Category Archives: Peace Love Art and Activism

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Voting Rights

March 29, 1874:  in Minor v. Happersett, Supreme Court ruled that the right to vote “was not necessarily one of the privileges or immunities of citizenship” and therefore “neither the Constitution nor the Fourteenth Amendment made all citizens voters.” The decision ended feminists’ attempts to secure voting rights under existing constitutional amendments. (Cornell Law article) (see Feminism,  May 8; Voting Rights, see January 10, 1878)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

March 29, 1886: Dr. John Pemberton  brewed the first batch of Coca Cola over a fire in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia. Pemberton had created the concoction as a cure for “hangover,” stomach ache and headache. He advertised it as a “brain tonic and intellectual beverage.” Coke contained cocaine as an ingredient until 1904, when the drug was banned by Congress. (Coca Cola site article on its history) (next CM, see May 8)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish

March 29, 1937: the U.S. Supreme Court, in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, upheld the constitutionality of minimum wage legislation enacted by the State of Washington, overturning a decision in 1923 that held that federal minimum wage legislation for women was an unconstitutional infringement of liberty of contract. The case was brought by Elsie Parrish, a hotel housekeeper who lost her job and did not receive back wages in line with the state’s minimum wage for women law. (Oyez article) (see May 26)

“Battle of Wall Street”

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

March 29, 1948: “Battle of Wall Street,” policed charge members of the United Financial Employees’ Union, striking against the New York Stock Exchange and New York Curb Exchange (now known as the American Stock Exchange). Police arrest forty-three workers in what was to be the first and only strike in the history of either exchange. (2010 Huff Post article) (see June 21)

Foxconn

March 29, 2012: responding to a critical report about its factories, Foxconn  pledged to sharply curtail the number of working hours in its Chinese factories and significantly increase wages, a move that could improve working conditions across China. (see Sept 24)

Right to Work

March 29, 2016: the Supreme Court handed organized labor a major victory, deadlocking 4 to 4 in a case that had threatened to cripple the ability of public-sector unions to collect fees from workers who chose not to join and did not want to pay for the unions’ collective bargaining activities.

It was the starkest illustration yet of how the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia blocked the power of the court’s four remaining conservatives to move the law to the right. (see Aug 23)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

Voluntary evacuation

March 29, 1942:  ”Voluntary evacuation” of people of Japanese ancestry from Pacific Coast area ended. Before this date 10,231 moved out of restricted area on their own initiative after Army and newspapers requested this. (see Internment for expanded story)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Nuclear/Chemical News

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

March 29, 1951:  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. (see Apr 5)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

State Sovereignty Commission

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

March 29, 1956: The Mississippi legislature established the State Sovereignty Commission as an official agency to fight the Civil Rights Movement — and the racial integration of public schools in particular. The Commission’s official purpose was to “do and perform any and all acts deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi and her sister states . . . from perceived encroachment thereon by the federal government . . . .” It was later revealed that the Sovereignty Commission employed private investigators to collect information on civil rights activists, which was used to harass them and civil rights activities. (U of Mississippi Press article)  (see Apr 10)

FREE SPEECH

March 29, 1960: the New York Times carried a full-page advertisement titled “Heed Their Rising Voices” which solicited funds to defend Martin Luther King, Jr. against an Alabama perjury indictment. The advertisement described actions against civil rights protesters, some of them inaccurately, some of which involved the police force of Montgomery, Alabama. Referring to the Alabama State Police, the advertisement stated: “They have arrested [King] seven times…” However, at that point he had been arrested four times. Although the Montgomery Public Safety commissioner, L. B. Sullivan, was not named in the advertisement, the inaccurate criticism of actions by the police was considered defamatory to Sullivan as well, due to his duty to supervise the police department. (Archives dot gov text of advertisement) (BH, see Mar 31; FS, see Apr 19)

Police dogs

March 29, 1961: a policeman ordered his dog to attack an demonstrator who was too slow in obeying his order to move away from in front of police court, shortly before nine African-American college students went on trial for sitting-in at a white city library in Jackson, Mississippi. (see Apr 6)

Twenty-third Amendment

March 29, 1961: The Twenty-third Amendment to the US Constitution ratified, allowing Washington, DC residents to vote in presidential elections. (see August 22, 1978)

The amendment had been rejected by Arkansas. The following nine states did not vote to ratify the amendment. (January 24, 1961)

  • Florida
  • Kentucky
  • Mississippi
  • Georgia
  • Louisiana
  • South Carolina
  • North Carolina
  • Texas
  • Virginia
SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

March 29, 1961: Nelson Mandela and his co-defendants were acquitted of treason. Fearing he will be arrested again, Mandela went underground. (see Dec 16)

Attempted Worshipers Arrested

March 29, 1964: several white churches in Jackson, Mississippi barred three Black men—including one minister—from attending Easter Sunday services, forcibly removing them from church or blocking their entrance. Two of the Black men and seven white clergymen who had accompanied them were arrested and jailed after the churches turned them away; their bonds were set at $1,000 each.

The day after their arrests, a judge convicted all nine men of “disturbing public worship” and sentenced them each to six months in jail and a $500 fine.  [EJI article]

Malcolm X

March 29, 1964: Malcolm X spoke at an Organization of Afro-American Unity rally at the Audubon Ballroom, Washington Heights, NYC. He spoke specifically regarding Black Nationalism. [text of speech] (next BH, see Mar 30; next Malcolm X, see Apr 12)

Viola Liuzzo

March 29 Peace Love Activism

March 29, 1965: the NAACP sponsored a memorial service for Viola Liuzzo at the People’s Community Church in Detroit. Fifteen hundred people attended, among them, Rosa Parks. (see Liuzzo for expanded story)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

March 29 Music et al

see Road to Bethel and the Woodstock Festival for much more

March 29, 1969: Michael Lang had found a suitable site in Saugerties, NY right off the NY Thruway. On this date, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman met with a Mr Holmes, the lawyer for the site’s owner, Mr Shaler. The lawyer emphatically told Roberts and Rosenman that the site was not for rent for such a purpose. 

Blood, Sweat and Tears

March 29 – April 4, 1969:  the Blood, Sweat, and Tears’ Blood, Sweat, & Tears Billboard #1 album. It received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970. (see July 26)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

My Lai Massacre

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

March 29, 1971: Lt. Calley was found guilty of premeditated murder of 22 civilians and sentenced to life in prison. This sentence was extremely controversial and generates a widespread public outcry, as an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that Calley was simply following orders, and condemned the fact that one soldier was serving as the army’s scapegoat. Draft board members resign, veterans turn in their medals, and the “Free Calley” movement was born. Georgian governor Jimmy Carter asked his constituency to drive for a week with their lights on in protest, and flags are flown at half-mast in the state of Indiana. (see My Lai for expanded story; next Vietnam, see Apr 1)

U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam

March 29, 1973: two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam as Hanoi freed the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam ending  America’s direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam.

Of the more than 3 million Americans who had served in the war, almost 58,000 died, and over 1,000 were missing in action. Some 150,000 Americans were seriously wounded. (see August 15, 1973)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Charles Manson

March 29, 1971, a jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three followers [Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten] for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders (the sentences were later commuted). (see Apr 19)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Wounded Knee II

March 29, 1973: a cease-fire between Indians holding Wounded Knee and the Government forces surrounding the historic Indian site entered its third day as Government negotiators tried to set up a meeting  the next day to resolve the month-long impasse. (next NA & Russell Means, see Apr 18)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

Ryan White

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

March 29, 1990: several months before his high school class graduated and before his senior prom, White entered Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis with a respiratory infection. (see White for expanded story)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

James Charles Kopp

March 29, 2001: French authorities arrested James Charles Kopp, the assassin of Dr  Barnett Slepian, in the town of Dinan, Brittany. (see May 9, 2003)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

March 29, 2012: a witness in a priest abuse trial told a jury she felt “helpless and trapped” as a 13-year-old because a priest was fondling her when she worked weekends at the rectory. Her testimony came on the fourth day of the child endangerment trial of Monsignor William Lynn, the longtime secretary for clergy in Philadelphia. Lynn was charged with child endangerment after being accused of leaving predators in jobs around children. (see June 22)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Pegasus Pipeline

March 29, 2013: the Pegasus Pipeline spill happened and resulted in Canadian heavy crude being released into the community of Mayflower, Arkansas, flowing through yards and streets. Oil entered a creek, wetlands and a cover at Lake Conway. (EI, see January 10, 2014; Mayflower, see April 22, 2015)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

March 29, 2017: Westinghouse Electric Company, which helped drive the development of nuclear energy and the electric grid itself, filed for bankruptcy protection, casting a shadow over the global nuclear industry.

The filing came as the company’s corporate parent, Toshiba of Japan, scrambled to stanch huge losses stemming from Westinghouse’s troubled nuclear construction projects in the American South. Now, the future of those projects, which once seemed to be on the leading edge of a renaissance for nuclear energy, was in doubt.

“This is a fairly big and consequential deal,” said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. “You’ve had some power companies and big utilities run into financial trouble, but this kind of thing hasn’t happened.” (see Apr 4)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Travel ban blocked

March 29, 2017: Judge Derrick Watson of Federal District Court in Hawaii decided to extend his order blocking President Trump’s travel ban. Watson issued the longer-lasting hold on the ban just hours after hearing arguments.

Hawaii said the policy discriminated against Muslims and hurts the state’s tourist-dependent economy. The implied message in the revised ban is like a “neon sign flashing ‘Muslim ban, Muslim ban,’” that the government didn’t bother to turn off, the state’s attorney general, Douglas Chin, told the judge.

Extending the temporary order until the state’s lawsuit was resolved would ensure the constitutional rights of Muslim citizens across the U.S. are vindicated after “repeated stops and starts of the last two months,” the state said. (see Apr 17)

DACA

March 29, 2018: Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn ruled that a lawsuit seeking to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,  a program that protects hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation’ could continue.

Garaufis’s order was the strongest sign so far of judicial support for DACA which has for months been the subject of a heated debate in Congress.

Judge Garaufis pointed directly at Trump, noting that his numerous “racial slurs” and “epithets” — both as a candidate and from the White House — had created a “plausible inference” that the decision to end DACA violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

“One might reasonably infer,” Judge Garaufis wrote, “that a candidate who makes overtly bigoted statements on the campaign trail might be more likely to engage in similarly bigoted action in office.” (next IH, see Mar 30; next DACA, see Apr 24)

Children in detention centers

March 29, 2020:  the NY Times reported that Judge Dolly M. Gee of the US District Court in Los Angeles ordered the government to “make continuous efforts” to release migrant children in federal detention facilities from custody due to a concern that the children could be in danger of contracting the coronavirus. .

Gee’s order came after plaintiffs in a long-running case over the detention of migrant children cited reports that four children being held at a federally licensed shelter in New York had tested positive for the virus.

The threat of irreparable injury to their health and safety is palpable,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers said in their petition, which called for migrant children across the country to be released to outside sponsors within seven days, unless they represent a flight risk.

At that point, there were about 3,600 children in shelters around the United States operated under license by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, and about 3,300 more at three detention facilities for migrant children held in custody with their parents, operated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. (next IH, see Apr 20)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

March 29, 2018: Michigan regulators said that they ordered the closure of 210 medical marijuana businesses over a two-week period, largely because their owners had failed to apply for a state license by a mid-February deadline or did not receive authorization from their municipalities.

Most of the shops — 158 — were in Detroit. Authorities also hand-delivered orders to eight businesses in Lansing, seven in Flint, five in Gaylord, three each in Ann Arbor and Battle Creek, and smaller numbers elsewhere.

Shops that did not close immediately could be denied a license down the line if they apply, be referred to local, state or federal law enforcement, or face other penalties or sanctions. (see Cannabis Contrails 2 for expanded chronology)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Right to Die

March 29, 2018: Hawaii lawmakers approved legislation that would make it the sixth state plus Washington, DC, to legalize medically assisted suicide.

The all-Democratic state Senate voted 23-2 to pass the measure that had already cleared the House. It allowed doctors to fulfill requests from terminally ill patients for prescription medication that would allow them to die.

Governor David Ige said he would sign the bill.

The legislation included safeguards intended to prevent abuse, but opponents said it puts the poor, elderly, sick and disabled at risk.  (next R to D, see April 12, 2019)

March 29 Peace Love Art Activism

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

U.S. v. WONG KIM ARK

March 28, 1898: in  U.S. v. WONG KIM ARK the Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the US to Chinese immigrants was a US citizen and could not be deported under the terms of the Chinese Exclusion Act. (see March 3, 1903)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

Cold War

March 28, 1946: the State Department released the so-called Acheson-Lilienthal Report, which outlined a plan for international control of atomic energy. The report represented an attempt by the United States to maintain its superiority in the field of atomic weapons while also trying to avoid a costly and dangerous arms race with the Soviet Union.  (Red Scare, see Nov 6; NN, see July 25)

Three Mile Island

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

March 28, 1979: Three Mile Island power plant, Pennsylvania. A cooling malfunction caused a partial meltdown in one reactor, resulting in a limited release of radioactivity (INES Level 5). The site’s first reactor (TMI One) on the Susquehanna river was closed for refuelling. The second was at full capacity when two malfunctions occurred: first there was a release of radioactive water, then radioactive gas was detected on the perimeter. No deaths or injuries were reported. It is considered the United States’ worst nuclear accident and led to major safety changes in the industry. (next N/C, see June 18); Three Mile, see September 20, 2019)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

see March 28 Music et al for expanded blog

Fear of Rock

March 28, 1955: from the NY Times: Memphis, Tennessee. The City Censor Board has banned the movie “Blackboard Jungle,” Chief Censor Llyd Binford said today. (see May 17)

Roots of Rock

March 28, 1958: during the opening night of a tour promoted by DJ Alan Freed, Jerry Lee Lewis involved in a dispute with Chuck Berry over the line-up. Enraged that he had not been chosen to perform last, Lewis torches his piano during his set-closing number, “Great Balls of Fire.” (see Mar 31)

FREE SPEECH

March 28, 1961: NYC Park Commissioner, Newbold Morris, notified his staff to limit permits issued for musical performances in Washington Square to bonafide artistic groups. He also asked the police to issue summonses to guitarists, bongo drummers, and folk singers who do not have permits. (see Apr 9) (see New York City Bans Folk Music for full story)

Pirate Radio

March 28, 1964: with the increasing popularity of the Beatles and other similar bands plus the lack of airplay for them on the British Broadcasting System’s radio stations, Radio Caroline, the first so-called pirate radio station, began to broadcast off the coast of England from a ship. The combination of rock music and lively disk jockey patter played to a huge audience, but well out of reach of British authorities. (next Beatles, see Apr 4) (see Pirate Radio for expanded story)

John Lennon and Nilsson

March 28, 1974: the Troubadour incident (see John Lennon Meets Brandy Alexander) was a wake-up call for Lennon and Nilsson. Lennon soon announced he would produce Nilsson’s next album, ‘Pussy Cats.’ They decided that the LP’s musicians should live together during the sessions. Lennon and Nilsson, along with Ringo Starr and Keith Moon, moved into a Santa Monica beach house.

On March 28, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney unexpectedly joined Lennon, Nilsson and others for a midnight jam. Ringo had left, so McCartney sat in on drums and sang harmony to Lennon’s lead vocals. Lennon also played guitar with Wonder on electric piano. Despite the star-studded lineup, standards like ‘Lucille’ and ‘Stand By Me,’ marred by technical problems, were disappointing.

By evening’s end, Lennon and McCartney agreed to see each other again but it would be the last time the two ex-Beatles would play together in a studio. (next Beatles, see Aug 31)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Jeremiah Reeves

March 28, 1958: Alabama executed Reeves (see November 10, 1952). He was 22. He had spent much of his time in prison writing poetry and he willed his final poem to his mother. (see Apr 6)

Murders of Three Civil Rights Workers

March 28, 1966: in U. S. vs. Price et al, the Supreme Court overruled Cox and reinstated the indictments (next BH, see, Apr 21;  see Murders for expanded story)

MLK, Jr & US Labor History

March 28, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy and James Lawson led a march of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. More than 1,300 workers had gone on strike because the city had refused to recognize their union. In response, the city had hired strikebreakers. As the march moved down Beale Street, some broke windows and looted. The march quickly ended, and King vowed to have a nonviolent march April 5. King didn’t live to see that day. (BH, see April; Memphis, see May 16; LH, see July 1)

Black Panthers

March 28, 1972: Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette, the two surviving Soledad Brothers, were acquitted. They had been charged with killing a white guard at Soledad Prison in 1970. The third Soledad Brother, George Jackson, was killed in August 1971, in alleged escape attempt. (see June 4)

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

March 28, 1982: Nelson Mandela and four other A.N.C. leaders were transferred from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison in the suburbs of Cape Town. While many believe the move was intended to lessen the influence of the famous prisoners, government officials later say they wanted a way to open a discreet line of communication with the men. (SA/A, see October 16, 1984; Mandela, see February 10, 1985)

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW & Trayvon Martin Shooting

March 28 Peace Love Activism

March 28, 2012: Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., taking off his jacket to wear a a hoodie and sunglasses as he spoke on the floor of the House. Rush donned a hoodie during the speech on the House floor deploring the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin and received a reprimand for violating rules on wearing hats in the House chamber. (see April 7)

Stop and Frisk Policy & Fourth Amendment

March 28, 2012: the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit accusing the NYC Police Department of illegally stopping tens of thousands of people in privately owned buildings across the city where officers had been given permission to enter by landlords. The suit claims that residents and their guests are subject to arbitrary enforcement practices that violate antidiscrimination provisions of the federal Fair Housing Act, as well as their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. (S & F, see Mar 30; 4th, see January 8, 2013)

James C. Anderson

March 28, 2012: Dylan Butler, 20, Deryl Dedmon, 19, and John Aaron Rice, 19, all of Brandon, Miss., admitted to conspiring to commit and committing a hate crime, as well as to a months-long campaign of terror against Blacks that began in April 2011 and culminated June 26 in the death of James Craig Anderson. Dedmon received two life sentences on the state charges. He and his co-conspirators faced up to five years in prison on the federal conspiracy charge, and could receive life sentences on the hate crime federal charge. (BH, see April; JCA, see Dec 4)

 Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act

March 28, 2022: President Joe Biden signed the  Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law that made lynching a federal hate crime, acknowledging how racial violence has left a lasting scar on the nation and asserting that these crimes are not a relic of a bygone era.

The President said, “Lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone … belongs in America, not everyone is created equal. Terror, to systematically undermine hard-fought civil rights. Terror, not just in the dark of the night but in broad daylight. Innocent men, women and children hung by nooses in trees, bodies burned and drowned and castrated.” [CNN article] (next BH, see April 7; next Lynching, see  or see AL for expanded chronology; next ET, see June 29)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

The Phoenix

March 28, 1967: The Phoenix, a private U.S. yacht with eight American pacifists aboard, arrived in Haiphong, North Vietnam, with $10,000 worth of medical supplies for the North Vietnamese. The trip, financed by a Quaker group in Philadelphia, was made in defiance of a U.S. ban on American travel to North Vietnam. No charges were filed against the participants and the group later made a second trip to North Vietnam. (MUlocal site article)  (see April 4)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Wounded Knee

March 28, 1973: the media reported that one hundred of the Indians holding the historic hamlet of Wounded Knee offered to surrender but hard-core dissidents, vowing to die, were keeping them in the village at gunpoint. (NA & RCM, see Mar 29)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Judge Connie Wilkerson

March 28, 2002: in Mississippi, the “George County Times” published a letter from George County Justice Court Judge Connie Wilkerson which read, in part, “In my opinion, gays and lesbians should be put in some type of mental institution.”

Because of the bias expressed in such a statement, an ethics violation complaint was filed against Wilkerson, but the State Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision, decided not to hold Wilkerson accountable for his opinion. (see January 2003)

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr

March 28, 2014: US Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that the federal government would recognize more than 300 same-sex marriages that were performed in Michigan last weekend. Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican that they were “legal and valid marriages” but that the state would not recognize them until the court resolved the matter.

 Holder’s announcement capped a week of rapid change and uncertainty over the status of same-sex marriage in Michigan. On March 21, a federal judge struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, and the next morning gay and lesbian couples rushed to exchange vows. By late that afternoon, however, an appeals court stayed the judge’s ruling. While the appeals played out, the legal status of those unions was uncertain. (see Apr 28)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Foxconn

March 28, 2012: Apple Inc’s Tim Cook, on his first trip to China as the chief executive officer, visited an iPhone production plant run by the Foxconn Technology Group, which was being accused of improper labor practices. (2012 CNT article) (see Mar 29)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

March 28, 2017: President Trump signed an executive order intended to roll back most of President Barack Obama’s climate-change legacy, celebrating the move as a way to promote energy independence and to restore thousands of lost coal industry jobs.

Flanked by coal miners at a ceremony at the Environmental Protection Agency,  Trump signed a short document titled the “Energy Independence” executive order, directing the agency to start the legal process of withdrawing and rewriting the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s policies to fight global warming. (see June 1)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

March 28, 2019: the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Buddhist inmate on death row because prison officials had not let his spiritual adviser be present in the execution chamber, even though they provide chaplains for inmates of some other faiths.

This case is in contrast to a similar case on February 7 this year, in which the high court permitted the execution of a Muslim inmate who could not have his imam with him at the moment of death. The court provided no explanation for the different result.

Legal scholars said the new decision sent a message that religious discrimination by government officials is never acceptable — and it might be a way for the court to deal with the criticism it faced after it let the Muslim inmate die. (see May 28)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

March 28, 2019: President Trump announced that a proposed $18 million cut in Special Olympics funding had been withdrawn.

“The Special Olympics will be funded, I just told my people,” Trump said. (next ADA, see July 30, 2020)

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Right to Die

March 28, 2022: after a lawsuit challenged the requirement as unconstitutional, Oregon no longer required people to be residents of the state to use its law allowing terminally ill people to receive lethal medication, In a settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Medical Board agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement and to ask the Legislature to remove it from the law.

Advocates said they would use the settlement to press the eight other states and Washington, D.C., with medically assisted suicide laws to drop their residency requirements as well.

“This requirement was both discriminatory and profoundly unfair to dying patients at the most critical time of their life,” said Kevin Diaz, an attorney with Compassion & Choices, the national advocacy group that sued over Oregon’s requirement. [KGW8 article] (next RtD, see )

March 28 Peace Love Art Activism

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Charleston, S.C

March 27, 1861: just weeks before the beginning of the Civil War, free African Americans in Charleston, S.C., staged “ride-ins” over being denied access to streetcars. (BH, see Apr 16; Charleston, see May 1)

President Andrew Johnson

March 27, 1866:  President Andrew Johnson vetoed a civil rights bill that would later become the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, conferring full US citizenship on all slaves. (see May 1)

United States v. Cruikshank

March 27, 1876: the Supreme Court had heard arguments in United States v. Cruikshank on March 31 and April 1, 1875. In its ruling on this day, the Supreme Court dismissed the charges against the three white men, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment protects only against intentionally discriminatory state acts, not the acts of one citizen towards another not clearly motivated by racial animus. This ruling severely limited the federal government’s role in protecting black citizens from racially-motivated violence, especially at the hands of white terrorist groups intent on restoring whites’ racial dominance in the post-civil war South. (US Constitution dot org article) (see June 17)

Louis Lundy shot

March 27, 1908: Alabama Representative James Thomas Heflin shot Louis Lundy, a Black man, after he allegedly cursed in front of a white woman while riding on a Washington, D.C. streetcar. The congressman claimed that Mr. Lundy’s cursing was “raising a disturbance,” and received an outpouring of support from the white public and his fellow representatives after shooting Mr. Lundy through his neck. He was never held accountable for shooting Mr. Lundy. [EJI article] (next BH, see Mar 30)

”SCOTTSBORO BOYS”
Haywood Patterson

March 27, 1933: Haywood Patterson’s second trial began before another all-white jury. Ruby Bates testified that neither she nor Victoria Price had been raped on the Southern Railway. (see Scottsboro for expanded story)

Montgomery Bus Boycott

March 27, 1956: the Alabama Attorney General filed a motion urging dismissal of the Browder v. Gayle federal suit. (B v G, see June 5; see Montgomery for expanded story)

Rev. Billy Graham

March 27, 1956: Rev. Billy Graham, a conservative Protestant minister from North Carolina, was just beginning to emerge as the unofficial “minister” to U.S. presidents. On this day, he advised President Dwight D. Eisenhower to “stay out” of the growing civil rights controversy. Eisenhower did not need much persuading, as he did not support the Supreme Court’s historic Brown v. Board of Education decision of May 17, 1954. (Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 25, 1957, to ensure the integration of Central High School, but he did so only because of the violent resistance to a lawful court order. (see Mar 29)

School Desegregation

March 27, 1962: Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel of Louisiana, called for all Roman Catholic schools in New Orleans to end their segregation policies. (Know Louisiana dot org article on Rummel) (BH, see Apr 3; SD, see September 2, 1963)

Rev. James Orange

March 27, 1965: a group of about 200 protesters, black and white, led by the Rev. James Orange of the SCLC marched to the Dallas County courthouse in Selma. The Rev. James Bevel told them, [Viola Liuzzo] gave her life that freedom might be saved throughout this land.” (BH, see Apr 2; see Viola for expanded story)

Alton B. Sterling

March 27, 2018: Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced that police officers would not be prosecuted by the state authorities in the fatal shooting of a  Alton B. Sterling on July 5, 2016.

Landry’s statements were similar to the Justice Department’s findings (see May 2, 2017) and defended the conduct of the officers, saying, for example, that their efforts to gain control of Sterling’s hands were “well-founded and reasonable under the circumstances and under Louisiana law.” Landry also said the officers were justified in their concern about whether Mr. Sterling was armed. (Sterling, see Mar 30)

Stephon Clark

March 27, 2018: hundreds of protesters temporarily took over the main foyer at Sacramento City Hall to protest the death of Stephon Clark, who was fatally shot by two Sacramento police officers in his grandmother’s backyard while they investigated a vandalism complaint.

Xavier Becerra, the state’s attorney general, announced that his office would oversee the investigation into Clark’s death and would review the department’s training and protocols. (B & S and SC, see Mar 30)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Feminism

March 27, 1904: Colorado state authorities ordered Mary Harris “Mother” Jones to leave the state. She was accused of stirring up striking coal miners. (Labor, see Apr 25; Feminism, see March 2, 1907)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

see March 27 Music et al for expanded blog

Roots of Rock
Sun Records

March 27, 1952: Sam Phillips began Sun Records, a division of Sun Entertainment Corp, as an American independent record label. (see January 4, 1954)

Technological Milestone

March 27, 1958: CBS Laboratories announced a new stereophonic record that was playable on ordinary LP phonographs, meaning, monaural. In stereo, on the proper equipment, a new rich and fuller sound was heard. It eventually became a standard for record and equipment buyers. (see December 10, 1959)

Bob Dylan

March 27 Peace Love Art ActivismMarch 27, 1965: Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home, his fifth studio album. He had recorded  between January 13 – 15, 1965

The album’s cover photographed by Daniel Kramer features Sally Grossman (wife of Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman) lounging in the background. There are also artifacts scattered around the room, including LPs by The Impressions (Keep on Pushing), Robert Johnson (King of the Delta Blues Singers), Ravi Shankar (India’s Master Musician), Lotte Lenya (Sings Berlin Theatre Songs by Kurt Weill) and Eric Von Schmidt (The Folk Blues of Eric Von Schmidt). Dylan had “met” Schmidt “one day in the green pastures of Harvard University” and would later mimic his album cover pose (tipping his hat) for his own Nashville Skyline four years later. (see Apr 12)

Supremes

March 27 – April 9, 1965: “Stop! In the Name of Love” by the Supremes #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Fear of Rock

March 27, 1971: New York radio station WNBC banned the song ‘One Toke Over the Line’ by Brewer & Shipley because of its alleged drug references. Other stations around the country followed. (see April 28, 1982)

Jerry Garcia

March 27, 1973: police arrested Jerry Garcia after finding cocaine and LSD in his car after being busted for speeding in New Jersey. (see January 7, 1979)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

March 27, 1953: the ban on manufacturing of color TVs (due to conflict in Korea) was lifted.  (see Apr 7)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Dalton Trumbo

 

March 27, 1957: “Robert Rich” won the Academy Award for Best Original Story for the 1956 film, The Brave One. At the Oscars ceremony, however, no “Mr. Rich” appeared to accept the award. “Rich” was the pseudonym for Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted because of his political views and his refusal to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), on October 28, 1947. While blacklisted, Trumbo wrote a number of screenplays anonymously or under pseudonyms. (San Francisco Chronicle obituary) (Red Scare & Trumbo, see May 2

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

March 27, 1973: Marlon Brando boycotted the Academy Award ceremonies and sent Sacheen Littlefeather, a Native American activist who presented a speech on his behalf for his performance in The Godfather as a protest of the treatment of Native Americans by the film industry. There was a mixed reaction to her/Brando’s letter. (2013 article on Littlefeather)

Clint Eastwood later poked fun at the statement

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

Tennessee v. Garner

March 27, 1985: the US Supreme Court held that, under the Fourth Amendment, when a law enforcement officer is pursuing a fleeing suspect, the officer may not use deadly force to prevent escape unlessthe officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.” (Oyez article) (see June 20, 1991)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Calvin Graham

March 27, 1988: Too Young to be a Hero, a made-for-TV movie, starring Rick Schroder (age 17), tells the story of Calvin Graham. Graham received $50,000, but 50% went to two agents, and 20% went to a writer of an unpublished book. (see Graham for expanded story)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

Sen John McCain

March 27, 2007:  Sen John McCain claimed progress in Iraq. McCain tells CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media.” He later acknowledges, “There is no unarmored humvees. Obviously, that’s the case.” [CBS, 4/8/07] (see April 1)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

March 27, 2012: Msgr. William J. Lynn, 61, went on trial. He was the first Roman Catholic supervisor in the country to be tried on felony charges of endangering children and conspiracy — not on allegations that he molested children himself, but that he protected suspect priests and reassigned them to jobs where they continued to rape, grope or otherwise abuse boys and girls. (see Mar 29)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

In God We Trust

March 27, 2012:  Bradley Johnson, Petitioner v. Poway Unified School District, et al. The US Supreme Court declined to hear (thus upheld) a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision re a San Diego County school district’s ordering a high school math teacher to remove large banners declaring “In God We Trust” and “God Shed His Grace on Thee.” On September 13, 2011 in a 3-0 ruling the appeals court said that those inscriptions and others that teacher Bradley Johnson displayed on his classroom wall amounted to a statement of religious views that the Poway Unified School District was entitled to disavow. (Law dot Justia dot com article)

Nampa Classical Academy vs. Gosling

March 27, 2012:  Nampa Classical Academy vs. Gosling, 11-786. The US Supreme Court declined to hear (thus upheld) a Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals decision that ruled that Idaho’s Public Charter School Commission acted legally when it prohibited a charter school from using religious materials as textbooks. The Nampa Classical Academy said it was using the Bible and other spiritual texts for cultural education, not religious indoctrination. But the appeals court said the state was entitled to ban the books as texts in order to avoid “governmental promotion of religion.” (see November 19, 2013)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

March 27, 2017: saying the time was not right to outlaw nuclear arms, the United States led a group of dozens of United Nations members that boycotted talks at the global organization for a treaty that would ban the weapons.

 “There is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons,” Ambassador Nikki R. Haley of the United States told reporters outside the General Assembly as the talks began. “But we have to be realistic. Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?”

  The talks, supported by more than 120 countries, were first announced in October and were led by Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa and Sweden. Disarmament groups strongly support the effort. (see Mar 29)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

March 27, 2017: the Supreme Court tightened its rules on capital punishment ruling that Texas — the nation’s leader in executions — could not use a decades-old definition of intellectual disability to determine who lives and who dies.

The 5-3 decision was another in a series of high court rulings intended to eliminate differences in how states decide who is disabled — and therefore ineligible for the death penalty under a 2002 precedent — and who is not.

The case involved a Bobby James Moore. His case dated back to 1980, when he shot and killed a grocery store clerk during a botched robbery. He was twice convicted, then found to be intellectually disabled, but Texas’ highest criminal court overturned that finding, citing its own precedent, which is based on a 1992 definition of intellectual disability. His case now returns to Texas for further consideration. (see Apr 14)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

New Jersey 1

March 27, 2018: NJ Gov. Phil Murphy announced major changes to the State’s medical marijuana system. The system had been limited to such conditions as multiple sclerosis, ALS, epilepsy, cancer, AIDS and others.

Murphy added anxiety, migraines, chronic pain and tourette’s to the list. He lowered the cost of participation from $200 to $100, or just $20 for veterans, seniors and the disabled. He also took a number of steps to expand access to, and the number of, dispensaries. (see Mar 29)

New Jersey 2

March 27, 2019: the New Jersey State Appeals Court ruled that New Jersey employers could not fire workers because they were medical marijuana patients. The Court said that such patients—as long as they were not using the drug or under the influence at work—were protected by the State’s law against discrimination.

The decision was based on a discrimination lawsuit filed by Justin Wild, 41, a man diagnosed with cancer who was fired from his director’s job at the Feeney Funeral Home in Ridgewood, NJ in 2016.

Appellate Court Judge Clarkson Fisher Jr  said that the state Law Against Discrimination did require employers to accommodate people with disabilities, like Wild, whose doctor approved his use of medical cannabis.

He wrote in the decision, “It would be ironic indeed if the Compassionate Use Act limited the Law Against Discrimination to permit an employer’s termination of a cancer patient’s employment by discriminating without compassion,”

The NJ Superior Court had ruled that the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, the 2010 state law creating the program, did not require employers to make accommodations on the job. (see Cannabis for expanded cannabis history)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History/Census

March 27, 2018: at least 12 states signaled that they would sue to block the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census, arguing that the change would cause fewer Americans to be counted and violate the Constitution.

The New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said he was leading a multi-state lawsuit to stop the move, and officials in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington said they would join the effort. California had filed a separate lawsuit on March 26. (IH, see Mar 29; Census, see January 15, 2019)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

Healthcare

March 27, 2019:  Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down a major health care priority for President Trump’s administration when Boasberg ruled that requiring Medicaid enrollees to work in order to qualify for benefits violates the purpose of the health care program for low-income people

On January 11, 2018, the Trump administration invited states to impose these requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries for the first time. Since then, the federal government had approved work requirements in eight states and was considering applications in seven more.

In two opinions issued Boasberg sided with plaintiffs who argued that work requirements do not further the Medicaid program’s statutory purpose, which is to provide access to health care for people with low incomes.  (see Apr 1)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

March 27 2019:  James Fields, who was convicted of killing Heather Heyer by ramming his car into a crowd protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlotteville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, pleaded guilty  in his federal hate crimes case.

Fields, 21, pleaded guilty to 28 federal counts of hate crime acts causing bodily injury and involving an attempt to kill, and one count of a hate crime act that resulted in the death of Heather Heyer.

Each count carried a maximum sentence of life in prison. Under the plea agreement, U.S. prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty. (see May 23)

March 27 Peace Love Art Activism