Tag Archives: September Peace Love Art Activism

Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

September 7, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

September 7, 1927: TV pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth succeeded in transmitting an image through purely electronic means by using a device called an image dissector. [NYT obit] (see July 7, 1928)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

September 7, 1953: following the March 5 death of Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party. His main rival, Lavrentiy Beria, was executed in December. [Quora dot com article] (see Nov 13)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Daughters of Bilitis

September 7, 1957: The Daughters of Bilitis, the first openly lesbian activist organization in the U.S (founded on September 21, 1955) held its first meeting on this date in New York City.

The Daughters of Bilitis sponsored a lesbian and gay rights conference in New York City, on June 20, 1964, at which two doctors attacked the idea that homosexuality was a disease. [NY LGBT Historic Sites Project article] (see January 13, 1958)

Trail Life USA

September 7, 2013: Trail Life USA formed for those who disagreed with the Boy Scouts of America decision to allow openly gay Scouts. The group stated that it was founded to “counter the ‘moral free fall’ of the nation, and raise a generation of faithful husbands, fathers, citizens and leaders.” It added, “The genesis of the new group was the [Boy Scouts of America] leadership’s closely watched decision in May to change its membership policy and admit youth regardless of their sexual orientation or sexual preference.” (Trail Life core values) (LGBTQ, see Oct 18; BSA, see February 27, 2014)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

September 7, 1964: the most famous of all campaign commercials, known as the “Daisy Girl” ad, ran only once as a paid advertisement, during an NBC broadcast of Monday Night at the Movies. Without any explanatory words, the ad used a simple and powerful cinematic device, juxtaposing a scene of a little girl happily picking petals off of a flower and an ominous countdown to a nuclear explosion. The ad was created by the innovative agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, known for its conceptual, minimal, and modern approach to advertising. The memorable soundtrack was created by Tony Schwartz, an advertising pioneer famous for his work with sound, including anthropological recordings of audio from cultures around the world. The frightening ad was instantly perceived as a portrayal of Barry Goldwater as an extremist. In fact, the Republican National Committee spelled this out by saying, “This ad implies that Senator Goldwater is a reckless man and Lyndon Johnson is a careful man.” That was precisely the intent; in a memo to President Johnson on September 13, Bill Moyers wrote, “The idea was not to let him get away with building a moderate image and to put him on the defensive before the campaign is old.”

The ad was replayed in its entirety on ABC’s and CBS’s nightly news shows, amplifying its impact. (see Oct 16)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

September 7, 1965: US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Richard B Fitzgibbon, III killed in action from an explosive device while serving in Quang Tin, South Vietnam. He was the son of Richard B Fitzgibbon, Jr, the first US casualty in Vietnam. (see Sept 11)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

September 7, 1968: New York Radical Women protested the Miss America contest in Atlantic City by picketing, yelling “Women’s Liberation!,” and throwing bras and garter belts into a trashcan. Although nothing was actually burned, the event brings the feminist movement media attention and begins the “bra-burner” stereotype. [Smithsonian article] (see Nov 5)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

September 7 Music et al

Waiting for the Sun

September 7- 27, 1968: The Doors’ Waiting for the Sun the Billboard #1 album. Their first #1 album.

John Lennon assassination

September 7, 2010: authorities denied parole to Mark David Chapman for the sixth time. Chapman, held at Attica Correctional Facility in New York State, could not ask for parole again for two years. (see August 22, 2012)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Joseph Woodrow Hatchett

September 7, 1976: Joseph Woodrow Hatchett was elected to a seat on the Florida Supreme Court, becoming the first black person elected to any statewide office in the South since the end of Reconstruction nearly a century before. A year earlier, in September 1975, Governor Rubin Askew appointed Judge Hatchett to a seat on the Court, making him the first black Florida Supreme Court justice in state history. [Black Past article] (see Sept 28)

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

September 7, 1986: Desmond Tutu became the first Black Anglican Church bishop in South Africa. [UPI article] (see December 7, 1988)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

September 7, 1979: ESPN made its cable TV debut. (see June 1, 1980)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

September 7, 2004: death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq reached 1,000 [CNN.com, 9/8/04] (see Oct 7)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News & ICAN

September 7, 2006: the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the 1985 Nobel Peace Laureate, adopted International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN] as top campaign priority at its world congress in Helsinki, Finland. IPPNW’s Australian affiliate, MAPW, commits to fundraising and providing coordination for a campaign launch in 2007. (Nuclear & ICAN, see April 30, 2007)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

September 7, 2007: the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego agreed to pay $198m to settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy. [Prolades dot com article] see May 2009)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Terry Jones bigotry

September 7, 2010: Jones says he “understands the government’s concerns, but plans to go forward with the burning.” He left “the door open to change his mind, however, saying that he was still praying about his decision. (see Sept 8)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

September 7, 2017: the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s limited view of who is allowed into the country under its revised travel ban.

A three-judge panel decided that grandparents, cousins and similarly close extended family relationships of people in the U.S. shouldn’t be prevented from coming to the country. The court also said refugees already accepted by a resettlement agency shouldn’t be banned. The appeals court decision upholds a decision from a district court judge in Hawaii (July 14), who said the administration’s view was too narrow. The decision impacts the revised travel ban, which temporarily suspends new visas and travel for people coming from the Muslim-dominated countries of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

“Stated simply, the government does not offer a persuasive explanation for why a mother-in-law is clearly a bona fide relationship, in the Supreme Court’s prior reasoning, but a grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, or cousin is not,” the ruling said. [CBS article] (see Sept 12)

September 7 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans & Cannabis

September 7, 2023: the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) passed a referendum in favor of legalizing marijuana, becoming the first jurisdiction within the borders of North Carolina—or any of its surrounding states—to commit to the policy change. But it would be a while before would-be customers could make a purchase.

According to unofficial results posted by the EBCI’s Board of Elections, members approved the measure by a margin of 70 percent to 30 percent. Although the referendum does not legalize cannabis automatically, tribal leaders have said they’ll follow voters’ lead when they ultimately take up the issue. [MM article] (next NA, see Nov 17; next Cannabis, see Oct 9 or see CAC for broader chronology)

Lynching, Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

September 5, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Clinton, Mississippi riot

September 5, 1875: Republicans in Hinds County, Mississippi, held a barbecue and meeting in the town of Clinton that was attended by 3000 people. Hoping to curb the risk of violent political conflict, Clinton authorities appointed special police and prohibited serving liquor. When the Republican speakers began making their political speeches in the afternoon, Democratic party representatives unexpectedly joined the meeting and requested speaking time. In the interest of keeping peace, Republicans accommodated the request and arranged for a public discussion between Judge Amos R. Johnston, a Democratic candidate for state senate, and Captain H.T. Fisher, Republican editor of the Jackson Times.

Both speakers were to be given an equal amount of speaking time, and Johnston spoke first, giving a cordial address. Fisher expressed optimism that meetings between the parties could take place peacefully in the future but eight minutes into his address the crowd was disrupted by an altercation. Soon after, a gunfight erupted between whites and blacks, and bystanders panicked in a rush to escape the danger. About 15 minutes later, three whites and four blacks were dead, and six whites and 20 blacks ;were wounded.

Newspapers reported that the blacks who fired weapons did so in self defense but local whites were enraged by the show of force. That night, armed whites from Clinton and Vicksburg formed roving bands intent on killing black men. By the next day, an estimated 50 blacks had been killed and many more had been forced into the woods and swampland to avoid attack, where they remained until the violence subsided on September 6, 1875. [Black Past article] (BH, see Nov 2; RR, see November 3, 1883)

Walter Johnson lynched

September 5, 1912: a white mob in Princeton, West Virginia lynched a black man named Walter Johnson.

After Mr. Johnson was accused of assaulting a white girl, sheriff’s officials anticipated a lynch mob would form and moved him from Bluefield to Princeton. When the move was discovered, an armed mob of white men came to Princeton and seized Mr. Johnson. The local judge urged the mob to let the court conduct a “speedy trial,” and the state governor warned a lynching should not be allowed — but the mob was determined.

After kidnapping Mr. Johnson from police custody, the enraged mob beat Mr. Johnson with clubs and rocks, strung him to a telegraph pole “in the presence of the judge, sheriff, and armed guards” and shot him with hundreds of bullets. Despite their purported efforts to dissuade the mob, police did not attempt to use force to save Mr. Johnson’s life, and the judge did not order any members of the lynch mob arrested.

After the lynching, the growing mob patrolled the town terrorizing other African Americans, threatening to lynch other black people they encountered – including those who attempted to cut down Mr. Johnson’s hanging corpse. Instead, the mob cut the dead body down, stripped off most of the clothing to keep as souvenirs, and then again hanged the corpse from the same pole.

According to press reports, authorities later acknowledged a growing possibility that Mr. Johnson had been wrongly identified and was innocent of the alleged assault. Nevertheless, a grand jury convened to investigate the murder declined to return a single indictment, and no one was ever arrested or prosecuted for his lynching.

Walter Johnson was one of ten known lynching victims in Mercer County, West Virginia.

Mr. Johnson is one of more than 4,000 documented African American victims of racial terror lynching killed in the United States between 1877 and 1950. (next BH & Lynching, see September 10 following)

Rob Edwards lynched

September 10, 1912: a 24-year-old Black man named Rob Edwards was lynched and hung in downtown Cumming, Edwards was one of several Black men arrested on suspicion of involvement in the fatal assault of a young white woman named Mae Crow.

At least 2,000 white residents of Forsyth County formed a mob and stormed the jail. They found Edwards in his cell, brutally beat him with a crowbar, and shot him repeatedly. The mob then dragged Edwards through the streets to the town square, where they hung his mutilated body and left it on display. Subsequently, two Black teenagers who were also arrested for Mae Crow’s assault, Ernest Knox and Oscar Daniels, were convicted by all-white juries after trials that lasted one day each. They were hanged before thousands of white spectators.

Edwards’s lynching and the mob violence that followed terrorized the remaining 1,098 Black residents of Forsyth County, who fled the county in fear. The loss of Black-owned property in order to flee arbitrary mob violence was common during this era, and Forsyth’s Black residents left behind their homes and farms to escape, taking with them only what they could carry. Forsyth County would remain essentially all white until the 1990s.

No one was ever held accountable for Mr. Edwards’s lynching or the mass exodus of Black residents that followed. [EJI story] [video story] (next BH, see Oct 18; next Lynching, see March 31, 1914; for for expanded chronology, see American Lynching 2)

Muhammad Ali

September 5, 1960: After winning three preliminary bouts, Cassius Clay defeated Poland’s Zbigniew Pietrzkowski to win the light heavyweight gold medal. He became the World Light Heavyweight Olympic Champion less than six years after his bicycle is stolen in Louisville. Cassius Clay returned to the US to a hero’s welcome. He was an honoree at parades in both New York City and Louisville. Despite his accomplishments for the US, he was denied service in a segregated restaurant in Kentucky. (BH, see Oct 17; Ali, see October 29, 1960)

Virginia Theological Seminary

September 5, 2019: Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) announced that the Seminary would create an endowment fund from which the income will fund reparation.

It’s statement read in part: Virginia Theological Seminary recognizes that enslaved persons worked on the campus, and that even after slavery ended, VTS participated in segregation. VTS recognizes that we must start to repair the material consequences of our sin in the past.

The income from the endowment would be allocated annually in conversation with key stakeholders for the following purposes:

the needs emerging from local congregations linked with VTS;
the particular needs of any descendants of enslaved persons that worked at the Seminary;
the work of African American alumni/ae, especially in historic Black congregations;
the raising up of African American clergy in The Episcopal Church;
other activities and programs that promote justice and inclusion. (next BH, see Oct 8)

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

First Labor Day Parade

September 5, 1882: some 10,000 workers assembled in New York City to participate in America’s first Labor Day parade. After marching from City Hall, past reviewing stands in Union Square, and then uptown to 42nd Street, the workers and their families gathered in Wendel’s Elm Park for a picnic, concert, and speeches. This first Labor Day celebration was eagerly organized and executed by New York’s Central Labor Union, an umbrella group made up of representatives from many local unions. Debate continues to this day as to who originated the idea of a workers’ holiday, but it definitely emerged from the ranks of organized labor at a time when they wanted to demonstrate the strength of their burgeoning movement and inspire improvements in their working conditions. [US DoL article] (see June 13, 1884)

DoJ raids IWW

September 5, 1917: U.S. Department of Justice agents made simultaneous raids on dozens of International Workers of the World meeting halls across the country. Minutes books, correspondence, mailing lists, and publications were seized, with the U.S. Department of Justice removing five tons of material from the IWW’s General Office in Chicago alone. This seized material was scoured for possible violations of the Espionage Act of 1917 and other laws, with a view to future prosecution of the organization’s leaders, organizers, and key activists. (see Sept 11)

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

September 5 Music et al

see On The Road for more

September 5, 1957: Jack Kerouac’s On The Road published. It was based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends, particularly Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg, across America. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and drug use. The novel underwent several drafts before Kerouac completed it in April 1951.

When the book was originally released, The New York Times hailed it as “the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as ‘beat,’ and whose principal avatar he is.” (next Beat Generation, see Oct 3; see Road for expanded story)

see House of the Rising Sun for more

September 5 – 25, 1964: “House of the Rising Sun” by the Animals #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Hippie coined

September 5, 1965: San Francisco writer Michael Fallon applied the term “hippie” to the SF counterculture in an article about the Blue Unicorn coffeehouse, where LEMAR (Legalize Marijuana) & the Sexual Freedom League met. (see September 8, 1966)

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam & My Lai Massacre

September 5, 1969: the day before his scheduled discharge from the Army, Lieutenant Calley was charged with six counts of premeditated murder. The public information office issued a press release stating Calley was being retained because of an ongoing investigation. (Vietnam, see Sept 24; see My Lai for expanded story)

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

September 5, 1972: Sarah Lawrence College began a graduate program in Women’s History, the first such Master’s degree program to be offered by a major college. [Sarah Lawrence site article] (see Sept 12)

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

Munich Massacre

September 5 – 6, 1972: eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich are murdered after 8 members of the Arab terrorist group Black September invade the Olympic Village; 5 guerrillas and 1 policeman are also killed in a failed hostage rescue. [CBS News article] (see December 15, 1981)

Lynette Fromme

September 5, 1975, in Sacramento, California, Lynette Fromme, a follower of jailed cult leader Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford, but was thwarted by a Secret Service agent. [Rolling Stone article on Fromme] (see Sept 22)

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

September 5, 2017: President Trump ordered an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. It had shielded young undocumented immigrants from deportation, calling the program an “amnesty-first approach” and urging Congress to replace it with legislation before it began phasing out on March 5, 2018.

“I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents,” Mr. Trump said in a written statement. “But we must also recognize that we are nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws.” [NBC News story] (Immigration, see Sept 7; DACA, see Sept 14)

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

September 5, 2019: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that Michigan State University would pay a record $4.5 million fine for failing to protect students from sexual abuse following a sweeping investigation into the university’s response to allegations against a former team doctor and convicted sex criminal, Lawrence G. Nassar.

The fine was part of a settlement with the Education Department, which initiated two investigations into the university’s handling of abuse allegations against Mr. Nassar. (next SAC, see Sept 13; next Nassar, see July 14, 2021)

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Census

September 6, 2020: CNN reported that Judge Lucy Koh ordered the Trump administration to temporarily stop “winding down or altering any Census field operations.” The order applied nationwide.

The temporary restraining order was the first court order this fall impacting how the final weeks of counting would unfold. Several other lawsuits were pending in courts across the country. This order is in effect until a hearing on September 17.

Groups protesting the move said the practice risked undercounting minority groups, including both legal and undocumented immigrants.

Koh, who sits in California, noted in the temporary restraining order the concern from the groups suing the government “that each day that the Census does not conduct its field operations to reach and count hard to reach populations increases the inaccuracy of the Census count and thus increases their irreparable harm.”

The Census Bureau sent a message to its field operations leadership informing them of the order from the federal judge to continue Census field work. (next Census, see Sept 10; next Kohl, see Sept 25)

September 5 Peace Love Art Activism

Music et al, Peace Love Art and Activism, Today in history

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

September 4, 2017 Woodstock Whisperer Leave a comment

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

September 4, 1886: Apache chief Geronimo surrendered to U.S. government troops. For 30 years, the Native American warrior had battled to protect his tribe’s homeland; however, by 1886 the Apaches were exhausted and hopelessly outnumbered. General Nelson Miles accepted Geronimo’s surrender, making him the last Indian warrior to formally give in to U.S. forces and signaling the end of the Indian Wars in the Southwest. [Native Voices article] (see February 8, 1887)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

Peekskill riot

September 4, 1949: more than 140 attendees at a benefit for a civil rights group were injured in the “Peekskill Riots” in Peekskill, N.Y. The victims were among the 20,000 people leaving a concert featuring African-American Paul Robeson, well-known for his strong pro-unionism, civil rights activism and left-wing affiliations. The departing concert-goers had to drive through a miles-long gauntlet of rock-throwing racists and others chanting “go on back to Russia, you niggers” and “white niggers” [Commentary article] (BH, see Nov 14 ; Red Scare, see Sept 22; Terrorism, see November 1, 1950)

Lucille Ball/HUAC

September 4, 1954: an investigator with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) interviewed Lucille Ball, star of the enormously popular television show I Love Lucy, on this day. She had registered to vote as a Communist in the 1930s but was not otherwise active in the Communist Party. The I Love Lucy show was the most popular television program at the time, and HUAC was apparently reluctant to publicly challenge her. [LA Times article] (see Sept 8)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

September 4, 1951: in the first live coast-to-coast TV broadcast, President Harry S. Truman addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco. (see October 9)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Claymont High School

September 4, 1952: eleven black students attended the first day of school at Claymont High School, Delaware, becoming the first African-American students in the 17 segregated states to integrate a previously all-white public school. [Community News article] (see Dec 30)

Orval Faubus

September 4, 1957: Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock. The Soviet Union used the event to propagandize tales of the horrors suffered by African Americans. [Faubus NYT obit] [Charles Mingus reaction] (BH, see Sept 9; Cold War, see Sept 17)

Arthur D Shores

September 4, 1963: in Birmingham, AL, terrorists bombed the home of Arthur D Shores, a lawyer who played a major role in desegregation cases. The home was located in an area referred to as “Dynamite Hill” because there had been almost a bombing a year for the past decade.

Local residents came out of their homes and began demonstrating. Police were called to restrain the demonstration. John Coley, a 20-year-old, was shot in the back of the neck and through his chest. He died later. Police said Coley had burst from the front door of a home firing a gun. A local camera crew denied that the victim had a gun. [Shores NYT obit] (BH, see Sept 9)

Trayvon Martin Shooting

September 4, 2013: Shellie Zimmerman, the wife of George Zimmerman, presented a petition for divorce in Seminole County in central Florida according to her lawyer Kelly Sims. (see Sept 9)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

September 4 Music et al

Michael

September 4 – 17, 1961: a Civil War slave song, “Michael” by The Highwaymen #1 Billboard Hot 100.

Beatles back in studio

September 4, 1962: following The Beatles’ first session for EMI on 6 June 1962, they returned for a second attempt at recording their debut single. This was Ringo Starr’s first recording session with the group. (see Sept 11)

Beatles #1

September 4 – 24, 1965, The Beatles: from their second movie, “Help!” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (see Sept 11)

LSD

September 4, 2019: Johns Hopkins Medicine announced the launch of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, to study compounds like LSD and psilocybin for a range of mental health problems, including anorexia, addiction and depression. The center is the first of its kind in the country, established with $17 million in commitments from wealthy private donors and a foundation.

Imperial College London had launched what is thought to be the world’s first such center in April, with some $3.5 million from private sources. (next LSD, see Dec 16)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

September 4, 1968: the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) delivered the fourth in a series of reports on the anti-Vietnam War movement, entitled “Restless Youth.” The reports had been ordered by President Lyndon Johnson, who was convinced that the movement was supported by foreign governments. CIA Director Richard Helms told Johnson that spying within the U.S. would violate the CIA charter and be illegal, but Johnson ordered him to do it anyway. After their meeting, the secret CIA spying began on August 15, 1967. None of the CIA investigations reported any foreign government support for the anti-war movement. The first three reports were delivered to the president on November 15, 1967; December 22, 1967, and January 5, 1968.

The CIA spying continued and evolved into a larger program, known as CHAOS, which The New York Times exposed on December 22, 1974. Following the revelations — and enormous political uproar — about the CIA by the Times, President Gerald Ford tried to head off Congressional investigations by creating the Rockefeller Commission to investigate the CIA on January 4, 1975, but that effort failed when Congress established its own committees to investigate the CIA and the other intelligence agencies. The Senate created the Church Committee on January 27, 1974, and the House created the Pike Committee on February 19, 1975. (see Sept 9)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

September 4, 2003: Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops rejected a plea from priests to allow married men to join the priesthood, questioning whether such a move would increase the number of priests. This was in answer to a request from about 160 Milwaukee priests. The group, more than a quarter of the archdiocese’s clerics, called in August for opening the priesthood to married men. [CBS News article] (see Sept 9)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Hurricane Katrina

September 4, 2005: in New Orleans, Sgt. Kenneth Bowen and Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officers Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon jumped in a Budget rental truck with several other officers and raced to the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans, responding to a distress call. (HK, see Sept 9; officers, see January 3, 2007)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Democratic Party

September 4, 2012: the Democratic Party became the first major U.S. political party in history to officially endorse the freedom to marry in their national party platform when the platform is ratified at the Democratic National Convention. The plank supporting the freedom to marry was the focus of Freedom to Marry’s Democrats: Say I Do campaign calling for the plank. (see Sept 19)

Department of Veterans Affairs

September 4, 2013: the Obama administration escalated its effort to dismantle federal barriers to same-sex marriages and announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs would immediately begin providing spousal benefits to gay men and lesbians despite a federal statute that limits such benefits to veterans’ spouses who are “of the opposite sex.” [NYT article] (see Sept 7)

Same-sex marriage

September 4, 2014: a U.S. appeals court in Chicago ruled that gay marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana were unconstitutional. The decision by a three-judge panel at the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals bumped the number of states where gay marriage will be legal from 19 to 21. The decision was unanimous.

The Wisconsin and Indiana cases shifted to Chicago after their attorneys general had appealed separate lower court rulings in June tossing the bans. The 7th Circuit stayed those rulings pending its own decision.

During oral arguments in August, one judge appointed by a Republican likened same-sex marriage bans to laws once barring interracial marriage. Judge Richard Posner said they derived from “hate … and savage discrimination” of gays.

The states had argued the prohibitions helped foster a centuries-old tradition. [Washington Post article] (see Sept 22)

James Yates and William Smith, Jr.

September 4, 2015: James Yates, 41, and William Smith, Jr., 33, received a marriage license in Morehead, KY, the first such couple to get one a day after the county clerk, Kim Davis, was jailed by District Court Judge David Bunning for refusing court orders to issue the licenses.

Yates and Smith, Jr. entered the Rowan County Courthouse shortly after it opened, walking through throngs of protesters. Supporters of Ms. Davis yelled Bible passages and held up signs, including one briefly held up by Ms. Davis’s husband, Joe Davis, that read, “Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah.” (NYT video) (see Sept 8)

Vatican/Kim Davis

September 4, 2018: the Vatican had originally denied that there had been a meeting between Pope Francis and Kim Davis on September 23, 2015, then admitted there had been a meeting, but that the Pope didn’t know who Davis was. On his date, the Vatican admitted that the Pope did know who Davis was.

At the time Vatican officials had told news outlets that “the meeting with Kim Davis irked Pope Francis,” saying that he didn’t know the specifics of Davis’ situation before the meeting. (next LGBTQ, see Sept 18; next Davis, see Nov 6)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

AZ law upheld

September 4, 2015: U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton upheld the Arizona’s landmark immigration law after challengers failed to show that police would enforce the statute differently for Latinos than it would for people of other ethnicities.

The ruling could signal the end of the case and give a victory to backers of the 2010 law. Bolton upheld the law’s controversial requirement that police, while enforcing other laws, can question the immigration status of those suspected of being in the country illegally. The Supreme Court also upheld the requirement, but the law’s challengers continued to try to get it overturned at a lower-level court. [Reuters article] (see Dec 9)

Children/Hotels

September 4, 2020: U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee said that she would order the Trump administration to stop detaining immigrant children in hotels before expelling them from the United States, a policy enacted during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gee indicated she would rule that the use of hotels as detention spaces violates a two-decade-old settlement governing the treatment of immigrant children in custody.

The Trump administration had been holding migrant children at hotels in several cities in border states, including Phoenix. [AZ Central article] (next IH, see Sept 10)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH & Colin Kaepernick

September 4, 2016: National Women’s Soccer League Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem in support of Colin Kaepernick. Before the NWSL match between the Seattle Reign and Chicago Red Stars, Rapinoe took a knee during the national anthem, while the rest of her teammates remained standing. She expressed solidarity with Kaepernick, saying that, as a gay American, she knows “what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties,” and that “it’s important to have white people stand in support of people of color on this.” [USA Today article] (FS & CK, see Sept 9)

September 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment/Terrorism

September 4, 2019: Judge Anthony J. Trenga of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that a federal government database that compiled people deemed to be “known or suspected terrorists” violated the rights of American citizens who are on the watchlist, calling into question the constitutionality of a major tool the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security use for screening potential terrorism suspects.

Being on the watchlist could restrict people from traveling or entering the country, subject them to greater scrutiny at airports and by the police, and deny them government benefits and contracts. Trenga said the standard for inclusion in the database was too vague.

“The court concludes that the risk of erroneous deprivation of plaintiffs’ travel-related and reputational liberty interests is high, and the currently existing procedural safeguards are not sufficient to address that risk,” Trenga wrote. [Read the ruling] (next 4thA, see Nov 13; next T, see January 6, 2021)