March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Freedom’s Journal

March 16, 1827: the Freedom’s Journal newspaper was founded. It was the first Black-owned and operated newspaper in the United States. Started by a group of free Black men in New York City, the paper served to counter racist commentary published in the mainstream press. As a four-page, four-column standard-sized weekly, Freedom’s Journal was established the same year that slavery was abolished in New York State. Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm served as its senior and junior editors. The Journal consisted of news of current events, anecdotes, and editorials and was used to address contemporary issues such as slavery and “colonization,” a concept that was conceived in 1816 to repatriate free Black people to Africa. (Wisconsin Historical Society link to all issues) (see July 5)

March to Montgomery

March 16, 1965: police clashed with 600 SNCC marchers in Montgomery, Alabama. (see MM for expanded chronology)

Thirteenth Amendment

March 16, 1995:  Mississippi ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The amendment was nationally ratified in 1865. (CBS News article) (see Apr 16)

Sean Bell incident

March 16, 2007: a grand jury indicted three of the five police officers involved in the shooting. Officer Gescard Isnora, who fired the first shot, and Officer Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the 50 shots, were charged with manslaughter, reckless endangerment and assault, while Detective Marc Cooper was charged with two counts of reckless endangerment. (NYT search) (B &S, and Sean Bell, see April 25, 2008)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

Robert H. Goddard

March 16, 1926: rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket, in Auburn, Mass. (see January 7, 1926)

Space Race

March 16, 1966: Americans Neil Armstrong and David Scott coupled Gemini 8 to an unmanned Agena vehicle, docking two spacecraft together for the first time. Shortly after this feat, Gemini 8 experienced a stuck thruster, causing the craft to tumble wildly, and the rest of the mission was aborted.

Following reports of Gemini 8’s problems, the Soviet Union revealed that their Voskhod 2 mission the previous March had landed far off course and the astronauts were stranded in a snowy forest for a day before they could be recovered. (NASA article) (see Mar 31)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

United Federation of Teachers

March 16, 1960: the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) was formed in New York to represent New York City public school teachers and, later, other education workers in the city. (UFT site) (see Nov 25)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

March 16 Music et al

Frank Fontaine

March 16 – April 20, 1963: Frank Fontaine’s Songs I Sing on the Jackie Gleason Show the Billboard #1 album.

Otis Redding

March 16 – April 12, 1968: “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Alice Herz

March 16, 1965: Quaker Alice Herz, 82, immolated self in Detroit in protest of the Vietnam war. (CNN article on self immolation) (Vietnam, see Mar 24; Herz, see Mar 22; see Immolation for expanded story)

My Lai Massacre

March 16, 1968: the two Charlie Company platoons in the village begin rounding up approximately 20-50 civilians (mostly women, children and old men,) pushing them along trails to a dirt road south of the village, and placing them under guard. Another group of 70 civilians were moved to the east of the village. Soldiers begin killing the civilians without pretext. Men were stabbed with bayonets or shot in the head. One GI pushed a man down a well and threw an M26 grenade in after him. Over a dozen women and children praying by a temple were shot in the head by passing soldiers.

Two soldiers came across a woman carrying an infant and walking with a toddler; they fire at her. An elderly woman was spotted running down a path with an unexploded M79 grenade lodged in her stomach. One soldier forced a woman around the age of 20 to perform oral sex on him while holding a gun to a four-year-old child’s head. At a drainage ditch into which the civilians had been herded and Lieutenant Calley gave the order to start killing them. Within ten minutes, all are shot down by members of the 1st Platoon. Witnesses to the shooting reported anywhere between 75 and 150 Vietnamese killed. None of the Vietnamese were armed. From his helicopter, a Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson spotted a group of wounded Vietnamese citizens south of My Lai. He marked their positions with smoke grenades and radioed soldiers on the ground to provide medical assistance. Later Thompson will confront officers on the ground at the massacre site. He will succeed in Medevacing some villagers for help. Thompson will also report that day what he has seen. (2018 NYT article) (see My Lai for expanded story; Vietnam, see Mar 16)

Robert F. Kennedy

March 16, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy announced candidacy for President. (text of announcement) (see Mar 17)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Fair Housing

Pruitt-Igoe

March 16, 1972: after years of failed attempts at remedying the many housing issues, the first of the Pruitt-Igoe building was demolished. The second one went down April 22, 1972. After more implosions on July 15, the first stage of demolition was over. As the government scrapped rehabilitation plans, the rest of the Pruitt–Igoe blocks were imploded during the following three years; and the site was finally cleared in 1976 with the demolition of the last block. (see Mar 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Zoia Horn

March 16, 1972: reference librarian Zoia Horn refused to testify against the Harrisburg Seven who were on trial for an alleged conspiracy to kidnap then-National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. Five of the seven were current or former Catholic priests or nuns.

Horn had been implicated by an ex-convict informer placed in the Bucknell University library by the FBI.

Though given immunity from self-incrimination, Zoia objected to the idea that libraries could become places of infiltration and spying. Charged with contempt of court, she was sent to jail for 20 days until a mistrial was declared.

Judith Krug, longtime director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, said that Horn was “the first librarian who spent time in jail for a value of our profession.”

At the trial she asked to read a statement of explanation, but was led away in handcuffs before she had begun her third sentence: “Your Honor, it is because I respect the function of this court to protect the rights of the individual, that I must refuse to testify. I cannot in my conscience lend myself to this black charade. I love and respect this country too much to see a farce made of the tenets upon which it stands. To me it stands on freedom of thought—but government spying in homes, in libraries and universities inhibits and destroys this freedom. It stands on freedom of association—yet in this case gatherings of friends, picnics and parties have been given sinister implications, and made suspect. It stands on freedom of speech—yet general discussions have been interpreted by the government as advocacies of conspiracies.” (see Mar 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

Terry Anderson

March 16, 1985: Terry Anderson was kidnapped on a west Beirut street while leaving a tennis court. His captors took him to the southern suburbs of the city, where he was held prisoner in an underground dungeon for the next six-and-a-half years. (see Dec 24)

Asian killings

March 16, 2021: Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Ga  shot and killed eight people at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area. Authorities said that six of the people killed were Asian, and two were white. All but one were women.

Aaron was captured in Crisp County, about 150 miles south of Atlanta, after a manhunt. [NYT story] (next T, see May 14, 2022)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran–Contra Affair

March 16, 1988: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter were indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. (see Mar 24)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

March 16, 1988:  Milltown Cemetery attack: during a funeral for three Provisional IRA volunteers, Ulster Defence Association (UDA) volunteer Michael Stone attacked the crowd with grenades and pistols, killing three and wounding over sixty. (see Troubles for expanded story)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

Chemical weapons

March 16, 1988: Iraq used chemical weapons against Kurds supporting Iran in Halabja, killing 4000, an attack which begins the Anfal campaigns against Kurdish villages (formally continuing until 6 Sept, though  attacks continued until 1989). Approximately 50,000 to 180,000 Kurds are killed in this campaign, and 1,276 villages are destroyed. (see Aug 20)

Dick Cheney

March 16, 2003: Vice President Dick Cheney predicted on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that American troops would be “greeted as liberators” by the Iraqi people. (see Mar 17)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 16, 1998: Clinton said “nothing improper” happened when he was alone with Kathleen Willey, responding to her accusations aired in an interview on “60 Minutes” the previous night. The White House released letters Willey sent to the president, signed “Fondly, Kathleen” in an effort to cast doubt on her story.

Exactly a year later, on March 16, 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray’s office filed a report stating there is “no substantial and credible evidence” that President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton sought confidential FBI background checks of former GOP White House personnel. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

March 16, 2011: The Respect for Marriage Act, the bill that would overturn the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, introduced.  (see Apr 4  or see or see December 13, 2022 re DoMA)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

Trayvon Martin Shooting

March 16, 2012: Sanford FL police released copies of the 911 calls to the news media. On the recordings, one shot, an apparent warning or miss, is heard, followed by a voice begging or pleading, and a cry. A second shot is then heard, and the pleading stops. (see Mar 21)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Kandahar massacre

March 16, 2012: the military identified the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a 38-year-old father of two who had been injured twice in combat over the course of four deployments and had, his lawyer said, an exemplary military record. Bales was flown from Kuwait to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. According to U.S. Army Colonel James Hutton, Chief of Media Relations, Bales was held in special housing in his own cell and was able to go outside the cell “for hygiene and recreational purposes” (see Mar 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

March 16, 2012: Utah Gov. Gary Herbert vetoed a bill banning public schools from teaching contraception as a way of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The bill, which also sought to bar instruction on homosexuality or other aspects of human sexuality other than the teaching of abstinence, would have been the first of its kind in the nation if it had become law. (see Oct 23)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Clarence Earl Gideon

March 16, 2013: approaching the 50^th anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision, Gideon v. Wainwright, which guaranteed indigent defendant the right to a lawyer, a NYT article stated, the Legal Services Corporation, the Congressionally financed organization that provides lawyers to the poor in civil matters, says there are more than 60 million Americans — 35 percent more than in 2005 — who qualify for its services. But it calculates that 80 percent of the legal needs of the poor go unmet. In state after state, according to a survey of trial judges, more people are now representing themselves in court and they are failing to present necessary evidence, committing procedural errors and poorly examining witnesses, all while new lawyers remain unemployed… According to the World Justice Project, a nonprofit group promoting the rule of law that got its start through the American Bar Association, the United States ranks 66th out of 98 countries in access to and affordability of civil legal services. (see Gideon for expanded chronology)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

March 16, 2017: in Maryland, Judge Theodore D. Chuang echoed the conclusion of U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson in Hawaii ruling in a case brought by nonprofit groups that work with refugees and immigrants. Chuang stated that the likely purpose of the executive order was “the effectuation of the proposed Muslim ban” that Mr. Trump pledged to enact as a presidential candidate.

Chuang’s decision cited Mr. Trump’s public comments to conclude that there were “strong indications that the national security purpose is not the primary purpose for the travel ban,” and that Mr. Trump may have intended to violate the constitutional prohibition on religious preferences. (IH, see Mar 29; Maryland, see May 25)

March 16 Peace Love Art Activism

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Ballie Crutchfield lynched

March 15, 1901: a white mob in Rome, Tennessee, lynched a Black woman named Ballie Crutchfield. Ms. Crutchfield was accused of no crime, and targeted simply because the mob had earlier that night failed in its attempt to lynch her brother.

A week earlier, a white man in Rome had reportedly lost a wallet containing $120. As word spread that a young Black boy had found the wallet and given it to a young Black man named William Crutchfield, white residents accused William of stealing the wallet.

Though there was no evidence supporting the claim that William Crutchfield had stolen the wallet, he was promptly arrested and taken to the local jail. That night, a white mob stormed the jail and abducted Mr. Crutchfield from police custody, but as they prepared to lynch him, he escaped.

The lynch mob searched but failed to find Mr. Crutchfield; determined to take out their vengeance on someone, they instead seized his sister, Ballie Crutchfield, from her home. Though she was not even alleged to be in any way involved with the lost wallet, the mob took Ms. Crutchfield—whose first name was also reported as “Sallie”—to a bridge a short distance from the town, tied her hands behind her back, shot her in the head, and threw her body into the creek below. [EJI article] (next BH, see March 22, 1901, next Lynching, see Oct 31 or see AL2 for expanded chronology)

Julian Bond

March 15, 1960: Julian Bond, civil rights activist and future Georgia state senator, led more than 200 Atlanta area students in the first sit-in protest in Atlanta, challenging segregated public accommodations. They presented “An Appeal for Human Rights” to city officials. (next BH, see Apr 1; Atlanta,  see Greensboro Four  for expanded chronology)

Orangeburg, SC

March 15, 1963: Tom Gaither, Student Council President at Claflin College, and South Carolina State College freshman Charles “Chuck” McDew together led nearly 1,000 students on a peaceful march in downtown in Orangeburg, S.C., to protest segregation and support the sit-ins. Police attacked them with tear gas and fire hoses. Hundreds of marchers were herded behind fences in one of the largest mass arrests in the civil rights movement. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned their convictions. (see Apr 2)

Voting rights

March 15, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of legislation guaranteeing voting rights for all. (BH, see Mar 16; VR, see August 10, 1965)

Hosie Miller

March 15, 1965: in Newton, Georgia Cal Hall, a white farmer, shot Hosie Miller, a black farmer and Baptist deacon, during a livestock dispute. Miller died ten days later. Hall, claimed he killed Miller in self-defense, was charged at least three times in connection with Miller’s death, but grand juries declined to prosecute him each time. (see Mar 16)

Rodney King

March 15, 1991: Sgt. Stacey Koon and officers Laurence Michael Powell, Timothy Wind, and Theodore Briseno indicted by a Los Angeles grand jury in connection with the beating.  (BH, see Apr 24; King, see May 10)

137 SHOTS

March 15, 2018: Cleveland’s Fox 8 reported that defense attorneys for the five Cleveland police supervisors charged in connection with the fatal shootings of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams said that East Cleveland offered to drop their charges if they each paid $5,000,.

The supervisors would still go on trial on dereliction of duty charges, but Law Director Willa Hemmons made the offer to drop the charges if they paid the money. Defense lawyer Henry Hilow told FOX 8 the offer was made to him twice.

“And there’s no basis for it in law, no basis for a practicing attorney. In fact, to a lay person, this would be extortion,” he told the station.

East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King told the station he was aware of it, but waited to comment until the law director was with him.

A letter from Hemmons said she intended to prosecute, but the city also looked to “mitigate charges.” (see Mar 22)

Medgar Evers

March 15, 2019:  Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman Karen Bass of California said Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Phil Bryant was “clearly despicable” for not acknowledging work by Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state’s only black congressman, to get the home of a slain civil rights leader named a national monument.

On Twitter, Gov Bryant praised Trump and Mississippi’s two Republican U.S. senators for the monument designation.

Thompson tweeted back: “Give adequate credit. I’ve worked on this for 16 years.” (next BH, see Mar 26; see ME for expanded chronology)

Jesuit Reparations

March 15, 2021: in one of the largest efforts by an institution to atone for slavery, the Jesuit order of Catholic priests vowed to raise $100 million to benefit the descendants of the enslaved people it once owned and to promote racial reconciliation initiatives across the United States.

The move by the leaders of the Jesuit conference of priests represented the largest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to make amends for the buying, selling and enslavement of Black people, church officials and historians said.

“This is an opportunity for Jesuits to begin a very serious process of truth and reconciliation,” said the Rev. Timothy P. Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. “Our shameful history of Jesuit slaveholding in the United States has been taken off the dusty shelf, and it can never be put back.” [NYT story] (next BH, see Apr 11; also see April 26 for Harvard University’s announcement)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

March 15 Music et al

The Beatles

March 15, 1963: in the US, the Beatles’ “Please Please Me” peaked at number 35 after four weeks on Chicago’s WLS “Silver Dollar Survey” chart. The song did not chart on any of the major national American surveys. (see Mar 22)

Dizzy

March 15 – April 11, 1969: “Dizzy” by Tommy Roe #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

March 15, 1999: Paul McCartney and George Martin inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  (see Dec 30)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

My Lai Massacre

March 15, 1970: the Army pressed charges against 25 men, including Captain Eugene Koutoc (aggravated assault,) Colonel Oran Henderson (dereliction of duty, failure to report a war crime, perjury,) and Brigadier General George Young (dereliction of duty, failure to obey lawful regulations.) (next Vietnam see Apr 2; see My Lai for expanded story)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

March 15, 1981:  Francis Hughes, an Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoner in the Maze Prison, joined Bobby Sands on hunger strike.  (Hughes obit from anphoblacht dot com) (see Irish Troubles for expanded story)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of the USSR & INDEPENDENCE DAY

Lithuania

Lithuania had declared it’s independence on March 11, 1990. On  March 15  the Soviet Union announced that Lithuania’s declaration of independence was invalid. (next Dissolution, see May 4; or see USSR for expanded chronology; next ID, see Mar 21)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Somalia

 

March 15, 1994: U.S. troops begin withdrawing from Somalia. They will complete the withdrawal on March 25. (NYT article)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Occupy

March 15, 2012: Scott Olsen‘s attorney stated that Olsen was hit in the head by a beanbag projectile, not a teargas canister, fired by a policeman during the October protest. “The fact that it was a beanbag shot, which was not what we thought, puts it in a completely different light,” said Mark Martel, who is preparing to file a claim against Oakland. “If he was hit by a tear gas canister, that would just be stupid or negligent. But if it was a beanbag – those are meant to hit people, and it tells me that whoever did it, did it intentionally.” (see July 21, 2015)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

NCAA/South Carolina

March 15, 2017: since Confederate battle flag was no longer flying at the State Capitol in Columbia, South Carolina, the NCAA allowed tournament games to be held in South Carolina for first time in 15 years

Since 2002, the N.C.A.A. had kept its championships out of states flying the flag. When the South Carolina Legislature passed a bill in 2015 ending the flag’s display on the statehouse grounds, the NCAA lifted that restriction.

The timing proved fortuitous when, a year later, the N.C.A.A. imposed a similar championship ban on neighboring North Carolina because of a contentious law seen by its critics as anti-gay. Just like that, tournament games set to be held in Greensboro, N.C., this week needed a new home. Greenville was happy to step in. (LGBTQ & NC, see Mar 30)

Pope Francis/Same-sex unions

March 15, 2021 The Vatican said that the Catholic Church would not bless same-sex unions, in a statement Pope Francis  approved and that threatened to widen the chasm between the church and much of the LGBTQ community.

Explaining their decision in a lengthy note, the Holy See referred to homosexuality as a “choice,” described it as sinful and said it “cannot be recognized as objectively ordered” to God’s plans. The stance is certain to disappoint millions of gay and lesbian Catholics around the world.

“The blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit,” the Vatican’s top doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote in the statement.

God “does not and cannot bless sin,” the statement added. [CNN article] (next LGBTQ, see Mar 24)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Fuel economy rollback

March 15, 2017: President Trump traveled to Detroit to announce a rollback of stringent fuel economy standards for cars and trucks that were put in place by the Obama administration — a welcome message to American automakers but one that could slow the push for a new generation of efficient vehicles. (EI, & Emissions, see Mar 24)

Student protest

March 15, 2019: students worldwide skipped classes to demand that world leaders take action on climate change.

The movement, inspired by the actions of 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, spanned more than 100 countries and 1,500 cities, where students gathered in the streets and at their state capitols to call for action.

“Today, the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of kids who are striking around the world are doing it not because we want to skip school, but because we are scared,” 12-year-old Haven Coleman, who co-founded and co-directed the US Youth Climate Strike, said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

“Climate change is the largest threat to our lives, our future and our world,” she said. [next EI, see Apr 8]

Ice Shelf Collapse

March 15, 2022: the US National Ice Center reported that the Antarctica‘s Conger Ice Shelf (nearly the size of Los Angeles) disintegrated within days of extraordinary warmth on the continent.

The shelf spanned approximately 460 square miles. It was around the time temperatures soared to minus-12 degrees Celsius (10.4 F), more than 40 degrees warmer than normal (-61.6 F), at the Concordia research station.

Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey said, “I don’t think there has been a shelf collapse like this in East Antarctica since we’ve been able to receive satellite data. Conger is a very small ice shelf which has been decreasing in size for many years and this was just the final step which caused it to collapse.” [CNN article] (next EI, see Mar 31)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

Refugee ban stayed

March 15, 2017: U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson in Hawaii issued a sweeping freeze of President Trump’s new executive order, hours before it would have temporarily barred the issuance of new visas to citizens of six Muslim-majority countries and suspended the admission of new refugees.

In a blistering, 43-page opinion, Watson pointed to Trump’s own comments and those of his close advisers as evidence that his order was meant to discriminate against Muslims and declared there was a “strong likelihood of success” those suing would prove the directive violated the Constitution.

Watson declared that “a reasonable, objective observer — enlightened by the specific historical context, contemporaneous public statements, and specific sequence of events leading to its issuance — would conclude that the Executive Order was issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion.”

He lambasted the government, in particular, for asserting that because the ban did not apply to all Muslims in the world, it could not be construed as discriminating against Muslims. (Vox dot com article) (see Mar 16)

Trump’s Wall

March 15, 2019: as he had said he would, President Trump vetoed the bill denying his declaration of a national emergency to fund a southern border wall. (next TW, see Mar 26; or see Wall for expanded chronology)

Abused immigrant children

March 15, 2019: Judge John Koeltl of the U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when it denied hundreds of visa applications for immigrants who had been abused, neglected, or abandoned by a parent as minors under the Special Immigrant Juvenile program.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had issued internal guidance that led to a denial of applications for people who applied for SIJ status after they’d turned 18. (next IH, see Mar 19)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

March 15, 2018:  the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism reported that from May 20, 2017, through March 12, 2018 it had found 72 episodes of white supremacists hanging banners in public places, such as from highway overpasses and rooftops, to promote their views.

Before that period, the A.D.L. had not documented any white supremacist banners since Dec. 11, 2016, said Jake Hyman, a spokesman for the group.

Most of those documented in the report were racist or anti-immigrant in nature, with messages ranging from “America first: End immigration” to “‘Diversity’ is a code word for white genocide.” Others were anti-Muslim (a banner displayed on an overpass near Dearborn, Mich., home to one of the largest mosques in North America, read “DANGER: Sharia city ahead”), anti-Semitic (“UNjew HUMANITY”) or misogynistic (“Feminists deserve the rope”). (T, see May 4; IH, see Mar 26, F, see Mar 22; BH, see Mar 25)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

March 15, 2018: Michael Eggers had a personal and family history of mental illness. His brother was institutionalized in a mental hospital with schizophrenia, and family observed that Michael showed symptoms similar to his brother.

In 1985, when he was 17, narcotics officers in California compelled him to make some controlled marijuana purchases. Since then, Mr. Eggers believed that the Mexican Mafia and other outlaw groups, law enforcement agencies, and the government were conspiring to persecute him — following him from California as he fled to eight different states to evade them; checking into the psych ward to torment him when he was involuntarily committed for emergency psychiatric care; and even killing his father in retaliation for the killing of his former employer in Walker County, Alabama, in 2000.

Jail and prison authorities recognized Mr. Eggers’s mental illness and treated him with anti-psychotic medications. Correctional officers observed he was paranoid, delusional, and suicidal, and placed him in protective custody after he tried to kill himself.

Alabama executed Michael Eggers on this date after a judge allowed him to fire his attorneys and abandon his appeals despite his mental illness. (see Mar 19)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

March 15, 2021: Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo, became the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

The Senate voted 51-40 to confirm the Democratic congresswoman to lead the Interior Department, an agency that will play a crucial role in the Biden administration’s ambitious efforts to combat climate change and conserve nature.

Her confirmation was as symbolic as it is historic. For much of its history, the Interior Department was used as a tool of oppression against America’s Indigenous peoples. In addition to managing the country’s public lands, endangered species and natural resources, the department is also responsible for the government-to-government relations between the U.S. and Native American tribes.

“Indian country has shouted from the valleys, from the mountaintops, that it’s time. It’s overdue,” Sandia Pueblo tribal member Stephine Poston told NPR after Haaland was nominated. [NPR story] (next NA, see Mar 30)

March 15 Peace Love Art Activism

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

License

March 14, 1835: the Missouri General Assembly passed a law that required free Black people to apply for a license to remain in the state. Black people who failed to do so faced fines up to $100, incarceration, and expulsion from Missouri. Fearful of a growing Black population, white legislators enacted the law in an attempt to force Black people out of the state and empowered authorities to seize any free Black person that they suspected lacked a license.

Missouri’s law imposed onerous requirements on applicants. Free Black residents had to establish continuous residency for at least a decade, and “produce satisfactory evidence… that [the applicant] is of good character and behavior, and capable of supporting [themselves] by lawful employment.” The law also obligated Black people to obtain a new license each time they moved to a different county.

In 1837, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the license law. [EJI article] (next BH, see Oct 21)

March to Montgomery

March 14, 1965: SNCC staff members led 400 Alabama State University students, joined by a group of white students from across the country, on a march from the ASU campus to the Capitol. Although Montgomery police react peacefully to the march, as the students approach the Capitol, state troopers, the sheriff’s office, and a posse it had deputized attack the marchers. (BH, see Mar 15; see MM for expanded chronology).

School Desegregation

March 14, 1972: the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on behalf of 14 black parents and 44 children. Tallulah Morgan headed the list of plaintiffs and James Hennigan then chair of the School Committee, was listed as the main defendant. The case was called Morgan v. Hennigan. The plaintiffs’ legal team decided to pursue the case as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The School Committee was charged with violating the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The plaintiffs claimed that the defendants, the School Committee, the Board of Education, and the Education Commissioner had “intentionally brought about and maintained racial segregation in the Boston Public Schools.” In short, while Boston was not experiencing “de jure” segregation (segregation as a result of the law), it was experiencing “de facto” segregation (segregation as a result of action).  (BH, see June 4 ; SD, see June 22)

BLACK & SHOT

March 14, 2016: nearly a year after the federal Justice Department declined to bring civil rights charges against white police officer Aaron Hess who fatally shot black college student Danroy Henry, Henry’s family has agreed to a $6 million settlement, a lawyer for the family announced. (see Apr 25)

6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

March 14, 2022: President Joe Biden signed into law a bill awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. The battalion was the only all-Black Women’s Army Corps unit to serve in Europe during World War II.  [Afro article; Smithsonian article] (next BH, see Mar 29 )

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

Henry Ford

March 14, 1914: Henry Ford announced the new continuous motion method to assemble cars. The process decreased the time to make a car from 12½ hours to 93 minutes. (Ford article) (see October 28, 1922)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

March 14 Music et al

Fear of Rock

see Keep the Air Clean Sunday Society  for more

March 14, 1927: the head of the New York City Keep-the-Air-Clean-Sunday Society objected to radio station WMCA’s playing of jazz music on Sunday nights, charging that it was “degrading” and “defaming.” In response, listeners flooded the station with letters stating they had no objection to the one-hour program from 6 to 7 p.m. on Sundays. The Federal Radio Inspector for the New York District explained that he had no power to censor the content of radio programs, but that he was referring the matter to the newly created Federal Radio Commission. In the 1920s and 1930s, many self-appointed guardians of public morals condemned this new music called “jazz.” The attacks were prompted by the rhythms that moralists feared would lead people to immoral behavior, and also because jazz was primarily an African-American music. In the 1950s and 1960s, the self-appointed guardians of public morals had the same objections to the new music “rock and roll.” (see January 28, 1944) 

LSD/ Humphry Osmond

March 14, 1957:  Humphry Osmond first proposed the term “psychedelic” at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences. From his paper: “If mimicking mental illness were the main characteristic of these agents, “psychotomimetics” would indeed be a suitable generic term. It is true that they do so, but they do much more. Why are we always preoccupied with the pathological, the negative? Is health only the lack of sickness? Is good merely the absence of evil? Is pathology the only yardstick? Must we ape Freud’s gloomier moods that persuaded him that a happy man is a self-deceiver evading the heartache for which there is no anodyne? Is not a child infinitely potential rather than polymorphously perverse?

 I have tried to find an appropriate name for the agents under discussion: a name that will include the concepts of enriching the mind and enlarging the vision. Some possibilities are: psychephoric, mind moving; psychehormic, mind rousing; and psycheplastic, mind molding. Psychezynic, mind fermenting, is indeed appropriate. Psycherhexic, mind bursting forth, though difficult, is memorable. Psychelytic, mind releasing, is satisfactory. My choice, because it is clear, euphonious, and uncontaminated by other associations, is psychedelic, mind manifesting. One of these terms should serve.”

 He said the term was “clear, euphonious and uncontaminated by other associations.” Aldous Huxley had sent Osmond a rhyme containing his own suggested invented word: “To make this trivial world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme” (thymos meaning ‘spiritedness’ in Greek.) Osmond countered with “To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic.”  (Osmond’s NYT obit)

Josiah Macy Foundation

In 1959: Josiah Macy Foundation sponsored major scientific congress on LSD. (JMF site)

Allen Ginsberg

In 1959: beat poet Allen Ginsberg tried LSD for the first time. (see April 22 – 24)

The Beatles

March 14, 1964: Billboard reported that sales of Beatles records made up 60% of the entire singles market. (see Mar 19)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

JFK Assassination

Jack Ruby

March 14, 1964: Jack Ruby was found guilty of the “murder with malice” of Oswald and sentenced to die in the electric chair. It was the first courtroom verdict to be televised in U.S. history. (see September 27, 1964)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

My Lai Massacre

March 14, 1968: while Charlie Company was on a patrol, Sergeant George Cox was killed by a booby trap and two other GI’s were seriously injured. In one of the first documented instances of outright aggression, frustrated and angry members of Charlie Company lash out – while passing through a Vietnamese village on their return to camp, troops shoot and kill a woman civilian working in a field. (Vietnam, see Mar 16 ; see My Lai for expanded story)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Kevorkian

March 14, 1998 – Jack Kevorkian’s 100th assisted suicide: a 66-year-old Detroit man. (see Kevorkian for expanded story)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

“Mixed” marriages

March 14, 2006: the Pew Research Center reported that more than one-fifth of all American adults (22%) say that they had close relative who is married to someone of a different race. (2015 PEW study on mixed race marriage)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAW

March 14, 2012: In Flagler Beach, FL, Paul Miller, 66, shot and killed Dana Mulhall, 52. Mulhall was unarmed when Miller opened fire as the two argued across a front yard fence about Miller’s barking dogs, investigators said. (Flaglerlive dot com article)  (Stand Your Ground, see Mar 21; Paul Miller, see Feb 4, 2013)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

March 14, 2013: the 5,000,000^th person was stopped in NYC with its stop-and-frisk program. (2016 ACLU article) (see Aug 12)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Same-sex marriage Tennessee

March 14, 2014: federal judge Judge Aleta Trauger granted a preliminary injunction against Tennessee’s ban on same-sex marriage in certain instances.

In October three same-sex couples filed a lawsuit asking the state to recognize their marriages that had been performed in states where gay marriage was legal. The four couples taking part in the suit were living and had been married in New York or California but had moved to Tennessee.

“At this point, all signs indicate that, in the eyes of the United States Constitution, the plaintiffs’ marriages will be placed on an equal footing with those of heterosexual couples and that proscriptions against same-sex marriage will soon become a footnote in the annals of American history,” Trauger wrote in the order. (see Mar 21)

Kedarie Johnson’s murder

March 14, 2017: the Iowa Attorney General’s office was asked to lead the prosecution of Jorge “Lumni” Sanders-Galvez, 22, one of two men accused of killing Burlington High School student Kedarie Johnson.

Laura Roan, an assistant attorney general, entered the case and Des Moines County Attorney Amy Beavers would likely serve as co-counsel.

Sanders-Galvez filed a written plea of not guilty rather than appear as scheduled.

The co-defendant, Jaron “Wikked West” Purham, 27, remained in the St. Louis County, Mo., jail in St. Louis on charges there. Purham would be returned to Des Moines County to face murder charges in the killing of Johnson when the Missouri cases are resolved. (Des Moines Register article) (LGBTQ, see Mar 14; Johnson, see Oct 15)

Beauty and the Beast

March 14, 2017: Walt Disney Studios refused to cut a brief, gay-themed scene from “Beauty and the Beast” as demanded by government censors in Malaysia, meaning the film would not open as scheduled.

The Film Censorship Board of Malaysia had ruled that a shot involving two male characters dancing in a ballroom must be cut from the movie, on the grounds that it promoted homosexuality. The sequence was three seconds long.

“The film has not been and will not be cut for Malaysia,” Disney said in a statement.

The film’s director, Bill Condon, called the scene in question — involving a character named LeFou, manservant to the villain, Gaston — an “exclusively gay moment.” (see Mar 15)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

FREE SPEECH

March 14, 2014: a federal district court approved a consent decree requiring the Sabine Parish School Board (Louisiana) to cease a variety of unconstitutional practices that impose religion on students at Negreet High School and other Sabine Parish Schools.

The consent decree, a court order agreed to by both parties, ended a lawsuit filed in January by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Louisiana on behalf of a Buddhist sixth-grader of Thai descent, “C.C.,” who was harassed by staff and students because of his faith.

“No child should feel that a teacher is trying to impose religious beliefs, and this agreement ensures that this will no longer be the case at Sabine Parish schools,” said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “We’re glad the school board worked with us to bring this matter to a quick and amicable resolution.”

Under the consent decree, the school board must end official prayers during class and school events, refrain from disparaging any particular faith, and prohibit staff from teaching creationism and other biblical doctrine as fact. The consent decree also protects students’ rights to express their faith and pray privately and of their own volition. To ensure that the consent decree is carried out properly and that the constitutional violations do not recur, the board will also conduct in-service training for staff on First Amendment issues and the effects of religious discrimination on students.  (Religion and.. see ; FS, see Sept 17 )

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

March 14, 2014: U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright struck down Arkansas’ attempt to ban most abortions beginning 12 weeks into a woman’s pregnancy, saying viability, not a heartbeat, remained the key factor in determining whether abortions should be allowed.

In  2013, Wright had stopped enforcement of the law while she reviewed it, and with her ruling declared that it was unconstitutional. She cited previous court decisions that said abortions shouldn’t be restricted until after a fetus reaches viability, which is typically at 22 to 24 weeks.

 “The state presents no evidence that a fetus can live outside the mother’s womb at twelve weeks,” the judge wrote.

By adopting a ban based on a fetal heartbeat, and not the ability to survive, the Arkansas Legislature had adopted the nation’s toughest abortion law last March. Two weeks later, North Dakota lawmakers passed a bill restricting abortions at six weeks — or before some women would know they’re pregnant. That law is on hold.    

Wright said only a doctor could determine viability. “The Supreme Court has … stressed that it is not the proper function of the legislature or the courts to place viability at a specific point in the gestation period,” Wright wrote. (see July 28)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

March 14, 2017: a federal court in San Francisco unsealed documents raising questions about the safety of Roundup and the research practices of Monsanto, its manufacturer.

Roundup and similar products are used around the world on everything from row crops to home gardens. It is Monsanto’s flagship product, and industry-funded research had long found it to be relatively safe. A case San Francisco challenged that conclusion, building on the findings of an international panel that claimed Roundup’s main ingredient might cause cancer.

The court documents included Monsanto’s internal emails and email traffic between the company and federal regulators. The records suggested that Monsanto had ghostwritten research that was later attributed to academics and indicated that a senior official at the Environmental Protection Agency had worked to quash a review of Roundup’s main ingredient, glyphosate, that was to have been conducted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

The documents also revealed that there was some disagreement within the E.P.A. over its own safety assessment. (see May 1, 2018)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

March 14, 2018: the National Registry of Exonerations  reported that at least 139 convicted defendants in the United States were exonerated in 2017 and most owed it to the work of lawyers in prosecutors’ offices and private organizations dedicated to finding wrongful convictions. (see May 13)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History & Trump’s Wall

March 14, 2019: the Senate easily voted to overturn President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southwestern border, delivering a bipartisan rebuke to what lawmakers in both parties deemed executive overreach by a president determined to build his border wall over Congress’s objections.

The 59-41 vote on the House-passed measure set up the first veto of Trump’s presidency. It was not overwhelming enough to override Mr. Trump’s promised veto, but Congress has now voted to block a presidential emergency declaration for the first time — and on one of the core promises that animated Mr. Trump’s political rise, the vow to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

“Never before has a president asked for funding, Congress has not provided it, and the president then has used the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to spend the money anyway,” Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said. “The problem with this is that after a Revolutionary War against a king, our nation’s founders gave to Congress the power to approve all spending so that the president would not have too much power. This check on the executive is a crucial source of our freedom.” (see Mar 15)

March 14 Peace Love Art Activism