March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Feminism

March 1, 1692: in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian slave from Barbados, were charged with the illegal practice of witchcraft. Later that day, Tituba, possibly under coercion, confessed to the crime, encouraging the authorities to seek out more Salem witches. (see June 10)

Roper v. Simmons

March 1, 2005: in Roper v. Simmons the Supreme Court overruled its 1989 Stanford v. Kentucky decision which allowed the execution of persons who were age 16 or 17 at the time they committed their crimes. In Roper, the Court held that the execution of a person under the age of 18 was disproportionate punishment under the Eighth Amendment and, therefore, was cruel and unusual punishment. (DP, see January 17, 2006; 8^th , see May 17, 2010)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery

March 1, 1780: Pennsylvania enacted the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery. It  guaranteed freedom to non-residents’ slaves  after living in Pennsylvania for six months. (see August 7, 1789)

Follow the Drinking Gourd

March 1, 1790: the first U.S. Census count included slaves (though each counted only three-fifths) and free African-Americans, but Indians were not included.  During American slavery, songs were an important part of slave culture. One of the best known (though not published until the 1920s) was “Follow the Drinking Gourd.” The song provides coded directions for slaves to escape north. Many artists have covered the song. (see June 21, 1851)

The Civil Rights Act of 1875

March 1, 1875: The Civil Rights Act of 1875 (sometimes called Enforcement Act or Force Act) enacted.  It declared: all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude. (BH, see Mar 23; CRA, see October 15, 1883)

Idaho anti-miscegenation law

March 1, 1921: Idaho amended its anti-miscegenation law to include additional restrictions on interracial marriage. Idaho passed its first anti-miscegenation law in 1864, which banned marriage between a white person and “any person of African descent, Indian or Chinese.” The punishment for marrying in violation of the statute was imprisonment for up to two years. Idaho also passed a law banning interracial cohabitation in 1864, violation of which could result in a $100-$500 fine, six to twelve months in jail, or both. The anti-miscegenation law was amended in 1867 to increase the range of fines and the maximum possible prison time to ten years. In 1921, the law was amended again to ban marriage between whites and “mongolians, negroes, or mulattoes,” although the state’s population at the time was less than .02% African American. The Idaho state legislature repealed the anti-miscegenation law in 1959.

Idaho was not unique in its attempts to obstruct marriage between the races. In the 1920’s, Social Darwinism had captured the attention of the country’s elite, who became concerned with maintaining and promoting the eugenic racial purity of the white race by controlling procreation. Concerned that states were not adequately enforcing their anti-miscegenation laws, eugenicists pushed for stronger measures against racial mixing and stricter classifications to determine who qualified as white when seeking a marriage license. Like Idaho, many states added the racial category “mongolian” during this time in response to an influx of Japanese immigrants to the United States. (see Apr 5)

Alabama State College

March 1, 1960: over 1000 people marched from the Alabama State College campus to the state capital and back. After this march, the president of the university expelled 9 students identified as leaders and suspended 20 other students, under pressure from the governor’s office. As a result of this, students at the college voted to boycott classes and exams. (next BH, see Mar 29: see G4 for expanded chronology)

Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali

March 1, 1964: Cassius Clay met with Malcolm X in NYC. ( 2016 NPR report about the relationship between both men) (next Ali, see Mar 3; next MX, see Mar 8)

George Whitmore, Jr

March 1, 1965: Gerald Corbin, a juror in the Elba Borrero case, testified at a hearing before Justice Malbin on the motion for a new trial that “practically everyone” on the jury knew that George Whitmore, Jr. had been charged with the Wylie-Hoffert crime. According to Corbin, one of his fellow jurors had stated, “This is nothing compared to what he is going to get in New York.“

Corbin also testified that at least one juror “on more than one occasion” used racial slurs referring to the sexual proclivities of Negroes and Puerto Ricans. “Whitmore,” said the juror in question, “was guilty of attempted rape because Negros are “like jackrabbits” and “got to have their intercourse all the time.” An FBI report, which the prosecution had withheld at the trial, was introduced at the hearing. It stated that the button Borrero ripped from her assailant’s coat differed in size and color from the buttons on the tan poplin raincoat Whitmore was wearing when he was taken into custody. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

Ben Chester White murder

March 1, 2003: after just three hours of deliberations and a three-day trial, a jury of nine whites and three blacks found Ernest Avants, 72, a former Klansman guilty of murdering Ben Chester White  as part of a beer-inspired plot to draw Dr. King down to them.

Avants will die in prison on June 16, 2004. (2014 Clarion-Register article) (next BH, see Mar 26)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Emma Goldman

March 1, 1916: Goldman spoke at a birth control mass meeting held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Other speakers include Margaret Sanger, Leonard Abbott, Gilbert E. Roe, Theodore Schroeder, Bolton Hall, John Reed, Anna Strunsky Walling, Dr. William J. Robinson and Dr. A. L. Goldwater. (see Goldman for expanded story; WH, see October 16, 1916)

Family planning services

March 1, 1966,: in a Special Message to Congress on Domestic Health and Education, President Lyndon Johnson called for federal support for family planning services. The first federal support for family planning occurred on November 2, 1965, as part of Johnson’s Great Society program, and the War on Poverty in particular. Federal support became institutionalized in 1970 with the Family Planning Services Act, which President Richard Nixon signed into law on December 26, 1970. In the late 1960s and 1960s, most Republican Party leaders supported both birth control and federal aid for family planning services. That changed in the late 1970s when social conservatives captured control of the GOP and advanced and anti-abortion, anti-birth control, and anti-feminist agenda.

The fight for the legal availability of birth control and family planning services was a long one. On October 16, 1916 Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in America. She was arrested a week later for violating New York state law, and eventually served a month in jail. A major breakthrough was the Supreme Court’s decision in Griswold v. Connecticut on June 7, 1965, which struck down a Connecticut law prohibiting birth control services and which established a constitutional right of privacy. (NYT abstract) (see Sept 6)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

U.S. Steel

March 1, 1937: CIO president John L. Lewis and U.S. Steel President Myron Taylor signed a landmark contract in which the bitterly anti-union company officially recognized the CIO as sole negotiator for the company’s unionized workers. Included: the adoption of overtime pay, the 40-hour work week, and a big pay hike (see Mar 18)

Colin Kaepernick

March 1, 2017: the San Francisco 49ers announced that quarterback Colin Kaepernick opted out of the final season of his contract with the organization in order to become an unrestricted free agent.  (ESPN article) (Labor, see Apr 26;  next CK, see Aug 12 or see Colin for expanded chronology)

West Virginia teacher strike

March 1, 2018: all of West Virginia’s schools remained closed  despite the tentative deal between union leaders and Gov. Jim Justice on Feburary 27. Teachers had taken to the halls of the state’s Capitol during a “cooling off” period to voice their ongoing frustration with the negotiations.

Many of them demanded that the unions and legislators get back to the bargaining table to improve a deal they deemed unsatisfactory. (Labor & WV, see Mar 2)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War & Nuclear/Chemical Weapons

March 1, 1950: German-British atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a UK court for passing British and American nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. (1988 LA Times obit) (CW, see Mar 8; NN, see June 17)

Castle Bravo

March 1, 1954:  Castle Bravo was the code name given to the first US test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb, detonated at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, The blast’s 15 megaton yield, far exceeded the expected yield of 4 to 6 megatons. That, combined with other factors, led to the most significant accidental radiological contamination ever caused by the US. Fallout from the detonation — intended to be a secret test — poisoned some of the islanders upon their return, as well as the crew of a Japanese fishing boat, and created international concern about atmospheric thermonuclear testing. (Brookings article) (see June 14, 1954)

Peace Corps

March 1, 1961: President Kennedy issued Executive Order #10924, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency within the Department of State. The same day, he sent a message to Congress asking for permanent funding for the agency, which would send trained American men and women to foreign nations to assist in development efforts. The Peace Corps captured the imagination of the U.S. public, and during the week after its creation thousands of letters poured into Washington from young Americans hoping to volunteer. (text of order) (next Cold War entry is Bay of Pigs )

Russian arsenal

March 1, 2018: Russian President Vladimir Putin said his nation had developed a new arsenal of “invincible” nuclear weapons that could reach “anywhere in the world.” Among the weapons claimed by Putin was a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile with unlimited range; a nuclear torpedo; and a new class of submarine-launched, long-range missiles. (see Mar 6)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

Puerto Rican nationalists

March 1, 1954: Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen. (NYT article) (see February 16, 1965)

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

 

March 1, 2003,: suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured by CIA and Pakistani agents near Islamabad. (CNN article) (see Nov 25)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

March 1 Music et al

March 1, 1958: Bob Dylan’s Golden Chords played at the National Guard Armory in Hibbing, MN. It was the first time he was paid to perform on Stage. (see January 31, 1959)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

3,500 U.S. Marines

March 1, 1965: US Ambassador Maxwell Taylor informed South Vietnamese Premier Phan Huy Quat that the United States was preparing to send 3,500 U.S. Marines to Vietnam to protect the U.S. airbase at Da Nang.  (see Mar 2)

Daniel Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers

March 1, 1968: Clark Clifford replaced McNamara as secretary of defense. (see Papers for expanded story)

Oh! What a Lovely War

March 1, 1969: the British black comedy film Oh! What a Lovely War released in Britain. While ostensibly a story about World War I, it paralleled and reflected many of the sentiments people felt toward the Vietnam conflict. (see March 18)

Weather Underground

March 1, 1971: the Weather Underground bombed the US Capitol building claiming it to be in protest of US involvement in Laos. The bomb exploded in a Capitol restroom 30 minutes after a telephone warning. Some $200,000 in damage was caused with no injuries. (see Mar 23)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

March 1, 1966: Venera 3, a Soviet probe launched from Kazakhstan on November 15, 1965, collided with Venus. Although Venera 3 failed in its mission to measure the Venusian atmosphere, it was the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet. (Wired article) (see Mar 16)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

March 1, 1974: seven people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, were indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice. (see Watergate for expanded story)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

March 1, 1981:  Bobby Sands, a Provisional Irish Republican Army member, began a hunger strike for political status in Long Kesh prison. (see Troubles for expanded chronology)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

March 1, 1984: the Hicksville, New York, Junior High School announced that it was dropping its mandatory 30 second meditation or prayer period for students. The school’s written policy called for “silent prayer or meditation according to the beliefs or desires of individual students.”

The Nassau County chapter of the ACLU had threatened to sue on behalf of several parents who complained that the policy created an establishment of religion in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court declared an Alabama “moment of silence” unconstitutional as a violation of the Establishment Clause in Wallace v. Jaffree on June 4, 1985. (NYT article) (Religion, see Aug 11; Separation, see Mar 5)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of Yugoslavia & INDEPENDENCE DAY

March 1, 1992: Bosnia Y Herzegovina independent from Yugoslavia. (DY, see Apr 28; ID, see July 17)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Maryland

March 1, 2012: Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed the freedom to marry into law after it passed out of the state Senate and House. Almost immediately after its passage, anti-gay activists begin collecting signatures to place a measure on the November ballot that would overturn the freedom to marry.  (see Mar 21)

Bethany Christian Services

March 1, 2021:  Bethany Christian Services, a Michigan-based evangelical organization, and one of the country’s largest adoption and foster care agencies, announced that it would begin providing services to L.G.B.T.Q. parents nationwide effective immediately, a major inflection point in the fraught battle over many faith-based agencies’ longstanding opposition to working with same-sex couples.

Bethany announced the change to about 1,500 staff members that was signed by Chris Palusky, the organization’s president and chief executive. “We will now offer services with the love and compassion of Jesus to the many types of families who exist in our world today,” Mr. Palusky wrote. “We’re taking an ‘all hands on deck’ approach where all are welcome.” [NYT article] (next LGBTQ, see Mar 15)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown

March 1, 2016: Pennsylvania state Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced that a statewide investigating grand jury into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown had determined that hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of 40 years. At least 50 priests or religious leaders had been involved in sexual abuses, she said.  Evidence and testimony gathered by the grand jury revealed a history of diocese superiors taking action to conceal the child abuse as part of an effort to protect the institution’s image.  (PennLive article) (see June 4)

Vatican resistance

March 1, 2017: Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins accused the Vatican of “shameful” resistance to fighting clerical sex abuse in the Catholic Church as she resigned from Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, a key panel set up by Pope Francis in 2013 to deal with the issue.

“There are people in the Vatican who do not want to change or understand the need to change,” said Ms Collins. “I can’t stick with it any more. They are not co-operating with the commission.” (Telegraph article) (see July 28)

March 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

March 1, 2024:  the Biden administration issued new rules designed to prevent disasters at almost 12,000 chemical plants and other industrial sites nationwide that handle hazardous materials.

The regulations for the first time tell facilities to explicitly address disasters, such as storms or floods, that could trigger an accidental release, including threats linked to climate change. For the first time, chemical sites that have had prior accidents will need to undergo an independent audit. And the rules require chemical plants to share more information with neighbors and emergency responders.

“We’re putting in place important safeguards to protect some of our most vulnerable populations,” Janet McCabe, Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, told reporters ahead of the announcement. [NYT article] (next EI, see Mar 6)

March Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

In March 1829, President Andrew Jackson announced that federal protection only existed for the Creeks willing to leave Alabama for the Western Territory. He wrote to them:

“Where you now are, you and my white children are too near to each other to live in harmony and peace…Beyond the great river Mississippi, where a part of your nation has gone, your father has provided a country large enough for all of you, and he advises you to remove to it…In that country, your father, the President, now promises to protect you, to feed you, and to shield you from all encroachment…My white children in Alabama have extended their law over your country. If you remain in it, you must be subject to that law. If you remove across the Mississippi, you will be subject to your own laws, and the care of your father, the President…It is for your nation’s good, and your father requests you to hear his counsel.”  [Smithsonian article] (see May 28, 1830)

March Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Emancipation Proclamation

In March 1862, Lincoln proposed a plan of gradual emancipation for the border states, offering to compensate slaveholders who released their slaves. When the congressional delegations for the border states turned down that offer, Lincoln issued a draft Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862 and signed the final version on January 1, 1863. (final text of Proclamation)

Clinton Melton

On December 3, 1955 in Glendora, Mississippi. Otis Kimball, a cotton gin operator, had asked Clinton Melton to fill his car up with gas. Kimball became enraged because of something having to do with this transaction, and he threatened to come back to the gas station and kill Melton. Kimball was driving the automobile of J. W. Milam, one of the men who had been acquitted of killing Emmett Till in August of 1955. Kimball did in fact return to the station with a shotgun. With no provocation, he shot and killed Melton in full view of the gas station owner and other witnesses,

In March 1956 Otis Kimball was charged with the murder of Clinton Melton. The defense theory was self-defense. There were three state witnesses – Lee McGarrh, the filling station owner and Melton’s white boss, who testified that Melton did not have a gun and did not provoke the attack; John Henry Wilson, a black man who testified that Kimball said he was going to kill Melton and would kill Wilson too if he got in the way; and another man who was ten feet away from the incident and testified he did not see a gun in Melton’s hand.

Witnesses for the defense – none of them eyewitnesses – included the sheriff, deputy sheriff, and chief of police. Kimball, the defendant, claimed Melton cursed at him during the argument. He claimed he had a scar from a bullet wound that came from a gunshot by Melton, and he produced a doctor who claimed it was indeed a gunshot wound. An all white jury acquitted Kimball after deliberating for four hours.

Just before the trial was scheduled to commence, Beulah Melton, Clinton’s wife, died in a car accident. She drowned after her car ran off the road into the bayou. (Northeastern University School of Law article on Melton) (BH, see Mar 8; Melton, see Mar 13)

Freedom Riders

In March 1962 the original Freedom Riders arrested in December go on trial. Charles Sherrod was beaten to the floor for sitting in the “white” section at the front of the courtroom and white SNCC activists Bob Zellner, Per Laurson, Sandra, and Tom Hayden were violently dragged from the courtroom when they sit in the “Colored” section at the rear. (BH, see Mar 2; see Albany Movement for more)

Amadou Diallo

In March 2004: Diallo’s mother and stepfather accepted a $3,000,000 settlement. (see October 2, 2012)

Laquan McDonald

In March 2016: Jason Van Dyke, who was suspended without pay, was hired as a janitor by the city’s police union, the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago. (B & S, see Mar 14; McDonald, see In May)

March Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Gage

In March 1886: Matilda Josyln Gage, an organizer of the International Council of Women, chaired one session. Convention attended by Woman Christian Temperance Union President Frances Willard, whom Gage called “the most dangerous woman in America,” because of her work with the religious right, trying to destroy the wall of separation between church and state by placing the Christian God as the head of the government. (see Gage for expanded biography)

Emma Goldman

In March, 1906: the first issue of Mother Earth is published. Emma Goldman launched a speaking tour to raise money for the publication. It published articles on a variety of anarchist topics including the labor movement, education, literature and the arts, state and government control, and women’s emancipation, sexual freedom, and was an early supporter of birth control. (see Goldman for expanded story)

Josephus Daniels

In March 1917: Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels became the first to approve enlistment of women in the armed services with the US Navy. Approximately 11,000 female yeoman joined the Navy before the war’s end on November 11, 1918. (see Mar 4)

March Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

On December 28, 1895 the world’s first commercial movie screening  had taken place at the Grand Cafe in Paris. The film was made by Louis and Auguste Lumiere, two French brothers who developed a camera-projector called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere brothers unveiled their invention to the public in March 1895 with a brief film showing workers leaving the Lumiere factory. On December 28, the entrepreneurial siblings screened a series of short scenes from everyday French life and charged admission for the first time. (see December 2, 1901)

March Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism in the US

In March 1912 : the Industrial Workers of the World held a protest meeting in front of the San Diego city jail. Police called in the fire department to disperse the crowd, spraying them with water. (see May 14, 1912)

see March Music et al for more

• In March 1960: Bassist Charles Mingus released “Blues and Roots” album
• In March  1961: John Coltrane released “My Favorite Things” album. The cover of  The Sound of Music song became Coltrane’s most requested song.
• In March 1962: John Coltrane released Coltrane “Live” at the Village Vanguard

Bob Dylan

In March – April 1960: while a student at University of Minnesota, Dylan is introduced to  marijuana at parties held at the home of David Whitaker. (see Mid-December 1960)

Cold War  &  News Music

In March  1961: Pete Seeger stood trial and was found guilty of obstructing House Un-American Activities Committee  work. At his sentencing he asked if he could sing, “Wasn’t That a Time?” The judge refused Seeger’s request and sentenced him to a year and a day in prison. (CW, see Mar 1)

Our fathers bled at Valley Forge. The snow was red with blood,Their faith was warm at Valley Forge, Their faith was brotherhood. Wasn’t that a time, wasn’t that a time, A time to try the soul of man, Wasn’t that a terrible time?Brave men who died at Gettysburg Now lie in soldier’s graves, But there they stemmed the slavery tide, And there the faith was saved.The fascists came with chains and war To prison us in hate. And many a good man fought and died To save the stricken faith.

And now again the madmen come, And should our vic’try fail? There is no vic’try in a land Where free men go to jail.Isn’t this a time! Isn’t this a time! A time to try the soul of man, Isn’t this a terrible time?Our faith cries out we have no fear We dare to reach our hand To other neighbors far and near To friends in every land.Isn’t this a time! Isn’t this a time! A time to free the soul of man! Isn’t this a wonderful time!

Teenage Culture

In March 1963: Wolfman Jack began broadcasting on XERF, a half million watt radio station out of Mexico. The powerful “border radio” stations were famous for their wild on-air activities. The powerful broadcast signals allowed them to be heard across the entire North American continent, making Wolfman Jack the most famous rock ‘n’ roll DJ in the world. (NYT obit) (see February 1, 1964)

Stan Getz and João Gilberto

In March 1964:  Stan Getz and João Gilberto released album Getz/Gilberto album.

Jimi Hendrix

In March 1964:  as a member of the Isley Brothers, Jimi Hendrix recorded the two-part single “Testify”. Hendrix then went on tour with the Isley Brothers. “Testify” was released in June 1964. 

In 1965, Hendrix played a session for Rosa Lee Brooks on her single “My Diary”  Around the same time he also backed Little Richard on  “I Don’t Know What You’ve Got, But It’s Got Me“. (see October 1965)

Beatles LSD

March…July 1965: the precise date of the Beatles first encounter with LSD is unknown, although it’s likely to have been between March and July 1965. It is known  that it took place at Flat 1, 2 Strathearn Place, London W2, in the home of 34-year-old cosmetic dentist John Riley. Riley had invited John and Cynthia Lennon, George Harrison and Pattie Boyd to dinner. After the meal he gave them coffee laced with LSD, which at the time was little-known and still legal. (LSD, see Mar 3; Beatles, see Mar 13; Beatles/LSD, see Aug 24)

Berkeley Barb

In March 1967: The Berkeley Barb started the smokable banana rumor. Barb editor, Max Scherr, hoping to trick authorities into banning bananas, ran a satirical story which claimed that dried banana skins contained “bananadine”, a (fictional) psychoactive substance which, when smoked, supposedly induced a psychedelic high similar to opium and psilocybin. The Barb may have been inspired by Donovan’s 1966 song “Mellow Yellow”, with its lyric “Electrical banana/Is gonna be a sudden craze.” The hoax was believed and spread through the mainstream press. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigated and concluded that banana skins were not psychedelic. (see In April)

March Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

My Lai Massacre

In March, 1969:  letters from Vietnam veteran Ronald Ridenhour resulted in a U.S. Army investigation into the My Lai massacre. (text of letter) (see My Lai for expanded chronology;  next Vietnam, see Mar 1)

Student Rights

In March 1971: nine students (including a Dwight Lopez) were suspended for ten days from Marion-Franklin High School in Columbus, Ohio following student unrest. The students charged the school board and administrators with depriving them of their right to education without a timely hearing. (SR, see January 22, 1975; Vietnam, see Mar 1)

Daniel Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers

In March 1971: Ellsberg met with reporter Neil Sheehan of The New York Times and showed him the top-secret McNamara study. Sheehan, reporter Hedrick Smith and a handful of other New York Times reporters and editors began working on a massive story based on the Pentagon Papers, while lawyers at The New York Times debated whether they can, and should, publish top-secret government documents. (see Papers for expanded story)

March Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS & Ryan White

In March 1986: White’s opponents held an auction in the school gymnasium to raise money to keep White out. (see Ryan White for expanded story)

March Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News & ICAN

In March 2013: the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN]  coordinated civil society participation at historic Oslo Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, an unprecedented gathering of States to evaluate the scientific evidence about the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons. (Nuclear &  ICAN, see Aug 30)

March Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Trump’s Wall

In March 2019: at an Oval Office meeting, President Trump ordered advisors to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico — by noon the next day.

The advisers feared the president’s edict would trap American tourists in Mexico, strand children at schools on both sides of the border and create an economic meltdown in two countries.

Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either, they told him. [NYT article] (next IH, see Mar 6; next TW, see Mar 10)

March Peace Love Art Activism