Tag Archives: March Peace Love Art Activism

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

Women’s vote

March 19, 1914:  US Senate voted for first time since 1887 on federal woman suffrage amendment. It defeated the bill,  but reintroduced it the next day. (VR, see Apr 8; Feminism, see May 2)

Gerrymandering

March 19, 2018: the US Supreme Court rejected a second emergency application from Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania seeking to overturn decisions from that state’s highest court, which had ruled that partisan gerrymandering had warped Pennsylvania’s congressional map and then imposed one of its own.

The ruling meant a new map drawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would very likely be in effect in 2018’s elections, setting the stage for possible gains by Democrats. Under the current map, Republicans held 12 seats. Democrats held five and were expected to pick up another when the result of a special election the previous week was certified.

The full Supreme Court denied the latest application without comment or noted dissents. (see June 11)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Adamson Act

March 19, 1917: the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Adamson Act that made the eight-hour workday for railroads constitutional. (U Penn Law Review article) (see Apr 10)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism
BLACK HISTORY
Harlem Revolt

March 19, 1935: Harlem Riot, a 12-year-old boy was caught shoplifting and threatened with physical punishment but the boy bit the employee’s hand and escaped. A number of coincidences cause local residents to assume that the boy was beaten to death and riots follow.

Sociologist Allen D. Grimshaw called the Harlem Riot of 1935 “the first manifestation of a ‘modern’ form of racial rioting,” citing three criteria:

  1. “violence directed almost entirely against property”
  2. “the absence of clashes between racial groups”
  3. “struggles between the lower-class Negro population and the police forces”

Whereas previous race riots had been characterized by violent clashes between groups of black and white rioters, subsequent riots would resemble the riot in Harlem. (RR, see June 15, 1943; BH, see June 18, 1935)

Lloyd Gaines

March 19, 1939: after he prevailed on December 12, 1938 in a lawsuit to force the University of Missouri to accept him to its all-white law school, a Lloyd Gaines went missing and was never seen  again.

Family members suspected that Gaines was abducted and murdered for his activism, while state officials claimed he fled and assumed another identity in response to threats against him and his loved ones. To this day, Mr. Gaines’s fate is unknown.[EJI article]  (next BH, see Apr 9)

George Whitmore, Jr.

March 19, 1965:  NY Supreme Court Justice David L. Malbin found  that the jury in the Elba Borrero case had been influenced by “prejudice and racial bias” and reversed George Whitmore, Jr.’s conviction, granting him a new trial. Malbin stated: “The hearing revealed that prejudice and racial bias invaded the jury room. Bigotry I any of its sinister forms is reprehensible, it must be crushed, never to rise again. It has no place in an American courts of Justice.

On the same day, a bipartisan commission recommended  the end of capital punishment in New York State. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

Stop and Frisk Policy/1999

March 19, 1999: New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced a civil rights inquiry into whether the New York Police Department’s “stop and frisk” practices have caused some people to be unjustifiably searched. Spitzer’s study would conclude that stop-and-frisks disproportionately impact men of color. (see December 2002)

Stop and Frisk Policy/2005

March 19, 2015: Manhattan Federal Judge Analisa Torres, overseeing reforms to the NYPD’s stop and frisk program, affirmed the “important perspective” of police unions in the overhaul. Torres said the five unions representing cops should be allowed to give input regarding any reforms proposed by the city. After the unions voice their opinions, the reforms will go to the court-appointed federal monitor, then to Torres for final approval, she wrote. (see July 9)

Laquan McDonald

March 19, 2019: the Illinois Supreme Court let stand a prison sentence of less than seven years for Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke convicted of killing black teenager Laquan McDonald that many criticized as far too lenient.

The high court offered no explanation for its 4-2 decision that denied a rare bid by Illinois’ attorney general and a special prosecutor to get the justices to toss a lower court’s sentence. One judge issued a strong dissent and one partially dissented. (LM, see  June 14)

Antwon Rose

March 19, 2019: Pennsylvania police officer Michael Rosfeld, who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager Antwon Rose on,  went on trial.

A guilty verdict could put Rosfeld behind bars for life.

Rosfeld lawyers were expected to argue that the June 19 shooting of Antwon Rose II after a traffic stop in East Pittsburgh was justified, while prosecutors push for a conviction in the criminal homicide case.

Bystanders captured the shooting on video and posted it online, triggering a series of protests in the Pittsburgh area that included a  march that shut down a major highway.

The jury was made up of six men and six women, including three African-Americans. (next B & S and AR, see Mar 20 )

BLACK & SHOT/Jenkins and Parker

March 19, 2024: Hunter Elward and Jeffrey Middleton , two former Mississippi police officers, were sentenced for torturing Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, two black, men in their own home. Jenkins and were beaten, shocked with stun guns and sexually assaulted by the officers.

Elward, who shot one of the victims in the mouth during a botched mock execution, was sentenced to 20 years; Middleton was sentenced to just over 17 years.  [BBC article] (next B & S, see Mar 20)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19 Music et al

The Blackboard Jungle

March 19, 1955: The Blackboard Jungle released. The NY Times review stated: Evan Hunter’s “Blackboard Jungle,” which tells a vicious and terrifying tale of rampant hoodlumism and criminality among the students in a large city vocational training school, was sensational and controversial when it appeared as a novel last fall. It is sure to be equally sensational and controversial, now that it is made into a film.

Actor Glenn Ford played the main character. Ford’s son, Peter, had liked the Bill Haley song “Rock Around the Clock” and recommended its inclusion in the movie. The movie made the song a huge hit. (see Mar 26; Haley, see July 9); see Princeton Blackboard riot)

Jackie McLean

March 19, 1962: Jackie McLean recorded Let Freedom Ring album at Van Gelder Studios. (All Music review)

Bob Dylan

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19, 1962:  Columbia released 20-year-old Bob Dylan first album: Bob Dylan. He recorded it between November 20 – 22, 1961. The album sold only 5,000 copies in its first year. (2012 Rolling Stone magazine article) (see Apr 16)

Show Business Personalities

March 19, 1964 : British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, (they would sing about him later in “Taxman”) presented The Beatles with the award for being “Show Business Personalities of 1963” at the Variety Club of Great Britain Annual Show Business Awards. (see Mar 21)

Acid Test

March 19, 1966: Acid Test Los Angeles, California (Pico) Carthay Studios. (Rolling Stone magazine article on acid tests) (see Mar 22)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Horst Faas

March 19, 1964: a photograph of a Vietnamese man holding his dead child and begging US soldiers for help and other images from South Vietnam earned Associated Press photographer Horst Faas the Pulitzer Prize in 1965. The caption, as it appeared in the Milwaukee Sentinel on March 20: The body of a child killed in battle Thursday in South Vietnam was held by his father as rangers of the Vietnamese army looked down from a tank. The child was killed as government forces pursued Vietcong guerrillas into a village near the Cambodian border. The Vietnamese forces used bombers and armored personnel carriers against the guerrilla forces in the battle. (Vietnam, see in “April – June”; Faas, see July 18, 1965)

Howard University

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19 – 23, 1968: students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., staged rallies, protests and a 5-day sit-in, laying siege to the administration building, shutting down the university in protest over its ROTC program and the Vietnam War, and demanding a more Afrocentric curriculum. (Harvard Crimson article) (see Mar 20)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Wounded Knee II

March 19, 1973: the insurgent Indians holding this tiny village publicly burned a detailed Government proposal aimed at settling the armed confrontation. However, they agreed to continue negotiations with Government officials. (see  Mar 27)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Barbara Papish

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19, 1973: PAPISH v. BOARD OF CURATORS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI ET AL. Barbara Papish, a graduate student in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, was expelled for distributing on campus a newspaper “containing forms of indecent speech” in violation of a bylaw of the Board of Curators. The newspaper, the Free Press Underground, had been sold on this state university campus for more than four years pursuant to an authorization obtained from the University Business Office. The particular newspaper issue in question was found to be unacceptable for two reasons. First, on the front cover the publishers had reproduced a political cartoon previously printed in another newspaper depicting policemen raping the State of Liberty and the Goddess of Justice. The caption under the cartoon read: “. . . With Liberty and Justice for All.” Secondly, the issue contained an article entitled “Motherfucker  Acquitted,” which discussed the trial and acquittal on an assault charge of a New York City youth who was a member of an organization known as “Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker”

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled her freedom of expression could be subordinated to the “conventions of decency in the use and display of language and pictures” on a public campus without violating the First Amendment.

The US Supreme court voted  6-3 to overturn that decision. The Supreme Court noted that the Eighth Circuit’s ruling had come several days before Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169 (1972), in which the Court had said that even though a state university could enforce reasonable rules governing student conduct, “state colleges and universities are not enclaves immune from the sweep of the First Amendment.” In a per curiam opinion, the Papish majority said Healy made “clear that the mere dissemination of ideas – no matter how offensive to good taste – on a state university campus may not be shut off in the name alone of ‘conventions of decency.'” (see June 21)

Civil rights inquiry

March 19, 1999: New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced a civil rights inquiry into whether the New York Police Department’s “stop and frisk” practices have caused some people to be unjustifiably searched. Spitzer’s study would conclude that stop-and-frisks disproportionately impact men of color. (see December 2002)

Federal Judge Analisa Torresm

March 19, 2015: Manhattan Federal Judge Analisa Torresm, overseeing reforms to the NYPD’s stop and frisk program, affirmed the “important perspective” of police unions in the overhaul. Torres said the five unions representing cops should be allowed to give input regarding any reforms proposed by the city. After the unions voice their opinions, the reforms will go to the court-appointed federal monitor, then to Torres for final approval, she wrote. (see July 9)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

March 19, 1988:  two British Army Corporals were killed after driving straight into a funeral for the victims of the Milltown Cemetery attack three days earlier, after they were mistakenly thought to be carrying out a similar attack to the one by Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member Michael Stone, in which he killed three Catholics attending the funeral. (see Troubles for expanded story)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

Iraq War starts

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

March 19, 2003: U.S. and coalition forces launched missiles and bombs at targets in Iraq including a “decapitation attack” aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other top members of the country’s leadership.

There were nearly 300,000 American, British and other troops at the border.

President George W. Bush warned Americans that the conflict “could be longer and more difficult than some predict.” He assured the nation that “this will not be a campaign of half-measures, and we will accept no outcome except victory.” (see Mar 23)

Iraq War continues

March 19, 2006:

  •  on the eve of the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion, President Bush promised to “finish the mission” with “complete victory,” urging the American public to remain steadfast but offering no indication when victory may be achieved. [Washington Post, 3/19/06]
  • Time Magazine revealed that U.S. Marines killed at least 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha the previous November. (see Apr 23)
March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Westboro Baptist Church

March 19, 2014: the Rev. Fred Phelps, the virulently anti gay preacher who drew wide, scornful attention for staging demonstrations at military funerals as a way to proclaim his belief that God was punishing America for its tolerance of homosexuality died. He was 84. (see Sept 8)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

March 19, 2015:

  • S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins issued orders that executions in Alabama were on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case regarding the drugs Oklahoma was using to kill condemned inmates. “The State has conceded that the best course of action is to stay decisions in lethal injection cases across the board” until the Oklahoma case was decided, Watkins wrote in a court order. Watkins issued orders this week in at least two death penalty cases, stating that executions in those cases were stayed until the nation’s highest court ruled on the use of midazolam as a lethal injection drug. Watkins’ orders indicated that Alabama would not oppose any motion for a stay of execution until the Supreme Court issued a ruling.
  • The the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled that inmates serving life sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles should be re-sentenced under guidelines that went into effect last year. In four separate cases, the justices ordered lower courts to apply a 2014 law to inmates who, as juveniles, were sentenced in the past either to life in prison or to terms that would have effectively kept them behind bars until they die. Two of the inmates were convicted of murder. The highly anticipated rulings settled the question of whether two seminal U.S. Supreme Court decisions that found life sentences for juveniles violate Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment should apply retroactively. Lower courts were divided on the retroactivity issue. (see Mar 20)

March 19, 2018: the US Supreme Court turned down a request that it take a fresh look at whether the death penalty was constitutional anywhere in the nation.

The court also refused to consider a narrower question in the same case: Whether Arizona’s capital sentencing system, which appears to make virtually all murderers eligible for the death penalty, violates the Constitution.

Justice Breyer also issued a statement on the narrower challenge, saying that Arizona’s capital sentencing system may well be unconstitutional and invited a further challenge with more evidence. Justices Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined Justice Breyer’s statement. (see Apr 19)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

March 19, 2018: saying that he was “saving the unborn,” Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi signed into law [Gestational Age Act] a measure that would ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion rights supporters called it the earliest abortion ban in the country, and said it was an unconstitutional restriction that defied years of federal court precedent over the limits states may impose on abortion providers.

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, filed a complaint in United States District Court for Mississippi’s Southern District less than an hour after he signed the bill into law. [NYT report] (WH & Mississippi, see Mar 20)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

March 19, 2019: the Supreme Court adopted a strict interpretation of a federal immigration law, saying it required the detention of immigrants facing deportation without the possibility of bail if they had committed crimes, including minor ones, no matter how long ago they had been released from criminal custody.

The vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s more conservative justices in the majority. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the plain language of a federal law required the result.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer summarized his dissent from the bench, a sign of profound disagreement. He said the majority had violated the nation’s basic values.

“The greater importance of the case,” he said, “lies in the power that the majority’s interpretation grants the government. It is a power to detain persons who committed a minor crime many years before. And it is a power to hold those persons, perhaps for many months, without an opportunity to obtain bail.” (see Mar 26)

March 19 Peace Love Art Activism

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March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

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March 18, 1831: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. The Cherokee Nation sought a federal injunction against laws passed by the state of Georgia depriving it of rights within its boundaries. The Supreme Court held that the United States government had no original jurisdiction in the matter, as the Cherokee were a dependent nation, with a relationship to the United States like that of a ward to its guardian. (Cherokee Nation site article) (see January 16, 1832)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

Staple Bend Tunnel

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 18, 1834: the first U.S. railroad tunnel was completed between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Driven through slate, the Staple Bend Tunnel was 901 feet long, 25 feet wide and 21 feet high and lined throughout with masonry 18 inches thick. It was for the Allegheny Portage Railroad, the first railroad to go west of the Allegheny Mountains. The project engineer was Solomon White Roberts. Construction had begun on April 12, 1831.

Today it is part of a trail. (see January 6, 1838)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

American Colonization Society

March 18, 1895:  200 former African slaves left Savannah, Georgia for Liberia. Much of the aid for this came through the American Colonization Society (ACS).

The society also committed itself to fostering a public-school system in Liberia, promoting more frequent ships between the U.S. and Liberia, collecting and circulating more reliable information about Liberia, and enabling Liberia to depend more on itself. Future colonists were to be selected with a view to the needs of Liberia and not to their own situations.

William Henry (Harrison) Heard led the group who used money, purchased land, and built the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of Monrovia, Liberia. This church stands now as the Elias Turner Memorial Chapel. (PBS article) (see July 29)

Claudette Colvin

March 18, 1955: a jury convicted Claudette Colvin of refusing to move to the back of the city bus and having assaulted the policeman who removed her from the vehicle. (see Claudette Colvin for expanded story)

March to Montgomery

March 18, 1965: a federal judge ruled that SCLC had the right to march to Montgomery, AL to petition for ‘redress of grievances’. (see March to Montgomery for expanded story)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Matilda Josyln Gage

March 18, 1898: Gage died in Chicago at the home of her daughter, Maud Gage Baum. Gage was 72. Her gravestone reads:

THERE IS A WORD

SWEETER THAN MOTHER

HOME OR HEAVEN

THAT WORD IS LIBERTY

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

(see Gage for expanded story; next Feminism, see May 17, 1900)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Woolworth clerks

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 18, 1937: New York City police evicted and arrested striking Woolworth clerks occupying stores and demanding a 40-hour workweek. Police were met with huge protests at the stores and the precinct where the workers had been taken. Once freed, the clerks returned to the stores and re-occupied them and, in the end, they won a one-year union contract, an eight-hour day, six-day workweek, and a 32.5 cent per hour minimum wage. (Labor Notes site article) (see Mar 29)

Postal worker strike

March 18, 1970: the first strike against the U.S. government and the first mass work stoppage in the 195-year history of the Postal Service began with a walkout of letter carriers in Brooklyn and Manhattan who demanded better wages.

Ultimately, 210,000 (in 30 cities) of the nation’s 750,000 postal employees participated in the wildcat strike. With mail service virtually paralyzed in New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia, Pres. Nixon declared a state of national emergency and assigned military units to New York City post offices. The stand-off ended one week later.

Congress voted a six percent raise for the workers retroactive to December. (see Mar 23)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

War Relocation Authority

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 18, 1942: the federal government created the War Relocation Authority to “Take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of the war.”

While the government interned roughly 2,000 people of German and Italian ancestry during this period, 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were rounded up on the West Coast. There were three categories of internees: Nisei (native U.S. citizens of Japanese immigrant parents), Issei (Japanese immigrants), and Kibei (native U.S. citizens educated largely in Japan). The government transported  internees to one of 10 relocation centers in California, Utah, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. (see Japanese Internment for expanded story)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Clarence Earl Gideon

March 18, 1963: Gideon v. Wainwright. The US Supreme Court stated that, The Sixth Amendment right to counsel is a fundamental right applied to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause, and requires that indigent criminal defendants be provided counsel at trial. Supreme Court of Florida reversed.

In other words, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that those accused of a crime have a constitutional right to a lawyer whether or not they can afford one.

About 2,000 convicted people in Florida alone were freed as a result of the Gideon decision; Gideon himself was not freed. He instead got another trial. (next JM, see June 22, 1964; see Gideon for expanded story)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

Voskhod 2

March 18, 1965: Voskhod 2 carried Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov into orbit. Leonov left the spacecraft for 20 minutes on the first “spacewalk.” (NASA article) (see Mar 23)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 18 Music et al

The Beatles

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 18 – 24, 1967, The Beatles after live performances: “Penny Lane” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Penny Lane for expanded story; next Beatles, see Mar 23)

FREE SPEECH

March 18, 1970:  Country Joe McDonald was convicted of obscenity and fined $500 for leading a crowd in his infamous Fish Cheer (“Gimme an F !”) at a concert in Massachusetts. (see Mar 31)

Roots of Rock

March 18, 2017: Chuck Berry died. He was 90. First responders were called out to a home 12:40 p.m. and found a man later identified as Berry unresponsive “and immediately administered lifesaving techniques,” a statement read. They were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at 1:26 p.m. (NY Times obit)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

My Lai Massacre

March 18, 1968: Warrant officer Hugh Thompson called in to report to a Colonel Henderson, and Thompson described  unnecessary killing of civilians. Henderson’s investigation report, submitted on April 24, stated that 20 civilians had been killed and Thompson’s allegations were false. (see My Lai for expanded story; next Vietnam, see March 19 – 23)

Operation Breakfast

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 18, 1969:  U.S. B-52 bombers were secretly diverted from their targets in South Vietnam to attack suspected communist base camps and supply areas in neutral Cambodia for the first time in the war. President Nixon approved the mission–formally designated Operation Breakfast–at a meeting of the National Security Council on March 15. This mission and subsequent B-52 strikes inside Cambodia became known as the “Menu” bombings. A total of 3,630 flights over Cambodia dropped 110,000 tons of bombs during a 14-month period through April 1970. The Pentagon established an intricate reporting system to prevent disclosure of the bombing. (PBS Frontline article) (see March 25 – 31)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Oil embargo

March 18, 1974, Arab oil ministers announced the end of the embargo against the United States, all except Libya.

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

Julie Steele

March 18, 1998: Julie Steele’s affidavit released. In it she said she lied when she claimed Kathleen Willey had come to her house the night of the encounter and told her about it. 

Susan McDougal trial

March 18, 1999: Deputy Independent Counsel Hickman Ewing testified at the Susan McDougal trial that he had written a “rough draft indictment” of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton after he doubted her truthfulness in a deposition. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

Terri Schiavo

March 18 2005, Courts again allowed the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. (see Mar 31)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

New Mexico

March 18, 2009 : New Mexico Gov Bill Richardson, who had supported capital punishment, signed legislation to repeal New Mexico’s death penalty, calling it the ‘most difficult decision in my political life.‘ The new law replaced lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The repeal took effect on July 1, and applied only to crimes committed after that date. ‘Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime,’ Richardson said. (see  September 30, 2009)

March 18 Peace Love Art Activism

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Dred Scott

March 17, 1848: before the next trial took place, Irene Emerson had the sheriff of St. Louis County take charge of the Scott family. He was responsible for their hiring out, and maintained the wages until such a time as the outcome of the freedom suit was determined (custody of the Scott family would remain with the St. Louis County sheriff until March 18, 1857). (see Dred Scott for expanded story; BH, see December 25, 1848)

Carrollton, Mississippi

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

March 17, 1886: 23 African Americans were killed in a courthouse massacre in Carrollton, Miss., when 60 armed men charged in and opened fire in a courtroom. Two African-American brothers, Ed and Charley Brown, were testifying against Jim Lidell, Jr., accusing him of assault with intent to kill. The brothers were killed, and no one was ever indicted for their slayings or others that day. (Mississippi Civil Rights Project article) (see Dec 11)

March to Montgomery

March 17, 1965: despite the arguments between the SCLC and the SNCC, King joins Forman in leading a march of 2000 people in Montgomery to the Montgomery County courthouse. After the march, King announced the third Selma-to-Montgomery march. City of Montgomery officials apologized for the assault on SNCC protesters by county and state law enforcement and asked King and Forman to work with them on how best to deal with future protests in the city; student leaders promised they would seek permits for future protest marches. Gov. Wallace continued to arrest protestors who venture on to state-controlled property. (next BH, see Mar 19; see Montgomery for expanded article)

137 SHOTS

March 17, 2015, Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge John P. O’Donnell denied a request by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty’s office to dismiss one of the attorneys representing Michael Brelo, the Cleveland police officer charged with the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. McGinty had argued that it was a conflict of interest for attorney Patrick D’Angelo to represent Brelo since the attorney also represented the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, the union of rank-and-file officers. O’Donnell wrote in his decision that the situation “does not demonstrate an actual conflict of interest,” and that Brelo’s right to an attorney of his choice outweighs any risk of a conflict. (see 137 for expanded chronology)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism & Voting Rights

Alice Paul

March 17, 1913: Alice Paul headed suffrage delegation to President Woodrow Wilson. (PBS article on Alice Paul) (see April 1913)

Loretta Perfectus Walsh

March 17, 1917:  Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first woman to officially enlist in a branch of the US armed forces in a position other than an nurse. She served as a Chief Yeoman. (see Apr 2)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Strategy meeting

March 17, 1964: President Johnson presided over a session of the National Security Council during which Secretary of Defense McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor present a full review of the situation in Vietnam. During the meeting, various secret decisions were made, including the approval of covert intelligence-gathering operations in North Vietnam; contingency plans to launch retaliatory U.S. Air Force strikes against North Vietnamese military installations and against guerrilla sanctuaries inside the Laotian and Cambodian borders; and a long-range “program of graduated overt military pressure” against North Vietnam. President Johnson directed that planning for the bombing raids “proceed energetically.” (see Mar 19)

London demonstration

March 17, 1968: 25,000 people in London demonstrated against Vietnam War. Mick Jagger later  wrote “Street Fighting Man” and John Lennon wrote “Revolution” in response. (BBC article) (see Mar 18)

My Lai Massacre

March 17, 1970: the Army had commissioned a board of inquiry, headed by Lieutenant General Peers. After investigating, Peers reported that U.S. soldiers committed individual and group acts of murder, rape, sodomy, maiming and assault that took the lives of a large number of civilians–he concluded that a “tragedy of major proportions” occurred at My Lai. The Peers report said that each successive level of command received a more watered-down account of what had actually occurred; the higher the report went, the lower the estimate of civilians allegedly killed by Americans. Peers found that at least 30 persons knew of the atrocity (next Vietnam, see Apr 15; see My Lai for expanded story).

Hanoi Hilton

March 17 Peace Love Activism

March 17, 1973: the first American prisoners of war (POWs) released from the “Hanoi Hilton” in Hanoi, North Vietnam. (Smithsonian article) (see Mar 29)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

César E. Chávez

March 17, 1966: César E. Chávez and the National Farm Workers Association left Delano for Sacramento, the capital of California, a 340-mile Peregrinácion (pilgrimage) which would take three weeks. They were calling public attention to the plight of farm workers and for their struggle for the right to organize a union. (see April 10, 1966)

KMPX-FM

March 17, 1968: staffers at San Francisco progressive rock station KMPX-FM strike, citing corporate control over what music is played and harassment over hair and clothing styles, among other things. The Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and other musicians request that the station not play their music as long as the station is run by strikebreakers. (see Mar 28)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Skokie anti-Nazi ordinances

March 17, 1978: Judge Bernard Decker granted the Village of Skokie’s motion to stay his order voiding the Skokie anti-Nazi ordinances so as to permit the Village to perfect an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. (see Apr 6)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Refugee Act of 1980

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

March 17, 1980: President Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980. It aimed at stating a clear-cut national policy and providing a flexible mechanism to meet the changed developments of world refugees. The main objectives of the act were

  1. to create a new definition of refugee based on the one created at the UN Convention and Protocol on the Status of Refugees,
  2. to raise the limitation from 17,400 to 50,000 refugees admitted each fiscal year,
  3. provide emergency procedures for when that number exceeds 50,000,
  4. to establish the Office of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs and the Office of Refugee Resettlement
  5. established explicit procedures on how to deal with refugees in the U.S. by creating a uniform and effective resettlement and absorption policy. (see June 15, 1982)
March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ War I

Troops home

March 17, 1991: first U.S. troops arrived home from Iraq. (see Apr 18)

Between Iraq Wars I & II

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

March 17, 2003: President Bush warned U.N. weapons inspectors to leave the Iraq within 48 hours. They were in country searching for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), conducting 900 inspections at 500 locations in four months.

Bush had given Saddam Hussein the same amount of time to step down from power or suffer the consequences of the planned invasion.

Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, and Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the inspectors had found no WMDs, or any evidence of a renewed Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Despite increasing cooperation from Iraqi authorities relenting to international pressure, the inspectors were unable to complete their work due to the American threat of war. (see Mar 19)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 17, 1998: the White House charged that Kathleen Willey tried to sell her story to a book publisher for $300,000. Willey’s attorney denied the charges. A friend of Lewinsky and the presidential diarist give grand jury testimony. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

Michael Fugee

March 17, 2014: acting with uncustomary speed, the Vatican expelled Michael Fugee from the priesthood for repeatedly defying a lifetime ban on ministry to children.

Fugee attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors despite signing a court-sanctioned decree forbidding such activities.

Fugee’s removal came four months after the New Jersey’s Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office agreed to drop criminal charges against him in exchange for his expulsion. He remains under lifetime supervision by the prosecutor’s office. (NJ dot com article) (see May 6)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Same-sex marriage

March 17, 2015:

  • District Judge Callie Granade said in a five-page order that Mobile County Probate Court Judge Don Davis must comply with her previous ruling, which found the state’s gay marriage ban to be unconstitutional.  Alabama’s all-Republican Supreme Court had contravened that ruling on March 2. It ordered probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, arguing that the ban was constitutional.
  • The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest body of Presbyterians in the country, approved a change in the wording of its constitution to allow gay and lesbian weddings within the church, a move that threatened to continue to split the mainline Protestant denomination. (see Mar 20)
March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

March 17, 2017: Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson ruled out opening any negotiation with North Korea to freeze its nuclear and missile programs and said for the first time that the Trump administration might be forced to take pre-emptive action “if they elevate the threat of their weapons program” to an unacceptable level. (see Mar 27)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Charles Manson

March 17, 2018: the funeral for Charles Manson took place in Porterville, Calif. Following his cremation at the funeral home, guests listened to covers of Manson’s songs that had been recorded by Guns N’ Roses and the Beach Boys.

The news comes via the Porterville Recorder, who added that the cult leader’s own recordings were also played at the service, which was attended by 20 family members and friends, including Manson Family member Sandra Good. (next CM, see July 11, 2023)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

March 17,2023: The Department of Housing and Urban Development, via a final rule, rescinded a 2020 Fair Housing Act rule and reinstating HUD’s Discriminatory Effects Standard, which dated back to 2013, the agency announced.

“Discrimination in housing continues today and individuals, including people of color and people with disabilities, continue to be denied equal access to rental housing and homeownership,” HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said in a statement. “Today’s rule brings us one step closer to ensuring fair housing is a reality for all in this country.”

The 2020 rule  — HUD’s Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard — never took effect, and the 2013 rule is still in force. Prior to the effective date of the 2020 rule, the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction in Massachusetts Fair Housing Center v. HUD, which stayed HUD’s implementation and enforcement of the rule. [McKnight article] (next FH, see Sept 28)

March 17 Peace Love Art Activism