Category Archives: Peace Love Art and Activism

Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

November 19, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Joe Hill executed

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism — Joe Hill quote

November 19, 1915: Utah executed Joe Hill. After a questionable arrest and controversial trial, a Utah jury convicted Joe Hill of murder and a firing squad executed him [legend has it that he yelled “Fire!”.] Joe Hill wrote his will in verse:

My will is easy to decide,

For there is nothing to divide,

My kin don’t need to fuss and moan-

“Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.”

My body? Ah, If I could choose,

I would to ashes it reduce,

And let the merry breezes blow

My dust to where some flowers grow.

Perhaps some fading flower then

Would come to life and bloom again.

This is my last and final will,

Good luck to all of you, Joe Hill.

His cremated remains were sent to the IWW headquarters in Chicago He had requested that friends spread his ashes in every state except Utah. He “didn’t want to be caught dead there.”

From Wikipedia:

Hill was memorialized in a tribute poem written about him c. 1930 by Alfred Hayes titled “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night”, sometimes referred to simply as “Joe Hill”. Hayes’s lyrics were turned into a song in 1936 by Earl Robinson, who wrote in 1986, “‘Joe Hill’ was written in Camp Unity in the summer of 1936 in New York State, for a campfire program celebrating him and his songs…”Hayes gave a copy of his poem to fellow camp staffer Robinson, who wrote the tune in 40 minutes.
Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger often performed this song and are associated with it, along with Irish folk group The Dubliners, Joan Baez’s Woodstock performance of “Joe Hill” in 1969 (documented on the 1970 documentary and corresponding soundtrack album) is one of the best known recordings. She also recorded the song numerous times, including a live version on her 2005 album Bowery Songs.

(next Labor History, see January 6, 1916; NM see News Music)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show

November 19, 1959: The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show began. It comically reflected the cultural Cold War between the USSR and the USA. (see Dec 1)

Richard Helms

November 19, 1963: Kennedy had settled the Cuban crisis, in part, by pledging that the US would not invade Cuba; however that pledge was conditioned on the presumption that Castro would stop trying to encourage other revolutions like his own throughout Latin America. But Castro was furious that Khrushchev had not consulted him before making his bargain with Kennedy to end the crisis — and furious as well that U.S. covert action against him had not ceased. In September 1963, Castro appeared at a Brazilian Embassy reception in Havana and warned, “American leaders should know that if they are aiding terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders, then they themselves will not be safe.” Late on Tuesday, November. 19, 1963 — the evening before President Kennedy’s final full day at the White House — the C.I.A.’s covert action chief, Richard Helms, brought J.F.K. what he termed “hard evidence” that Castro was still trying to foment revolution throughout Latin America.

Helms (who later served as C.I.A. director from 1966 to 1973) and an aide, Hershel Peake, told Kennedy about their agency’s discovery: a three-ton arms cache left by Cuban terrorists on a beach in Venezuela, along with blueprints for a plan to seize control of that country by stopping Venezuelan elections scheduled for 12 days hence.

Standing in the Cabinet Room near windows overlooking the darkened Rose Garden, Helms brandished what he called a “vicious-looking” rifle and told the president how its identifying Cuban seal had been sanded off. (see Cuban Missile Crisis)

Summit conference

November 19, 1985: for the first time in eight years, the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States held a summit conference. Meeting in Geneva, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev produced no agreements, however, the meeting boded well for the future, as the two men engaged in long, personal talks and seemed to develop a sincere and close relationship. (see February 28, 1987)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

U of Alabama

November 19, 1963: police investigated a dynamite-bomb explosion in a street four blocks from the University of Alabama dormitory where Vivian Malone lived. (see Dec 22)

BLACK & SHOT

November 19, 2015: Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama ordered Chicago to release the police dashcam video by Nov. 24. (B & S, see Nov 23; McDonald, see Dec 1)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

November 19 Music et al

Beatles

November 19, 1966: on a return trip from Nairobi, Kenya, Paul McCartney got the idea for the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Band album. From Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, Paul is quoted: We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop-top boys approach. We were not boys, we were men. It was all gone, all that boy shit, all that screaming, we didn’t want any more, plus, we’d now got turned on to pot and thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers. There was now more to it; not only had John and I been writing, George had been writing, we’d been in films, John had written books, so it was natural that we should become artists.

Then suddenly on the plane I got this idea. I thought, Let’s not be ourselves. Let’s develop alter egos so we’re not having to project an image which we know. It would be much more free. What would really be interesting would be to actually take on the personas of this different band. We could say, ‘How would somebody else sing this? He might approach it a bit more sarcastically, perhaps.’ So I had this idea of giving the Beatles alter egos simply to get a different approach; then when John came up to the microphone or I did, it wouldn’t be John or Paul singing, it would be the members of this band. It would be a freeing element. I thought we can run this philosophy through the whole album: with this alter-ego band, it won’t be us making all that sound, it won’t be the Beatles, it’ll be this other band, so we’ll be able to lose our identities in this. (see Nov 24)

“You Keep Me Hanging On”

November 19 – December 2, 1966: “You Keep Me Hanging On” by the Supremes #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Free as a Bird”

November 19, 1995: “Free as a Bird,” the first new Beatles single in 25 years, premiered on the televised Beatles Anthology. The song, a 1977 demo by John Lennon completed in 1995 by the three surviving Beatles, reached #6 on the singles chart in early 1996. (see Dec 5)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

November 19 – 23, 1967: Hill 875. the Battle of Đắk Tô was a series of engagements in Kon Tum Province, in the Central Highlands. The hallmark of the battles centered around Hill 875, which the American forces began to attack on November 19.

The PAVN (People’s Army of Vietnam also known as the Vietnamese People’s Army (VPA)) was well-concealed and waited until the majority of the troops were near the top of the hill before opeing fire. The PAVN was also concealed behind the American troops.

In one of the worst friendly fire incidents of the Vietnam War a Marine Corps fighter-bomber dropped two 500-pound bombs into the American’s perimeter. One of the bombs exploded, a tree burst above the center of the position, where the combined command groups, the wounded, and the medics were all located. It killed 42 men outright and wounded 45 more,

The battle continued with air and artillery support for four more days and the Marines took Hill 875 on November 23—Thanksgiving Day.

107 Americans died, 282 wounded, and ten missing.

U.S. munitions expenditures: 151,000 artillery rounds, 2,096 tactical air sorties, 257 B-52 strikes. 2,101 Army helicopter sorties were flown, and 40 helicopters were lost

The night before (November 22) the PAVN had gone down the other side of Hill 875 and into Cambodia and Laos.

First Lieutenenant Matthew Harrison later recalled, “To take tops of mountains in a triple-canopy jungle along the Cambodian-Laotian border accomplished nothing of any importance. The batttle for Hill 875 was a microcosm of what we were doing and what went wrong in Vietnam. There was no reason to take that hill. And I doubt that there’s been an American on Hill 875 since November 23. We accomplished nothing.” (see Nov 20)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

November 19, 1975 : Warner Brothers’ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest opened. Directed by Milos Forman and based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel. Jack Nicholson starred. Actor Michael Dougles was a co-producer. The film went on to become the first film in four decades to win in all five of the major Academy Award categories: Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher, who played Nurse Ratched), Best Director, Best Screenplay (Adapted) and Best Picture. (see May 31, 1996)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

November 19, 1976: Patty Hearst released on bail pending the appeal of her conviction. (see Hearst for expanded story)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran-Contra Affair

November 19, 1986,: at a press conference, President Ronald Reagan misstated facts in the Iran-Contra affair, which had just been exposed two weeks earlier on November 3, 1986. It was plainly evident that Reagan did not know or understand the details of the complicated affair, and certainly not the legal implications, which involved a number of violations of law. President Reagan and his CIA Director William Casey were fierce anti-communists, determined to fight what they saw as communist threats anywhere in the world. They were both committed to this effort, even if it meant violating the law and established policies, as the Iran-Contra affair revealed. (see Nov 21)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Homophobic Judge Jack Hampton

November 19, 1988,: in Dallas, Texas, Judge Jack Hampton sentenced Richard Lee Bednarski to thirty years imprisonment for murdering Tommy Lee Trimble and John Lloyd Griffin, two gay men.

On the night of the crime, Bednarski and several friends drove to a local gay neighborhood to “gay-bash” or harass gays. Trimble and Griffin approached the group and offered Bednarski a ride, which he accepted. In the car, Bednarski ordered Trimble and Griffin to disrobe. When they refused, Bednarski shoved a pistol into Trimble’s mouth and fired. As Griffin tried to escape, Bednarski shot him. Trimble died immediately and Griffin died five days later.

After the sentencing hearing, in which Judge Hampton rejected the prosecution’s recommendation that Bednarski be sentenced to life imprisonment, a reporter published an interview in which Judge Hampton said he was lenient because, “I put prostitutes and gays at about the same level . . . I’d be hard put to give somebody life for killing a prostitute.” Judge Hampton went on to blame Trimble and Griffin for their own deaths, reasoning that they would not have died “if they hadn’t been cruising the streets picking up teenage boys.” Judge Hampton continued, “I don’t care much for queers running around on weekend picking up teenage boys. I’ve got a teenage boy.”

Following publication of the interview, the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct investigated and concluded that Judge Hampton was an impartial judge. After many complaints, the commission agreed to censure Hampton but refused to require his removal. Judge Hampton was re-elected by the residents of Dallas in 1990 and 1994, and retired in 1996.

Bednarski was released from prison in 2007. (see February 4, 1989)

Montana’s gay marriage ban

November 19, 2014: U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris judge struck down Montana’s gay marriage ban, one day after an appeals court rejected a request by South Carolina to postpone same-sex nuptials as more states allow gays and lesbians to wed.

“The court hereby declares that Montana’s laws that ban same-sex marriage … violate plaintiffs’ rights to equal protection of the laws as guaranteed by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” wrote Morris, who ordered the state to proceed with same-sex marriage and to recognize those gay weddings performed out-of-state. [Reuters article] (see Nov 20)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

November 19, 1998: in a marathon session, Independent Counsel Ken Starr outlined his case against President Clinton before the House Judiciary Committee, saying Clinton repeatedly “chose deception.” Democrats grill Starr about his investigative methods. (see Clinton for expanded chronology)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

November 19, 2007: Amazon.com Inc. introduced the Kindle, an electronic book-reading device. [2016 Popular Science article] (see June 12, 2009)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

November 19, 2013: in a 4-3 decision issued, the Supreme Court of Ohio upheld the termination of John Freshwater.

The case began in 2008, when a local family accused Freshwater, a Mount Vernon, Ohio, middle school science teacher, of engaging in inappropriate religious activity and sued Freshwater and the district. Based on the results of an independent investigation, the Mount Vernon City School Board voted to begin proceedings to terminate his employment. After thorough administrative hearings that proceeded over two years and involved more than eighty witnesses, the presiding referee issued his recommendation that the board terminate Freshwater’s employment with the district, and the board voted to do so in January 2011.

In its decision, the court wrote: After detailed review of the voluminous record in this case, we hold that the court of appeals did not err in affirming the termination. The trial court properly found that the record supports, by clear and convincing evidence, Freshwater’s termination for insubordination in failing to comply with orders to remove religious materials from his classroom. Accordingly, based on our resolution of this threshold issue, we need not reach the constitutional issue of whether Freshwater impermissibly imposed his religious beliefs in his classroom. We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals because there was ample evidence of insubordination to justify the termination decision.(see March 3, 2014)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Terry Jones

November 19, 2013: lawyers for Terry Jones entered a written plea of not guilty on Jones’ behalf. Assistant State Attorney Brad Copley said he’s continuing to work with Jones’ lawyers on a plea agreement, but they haven’t reached total accord in that effort. (see April 8, 2014)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

November 19, 2018: Judge Jon S. Tigar of the United States District Court in San Francisco ordered the Trump administration to resume accepting asylum claims from migrants no matter where or how they entered the United States, dealing at least a temporary setback to the president’s attempt to clamp down on a huge wave of Central Americans crossing the border.

Tigar issued a temporary restraining order that blocked the government from carrying out the recently proclaimed rule that denied protections to people who entered the country illegally. The order, which suspended the rule until the case was decided by the court, applies nationally.

“Whatever the scope of the president’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” Tigar wrote in his order. [NYT report] (see Nov 25)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment Inquiry/Public

Jennifer Williams and Lt Col Alexander S Vindman testify

November 19, 2019: Jennifer Williams, a national security aide to Vice President Mike Pence, testified that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told Vice President Pence in September that continuing to withhold military aid would indicate that United States support for Ukraine was wavering, giving Russia a boost in the ongoing conflict between the two countries.

Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, a decorated Iraq war veteran and the top Ukraine official at the National Security Council, testified that he was so disturbed by the call that he reported it to the council’s top lawyer.

“What I heard was inappropriate, and I reported my concerns to Mr. Eisenberg,” Colonel Vindman said, referring to John Eisenberg, the top lawyer at the National Security Council. “It is improper for the president of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and political opponent.” [NYT article] (see Trump Public for expanded chronology)

November 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

November 18, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

November 18, 1883: North American railroads adopted Standard Railway Time at noon sharp. With the implementation of SRT came the delineation of four continental time zones: Eastern Standard Time, Central Daylight Time, Mountain Standard Time and Pacific Daylight Time. (next CM, see May 31, 1884)

Feminism

Voting Rights

November 18, 1913: a mass suffrage meeting in Washington, DC, heard an address by the British suffragist leader Emmeline Pethick Lawrence. The meeting was also the occasion to welcome back to Washington leaders of the American Congressional Union, the principal lobby organization for a suffrage amendment to the Constitution. The Congressional Union leaders had just returned from a lobbying trip through western states in the U.S.

The American Congressional Union was led by Alice Paul, who then led militant suffrage pickets of the White House in 1917, which played a major role on causing President Woodrow Wilson to end his opposition to women’s suffrage. (see Nov 21)

Alice Paul

November 18, 1917: Alice Paul, leader of the militant protests in front of the White House in support of a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote, was on this day transferred from the prison to the prison hospital. She and several other supporters had begun a hunger strike in the prison, and after 78 days was force-fed on November 8, 1917. Paul had been confined in the psychopathic ward of the prison, and was so weak from the hunger strike that she was transferred to the prison hospital on a stretcher.

Paul managed to smuggle out of the prison a hand-written account of her ordeal. She explained that she had been denied letters, books, visitors, and decent food.

Paul had first organized pickets of the White House in early 1913. as Woodrow Wilson became president. The picketing escalated in 1917, and members of Paul’s group were on several occasions attacked by anti-feminists while the police stood by making no arrests. (see Nov 21)

Women’s Health

November 18, 1921: Margaret Sanger gave a speech on “The Morality of Birth Control,” at the Park Theater in New York City five days after the police had closed down an earlier meeting of the first birth control conference in the U.S where she was scheduled to speak.. The New York Times reported that the police intervention on that occasion was “brought about at the instance of Archbishop Patrick J. Hayes of the NY Roman Catholic Archdiocese.”

In 1923 Margaret Sanger successfully opened the first legal Women’s Health clinic in the U.S. with the stated intent of only using contraceptives for medical purposes, such as the prevention of life-threatening pregnancies. (see April 23, 1929)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAYS

Latvia

November 18, 1918: Latvia independent from Russia. (see Dec 1)

Morocco

November 18, 1956: Morocco independent from France and Spain. (see March 6, 1957)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Marcus Garvey

November 18, 1927: President Coolidge commuted Garvey’s sentence. Garvey wass released from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary and taken to New Orleans for deportation. (see Garvey for full story)

Sen. Coleman Blease

In 1928, Sen. Coleman Blease (D-SC), a Ku Klux Klan supporter who had previously served as South Carolina’s governor, made a third attempt to amend the U.S. Constitution in order to ban interracial marriage in every state. Like its predecessors, it failed. (see June 12)

Martin Luther King, Jr, the FBI

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism — Albany Movement

November 18, 1962: Martin Luther King, Jr accused agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Albany, Ga., of siding with the segregationists. “One of the great problems we face with the FBI in the South is that the agents are white Southerners who have been influenced by the mores of the community. To maintain their status, they have to be friendly with the local police and people who are promoting segregation. Every time I saw an FBI man in Albany, they were with the local police force.” (next BH, see Nov 20; see AM for expanded story)

John Coltrane

November 18, 1963: John Coltrane recorded his civil rights elegy “Alabama” at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ three months after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing of September 15.

McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums accompanied Coltrane. Martin Luther King’s speech, delivered in the church sanctuary three days after the bombing, had inspired Coltrane who patterned his saxophone playing on it. Like the speech, “Alabama” shifts its tone from one of mourning to one of renewed determination for the struggle against racially motivated crimes. (see Nov 19)

J. Edgar Hoover

November 18, 1964: FBI director J. Edgar Hoover characterized Martin Luther King Jr as “the most notorious liar in the country.” King replied that Hoover “has apparently faltered under the awesome burden, complexities, and responsibilities of his office.”

In 2014, on the 50th anniversary of Hoover’s characterization the radio show, Democracy Now, had an extended piece on the relationship between Martin Luther King, Jr and the FBI. (BH, see Nov 18; MLK, see Nov 21)

George Whitmore, Jr

November 18, 1964: Whitmore convicted by a jury before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice David L. Malbin of the Elba Borrero assault and attempted rape, but Malbin delayed sentencing pending Whitmore’s trial for the Wylie-Hoffert murders. (next BH, see Nov 21; see GW for expanded story)

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing

November 18, 1977: The NY Times reported: Fourteen years after a dynamite bomb exploded here at the 16th Street Baptist Church and killed four young black girls in one of the worst racial incidents in Southern history, a jury of three blacks and nine whites delivered a murder conviction of Robert Chambliss. (Robert Chambliss guilty) (BH, see February 1, 1978; Sixteenth Street, see May 1, 2001)

Chicago Police Torture James Cody

November 18, 1983: a Black man named James Cody was beaten with a flashlight, subjected to electric shock on his testicles and buttocks, and threatened with castration by officers acting under Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Over the course of almost 30 years, Commander Burge oversaw and participated in the torture of over 100 Black men, resulting in scores of forced confessions. When Commander Burge first took command of the jurisdiction known as Area 2 as a detective in 1972, he and his men—known as the “Midnight Crew”—began forcing confessions using brutal torture practices such as beating, suffocation, electric shock, burning, Russian roulette, and mock execution. [EJI article] (next BH, see Dec 9)

William Zantzinger

November 18, 1991: Zantzinger pleaded guilty to 50 misdemeanor counts of unfair and deceptive trade practices. He was sentenced to 18 months in the county jail and fined $50,000. The judge also sentenced Zantzinger to 2,400 hours of community service and directed him to help groups that advocate low-cost housing. [2009 NYT obit] (Zanzinger, see January 3, 2009; BH, see April 29, 1992)

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

November 18, 1993: black and white leaders endorsed a new constitution for South Africa that tried to balance majority rule with safeguards to reassure whites and other minorities. But the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party and an array of white separatist groups threatened to boycott elections and hint at insurrection. [NYT article] (Apartheid, see January 3, 1994; Mandela, see April 27, 1994)

Trayvon Martin Shooting

November 18, 2013: police arrested George Zimmerman for allegedly pointing a shotgun at his girlfriend and pushing her out of her house as he packed to move out, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said. Zimmerman barricaded himself in the house Samantha Scheibe rented in Apopka, which he had shared with her since around August, Chief Deputy Dennis Lemma said at a news conference. She gave deputies a key, and they pushed aside furniture he had piled against the door. [NYP article] (see February 24, 2015)

137 SHOTS

November 18, 2014: without any major filings or motions from either side, the city of Cleveland settled a wrongful death suit with the families of Timothy Russell and Marissa Williams (see November 29, 2012) for $3 million. Police killed Russell and Williams at the end of a car chase that most likely started when a cop mistook the backfire of a car for a gunshot.

Of the 13 officers involved in the fatal shooting one was indicted for involuntary manslaughter. Five others were charged with dereliction of duty for allowing the chase to escalate. They had all pled not guilty. (see 137 for expanded story)

Malcolm X Murder

November 18, 2021: the Manhattan district attorney and lawyers for Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam , two of the men found guilty of the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965abnnounced that the men’s convictions were thrown out.

For decades, historians had cast doubt on the case against the two men, who each spent more than 20 years in prison.

“It’s long overdue,” said Bryan Stevenson a civil rights lawyer and the founder of the Equal Justice initiative. “This is one of the most prominent figures of the 20th century who commanded enormous attention and respect. And yet, our system failed.”

A 22-month investigation conducted jointly by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and lawyers for the two men found that prosecutors and two of the nation’s premier law enforcement agencies — the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department — had withheld key evidence that, had it been turned over, would likely have led to the men’s acquittal.

The review did not uncover a police or government conspiracy to murder Malcolm X. It also left unanswered questions about how and why the police and the federal government failed to prevent the assassination by Mujahid Abdul Halim, who was also found guilty, and his conviction stood.

Altogether, the re-investigation found that had the new evidence been presented to a jury, it may well have led to acquittals. And Mr. Aziz, 83, who was released in 1985, and Mr. Islam, who was released in 1987 and died in 2009 at age 74, would not have been compelled to spend decades fighting to clear their names. [NYT story] (next BH, see )

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestones

November 18, 1928: the first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon, Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York. (see January 31, 1930)

November 18, 1963: the advent of the push-button phone, officially introduced in two Pennsylvania communities, Carnegie and Greensburg. (see Nov 22)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

November 18, 1961: President Kennedy sent 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam. [NYT article] (see Dec 11)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

November 18, 1963: at the Americana Hotel in Miami President John F. Kennedy told the Inter-American Press Association that only one issue separated the United States from Fidel Castro’s Cuba: Castro’s “conspirators” had handed Cuban sovereignty to “forces beyond the hemisphere” (meaning the Soviet Union), which were using Cuba “to subvert the other American republics.” Kennedy said, “As long as this is true, nothing is possible. Without it, everything is possible.”

That same day, Ambassador William Attwood, a Kennedy delegate to the United Nations, secretly called Castro’s aide and physician, Rene Vallejo, to discuss a possible secret meeting in Havana between Attwood and Castro that might improve the Cuban-American relationship. Attwood had been told by Castro’s U.N. ambassador, Carlos Lechuga, in September 1963, that the Cuban leader wished to establish back-channel communications with Washington.

Kennedy’s national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, told Attwood that J.F.K. wanted to “know more about what is on Castro’s mind before committing ourselves to further talks on Cuba.” He said that as soon as Attwood and Lechuga could agree on an agenda, the president would tell him what to say to Castro (see Cuban Missile Crisis)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

November 18 Music et al

November 18, 1963: NBC’s evening news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, aired a four-minute segment on the Beatles. (see Nov 22)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Anita Bryant

November 18, 1977: a federal judge dismissed a $5 million lawsuit accusing Anita Bryant of conducting a hate campaign against homosexuals. The suit had been filed by the parents of Robert Hillsborough (Hillsborough, see June 21, 1977 ; next LGBTQ, see November 27, 1978)

Goodridge v. Department of Public Health

November 18, 2003: the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in Goodridge v Department of Public Health that the state constitution mandates the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. Three months later, the Court reaffirmed its decision, stating that only marriage – not separate and lesser mechanisms, such as civil union – sufficiently protects same-sex couples and their families. (see February 4, 2004)

Rev Frank Schaefer

November 18, 2013: a 13-member jury convicted the Rev Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist pastor, of breaking church law by officiating his son’s same-sex wedding. Schaefer could be defrocked after a high-profile trial that has rekindled debate over the denomination’s policy on gay marriage. The Methodist church put Schaefer on trial in southeastern Pennsylvania, accusing him of breaking his pastoral vows by presiding over the 2007 ceremony in Massachusetts. The jury convicted Schaefer on two charges: that he officiated a gay wedding, and that he showed “disobedience to the order and discipline of the United Methodist Church.” (LGBTQ, see Nov 18; Schaefer, see Dec 16)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Ronald Reagan/Iran–Contra

November 18, 1987: U.S. Senate and House panels released reports charging President Ronald Reagan with ‘ultimate responsibility’ for the affair. [NYT article] (see March 16, 1988)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

November 18, 2002: in August 2001, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore had a 5,280-pound block of granite with the Ten Commandments engraved on it in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.

A group of lawyers consisting of Stephen R. Glassroth, Melinda Maddox and Beverly Howard, who felt their clients might not receive fair treatment if they did not share Moore’s religious opinion, and that the placement of the monument violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, filed civil suits in Federal Court against Justice Moore in his official capacity as Chief Justice to have the monument removed.

On this date, the District Court held the monument violated the Establishment Clause. The following day, the District Court directed Moore to remove the monument from the building. (see August 22, 2003)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Occupy Wall Street

November 18, 2011: a group of University of California Davis occupy protesters who were sitting passively on the ground with their arms interlocked was pepper sprayed by an campus security guard, an action the university chancellor called “chilling to us all.” (see January 3, 2012)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Alabama

November 18, 2013: US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor called for a new look at whether judges should be allowed to overrule juries to impose death sentences, saying that elected judges in Alabama “appear to have succumbed to electoral pressures” in making such decisions.

Although three states allow judges to override jury recommendations that a killer receive life in prison — Florida and Delaware are the others — only judges in Alabama are using the power. (see February 11, 2014)

Julius Jones

November 18, 2021: Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma called off the execution of Julius Jones, a death-row inmate, just hours before he was to be put to death, in a case in which the state’s Pardon and Parole Board had twice recommended that his sentence be commuted.

“After prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case, I have determined to commute Julius Jones’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” Stitt said in a statement.

Jones was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2002. He was found guilty of killing Paul Howell, who was in a car in the driveway of his parents’ home when he was carjacked and fatally shot in 1999. The commutation came less than a month after the Supreme Court, with its three more liberal members dissenting, lifted a stay of execution that a federal appeals court had granted to Mr. Jones and another Oklahoma death row inmate, John Marion Grant, who was executed last month. [NYT article] (next DP, see March 24, 2022)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

Safe Water report

November 18, 2019: two national non-profit groups, DigDeep and the US Water Alliance, released a new report, “Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States: A National Action Plan.” The study found that more than two million Americans were living without running water, indoor plumbing, or wastewater treatment.

The report was most comprehensive national study on the more than two million Americans who lackrf access to water service. The report filled a knowledge gap: there is no one entity—a federal agency or research institution—that collected comprehensive data on the scope of the United States water access problem.

The report made several recommendations to help close the water gap in the United States. Recommendations included re-introducing Census questions about whether homes have working taps and toilets, as well as changes to how the federal government funds and regulates water systems for rural and unincorporated areas. There are also recommendations for the philanthropic and global WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) sectors to drive community empowerment, deploy innovative technologies, and apply successful WASH models from abroad here in the United States. [Yahoo news article]

Vaping

November 18, 2019: under pressure from his political advisers and lobbyists to factor in the potential pushback from his supporters, President Trump resisted moving forward with any action on vaping, while saying he still wanted to study the issue.

Even a watered-down ban on flavored e-cigarettes that exempted menthol, which was widely expected, appeared to have been set aside. [NYT article] (next CP & vaping, see January 2, 2020)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

November 18, 2019: NJ Senate President Steve Sweeney (D) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Nicholas Scutari (D) announced that while they had “made further attempts to generate additional support in the Senate to get this done legislatively,” the “votes just aren’t there.” As a result, they filed a proposal that would allow residents to vote on legalization as a constitutional amendment.

“We are moving forward with a plan to seek voter approval to legalize adult use marijuana in New Jersey,” the leaders said in a press release. “We introduced legislation today to authorize a public referendum for a proposal that will lead to the creation of a system that allows adults to purchase and use marijuana for recreational purposes in a responsible way.” (see CCII for expanded modern cannabis history)

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

November 18, 2020: Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia blocked President Trump’s policy of turning away migrant children at the border as public health risks, ruling that the expulsion of thousands of children without due process exceeded the authority that public health emergency decrees confer.

The Trump administration had since March used an emergency decree from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to effectively seal the border to migrants, rapidly returning them to Mexico or Central America without allowing immigration authorities to hear their claims for asylum. Top homeland security officials had cited the potential spread of the coronavirus that could come from detaining asylum seekers in border facilities.

But Sullivan said that while the emergency rule allowed the authorities to prevent the “introduction” of foreigners into the United States, it did not give border authorities the ability turn away children who would normally be placed in shelters and provided an opportunity to have a claim for refuge heard. The order applies across the country. [NYT article] [next IH, see Dec 4]

November 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

November 17, 2015 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Creek Nation

November 17, 1828: the Alabama General Assembly passed “An Act to extend the jurisdiction of the State of Alabama over the Creek Nation.” The law became effective January 29, 1829. Alarmed at the state attempt to codify legal encroachment into Creek territory, tribal leaders turned to the federal government to plead for intervention and defense. Instead, the federal authorities seized the growing state pressure on Creek sovereignty as an opportunity to further aspirations to relocate the Creeks out of the southern region.

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

“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.”

Shortly after the passage of the Alabama law, prominent Creeks Opothle Yoholo and Jim Boy were summoned to appear before the Montgomery County Circuit Court on charges of assault against a white man. Opothle Yoholo and Jim Boy argued they were not subject to the court’s jurisdiction, but the judge proceeded with the case and awarded the alleged victim $4500 in damages. In 1832, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the extension act as constitutional, in Caldwell v. State, and later that year the General Assembly passed another law, this time criminalizing tribal laws and customs that conflicted with Alabama law. By 1837, 23,000 Creeks had emigrated out of the Southeast. (see May 28, 1830)

Voting Rights

November 17, 2023: Judge Peter Welte —serving on U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota —ruled that North Dakota’s legislative districts violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting Native American voting strength.

The ruling stemmed from a federal lawsuit brought by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Spirit Lake Tribe, and individual Native American voters that went to trial in June. The tribal plaintiffs alleged that certain North Dakota legislative districts deprive Native American voters of an equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice in violation of Section 2.

Welte concluded that the plaintiffs met the requisite factors to prove their Section 2 claim. Welte’s opinion referenced the fact that voting in the northeastern area of the state is racially polarized, with Native American voters preferring different candidates than their white counterparts. As the opinion explained, a bloc of white voters usually defeats Native American preferred candidates in the challenged districts. [Democracy Docket article] (next NA, see January 26, 2024; next VR, see Nov 20)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism

Bolsheviks

November 17, 1917: The Bolsheviks, a broad-based Socialist group supported by workers and soldiers and led by V. I. Lenin, seized power from the tsarist Romanov dynasty, which had ruled Russia for over three centuries. [Nat’l Geo article] (see May 16, 1918)

Dissolution of the USSR & Velvet Revolution

November 17, 1989: riot police put down student protests against the communist government in Czechoslovakia. The incident started a series of non-violent protests that finally forced the communists from power two weeks later. (see Nov 28)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

November 17, 1923: following annual conference of national and state National Women’s Party officers in Washington, D.C., deputation of NWP officers meets with President Calvin Coolidge to ask his support for an equal rights amendment. Coolidge voiced support for equal rights but would not endorse an amendment per se. (see December 10, 1923)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

UNC/KKK

November 17, 1937: over 1,000 white students and faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gathered to attend a speech openly advocating for white supremacy by the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Dr. Hiram Evans. The UNC Political Science Department and the Carolina Political Union hosted the event, entitled “America and the Klan.” Amidst the rise of Nazism in Europe, Dr. Evans told students, “What America needs most now to restore the good old days when nations loved each other is a universal dose of the Ku Klux Klan.” [EJI article]

News Music

In 1938: Lead Belly (born Huddie William Ledbetter) (1888 – 1949) sang about his visit to Washington, DC with his wife and their treatment while in the nation’s capitol in his song, “Bourgeois Blues”. (next BH, see November 22, 1938; see NM for expanded chronolgy)

Adam Clayton Powell

November 17, 1955: Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Democrat from Harlem and the leading African-American in Congress, announced the formation of an “organized civil right bloc” in Congress.

The event marked the beginning of a civil rights caucus that eventually led to the formal organization of the Congressional Black Caucus, on March 30, 1971. (see Nov 25)

Albany (Georgia) Movement

November 17, 1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee workers encouraged and coordinated civil rights activism in Albany, Ga., culminating in the founding of the Albany Movement as a formal coalition. (next BH, see Nov 26)

U. S. Civil Rights Commission

November 17, 1961: a report by the U. S. Civil Rights Commission identified police brutality as a “serious problem” nationwide. The Commission’s findings soon proved to be prophetic. Police use of excessive force, unjustified fatal shootings of African-Americans, and discriminatory arrest patterns would be major causes of the urban riots that erupted in the summer of 1964 and continue for three more summers. The Kerner Commission report on the riots, issued on February 29, 1968, confirmed the role of police misconduct as a serious problem and a cause of the riots. (see Nov 28)

Albany Movement

November 17, 1961: often forgotten in most histories of the civil rights movement, the Albany (Georgia) Movement, which began on this day, involved a series of civil rights actions by a coalition of SNCC, the NAACP and SCLC. Police Chief Laurie Pritchett adroitly avoided confrontations that would bring unfavorable national publicity to him and the city. (In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, Sheriff Bull Connor’s would use fire hoses and police dogs against demonstrators which galvanized the nation and generated support for a federal civil rights law.) Leaders of the Albany Movement asked the Kennedy administration to protect their efforts to secure African-American voting rights, but the administration did not respond. In fact, at one point the Justice Department indicted some of the leaders of the Albany Movement on various criminal charges. In the end, the Albany struggle was unsuccessful. William Anderson, a local doctor was its president. (see AM for expanded story)

137 SHOTS

November 17, 2015: “No pay for killer cops!” That was what the family members of Malissa Williams were chanting earlier in front of Cleveland’s city hall in response to news that Michael Brelo – one of the 13 cops who fatally shot both Williams and her friend Timothy Russell 137 times– would soon be back policing the streets.

“Everybody knows this is murder,” said Alfredo Williams, Malissa’s brother said at a press conference. “I have never heard of anything like this in my life. He knows he did wrong.” (see 137 for ongoing story)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

see November 17 Music et al for more

News Music

November 17, 1958: the Kingston Trio’s “Tom Dooley” hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart.

While not a protest song as such, protest folk probably owed its commercial success to the Kingston Trio, three guys in crew cuts and candy-striped shirts who honed their act not in Greenwich Village cafes, but in the fraternities and sororities of Stanford University in the mid-1950s.

Without the enormous profits that the Trio’s music generated for Capitol Records, it is unlikely that major-label companies would have given recording contracts to those who would challenge the status quo in the decade to come. Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, for instance, may have owed their musical and political development to forerunners like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, but they probably owed their commercial viability to the Kingston Trio. (see October 20, 1960)

Big Girls Don’t Cry

November 17 – December 21, 1962 – “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by the Four Seasons #1 Billboard Hot 100.

“Double Fantasy”

November 17, 1980, The Beatles post break-up: John Lennon released his final album, “Double Fantasy” along with his wife Yoko Ono It was the seventh and final studio album released by Lennon in his lifetime. At first the LP was not received very well, but 3 weeks later, when John was murdered it became a worldwide commercial success, and went on to win the 1981 Album of the Year at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards. (see Dec 8)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

November 17, 1965: elements of the 66th North Vietnamese Regiment moving east toward Plei Mei encounter and ambush an American battalion. Neither reinforcements nor effective firepower can be brought in.

When fighting ended that night, 60 percent of the Americans were casualties and almost one of every three soldiers in the battalion had been killed. [Daily Beast article] (see Nov 20)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

My Lai Massacre

November 17, 1970: Lieutenant Calley’s court-martial began for six counts of premeditated murder that he had been charged with nearly a year before. A conviction of these charges could come with a death sentence. During the trial, the military prosecutor insisted that Calley ordered his men to deliberately murder civilians, a direct defiance of the U.S. Rules of Engagement. Calley’s defense was that he was simply following the orders of Captain Medina. Medina denied any such order. [NYT article] (see My Lai for expanded story; next Vietnam, see Nov 21)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

November 17, 1969: Soviet and U.S. negotiators meet in Helsinki to begin the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). [DoS aticle](see February 21 > 28, 1972)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

November 17, 1973: President Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, Fla., that “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”(see Watergate for expanded story)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran hostage crisis

November 17, 1979: Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 female and African American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

On the same day, U.S. President Carter froze all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks abroad in response to the taking of 63 American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran. [CNN timeline] (see January 28, 1980)

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

USSR dissolves

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

November 17, 2019: former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg reversed his longstanding support of the aggressive “stop-and-frisk” policing strategy that he pursued for a decade and that led to the disproportionate stopping of black and Latino people across the city.

“I was wrong,” Mr. Bloomberg declared. “And I am sorry.” [NYT story]

November 17 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

November 17, 2021: the US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly to approve a document that some conservative bishops had hoped would serve as a call to ban communion for President Joe Biden and other elected officials who support abortion rights.

The document — which passed with 222 in favor, eight against and three abstentions — would need Vatican approval before any action is taken that would directly target any elected official.

A draft of the document, which emerged from a summer of work, contained measured wording that fell far short of refusing communion to Biden or others who support abortion rights. The only line that was seemingly pointed at the White House said, “Lay people who exercise some form of public authority have a special responsibility to embody Church teaching in their service of the common good.”

Biden, while visiting Italy last month, said Pope Francis told him he was happy he was a “good Catholic” and said he should continue receiving communion. [CNN article] (next Separation, see June 5, 2023)