Tag Archives: August Peace Love Art Activism

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2, 1874: gold discovered in the Black Hills of western South Dakota during an expedition led by Colonel Custer. The land belonged to the Sioux but was invaded by prospectors. Sioux leaders Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull retaliated. (Gold Rush Nuggets dot com article) (see June 17, 1876)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

August 2, 1900: North Carolina approved a constitutional amendment that required residents to pass a literacy test in order to register to vote. Under the provision, illiterate registrants with a relative who had voted in an election prior to the year 1863 were exempt from the requirement.

These provisions effectively disenfranchised most of the state’s African-American voting population. At the same time, the rules preserved the voting rights of most of the state’s poor and uneducated white residents—who were much more likely to have a relative eligible to vote in 1863, before the abolition of slavery and passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments. To the drafters and supporters of the amendment, this outcome was by design. [EJI article] (next BH, see Nov 16)

Jersey City revolt

August 2, 1964: the Jersey City Riots began when police attempted to arrest Dolores Shannon, a 26-year-old black woman, in the Booker T. Washington housing project for alleged disorderly conduct. Walter Mays, 34, a black man sitting on his nearby porch, objected that police were handling Ms. Shannon too harshly. Though police claimed Mr. Mays attacked them, witnesses insisted police physically attacked Mr. Mays and then arrested him. A crowd of black people who had gathered at the scene chanted “police brutality!” in protest, and responding patrolmen were pelted with rocks and garbage. In the three days of riots that followed, black community members angered by police mistreatment and economic depression stoned cars and looted from local stores.

Experiencing the most extreme impacts of the city’s economic downturn, Jersey City’s African American community of 280,000 people was primarily comprised of low-income families living in racially segregated neighborhoods plagued by police brutality, limited recreational resources, and poor environmental maintenance from the city government. When the riots erupted, leaders from the local NAACP chapter and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) stepped forward to mediate between the African American community and Jersey City authorities led by Mayor Thomas J. Whelan. (2017 Jersey Journal article) (see Aug 3)

Rainey Pool Murder

August 2, 1999: Joe Oliver Watson entered a guilty plea for manslaughter in the Pool case. (Northeastern University article) (BH & RP, see Nov 10 – 13, 1999)

BLACK & SHOT/Eric Garner

August 2, 2017: according to lawyers involved in the case, a Staten Island (NY) judge approved nearly $4 million in payments to the family of Eric Garner from a $5.9 million wrongful death settlement with the city. [NY Post article] (B & S, see Sept 12; Garner, see April 20, 2018)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

1937 Marijuana Tax Act

August 2, 1937: The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act signed. It is widely regarded as a major milestone in the U.S. policy of criminalizing drugs, which escalated into a “war on drugs” in the 1970s — resulting in many civil liberties violations. The law was prompted in part by a national panic over the dangers of marijuana, as can be seen in the now famous 1936 film Reefer Madness (Leafly dot com article) (see CC for expanded chronology) 

Illinois

August 2, 2018: Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signed HB 4870 into law. The bill required schools to let parents or guardians administer medical cannabis to children at school.  (see CCC for expanded chronology)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear News

Einstein

August 2, 1939: Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program. (text via Atomic Archive) (see December 2, 1942)

Cold War agreement terminated

August 2, 2019: the United States terminated a major treaty of the Cold War, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement, and planned to start testing a new class of missiles within a month.

The new missiles were unlikely to be deployed to counter the treaty’s other nuclear power, Russia, which the United States said for years was in violation of the accord. Instead, the first deployments were likely to be intended to counter China, which had amassed an imposing missile arsenal and was now seen as a much more formidable long-term strategic rival than Russia. [NYT article] (next N/C, see Sept 20; next CW, see July 12, 2021)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2, 1945: the Potsdam Conference ended with the Potsdam Agreement that organized the division and reconstruction of Europe after World War II. The US, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union decided to split Germany’s capital, Berlin, into four zones. The Allied powers also agree to start legal trials at Nuremberg of Nazi war criminals. (Office of he Historian article) (see August 6, 1945)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2 Music et al

Robert Zimmerman

August 2, 1962: Robert Zimmerman changed his name to Bob Dylan. [Ultimate Classic Rock article] (see Dylan for expanded early chronology)

Dylan attends HS reunion

August 2, 1969: returning to his hometown of Hibbing, MN, Dylan attended the 10-year reunion for Hibbing High’s Class of 1959 at the local Moose Lodge. While there, he brought Sara to see his boyhood home (Bob’s mother no longer lived there) and also got together with some old friends and formed an ad hoc band, The Chartbusters and played a couple of parties in St Cloud, MN. Each of the member had a pseudonym, Dylan’s was Jack Smith. (see August 15 Woodstock notes)

The Road to Bethel

August 2, 1969: Town of Bethel Building Inspector Donald Clark sent letter to Woodstock Ventures stating that he has lifted the Stop Order against it and that all permits would be issued pending approval by the departments of health and agriculture. (see Chronology for expanded story)

William S Burroughs

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2, 1997: William S. Burroughs died. (see December 22, 2014)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 2, 1964: Gulf of Tonkin incident.  The first sea “battle” between USS Maddox and North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats. (see Tonkin for expanded story)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

August 2, 1981, Irish Troubles:  the eighth hunger striker died. Kieran Doherty (25) died after 73 days on hunger strike. (see Troubles for expanded story)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War I

August 2, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. (Nation article) (see Aug 6)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Deepwater Horizon Spill

August 2, 2010: Flow Rate Technical Group reported that the well initially was dumping 62,000 barrels of oil per day initially after the spill and that it dwindled to 53,000 barrels when it was capped as the well was depleted. This means that 4.9 million barrels were went into the Gulf (see July 2, 2015)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Death Penalty

Delaware

August 2, 2016: the Delaware Supreme Court ruled the state’s death penalty law was unconstitutional. The court said Delaware’s current capital punishment statute violates the U.S. Constitution by giving judges, and not juries, the final say to impose a death sentence. (NY Times article) (see Nov 9)

Pope Francis

August 2, 2018: in a major shift in Roman Catholic teaching on the issue, Pope Francis declared the death penalty inadmissible in all cases “because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,”

Francis, who had spoken out against capital punishment before — including in 2015 in an address to Congress — added the change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compendium of Catholic beliefs.

The pontiff said the church would work “with determination” for the abolition of capital punishment worldwide.

Previously, the catechism had allowed the death penalty in some cases, if it was “the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor,” even if in reality “cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender today are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.” (see Aug 14)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

August 2, 2017: President Trump supported a proposal to slash legal immigration to the United States in half within a decade by sharply curtailing the ability of American citizens and legal residents to bring family members into the country.

The plan would enact the most far-reaching changes to the system of legal immigration in decades and represented the president’s latest effort to stem the flow of newcomers to the United States. Since taking office, he had barred many visitors from select Muslim-majority countries, limited the influx of refugees, increased immigration arrests and pressed to build a wall along the southern border.

In asking Congress to curb legal immigration, Mr. Trump intensified a debate about national identity, economic growth, worker fairness and American values that animated his campaign last year. Critics said the proposal would undercut the fundamental vision of the United States as a haven for the poor and huddled masses, while the president and his allies said the country had taken in too many low-skilled immigrants for too long to the detriment of American workers.  (2017 NYT article) (see Aug 25)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

August 2, 2018the White House announced that it was moving ahead on its much-anticipated plan to roll back the fuel economy mandate set by the Obama administration. The move would likely mean fewer high-efficiency, zero-pollution cars on the road.

The previous guidelines, which were reached during Obama’s first term, call for automakers to steadily reach a fleet average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 — though with credits and other modifications, the actual figure is expected to wind up in the low to mid-40 mpg range. This announcement meant the new standard would be frozen at 2020 levels, around 37 mpg. (see Aug 22)

August 2 Peace Love Art Activism

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Frank Little

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

August 1, 1917: after organizing a strike of metal miners against the Anaconda Company, six masked men dragged Wobbly organizer Frank Little from his Butte, Mont., hotel room and hung him from the Milwaukee Railroad trestle. Years later writer Dashiell Hammett would recall his early days as a Pinkerton detective agency operative and recount how a mine company representative offered him $5,000 to kill Little. Hammett says he quit the business that night.  (IWW article on Little) (see Sept 5)

Philadelphia Transportation Company

August 1, 1944: as the US entered World War II, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, quickly became one of America’s largest war production sources. As many as 600,000 workers relied on the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) for transportation to factories and other workplaces.

On August 1, 1944, white PTC employees started a strike to protest the company’s decision to promote eight black workers to the position of trolley driver, a job previously reserved for white men. The men were promoted after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Orders 8802 and 9436, which prohibited companies with government contracts from discrimination based on race or religion and forced companies to include a nondiscrimination clause in their contracts.

White PTC employees James McMenamin, James Dixon, Frank Thompson, and Frank Carney led the strike, which they threatened would continue until the black workers were demoted. The strike grew to include over 6000 workers, crippling war production and impacting the entire city. It prevented nearly two million people from traveling and cost businesses almost $1 million per day. (Hidden City Philadelphia article) (see Aug 3)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Marcus Garvey

August 1 > 31, 1920: the Universal Negro Improvement Association held its first International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World at Madison Square Garden and scheduled a massive parade in Harlem. During this convention, the UNIA adopts and signs a Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, adopts a “nation” flag with the colors of the Red, Black, and Green, and elects officials for its provisional government. Garvey was elected Provisional President of Africa. (next BH, see Aug 10; see Garvey for expanded story)

Harlem Revolt

August 1, 1943: Harlem Riot of 1943, a NYPD policeman hit an African American woman who was being arrested for disturbing the peace at the Braddock Hotel in Harlem. Robert Bandy, a black soldier in the US Army tried to stop the police officer from striking the woman again. The situation rapidly escalated; the police officer drew his service revolver and shot Bandy in the shoulder.

Bandy’s wound was not serious, but he was taken to a nearby hospital, and crowds quickly gathered at the hospital, the hotel, and police headquarters. An onlooker shouted that an African American soldier had been killed, provoking a riot.

Hundreds of businesses were destroyed and looted, the property damage approaching $5,000,000. Overall, six people died and nearly 400 were injured. Five hundred men and women were arrested in connection with the riot. (see 20015 NY Daily News article)  Dail(BH, see Aug 11,; RR, see August 10, 1946; Harlem Riot 1964, see July 16, 1964)

Sarah Keys Evans refuses

August 1, 1952: Sarah Keys Evans refused to give up her seat on a state-to-state charter bus. (next BH, see Sept 4; Sarah Keys, see September 1, 1953)

Washington, DC Revolt

August 1, 1967: race Revolts in Washington, D.C. (2008 Washingtonian article) (BH, see Aug 3; RR, see January 23, 1968) 

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear News

AEC

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

August 1, 1946: the Atomic Energy Commission was established as President Harry S. Truman signed the Atomic Energy Act, which transfered the control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands. Almost a year after World War II ended, Congress established the United States Atomic Energy Commission to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. The National Laboratory system was established from the facilities created under the Manhattan Project. and Argonne National Laboratory was one of the first laboratories authorized under this legislation as a contractor-operated facility dedicated to fulfilling the new Commission’s mission. (USNRC site) (see Dec 14)

NORAD

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

August 1, 1957: the United States and Canada announced the creation of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense) Command, a unified military unit tasked with early warning and defense coordination. NORAD brought the US and Canada into closer cooperation for air defense through a system of radar and sensors to guard against possible long-range Soviet strategic bombers armed with nuclear weapons.

The US Army Corps of Engineers supervised the excavation of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado and the construction of the tech command and control headquarters. (NAADC site) (see Aug 26)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Calvin Graham

August 1, 1951: Graham left the US Marine Corps after injuring his back in a fall. (see Graham for expanded story)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Resolution 108

August 1, 1953: the federal policy of terminating Native-American tribes began on this day with the passage of House Concurrent Resolution 108. Termination meant that a tribe was no longer officially recognized as a sovereign nation by the federal government. Termination was part of the policy of assimilating Native-Americans into mainstream American life. Between 1953 and 1964, a total of 109 tribes were terminated. The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska was the last to be terminated, in 1966.

By the 1960s as a result of the Native American rights movement attitudes had changed among Native-Americans and other Americans. Both President Lyndon Johnson and President Richard Nixon supported a policy of self-determination. See President Nixon’s speech on July 8, 1970, when he declared “Forced termination is wrong,” and the end of the termination policy January 4, 1975. (Stanford School of Medicine article) (see August 15, 1953)

North Dakota Voter ID

August 1, 2016: U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland struck down a North Dakota law requiring photo IDs in order to vote, ruling that the law unfairly burdened the Native American voters who comprised one-fourth of the state’s electorate. Hovland rejected the state’s argument that the law was “necessary” to prevent voter fraud, writing that “[t]he undisputed evidence before the Court reveals that voter fraud in North Dakota has been virtually non-existent.” (NY Times article) (see Aug 16)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

see August 1 Music et al for more

Moondog Alan Freed

August 1, 1954: Moondog Jubilee Alan Freed, working as a disc jockey in New York, throws the “Moondog Jubilee of Stars Under the Stars” at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. The performing line-up included black artists Fats Domino and Muddy Waters. (see February 23, 1955)

Bob Newhart

August 1 – September 25, 1960: comedian Bob Newhart’s The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart comedy album is Billboard #1.

Hard Day’s Night

August 1 – 14, 1964:  “A Hard Day’s Night” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Aug 11)

Atlantic City Pop Festival

August 1 – 3, 1969: Atlantic City (NJ) Pop Festival took place at the Atlantic City Race Track. Approximately 100,000 people were there.  (see Atlantic City for expanded story)

Concert for Bangladesh

August 1, 1971: George Harrison and Ravi Shankar organized and hosted The Concert for Bangladesh raising nearly a quarter of a million dollars for the hungry of the poor country. The concert ushered in a new type of proactive political activism (Beatles, see Sept 9; Bangladesh, see Dec 16; concert movie, see March 23, 1972)

Cultural milestone: MTV

August 1, 1981: MTV (Music Television) made its debut at 12:01 a.m. The first music video shown on the rock-video cable channel was, appropriately, Video Killed the Radio Star, by the Buggles. MTV’s original five veejays were Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, J.J. Jackson and Alan Hunter. MTV changed the way that popular music was presented from the traditional way of simply listening to watching as well as listening. [HUFFPOST article on first videos]  (MTV, see March 1983; CM, see July 29, 1987)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Independence Day

August 1, 1960: Benin independent from France. (see Aug 3)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Austin Rampage

August 1, 1966: 25-year old Charles Whitman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a former Marine, killed 16 people and wounded 32 others during a shooting rampage on and around the university’s campus.

 August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

August 1, 1968: 541,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam (see Aug 25 – 29)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate

August 1, 1972: a $25,000 cashier’s check, apparently earmarked for the Nixon campaign, wound up in the bank account of a Watergate burglar, The Washington Post reports. (see Watergate for expanded story)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Nominations

August 1, 1972, Thomas Eagleton, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, withdraws from the race after revealing he was once treated for mental illness. (2012 NPR article)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

August 1, 1981:  The seventh hunger striker died. Kevin Lynch (25) died after 71 days on hunger strike. Lynch was a member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). (see Troubles for expanded story)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Terrorism

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

August 1, 1989: a terrorist group in Lebanon said that it had hanged hostage Marine Lieut. Col. William R. Higgins and distributed a grisly videotape that showed a figure identified as the American twisting at the end of a rope. (NYT article) (next T, see Dec 18; Higgins, see July 6, 1990)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

August 1, 2016: U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland struck down a North Dakota law requiring photo IDs in order to vote, ruling that the law unfairly burdened the Native American voters who comprised one-fourth of the state’s electorate. Hovland rejected the state’s argument that the law was “necessary” to prevent voter fraud, writing that “[t]he undisputed evidence before the Court reveals that voter fraud in North Dakota has been virtually non-existent.” [NYT article] (see Aug 16)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

August 1, 2021: marijuana decriminalization took effect in Louisiana and advocates and lawmakers were working to ensure that residents know what they can and cannot do without going to jail under the new law.

Gov. John Bell Edwards (D) had signed the legislation in June, and he emphasized that it was “not a decision I took lightly,” but he recognized that criminalization had significant consequences for families and taxpayers.

Under the law, possession of up to 14 grams of cannabis is now punishable by a $100 fine, without the threat of jail time. The governor has pushed back against the definition of the policy as “decriminalization,” but that’s exactly how advocates define policies that remove the threat of incarceration for low-level possession. [MM article] (next Cannabis, see  or see CAC for expanded chronology)

August 1 Peace Love Art Activism

August Peace Love Art Activism

August Peace Love Art Activism

 BLACK HISTORY

Dred Scott

August Peace Love Art Activism

In August 1842: the Army discharged Dr Emerson–Scott’s owner– and Emerson returned to St. Louis. He later moved to Iowa, a free territory, but left the Scott family in St. Louis where Dred and Harriet Scott were hired out to various people. (see Dred Scott for expanded story)

US Labor History

In August 1881: Atlanta’s municipal authorities took direct action and arrested strikers and fined members who were making house visits, but the actions have little effect and the strikers win their demands.  (APWU article)  (next LH, see September 5, 1882; next BH, see Sept  19)

SCOTTSBORO BOYS

In August 1938: the Alabama Pardon Board declined to pardon Haywood Patterson and Ozie Powell. (see Scottsboro for expanded story)

Emmett Till

In August 1955:  Emmett Till’s great uncle Moses Wright traveled from Mississippi to Chicago to visit family. At the end of his stay, Wright planned to take Till’s cousin, Wheeler Parker, back to Mississippi with him to visit relatives. Emmett learned of these plans he begged his mother to let him go along. Initially, Mamie Till said no. She wanted to take a road trip to Omaha, Nebraska and attempted to lure Till to join her with the promise of open-road driving lessons. But Till desperately wanted to spend time with his cousins in Mississippi and she gave her permission. (BH, see Aug 13; see Till for expanded story)

Muhammad Ali

In August 1960: after winning a spot on the US Olympic team, 18-year-old Cassius Clay nearly refused participate because of his fear of flying. Joe Martin’s son told the Louisville Courier-Journal, “He finally agreed to fly. But then he went to an army surplus store and bought a parachute and actually wore it on the plane. It was a pretty rough flight, he was down in the aisle, praying with his parachute on.” (BH, see Aug 27; Ali, see September 5, 1960)

August Peace Love Art Activism

Emma Goldman

Freiheit

August – December 1889: Goldman found work at a NYC corset factory. She also worked at the office of an anarchist newspaper, Freiheit, and helped organize the November 11 Haymarket Commemoration. She and Alexander Berkman share an apartment with Modest Stein, and Helene and Anna Minkin.

Goldman speaks

In August 1893: Goldman addressed a public meeting, urging those in need to take bread if they are hungry. Four days later, she lead a march of 1,000 people to Union Square, where, speaking in German and English, she repeats her belief that workers are entitled to bread. The speech leads to her arrest.  (see Goldman for expanded story)

August Peace Love Art Activism

United Farm Workers

Bracero Program

In August 1942: with a shortage of workers due to the US entry into World War II, the US and Mexico made a series of laws and agreements, known as the Bracero Program (“strong arm” in Spanish), for the importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States. (Bracero dot org article)

César E. Chávez

From 1946 – 48: Chávez in the Navy. At the time Mexican-Americans could only work as deckhands or painters. Chávez described his experience in the military as “the two worst years of my life.”

In 1948: out of the Navy, Chávez married Helen Fabela. 

Community Service Organization

In 1952:  Chávez met Fred Ross and joined the Community Service Organization.

Dolores Huerta

August Peace Love Art Activism

In 1955: Dolores Huerta co-founds the Stockton, CA chapter of the Community Service Organization. 

Bracero program

August Peace Love Art Activism

In 1957: the peak year of the Bracero program: 192,000 Mexican workers imported. Along with Chicanos, the braceros soon became the most important component of the California agricultural work force after World War II.

Theoretically, the bracero program provided standard contracts covering wages, hours, transportation, housing, and working conditions. The American government guaranteed the provision of emergency medical care, workmen’s compensation, and disability and death benefits. In reality, many of these provisions were never enforced and  the bracero system perpetuated the poverty of California’s migratory laborers. Between 1950 and 1960, the earnings of three million Mexican nationals employed in 275 crop areas were effectively frozen; average annual wages in fact declined slightly, from $1,680 in 1950 to $1,666 in 1959. (Bracero, see December 31, 1964)

Chavez confronts Bracero

In 1958:  Chávez works in Oxnard, a leading citrus-growing region north of Los Angeles, for 18 months confronting the bracero issue. 

Agricultural Workers Association

In 1960:  Dolores Huerta co-founded the Agricultural Workers Association to set up voter registration drives and pressed local governments for housing improvements. (Chavez, see March 31, 1962; Voting Rights, see May 6)

August Peace Love Art Activism

LSD

Diseases of the Nervous System

In August 1950:  “L. S. D. 25 As an Aid in Psychotherapy” was the first American article about LSD. It appeared in Diseases of the Nervous System. The article presented the possibility that LSD might be useful as an aid to psychotherapy. (text of article)

Al Hubbard

In 1951: Al Hubbard first tried LSD. Hubbard was an early proponent for the drug during the 1950s. He is reputed to have been the “Johnny Appleseed of LSD” and the first person to emphasize LSD’s potential as a visionary or transcendental drug. Hubbard may have introduced more than 6,000 people to LSD, including scientists, politicians, intelligence officials, diplomats, and church figures. Hubbard, then forty-nine years old, eagerly sought out others familiar with hallucinogenic drugs, including Aldous Huxley, the eminent British novelist who for years had been preoccupied with the specter of drug-induced thought control.

Most people are walking in their sleep,” Hubbard said. “Turn them around, start them in the opposite direction and they wouldn’t even know the difference. [but]  give them a good dose of LSD and let them see themselves for what they are.” 

Charles Savage

In 1952: Charles Savage published the first study on the use of LSD to treat depression (see December 1952)

Kesey/Leary

In August, 1964 : Ken Kesey & his Merry Pranksters arrive with their Bus to visit Timothy Leary & Richard Alpert at Millbrook, NY. (see Dec 1)

August Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

HUAC

August Peace Love Art Activism

In August 1955: the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) subpoenaed Seeger. Seeger.  Earlier that summer he had written: “We the people suffer by not having the songs we need. We need thousands of new songs these days: humor to poke fun at some of the damn foolishness going on in the world; songs of love and consciences and stir our indignation and anger.” He was an uncooperative witness, gave short answers and asked to show them why the song, “Wasn’t That a Time” was a patriotic song. 

COINTELPRO

August Peace Love Art Activism

In 1956: the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program [COINTELPRO] began. It initiated a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted aimed at surveiling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations, particularly the Communist Party of America. COINTELPRO eventually enlarged to include disruption of the Socialist Workers Party (1961), the Ku Klux Klan (1964), the Nation of Islam, the Black Panther Party (1966), and the entire New Left social/political movement, which included antiwar, community, and religious groups (1968). (Democracy Now articles on COINTELPRO) (see June 21)

August Peace Love Art Activism

see August Music et al for more

Quarrymen

In August 1956: named after his school, John Lennon forms The Quarry Men, The band performed what was known in England as “skiffle” music which was originally an early 20th century American style music. (see July 6, 1957)

Ringo Rory Storm

In August 1959: Ringo Starr begins drumming for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. (Ringo would be Rory’s drummer until August 18, 1960). (see Aug 29)

Beat Brothers

In August 1961: Tony Sheridan and the Beatles or Beat Brothers released “My Bonnie/The Saints (Go Marching In) in Germany. (see Oct 28)

Sam Cooke

In August 1963,  Sam Cooke released Night Beat album.

Bob Dylan

In August, 1964: “I’m Going to Get My Baby Out of Jail” by Len Chandler & Bernice Johnson Reagon. Dylan “stole” the Len Chandler tune to accompany his “The Death of Emmett Till.” (see 1962-03-11) (see Aug 8)

LSD

In August, 1964: Ken Kesey & his Merry Pranksters arrived with their Bus to visit Timothy Leary & Richard Alpert at Millbrook, NY. (see Dec 1)

John Sebastian

In August 1965: The Lovin’ Spoonful (John Sebastian age 19) released their first single, “Do You Believe in Magic” (see Aug 13)

Pink Floyd

In August 1967: Pink Floyd released their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Vietnam

In August 1968: WNEW-FM DJ Rosko reads anti-war column on air. (see Aug 1)

James Brown

In August 1968, James Brown released “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” (see Nov 9)

Santana

In August, 1969: Santana (Carlos Santana age 22) released its first album, Santana. In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Langdon Winner panned Santana as “a masterpiece of hollow techniques” and “a speed freak’s delight – fast, pounding, frantic music with no real content”. He compared the music’s effect to methedrine, which “gives a high with no meaning”, finding Rollie and Santana’s playing repetitively unimaginative amidst a monotony of incompetent rhythms and inconsequential lyrics.

John & Yoko

In August 1971: John & Yoko rent an apartment on Bank Street in NYC’s Grenwich Village. (see Aug 1)

Eric Clapton #1

In August 1974: Eric Clapton’s cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” reached #1 on US singles charts.

August Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

In August 1966: after transgender customers become raucous in a 24-hour San Francisco cafeteria, management called police. When a police officer manhandled one of the patrons, she threw coffee in his face and a riot ensued, eventually spilling out onto the street, destroying police and public property. Following the riot, activists established the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, the first peer-run support and advocacy organization in the world. (see January 1, 1967)

Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality

In August 1987: the American Psychological Association removed the diagnosis of Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality–a persistent lack of heterosexual arousal and distress from a pattern of unwanted homosexual arousal–from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III [DSM-III]. “Whereas the American Psychological Association has been on record since 1975 that ‘homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social and vocational capabilities’…be it resolved that the American Psychological Association urge its members not to use… the ‘302.00 Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality’ diagnosis in the current DSM–III or future editions of either document.” (see Aug 28)

Freedom to Marry

In August  2010: CNN released the first poll to show a national majority supporting the freedom to marry. The poll asked, “Do you think gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriage recognized by law as valid?” 52 percent of the respondents said “Yes,’ 46 percent “No.”  (see Aug 4)

August Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Alcatraz Takeover

In August 1970: California governor Ronald Reagan announced a $50,000 planning grant to the Bay Area Native American Council for programs addressing the needs of urban Indians in the San Francisco Bay Area. (see Aug 21)

Kennewick Man

August Peace Love Art Activism

In August 2002: the U.S. District Court of Oregon ruled that bones of the 9,000 year-old human remains known as Kennewick Man, found in the Columbia River in Washington, be returned to the five Indian tribes that have claimed him as their ancient ancestor, as determined by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. (next NA, see September 21, 2004)

August Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

In August 1997: Linda Tripp encountered Kathleen Willey coming out of Oval Office “disheveled. Her face red and her lipstick was off.” Willey later alleged that Clinton groped her. Clinton’s lawyer, Bill Bennett said in the article that Linda Tripp is not to be believed. (see Clinton for expanded story)

August Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

In August 2005:  The Diocese of Oakland, California, agreed to pay $56m to 56 people. (see December 16, 2006)

August Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

In August 2010:  some states delayed executions because of a shortage of sodium thiopental, a drug used as an anesthetic and given to prisoners during lethal injections. It was one of three drugs used for lethal injection in more than 30 states. Some states had been trying to get additional supplies of the drug for months. In August, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear was asked to sign death warrants for three prisoners in Kentucky but could set only one execution date because it only had a single dose. ‘We’ve had the drug on back order since March,’ said Todd Henson, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Corrections. ‘The company that supplies it to us advised that they were unable to produce it because they weren’t able to get the active ingredient from their supplier.’

Hospira, based in Lake Forest, Ill., was apparently the only manufacturer of the drug. The company told Kentucky officials it won’t be available until early 2011. (see Sept 23)

August Peace Love Art Activism