October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

TERRORISM

October 12, 1871: founded by former Confederate Army officers in December 1865, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) operated as a secret vigilante group targeting black people and their allies with violent terrorism to resist Reconstruction and re-establish a system of white supremacy in the South.

KKK violence was so intense in South Carolina after the Civil War that United States Attorney General Amos Akerman and Army Major Lewis Merrill traveled there to investigate. In York County alone they found evidence of 11 murders and more than 600 whippings and other assaults. When local grand juries failed to take action, Akerman urged President Ulysses S. Grant to intervene, describing the counties as “under the domination of systematic and organized depravity.” Merrill said the situation was a “carnival of crime not paralleled in the history of any civilized community.”

On April 20, 1871, President Grant had signed the Ku Klux Klan Act, which made it a federal crime to deprive American citizens of their civil rights through racial terrorism. On October 12, 1871, President Grant warned nine South Carolina counties with prevalent KKK activity that martial law would be declared if the Klan did not disperse. The warning was ignored. (see Oct 17)

Booker T. Mixon

October 12, 1959:  Booker T. Mixon was born in 1934 in Itta Bena. He was a World War II veteran, Mixon, his wife Earlene, and their two children moved from Chicago in 1959, where they lived after the war, to Clarksdale, Mississippi. After the family moved, Mixon worked hauling dirt and gravel for about 3 months for J.A. Childs of Greenwood, a white man.

On October 12, 1959, Mixon was discovered naked lying in near fatal condition on the side of the road in Marks, Mississippi. Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Collins of Quitman County found Mixon and called his case a “hit and run.” The flesh on Mixon’s abdomen and back had been torn from his body; witnesses said it appeared as though he had been dragged by a car.

Dr. Joseph Jones Jr., a black physician and surgeon from Clarksdale, reported that “[Mixon] had multiple abrasions and bruises on his face, head, abdomen, and legs… Furthermore, there were brain injuries and head fractures. I would say he could have been dragged by a car, perhaps, over some grass.”  [Northeastern University article] (BH & Mixon, see Oct 23)

Jonny Gammage

October 12, 1995: Jonny Gammage, cousin and business partner of Pittsburgh Steelers football player Ray Seals, was detained during a traffic stop while driving Mr. Seals’s Jaguar in the working-class suburb of Brentwood on the morning of October 12, 1995. According to testimony, Lt. Milton Mullholland pulled Mr. Gammage over for tapping his breaks and called Officer John Votjas for backup. The officers later claimed that Mr. Gammage, who was 5’6″ and 165 pounds, pointed an object at the officers – which turned out to be a cell phone – and struggled. Mullholland and Votjas, along with Officer Michael Albert, Sgt. Keith Henderson, and Officer Sean Patterson, ultimately pinned Mr. Gammage face-down on the pavement; he asphyxiated and died after several minutes.

On November 27, 1995, Mulholland, Votjas were charged with third degree murder, and Albert was charged with involuntary manslaughter. The charges against Mullholland and Votjas, were later reduced to involuntary manslaughter. Henderson and Patterson were not charged in the incident.

Officer Votjas was acquitted by an all-white jury and, a year later, promoted to sergeant; Judge Joseph McCloskey dismissed charges against Mulholland and Albert after two trials resulted in mistrials. In January 1996, Brentwood police chief Wayne Babish, who had called for a complete investigation into Mr. Gammage’s death, was fired by the Brentwood City Council for failing to support the charged officers.

Multiple public protests were held in Pittsburgh and elsewhere, calling for “Justice for Jonny” and federal intervention. However, in 1999 the Department of Justice declined to file civil rights charges, stating that there was not enough evidence that unreasonable force had been used. (Fact Sheet on the Murder of Jonny Gammage) (see Oct 16)

Atatiana Jefferson

October 12, 2019: a white Fort Worth, TX police officer shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old black Texas woman. She had been playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew.

James Smith, a neighbor, told reporters that he got a call from his niece that both his neighbor’s front doors were open. He said this was unusual for Jefferson, and that he saw all the lights in the house were on. He said he called officers to the scene, but meant it only as a welfare check to make sure she was all right.

When the officer, outside, saw Jefferson inside he called out a warning and shot. (next B & S and AJ, see Oct 14)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance

October 12, 1892: during Columbus Day observances organized to coincide with the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, the pledge of allegiance was recited for the first time. Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist, had initiated the movement for such a statement and having flags in all classrooms. His pledge was: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

In 1923: the National Flag Conference called for the words “my Flag” to be changed to “the Flag of the United States,” so that new immigrants would not confuse loyalties between their birth countries and the United States. The words “of America” were added a year later. (see Pledge for expanded story)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

October 12 Music et al

Sugar Shack

October 12 – November 15, 1963,  “Sugar Shack” by Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

see Robert A. Moog and Herbert A. Deutsch for more

October 12 – 16, 1964: Robert A. Moog and Herbert A. Deutsch [WW link] introduced and demonstrated their music synthesizer at the convention of the Audio Engineering Society in NYC. (TM, see April 9, 1965; CM, see April 27, 1965)

Cheap Thrills

October 12 – November 15, 1968: Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills is the Billboard #1 album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA78eLqHLkM&index=3&list=PLUMhCEyoWEFvbaDwFRbFU6_0rOL2rsP9C

“I buried Paul”

October 12, 1969: a DJ on Detroit’s WKNR radio station received a phone call telling him that if you play The Beatles ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ backwards, you hear John Lennon say the words “I buried Paul.” This started a worldwide rumor that Paul McCartney was dead. [2018 BBC article] (see Oct 20)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race/Space

October 12, 1964: Soviets V. M. Komarov, K. P. Feoktistov and B. B. Yegorov all flew on Voskhod 1, the first mission to send multiple men into space.  [NASA article] (see February 20, 1965)

OSIRIS-REx mission

October 12, 2023: NASA shared its first glimpse of the black rocks and dust brought back from the Bennu asteroid (the bulk of the material remains locked inside a sample collection device that researchers needed to slowly disassemble).

The tiny amount of material analyzed to that point showed that Bennu (named after Bennu, the ancient Egyptian mythological bird associated with the Sun, creation, and rebirth) contained abundant water and carbon, adding to evidence that asteroids may have seeded the early Earth with ingredients needed for the emergence of life. [NPR article] (next Space, see January 19,, 2023; next OSIRIS-REx, see January  10, 2024)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

October 12, 1968: Equatorial Guinea independent from Spain. [SAHistory article] (see June 4, 1970)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Kent State Killings and Aftermath

October 12, 1970: President Nixon announced the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas. (NYT article) (Kent State, see January 4, 1979; Vietnam, Nov 9)

Race Revolts

October 12,1972: en route to the Gulf of Tonkin, a fight broke out involving more than 200 sailors aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk; 40 persons were injured and 28 sailors arrested, all but one black. (NYT pdf) (Vietnam, see Oct 26; BH & RR see Nov 23)

WAR POWERS ACT

October 12, 1973: House approved joint conference committee’s resolution 238 – 123. (see Oct 24)

Watergate Scandal

October 12, 1973: following the October 10 resignation of vice president Sprio Agnew, Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., to succeed Agnew as vice president. (see Watergate for expanded story)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

October 12, 1984: The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 was enacted. It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. Among its constituent parts and provisions was the Armed Career Criminal Act. The ACCA provided sentence enhancements for felons who committed crimes with firearms, if convicted of certain crimes three or more times.

If a felon has been convicted more than twice of a “violent felony” or a “serious” drug crime, the Act provided a minimum sentence of fifteen years, instead of the ten-year maximum prescribed under the Gun Control Act. The Act provided for a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. [Slate article] (see Nov 12)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

October 12, 1984:  The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing. (see Troubles for expanded story)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

see Matthew Shepard murder for more

October 12, 1998: Shepard died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Alaska ban on gay marriage overruled

October 12, 2014: U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess released his 25-page decision that struck down Alaska’s first-in-the-nation ban on gay marriages. Five gay couples had asked the state of Alaska to overturn a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1998 that defined marriage as being between one man and one woman.

The lawsuit filed in May sought to bar enforcement of Alaska’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. It also called for barring enforcement of any state laws that refused to recognize gay marriages legally performed in other states or countries or that prevent unmarried gay couples from marrying.

Burgess had heard arguments the previous Friday afternoon and promised a quick decision. (NYT article) (see Oct 25)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

 TERRORISM

USS Cole

October 12, 2000: in Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole was badly damaged by two Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, who place a small boat laden with explosives alongside the United States Navy destroyer, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39. [CNN article] (see Dec 19)

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

October 12, 2011: the trial of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused of trying to blow up a commercial airliner with a bomb sewed into his underwear ended  just a day after it had begun, when he abruptly announced that he would plead guilty to all of the federal counts against him.

He stated that “The Koran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah…I carried the device to avenge the killing of my Muslim brothers and sisters… Unfortunately, my actions make me guilty of a crime.” [NYT article] (Terrorism &  Abdulmutallab, see February 16, 2012)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Affordable Care Act

October 12, 2017:

• President Trump signed an executive order that cleared the way for potentially sweeping changes in health insurance, including sales of cheaper policies with fewer benefits and fewer protections for consumers than those mandated under the Affordable Care Act. But most of the changes will not come until federal agencies adopt regulations, after an opportunity for public comments — a process that could take months. [NYT article]

• a few hours later, Trump announced that he would scrap subsidies to health insurance companies that help pay out-of-pocket costs of low-income people. (see Oct 27).

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

October 12, 2018: Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl after he had become entangled in two major sexual abuse and cover-up scandals and lost the support of many in his flock.

Wuerl becames the most prominent head to roll in the scandal roiling the Catholic Church after his predecessor as Washington archbishop, Theodore McCarrick, was forced to resign as cardinal over allegations he sexually abused at least two minors and adult seminarians.

The decision came after months in which Wuerl initially downplayed the scandal, insisted on his own good record, but then progressively came to the conclusion that he could no longer lead the archdiocese.  (next SAoC, see Oct 18; McCarrick, see February 16, 2019)

October 12 Peace Love Art Activism

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Marcus Garvey

October 11, 1919: with the goal of deporting Garvey firmly in mind, J Edgar Hoover wrote a memo suggesting that investigators pursue the idea of prosecuting Garvey for fraud, in connection with his Black Star Line activities. (see MG for expanded story)

David Bunn killed running from lynch mob

October 11, 1921: Tarrant County Sheriff Carl Smith and Deputy Tom Snow shot David Bunn, a handcuffed Black man, as he fled to escape a white lynch mob. Four days before these officers shot Bunn, white mobs made three separate attempts to lynch him.

At 2:30 am on the morning of October 11, the officers handcuffed Mr. Bunn and loaded him into a police car. Mr. Bunn sat in terror as they drove, even saying to the officers that he feared being lynched. As they crossed the county line near Arlington, Sheriff Smith observed four automobiles approaching, and identified these vehicles as members of the lynch mob, saying to Mr. Bunn “I think that’s them…”

Fearing for his life, Mr. Bunn jumped, in handcuffs, from the police car. Rather than capture Mr. Bunn and return him to their car, Sheriff Smith and Deputy Snow shot and killed him as the mob approached. Four bullets were lodged in his body before Mr. Bunn fell into a roadside ditch and died. No one faced charges or accountability for Mr. Bunn’s murder.  [EJI article] (next BH & Lynching, see Oct 20 or see AL3 for expanded chronology)

Malcolm X

October 11, 1963: at UC Berkeley Herman Blake interviewed Malcolm X  being a Black Muslim, the conditions of Blacks in this country, their relation with white people, and Malcolm X stating  the case for Black separatism. [video] (BH, see Oct 15; MX, see March 1, 1964)

Medgar Evers assassination

October 11, 1973: the Louisiana Ku Klux Klan said it was raising a defense fund for Byron De La Beckwith, who was charged with bringing a bomb into Louisiana. (next BH, see January 7, 1974; ME, see January 19, 1974)

Johnnie Mae Chappell

October 11, 2005: the law firm of Spohrer Wilner Maxwell & Matthews, best known for its court wins against tobacco giants, promised to look into the 1964 slaying of black housekeeper Johnnie Mae Chappell by white shooters without charge.

Senior partner Robert Spohrer asked Gov. Jeb Bush and State Attorney Harry Shorstein to reopen the case, appoint a special prosecutor or impanel a grand jury to investigate the slaying.

The attorney also said his office has been in touch with the Southern Poverty Law Center and was looking into filing another lawsuit, although the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case last year that accused local detectives of covering up evidence to protect Chappell’s killers. (BH, see Oct 13; Chappell, see January 5, 2006)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Second Vatican Council

October 11, 1962:  Pope John XXIII convened an ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church—the first in 92 years. In summoning the ecumenical council—a general meeting of the bishops of the church—the pope hoped to bring spiritual rebirth to Catholicism and cultivate greater unity with the other branches of Christianity. In calling the ecumenical council, he sought a “New Pentecost,” a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He sought reconciliation for the world’s divided Christianity and invited Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant observers to attend the proceedings.  During the Council a papal commission worked on a new marriage statement.

In 1965, that commission on marriage voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the church rescind its ban on artificial contraception, saying that it was not “intrinsically evil”

The Council would close on December 8, 1965.

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

National Security Action Memorandum 263

October 11, 1963: after considering the report from McNamara and Taylor (Sept 21), Kennedy signed National Security Action Memorandum 263. It planned to transfer responsibility for security in South Vietnam to the ARVN, allowing for the withdrawal of 1,000 US advisors within three months and the bulk of US advisors by late 1965. (see Oct 22)

Peace negotiations

October 11, 1972: Henry Kissinger met again with the North Vietnamese. According to Hanoi, the United States proposed a change in the schedule: bombing and mining would be stopped Oct. 21, the agreement initialed Oct. 22 and formally signed Oct. 30. Hanoi said it agreed to the change. On October 12 Kissinger returned to Washington to brief President. Nixon. In Saigon, President Thieu tells a youth rally of his opposition to a coalition with the Communists. (see Oct 12)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

October 11 – 12, 1968: after extensive redesign work, Apollo 7, commanded by Wally Schirra (the only astronaut to command Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions) enters earth orbit in the first test of the spacecraft. [NYT Apollo 7] (see Oct 25)

Space

October 11, 2022: NASA officials announced that their mission to have a spacecraft to hit the asteroid Dimorphos and alter its trajectory was a resounding success.

The crash they’d engineered shortened Dimorphos’s orbit around the asteroid  Didymos by 32 minutes, from 11 hours and 55 minutes to 11 hours and 23 minutes. The agency had previously set a minimum benchmark for success at 73 seconds. [Smithsonian article]  (next Space, see August 23, 2023)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

World Series

October 11 – 16, 1969: NY Mets v Baltimore Orioles. Mets win in five games to accomplish one of the greatest upsets in Series history, as that particular Orioles squad was considered to be one of the finest ever. The World Series win earned the team the sobriquet “Miracle Mets.” [NPR story]

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS

October 11, 1987: hundreds of thousands of activists take part in the National March on Washington to demand that President Ronald Reagan address the AIDS crisis. Although AIDS had been reported first in 1981, it was not until the end of his presidency that Reagan spoke publicly about the epidemic. (NYT article) (see May – June 1988)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

October 11, 1991: University of Oklahoma Law Professor Anita F. Hill testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee that conservative Federal Appeals Court Judge and Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her when she was employed as his personal assistant. Three days of unprecedented televised Senate Judiciary Committee hearings follow the charges. Senators Arlen Specter, Alan Simpson and Orrin Hatch accuse Hill of falsifying the events, and her credibility was questioned because her allegations did not come until nine years after the alleged acts took place.

Thomas reappeared before the panel to denounce the proceedings as a “high-tech lynching.” (NYT article) [transcript of testimony] (see Oct  23)

BSA

October 11, 2017: the Boy Scouts of America announced plans to accept girls, marking an historic shift for the century-old organization.

The group cited the desire to nurture female leaders as a reason for the decision, pitting it against the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., which operates under a similar mission.

“We strive to bring what our organization does best — developing character and leadership for young people — to as many families and youth as possible as we help shape the next generation of leaders,” said Michael Surbaugh, the group’s chief scout executive.

Starting in 2018, girls would be allowed into the Cub Scout program, which had been limited to boys either in the first through fifth grades or between the ages of 7 and 10. A separate program for older girls was expected to be available in 2019. [NYT article] (Feminism, see Dec 6; BSA, see April 23, 2019)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

Coal Sludge Spill

October 11, 2000: 250 million US gallons  of coal sludge spill in Martin County, Kentucky (considered a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill). [CounterSpill article] (see September 16, 2004)

Hottest September

October 11, 2023: Berkeley Earth’s analysis of September 2023 indicated that globally, September 2023 was the warmest September since directly measured instrumental records began in 1850, breaking the record previously set in September 2020. In addition, September 2023 exceeded the previous record by 0.50 °C (0.90 °F), an enormous margin described by one climate scientist as “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas.” [Berkeley article] (next EI, see Oct 13)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

October 11, 2018: Washington state’s Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional and converted to life in prison all pending death sentences in the state.

The court’s decision was unanimous, with the justices determining that capital punishment was applied “in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.”

“The use of the death penalty is unequally applied — sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence… or the race of the defendant,” the court said in its opinion. “The death penalty, as administered in our state, fails to serve any legitimate penological goal; thus, it violates article I, section 14 of our state constitution.” (see February 7, 2019)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Ryan White

October 11, 2018: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that approximately $2.34 billion in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program grants were awarded to cities, counties, states, and local community-based organizations in fiscal year (FY) 2018.

This funding through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) supports a comprehensive system of HIV primary medical care, medication, and essential support services to more than half a million people living with HIV in the United States. (see RW for White’s expanded chronology)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

October 11, 2019: President Trump’s immigration agenda ran into legal blockades in courts around the country as judges in four states barred his administration from trying to withhold green cards from people who use public benefits and rejected his plan to divert funds to erect a border wall.

In three rulings, federal judges in New York, California and Washington State issued injunctions temporarily blocking the “public charge” rule, which would impose serious impediments to legal residency for those who use benefits such as Medicaid or those deemed likely to use them in the future.

The rule, widely seen as an attempt to keep out immigrants who are poor or in need of help, was one of the Trump administration’s signature immigration policies — and it ran into a legal brick wall in three corners of the country on a single day.

Lawsuits filed by 21 states and the District of Columbia argued that the new regulations, which had been due to take effect on Tuesday, discriminate against low-income people from developing countries and undermine the well-being of children whose families might avoid using nutritional, health and other programs. [NYT article] (next IH, see Oct 15)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone & LGBTQ+

October 11, 2021: DC Comics announced  that the new Superman, Jonathan Kent — who is the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane — will soon begin a romantic relationship with a male friend.

That same-sex relationship was just one of the ways that Jonathan Kent, who goes by Jon, proved to be a different Superman than his famous father. Since his new series, Superman: Son of Kal-El, began in July, Jon has combated wildfires caused by climate change, thwarted a high school shooting and protested the deportation of refugees in Metropolis.

“The idea of replacing Clark Kent with another straight white savior felt like a missed opportunity,” Tom Taylor, who writes the series, said in an interview. He said that a “new Superman had to have new fights — real world problems — that he could stand up to as one of the most powerful people in the world.”  [NYT article] (next CM, see ; next LGBTQ, see Oct 27)

October 11 Peace Love Art Activism