November Peace Love Art Activism
As always, some events in history cannot be pinned down to a specific date either because there’s a lack of information or no one realized that the date might be important someday. In any case, here are some peace-, love-, art- and activism-related November events.
Feminism
Angelina Grimké
In November 1836: Angelina Grimké held her first “parlor talk” for women under the auspices of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Over the next year, she and her sister Sarah gave more than 70 lectures before an estimated 40,000 people. When criticized for speaking to audiences filled with men as well as women, Grimké launched a defense of the right of women to speak in public and participate as equals in public affairs. (see May 16, 1838)
Women’s Health
In November 1956: a Science magazine article informed readers that women had tested a synthetic hormone as an oral contraceptive and it had been effective. In the summer of 1957 the FDA approved the use of Enovid for the treatment of severe menstrual disorders and required the drug label to carry a warning that Enovid would prevent ovulation. [NCBI article] (see December 2, 1959)
November Peace Love Art Activism
Black History
Dred & Harriet Scott
In November 1837: the Army sent Dr. Emerson to Fort Jesup in Louisiana. The Scotts remained in Wisconsin Territory. (BH, see Nov 7; Scotts for expanded chronology)
Scottsboro Travesty
In November 1938,: Alabama Governor Graves denied all pardon applications. (full story)
Black Panthers
In November 1968: deeply influenced by the Black Panther leaders Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, John Sinclair and Lawrence “Pun” Plamondon founded the White Panther Party.
The ten-point program of the White Panther Party demanded economic and cultural freedom. “Everything free for everybody!” and a total “assault” on the culture by any means necessary were the essence of the White Panther program. [text of statement] (Black History, see Nov 5; Sinclair, see August 6, 1969)
George Whitmore, Jr
In November 1986: Richard Robles, who had himself protested his innocence over the original double-murders, admitted his guilt to a parole board hearing. He had broken into the flat in order to obtain money for drugs and had assumed at first it was empty. (see Whitmore for expanded story)
November Peace Love Art Activism
FREE SPEECH
Sidewalk Pulpit
In late November 1941: Walter Chaplinsky, a Jehovah’s Witness, was using a sidewalk as a pulpit in downtown Rochester, New Hampshire. Chaplinsky was passing out pamphlets and preached that organized religion was a “racket.” The rhetoric eventually sparked the gathering of a throng, which in turn, caused a scene. A police officer removed Chaplinsky. Along the way, he met the town marshal, who had earlier warned Chaplinsky to keep it down and avoid causing a commotion. Chaplinsky attacked him verbally. He was arrested. The complaint against Chaplinsky charged that he had shouted: “You are a God-damned racketeer” and “a damned Fascist”. Chaplinsky admitted that he said the words charged in the complaint, with the exception of the name of the deity. (see March 9, 1942)
Hustler magazine
In November 1983: Hustler magazine ran a piece parodying Rev Jerry Falwell‘s first sexual experience as a drunken, incestuous, childhood encounter with his mother in an outhouse.
Falwell was an important religious conservative and founder of the Moral Majority political advocacy group sued Hustler and its publisher, Larry Flynt, for libel.
Falwell would win the case, but Flynt appealed, leading to the Supreme Court’s hearing the case because of its constitutional implications. (next FS, see August 27, 1985; Flynt, see February 24, 1988)
November Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
In November 1946: a customs dispute between the French and Viet Minh in the port of Haiphong led to a day-long exchange of gunfire. Two hundred forty Vietnamese and seven Frenchmen were killed. The French followed by bombing Haiphong killing six thousand civilians. (see Dec 19)
November Peace Love Art Activism
Future Woodstock Performers/Joan Baez
In November 1960: Joan Baez (age 19) released her first album, Joan Baez.
Future Woodstock Performers/Ravi Shankar
In 1962 Ravi Shankar released his 4th album, Improvisations. He released his first at age 17 in 1937.
Future Woodstock Performers/Melanie
In November 1968 Melanie (age 21) released her first album, Born to Be.
Jimi Hendrix
In November 1961, Hendrix met fellow serviceman Billy Cox. He was walking past the service club and heard Hendrix playing guitar inside. Cox, intrigued by the proficient playing, which he described as a combination of “John Lee Hooker and Beethoven”, immediately checked-out a bass guitar and the two began to jam. Soon after, they began performing at the base clubs on the weekends with other musicians in a loosely organized band called the Casuals. (see Hendrix Military for expanded story)
LSD
In November 1967, authorities released Ken Kesey and he moved to Oregon. (LSD see February 4, 1968; KK, see November 10, 2001)
Forever Changes
In November 1967: Love released its classic album, Forever Changes.
Van Morrison
In November 1968, Van Morrison released his classic album, Astral Weeks
Steppenwolf
In November, 1969: Steppenwolf released the album Monster contained epic song by same name.
November Peace Love Art Activism
AIDS
In November 1985, San Francisco gay rights activist Cleve Jones conceived the idea of an AIDS Quilt. Since the 1978 assassinations of gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, Jones had helped organize the annual candlelight march honoring the men. While planning the 1985 march, he learned that AIDS had killed over 1,000 San Franciscans . He asked each of his fellow marchers to write on placards the names of friends and loved ones who had died of AIDS. At the end of the march, Jones and others stood on ladders taping these placards to the walls of the San Francisco Federal Building. The wall of names looked like a patchwork quilt. [aidsquilt.org article] (see Nov 25)
November Peace Love Art Activism
DEATH PENALTY
In November 1987, Hugo Bedau and Michael Radelet published a landmark study in the Stanford Law Review documenting 350 cases involving defendants convicted of capital crimes in the United States between 1900 and 1985 and who were later found to be innocent.
In the decade following the publication of that study, scores of additional death row inmates were discovered to have been falsely convicted, largely through the emergence of DNA evidence. (see June 29, 1988)
November Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
Reverend James Porter
During 1992 – 1993, the Reverend James Porter [timeline] of Fall River diocese, Massachusetts accused of abusing children in five US states in the 1960s and 1970s. He later pleaded guilty to 41 counts of abuse.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
In November 1992, SNAP members traveled to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington D.C. At first, bishops refused to see them. Finally, three agreed to listen to their stories. The bishops said they would take what they learned “under consideration.”
Rudolph Kos
In 1993, authorities brought the first legal proceedings against the Dallas diocese over sex abuse by the priest Rudolph Kos. [timeline]
SNAP press conference
In November 1993, SNAP leaders from several cities traveled to Chicago to hold the organizations first ever national press conference. (see September 26, 1996)
November Peace Love Art Activism
CLINTON IMPEACHMENT
In November 1995, according to audiotapes secretly recorded later by a Linda Tripp, Monica Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton began a sexual relationship. (see Clinton for expanded impeachment story)
November Peace Love Art Activism
Cannabis
In November 2011, according to a study, States that had legalized medical marijuana saw fewer fatal car accidents in part because people might be substituting marijuana smoking for drinking alcohol.
Comparing traffic deaths over time in states with and without medical marijuana law changes, the researchers found that fatal car wrecks dropped by 9% in states that legalized medical use — which was largely attributable to a decline in drunk driving.
The authors also found that in states that legalized medical use, there was no increase in marijuana smoking by teenagers — a finding seen in other studies as well. But, in many cases, the laws were linked with an increase in marijuana smoking among adults in their 20s; this rise was accompanied by a reduction in alcohol use by college age youth, suggesting that they were smoking weed instead…” [Time article] (see Nov 30)
November Peace Love Art Activism
Fair Housing
In November 2019: the National Fair Housing Alliance‘s 2019 Fair Housing Trends Report showed the different forms of harassment, hate crimes, and housing discrimination—illegally restricting access to housing due to membership in a protected legal class, such a being a person of color or having a disability—that took place in the U.S.
The report showed the nation moving backwards, not forwards, in the fight to guarantee equal access. In 2018, the nation saw an 8 percent year-to-year increase in fair housing cases, the largest since the group began keeping records in 1995, as well as a 14.7 percent increase in hate crime offenses linked to housing.
In a summation, the NFHA said renters had faced “a resurgence of horrific hate activity,” and that “it can sometimes seem like we are living in a nightmare.” [CURBED.com article] (next FH, see July 23, 2020)
November Peace Love Art Activism
