaint is now currently pending before the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,” said Ford. (next SR, see Sept 30; next Pledge, see )

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

March 5, 2024: the Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted to unionize in an unprecedented step toward forming the first labor union for college athletes and another attack on the NCAA’s deteriorating amateur business model.

In an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board in the school’s Human Resources offices, the players voted 13-2 to join Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents some Dartmouth workers. Every player on the roster participated. [AP article] (next LH, see Apr 19)

 

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

March 4, 1877:  Emile Berliner invented the microphone. (see Dec 5)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Department of Labor

March 4, 1913: the US Department of Labor established as a cabinet-level agency. Though established under President Taft, he signed the law after his defeat in the 1912 election. The Department will mostly emphasize the pro-labor stance of the incoming president, Woodrow Wilson, who appointed William B Wilson, the  international secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America from 1900 to 1908, as the first Secretary of Labor. (US DoL article) (see Mar 6)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Jeannette Rankin

March 4, 1917:  Jeannette Rankin of Montana, first woman elected to Congress, formally joined the House of Representatives. Following her term in office, Rankin became the founding vice president of the American Civil Liberties Union and was re-elected to Congress in 1940 on an anti-war platform.  (US HoR bio)

Voting Rights

March 4, 1917: “Grand Picket”–more than 1,000 women, in Washington, D.C., for Congressional Union-Woman’s Party Convention, march around White House for several hours in icy, driving rain waiting to present series of convention resolutions to Woodrow Wilson on eve of second inauguration. All gates to grounds locked; marchers fume when President Wilson and wife leave White House and drive through picket line without acknowledging them. (see March 17)

Suffragist protests legal

March 4, 1918: U.S. federal appeals court declared unconstitutional the arrests and detainment of all White House suffrage pickets. (see May 6)

Suffragists attacked

March 4, 1919: suffrage demonstrators brutally attacked by police, soldiers, and onlookers outside New York Metropolitan Opera House where President Wilson was speaking. (see May 21)

Frances Perkins

March 4, 1933: Frances Perkins became President  Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, the first woman in U.S. history to hold a cabinet post. She favored a comprehensive, pro-labor agenda including minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, and abolition of child labor. Her influence on labor policy in the New Deal would be huge. She served from 1933 to 1945. (Perkins, see April 10, 1980; LH, see Mar 31; F, see May 24, 1934)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

William Anderson lynched

March 4, 1921: a white mob in Baker County, Georgia searching the area to find and lynch a Black man named Zema Anthony came upon a Black man named William Anderson walking down the road and lynched him instead.

Two days before, allegations had spread that Mr. Anthony had killed a white sheriff and shot another white man in the town of Newton, Georgia. Without investigation or trial, a mob of white men intent on lynching him gathered and began searching the county with no success. After more than a day of the fruitless manhunt, the heavily armed white mob confronted Anderson as he was simply walking down the road. Terrified, Anderson ran from the mob and the white men quickly shot him to death.

Shortly after Anderson was killed, the body of his aunt was reportedly found floating in a stream. At least one newspaper reported that the same lynch mob had likely killed the Black woman for allegedly harboring Mr. Anthony and helping him to avoid capture. The press coverage did not report her name. [EJI article] (next BH & next Lynching, see Apr 5, or  for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Muhammad Ali

March 4, 1964: Cassius Clay told African and Asian delegates to the United Nations that he “couldn’t wait” to visit to their countries. “I’m champion of the whole world,” he said during a two-­hour tour of the U.N., “and I want to meet the people I am champion of.”

Among those accompanying the champion were his brother, Rudolph; Archie Robinson, his personal secretary, and Malcolm X.

Asked to comment on a report that he had flunked his predraft Army psychological tests, Clay replied with a chuckle, “Do they think I’m crazy?” He said he had not heard from the Army and did not know what his draft situation was. [NYT article] (see Mar 6)

Rodney King

March 4, 1991: George Holliday delivered the video tape he recorded of the King beating to local television station, KTLA. (see, Mar 7)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

March 4, 1954: speaking before the 10th Inter-American Conference, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles warned that “international communism” is making inroads in the Western Hemisphere and asks the nations of Latin America to condemn this danger. Dulles’s speech was part of a series of actions designed to put pressure on the leftist government of Guatemala, a nation in which U.S. policymakers feared communism had established a beachhead. (see Mar 9)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

March 4, 1965: the U.S. Embassy submitted a formal request asking the South Vietnamese government to “invite” the United States to send the Marines. Premier Quat, a mere figurehead, had to obtain approval from the real power, Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, chief of the Armed Forces Council. Thieu approved, but asked that the Marines be “brought ashore in the most inconspicuous way feasible.” (see Mar 6)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

March 4 Music et al

The Beatles more popular than…

March 4, 1966: a John Lennon interview by reporter and Beatle friend Maureen Cleave appeared in the London Evening Standard newspaper. In the 1169-word article Lennon discussed many things. After a paragraph about George Harrison’s interest in Indian music and before a paragraph about shopping, there was this:

Experience has sown few seeds of doubt in him: not that his mind is closed, but it’s closed round whatever he believes at the time. ‘Christianity will go,’ he said. ‘It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.’ He is reading extensively about religion.

No one took notice of it in Britain. (Beatles, see Apr 1; interview, see July 29)

Rolling Stones Ruby Tuesday #1

March 4 – 10, 1967: “Ruby Tuesday” by the Rolling Stones #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

No Beatle reunion

March 4, 1996: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, said no to an offer to do a tour as a reunion of The Beatles. The offer came from a group of American and German businessmen who wanted them to do a 22 city tour of the US, Japan and Europe. The offer was for $225 million dollars.

Paul McCartney said, “The size of the offer is scandalous, it’s ridiculous. From the money point of view, most people would do it. But to me, the three of us isn’t as exciting as the four of us. The Beatles were always the four of us. Of course people will say that we could get someone else to fill John’s place, but it just wouldn’t be the same.” (see Oct 22)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

March 4, 1974: California governor Ronald Reagan, having earlier predicted that no one would take the food from P.I.N., accused the thousands of poor people who line up for free groceries of “aiding and abetting lawlessness.” (see SLA for expanded story)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

License plates

March 4, 1975: the Maynards sued in the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief against enforcement of N. H. Rev. Stat. Ann. 262:27-c, 263:1, insofar as these required displaying the state motto on their vehicle license plates, and made it a criminal offense to obscure the motto. (FS, see June 21; see Free Speech v License Plates for expanded story)

Pledge of Allegiance

March 4, 2003: the US Senate voted 94-0 that it “strongly” disapproved of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision not to reconsider its ruling that the addition of the phase “under God” to the The Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. (text of resolution)  (see PoA for expanded chronology)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

CDC report

March 4, 1983: in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report the CDC noted that most cases of AIDS had been reported among homosexual men with multiple sexual partners, injection drug users, Haitians, and hemophiliacs. (see July 14)

Cure?

March 4, 2019:  for just the second time since the global epidemic had begun, a patient appeared to have been cured of infection with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

The news came nearly 12 years to the day after the first patient known to be cured, a feat that researchers had long tried, and failed, to duplicate. The surprise success confirmed that a cure for H.I.V. infection was possible, if difficult, researchers said.

Publicly, the scientists described the case as a long-term remission. In interviews, most experts called it a cure, with the caveat that it is hard to know how to define the word when there are only two known instances. (next AIDS, see January 27, 2025)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran–Contra Affair

March 4, 1987: President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal. (see June 8)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

World Trade Center

Mohammad Salameh

March 4, 1993: authorities announced the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh. (2015 NY Daily News “flashback” article) (see March 4, 1994)

Convictions

March 4, 1994:  Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, and Ahmad Ajaj convicted of charges related to the first World Trade Center bombing. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. (2013 CBS News article) (see May 24)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services

March 4, 1998: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services. The Supreme Court ruled that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex. (Feminism, see July 22, 1999; LGBTQ, see Apr 1)

Alabama

March 4, 2016: the Alabama Supreme Court refused to defy the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, cutting off a conservative bid to prevent gay weddings in the state.

The court issued a one-sentence order dismissing a challenge by a probate judge and a conservative policy group that wanted the state to bar gay marriage despite the landmark federal decision.

Chief Justice Roy Moore, a Christian conservative who had repeatedly spoken out against same-sex unions, wrote that previous state orders barring gay marriage in Alabama remained. Most probate judges already were ignoring that directive, however, and hundreds of same-sex couples already had wed in Alabama. (LGBTQ, see Mar 7; Roy Moore, see May 6)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health & TERRORISM

March 4, 2014: Zachary Klundt broke into All Families Healthcare in Kalispell, Montana and destroyed what he could get his hands on. He broke furniture, scattered office supplies and tore up diplomas, and art. He stabbed office workers’ personal items, including a photo of a child. (2017 Flathead Beacon article on restitution) (see Mar 11)

Louisiana

March 4, 2016: the US Supreme Court temporarily blocked a Louisiana law that its opponents said would leave the state with only one abortion clinic. The court gave no reasons, though it did say that its order was “consistent with” one last June that blocked part of a Texas abortion law.

The move came two days after the Supreme Court heard arguments in the Texas case, and abortion rights groups said they hoped that the development Friday was a sign that they had secured five votes to strike down the Texas law. (see Mar 30)

Women’s Health: France

March 4, 2024: France became the world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution, the culmination of an effort that began in direct response to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Lawmakers from both houses of the French Parliament voted 780 to 72 in favor of the measure, easily clearing the three-fifths majority needed to amend the French constitution.

The vote, held during a special gathering of lawmakers at the Palace of Versailles was the final step in the legislative process. The French Senate and National Assembly had each overwhelmingly approved the amendment earlier this year.  [CNN article] (next Women’s Health, see Mar 6)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

LSD

March 4, 2014: the results of the first study of the therapeutic use of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in humans in over 40 years were published online in the peer-reviewed Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

Sponsored by the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), the double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study in 12 subjects found statistically significant reductions in anxiety associated with advanced stage illness following two LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions. The results also indicate that LSD-assisted psychotherapy can be safely administered in these subjects, and justify further research.

Principal Investigator Peter Gasser, M.D., a private practice psychiatrist in Solothurn, Switzerland reported that “The study was a success in the sense that we did not have any noteworthy adverse effects…. All participants reported a personal benefit from the treatment, and the effects were stable over time.” (MAPS site) (see November 29, 2016)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

March 4, 2015: the Senate failed to override President Obama’s veto of a bill that would have approved construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. A bipartisan majority of senators was unable to reach the two-thirds majority required to undo a presidential veto. The vote was 62 to 37. (see Mar 20)

San Francisco challenges water quality rule

March 4, 2025:  in a 5 – 4 decision, the Supreme Court sided with San Francisco in a challenge to water quality regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in a ruling that could have sweeping implications for the agency’s ability to limit offshore pollution.

The dispute fundamentally focused on human waste and how San Francisco disposes of it. The question before the court was whether the Clean Water Act of 1972 allowed the E.P.A. to impose prohibitions on wastewater released into the Pacific Ocean and to penalize the city for violating them.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the E.P.A. was entitled to impose specific requirements to prevent pollution but not to make polluters responsible whenever water quality generally falls below the agency’s standards.

“When a permit contains such requirements,” he wrote, “a permittee that punctiliously follows every specific requirement in its permit may nevertheless face crushing penalties if the quality of the water in its receiving waters falls below the applicable standards.” [SCOTUS text] (next EI, see Mar 11)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

March 4, 2021: in an attempt to prevent the detention of migrant families for weeks or months at a time, the Biden administration planned to release parents and children within 72 hours of their arrival in the United States, a new policy that already was being carried out along the Texas border.

The plan, confirmed by three Homeland Security officials, marked a significant departure from the handling of migrant families under the Trump and Obama administrations, when children often showed symptoms of depression and trauma after spending long periods in custody with their parents.

The decision to avoid lengthy detention of families comes amid a significant spike in the number arriving at the southwestern border in recent months that has posed an early test of President Biden’s pledge to create a more humanitarian approach to immigration. [NYT article] (next IH, see Apr 29)

March 4 Peace Love Art Activism

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Civilization Fund Act

March 3, 1819: the United States Congress enacted the Civilization Fund Act, authorizing the President, “in every case where he shall judge improvement in the habits and condition of such Indians practicable” to “employ capable persons of good moral character” to introduce to any tribe adjoining a frontier settlement the “arts of civilization.”

With a budget of $10,000 per year, missionaries and church leaders partnering with the federal government would establish schools in Indian territories to teach Native children to replace tribal practices with Christian practices. In 1824, the federal government established the Bureau of Indian Affairs to oversee the fund and implement programs to “civilize” the Native people. In the following years, as the United States systematically removed tribes from their homelands to land west of the Mississippi River, the United States turned to policies purportedly aimed at achieving “the great work of regenerating the Indian race.”

According to Indian Commissioner Luke Lea, it was “indispensably necessary that they be placed in positions where they can be controlled, and finally compelled by stern necessity…until such time as their general improvement and good conduct may supersede the necessity of such restrictions.” Over the ensuing decades, the United States’ orientation to Native peoples changed from adversarial to paternalistic. (see November 17, 1828)

Indian Appropriation Act

March 3, 1871: Congress passed the Indian Appropriation Act, which revoked the sovereignty of Indian nations and made Native Americans wards of the American government. The act eliminated the necessity of treaty negotiating and established the policy that tribal affairs could be managed by the U.S. government without tribal consent. (see July 2, 1874)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Carriage of Passengers Act of 1855

March 3, 1855: the Carriage of Passengers Act of 1855 repealed Steerage Act of 1819, and all the other Acts regulating conditions of travel passed after that.

The Carriage of Passengers Act imposed a wider range of regulations on the conditions of travel than the original Steerage Act, combining and extending regulations introduced in the many other Acts passed starting 1847. Specifically, in addition to modifying the limits based on tonnage and food and water provisions, it added many regulations on such topics as deck space, hospitals, berths, ventilators, cambooses and cooking ranges, discipline and cleanliness, and privies.[8][9] The additional regulations were designed and motivated by the goal of reducing the spread of infections and deaths on board, after experience with epidemics of cholera, typhus, and typhoid in recent years. (next IH, see March 3, 1875)

Immigration Act of 1875

March 3, 1875: Congress approved the Immigration Act of 1875. The first immigration law to bar certain groups of people from entering the US. It prohibits the importation of Chinese laborers without their consent and the importation “of women for the purposes of prostitution.” The unstated purpose was to prevent single Chinese women from immigrating and marrying Chinese men already in the US, since their US-born children would have been citizens under the 14th amendment. (see July 23, 1877)

1903 Immigration Act

March 3, 1903: the 1903 Immigration Act banned the entry into the U.S. of anarchists, beggars, epileptics, and importers of prostitutes. Enacted on this day, it became a model for subsequent restrictive, anti-immigrant laws in the years and decades ahead. The 1918 Immigration Act, passed on October 16, 1918, expanded the definition of an “anarchist,” allowing the government to deport more alleged radicals. The most notorious law was the 1924 Immigration Act, passed on May 26, 1924, which included a “national origins” quota system that discriminated against people seeking to come to the U.S. from Eastern and Southern Europe. The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, passed on June 27, 1952, was a Cold War law that barred the immigration of alleged “subversives” and allowed the government to deport immigrants who were deemed subversive.

The 1965 Immigration Act replaced the 1924 law, the 1965 act abolished the quota system. President Lyndon signed it into law on October 3, 1965, in a ceremony at the Statue of Liberty. (Immigration, see January 4, 1904; Anarchism, see June 27, 1905)

Japanese Internment Camps

March 3, 1992: Manzanar was one of ten Relocation Centers in the infamous evacuation and detention of the Japanese Americans during World War II (authorized by President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942). It held just over 10,000 detainees. On this day, Manzanar became a National Historic Site, managed by the National Park Service. Two other Relocation Centers also have national landmark status: Tule Lake (designated on February 17, 2006) and Heart Mountain (designated on September 20, 2006). (see Camps for expanded story) 

Immigrant Housing

March 3, 2014:  the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear two cases involving anti-immigrant local ordinances in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and Farmers Branch, Texas that would have denied housing to immigrants that the cities considered “illegal aliens.” The decision will let stand lower court rulings in the 3rd and 5th Circuits, respectively, that found the ordinances unconstitutional and permanently prohibited the ordinances from taking effect. (see Mar 11)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

“the weeping time”

March 3, 1859: largest sale of human beings in US history, known as “the weeping time” occurred. The sale took place at a racetrack in Savannah, Georgia. During the two-day auction 436 men, women, and children were auctioned off to meet the debts of Pierce Butler. (see Oct 16 – 17)

Muhammad Ali

March 3, 1964: according to a story published by The Louisville Courier‐Journal, Muhammad Ali failed by a slight margin to pass the psychological tests, which he had taken January 24 in Coral Gables, Fla. The Defense Department said only that the tests were being forwarded to Washington for “processing.” (see Mar 4)

George Whitmore, Jr.

March 3, 1965: At a hearing before Justice Dominic S. Rinaldi, before whom the Minnie Edmonds case was pending, defense lawyers moved to suppress Whitmore’s confession on the ground that police lacked probable cause to arrest him and that, in any event, the confession was unworthy of belief in view of Whitmore’s false confession in the Wylie-Hoffert case.

On the probable cause issue, Detective Richard Aidala testified that he erred when he told the grand jury that he had arrested Whitmore on the street. In fact, Aidala asserted, he merely asked Whitmore to go to the station, Whitmore “willingly agreed,” and the arrest was not made until Borrero identified Whitmore.  (see Whitmore for expanded story)

Rodney King

March 3, 1991: Los Angeles police officers beat Rodney Glen King, an African-American construction worker,  following a high-speed car chase. George Holliday, a resident in the nearby area, witnessed the police brutality and videotaped much of it from the balcony of his nearby apartment.  

King was taken to Pacifica Hospital immediately after his arrest, where he was shown to have suffered a fractured facial bone, a broken right ankle, and numerous bruises and lacerations. (see Mar 4)

Ferguson, Missouri

 

March 3, 2015: after a six month inquiry, the DOJ found that the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department had routinely engaged in unconstitutional and unlawful activity that targeted the city’s majority African-American population. The bias was so pervasive that city officials sometimes used racial slurs in their emails. President Barack Obama would not stay in office, wrote one city official, since “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”

Black residents were twice as likely as whites to be searched during a routine traffic stop, although they were 26 percent less likely to carry contraband. African-Americans make up 67 percent of the city’s population but constitute 93 percent of its arrests.

Municipal courts heavily favored whites in deciding if cases would be dismissed. And the city used heavy fines to send many impoverished black residents to jail, part of a system that created a debtors’ prison. (see Mar 6)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Free Speech

March 3, 1873: named after Anthony Comstock, a U.S. postal inspector, the Comstock Act amended the Post Office Act [enacted June 8, 1872]. It formally incorporated the US Post Office Department into the US Cabinet. It is also notable for §148 which made it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious” materials through the mail, including contraceptive devices and information. In addition to banning contraceptives, this act also banned the distribution of information on abortion for educational purposes.

Comstock founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1873 and led its anti-obscenity crusade until his death, on September 21, 1915. He was succeeded as head of the Society by John Sumner, who continued his crusade. (Embryo Project article) (FS, see December 24, 1908: WH, see March 1914)

Mary Ware Dennett

March 3, 1930: Mary Ware Dennett was a leading birth control and sex education advocate in the 1920s and 1930s. She was prosecuted under the Comstock Act (March 3, 1873) for mailing her sex education pamphlet, The Sex Side of Life. She originally wrote the pamphlet for her children, and then decided to publish it after receiving many requests for copies. Her prosecution and then conviction on April 23, 1929 became a national cause célèbre, with many prominent Americans coming to her defense. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, on this day, overturned the conviction in a decision that expanded First Amendment protections for other sexuality related publications.

The Court: “It may be assumed that any article dealing with the sex side of life and explaining the functions of the sex organs is capable in some circumstances of arousing lust. The sex impulses are present in every one, and without doubt cause much of the weal and woe of human kind. But it can hardly be said that, because of the risk of arousing sex impulses, there should be no instruction of the young in sex matters, and that the risk of imparting instruction outweighs the disadvantages of leaving them to grope about in mystery and morbid curiosity and of requiring them to secure such information, as they may be able to obtain, from ill-informed and often foul-minded companions, rather than from intelligent and high-minded sources.”

Mary Ware Dennett was also a leading advocate of birth control. In the 1920s and 1930s, working through the Voluntary Parenthood League, she was Margaret Sanger’s chief rival on the issue.  (see Aug 15)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

United States Geological Survey

March 3, 1879: Congress established United States Geological Survey for the “classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain” (see June 4, 1892)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Belva Lockwood

On February 15, 1879 President Rutherford B. Hayes had signed legislation allowing women to be admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court. Ten years later, on March 3, 1889 Belva Lockwood became the first woman admitted to practice under the new law admitting women before the US Supreme Court.

Matilda Josyln Gage

In 1880: Gage wrote “Who Planned the Tennessee Campaign of 1862?” Gage argued that a woman, Anna Ella Carroll, planned that campaign in detail. [In the fall of 1861, Carroll had traveled to St. Louis to work with secret agent, Judge Lemuel Dale Evans, who had been appointed by Secretary of State William H. Seward. Carroll gathered information and based on it and in late November 1861 wrote a memorandum that she sent to Assistant Secretary of War Thomas A. Scott and Attorney General Edward Bates, advocating that the combined army-navy forces change their invasion route from the Mississippi to the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.] (see November 9, 1882)

Voting Rights

March 3, 1913: 8,000 women’s suffrage marchers walked down Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, D.C.  This was the first large protest for women’s Suffrage in the city. They were met with large crowds of unruly men blocking their paths and shouting derogatory remarks. Many marchers were injured and congressional hearings would later remove the Chief of DC Police. (see March 17)

Congressional Union

March 3, 1914: Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage participated in suffrage hearing before House Judiciary Committee. (see Mar 19)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Schenck v. United States

March 3, 1919: Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court decision upheld the Espionage Act of 1917 and concluded that a defendant did not have a First Amendment right to express freedom of speech against the draft during World War I. Ultimately, the case established the “clear and present danger” test, which lasted until 1969. (Oyez article) (Anarchism, see Mar 10; FS,  see Nov 10)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Seamen’s Act

March 3, 1915: Congress approved the Seamen’s Act, providing the merchant marine with rights similar to those gained by factory workers. Action on the law was prompted by the sinking of the Titanic three years earlier. The Act included provisions to:

• abolish imprisonment for desertion
• reduce penalties for disobedience
• regulate the working hours of seamen both at sea and in port
• establish a minimum quality for rations supplied to seamen
• regulate the payment of wages to seamen
• establish a harsh penalty of double wages per daythat any wages remained unpaid upon a sailor’s discharge (which resulted in one case where the U.S. Supreme Court awarded $302,790.40 to a sailor who had been discharged with $412.50 in unpaid wages.
• set safety requirements, including the provision of lifeboats
• require a minimum percentage of the seamen aboard a vessel to be qualified able seamen.
• require at least 75% of the seamen aboard a vessel to understand the language spoken by the officers (see Nov 19)

Davis-Bacon Act

March 3, 1931: The Davis-Bacon Act required that federal contractors pay their workers the wages and benefits prevailing in the local market when working on a public works project. The law aimed at keeping employers from importing cheaper workers from outside the region. (see July 15)

WV Teacher Strike

March 3, 2018: the West Virginia teachers strike continued after state legislators passed a bill late Saturday that would give educators a smaller raise than the governor had told them they would get. (see Mar 6)

Oakland Teacher Strike

March 3, 2019: Oakland teachers ended their seven-day strike after approving a new contract that won them salary increases and concessions on class sizes and staff workloads.

The deal gives 3,000 teachers and staff members an 11 percent raise spread over four years, plus a one-time 3 percent bonus, but many teachers and their union said they felt that their fight for educational improvements was just beginning. (see Mar 8)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

see March 3 Music et al for expanded story

Woody Guthrie

March 3, 1940, activist and American Communist Party member, Will Geer, introduced 27-year-old Woody Guthrie to 21-year-old Pete Seeger.

Roots of Rock

March 3 or 5, 1951: Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, who were actually Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm , recorded “Rocket 88” (originally written as Rocket “88”) at Sam Phillips’s Sun Studio. The record reached no.1 on the Billboard R & B chart. Many experts acknowledge its importance in the development of rock and roll music as the first rock and roll record. (see March 21, 1952)

Fear of Rock

March 3, 1957: Samuel Cardinal Stritch banned rock ‘n’ roll from Chicago archdiocese Roman Catholic schools. (see “In July”)

The Beatles

March 3, 1963: The Beatles were at the bottom of the bill in the last show of their tour supporting Helen Shapiro. Other acts ahead of them included The Kestrels, The Honeys, Dave Allen, Kenny Lynch and Danny Williams. (see Mar 15)

LSD

March 3, 1965: former chemistry student Owsley Stanley began to provide L.S.D. in large quantities for San Francisco “happenings.” (see Mar 30)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Feinberg Law

March 3, 1952: in a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Feinberg Law, a New York state statute that prohibited communists from teaching in public schools. (Red Scare, see Apr 10; Feinberg Law, see January 23, 1967)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

Trop v. Dulles

March 3, 1958: in the case of Trop v. Dulles, decided on this day, the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for the government to revoke the citizenship of a U.S. citizen as a form of punishment. While serving in the Army in 1944, Albert Trop escaped from the stockade where he was being held for misbehavior. The next day, he and a companion were walking along the road near Casablanca, Morroco, and were stopped by an Army truck. Trop willingly got into the truck and was returned to the Army base. Thus, his “desertion” lasted for only some hours. He was then court martialed and given a dishonorable discharge. In 1952 he applied for a passport and was then informed that, under a 1940 law, he had lost his citizenship because of his dishonorable discharge. (see May 27, 1964)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

Pioneer 4

March 3, 1959: the U.S. sent the unmanned Pioneer 4 by the moon in the first American lunar flyby. (NASA article) (see Apr 9)

Apollo 9

March 3 – 13, 1969: the American Apollo 9 mission tested the Lunar Module for the first time, in Earth orbit. (see May 18 – 26)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

Humphrey Atkins

March 3, 1981:  Humphrey Atkins, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, made a statement in the House of Commons in which he said that there would be no political status for prisoners regardless of the hunger strike. (see Troubles for  expanded story)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 3, 1998: Vernon Jordan Jr. testified before the grand jury. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

BSA

March 3, 1998: the New Jersey Appeals Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America violated the state’s anti-discrimination law when it ousted James Dale, an Eagle Scout, because he was gay. The Court ruled that the Boy Scouts were essentially a public accommodation like a hotel or restaurant. (BSA, see June 28, 2000; LGBTQ see Mar 4)

District of Columbia

March 3, 2010: the District of Columbia’s same-sex marriage law went into effect (CNN article) (see Mar 11)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

March 3, 2005:  death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq hit 1,500 (see Mar 24)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

March 3, 2014: the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a family seeking asylum in the United States because homeschooling was not allowed in their native Germany. The case involved Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, Christians who believe German schools would have a bad influence on their six children. The family’s case became a rallying point for many American Christians. (see Mar 14)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Florida

March 3, 2016: with Florida’s capital punishment system at a standstill, the state Senate passed a compromise bill that would overhaul Florida’s death sentencing law, allowing the state to resume death penalty prosecutions by making it harder for juries to send someone to death row.

Alabama

March 3, 2016: an Alabama state court judge ruled that Alabama’s death penalty law was unconstitutional because its use of aggravating factors was so similar to Florida’s old system, among other things. The judge said Alabama’s law was even worse than Florida’s because it allowed judges to override a jury’s life sentence in favor of death, noting that judges did that all too often. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said that the judge’s decision applied only to four cases in the Birmingham area. (see May 9)

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TERRORISM

March 3, 2017: federal authorities charged , Juan Thompson, a St. Louis man with making more than half a dozen bomb threats against Jewish community centers, schools and a Jewish history museum Thompson, made some of the threats in his own name and others in the name of a former girlfriend, apparently in an attempt to intimidate her, according to a federal complaint filed by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan.

In one threat, made on Feb. 1 against a Jewish school in Farmington Hills, Mich., the complaint said, Mr. Thompson claimed that he had placed two bombs in the school and was “eager for Jewish newton,” an apparent reference to the December 2012 school massacre in Newtown, Conn., in which a gunman killed 20 students and six school employees.

Thompson was not believed to be responsible for the majority of recent threats made against Jewish centers around the country. (December 20, 2017 sentencing article) (see Aug 5)

March 3 Peace Love Art Activism