May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Slaveholder George Washington

May 23, 1796: a newspaper ad was placed seeking the return of Ona “Oney” Judge, an enslaved Black woman who had “absconded from the household of the President of the United States,” George Washington. Ms. Judge had successfully escaped enslavement two days earlier, fleeing Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and settling in freedom in New Hampshire. [see EJI article for expanded Oney story]

Dred Scott

c 1799: Scott born a slave in Virginia. (next BH, see August 30, 1800; see Dred Scott for expanded story)

Dyer Anti-Lynching bill

May 23, 1922; the Senate Committee on the Judiciary concluded that the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill was unconstitutional and for that reason could not submit it to the Senate.  [NAACP article] (see June 14)

George Lincoln Rockwell

May 23, 1961: George Lincoln Rockwell, center, self-styled leader of the American Nazi Party, and his “hate bus” with several young men wearing swastika arm bands, stops for gas in Montgomery, Alabama, en route to Mobile, Alabama. [2017 Washington Post article] (see May 24)

Delray Beach, Fl Segregation

May 23, 1956: the Delray, Florida city commission enacted a formal segregation ordinance that codified years of de facto segregation and barred Black residents from using the Delray municipal beach or pool. Within three weeks of the city’s enactment, three neighboring beachfront towns—Riviera Beach, Lake Worth, and Daytona Beach—had adopted identical segregation ordinances.

Over the next month, the Delray Beach City Commission attempted to get Black leaders in the Delray Civic League to “cooperate” in keeping their fellow Black residents off the municipal beach. The city initially proposed the construction of a separate and unequal beach for Black residents on a 100-foot strip of rocky land. Black leaders rejected this proposal, demanding access to city facilities on equal terms with white citizens. The Civic League requested a 500-foot section of beach and the immediate construction of a pool for Black residents.

In July, the city finally agreed to construct a swimming pool for Black residents, but conditioned the pool’s construction on continued exclusion of Black residents from the municipal beach. The city repealed the segregation ordinance, returning to its decades-long policy of de facto segregation, and subsequently abandoned all plans to construct a beach for Black residents.  [EJI article] (next BH, see May 26)

137 SHOTS

May 23, 2015: Judge John P. O’Donnell acquitted  Michael Brelo. O’Donnell stated, ““The state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, Michael Brelo, knowingly caused the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.” [NYT article] (see 137 for expanded story)

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Toledo Auto-Lite strike

May 23, 1934 (Wednesday): at the Toledo Auto-Lite strike,  the sheriff of Lucas County (Ohio) decided to take action against the picketers. In front of a crowd which numbered nearly 10,000, sheriff’s deputies arrested five picketers. As the five were taken to jail, a deputy began beating an elderly man. Infuriated, the crowd began hurling stones, bricks and bottles at the sheriff’s deputies. A fire hose was turned on the crowd, but the mob seized it and turned the hose back on the deputies. Many deputies fled inside the plant gates, and Auto-Lite managers barricaded the plant doors and turned off the lights. The deputies gathered on the roof and began shooting tear gas bombs into the crowd. So much tear and vomit gas was used that not even the police could enter the riot zone. The mob retaliated by hurling bricks and stones through the plant’s windows for seven hours. The strikers overturned cars in the parking lot and set them ablaze. The inner tubes of car tires were turned into improvised slingshots, and bricks and stones launched at the building. Burning refuse was thrown into the open door of the plant’s shipping department, setting it on fire. In the early evening, the rioters attempted to break into the plant and seize the replacement workers, security personnel and sheriff’s deputies. Police fired shots at the legs of rioters to try to stop them. The gunfire was ineffective, and only one person was (slightly) wounded. Hand-to-hand fighting broke out as the rioters broke into the plant. The mob was repelled, but tried twice more to break into the facility before they gave up late in the evening. More than 20 people were reported injured during the melee. Auto-Lite president Clement O. Miniger was so alarmed by the violence that he ringed his home with a cordon of armed guards. (see Toledo for expanded chronology)

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Judicial Milestone

Johnson v. Zerbst

May 23, 1938: the US Supreme Court held that the federal court had infringed upon Johnson’s life and liberty by not giving him counsel to defend him during trial. Johnson, had been convicted in federal court of feloniously possessing, uttering, and passing counterfeit money in a trial where he had not been represented by an attorney but instead by himself.

Johnson filed for habeas corpus relief, claiming that his Sixth Amendment right to counsel had been violated, but he was denied by both a federal district court and the court of appeals.

This decision set the precedent that defendants [in federal court] have the right to be represented by an attorney unless they waive their right to counsel knowing full well the potential consequences.  [2009 World Socialist article] (see May 20, 1940)

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

May 23, 1957: three police officers arrived at a house in Cleveland and demanded to enter. They wanted to question a man about a recent bombing and believed he was hiding inside. A woman who lived there, Dollree Mapp, refused to admit them.

Mapp told the officers that she wanted to see a search warrant. They did not produce one. A few hours later, more officers arrived and forced their way into the house. Ms. Mapp called her lawyer and again asked to see a warrant. When one officer held up a piece of paper that he said was a warrant, Ms. Mapp snatched it and stuffed it into her blouse. The officer reached inside her clothing and snatched it back.

The officers handcuffed Ms. Mapp — they called her “belligerent” — and then searched her bedroom, where they paged through a photo album and personal papers. They also searched her young daughter’s room, the kitchen, a dining area and the basement.

They did not find the man they were looking for, but they did find what they said were sexually explicit materials — books and drawings that Ms. Mapp said had belonged to a previous boarder — and they arrested Ms. Mapp. [2014 NYT obit] (see June 19, 1961)

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

see May 23 Music et al for more

Theme from a Summer Place album

May 23 – 29, 1960: Theme from a Summer Place album again Billboard #1.

“Cathy’s Clown”

May 23 – June 26, 1960: “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everly Brothers #1 Billboard Hot 100.

Hendrix restricted

May 23, 1962: Jimi Hendrix failed to report for bed check and was again given 14 days of restriction between May 24 and June 6. (see Hendrix/military for expanded chronology)

Our Man In Paris

May 23, 1963,  Dexter Gordon released Our Man In Paris album

1969 Festivals…

see Aquarian Family Festival for more

May 23 – 24, 1969, Aquarian Family Festival, San Jose, CA. (on the San Jose State University football practice field)

see Northern California Folk-Rock Festival for more

May 23 – 25, 1969: Northern California Folk-Rock Festival (Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose, CA)

see Big Rock Pow Wow for more

May 23 – 25, 1969: Big Rock Pow Wow (Seminole Indian Village, Hollywood, FL).

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

see Deborah Sampson for more

May 23, 1983: Governor Michael J. Dukakis signed a proclamation which declared that Deborah Sampson was the Official Heroine of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Two news services stated this was the first time in US history that any state had proclaimed anyone as the official hero or heroine. (see Sampson for expanded story)

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

BSA

May 23, 2013: the Boy Scouts of America ended its longstanding policy of forbidding openly gay youths to participate in its activities, a step its chief executive called “compassionate, caring and kind.” [NYT article]  (LGBTQ see June 20; BSA, see Sept 7)

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

May 23, 2016: President Obama announced at a news conference in Hanoi that the US had rescinded a ban on sales of lethal military equipment to Vietnam, ending one of the last legal vestiges of the Vietnam War.

Mr. Obama portrayed the decision as part of the long process of normalizing relations between the two countries after the Vietnam War. [White House archives article] (see Dec 3)

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

May 23, 2017: Middlebury College disciplined 67 students for their roles in shutting down a speech by the author Charles Murray on March 2.  The college spared the students the most serious penalties in the episode, which left a faculty member injured and came to symbolize a lack of tolerance for conservative ideas on some campuses.

The college issued a statement describing sanctions against the students “ranging from probation to official college discipline, which placed a permanent record in the student’s file.” The statement did not disclose how many students received the harsher punishment, but said, “Some graduate schools and employers require individuals to disclose official discipline in their applications.” None of the students were suspended or expelled. [NYT article] (see June 19)

Colin Kaepernick

May 23, 2018: the National Football League’s 32 owners decided to overhaul N.F.L. policy on protocol for the national anthem. At their two-day meeting in Atlanta, the owners said that the league would allow players to stay in the locker room during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but said that teams would be fined if players “do not stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem.”

Those teams can then punish players however they see fit. (CK, see July 10)

Trump/Twitter

May 23, 2018: Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, addressing a novel issue about how the Constitution applies to social media platforms and public officials, found that the president’s Twitter feed is a public forum. As a result, she ruled that when Mr. Trump or an aide blocked seven plaintiffs from viewing and replying to his posts, he violated the First Amendment. (see June 14)

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

May 23, 2019: authorities released John Walker Lindh, known as the “American Taliban” after his capture in Afghanistan in 2001. He had served 17 years of a 20-year sentence.

Lindh received three years off for good behavior, though his probation terms include a host of restrictions: He would needs permission to go on the Internet; he’d be closely monitored; he’d be required to receive counseling, and he was not allowed to travel. (see Aug 3)

Sexual Abuse of Children

May 23, 2023: an investigative report from the office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raouk reported that more than 450 credibly accused child sex abusers had ministered in the Catholic Church in Illinois over almost seven decades. That number was more than four times the number that the church had publicly disclosed before 2018, when the state began its investigation.

The 696-page report found that clergy members and lay religious brothers had abused at least 1,997 children since 1950 in the state’s six dioceses, including the prominent Archdiocese of Chicago. [NYT article] (next SAC, see )

May 23 Peace Love Art Activism

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Samuel Gompers, et al v. Buck’s Stove and Range Company

May 15, 1906: in Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison v. Buck’s Stove and Range Company, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Samuel Gompers and other union leaders for supporting a boycott of the Buck Stove and Range Co. in St. Louis, where workers were striking for a 9-hour day. A lower court had forbidden the boycott and sentenced the unionists to prison for refusing to obey the judge’s anti-boycott injunction. (Cornell dot edu article) (see Dec 10)

Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co

May 15, 1922: the US Supreme Court ruled the 1919 Child Labor Tax Law unconstitutional as an improper attempt by Congress to penalize employers using child labor. The Court indicated that the tax imposed by the statute was actually a penalty in disguise. (Oyez article) (LH, see June 22; Child Labor, see February 3, 1941)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

Separate but equal

May 15, 1911: Baltimore Mayor J. Barry Mahool, who was known as an earnest advocate of good government, women’s sufferage, and social justice, signed into law “an ordinance for preserving peace, preventing conflict and ill feeling between the white and colored races in Baltimore city, and promoting the general welfare of the city by providing, so far as practicable, for the use of separate blocks by white and colored people for residences, churches and schools.”‘ Baltimore’s segregation law was the first such law to be aimed at blacks in the United States, but it was not the last. Various southern cities in Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky enacted similar laws. (see November 5, 1917)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

see Jesse Washington for much more

[From Equal Justice Initiative] May 15, 1916: after an all-white jury convicted Jesse Washington of the murder of a white woman, he was taken from the courtroom and burned alive in front of a mob of 15,000.

When he was accused of killing his employer’s wife, seventeen-year-old Jesse Washington’ greatest fear was being brutally lynched – a common fate for black people accused of wrongdoing at that time, whether guilty or not. After he was promised protection against mob violence, Jesse, who suffered from intellectual disabilities, according to some reports, signed a statement confessing to the murder. On the morning of May 15, 1916, Washington was taken to court, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death in a matter of moments. Shortly before noon, spectators snatched him from the courtroom and dragged him outside, the “promise of protection” quickly forgotten.

The crowd that gathered to watch and/or participate in the brutal lynching grew to 15,000. Jesse Washington was chained to a car while members of the mob ripped off his clothes, cut off his ear, and castrated him. The angry mob dragged his body from the courthouse to City Hall and a fire was prepared while several assailants repeatedly stabbed him. When they tied Jesse Washington to the tree underneath the mayor’s window, the lynchers cut off his fingers to prevent him from trying to escape, then repeatedly lowered his lifeless body into the fire. At one point, a participant took a portion of Washington’s torso and dragged it through the streets of Waco. During the lynching, a professional photographer took photos which were later made into postcards.

Following news reports of the lynching, the NAACP hired a special investigator, Elizabeth Freeman. She was able to learn the names of the five mob leaders and also gathered evidence that local law enforcement had done nothing to prevent the lynching. Nevertheless, no one was ever prosecuted for their participation in the lynching of Jesse Washington. (next BH, see in May – June 1916; next Lynching, see Aug 19; for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Freedom Riders, May 15, 1961

• Following the attacks of May 14, CORE Freedom Riders attempt to continue their ride, but bus drivers refused to leave the station for fear of their lives.  Amid bomb threats, jeers, and other methods of intimidation, the Riders decided to travel to New Orleans by plane.
• President John F. Kennedy received word of the attacks against Freedom Riders in Birmingham, AL and Anniston, AL on May 14. The news came as he was preparing for the June 3, 1961 Vienna Summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the first such summit of his term in office. Kennedy was not pleased by the distraction posed by the Freedom Riders, telling an aide, “Can’t you get your goddamned friends off those buses?”  (2006 NPR story) (see May 17)

George Whitmore, Jr

May 15, 1967: Whitmore’s third trial opened before Justice Julius Helf and in Kings County Supreme Court and jury selection completed. In view of the Miranda ruling, the confession is inadmissible. The case now rests entirely on Elsa Borrero’s identification. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

South Vietnam Leadership

May 15, 1966: on Premier Ky’s orders, without notifying President Thieu or the U.S., a pro-government military force arrived in Da Nang to take control of the city from the Buddhist Struggle movement protesting against the government and American influence.

Washington, DC protest

May 15, 1966: 10,000 protested Vietnam War in Washington, DC (V & SVL, see May 18)

Jackson State

May 15. 1970: killings occurred in Jackson, Mississippi  at Jackson State (now Jackson State University). On May 14, 1970, city and state police confronted a group of student protesters against the Vietnam War, specifically the US invasion of Cambodia. Shortly after midnight, the police opened fire, killing two students [James Earl Green, 17, a senior at nearby Jim Hill High School and Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, a Jackson State junior] and injured twelve. (NYT article) (Vietnam & Cambodia, see May 20; FS, see June 13)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

In re Gault

May 15, 1967: in the case of In re Gault, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional many of the procedures used in juvenile courts. These omissions included the right be be notified of the charges, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, protection against self-incrimination, the right to counsel, and the right to appeal decisions. These, of course, were protections long guaranteed to adults in criminal courts. Underlying the procedures that the Court declared unconstitutional was the philosophy of parens patriae, the belief that juvenile courts should act as a parent and consequently be free of formal legal constraints. (Oyez article) (see February 6, 1974)

Graham v. Connor

May 15, 1989: in Graham v. Connor, the US Supreme Court ruled in a 9-0 decision to uphold the decisions of the lower courts against Graham primarily on technical legal grounds. The justices unanimously agreed that Graham’s legal team should have challenged the police actions as a violation of Graham’s Fourth Amendment expectation of “objective reasonableness,” instead of as a violation of due process. But a six-member majority of the Court went even further.

The majority decision was written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Rehnquist argued that the issue was “whether the officers’ actions are ‘objectively reasonable’ in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them, without regard to their underlying intent or motivation. The ‘reasonableness’ of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, and its calculus must embody an allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second decisions about the amount of force necessary in a particular situation.”

Rehnquist rejected the idea that courts should evaluate actions based on “the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” According to Rehnquist, “The Fourth Amendment inquiry is one of objective reasonableness’ under the circumstances, and subjective concepts like ‘malice’ and ‘sadism’ have no proper place in that inquiry.” In other words, Rehnquist believed that if a police officer “reasonably” felt threatened by someone, no matter what the actual details of the incident, he or she had the right to employ whatever force they felt was necessary, even lethal force, to protect themselves and others. (Oyez article) (C & P, see June 28, 2004; Black & Shot, see November 25, 2006)

Cannabis

May 15, 2018: faced with fresh evidence of the racial disparity in marijuana enforcement across New York City, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr said he will largely stop prosecuting people for possessing or smoking marijuana.

The move by Vance came the same day that NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio promised that the city’s police department would overhaul its marijuana enforcement policies in the next 30 days. Brooklyn’s district attorney also said he would scale back prosecutions.

“We must and we will end unnecessary arrests and end disparity in enforcement,” de Blasio said at a conference of the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. (Marijuana, see May 30; C & P, see May 30)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

People’s Park and James Rector

May 15, 1969:  Gov Reagan sent 300 California Highway Patrol and Berkeley police officers into People’s Park and had a chain link fence erected. That afternoon a protest was held and Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies used shotguns to fire “00” buckshot at people sitting on the roof at the nearby Telegraph Repertory Cinema, fatally wounding student James Rector. Rector was a bystander, not a protester. (Daily California article) (see June 9)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Terrorism

Arthur Bremer

May 15, 1972, Arthur Bremer tried to assassinate George Wallace at a presidential campaign rally in Laurel, Maryland. Wallace was hit four times. (2012 Washington Post article) (see Aug 4)

Cross-burning

May 15, 2014: the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama announced that Chief U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins had sentenced Steven Joshua Dinkle, 28, former exalted cyclops of the Ozark, Alabama chapter of the International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), to serve 24 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a cross burning on May 8, 2009. (DoJ article) (see June 12)

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

May 15, 2015: two years after the bombing, a federal jury condemned Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon attack. The decision rejected the defense case and found that death was the appropriate punishment for six of 17 capital counts — all six related to Mr. Tsarnaev’s planting of a pressure-cooker bomb on Boylston Street, which his lawyers never disputed. Mr. Tsarnaev, 21, stood stone-faced in court, his hands folded in front of him, as the verdict was read, his lawyers standing grimly at his side.  (WBUR article) (see June 17)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

May 15, 1972, in Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Supreme Court found that Amish children could not be placed under compulsory education past 8th grade. The parents’ fundamental right to freedom of religion outweighed the state’s interest in educating its children. (Oyez article) (see January 5, 1982)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Soviet war in Afghanistan

May 15, 1988: after more than 8 years of fighting, the Red Army began withdrawing from Afghanistan. (2014 Atlantic article)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Right to Die

Jack Kevorkian

May 15, 1992: Susan Williams, a 52-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in her home in Clawson, Michigan. (see Kevorkian for expanded story)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

United States v. Morrison

May 15, 2000: the Supreme Court held that parts of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 were unconstitutional because they exceeded congressional power under the Commerce Clause and under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. (NYT article) (see Sept 28)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

In Re: Marriage Cases

May 15, 2008: the California Supreme Court determined that a state statute excluding same-sex couples from marriage was unconstitutional. Almost immediately, an initiative to overturn the court ruling (Proposition 8) qualified for the November 2008 ballot. Same-sex couples begin marrying on June 16. (NYT article) (California, see November 4, 2008; LGBTQ, see  May 22, 2008)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

Homicide rates

May 15, 2012: the NYPD credited declining homicide rates to stop-and-frisk practices, but New York City public radio station, WNYC, analysis found an increase in stop-and-frisk did not always result in fewer homicides.

Livery cab passengers

May 15, 2012: the city settled the federal lawsuit that challenged the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk of livery cab passengers. (see May 16)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

May 15, 2019: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey Senate signed a measure that would outlaw almost all abortions in the state, setting up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the case that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to end a pregnancy.

The legislation banned abortions at every stage of pregnancy and criminalized the procedure for doctors, who could be charged with felonies and face up to 99 years in prison. It included an exception for cases when the mother’s life is at serious risk, but not for cases of rape or incest.  [NYT article]  (next WH, see May 28; Alabama, see Oct 29)

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

May 17, 2019: the Trump administration identified at least 1,712 migrant children it may have separated from their parents in addition to those separated under the “zero tolerance” policy.

U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw had ordered the Trump administration to identify children separated before the zero tolerance policy went into effect in May 2018, resulting in the separation of over 2,800 children. Sabraw had previously ordered those migrant families to be reunited, but the additional children were identified afterward when the Inspector General for Health and Human Services estimated “thousands more” may have been separated before the policy was officially underway, NBC News reported.

The government had reviewed the files of 4,108 children out of 50,000 so far.

May 15 Peace Love Art Activism