March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

March 7, 1876:  Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone. (see March 4, 1877)

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Nixon v. Herndon

March 7, 1927: Nixon v. Herndon, decided on this day, was an early civil rights case in which the Supreme Court unanimously struck down a 1902 Texas law that barred African-Americans from voting in Democratic Party primary elections. While a great victory, it was short-lived. Texas evaded the decision by making the Democratic Party a private entity, responsible for its own primaries, thereby eliminating the element of state action. (BH, see June 8; VR, see April 19, 1929)

Felton Turner

March 7, 1960: Houston: in reaction to sit-ins, 18-year-old Ronald Erickson and others abducted 27-year-old unemployed awning installer Felton Turner. Ericson and the others beat Turner with a chain, carved KKK  into Turner’s stomach, and hung him by his knees upside down in a tree. Turner escaped and survived. (see G4 for expanded chronology)

1960 sit-ins

March 7, 1961: on March 15, 1960 sit-ins had begun in Atlanta, Georgia. A year later  lunch counters operated by major chain stores agreed to desegregate. This event was one of the major victories of the sit-in movement, which began in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960, and quickly spread across the South.

One of the leaders of the March 1960 Atlanta sit-ins was Julian Bond, who was later elected to the Georgia legislature, denied his seat because of his political views, and then seated under a decision by the Supreme Court on December 5, 1966. (see Mar 13)

Repeal of all segregation ordinances

March 7, 1963: the Albany, GA City Commission voted 6 – 1 to repeal all segregation ordinances. The Commission also voted 4 – 3  to re-open the library after being closed for seven months. No action was taken regarding the city’s tennis courts, swimming pools, park recreation areas and teen centers which had been closed at the same time. The city’s bus line remained closed. (see Albany for expanded story)

see March to Montgomery for expanded story

March 7, 1965: about six hundred people left the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma for a 54-mile march to the state capitol of Montgomery. They were demonstrating for African American voting rights and to commemorate the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, shot three weeks earlier by a state trooper while trying to protect his mother at a civil rights demonstration.

SCLC’s Hosea Williams and SNCC’s John Lewis led them. A number of newsmen witnessed the long column of freedom singing marchers as they approached the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the gateway out of Selma. Roughly 100 State Troopers, commanded by Major John Cloud, blocked the opposite end of the bridge.. Williams tried to speak with Cloud twice, but the major said “There is no word to be had…you have two minutes to turn around and go back to your church.”

Within a minute, the marchers were attacked by tear gas and charging horsemen. The incident was seen on national television while 16 marchers ended up in the hospital and another 50 received emergency treatment.

Media dubbed the incident “Bloody Sunday.” The march was considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later. . (next BH, see Mar 8)

South Carolina v. Katzenbach

March 7, 1966:  exactly one year after the beatings of civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama (see “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965), which sparked national outrage and led to enactment of the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act (August 6, 1965), the Supreme Court, in South Carolina v. Katzenbach, rejected the first constitutional challenge to the law. The case involved a rare exercise of original jurisdiction by the Supreme Court. (BH, see Mar 22; VR, see Mar 24)

Rodney King

March 7, 1991: Rodney King released without being charged. (King, see Mar 15)

March to Montgomery

March 7, 2015: (from the NYT) President Obama and a host of political figures from both parties came to Selma to reflect on how far the country had come and how far it still had to go.

Fifty years after peaceful protesters trying to cross a bridge were beaten by police officers with billy clubs, shocking the nation and leading to passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, the nation’s first African-American president led a bipartisan, biracial testimonial to the pioneers whose courage helped pave the way for his own election to the highest office of the land.

But coming just days after Mr. Obama’s Justice Department excoriated the police department of Ferguson, Mo., as a hotbed of racist oppression, even as it cleared a white officer in the killing of an unarmed black teenager, the anniversary seemed more than a commemoration of long-ago events on a black-and-white newsreel. Instead, it provided a moment to measure the country’s far narrower, and yet stubbornly persistent, divide in black-and-white reality

Izola Ware Curry

March 7, 2015: Izola Ware Curry, the mentally ill woman who on September 20, 1958 stabbed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a Harlem book signing — an episode that a decade later would become a rhetorical touchstone in the last oration of his life — died in Queens. She was 98. Ms. Curry died in a nursing home, the last stop in the series of institutions that had been her home for more than half a century. Her death, confirmed by the office of the chief medical examiner of New York. (see June 17) 

Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act

March 7, 2022: the Senate unanimously passed a bill that criminalized lynching and made it punishable by up to 30 years in prison. It sailed through the House of Representatives last month, and President Biden was expected to sign it.

While it eased through both chambers of Congress this time with virtually no opposition, the path to passage took more than 100 years and 200 failed attempts.

Under the bill, named the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act after the 14-year-old boy from Chicago who was lynched while visiting family in Mississippi, a crime can be prosecuted as a lynching when a hate crime results in a death or injury, said Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., a longtime sponsor of the legislation.

“Lynching is a longstanding and uniquely American weapon of racial terror that has for decades been used to maintain the white hierarchy,” Rush said in a statement. “Unanimous Senate passage of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act sends a clear and emphatic message that our nation will no longer ignore this shameful chapter of our history and that the full force of the U.S. federal government will always be brought to bear against those who commit this heinous act.” [NPR article] (next BH, see Mar 14; next Lynching & ET see Mar 28; for expanded chronology, see AL 4 )

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Communist Party of America

March 7, 1932: three thousand unemployed auto workers, led by the Communist Party of America, braved the cold in Dearborn, Mich., to demand jobs and relief from Henry Ford. The marchers got too close to the gate and were gassed. After re-grouping, they were sprayed with water and shot at. Four men died immediately; 60 were wounded (see Mar 8)

Writers Guild strike

March 7, 1988: Hollywood writers represented by the Writers Guild of America struck against 200 television and movie studios over residuals payments and creative rights. The successful strike lasted 150 days, one of the longest in industry history. (see June 29)

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

General Introduction to Psychoanalysis

March 7, 1953: books by Sigmund Freud disappeared from the shelves of Cleveland, Ohio, bookstores as a result of a local “purity” crusade. Robert Klein, owner of the largest local magazine and book dealer, said that Freud’s book, General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, had been removed because of a chapter on sex. Klein, however, complained that “it is difficult to tell what the law means by obscenity.” Novels by such authors as John Steinbeck, Mickey Spillane, and Somerset Maugham had also disappeared from bookstores. 

Book burning

March 7, 1953: the Newark, New Jersey, police and fire departments publicly burned allegedly obscene photographs, movies, and books, with an estimated retail value of over $100,000. Forty members of the clergy, civic leaders, and PTA officials attended the burning as guests of the police and fire department. Public Safety Director John B. Keenan declared it “a good idea to show that this stuff was actually destroyed.” (see October 26, 1954)

Fair Use

March 7, 1994: the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parodies that poke fun at an original work can be considered “fair use” that does not require permission from the copyright holder. (see May 17, 1995)  

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

The Beatles

March 7, 1962: The Beatles recorded their radio debut for the show Teenager’s Turn – Here We Go at the Playhouse Theatre, Hulme, Manchester. Wearing suits for the very first time, The Beatles performed three cover versions: Memphis, Tennessee, Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream?), and Please Mister Postman. The show was broadcast on the BBC Light Programme the following day between 5 and 5.30 PM. (see Apr 5)

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

“The Homosexuals”

March 7, 1967: CBS Reports broadcast “The Homosexuals.” The episode included interviews with several gay men, psychiatrists, legal experts and cultural critics, interspersed with footage of a gay bar and a police sex sting. CBS correspondent Mike Wallace stated: We discovered that Americans consider homosexuality more harmful to society than adultery, abortion, or prostitution.

At the close of the program, Wallace concluded: The dilemma of the homosexual: told by the medical profession he is sick; by the law that he’s a criminal; shunned by employers; rejected by heterosexual society. Incapable of a fulfilling relationship with a woman, or for that matter with a man. At the center of his life he remains anonymous. A displaced person. An outsider. The Chicago Tribune titled its review “TV No Spot to Unload Garbage” and attacked CBS for presenting such material to young and impressionable viewers.

LGBTQ activist Wayne Besen labeled the broadcast “the single most destructive hour of anti-gay propaganda in our nation’s history.” (see Mar 8)

V Gene Robinson

March 7, 2004: in Concord, N.H the Episcopal Church invested V. Gene Robinson as the Church’s first openly gay bishop. (CBS news article re furor over his appointment) (see Mar 11)

Alabama parental rights

March 7, 2016: the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an Alabama judicial ruling that refused to recognize a gay woman’s parental rights over three children she adopted with her lesbian partner and raised from birth.

The court took the relatively unusual step of reversing the Alabama Supreme Court without hearing oral argument. Cases are decided in that fashion when a lower court ruling is considered to be particularly counter to Supreme Court precedents. None of the eight justices dissented.

The court said in an unsigned opinion that the Alabama court was required to recognize the woman’s parental rights because they had been legally endorsed by a court in Georgia.

The Supreme Court had already intervened in the case once before. In December, the court ordered that the Alabama ruling be put on hold while the woman, named in court papers as V.L., filed a formal appeal of the September ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court. (see Mar 23)

Transgender/Military

March 7, 2019: U.S. District Judge George Russell in Maryland rescinded the last block on Donald Trump’s transgender military ban, paving the way for the military to purge transgender people from its ranks.

Russell accepted the Justice Department’s motion to lift his injunction on the ban, citing a recent (Jan 22) Supreme Court decision. (see Apr 2)

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Wounded Knee

March 7, 1973: the Federal Government issued an ultimatum to the Indians holding Wounded Knee to move by nightfall the next day. The Indians vowed to remain saying that the authorities must “either massacre us or meet our basic human demands.” (see Mar 19)

Dakota Access oil pipeline

March 7, 2017: American Indians from across the country brought  their frustrations with the Trump administration and its approval of the Dakota Access oil pipeline to the nation’s capital, kicking off four days of activities that would culminate in a march on the White House.

Tribal members and supporters planned to camp each day on the National Mall, with teepees, a ceremonial fire, cultural workshops and speakers. Native American leaders also plan to lobby lawmakers to protect tribal rights.

 “We are calling on all our Native relatives and allies to rise with us,” said Dave Archambault, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. “We must march against injustice. Native nations cannot continue to be pushed aside to benefit corporate interests and government whim.” (see July 16)

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Student Rights

March 7, 1980: two Piscataway Township (NJ) High School freshmen were caught smoking cigarettes in the bathroom. The students met with the assistant vice principal, Theodore Choplick. Choplick questioned them about violating a school rule by smoking in the bathroom. The first girl admitted to smoking, but the other girl – widely known as Tracy Lois Odem (though name not confirmed, as her rights were protected due to age) – denied smoking in the bathroom and stated she had never smoked in her life.

Choplick then asked Tracy Lois Odem into his private office and demanded she hand over her purse. Upon opening the purse he observed a pack of cigarettes; while removing the cigarettes he noticed a package of rolling papers. Based on his experience, the possession of rolling papers of high school students was closely tied to the use of marijuana. Choplick then began a more thorough search for the evidence of drugs. Her search revealed a small amount of marijuana, a pipe, empty plastic bags, a large quantity of money in $1 bills, an index card that appeared to list students who owed Tracy Lois Odem money, and two letters that implicated Tracy Lois in dealing marijuana. The principal then called the police and the girl’s mother, who voluntarily drove her to the police station. (SR, see June 15, 1982; Piscataway, see January 15, 1985)

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

March 7, 1995: after 18 years of being without a death penalty, New York Gov. George E. Pataki fulfilled one of his central campaign vows by signing a death penalty bill into law, making New York the 38th state with capital punishment. (NYT article) (see January 12, 1996)

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

March 7, 2010: Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director for her Iraq War thriller “The Hurt Locker,” which won six Oscars, including best picture. (NYT article) (see October 9, 2012)

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

March 7, 2021: with an executive order , President Joe Biden directed federal agencies to take a series of steps to promote voting access, a move that came as congressional Democrats pressed for a sweeping voting and elections bill to counter efforts to restrict voting access.

“Every eligible voter should be able to vote and have it counted,” Biden said. “If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote.”

Biden’s order included several modest provisions. It directed federal agencies to expand access to voter registration and election information, called on the heads of federal agencies to come up with plans to give federal employees time off to vote or volunteer as nonpartisan poll workers, and pushed for an overhaul of the government’s Vote.gov website. [AP article] (next VR, see Dec 9)

March 7 Peace Love Art Activism

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

American Birth Control Federation

March 5, 1942: the leaders of the American Birth Control Federation, the leading birth control advocacy and service organization in the U.S., announced on this day, that it was changing its name to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the name by which it is known today.

The origins of the American Birth Control Federation reached back to November 1, 1921, when Margaret Sanger created the American Birth Control League, the first national birth control organization in the country. It changed its name to the American Birth Control Federation on January 18, 1939.

Adoption of the name “Planned Parenthood” generated some controversy. Margaret Sanger had always insisted on the term “birth control,” and opposed euphemism, which she thought “family planning” was. The leaders who adopted the term “planned parenthood,” in fact, regarded it as a euphemism, believing that “birth control” alienated many people and potential supporters.  (Planned Parenthood site) (see February 1, 1943)

Michael F. Griffin

March 5, 1994: a jury in Pensacola, Fla., convicted anti-abortion activist Michael F. Griffin of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Dr. David Gunn; Griffin was sentenced to life in prison. (see Apr 26)

South Carolina

March 5, 2021: U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis extended a temporary restraining order on South Carolina’s newly passed bill designed to ban most abortions in the state.

Lewis filed the order the day the initial February 19 order was set to expire.

The new order will continue for 14 days, according to court documents, meaning it will continue through March 19. [NBC News article] (next WH, see June 16)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Lena Baker

March 5, 1945: Georgia executed Lena Baker at the Georgia State Prison in Reidsyille. Baker was an African American mother of three.

She was convicted for the fatal shooting of E. B. Knight, a white Cuthbert, GA mill operator she was hired to care for after he broke his leg. She was 44 and the only woman ever executed in Georgia’s electric chair. For Baker, a Black maid in the segregated south in the 1940’s, her story was a tough sell to a jury of 12 white men. And rumors that she was romantically involved with victim E. B. Knight did not help.

Her murder trial lasted just a day, without a single witness called by her court-appointed lawyer. She was convicted and sentenced to death. John Cole Vodicka, director of an Americus-based inmate advocacy program known as the Prison and Jail Project, said Knight had kept Ms. Baker as his “virtual sex slave.” She was his paramour, she was his mistress, and, among other things, his drinking partner. If you read the transcript and have any understanding of black-white relations, Black women were often subjected to the sexual whims of their white masters, their white bosses, or some white man who had control over their lives or the lives of their families. “Here is one who resisted and paid the price.”

The undertaker who brought her body back to Cuthbert buried her in a grave that went unmarked for five decades, until the congregation of Mount Vernon Baptist Church raised money for a concrete slab and marker. 

Lena Baker, who had a sixth-grade education, stated publicly her innocence to the very end. “What I done, I did in self-defense,” she said in her final statement. “I have nothing against anyone. I am ready to meet my God.”

On August 25, 2005 the State of Georgia granted Lena Baker a pardon.

On August. 30, 2005, Georgia authorities presented a proclamation to her descendants, including her grandnephew Roosevelt Curry, who led the drive to clear her name.  (2005 NPR article) (next BH, see Apr 16; DP, see January 13, 1947)

21 Black teenagers die

March 5, 1959:  21 Black teenagers died at the Negro Boys Industrial School (NBIS) building fire after being left alone and locked inside of their dormitory at a neglected and segregated “reform” school.

The night of the fire at NBIS, the boys’ dormitory was completely abandoned by staff members, and was locked from the outside, as it was each night, making it impossible for 21 of these Black teenagers to escape.

While 48 of the Black teenagers in the dormitory that night managed to break their way out of the burning building by jumping out of a window, 21 teenagers remained trapped and burned to death. A committee investigated the fire but no one was ever held responsible.

The NBIS was a juvenile work farm located just outside the predominantly Black town of Wrightsville, Arkansas. Boys between the ages of 13 and 17 who were orphaned, homeless, or considered delinquent because of extremely minor “crimes” were sent to live at NBIS. At the time, any action by a Black person that threatened the racial hierarchy could be deemed criminal. One boy had been sent to NBIS for riding a white boy’s bicycle, even though the white boy’s mother told law enforcement that the Black boy had permission to ride the bike. Another Black boy had been sent to NBIS for a Halloween prank—soaping windows. [EJI article] (next BH, see Apr 18)

Stephon Clark

March 5, 2019:  California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that he would not file criminal charges officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, who shot and killed Stephon Clark in his grandmother’s backyard while responding to a call for vandalism on March 18, 2018.

The California Department of Justice had conducted an independent investigation and decided the officers acted lawfully.

“Our investigation has concluded that no criminal charges against the officers involved in the shooting can be sustained,” Becerra said.

Demonstrations in California’s capital the last few days after District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced on March 2 that prosecutors would not charge Mercadal and Robinet in Clark’s death. (SC, see June 18)

Botham Shem Jean

March 5, 2019:  the Botham Jean foundation was officially launched in memory of 26-year old Botham Shem Jean who was shot dead by Dallas police officer Amber Guyger on September 6, 2019.

The President of the Botham Jean Foundation, Allisa Findley, told St Lucia Times that the organisation it was created to continue what her late brother started in his life.

Findley said this includes giving back to the less fortunate and to vulnerable communities, as well as helping families impacted by police brutality. [BSJ Foundation Facebook page] (B & S, see Mar 5; BSJ, see Apr 25)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

“Iron Curtain”

March 5, 1946: Iron Curtain Speech. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivers his famous “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,” Churchill declared, “an Iron Curtain has descended across the Continent” of Europe. Many people consider Churchill’s “iron curtain speech” the beginning of the Cold War. (Winston Churchill site article) (see Mar 28)

Josef Stalin

March 5, 1953,: Soviet Communist leader Josef Stalin died of a stroke. (see Mar 6)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

March 5 Music et al

Elvis Presley

March 5, 1960: Elvis Presley [had begun active duty Mar 24, 1958] officially discharged from the Army. (see Apr 4)

“The Ballad of the Green Beret”

March 5 – April 8, 1966: “The Ballad of the Green Beret” by SSgt Barry Sadler #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Vietnam & News Music, see March 12 – April 15)

Herb Albert

March 5 – 11, 1966: Herb Albert’s Going Places is the Billboard #1 album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ2GqpvbDmE&list=PL7CE6B0E8FE97B54D

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

National Congress of American Indians

March 5, 1962: the National Congress of American Indians on this day announced Operation Constitution, an attack on discrimination against Native-Americans. The issues to be addressed included the lack of adequate law enforcement and police brutality on Indian reservations, discrimination in state welfare programs and admissions to state hospitals, among others. Legal support would be provided in test cases. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy reportedly pledged “full cooperation” with the program. Meanwhile, Senator Sam J. Ervin (D– North Carolina) called for his Judiciary Subcommittee to undertake the first such Congressional investigation into “this most important and all-too-long-neglected area of the law.” (1963 U of Chicago article) (see December 23, 1963)

National Wildlife Federation

March 5, 1965: the National Wildlife Federation passed a resolution on this day to oppose Native-American fishing rights in areas where fishing was not permitted. The resolution was in response to rising activism among Native-Americans, who made the right to fish in their traditional waters one of their early issues. See the “fish-in” protests on March 2, 1964. (see “in October 1966”)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

March 5, 1963: the Hula-Hoop, the toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, was patented by the company’s co-founder, Arthur “Spud” Melin.  An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. (see July 1)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

March 5, 1970: forty-three nations ratified a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. (see Dec 18)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

March 5, 1973: Donald DeFreeze, a.k.a. “General Field Marshal Cinque” simply walked away from Soledad State Prison while on work duty in a boiler room outside the perimeter fence. He had been serving 5–15 years for robbing a prostitute. DeFreeze took the name Cinque from the leader of the slave rebellion who took over the slave ship Amistad in 1839. (see SLA for more)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

March 5, 1984: Iran accused Iraq of using chemical weapons. (see June 28, 1987)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

March 5, 1984: in Lynch v. Donnelly the U.S. Supreme Court held that a nativity scene built on public land by the City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from passing any “law respecting an establishment of religion”.  (see Aug 11)

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

March 5, 1998: Lawyers for Monica Lewinsky battle with Ken Starr over whether Lewinsky has a binding immunity agreement. (see Clinton for expanded story)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News & ICAN

March 5, 2012: the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN] released a report that identified more than 300 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers in 30 countries with substantial investments in nuclear arms producers. The 180-page study, Donʼt Bank on the Bomb: The Global Financing of Nuclear Weapons Producers, provided details of financial transactions with 20 companies that were heavily involved in the manufacture, maintenance and modernization of US, British, French and Indian nuclear forces. (ICAN report) (Nuclear & ICAN, see In March 2013)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Stop and Frisk Policy

March 5, 2013: NYC agreed to pay $14,000 to Jurard St. Hillaire, 21, who claimed he was illegally stopped and frisked. Hillaire found a surveillance video backing his accusation against Officer Leonard Clarke of the 70th Precinct in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The video showed the cop pushing St. Hillaire against a building. A city lawyer to conceded in January that there appeared to be no legal basis for the stop. (see March 14)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ & Fair Housing

March 5, 2018: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson changed the mission statement of his agency, removing promises of inclusive and discrimination-free communities.

In a memo addressed to HUD political staff, Amy Thompson, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, explained that the statement was being updated “in an effort to align HUD’s mission with the Secretary’s priorities and that of the Administration.”

The new mission statement read: HUD’s mission is to ensure Americans have access to fair, affordable housing and opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency, thereby strengthening our communities and nation.

“An organization’s mission is never static,” Thompson wrote in the memo. “A mission statement describes an organization’s purpose, what it intends to do, and whom it intends to serve. Most importantly, an organization’s activities must be embodied in its mission.” (LGTBQ, see Mar 6; FH, see Dec 3)

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance & Student Rights

March 5, 2019:  Jabari Talbot, the 11-year-old student arrested for causing a disturbance at school and resisting arrest, has had the case against him closed said his attorney, Roderick Ford of Tampa.

Ford provided a February 26 letter from Polk County Teen Court Director Clever English, showing the “case is closed and there are no issues pending.”

English also told Talbot’s mother, Dhakira Talbot, in the letter that the case was not entered into a criminal database and no delinquency record was created.

“Although we are very thankful that the Polk County Juvenile Court has closed the file, and there will be no criminal prosecution by the Polk County State Attorney’s Office, our journey to justice against the perennial criminalization of millions of black youth who attend public schools continues, as a civil rights complaint is now currently pending before the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,” said Ford. (next SR, see Sept 30; next Pledge, see )

March 5 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

March 5, 2024: the Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted to unionize in an unprecedented step toward forming the first labor union for college athletes and another attack on the NCAA’s deteriorating amateur business model.

In an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board in the school’s Human Resources offices, the players voted 13-2 to join Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents some Dartmouth workers. Every player on the roster participated. [AP article] (next LH, see Apr 19)