August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Slave Revolts

August 22, 1791: Haiti slave revolt. Former slave Toussaint L’Ouverture led a slave revolt in Haiti, West Indies. He is captured in 1802, but the revolt continues and Haitian independence is declared. Southerners are terrified by these events as they discourage the importation of slaves into the United States. [Black Past article] (BH, see February 12, 1793; SR, see August 30, 1800)

Nat Turner

August 22, 1831: Nat Turner decided to march toward Jerusalem, the closest town. By then word of the rebellion had gotten out to the whites; confronted by a group of militia, the rebels scattered, and Turner’s force became disorganized. After spending the night near some slave cabins, Turner and his men attempted to attack another house, but were repulsed. One slave was killed and many escaped, including Turner.

In the end, the rebels had stabbed, shot and clubbed at least 55 white people to death.Turner escaped and remained free for nearly two months.

In those two months though, the militia and white vigilantes instituted a reign of terror over slaves in the region. Hundreds of blacks were killed. White Virginians panicked over fears of a larger slave revolt and soon instituted more restrictive laws regulating slave life. (next BH, see Sept 21; see NT for expanded Turner chronology)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

August 22, 1924: the famed attorney Clarence Darrow gave a celebrated closing argument in the trial of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, on trial for the murder of Bobby Franks in Chicago. The Leopolds were two highly intellectual sons of wealthy parents who committed the murder to see if they could commit the perfect crime. Darrow’s closing argument lasted for an incredible 12 hours as he pleaded that the defendants not be sentenced to death. (He did not argue that they were innocent.) Darrow was a passionate and longtime opponent of the death penalty.

At the end of his argument, the judge was in tears, and he then sentenced the two to life in prison. [Smithsonian article] (see May 1, 1932)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History & Feminism

August 22, 1945: five flight attendants form the Airline Stewardesses Association, the first labor union representing flight attendants. They were reacting to an industry in which women were forced to retire at the age of 32, remain single, and adhere to strict weight, height and appearance requirements. The association later became the Association of Flight Attendants, now a division of the Communications Workers of America. [CWA article]

Post-war strikes

In 1946, workers struck to win wage increases in the face of postwar inflation. The wave of strikes was the worst since 1919 and included general strikes in Hartford, Houston, Oakland, and other cities. (see Jan 16)

BLACK HISTORY & Feminism

In 1946, The Women’s Political Council formed as a civic organization for African-American professional women in Montgomery, Alabama. It was inspired by the Atlanta Neighborhood Union. Many of its middle-class women were active in education; most of WPC’s members were educators at Alabama State College or Montgomery’s public schools. About forty women attended the first organizational meeting. Mary Fair Burks, who was head of Alabama State’s English department, was the group’s first president.  [Black Past article] (Feminism, see July 9, 1947)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

19th Amendment

August 22, 1973: after voting to ratify the 1920 amendment in 1969, South Carolina certified the 19^th Amendment. (Feminism, see September 20, 1973; Voting Rights, see August 22, 1978)

District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment

August 22, 1978: Congress passed as a resolution the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, which proposed to give the District full representation in the United States Congress, full representation in the Electoral College system, and full participation in the process by which the U.S. Constitution is amended.

August 22, 1986: the deadline for the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment passed. It required the approval of lawmakers in at least 38 of the 50 states. It was ratified by the legislatures of only 16 states (see June 30, 1995):

• New Jersey on Sept 11, 1978
• Michigan on December 13, 1978
• Ohio on December 21, 1978
• Minnesota on March 19, 1979
• Massachusetts on Mar 19, 1979
• Connecticut on April 11, 1979

• Connecticut on April 11, 1979
• Wisconsin on November 1, 1979
• Maryland on March 19, 1980
• Hawaii on April 17, 1980
• Oregon on July 6, 1981
• Maine on February 16, 1983

• West Virginia on Feb 23, 1983
• Rhode Island on May 13, 1983
• Iowa on January 19, 1984
• Louisiana on June 24, 1984
• Delaware on June 28, 1984

US Labor History, Feminism & Nuclear/Chemical News

August 22, 1986: The Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit. She was a union activist who died in 1974 under suspicious circumstances on her way to talk to a reporter about safety concerns at her plutonium fuel plant in Oklahoma. [Legacy dot com article] (LH, & Feminism, see Oct 6; Nuclear, see February 28, 1987)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Opposition estimation

August 22, 1962: Kennedy administration officials quoted in The New York Times estimated that there were 20,000 guerrilla troops in South Vietnam. Despite hundreds of engagements during the preceding two months and encouraging victories for South Vietnamese forces, the Viet Cong (aka, National Liberation Front) had grown in numbers, and U.S. officials felt that the war had reached a point of stalemate. (see Dec 2)

1972 Republican National Convention

August 22, 1972: the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida renominated President Nixon and Vice President Agnew for a second term. 3,000 antiwar demonstrators, many painted with death masks harassed delegates entering the Convention. The rest of the convention was marked by demonstrations outside the meeting hall; police arrested hundreds of protesters and injured many. (see Sept 17)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

August 22 Music et al

Beatles

Cavern performance filmed

August 22, 1962: Granada Television filmed The Beatles during a lunchtime gig at Liverpool’s Cavern Club for the show “Know The North”. It would be their very first filmed performance. However, it was not aired at the time. At the end of one song, fans can be heard shouting “We want Pete!” in reference to drummer Pete Best, who’d just been kicked out of the group. (see Aug 23)

Where Did Our Love Go

August 22 – September 14, 1964: “Where Did Our Love Go” by The Supremes #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, their first of 13 #1 songs in the 1960s.

see Ringo leaves for more

August 22, 1968: tensions had been building within The Beatles for some time during the recording of the White Album. On this day matters came to a head, and Ringo  left the group. Later, Ringo stated. “While we were recording the ‘White’ album we ended up being more of a band again, and that’s what I always love. I love being in a band. Of course, I must have moments of turmoil, because I left the group for a while that summer. (Beatles, see Aug 23; Ringo, see Sept 3)

Beatles final photo session

August 22, 1969: The Beatles met at John Lennon’s Tittenhurst Park home in England for their final ever photo session. Three shots from this session (by Ethan Russell) formed the front and back covers of the Capitol compilation album Hey Jude. Yoko Ono and a pregnant Linda McCartney (she was to give birth to daughter Mary six days later) appeared in some photographs with The Beatles (see Sept 13)

Philadelphia Folk Festival

August 22 – 24: a few of the many performers: Rev. Gary Davis, Eric Anderssen, Sir Douglas Quintet, Incredible String Band, Odetta, and many others.

Vancouver Pop Festival

August 22, 1969: Vancouver Pop Festival, (Squamish, BC) (see Aug 30) (see Vancouver for expanded story)

Parole denial

August 22, 2012: Mark Chapman, 57, denied parole for a seventh time, Chapman has been given a parole hearing every two years since 2000 and has been turned down each time. [ABC News story] (see February 16, 2013)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

August 22, 1974: The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 enacted. It amended the Housing Act of 1937 to create Section 8 housing [rent supplement] , authorized “Entitlement Communities Grants” to be awarded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, and created the National Institute of Building Sciences. Under Section 810 of the Act the first federal Urban Homesteading program was created. [HUD article] (see April 20, 1976)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

August 22, 2003: Alabama suspended its chief justice, Roy Moore,  for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse. [AP story] (see Aug 28)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

August 22, 2017: Yale University announced that it would remove a “problematic” doorway stone carving that depicted a Puritan settler aiming a musket at a Native American, a decision that follows criticism for initially covering up the musket with removable stonework.

Critics, including right-leaning media, had accused Yale, of whitewashing history and being too politically correct. The university in February decided to rename Calhoun College because its namesake — 19th century alumnus and former U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun — was an ardent supporter of slavery.

Yale had been under fire for decades for refusing to rename Calhoun College, with advocates insisting the name was racially insensitive.

The stone carving would be move to another location and remain available for public viewing and study, The temporary stonework covering the musket would be removed after the relocation. [Toronto Sun article] (see Oct 29)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

August 22, 2018:  the Trump administration proposed replacing a signature Obama-era policy to combat climate change with a weaker plan that would let states write their own rules on coal-fired power plants, prompting critics to warn of dire environmental and health consequences.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal would require states to submit plans for improving efficiency of coal-fired power plants. The federal government would set carbon emission guidelines, but states would have the leeway to set less-stringent standards, taking into account a facility’s age and the cost of upgrades.

Documents released showed the EPA estimated carbon dioxide emissions would be higher than under the Obama policy, while pollution-related premature deaths, hospital admissions, asthma cases and school absence days could be higher by 2030. (see Oct 8)

August 22 Peace Love Art Activism

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Slave Revolts

August 21 – 22, 1831: inspired by the success of a Haitian revolution in 1790 that freed the island’s slaves and threw off French rule, Nat Turner’s rebellion was the most successful of all slave revolts. Turner, a slave preacher, inspired fellow slaves with his apocalyptic visions of white and black angels fighting in heaven. He gathered up his seven original followers and, without the organization or planning of Prosser and Vesey, launched his rebellion by entering his owner’s home and killing the entire family, save for a small infant. They moved from one farm to the next, killing all slave-owning whites they found. As they progressed through Southampton county, other slaves joined in the rebellion.

The next day, Turner and his eighty followers were intercepted by the state militia. In the confrontation that followed, Turner escaped and remained free for nearly two months. In those two months though, the militia and white vigilantes instituted a reign of terror over slaves in the region. Hundreds of blacks were killed. White Virginians panicked over fears of a larger slave revolt and soon instituted more restrictive laws regulating slave life. Turner and his followers were captured on October 30 Following his discovery, capture, and arrest, Turner was interviewed in his jail cell by Thomas Ruffin Gray, a wealthy South Hampton lawyer and slave owner. The resulting extended essay, “The Confessions of Nat Turner, The Leader of the Late Insurrection in South Hampton, VA.,” was used against Turner during his trial.  [Documenting the American South article] (see Nov 10)

Samuel Wilbert Tucker

August 21, 1939: five African-American men recruited and trained by African-American attorney Samuel Wilbert Tucker conducted a sit-in at the then-segregated Alexandria, Va., library and were arrested after being refused library cards. [2014 Alexandria Times article]  (see February 29, 1940)

Emmett Till

August 21, 1955:  Till arrived in Money, Mississippi, to stay at the home of his great uncle Moses Wright. (see Till for the rest of the story)

Black Panthers

August 21, 1971: San Quentin Prison guards shot and killed George Jackson, Black Panther member and writer of Soledad Brother during an escape attempt. He had been imprisoned in 1961 for an armed robbery (robbing a gas station at gunpoint) and at age 18 was sentenced to serve one year to life in prison. He had remained in prison because of his behavior while there.  (BH, see Aug 30; BP, see March 28, 1972 )

Vernon Dahmer

August 21, 1998: a jury convicted Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers of ordering the Klan’s 1966 killing of Vernon Dahmer in Hattiesburg, Miss. Bowers was sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2006.  [NYT obit] (BH, see Sept 13; Dahmer, see January 8, 2016)

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Tourane

August 21, 1858: 2,500 French troops attack Tourane [now Da Nang] to protect French missionaries and other nationals already there. Fighting will continue until 1862. [Alpha History article] (see June 5, 1862)

South Vietnam Leadership

August 21, 1963: after promising outgoing US Ambassador Frederick Nolting that he (President Diem) would take no further repressive steps against the Buddhists and before the new American ambassador, Henry Cabot Lodge, arrived, President Diem and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu (Diem’s chief political adviser) ordered that phone lines of all the senor American officials in Saigon be cut and then sent out hundreds of their Special Forces into pagodas of Saigon, Hue, and other cities. More than fourteen hundred monks and nuns, students, and ordinary citizens were rounded up and taken away. Martial law was imposed, public meetings forbidden, and troops were authorized to shoot anyone found on the streets after nine o’clock. (V & SLV, see Aug 24)

Catholic Left

August 21, 1971:  antiwar protesters associated with the Catholic Left raid draft offices in Buffalo, New York, and Camden, New Jersey, to confiscate and destroy draft records. [NYT article]  (see Sept 9)

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance

August 21, 1952: the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus at its annual meeting adopted a resolution urging that the change be made universal and copies of this resolution were sent to the President, the Vice President (as Presiding Officer of the Senate) and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. (see Pledge for expanded story)

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

August 21 Music et al

see Juvenile Delinquency and Crime Commission for more

August 21, 1955: the Juvenile Delinquency and Crime Commission in Houston, Texas, claimed success on this day in its anti-rock and roll crusade. The effort involved pressuring radio stations not to play recordings with “lewd or suggestive” lyrics. All nine Houston radio stations were cooperating. Almost all of the artists on the Commission’s list were black. (next Fear of Rock, see Aug 26)

Out of Our Heads

August 21 – September 10, 1965: The Rolling Stones’ Out of Our Heads Billboard #1 album.

see Bullfrog II Festival for more

August 21, 22, and 23: Bullfrog II Festival, held on the Pelletier Farm, St Helens, Oregon.

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Alcatraz Takeover

August 21, 1970: the group of Indians who had occupied Alcatraz Island for nine months “exposed” their weapons–one bow and two toy pistols–and then threw the toy pistols into the waters of the San Francisco Bay. (see Nov 21)

Leonard Peltier

August 21, 1987: the State Department said that Leonard Peltier, was a ”convicted criminal” and criticized the Soviet Union for considering his request for political asylum.  Supporters on the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, have said his case is a human rights issue. Dacajeweiah, a Peltier supporter, told reporters that the committee had had no indication that the United States would free him to go to the Soviet Union if asylum was granted.  [www.whoisleonardpeltier.info article] (Peltier, see December 31, 1991; Native Americans, see June 29, 1988)

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of the USSR

INDEPENDENCE DAY

August 21, 1991:  Latvia declares its independence from the Soviet Union. [Washington Post article] (see Aug 24)

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

August 21, 2006:  President George W Bush acknowledged Iraq had “nothing” to do with 9/11. [Think Progress article] (see Aug 29)

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

August 21, 2009: leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers. [PBS article]  (see Sept 10)

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

August 21, 2014: Thomas Windell Smith, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate housing rights. Smith was sentenced to serve five years probation including eight months of home confinement after pleading guilty last year to burning a cross in a black neighborhood in Ozark. Smith admitted that he and Steven Joshua Dinkle burned the cross at the entrance of a black community on May 8, 2009 to intimidate the residents.

Dinkle reportedly used materials from his home to build the wooden 6-foot cross and wrapped it with cloth. He and Smith transported the cross to the black neighborhood, poured fuel on it and set it on fire in view of several houses.

Dinkle, the former Exalted Cyclops of the Ozark chapter of the International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, received a two-year prison sentence for the offense.

Dinkle’s mother, Pamela Morris, was also charged with impeding the investigation. [AL dot com article] (Terrorism, see January 23, 2015; Morris, see February 6, 2015)

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Release of children

August 21, 2015: on July 24 federal judge Dolly M. Gee of Federal District Court for the Central District of California gave the Obama administration two months to change its detention practices to ensure the rapid release of children and their parents caught crossing the border illegally.

Her opinion last month found that the administration had violated the terms of a 1997 court-ordered settlement governing the treatment of unaccompanied children — minors who tried to enter illegally without a parent. The judge determined that the settlement, in a case known as Flores, covered all children in immigration detention, including those held with a parent.

After considering final arguments from both sides, federal judge Dolly M. Gee of Federal District Court for the Central District of California on this date issued an order to put her ruling into effect. She ordered the administration to release children “without unnecessary delay” to a parent or other relative in the United States and, in a significant new mandate, to release the parent as well unless that person posed a flight risk or a threat to national security. The settlement requires the release of children from secure detention within five days.

Judge Gee also prohibited the administration from holding children in secure facilities that are not licensed to care for minors. She ordered the Border Patrol to upgrade the “deplorable” conditions in its front-line stations to ensure a “safe and sanitary” environment for children. She said the new measures must be in place by Oct. 23. (see Sept 4)

Indefinite holding of children

August 21, 2019: the Trump administration unveiled a regulation that would allow it to detain indefinitely migrant families who cross the border illegally, replacing a decades-old court agreement that imposed a limit on how long the government could hold migrant children in custody and specified the level of care they must receive.

The White House has for more than a year pressed the Department of Homeland Security to replace the agreement, known as the Flores settlement, a shift that the administration sais is crucial to halt immigration across the southwestern border. (see Sept 2)

August 21 Peace Love Art Activism

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

National Labor Union

August 20, 1866:  the newly organized National Labor Union called on Congress to mandate an eight-hour workday. A coalition of skilled and unskilled workers, farmers, and reformers, the National Labor Union was created to pressure Congress to enact labor reforms. It dissolved in 1873 following a disappointing venture into third-party politics in the 1872 presidential election.

Although the National Labor Union failed to persuade Congress to shorten the workday, its efforts heightened public awareness of labor issues and increased public support for labor reform in the 1870s and 1880s. [America’s Library article]

Order of the Knights of St Crispin

In 1867, the Order of the Knights of St Crispin, a northeastern American labor union of shoe workers, was founded in 1867. It claimed 50,000 members by 1870. [Stichtingarus article] (see September 17, 1868)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Anarchism in the US

August 20, 1886: seven of the Haymarket anarchists were found guilty and sentenced to death (August Spies, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and Louis Lingg). Oscar Neebe was found guilty of murder and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. [Famous Trials article]  (see Nov 11)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

FEMINISM & Voting Rights

Lafayette Park protesters

August 20, 1918:  Lafayette Park protesters (sentenced Aug.15) released before completing sentences. (see Aug 26)

Harry T. Burn

August 20, 1920: Tennessee became the thirty-sixth and last state needed to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. The state’s decision came down to 23-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn, a Republican from McMinn County, to cast the deciding vote. Although Burn opposed the amendment, his mother convinced him to approve it. (Mrs. Burn reportedly wrote to her son: “Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification.”) With Burn’s vote, the 19th Amendment was ratified. [History dot com article]

Anti-suffragists tried to overturn vote, but after six more days of legal maneuvering, the governor signed a certificate of ratification and mailed it to Washington, D.C., on Aug. 24.

Connecticut, Vermont, Florida, and North Carolina ratified the amendment after August 20, 1920.

Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina (see August 22, 1973), Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi had rejected the amendment, but all later ratified it.  (see August 26, 1920)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Emmett Till

August 20, 1955:  Mamie Till drove her son to the 63rd Street station in Chicago. They kissed goodbye, and Till boarded a southbound train headed for Mississippi. (see Till for expanded story)

Arthur D Shores

August 20, 1963: terrorists bombed the home of Arthur D Shores, a lawyer who had played a major role over the years in desegregation cases. [NYT obit] (BH, see Aug 28; Shores, see Sept 4)

Viola Liuzzo murder

August 20, 1965:  Matt Murphy, the defendants’ lawyer in the Viola Liuzzo murder, was killed in an automobile accident when he fell asleep while driving and crashed into a gas tank truck. Segregationist and former mayor of Birmingham, Art Hanes, agrees to represent three accused killers. (see Liuzzzo for expanded story)

Jonathan Myrick Daniels

August 20, 1965: Jonathan Myrick Daniels, valedictorian of the VMI Class of 1961 and an Episcopal Seminary student in Boston, was killed in Hayneville, Ala. He had come to Alabama to help with African-American voter registration in Lowndes County. Arrested at a demonstration and jailed, he was released with Father Richard F. Morrisroe and two female civil rights workers, Ruby Sales and Joyce Bailey. When the group, which included whites and blacks, tried to buy sodas from nearby Varner’s Cash Store, a white special deputy named Tom L. Coleman blocked their way with a shotgun and pistol. When he leveled his gun at 17-year-old Sales, Daniels pushed her away and caught the full blast of the shotgun, which killed him. When Morrisroe tried to flee with Bailey, Coleman shot Morrisroe, severely wounding him. An all-white jury acquitted Coleman, who was never tried again, and he died in 1997. In 1991, the Episcopal church designated August 14 as a day of remembrance for Daniels and all other martyrs of the civil rights movement. [VMI article]  (see Aug 27)

Wattstax Concert

August 20, 1972: Wattstax Concert held held at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Memphis’s Stax Records organized the event to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots. Wattstax was seen by some as “the Afro-American answer to Woodstock”.

To enable as many members of the black community in L.A. to attend as possible, tickets were sold for only $1.00 each. The Rev Jesse Jackson gave the invocation, which included his “I Am – Somebody” poem, which was recited in a call and response with the assembled stadium crowd. (see Oct 12)

James C. Anderson murder

August 20, 2011: 19-year-old Deryl Dedmo was formally charged with capital murder in the hit-and-run death of James C Anderson. (see Sept 14)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

August 20 Music et al

Technological Milestone

August 20, 1967:  The New York Times reported about a noise reduction system for album and tape recording developed by technicians R. and D.W. Dolby. Elektra Record’s subsidiary, Checkmate Records became the first label to use the new Dolby process in its recordings. (see Dec 3)

Abbey Road

August 20, 1969: The Beatles completed recording Abbey Road, their 11^th and final studio album. They had recorded it that year between February 22 and August 20.  The US release was October 1, 1969. The completion of the track “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” on this date was the last time all four Beatles were together in the same studio.

Although the Beatles recorded Let It Be  mainly before Abbey Road (February 1968; January – February 1969; and January and March 1970, Let It Be would be the 12th and final studio album,  released on May 8, 1970 by the band’s Apple Records label shortly after the group announced their break-up. (see Aug 22)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam &  My Lai Massacre

William Calley

August 20, 1971: William Calley’s sentence to reduced to 20 years. (next Vietnam, see Aug 21)

William Calley speaks

August 20, 2009: for the first time William Calley spoke publicly about My Lai. In front of the Kiwanis Club of Columbus, OH, he said, “There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.” (see My Lai for expanded story)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

August 20, 1981:  tenth hunger striker dies. Michael Devine (27) died after 60 days on hunger strike. [UPI article] (see Troubles for expanded story)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Reagan nominated

August 20 > 23, 1984: Dallas, TX. Republican National Convention nominated incumbents Ronald Reagan for president and George H W Bush for vice-president. The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade participated in a political demonstrations Convention. The demonstrators were protesting the policies of the Reagan Administration and of certain companies based in Dallas. They marched through the streets, shouted chants, and held signs outside the offices of several companies. At one point, another demonstrator handed Gregory Lee “Joey” Johnson an American flag stolen from a flagpole outside one of the targeted buildings. When the demonstrators reached Dallas City Hall, Johnson poured kerosene on the flag and set it on fire.  [UPI article]  (see June 21, 1989)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

August 20, 1988: the Iran–Iraq War ended  with an estimated one million lives lost. [NYT article] (see July 15, 1990)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of the USSR

INDEPENDENCE DAY

August 20, 1991:  Estonia declared its independence from the Soviet Union. [Estonia article] (see Aug 21)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

August 20, 1998: Monica Lewinsky testified before the grand jury for a second time. (see Clinton for expanded story)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Westboro Baptist Church

FREE SPEECH

August 20, 2013: U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig ruled that a measure passed in St. Charles County, Mo. that baned picketing within 300 feet and one hour before or after any burial service.did not restrict Westboro Baptist Church’s first amendment rights, noting a similar measure that passed in Manchester County, Mo. in 2012.

During that case, Eighth Circuit Judge Diana Murphy argued that the ordinance, which placed limitations on picketing, “survives First Amendment scrutiny because it serves a significant government interest, it is narrowly tailored, and it leaves ample alternative channels open for communication.” (see Dec 19)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

August 20, 2018: Pope Francis issued a rare letter to Catholics around the world condemning the “atrocities” of priestly sexual abuse and its cover-up, demanding greater accountability, and asking his flock to “join forces in uprooting this culture of death.”

The pope said that the church would spare no effort to ensure that such situations never happened again. But he acknowledged that much damage had already been done, and that the church had fallen short of its responsibilities, to children, and to the faithful.

“With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives,” Francis wrote. “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.”

A Vatican spokesperson said it may have been the first time a pope has addressed the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics about sexual abuse. (see Aug 26)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

August 20, 2020: scientists trying to understand how much plastic humans were pumping into the ocean and how long it stick around published a study published stating that it might be much more than earlier estimates.

By some measures, the plastic trash that was floating on the surface of the water only accounts for about 1% of the plastic pollution that humans generate.

“If we are missing 99% of plastic that we thought we have put in, it has to be somewhere,” said Katsiaryna Pabortsava, a researcher at the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom. [NPR story] (next EI, see Sept 14)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

August 20, 2020: the Kansas City Chiefs announced new rules for fans attending home games at Arrowhead Stadium, banning headdresses and certain types of face paint in an effort to be more sensitive to Native Americans.

Beginning with the 2020 season, fans would be prohibited from wearing headdresses into the stadium, and would be asked upon arrival to remove “any face paint that is styled in a way that references or appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions.”

The reigning Super Bowl champions were keeping their name but reviewing two longtime traditions, the pre-game drum ceremony and the “Arrowhead Chop.” [NPR story] (next NA, see January 12, 2021)

August 20 Peace Love Art Activism