Category Archives: Peace Love Art and Activism

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

National Women’s Trade Union League

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

November 14, 1903: at the AFL convention in Boston, women unionists united to form the National Women’s Trade Union League and elect Mary Morton Kehew president and Jane Addams vice-president. The National Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) was established to advocate for improved wages and working conditions for women. (see January 25, 1904)

Yale University admits women
November 14 Peace Love Art Activism
Amy Solomon ’73 (center) was the first woman to register as a student in Yale College.

November 14, 1968:  Yale University announced would admit admit women. From the New York Times, “For the first time in its 265-year history Yale University will admit undergraduate women next fall to “enhance its contribution to the generations ahead.” (Yale to admit women) (see Nov 22)

Nancy Pelosi minority whip

November 14 Peace Love Activism

November 14, 2002: minority whip since 2001, Californian Nancy Pelosi became the first woman elected as Democratic Minority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The NY Times article began: House Democrats turned to Representative Nancy Pelosi of California today to try to reverse their political fortunes, electing her their leader. She becomes the first woman to head a party in either house of Congress. (Pelosi chosen) (see December 10, 2003)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Miscegenation

On April 18, 1946: a thirty-two-year-old Navy veteran named Davis Knight married Junie Lee Spradley, a white woman. In June 1948, the state of Mississippi indicted Mr. Knight for violating a law that prohibited “marriage or cohabitation between white persons and those with one-eighth or more Negro or Mongolian blood.” At trial, Mr. Knight insisted that he was white: his wife believed him to be white and his Navy service records listed him as white. Mississippi set out to prove he was black.

The whole case turned on the race of Mr. Knight’s deceased great-grandmother, Rachel; if she was black, Mr. Knight was at least one-eighth black and guilty of the charge. As evidence of Rachel’s race, the State presented several elderly witnesses, including an eighty-nine-year-old white man who testified that Rachel had lived on his father’s plantation and was a “known Negro.”

On December 18, 1948 Mississippi convicted Knight of miscegenation and sentenced him to five years in prison for marrying outside of his race. Knight appealed.

On November 14, 1949 the Mississippi State Supreme Court reversed Knight’s conviction. The Court held that, in Mr. Knight’s particular case, the State had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that his grandmother Rachel was fully black, so it had not proved that Mr. Knight was at least one-eighth black.

Though the decision did not strike down the state’s miscegenation law, or prevent future prosecutions of others, many white Mississippians protested the decision, hanging members of the court in effigy. The state’s ban on interracial marriage would stand for nearly two more decades, until the United States Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia struck down remaining anti-miscegenation laws in Mississippi and seventeen other states.

Jo Ann Robinson

In 1950, Jo Ann Robinson became president of the Women’s Political Council in Montgomery, AL. As president, she began to study the issue of bus segregation, which affected the many blacks who were the majority of riders on the city system. First, members appeared before the City Commission to report abuses on the buses, such as blacks who were first on the bus being required later to give up seats for whites as buses became crowded. The commission acted surprised but did nothing. (BH & Feminism, see March 31)

In 1953 Jo Ann Robinson and other local black leaders met with the three commissioners of Montgomery. Robinson’s group complained that the city did not hire any black bus drivers, said that segregation of seating was unjust, and that bus stops in black neighborhoods were farther apart than in white ones, although blacks were the majority of the riders. The commissioners refused to change anything.

Robinson and other WPC members met with bus company officials on their own. The segregation issue was deflected, as bus company officials said that segregation was city and state law, but the WPC achieved a small victory as the bus company officials agreed to have the buses stop at every corner in black neighborhoods, as was the practice in white neighborhoods. (BH, see June 8; Feminism, see May 18, 1954; Montgomery, see March 2, 1955)

 Voting Rights

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

November 14, 1960: in Gomillion v. Lightfoot, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a redistricting plan enacted by the Alabama legislature, which redrew the boundaries of the City of Tuskegee. The court found that the plan — which changed the city’s shape from a square to a 28-sided border violated the 15th Amendment to the Constitution and was done expressly to exclude black voters from city elections.(VR, see March 26, 1962)

School Desegregation

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

November 14, 1960: 6-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first black child to attend an all-white school in New Orleans.  Bridges was in first-grade when she started attending William Frantz Elementary School as the court-ordered integration of public schools began in New Orleans. Some in the crowd carried a black doll in a baby’s casket. Federal Marshal Charles Burks and three other marshals escorted the Bridges to and from school for several weeks before local police took over that duty. Eventually the crowds dispersed and she no longer needed protection. Normal Rockwell’s cover depicting Ruby Bridges first day at an all-white school.

In 1963 Norman Rockwell depicted a young black girl carrying textbooks and a ruler being led by marshals past a wall marred by a splattered tomato and a scrawled racial epithet.(BH, see Nov 26; SD, see March 27, 1962)

Medgar Evers

November 14, 1964: William L Walter, the district attorney who prosecuted the case against Byron De La Beckwith, announced that Beckwith would not be tried a third time for the murder of Medgar W. Evers unless new evidence is obtained. (BH, see Nov 18; see Evers for expanded chronology)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

November 14 Music et al

November 14 – 20, 1960:  “Georgia On My Mind” by Ray Charles #1 Billboard Hot 100. (see Georgia for much more)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

November 14, 1965: the Battle of Ia Drang Valley was the first major battle between regular U.S. and People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) troops. The two-part battle occurred at landing zones X-Ray and Albany in Ia Drang Valley, Central Highlands of South Vietnam. Despite heavy casualties on both sides, both claimed the battle was a victory. The battle was considered essential as it set the blueprint for tactics for both sides. American troops continued to reply on air mobility and artillery fire, while the Viet Cong learned that by quickly engaging their combat forces close to the enemy, they could neutralize American advantages (see Nov 17)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race, Apollo 12

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

November 14 – 24, 1969,  Space Race: Apollo 12 took off. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean will collect lunar samples, as well as parts of the unmanned Surveyor 3. From the New York Times, “Three American astronauts were ready tonight to embark tomorrow on man’s second voyage to land on the moon, a trip aimed at a more thorough scientific investigation into the origin and nature of the earth’s only natural satellite.” (see Apollo 12) [the audio clip is the Byrds song, Armstrong, Aldrin, & Collins. I know it’s not for Apollo 12, but I like the song and…well…close enough.](see April 11 – 17, 1970)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran hostage crisis

November 14, 1979: President Jimmy Carter issued Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis. (see Nov 17)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

November 14, 1985: lesbian and gay rights activists held a town hall meeting on this day in New York City. Two weeks later, GLAAD [Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation] was formed.

GLAAD gave special focus to changing American culture regarding homosexuality.

The GLAAD Mission Statement (in part): “GLAAD works with print, broadcast and online news sources to bring people powerful stories from the LGBTQ community that build support for equality. And when news outlets get it wrong, GLAAD is there to respond and advocate for fairness and accuracy.” (see June 30, 1986)

American Catholic Bishops side against gay marriage

November 14, 2015: Catholic Bishops sided with those who conscientiously object to gay marriage and maintain their opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide. These pro-traditional marriage views were expressed during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall General Assembly meeting, the first meeting for the bishops since the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in the June 26, 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges. (see Dec 14)

Australia

November 14, 2017: in Australia, 61.6 percent in favor of same-sex marriage in a historic survey that, while not binding, paved the way for Parliament to legally recognize the unions of gay and lesbian couples. [NYT article] (see Nov 27)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk

November 14, 2013: New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman analyzed 150,000 arrests that resulted from 2.4 millions stops by the NYPD between 2009 and 2012. About half of the arrests lead to convictions and about a quarter lead to prison sentences, according to the report released. The other half were never prosecuted, dismissed or resulted in adjournments in contemplation of dismissal – a legal term for cases in which a judge allows a case to be dismissed after a probationary period of usually six months to a year. The report also said the stop-and-frisk arrests resulted in a 24 percent incarceration rate.

The chief spokesman for the police, John McCarthy, called the analysis “flawed” and said it underestimated the value of the tactic. [NY AG article] (see Nov 22)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

November 14, 2017: federal officials restarted a nuclear fuel testing facility about 50 miles west of Idaho Falls, Idaho amid efforts to boost the nation’s nuclear power generating capacity and possibly reduce concerns about nuclear power safety.

The U.S. Department of Energy said the facility began operating for the first time since it went on standby status in 1994. Nuclear fuel testing is expected to begin next year.

The Energy Department proposed resuming operations at the Transient Reactor Test Facility in 2013 as part of former President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by generating carbon-free electricity with nuclear power. Nuclear power currently produces about 19 percent of the nation’s energy. [AP article] (see Nov 21)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

November 14, 2019: the MDRC (originally Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation) published a report called Evaluation of Pretrial Justice System Reforms That Use the Public Safety Assessment regarding New Jersey’s implementation of its Criminal Justice Reform Act (January 1, 2017).

The report’s findings about the CJR included:

  • Fewer arrest events took place following CJR’s implementation. There was a reduction in the number of arrest events for the least serious types of charges — namely, nonindictable (misdemeanor) public-order offenses.
  • Police officers appear to be issuing complaint-summonses more often and seeking complaint-warrants less often since CJR was implemented.
  • Pretrial release conditions imposed on defendants changed dramatically as a result of CJR. A larger proportion of defendants were released without conditions, and rates of initial booking into jail were lower than predicted given pre-CJR trends.
  • CJR significantly reduced the length of time defendants spend in jail in the month following arrest.
  • CJR had the largest effects on jail bookings in counties that had the highest rates of jail bookings before CJR.

(next C&P, see Dec 18)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH, US Labor History & Colin Kaepernick

November 14, 2017: Pizza chain Papa John’s apologized for its CEO John Schnatter’s claim that protesting National Football League players had hurting profits.

On its official Twitter account Papa John’s  “sincerely” apologized “to anyone that thought they [Schnatter’s remarks] were divisive.” “That definitely was not our intention,” the company added.

Schnatter’s remarks also led to the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer to endorse Papa John’s as the official pizza of the self-proclaimed alt-right — an accolade the company rejected. (FS, LH, and CK, see Nov 20)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

November 14, 2020: federal judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled that Chad Wolf was not legally serving as acting Homeland Security secretary when he signed rules limiting applications and renewals for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program [DACA], and those rules were thus invalid.

In July, Wolf had issued a memo saying that new applications for DACA, the Obama-era program that shielded undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation, would not be accepted and renewals would be limited to one year instead of two amid an ongoing review. [CNN story] (next IH, see Nov 18); next DACA, see Dec 4)

November 14 Peace Love Art Activism

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

Margaret Sanger/Birth Control

November 13, 1921: the first national birth control conference in the U.S. (see Nov 11) was scheduled to end with an event featuring several speakers, but it was abruptly ended when New York City police intervened and removed Margaret Sanger and one other speaker from the stage. Sanger was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct. The New York Time’s article headline was: A mass meeting to discuss “Birth Control: Is It Moral?” was broken up by the police at the Town Hall last night. Hundreds of men and women, many socially prominent, derided the police and urged the speakers to defy the order not to speak. (NYT article) (see Nov 18)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Scottboro Travesty

November 13, 1935: Creed Conyer became the first post-Reconstruction black person to sit on an Alabama grand jury in the remanded case. (see Scottsboro Travesty for full story)

Hansberry v. Lee

November 13, 1940: the US Supreme Court ruled in Hansberry v. Lee that whites cannot bar African Americans from white neighborhoods. (University of North Carolina site)

US Involvement in World War II

1941 – 1945: African-American soldiers played a significant role in World War II. More than half a million served in Europe. Despite the numbers they faced racial discrimination: prior to the war the military maintained a racially segregated force. In studies by the military, blacks were often classified as unfit for combat and were not allowed on the front lines. They were mostly given support duties, and were not allowed in units with white soldiers.

That changed in 1941, when pressure from African-American civil rights leaders convinced the government to set up all-black combat units, as experiments. They were designed to see if African-American soldiers could perform military tasks on the same level as white soldiers. [VoA article] (BH, see Jan 14)

Browder v. Gayle
November 13 #PeaceLoveArtActivism
le

November 13, 1956: the US Supreme Court declined the appeal of a US District Court ruling in Browder v. Gayle that had declared unconstitutional Alabama’s state and local laws requiring segregation on buses, thereby ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Court affirmed a ruling by a three-judge Federal court that held the challenged statutes “violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” (BH, see Dec 4; MBB, see Dec 19)

Medgar Evers

November 13, 1991: Jackson, Miss. Judge L. Breland Hilburn of Hinds County Circuit Court denied bond to Byron De La Beckwith and ordered him to remain in jail pending his third murder trial in the 1963 slaying of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers. (see August 4, 1992)

Houston Riot of 1917

November 13, 2023: Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth approved the recommendation of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records to set aside the courts-martial convictions of the 110 Black Soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment (also known as the Buffalo Soldiers), who were convicted following the World War I-era Houston Riots. The records of these Soldiers were corrected, to the extent possible, to characterize their military service as honorable.

“After a thorough review, the Board has found that these Soldiers were wrongly treated because of their race and were not given fair trials,” said Wormuth. “By setting aside their convictions and granting honorable discharges, the Army is acknowledging past mistakes and setting the record straight.” [US Army article]  (next BH, see January 25, 2024; next RR, see February 22, 2024)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

United States v. Jeffers

November 13, 1951: United States v Jeffers. Without a warrant, two police officers had entered a District of Columbia hotel room rented to the aunts of Anthony Jeffers when neither they nor Jeffers were present. The police searched the room and seized 19 bottles of cocaine and one bottle of codeine. Jeffers claimed ownership of the contraband and was charged and convicted of violating narcotics laws in a District Court despite his motion to suppress the evidence seized without a warrant as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The Court of Appeals reversed the conviction and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

In affirming the ruling of the Court of Appeals, Justice Clark held that the warrantless seizure did violate the Fourth Amendment and that the narcotics should have been excluded as evidence at Jeffers trial. Justice Clark wrote “The search and seizure were not incident to a valid arrest; and there were no exceptional circumstances to justify their being made without a warrant.”

The Government had argued in this case that no property rights within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment existed in the seized narcotics because they were contraband as declared by Congress in 26 U.S.C. 3116. Justice Clark dismissed their argument, holding that, for purposes of the exclusionary rule, it was property and that Jeffers was entitled to motion to have it suppressed as evidence at trial but that, because it was contraband, he was not entitled to have it returned to him. (Unlawful evidence) (see January 2, 1952)

Alasaad v. McAleenan/Immigration

November 13, 2019: in Alasaad v. McAleenan Judge Denise J. Casper of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts ruled that border agents who seize and search people’s tech devices at entry points to the United States without any suspicion of criminal activity were violating Fourth Amendment rights

In a 48-page decision , Casper that there are limits to the extent that officials can engage in warrantless, suspicionless border searches, and these intrusive tech searches cross the line, violating the Fourth Amendment rights of the plaintiffs. (next IH, see Nov 20; next 4th, see )

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Mrs White bans Communist Robin Hood

Obama as Robin HoodNovember 13, 1953: Mrs. Thomas J. White of the Indiana Textbook Commission, called for the removal of references to the book Robin Hood from textbooks used by the state’s schools. Mrs. Young claimed that there was “a Communist directive in education now to stress the story of Robin Hood because he robbed the rich and gave it to the poor. That’s the Communist line. It’s just a smearing of law and order and anything that disrupts law and order is their meat.” She went on to attack Quakers because they “don’t believe in fighting wars.” This philosophy, she argued, played into communist hands. (Mrs Thomas White’s anti-Robin Hood campaign)

Get That Communist, Joe

In 1954: the Kavaliers sang “Get That Communist, Joe” in which they poked fun at McCarthy’s passion to find Communists everywhere.  (see Jan 8)

Joe, come here a minute

I get a red hot tip for you, Joe

See that guy with the red suspenders

Driving that car with the bright red fenders

I know he’s one of those heavy spenders

Get that Communist Joe

He’s fillin’ my gal with propaganda

And I’m scared she will meander

Don’t want to take a chance that he’ll land her

Get that Communist Joe

He’s a most revolting character

And the fellas hate him so

But with the girls this character

Is a Comrade Romeo

Since my love he’s sabotaging

And the law he has been dodging

Give him what he deserves, jailhouse lodging

Get that Communist Joe (Get that Shmo, Joe)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

see November 13 Music et al for more

The Beatles

November 13, 1964: CBS TV showed a 50-minute documentary, “What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A.,” filmed by Albert Maysles, covering the Beatles U.S. tour and other activities that year. (see Nov 23)

Sound of Music

November 13 –26, 1965, the Sound of Music soundtrack is the Billboard #1 album.

Yellow Submarine

November 13, 1968: US release of Yellow Submarine movie. (see Nov 21)

Dylan in the movies

November 13, 1972: always interested in movie making, filming began in Durango, NM for the Sam Peckinpah move, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. Peckinpah hired Dylan to create the music and play a small part in the film.

The whole experience was not a pleasant one as Peckinpah’s substance issues and resulting directing style made life difficult for all involved. (see February 1973)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Spiro T. Agnew

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

November 13, 1968: speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew accused network television news departments of bias and distortion, and urged viewers to lodge complaints. (see Dec 31)

March Against Death

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

November 13, 1969: in Washington, as a prelude to the second moratorium against the war scheduled for the following weekend, protesters staged a symbolic “March Against Death.” The march began at 6 p.m. and drew over 45,000 participants, each with a placard bearing the name of a soldier who had died in Vietnam. The marchers began at Arlington National Cemetery and continued past the White House, where they called out the names of the dead. The march lasted for two days and nights. This demonstration and the moratorium that followed did not produce a change in official policy–although President Nixon was deeply angered by the protests, he publicly feigned indifference and they had no impact on his prosecution of the war. (NYT article) (see Nov 15)

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

November 13, 1982: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. (NYT article on memorial) (see May 7, 1984)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

November 13, 1995: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: a car bomb exploded at the U.S. military headquarters, killing 5 U.S. military servicemen. From the New York Times, More than 20 American investigators and hundreds of Saudi security officials searched the rubble of an American-run military training center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia today, looking for clues to the bombing that killed six people, including five Americans. (NYT article)(see June 25, 1996)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

IMPEACHMENT

Bill Clinton

November 13, 1998: after fighting Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit for four years, Clinton agreed to pay Jones $850,000 to drop the case. But the deal included no apology from the president. (see Clinton for expanded Impeachment story]

Trump Impeachment Inquiry/Public

November 13, 2019: on the first day of public impeachment hearings, William B. Taylor Jr., the top United States diplomat in Ukraine, and George P. Kent, a senior State Department official in charge of Ukraine policy, both testified about President Trump’s campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., one of his leading political rivals.

Taylor testified that a member of his staff overheard a telephone conversation in which Trump pressed Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, on “the investigations.” Afterward, when the aide asked Mr. Sondland about the president’s thoughts on Ukraine, Mr. Sondland said Trump cared more about “investigations of Biden.” [NYT article]

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

November 13, 2002:  Roman Catholic activists from the Survivors First group launched an online database listing 573 US priests accused of involvement in pedophilia since 1996, later dropping 100 of the names. (see Dec 3)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

November 13, 2013: a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan refused to reconsider its order removing federal Judge Shira Scheindlin from court cases challenging the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy.

Scheindlin’s attorney, Burt Neuborne, had filed papers asking the panel to reconsider the order and saying the appeals judges had offended due process by ousting her without letting her defend herself. The panel denied Neuborne’s request, saying it lacked a procedural basis. “We know of no precedent suggesting that a district judge has standing before an appellate court to protest reassignment of a case,” the judges ruled.  [Reuters article] (S & F, see Nov 14; ruling, see Nov 22)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Trump’s Fence

November 13, 2016: Trump appeared on 60 Minutes after his Electoral College victory and after being questioned he says a fence would be OK, too.

STAHL (60 Minutes): You’re— you know, they are talking about a fence in the Republican Congress, would you accept a fence?

TRUMP: For certain areas I would, but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this, it’s called construction…there could be some fencing. (IH, see Dec 22; TW, see January 11, 2017)

Travel restrictions

November 13, 2017:  a panel of three judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco  allowed President Trump’s latest travel restrictions to partly take effect, ruling that the government can bar entry to people who come from six majority-Muslim countries and who lack ties to the United States, thus handing the administration a momentary victory.

In a two-paragraph order, the panel ruled on the administration’s request to block a lower court’s decision, from a federal judge in Hawaii, that prevented the latest travel policy from being implemented.

The appeals panel upheld that ruling for people with a “bona fide relationship” with close family or an entity in the United States, like a university or company. But the court blocked the lower court’s decision for people from the six countries without such ties, meaning they can now be kept from entering the United States. [Reuters article] (see Nov 15)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

November 13, 2017: according to an International Atomic Energy Agency report, Iran remained within the main limits on its nuclear activity set by its 2015 deal with six world powers. The U.N. atomic watchdog said in its first report since U.S. President Donald Trump decertified Iranian compliance with the terms. [WP article] (see Nov 14)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

November 13, 2018: after a contentious week of counting votes, Kyrsten Sinema (D) won the race for Ariziona Senator with 1.7% more votes than Republican candidate Martha McSally. Not only was Sinema Arizona’s first female U.S. Senator, she was also the first out bisexual U.S. Senator in the country. [LGBTQ Nation article]

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Climate Change/Health

November 13, 2019: according to a new report from the medical journal The Lancet., he health effects of climate change will be unevenly distributed and children will be among those especially harmed,

The report compared human health consequences under two scenarios: one in which the world meets the commitments laid out in the Paris Agreement and reins in emissions so that increases in global temperatures remained “well below 2 degrees Celsius” by the end of the century, and one in which it did not.

The report found that failing to limit emissions would lead to health problems caused by infectious diseases, worsening air pollution, rising temperatures and malnutrition.

“With every degree of warming, a child born today faces a future where their health and well-being will be increasingly impacted by the realities and dangers of a warmer world,” said Dr. Renee N. Salas, a clinical instructor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the United States policy brief that accompanied the report. [NYT article] (next EI, see Dec 10)

Climate Talks/Coal

November 13, 2021:  U.N. climate talks ended with a deal that for the first time targeted fossil fuels as the key driver of global warming, even as coal-reliant countries lobbed last-minute objections.

While the agreement won applause for keeping alive the hope of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, many of the nearly 200 national delegations wished they’d come away with more.

“If it’s a good negotiation, all the parties are uncomfortable,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said in the final meeting to approve the Glasgow Climate Pact. “And this has been, I think, a good negotiation.”

The two-week conference in Scotland delivered a major win in resolving the rules around carbon markets, but it did little to assuage vulnerable countries’ concerns about long-promised climate financing from rich nations. [Reuters article] (next EI, see Dec 8)

November 13 Peace Love Art Activism

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

George Washington, Slaves
November 12 Peace Love Art Activism
George Washington and one of his many slaves

November 12, 1775: General Washington, owner of more than 300 slaves, issued an order which forbade recruiting officers to enlist blacks. [Mt Vernon site article] (see July 2, 1777)

Ernest Collins & Benny Mitchell lynched

November 12, 1935:  two teenage black boys – fifteen-year-old Ernest Collins and sixteen-year-old Benny Mitchell – were killed in Colorado County, Texas, in a public spectacle lynching committed by a mob of at least 700 white men and women. Afterward, officials called the lynching “justice,” and no one in the mob was punished.  [EJI article] (next BH, see February 14, 1936; next Lynching, see April 28, 1936; for expanded chronology of lynching, see also AL4)

Race Revolt

November 12, 1976: a race revolt erupted at Reidsville State Prison, now known as Georgia State Prison, in Reidsville, Georgia. Just a few years prior, a federal judge had ordered the prison to desegregate inmate living quarters. According to newspaper reports at the time, the riot began when 50-75 white prisoners armed with shanks attacked a group of black prisoners; in the end, 47 prisoners were injured and five were killed. Prison officials blamed the incident on an argument between homosexual inmates.

In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Georgia state law requiring racial separation of prisoners at Reidsville (where 60-65% of prisoners were black). However, after an initial attempt at integration, the prison had repeatedly reverted to segregation in supposed efforts to cool racial tensions. At the time, ACLU of Georgia Director Gene Guerrero remarked, “It’s the worst sort of cop-out – to lay the problems at Reidsville on integration.”

Following the November 1976 riot and several other incidents of deadly violence, U.S. District Judge Anthony Aliamo issued an order on July 3, 1978, to re-segregate dormitories at Reidsville for a period of 60 days. The common areas, such as the mess hall and recreation yard, were to remain integrated. When another deadly racial attack occurred in August 1978, the state successfully sought an extension of the re-segregation order, resulting in eight months of segregated dorms. At the time, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Offender Rehabilitation said that he thought the prison would have a “hard time going back” to integrated dormitories. (BH, see Nov 25; RR, see May 17, 1980)

BLACK & SHOT

November 12, 2016: the judge in the Samuel DuBose case (see July 19, 2015) declared a mistrial after the jury became deadlocked.  [2018 CT article] (B & S, see January 24, 2017; DuBose, see July 18, 2017)

Colin Kaepernick

November 12, 2019: according to a copy of a memo to the league’s 32 teams that was reviewed by The New York Times, the NFL invited Colin Kaepernick to work out for teams on November 16 at the Atlanta Falcons’ facility so they could evaluate whether to sign him.

“Earlier this year, we discussed some possible steps with his representatives, and they recently emphasized his level of preparation and that he is ready to work out for clubs and be interviewed by them,” the memo said. “We have therefore arranged this opportunity for him to work out, and for all clubs to have the opportunity to evaluate his current readiness and level of interest in resuming his N.F.L. career.” (next BH & CK, see Nov 16)

Noah Harris/Harvard

November 12, 2020: Noah Harris became the first Black, elected student body president at Harvard University.

Harris, a 20-year-old from Hattiesburg , Mississippi was a junior  majoring in government and co-chaired the Undergraduate Council’s Black caucus.

Two other Black students had previously headed Harvard’s Undergraduate Council, but Harris is the first Black man to be elected by the student body. [KB4 article] (next BH, see Nov 23)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Ellis Island

November 12, 1954: Ellis Island closed after processing more than 20 million immigrants since opening in New York Harbor in 1892. (NYT article) (see June 17, 1958)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

November 12 Music et al

 News Music

November 12, 1966: deejay Jimmy O’Neill was the host of  Shindig! He opened a nightclub called Pandora’s Box on the Sunset Strip. This led to massive throngs of teens and traffic on the strip, and Los Angeles city enacted a series of loitering and curfew laws targeting teenagers. Young people gathered at Pandora’s Box to defy the 10pm curfew. The riots kept growing, and the panicked L.A. City Council quickly moved to condemn and demolish Pandora’s Box, which they ultimately did in 1967. The incident inspired a number of songs in 1967 and see Sunset Riots:

“For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield

Plastic People” by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention

Daily Nightly” by The Monkees

Riot on Sunset Strip” by The Standells

 Poor Side of Town

November 12 – 18, 1966: “Poor Side of Town” by Johnny Rivers #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Monkees

November 12, 1966 – February 10, 1967: The Monkees’ The Monkees the Billboard #1 album.

Bob Dylan

November 12, 1971: recorded on November 4, Columbia Records released Dylan’s single, “George Jackson.”  He wrote it in tribute to the Black Panther leader, George Jackson, who had been shot and killed by guards at San Quentin Prison on August 21, 1971, during an attempted escape from prison.

The song peaked at #33 on the Billboard charts and remained on the charts for 7 weeks.

He recorded both an acoustic and an electric version.  (next Dylan, see July 15, 1972)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Free Speech

Religion & Public Education

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

November 12, 1968: in Epperson v. Arkansas, the US Supreme Court struck down an Arkansas state law that prohibited the teaching of Darwinian evolution. The Court argued that the First Amendment required government neutrality on questions of religion and overturned the Arkansas State Supreme Court, which had ruled that the state’s law represented a legitimate exercise of its authority to determine school curriculum.

Justice Fortas wrote, “The State’s undoubted right to prescribe the curriculum for its public schools does not carry with it the right to prohibit, on pain of criminal penalty, the teaching of a scientific theory or doctrine where that prohibition is based upon reasons that violate the First Amendment.” The two other members of the Court concurred in the result, writing that it violated either the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment (because it was unconstitutionally vague) or the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment. (FS, see April 4, 1969; R & PE, see June 28, 1971)

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Vietnam & My Lai Massacre

November 12, 1969: the Dispatch News Service moved a story by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh about the My Lai massacre. (Vietnam, see Nov 13;  see My Lai for expanded story)

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Feminism/US Labor History

November 12, 1973: in the case of Laffey v. Northwest, decided on this day, stewardesses employed by Northwest Airlines won a sweeping ruling regarding sex discrimination over issues related to unequal pay, the lack of promotions, unequal benefits compared to male employees, and weight monitoring for stewardesses. The job of stewardess was a separate all-female job category, and women were forced to retire in their early 30s, not allowed to be married, and subject to monitoring of their weight. (next Feminism, see January 21, 1974;  Labor, see March 24, 1974)

Church of England

November 12, 1981: The Church of England General Synod voted to admit women to holy orders. [UPI article] (see June 30, 1982)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran hostage crisis

November 12, 1979: in response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter ordered a halt to all oil imports into the United States from Iran. [CNN timeline of crisis] (see Nov 14)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

November 12, 1984: in Charlotte, North Carolina Dethorne Graham, a black man and a diabetic, felt an insulin reaction developing and asked a friend named William Berry to drive him to a convenience store to purchase orange juice to counteract the reaction. When Graham entered the store he discovered a long line of people ahead of him. He realized it might take too long to purchase the juice so he hurried back outside where Berry was waiting in his car. Graham then asked Berry to drive him to another friend’s house where he hoped to get some juice.

M.S. Connor, a Charlotte city police officer was sitting in a patrol car in the vicinity of the convenience store. He became suspicious when he saw Graham quickly enter and leave the convenience store. He followed Berry’s car and made an “investigative stop” of the two Black men. Connor then returned to his patrol car to call for backup. While Connor was making the call, Graham got out of Berry’s car, “ran around it twice, and finally sat down on the curb.” Then he passed out.

According to testimony, when the backup police arrived at the scene, one of the officers rolled Graham over on the sidewalk and cuffed his hands tightly behind his back. Berry plead with the officers to get Graham some sugar, but was ignored. Another officer said: “I’ve seen a lot of people with sugar diabetes that never acted like this. Ain’t nothing wrong with the M. F. but drunk. Lock the S.O.B. up.”

Several police officers lifted the unconscious Graham up, carried him over to Berry’s car, and placed him face down on the hood. When he regained consciousness, Graham asked the officers to look at the diabetic decal he carried in his wallet. In response, according to witness testimony, one of the officers told Graham to “shut up” and shoved his face down against the car. Next, four police officers threw Graham head first into a police car. When one of Graham’s friends brought him some orange juice, the police officers would not give it to him.

When Officer Connor finally realized that nothing had happened in the convenience store, he released Dethorne Graham from custody. However, during his encounter with the police, Graham sustained multiple injuries including a broken foot, cuts on his wrists, a bruised forehead, and an injured shoulder. (C & P and Graham, see July 11, 1985)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Calvin Graham

November 12, 1988: President Reagan signed legislation that granted Calvin full disability benefits, increased his back pay to $4917, and allowed $18,000 for past medical bills, contingent on receipts for the medical services. By this time, some of the doctors who treated him had died and many medical bills were lost. Calvin received only $2,100 of the possible $18,000. (Calvin Graham for full story)

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César E. Chávez

November 12, 1990:  Mexican President Salinas de Gortari awarded  Chávez the Aguila Azteca, the highest Mexican civilian award. (see April 23, 1993)

Terrorism, World Trade Center

World Trade center bomber Ramzi Yousef

November 12, 1997:  Ramzi Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. (NYT article) (see January 8, 1998)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS, Ricky Ray

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism
Ricky Ray’s parents were prevented from enrolling their son in school.

November 12, 1998: the U.S. Congress enacts the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act, honoring the Florida teenager who was infected with HIV through contaminated blood products. The Act authorized payments to individuals with hemophilia and other blood clotting disorders who were infected with HIV by unscreened blood-clotting agents between 1982 and 1987. (Federal site info) (see April 30, 2000)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

November 12, 1999: a U.S. District Court judge issued an emergency court order telling the Lawton, Oklahoma, Evening Optimist Soccer League to allow Ryan Taylor, a nine-year-old with cerebral palsy, to play in the league. His walker, referred to as a safety hazard by the defendants, was padded during games. (see Dec 17)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Same-sex Marriage

November 12, 2008, LGBT: same-sex marriages begin to be officially performed in Connecticut. (NYT article) (see January 1, 2009)

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

November 12, 2010: The US Supreme Court refused to intervene on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy while it was on appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. (NYT article) (see Nov 30)

Banning Marriage Equality

November 12, 2014: U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel ruled against South Carolina’s constitutional amendment banning marriage equality.  In Condon v. Haley, Lambda Legal and private attorneys sued the state on behalf of same-sex couples who argued that South Carolina’s ban on marriage equality violated the U.S. Constitution.  In his ruling, Judge Gergel cited the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Bostic v. Shaeffer, in which the federal appeals court struck down Virginia’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples. The Fourth Circuit ruling in Bostic was binding precedent on South Carolina. (NYT article) (LGBTQ, see Nov 19; South Carolina, see Nov 20)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Medical marijuana

November 12, 2013:  a University of Utah neurologist and two other Utah doctors announced their support for allowing a medical use of a marijuana extract for children who suffer from seizures. In a letter sent to the state Controlled Substances Advisory Committee on Tuesday, pediatric neurologist Dr. Francis Filloux said the liquid form of medical marijuana is a promising option for children with epilepsy.  [SLC article] (see Dec 10)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism
Fair Housing & Consumer Protection

November 12, 2015: a proposed federal rule announced on this date would prohibit smoking in public housing homes nationwide under, a move that would affect nearly one million households and open the latest front in the long-running campaign to curb unwanted exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.

The ban, by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, would also require that common areas and administrative offices on public housing property be smoke-free.  [NYT article] (FH, see January 20, 2017; CP, see May 5, 2016)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

November 12, 2018:  commercial satellite images showed that North Korea was moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that had been identified to American intelligence agencies but left undiscussed as President Trump claimed to have neutralized the North’s nuclear threat.

The satellite images suggested that the North had been engaged in a great deception: It had offered to dismantle a major launching site — a step it began, then halted — while continuing to make improvements at more than a dozen others that would bolster launches of conventional and nuclear warheads.

The existence of the ballistic missile bases, which North Korea had never acknowledged, contradicted  Trump’s assertion that his landmark diplomacy is leading to the elimination of a nuclear and missile program that the North had warned could devastate the United States. [NYT article] (see Dec 4)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

November 12, 2018: the NY Times reported that Roman Catholic bishops of the United States came to a meeting in Baltimore prepared to show that they could hold themselves accountable, but in a last-minute surprise, the Vatican instructed the bishops to delay voting on a package of corrective measures until next year, when Pope Francis plans to hold a summit in Rome on the sexual abuse crisis for bishops from around the world.

Many of the more than 350 American bishops gathered in Baltimore appeared stunned when they learned of the change of plans in the first few minutes of the meeting.

“I am sorry for the late notice, but in fact, this was conveyed to me late yesterday afternoon,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Although I am disappointed, I remain hopeful that this additional consultation will ultimately improve our response to the crisis we face.” (see Dec 19)

November 12 Peace Love Art Activism