February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Quakers

February 11, 1790: The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, composed mostly of Quakers and Mennonites, petitioned Congress for emancipation of all slaves. Benjamin Franklin served as president of the society. (see Mar 1)

George Whitmore, Jr

February 11, 1965: Whitmore’s attorney, Stanley J Reiben filed a motion asking Justice Malbin to set aside George Whitmore, Jr.’s conviction in the Elba Borrero attempted rape/robbery case on the grounds that police lacked probable cause to arrest Whitmore and that his confession, therefore, whether voluntary or involuntary, should have been suppressed at the trial. The motion stated that Detective Aidala had testified before the grand jury that he had arrested Whitmore on a Brooklyn street — a concession that police lacked probable cause.

The motion also stated that, in an unrelated case, Detective Edward Bulger (the detective who had incorrectly said the picture Whitmore had in his possession was one of  the murdered Janice Wylie) had obtained a confession from 22-year-old David Coleman to the 1960 murder of a 77-year-old woman in Brooklyn — a crime for which Coleman is on death row. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

Michael Griffith

February 11, 1988: Jason Ladone received a sentence of five to fifteen years imprisonment for the death of Michael Griffith. (BH, see October 2; Howard Beach, see July 31, 1989)

Nelson Mandela

February 11, 1990: Nelson Mandela, 71, released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa, after 27 years behind bars. (2015 NY Daily News article) (see June 10)

Stop and Frisk Policy

February 11, 2013: federal District Judge Shira Shindlin granted class-action status to a lawsuit seeking to stop the New York Police Department from conducting some “stop and frisk” searches of people outside certain residential buildings in the city’s Bronx borough. Shindlin found that a group of black and Latino residents in the Bronx could bring claims on behalf of a class of hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people at risk of being stopped outside the buildings. (see March 5)

Yale

February 11, 2017: yielding to a swelling tide of protests, the president of Yale announced that the university would change the name of a residential college commemorating John C. Calhoun, the 19th-century white supremacist statesman from South Carolina. The college will be renamed for Grace Murray Hopper, a trailblazing computer scientist and Navy rear admiral who received both a master’s degree and a doctorate from Yale.

The decision was a stark reversal of the university’s decision last spring to maintain the name despite broad opposition. Though the president, Peter Salovey, said that he was still “concerned about erasing history,” he said that “these are exceptional circumstances.” (see June 17)

Malcolm X

February 11, 2021: 55 years after Malcolm X’s assassination on February 21, 1965, the Manhattan district attorney’s office began to review whether to re-investigate the murder.

Some new evidence came from a six-part Netflix  documentary  called “Who Killed Malcolm X?” posited that two of the men convicted could not have been at the scene that day.

Instead it suggested that four members of a Nation of Islam mosque in Newark, N.J. were responsible, depicting their involvement as an open secret in their city. [NYT article] (next BH & MX, see Feb 21)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism

Emma Goldman

February 11, 1916: Goldman was scheduled to lecture on the “Philosophy of Atheism” at Vorwart Hall,  \NYC. She was arrested as she was about to enter the building, and charged with violating Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code for lecturing the previous Tuesday on a medical question (birth control) in defiance of the law. Goldman released on $500 bail. (see March 1, 1916; also see Goldman for expanded story)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

February 11, 1937: the sit-down strike against General Motors ended with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union. (see Feb 27)

Denver Teacher Strike

February 11, 2019: Denver teachers went on strike. The Denver Classroom Teachers Association and Denver Public Schools made a last-ditch effort to settle their differences two days earlier, but the talks went nowhere. 92,000 students were affected. (see Feb 14)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

February 11 Music et al

The Beatles

February 11, 1963: at 10:00 am the Beatles and George Martin started recording what was essentially their 1963 live act and in three three-hour sessions. That day they produced an authentic representation of the band’s Cavern Club-era sound as there were very few overdubs and edits. (next Beatles, see Feb 22;  see Please Please Me for more about album)

February 11, 1964: because of bad weather, The Beatles took a train to Washington, DC, rather than the scheduled plane to play their first US concert, A crowd of 8,092 fans, most of whom were girls, attended. The Beatles took to the stage at 8.31 pm, and performed 12 songs: Roll Over Beethoven, From Me To You, I Saw Her Standing There, This Boy, All My Loving, I Wanna Be Your Man, Please Please Me, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Twist And Shout and Long Tall Sally. 

Also on the bill at the Coliseum were The Chiffons and Tommy Roe. However, The Chiffons were unable to make it due to the previous day’s snowstorm. Instead, the opening acts were Jay & The Americans, The Righteous Brothers and Tommy Roe. (see The Beatles Meet Washington) (next Beatles, see Feb 12)

Monkees

February 11 – June 16, 1967: the Monkees More of the Monkees is the Billboard #1 album. Their first two albums occupied the #1 album position for 31 consecutive weeks.

Beat Generation

February 11, 2015: Montreal-based publisher Les Éditions du Boréal announced that it would release previously unseen texts by Jack Kerouac after striking a deal with his estate. The collection included a novella that is different from — but also titled — “On the Road” (“Sur le chemin”). Also published would be the beginning chapters of an unfinished novel entitled “La Nuit est ma femme.”

“None of them have been published until now, except for a few passages that appeared in his English novels,” the  publisher Les Éditions du Boréal said in a statement.

The texts were written in Kerouac’s native French and will also be translated into English for the non-profit Library of America by University of Pennsylvania. (Star article) (next BG, see February 22, 2021)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

POW release

February 11, 1973: North Vietnam released the first American prisoners of war. (see Feb 13)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental  Issues

February 11, 1974:  Washington Energy Conference opens. Attended by 13 industrial and oil producing nations. Called by U.S. to resolve the international energy problems through economic cooperation among nations. Henry Kissinger unveiled Nixon Administration’s seven-point “Project Independence” plan to make the U.S. energy independent. (see December 15, 1976)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

“Longest Walk”

February 11 to July 1978: Indian participants embarked on the “Longest Walk” from Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C. to symbolize the forced removal of Indians from their homelands and to draw attention to continuing problems. They present a manifesto to the Carter administration. (see Mar 6)

“Walk for Justice”

February 11 – July 15, 1994: AIM leaders undertook a nationwide “Walk for Justice” beginning on Alcatraz Island to bring attention to the continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. (Peltier, see October 8, 2012; Native Americans, see May 24, 1996)

Longest Walk of 2008

February 11, 2008: more than 800 participants from many Indian nations repeated the Longest Walk of 1978 to draw attention to protection of sacred sites, youth empowerment, and Native American rights. The walk begins with a ceremony on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, and the promise to “sit around the campfires along the way, tell our stories, hear the tales that people on our route have to tell us.” (see July 11)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran hostage crisis

February 11, 1979: followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi and seized power in Iran, nine days after the religious leader returned to his home country following 15 years of exile. (see Iran hostages for expanded story)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

February 11, 1989: Barbara Clementine Harris was consecrated as the first female bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA. (see  March 9, 1990)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 11, 1998: First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton predicted the allegations against her husband “will slowly dissipate over time under the weight of its own insubstantiality.” A retired Secret Service uniformed guard, Lewis C. Fox, claimed in an interview he saw Monica Lewinsky come to the West Wing on weekends with documents she said were for the president. (see CI for expanded chronology)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

February 11, 2008: the Defense Department charged Khalid Sheikh Mohammed with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. (related NYT article) (see July 27)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ, Feminism, Sexual Abuse of Children, & Women’s Health

February 11, 2013: citing health reasons, the Roman Catholic Church’s Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would resign the papacy at the end February. According to the NY Times, “When he took office, Pope Benedict’s well-known stands included the assertion that Catholicism is “true” and other religions are “deficient;” that the modern, secular world, especially in Europe, is spiritually weak; and that Catholicism is in competition with Islam. He had also strongly opposed homosexuality, the ordination of women priests and stem cell research.” (LGBTQ, see Feb 19; Feminism, see Feb 22; Women’s Health, see April 29; Sexual Abuse, see Dec 5)

LGBTQ/Fair Housing

February 11, 2021:  consistent with President Biden’s Executive Order that implemented the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 15, 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County,  the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) put forth a memorandum to enforce the Fair Housing Act to prevent and combat sex discrimination including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. [HRC.org article) (next FH, see June 1; next LGBTQ, see Feb 24)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

February 11, 2014: the governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, announced that no executions would take place in the state while he remained in office, despite the fact that the death penalty was legal there.

Citing “problems that exist in our capital punishment system,” Mr. Inslee, a Democrat, said he would issue a reprieve in any death penalty case that crossed his desk, though he would not let any death row prisoners go free. A future governor could reverse this action, he noted, and order an execution to be carried out. (see Mar 11)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Undocumented arrested

February 11, 2017: U.S. immigration authorities announced that they had arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least a half-dozen states between Monday February 6 and Friday February 10 in a series of raids that marked the first large-scale enforcement of President Trump’s January 25 order to crack down on the estimated 11 million immigrants living here illegally.

Officials said the raids targeted known criminals, but they also netted some immigrants without criminal records, an apparent departure from similar enforcement waves during the Obama administration. Trump’s order substantially broadened the scope of who the Department of Homeland Security can target to include those with minor offenses or no convictions at all. (see Feb 13)

Trump’s Wall

February 11, 2019: Gov. Gavin Newsom of California ordered the withdrawal of nearly 400 of his state’s National Guard troops from deployment along the border with Mexico and assigned them to other duties.

The step to rescind state authorization for the border deployment was a sharp rebuke of President Trump’s continued warnings that undocumented migrants present a national security risk to the United States.

Under a “general order,”110 California National Guard troops would be redirected to support the state’s central fire agency, Cal Fire, and another 100 will work on statewide “intelligence operations” aimed at international criminal drug gangs. (see TW for expanded chronology)

Immigrant families sue

February 11, 2019:  lawyers for eight immigrant families separated under Trump administration policy filed claims against the US government, demanding $6m each in damages for what they describe as “inexplicable cruelty” and lasting trauma.

In claims filed to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security, the parents accuse immigration officers of taking their children away without giving them information, sometimes without even a chance to say goodbye.

The claims alleged the children remained traumatized, including a seven-year-old girl who would not sleep without her mother and a six-year-old boy who is reluctant to eat. (IH, see Feb 15)

February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

February 11, 2017:

• North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward the sea off its eastern coast in what South Korea called the North’s first attempt to test President Trump’s policy on the isolated country. The missile was believed to be a modified version of the North’s intermediate-range ballistic missile Musudan.
• President Trump and his top aides coordinated their response to North Korea’s missile test  in full view of diners at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Floridal, af presidential activity that was almost always conducted in highly secure settings. The scene — of aides huddled over their computers and the president on his cellphone at his club’s terrace — was captured by a club member dining not far away and published in pictures on his Facebook account. The images also show Mr. Trump conferring with his guest at the resort, Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister. (see Feb 14)
  

  February 11 Peace Love Art Activism

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

February 9, 1917: Wobbly activist Tom Mooney convicted in bombing frame-up orchestrated by Pinkerton Detective Agency.  (Law.jrank article) (LH, see Mar 19; Mooney, see January 7, 1939)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism & Voting Rights

February 9 – 13, 1919: suffragists continued their protests in front of the White House. On February 9, they burned an effigy of President Woodrow Wilson and also threw copies of his speeches into the fire.

The first “watch fire” in front of the White House had occurred on January 1, 1919. Sailors and soldiers attacked the protest and overturned the urn which held the fire. Similar protest fires, with the burning of Wilson’s speeches, occurred over the next two weeks.  

The suffragist protests at the White House  had escalated in 1917, under the leadership of Alice Paul (see the events of January 10, 1917; October 20, 1917). President Woodrow Wilson finally reversed his position and announced his support of a constitutional amendment on January 9, 1918, but mostly for political reasons. On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment granting women equal voting rights in federal elections was ratified, and women voted for president for the first time on November 2, 1920. (see Feb 10)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

February 9, 1942: Congress pushed ahead standard time for the United States by one hour in each time zone, imposing daylight saving time–called at the time “war time.” Daylight saving time, suggested by President Roosevelt, was imposed to conserve fuel, and could be traced back to World War I, when Congress imposed one standard time on the United States to enable the country to better utilize resources, following the European model. The 1918 Standard Time Act was meant to be in effect for only seven months of the year–and was discontinued nationally after the war. But individual states continued to turn clocks ahead one hour in spring and back one hour in fall. The World War II legislation imposed daylight saving time for the entire nation for the entire year. It was repealed September 30, 1945, when individual states once again imposed their own “standard” time. It was not until 1966 that Congress passed legislation setting a standard time that permanently superseded local habits. (see May 29)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

McCarthyism

February 9, 1950: Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy gave a speech in Wheeling, Virginia, dramatically claiming, “I have in my hand a list of 205 cases of individuals who appear to be either card-carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party” within the US State Department.” among whom was former State Department consultant and university professor Owen Lattimore. (see Feb 20)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

School Desegregation

February 9, 1960: in September 1957, Arkansas Governor  Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School by barring nine newly admitted black students from entering the school building. In order to compel the school’s integration, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and ordered troops to escort the students into the school. That group of black students came to be known as the Little Rock Nine, and fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls was the youngest among them.

Carlotta Walls later described the integration experience as “painful” and recalled that Central High’s white students fell into three groups: those who tormented her and the other black students; those who sympathized with them; and those who silently ignored the way they were treated.

Young Carlotta remained at Central throughout her high school years. On February 9, 1960, four weeks before graduation, a bomb exploded at her home. Carlotta, her mother, and her sister were at home but no one was injured. Police arrested and beat Carlotta’s father in unsuccessful efforts to coerce a confession. Police then arrested two young black men, Herbert Monts, a family friend, and Maceo Binns, Jr. Carlotta never believed either man was responsible, but both were convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.  

In 2010, Ms. Walls described the bombing and its aftermath as the worst part of the integration experience, and firmly asserted that “the segregationists were behind all of it – the bombing and the arrests of Herbert and Maceo.”  (BH, see Feb 13; SD, see Nov 14)

Sit-ins

February 9, 1961: African-American students arrested for conducting sit-ins a segregated lunch counters in Atlanta refused bail and chose instead to remain in jail as part of a “jail-in,” designed to dramatize both segregation and their arrests. The recent arrests brought the number of of “jail-in” participants to seventy in the Fulton County (Atlanta) prison. Meanwhile, thirteen sit-in activists remained in jail in York County, South Carolina (see February 2, 1961), after being arrested for sit-ins in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The leader of the Atlanta sit-ins, Herschelle Sullivan, explained that she hoped the “jail-in” would bring about intervention by President Kennedy to end segregation in the south. (see Mar 6)

Orangeburg Massacre

February 9, 1968: march organizer  Cleveland Sellers was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies after treatment at the Orangeburg Regional Hospital. He was charged with inciting to riot, arson, assault with intent to kill, and damaging property. As he was led away by the county sheriff, Sellers—concerned for his own safety—told every student he passed, “Y’all see I’m going with the sheriff. The sheriff’s got me.” Trained in such survival techniques from his days of civil rights demonstrations in Mississippi, Sellers recalled that his verbal proclamations to witnesses caught the attention of the sheriff and believed they may have kept him alive in the turbulent hours ahead. (for more see 1968 Orangeburg Massacre; next BH, see Feb 12)

Black & Shot: Ramarley Graham

February 9, 2012: NY police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly ordered an internal review of how officers conduct low-level narcotics operations after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed Ramarley Graham. (B & S, see January 26, 2014; Graham, see January 30, 2015)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

February 9 Music et al

Cavern

February 9, 1961, The Beatles made their first lunchtime debut as The Beatles at the Cavern. (see Mar 24)

see Ed Sullivan Meets the Beatles for more

Exactly three years later, on February 9, 1964 was their first appearance on Ed Sullivan Show. That afternoon The Beatles recorded Twist And Shout, Please Please Me, and I Want To Hold Your Hand, in front of a different audience to the one that saw their live debut that evening. This set was broadcast on 23 February as the group’s third Ed Sullivan appearance, after they had left the US. (see Feb 11)

Paul McCartney

February 9, 1972: Paul McCartney became the first ex-Beatle to go on tour when, after several days of rehearsals at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, Wings played their first-ever live concert, at 12 o’clock noon, in Nottingham University’s Portland Building Ballroom. It was the first stop on a two-week hit-and-run tour of universities in the United Kingdom. In an effort to keep audiences small, the time and place of each concert was kept a closely guarded secret until just hours before showtime. Word circulated fast, however, and at Hull University, a full house of 800 awaited the band. Admission was 50 pence, with the proceeds divided equally among the band’s members.

No Lennon-McCartney songs were performed, though each show did conclude with an encore of Little Richards’s “Long Tall Sally,” a song recorded by the Beatles in 1964 and often performed by them as a closing number at their concerts. In addition, Wings’ set lists also featured a brand new song, not yet recorded, that would not be released for more than a year; one of 1973’s biggest hits, “My Love.” (see Feb 14)

Hey Paula

February 9 – March 1, 1963: “Hey Paula” by Paul and Paula #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Paul” was the song’s writer, Ray Hildebrand, a student at Howard Payne College in Brownwood, Texas. “Paula” was Jill Jackson, the niece of the owner of the boarding house where Ray lived.

Cultural Milestone: Max Yasgur

February 9, 1973: Max Yasgur died at age 53. (CM, see July 28; Road, see December 1, 1986; see Max Yasgur for expanded story)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Da Nang

February 9, 1965: the first commitment of American combat troops arrived in South Vietnam when a U.S. Marine Corps Hawk air defense missile battalion was deployed to Da Nang. President Johnson had ordered this deployment to provide protection for the key U.S. airbase there. (see Feb 10)

Chicago 8

February 9, 1970: testimony was formally completed in the trial after Judge Julius Hoffman refused to admit the defense’s last four pieces of evidence. The trial lasted almost 4 ½ months, 20,000 pages of transcript, and 193 witnesses—11 for the defense and 80 for the Government. (see Feb 14)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 9, 1999:  the Senate began closed-door deliberations on President Clinton’s fate, after rejecting a “sunshine” proposal to open the proceedings to the public. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Michael Sam

February 9, 2014: Michael Sam, a 24-year-old University of Missouri graduate and All-American football player, publicly announced that he was gay. He became the first publicly gay player to be drafted in the NFL, but the Los Angeles Rams cut him. He also spent time on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad before being waived. He plays on the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes. (see Feb 12)

Alabama

February 9, 2015: US Supreme Court Justices denied a request by Alabama attorney general Luther Strange to extend a hold on US District Judge Callie V.S. Granade’s ruling overturning the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Strange had asked the United States Supreme Court to halt the weddings until the justices settle the issue nationwide when they would take it up this year. In at least 50 of Alabama’s 67 counties, the county Probate Courts, which issue the licenses, were not giving them to gay and lesbian couples. Many probate court judges declined to grant any marriage licenses.

Of the nine US Supreme Court Justices, only two – conservatives Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia – dissented from the court’s refusal to block gay weddings from starting in Alabama. Gay marriage was now legal in 37 states. (see Feb 12)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Syrian refugees

February 9, 2016: Dallas Federal District Judge David Godsby ruled against Texas’ efforts to stop the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state. Godsby said the State had failed to show how allowing the federal government to work with local non-profits to resettle Syrian refugees posed a creditable threat to the state.   Godsby said, that state Republican leaders’ attempts to block families fleeing the war-torn country need to be handled through “the political process” and not the courtroom.

Rebecca Robertson was the senior legal counsel with the ACLU of Texas represented g the International Rescue Committee, which had sued by the State after Republican leadership at the capitol demanded non-profits stop working with federal officials to settle Syrian families in Texas.

 “There is nothing in the law that gives the state veto power over any decision of the federal government or permits any state to discriminate against certain refugees based on their nationality, in fact the law says just the opposite,” Robertson explained. (see June 23)

Trump travel ban

February 9, 2017: the federal appeals panel of the Ninth Circuit [ Judge Michelle T. Friedland, Judge William C. Canby Jr, and Judge Richard R. Clifton]  unanimously refused to reinstate President Trump’s targeted travel ban.

The ruling was the first from an appeals court on the travel ban, and it was focused on the narrow question of whether it should be blocked while courts consider its lawfulness. The decision was likely to be quickly appealed to the United States Supreme Court. 

Trump’s Wall

February 9, 2017: a leaked report from the Department of Homeland Security put the cost of building the wall (and fencing) at around three times as much as Trump originally estimated, $21 billion in total, and estimates that construction would take at least three years to complete. The report did not take into account “major physical barriers, like mountains, in areas where it would not be feasible to build.”  (IH, see Feb 9; TW, see June 21 or see TWall for expanded chronology)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

February 9, 2016: the US Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Obama administration’s effort to combat global warming by regulating emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The brief order was not the last word on the case, which would most likely to return to the Supreme Court after an appeals court considered an expedited challenge from 29 states and dozens of corporations and industry groups.  (see Sept 10)

February 9 Peace Love Art Activism