Tag Archives: February Peace Love Art Activism

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Quakers

February 18, 1688:  in response to fellow Quaker families in Germantown, Pennsylvania, who had decided to practice slavery, members of the Society drafted the first protest against slavery in the new world.

Slave Revolt

In 1709  a plot involving enslaved Indians as well as Africans spread through at least three Virginia counties—James City, Surry, and Isle of Wight. Of the four ringleaders, Scipio, Salvadore, Tom Shaw, and Peter, all but Peter were quickly jailed. [newafrikan77 article] (see April 20 (Easter), 1710)

In Dahomey

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

February 18, 1903: In Dahomey, the first full-length musical written and performed by African Americans appeared on Broadway. It featured music by Will Marion Cook, book by Jesse A. Shipp, and lyrics by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.The play ran for 53 performances. (Curtain Up article) (see Apr 15)

Wilson Watches KKK in White House

February 18, 1915: President Woodrow Wilson had never seen a motion picture until he was offered a chance to see Birth of a Nation in the White House on this day. He had known the author of the book (The Clansman) and play, Thomas Dixon, Jr., in graduate school at Johns Hopkins. The film was also the first motion picture to be shown at the White House. Directed by D. W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation is one of the most important and controversial films in the history of motion pictures. It presented the Southern view of post-Civil War Reconstruction (1865–1877), with racist stereotypes of African-Americans, played by white actors with painted faces, and also presented a heroic view of Ku Klux Klan. Birth of a Nation is famous and influential in the history of motion pictures for its bold and innovative cinematographic techniques.

President Wilson reportedly enjoyed the movie. Born in Virginia, he was sympathetic to the Southern view of Reconstruction. In his own five-volume History of the American People, written before he entered politics, Wilson embraced a similar view of Reconstruction, with a critical view of African-Americans and favorable view of the KKK.

Wilson is often quoted as having said that the movie is “Like writing history with lightening,” but there is no evidence that he actually said that. It is generally assumed that the producers of the film invented the quote to promote the film. (next BH, see Apr 17; Birth, see December 8, 1922)

Fred D. Gray

February 18, 1956:  a Montgomery, AL grand jury charged Fred D Gray, the lawyer for Jeanette Reese,  with “unlawful appearance as an attorney” for representing  Reese after she had withdrawn from the suit. (2017 Case Western PDF “In Honor of Fred Gray”) (see MBB for expanded chronology)

Jimmie Lee Jackson 

February 18, 1965: the Rev James Orange had been arrested and jailed in Perry County, Alabama on charges of disorderly conduct and contributing to the delinquency of minors for enlisting students to aid in voting rights drives. On the night of February 18, around 500 people left Zion United Methodist Church in Marion and attempted a peaceful walk to the Perry County Jail about a half a block away where Orange was being held. The marchers planned to sing hymns and return to the church.

The marchers were met at the Post Office by a line of Marion City police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and Alabama State Troopers. In the standoff, streetlights were abruptly turned off and the police began to beat the protestors. Among those beaten were two United Press International photographers, whose cameras were smashed, and NBC News correspondent Richard Valeriani, who was beaten so badly that he was hospitalized. The marchers turned and scattered back towards the church.

Twenty-six-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson, his mother Viola Jackson, and his 82-year-old grandfather, Cager Lee, ran into Mack’s Café behind the church, pursued by Alabama State Troopers. Police clubbed Cager Lee to the floor in the kitchen. The police continued to beat the cowering octogenarian Lee, and when his daughter Viola attempted to pull the police off, she was also beaten. When Jimmie Lee attempted to protect his mother, one trooper threw him against a cigarette machine. A second trooper shot Jimmie Lee twice in the abdomen. James Bonard Fowler later admitted to being that trooper. Although shot twice, Jimmie Lee fled the café amid additional blows from police clubs and collapsed in front of the bus station. Jackson made a statement to a lawyer, Oscar Adams of Birmingham in the presence of FBI officials stating he was “clubbed down” by State Troopers after he was shot and had run away from the café. (BH, see Feb 21; see Jackson for expanded story)

Emmett Till

February 18, 2013: Epic Records Chairman Antonio “L.A.” Reid apologized to the family of slain civil rights figure Emmett Till, and said tht his label is working to remove from circulation a remix of the track “Karate Chop” by Atlanta rapper Future that included a vulgar sexual reference by fellow rapper Lil Wayne invoking Till’s name. “Just ended a conversation with L.A. Reid, CEO of Epic,” reads a recent post on the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation Facebook page. Mobley was Till’s mother. (BH, see April 5; see Till for expanded story)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestones

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

February 18, 1885: Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Even in 1885, two decades after the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn landed was controversial. A month after its publication, a Concord, Massachusetts, library banned the book, calling its subject matter “tawdry” and its narrative voice “coarse” and “ignorant.” Other libraries followed suit, beginning a controversy that continued long after Twain’s death in 1910.

In the 1950s, the book came under fire from African-American groups for being racist in its portrayal of black characters, despite the fact that it was seen by many as a strong criticism of racism and slavery. In 1998, an Arizona parent sued her school district, claiming that making Twain’s novel required high school reading made already existing racial tensions even worse. (see March 29, 1886)

First Academy Awards

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

February 18, 1929: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences telegramed the winners of the first Academy Awards. The first award recipients’ names were printed on the back page of the academy’s newsletter. A few days later, Variety published the information–on page seven.  The awards ceremony was on May 16 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. (see April 6, 1930)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism
US Labor History
Screen Actors Guild

February 18, 1953: the Screen Actors Guild’s first-ever strike – which began over filmed television commercials – ended when a contract was reached that covered all work in commercials. An actual ceremony was held three months later on May 16. (2016 Telegraphy article) (see Nov 30)

Yablonskis murder trial

February 18, 1978: for a second time, a jury found W.A. Boyle guilty of first-degree murder in the the Joseph Yablonski, his wife, and their daughter. (LH, see Apr 25; Yablonski, see July 8, 1982)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Arthur Miller

February 18, 1957: a Federal grand jury indicted Arthur Miller, playwright, on charges of contempt of Congress. He had refused to name names before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

The same jury returned a similar indictment against Otto Nathan, an associate professor at New York University and executor of the estate of Dr. Albert Einstein.

Miller was a witness in June 1956 before the House committee. He testified then that he had never been a Communist, but he acknowledged that he had been associated in the past with a number of Communist-front groups. He testified he was present at five or six meetings of Communist authors in New York in 1947.

Miller told the committee he “would not support now a cause dominated by Communists,” but he added, “my conscience will not permit me to use the name of another person and bring trouble to him.”

The two questions he was charged with unlawfully refusing to answer were:

  1. “Can you tell us who was there when you walked into the room?”
  2. “Was Arnaud d’Usseau chairman of this meeting of Communist party writers which took place in 1947 at which you were in attendance?” (NYT article) (see Feb 24)
Bertrand Russell

February 18, 1961: Bertrand Russell, 89, lead March of 20,000 & sit-down of 5,000 anti-nuke demonstration outside U.K. Defense Ministry. He was jailed for 7 days. (see “in March”)

United States embargo

February 18, 1964: the United States cut off military assistance to Britain, France, and Yugoslavia in retaliation for their continuing trade with the communist nation of Cuba. The action was chiefly symbolic, but represented the continued U.S. effort to destabilize the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro.

The amount of aid denied was minuscule–approximately $100,000 in assistance to each nation. None of the nations indicated that the aid cut-off would affect their trade with Cuba in the least. America’s decision to terminate the trade, therefore, hardly had a decisive effect. Many commentators at the time concluded that the U.S. action was largely a result of frustration at not being able to bring down the Castro government. (2016 Politico article) (see May 19)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Robert F. Kennedy

February 18, 1962: while in Saigon, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy said: “We are going to win in Vietnam. We will remain here until we do win.When asked whether the US was involved in a “war,” Kennedy said, “We are involved in a struggle.” When asked to clarify the difference, he said, “It is a legal difference. Perhaps it adds up to the same thing. It is a struggle short of war.” Kennedy added,  “I think the American people understand and fully support this struggle.” (see Feb 21)

Bombing North Vietnam

February 18, 1965: the US State Department sent secret cables to U.S. ambassadors in nine friendly nations advising of forthcoming bombing operations over North Vietnam, and instructed them to inform their host governments “in strictest confidence” and to report reactions. President Lyndon Johnson wanted these governments to be aware of what he was planning to do in the upcoming bombing campaign.

Johnson made the controversial decision to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam because of the deteriorating military conditions in South Vietnam. Earlier in the month, he had ordered Operation Flaming Dart in response to communist attacks on U.S. installations in South Vietnam. It was hoped that these retaliatory raids would cause the North Vietnamese to cease support of Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam, but they did not have the desired effect. Out of frustration, Johnson turned to a more extensive use of air power. (see Feb 19)

All-time High

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

February 18, 1968: American officials in Saigon reported an all-time high weekly rate of U.S. casualties–543 killed in action and 2,547 wounded in the previous seven days. These losses were a result of the heavy fighting during the Tet Offensive. (see Feb 20)

STUDENT ACTIVISIM

February 18, 1969: Howard University students seized Administration Building and boycotted classes (Washington, DC). (Vietnam, see Feb 22; SA see Feb 24)

Chicago 8

February 18, 1970: all Chicago Seven defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy. Two (Froines and Weiner) were acquitted completely, while the remaining five were convicted of crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot, a crime instituted by the anti-riot provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. (2000 Jurist article) (see Feb 20)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

February 18, 1965: Gambia independent from United Kingdom.  (Access Gambia article on Gambia) (see ID for more 1960s’ Independence Days)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical Weapons News

Bomb Shelters

February 18, 1965: Sect. of Defense Robert McNamara called for nationwide network of bomb shelters. (see January 17, 1966)

J Robert Oppenheimer

February 18, 1967: J Robert Oppenheimer, the nuclear physicist who headed the United States’ development of the first atomic bomb, died. [NYT obit] (next N/C N, see May 19)

Sister Megan Rice

February 18, 2014: Judge Amul Thapar of Federal District Court sentenced an 84-year-old Sister Megan Rice, to 35 months in prison for breaking into a facility where enriched uranium for nuclear bombs is stored. Thapar sentenced Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, the other two others who took part, to 62 months. “Her crimes are minimal in comparison to the others,” the judge said. The three admitted to spray painting peace slogans and hammering on exterior walls of the facility. When a guard confronted them, they offered him food and began singing. The complex is the primary American site for processing and storage of enriched uranium. (Nuclear, see Oct 26; Rice, see May 8, 2015)

Iran

February 18, 2021: Biden administration said that the US was willing to sit down for talks with Tehran and other signatories to the Iran nuclear deal, before either side has taken any tangible action to salvage or return to compliance with the agreement.

The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 [the permanent members of the UN Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — and Germany] and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. [CNN article] (next N/C N and Iran, see  Apr 2)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

February 18 Music et al

February 18 – March 3, 1967: “Kind of a Drag” by the Buckinghams #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

February 18, 1972: the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty (People v Anderson). Charles Manson’s death penalty changed to life imprisonment. (DP, see June 29; CM, see September 5, 1975)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

February 18, 1996:  an IRA briefcase bomb in a bus kills the bomber and injures 9 in the West End of London. (BBC “On This Day” article) (see Troubles for expanded story)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 18, 1998: one of President Bill Clinton’s closest advisers, Bruce Lindsey, spent the day before the Whitewater grand jury. The hearing was stopped briefly when questions of executive privilege are raised. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

February 18, 2007:  a Washington Post investigation revealed that returning soldiers faced deplorable conditions at Walter Reed’s outpatient center: The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses. [Washington Post article] (see Mar 27)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

War in  Afghanistan

February 18, 2009: President Obama ordered the deployment of 17,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan. [NYT article]

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Los Angeles Archdiocese

February 18, 2014: the Los Angeles Archdiocese settled what officials said was the last of its pending priest molestation lawsuits, bringing to a close a decade of wrenching abuse litigation that cost the Catholic Church more than $740 million.

The church reached the $13-million agreement with 17 victims last week, on the eve of a trial scheduled to begin February 14 over the alleged acts of Father Nicolas Aguilar-Rivera, a visiting cleric from Mexico who police believe molested more than two dozen boys over a mere nine months in 1987.

Eleven men, who were ages 7 to 12 when they were allegedly abused by the priest, were scheduled to appear in court to argue that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his aides had allowed the priest to flee in the days before police were notified. [LA Times article] (next SA of C, see Mar 17)

Boy Scouts Bankrupt

February 18, 2020: the NYT reported that The Boy Scouts of America  filed for bankruptcy protection succumbing to financial pressures that included a surge in legal costs over its handling of sexual abuse allegations.

The Boy Scouts had long maintained internal files at their headquarters in Texas detailing decades of allegations involving nearly 8,000 “perpetrators,” according to an expert hired by the organization. In recent months lawyers said that former scouts had come forward to identify hundreds of other abusers not included in those files.  (next BSA and SAofC see Nov 15)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health & Feminism

Norma McCorvey

February 18, 2017:  Norma McCorvey, the anonymous plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the United States, reshaping the nation’s social and political landscapes, and inflaming one of the most divisive controversies of the past half-century, died on in Katy, Tex. She was 69. [NYT obit] (WH, Mar 6 see ; Feminism, see Mar 8)

South Carolina

February 18, 2021: South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster  signed the “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act which would prohibit abortion as soon as cardiac activity can be detected with an ultrasound. The only exceptions would occur in cases of rape, incest or when a mother’s life is in danger.

That left a window of about five to six weeks to legally terminate a pregnancy, which was often before a patient is aware they’re pregnant. Doctors who performed the procedure after that time would face felony charges. [AP News article] (next WH, see Feb 19)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump’s Wall

February 18, 2019: a coalition of 16 states challenged President Trump in court over his plan to use emergency powers to spend billions of dollars on his border wall.

The suit, filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco, argued that the president did not have the power to divert funds for constructing a wall along the Mexican border because it was Congress that controled spending. [Read the full lawsuit here.] (IH & TW, see Feb 26)

February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Space

February 18, 2021: the NASA Perseverance rover safely landed on Mars after its 292.5 million-mile journey from Earth, the agency confirmed at 3:55 p.m. ET Thursday. The rover landed itself flawlessly, according to the mission’s team.

“Percy,” as the spacecraft is affectionately called at mission control, sent back its first images of the landing site immediately after touchdown, which shows the rover’s shadow on the surface of its landing site of Jezero Crater.
A primary objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars was astrobiology research, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. [CNN article] (next Space, see Apr 19)
February 18 Peace Love Art Activism

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Emma Goldman

February 17, 1940: living in Toronto, Goldman suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed on her right side and unable to speak. (see Goldman for expanded story)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

February 17, 1947: with the words, “Hello! This is New York calling,” the U.S. Voice of America (VOA) began its first radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union. The VOA effort was an important part of America’s propaganda campaign against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. [Politico article] (see Mar 21)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical Weapons News

UK/H-bomb

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

February 17, 1955: Britain announced its ability to make hydrogen bombs. (see July 9)

UK/Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

February 17, 1958: 5,000 people committed to abolishing nuclear weapons gathered at the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s founding meeting in Westminster, England. (see Gerald Holtom for expanded story) (see Feb 21)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Willie Earle lynched

February 17, 1947:  Willie Earle, a twenty-four-year-old African American man, was being held in the Pickens County Jail in South Carolina, on charges of assaulting a white taxi cab driver. A mob of white men–mostly taxi cab drivers–seized Earle from the jail, took him to a deserted country road near Greenville, brutally beat him with guns and knives, and then shot him to death.

When arrested, twenty-six of the thirty-one defendants gave full statements admitting participation in Earle’s death. A trial commenced, and at its start, Judge J. Robert Martin warned that he would “not allow racial issues to be injected in this case.” During the ten-day trial, the defendants chewed gum and chuckled each time the victim was mentioned. The defense did not present any witnesses or evidence to rebut the confessions, and instead blamed “northern interference” for bringing the case to trial at all. At one point, the defense attorney likened Earle to a “mad dog” that deserved killing, and the mostly white spectators laughed in support.

Despite the undisputed confession, the all-white jury acquitted the defendants of all charges on May 21, 1947, and the judge ordered them released. Some Greenville leaders cited the trial as progress in Southern race relations: “This was the first time that South Carolina has brought mass murder charges against alleged lynchers. This jury acquitted them. If there should be another case, perhaps we may get a mistrial with a hung jury. Eventually, the south may return convictions.” [EJI aticle] (next BH, see Feb 21)

MLK, Jr and perjury

February 17, 1960: Alabama authorities sought to stop the civil rights movement by indicting Martin Luther King Jr. for perjury, claiming he lied about his taxes. Three months later, King went on trial, facing a white judge, a white prosecutor and an all-white jury. The jury acquitted him on all charges. (BH, see Feb 22 – 28; MLK, see May 4, 1960)

George Whitmore, Jr

February 17, 1965: Whitmore’s attorney, Stanley J Reiben, said that he had covered the route supposed to have been followed by Whitmore before the attack on Elba Borrero and stated that Whitmore “would have to have a vehicle or be an Olympic runner” to get from his former girl friend’s house to an elevated subway station seven blocks away, follow Borrero back from the station nearly five blocks to her home, attack her, and run away. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

February 17 Music et al

“Duke of Earl”

February 17 – March 9, 1962 – “Duke of Earl” by Gene Chandler #1 Billboard Hot 100.

“Good Vibrations”

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

February 17, 1966, Brian Wilson began recording one song: “Good Vibrations.” Six months, four studios and $50,000 later, he finally completed the three-minute-and-thirty-nine-second song pieced together from more than 90 hours of tape recorded during  hundreds of sessions. (BB, see May 16; GV, see Oct 4)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

February 17, 1964:  the Wesberry v. Sanders case involved congressional districts in Georgia. On this date the US Supreme Court decided that each state was required to draw districts so that they are approximately equal in population.

Nationally, this decision effectively reduced the representation of rural districts in the U.S. Congress. Particularly, the Court held that the population differences among Georgia’s congressional districts were so great as to violate the Constitution.

In reaching this landmark decision, the Supreme Court asserted that Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution required that representatives shall be chosen “by the People of the several States” and shall be “apportioned among the several States…according to their respective Numbers….” These words, the Court held, mean that “as nearly as practicable one man’s vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another’s.” (see June 10)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

February 17, 1968: the German Students for a Democratic Society hosted student activists from around the world at an international meeting against the Vietnam War. The International Vietnam Congress was the first large-scale international meeting of 1968.

It took place at the Auditorium maximum of the Technical University of Berlin in West Berlin. The event proved to be an important milestone of the German student movement of the 1960s. Approximately 5,000 participants and 44 delegations from 14 countries took part. [ieg picture w caption]   (next Vietnam, see Feb 18)

Cultural Milestone

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

February 17, 1972: the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle came off the assembly line, breaking a world car production record held for more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company’s iconic Model T, which was in production from 1908 and 1927. (next CM, see Nov 8; next Beetle, see July 10, 2019)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism
Lt. Col. William Higgins

February 17, 1988: in southern Lebanon, Iranian-backed terrorists kidnapped Lt. Col. William Higgins, a Marine Corps officer serving with a United Nations truce monitoring group. (Terrorism,see July 3; Higgins, see August 1, 1989)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

February 17, 2006: Tule Lake Segregation Center was designated a National Historic Landmark. It was not only the largest of the 10 War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps but also the last one to shut down, in 1946, seven months after the end of the war. Tule Lake became a National Monument in December 2008. (see  Internment for expanded story)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of Yugoslavia

INDEPENDENCE DAY

 

February 17, 2008: Republic of Kosovo independent from Serbia (partially recognized; not a member of the United Nations). (next ID, see July 9, 2011;  see Yugoslavia for expanded chronology)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

February 17, 2010:  the Iowa Board of Pharmacy recommended that the Iowa Legislature reclassify marijuana from Schedule I of the Iowa Controlled Substances Act into Schedule II of the Act. A Schedule II drug includes narcotic drugs with a high potential for abuse but with currently accepted medical use in treatment. (see Cannabis for expanded chronology)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

February 17, 2011: while large demonstrations in Wisconsin over a bill that aimed at reducing spending on most government employees and remove their collective bargaining rights apart from restricted wage negotiation, 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators fled the state to delay the vote on the bill by preventing a quorum in the senate. (see Mar 11)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

February 17, 2015: Judge Guy Herman ruled that the Texas state ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. The ruling emerged from an estate dispute in which an Austin resident named Sonemaly Phrasavath argued that her eight-year relationship to Stella Powell should have been classified as a common-law marriage. Powell died without a valid will in June 2014 after having been diagnosed with colon cancer eight months prior. After her death, a legal dispute over her estate developed between Phrasavath and two of Powell’s siblings. Phrasavath stated that she didn’t intend to set a legal precedent when she entered the court. “I can’t imagine anyone being married for 6 or 7 years, then having to walk away after losing their spouse and feel like the marriage never happened,” she said. [Huff Post article] (see Feb 19)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

February 17, 2015: US Attorney General Eric Holder called for a moratorium on the death penalty pending a Supreme Court decision on the use of lethal injection drugs in Oklahoma.

Speaking at a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Holder, noting that he was speaking in a personal capacity and not as a member of the administration, said the “inevitable” possibility of executing an innocent individual was what makes him oppose capital punishment.

“Our system of justice is the best in the world. It is comprised of men and women who do the best they can, get it right more often than not, substantially more right than wrong,” Holder said. “There’s always the possibility that mistakes will be made … It’s for that reason that I am opposed to the death penalty.” (Death Penalty Information Center site article) (see Mar 2)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

February 17, 2017: after trying repeated times and getting no answer from the White House and Department of Homeland Security, the Associated Press’s reported that, based on a leaked report, the administration was considering using as many as 100,000 National Guard troops “to round up” undocumented immigrants.

The administration reacted saying that the leaked report was “100 percent false.”  An hour later the administration acknowledged that the story was based on a real document. (Guardian article) (see Mar 6)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

February 17, 2020: the NYT reported that Amazon’s chief executive Jeff Bezos, announced that he was committing $10 billion to address the climate crisis in a new initiative he called the Bezos Earth Fund.

The effort would fund scientists, activists and nongovernmental organizations, he said in a post on Instagram. Amazon employees had pushed Bezos on climate issues. He said he expected to start issuing grants by summer.

“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,” he wrote. “I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share.” (next EI, see Feb 19)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Failed Cherokee rescue

February 16, 1760: Cherokee Indians failed to rescue Cherokee hostages held in Fort St. George (South Carolina). In revenge, the British killed all the hostages. 

1789 US Constitution & Native Americans
  • Article 1 Section 3: 3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed. [Indians not counted in population]
  • Article 1, Section 8: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; [Indians are treated as a foreign group
Jefferson’s plan to get Native American’s land

In 1803: in a private letter to William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory, President Thomas Jefferson outlined an Indian policy that would result in the natives ceding land to the United States. He stated [my underlining]: To promote this disposition to exchange lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we shall push our trading uses, and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands. He added, “…we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be foolhardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation.” (see October 5, 1813)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Missouri

February 16, 1847: the Missouri legislature passed an act that prohibited “Negroes and mulattoes” from learning to read and write and assembling freely for worship services. The act also forbade the migration of free blacks to the state. The penalty for anyone violating any of the law’s provisions was a fine not to exceed five thousand dollars, a jail term not to exceed six months, or a combination of fine and jail sentence.

The 1847 law supplemented a Missouri law passed in 1825 that imposed various restrictions on free black people. The 1825 law defined a black person as anyone having at least one black grandparent, and made a distinction between those considered full-blooded Negroes and mixed-blooded mulattoes. The 1825 law also prohibited free blacks from keeping or carrying weapons without a special permit and settling in Missouri without a certificate of citizenship from Missouri or another state. Free blacks who migrated to or through Missouri without citizenship documents faced arrest, a court order to leave the state within thirty days, and a punishment of ten lashes. Under the 1825 law, white ship captains and labor bosses were permitted to bring free blacks into the state as workers, though for no longer than six months at a time.

In 1840, nearly 13 percent of Missouri’s population was composed of enslaved black people, while free black people made up less than one percent of the state’s residents. The 1847 law was enacted to place further limitations on the black population and calm fears of a possible rebellion. (see June 30)

U.S. Navy

February 16, 1944: the U.S. Navy began training its first African-American officers. More than 100,000 African Americans were in the Navy in World War II, many of them forced to serve as laborers, support crew and cooks. None were officers. After pressure from civil rights groups, the Navy responded by commissioning 16 African-American officers and sending them for training. (next BH, see Mar 13)

Black Liberation Front

February 16, 1965: the New York City police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the help of the Royal Canadian Police broke up a plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument.  The four were: Walter Augustus Bowe, Khaicel Sultan Sayyed , leader Robert Steele Collier, and Canadian Michelle Duclos,The men were part of an extremist organization known as the “Black Liberation Front” (BLF), while Duclos was a member of the Quebec secessionist group Rassemblement pour l’Indépendance Nationale. (Chicago Tribune headline)  (BH, see Feb 17; next Terrorism, see June 14)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAYS

Lithuania twice

February 16, 1918: Lithuania independent from the Russian and German Empires. (see Feb 24)

February 16, 1990: Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. (see Mar 15)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Furrier strike

February 16, 1926:  the beginning of a 17-week general strike of 12,000 New York furriers, in which Jewish workers formed a coalition with Greek and African American workers and became the first union to win a 5-day, 40-hour week (see May 1)

Milwaukee teacher strike

February 16, 2011: public schools in Milwaukee and Madison, Wisc., closed as teachers call in sick to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to gut their collective bargaining rights. (see Feb 17)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism
Technological & Cultural Milestones
Nylon

February 16, 1937: Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont, received a patent for nylon. (see April 30, 1939)

The Camel Newsreel Theatre

February 16, 1948: NBC-TV aired the first nightly newscast, “The Camel Newsreel Theatre,” which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels. The program was 10-minutes long. (see June 20)

911

February 16, 1968:  the nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala. (NENA article on history or 9-1-1) (see September 2, 1969)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Fidel Castro

February 16, 1959: Fidel Castro became prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile. Castro, who became commander in chief of Cuba’s armed forces after Batista was ousted on January 1, replaced the more moderate Miro Cardona as head of the country’s new provisional government. (see Apr 15)

Boston SANE

February 16, 1962: Boston SANE [Sane Nuclear Policy (1957)] & fledgling Students for a Democratic Society held first anti-nuclear march on Washington with 4000 – 8000 protesters. (see Apr 14)

Flights to Cuba

February 16, 2016: the Obama administration’s top transportation officials joined Cuban dignitaries at the Hotel Nacional in Havana to sign an agreement that restored commercial airline service between the two countries for the first time in more than 50 years. (see Mar 20)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

February 16 Music et al

Beatles/Ed Sullivan

February 16, 1964: second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. This time in Miami. An estimated 70 million viewers watch that night Set list: She Loves You > That Boy > All My Loving; I Saw Her Standing There > With Love From Me To You > I Want To Hold Your Hand [Sullivan also refers to upcoming Clay/Liston fight in Miami] (see Ed Sullivan Meets the Beatles Again for more)(next Beatles, see Feb 18

Beatles/India

February 16, 1968: Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Donovan and others travel to India to visit the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh.  (see Apr 12)

Tony Sheridan

February 16, 2013: Tony Sheridan, the British guitarist, singer and songwriter who was the star on the Beatles’ first commercial recording — they were the backup band—died. (next Beatles, see March 21, 2016)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

February 16, 1968: U.S. officials reported that, in addition to the 800,000 people listed as refugees prior to January 30, the fighting during the Tet Offensive created 350,000 new refugees. (see Feb 18)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

February 16, 1971: Nixon began secret recordings using a newly installed taping system in White House. (see Watergate for expanded story)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

February 16, 1974: in a second tape recording, Patty Hearst asked her parents to “stop acting like I’m dead.” DeFreeze says that the S.L.A. is looking for “a good faith gesture.”  The SLA had kidnapped Hearst on February 4. (see Patti Hearst for expanded story)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

February 16, 2012: Judge Nancy Edmunds of Federal District Court in Detroit sentenced the so-called “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to four consecutive life sentences plus 50 years. (Justice Dept article) (Terrorism, see Feb 29; Abdulmutallab, see January 13, 2014)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ & Marriage

NJ approves same-sex marriage

February 16, 2012: The New Jersey legislature approved the freedom to marry, but soon after, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed the bill. 

Pew Research

February 16, 2012, the Pew Research Center reported that about 15% of all new marriages in the United States in 2010 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from one another, more than double the share in 1980 (6.7%). Among all newlyweds in 2010, 9% of whites, 17% of blacks, 26% of Hispanics and 28% of Asians married out. Looking at all married couples in 2010, regardless of when they married, the share of intermarriages reached an all-time high of 8.4%. In 1980, that share was just 3.2%. (see Feb 22)

Baker/McConnell

February 16, 2019, just two days after Valentine’s Day, the Social Security Administration sent a letter to Jack Baker and Michael McConnell confirming once and for all that their 1971 marriage was legal, stating that they were indeed entitled to monthly husband’s benefits. (see Baker/McConnell for expanded chronology; next LGBTQ, see Feb 26)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Obama policy halted

February 16, 2015: Federal District Judge Andrew S. Hanen in Brownsville, Texas ordered a temporary halt to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, siding with Texas and 25 other states that filed a lawsuit opposing the initiatives. (see Feb 23)

Hanen prohibited the Obama administration from carrying out programs the president announced in November that would offer protection from deportation and work permits to as many as five million undocumented immigrants. The first of those programs was scheduled to start receiving applications February 17. (IH, see Feb 23; Obama, see May 26)

Immigrant boycott

February 16, 2017: in a prequel to a May 1 protest, businesses in cities across the country closed as immigrants boycotted their jobs, classes and shopping. Immigrants in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Austin, Texas, and other major U.S. cities planned to stay home as part of a strike called “A Day Without Immigrants.” (see Feb 17)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Train oil spill

February 16, 2015: a CSX train carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken formation derailed in the Mount Carbon area of Fayette County, West Virginia sending oil tankers off the tracks, with some reaching the Kanawha River.

The train, consisting of two locomotives and 109 rail cars, was en route to Yorktown, Va. (Reuters story) (see Feb 24)

Trump eases coal mining rules

February 16, 2017: President Trump signed legislation ending an Obama administration coal mining rule. The bill quashes the Office of Surface Mining’s Stream Protection Rule, a regulation to protect waterways from coal mining waste that officials had finalized in December 2016. (see Mar 9)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

February 16, 2019: Pope Francis expelled Theodore E. McCarrick, a former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, from the priesthood, after the church found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adult seminarians over decades.

The move appears to be the first time any cardinal has been defrocked for sexual abuse — marking a critical moment in the Vatican’s handling of a scandal that has gripped the church for nearly two decades. It was also the first time an American cardinal had been removed from the priesthood.

In a statement, the Vatican said McCarrick had been dismissed after he was tried and found guilty of several crimes, including soliciting sex during confession and “sins” with minors and with adults, “with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.” (next SAC, see Feb 21, next McCarrick, see July 28, 2021)

February 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

February 16, 2024: the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law.

The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

“Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in a majority ruling by the all-Republican court. [AP article] (next WH, see Mar 4; Alabama, see Mar 6)