Tag Archives: September Peace Love Art Activism

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Frederick Douglass

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

September 3, 1838:  Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in Baltimore. He later published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself. Douglas became a leading abolitionist. [text] (see October 1838)

Georgia removes black legislators

September 3, 1868: the Georgia House of Representatives voted to remove black members of that body on the grounds that the state Constitution did not recognize the right of black citizens to hold public office. Of the 29 black representatives, four mulatto members were allowed to hold their seat, while the remaining 25 were removed. Ten days later, the Georgia Senate removed its three black members. Black legislators appealed to President Ulysses Grant to intervene to get them readmitted, which took a year. (see Sept 28)

Cotton pickers strike–mobs kill them

September 3, 1891: African-American cotton pickers organize and strike in Lee County, Texas, against miserably low wages and other injustices, including a growers’ arrangement with local law enforcement to round up blacks on vagrancy charges, then force them to work off their fines on select plantations. Over the course of September a white mob put down the strike, killing 15 strikers in the process. (see Sept 20)

Alabama prohibits interracial marriages

September 3, 1901: Alabama adopted a new state constitution that prohibited interracial marriage and mandated separate schools for black and white children. The state constitutional convention’s primary purpose was to legally disenfranchise black voters and the new constitution included several electoral policies to intentionally and effectively do that.

Because the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited race-based disenfranchisement, the discriminatory policies had to be appear race-neutral but be applied with bias. The constitution called for the appointment of three registrars from each county who were expected to act with an intent to minimize African American voter registration. The constitution’s new registration rules required that voters be able to read and write any section of the United States Constitution and be lawfully employed for the previous 12 months. Anyone who did not meet the employment specification could still register if he or his wife had real estate and possessions taxed at $300. The constitution also included a “grandfather clause,” allowing otherwise ineligible voters to vote with proof that one of their grandfathers had been an eligible voter.

Prior to the enactment of the new constitution, there were approximately 75,000 registered African American voters in Alabama. It was estimated that the new rules would reduce the African American electorate to less than 30,000. Alabama delegates approved the constitution 132-12, with only one Democrat voting against it. Alabama has amended the 1901 constitution since its adoption, but has never held a convention to create a wholly new one. Several of the discriminatory provisions of the 1901 constitution, including the mandate to maintain racially segregated public schools, remain in place today. (see Oct 16)

Emmett Till

September 3, 1955: Till’s body was taken to Chicago’s Roberts Temple Church of God for viewing and funeral services. Emmett’s mother decides to have an open casket funeral. Thousands of Chicagoans wait in line to see Emmett’s brutally beaten body. (see Emmett Till)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Squaw Killer Harney

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

September 3, 1855: General William S Harney and 700 soldiers took revenge for the so-called “Grattan Massacre” and attacked a Sioux village in Nebraska that left 100 Native American men, women, and children dead. For the rest of his life Harney was plagued with the nickname of “Squaw Killer Harney.” One Sioux boy who witnessed the brutal massacre would never forget or forgive and would take his own revenge 21 years later at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. His name was Crazy Horse.

Civil War/Native Americans

1861 – 1865: native Americans served in both the Union and Confederate military participating in battles such as Pea Ridge, Second Manassas, Antietam, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and in Federal assaults on Petersburg.

Ely Samuel Parker

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

The most notable Native American to serve was Ely Samuel Parker (1828 – August 31, 1895), (born Hasanoanda, later known as Donehogawa) who was a Seneca attorney, engineer, and tribal diplomat.  He helped draft the surrender documents, which are in his handwriting. At the time of surrender, General Lee mistook Parker for a black man, but apologized saying, “I am glad to see one real American here.” Parker was said to respond, “We are all Americans, sir.” [Native Heritage Project] (see July 12, 1861)

Veronica Brown

September 3, 2013: lawyers gathered with the Oklahoma Supreme Court to discuss who should raise Veronica Brown: a South Carolina couple who have attempted to adopt her since birth or the girl’s biological father, who claimed a federal law requireed that she be raised in a Native American home.

Dustin Brown, the biological father, and Matt and Melanie Capobianco, the adoptive parents, were present at the Oklahoma Supreme Court chambers for nearly 90 minutes but left without comment. (see Veronica for expanded story)

Voting Rights

September 3, 2014: a U.S. District Court judge Sharon Gleason ruled that Alaska state elections officials had broken a federal voting rights law by failing to provide sufficient election information in Alaska Native languages.

Attorneys with the Native American Rights Fund filed a federal lawsuit on July 23, 2013 on behalf of four Alaska Native village councils and two Native men alleging the state violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act by failing to provide translated voting materials for voters who do not speak and read English. [Anchorage Daily News story] (NA, see Sept 24; Voting rights, see September 10, 2015)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Adamson Act

September 3, 1916: The Adamson Act established an 8-hour workday for employees of interstate railroads, with overtime for working longer hours. (see Nov 16)

Hamlet, N.C workers die in fire

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

September 3, 1991: twenty-five workers died, unable to escape a fire at the Imperial Poultry processing plant in Hamlet, N.C. Managers had locked fire doors to prevent the theft of chicken nuggets. The plant had operated for 11 years without a single safety inspection. [Smithsonian article] (see February 5, 1993)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Military Assistance Advisory Group

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

September 3, 1950: a U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) of 35 men arrived in Saigon to screen French requests for American military aid, assist in the training of South Vietnamese troops, and advise on strategy. [Richmond dot edu article]  (see Dec 22)

South Vietnam Leadership

September 3, 1967: Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, the candidate of the armed forces, won a four-year term as President of South Vietnam. [Washington Post obit]  (V, see Sept 10; SVL, see April 21, 1975)

Daniel Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers

September 3, 1971: the White House “plumbers” unit – named for their orders to plug leaks in the administration – burglarized a psychiatrist’s office to find files on Daniel Ellsberg, the former defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers. (Watergate, see June 17, 1972; Vietnam, see Oct 29; see DE/PP for more)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

September 3, 1964:  from the UPI article: President Johnson today signed into law the wilderness conservation bill — a gift from the present generation to the future of 9 million acres of woodland recreation areas. In a White House bill-signing ceremony, Johnson termed the event “a very happy and history occasion for all who love the out of doors, and that includes me.” Under the wilderness bill, 61 million acres of woodland eventually could be preserved in the same state as when Indians roamed the land. Most of the 9 million acres immediately covered is in the Western states. [LBJ remarks] (see June 22, 1969)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

September 3 Music et al

see Donovan/Sunshine Superman

September 3 – 9, 1966: “Sunshine Superman” by Donovan #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Herb Albert

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

September 3 – 9, 1966: Herb Albert’s What Now My Love returns to the Billboard #1 album position.

Ringo returns

September 3, 1968: Ringo Starr rejoined the group. He later stated: I got a telegram saying, ‘You’re the best rock’n’roll drummer in the world. Come on home, we love you.’ And so I came back. We all needed that little shake-up. When I got back to the studio I found George had had it decked out with flowers – there were flowers everywhere. I felt good about myself again, we’d got through that little crisis and it was great. And then the ‘White’ album really took off – we all left the studio and went to a little room so there was no separation and lots of group activity going down.

Although the others celebrated Ringo’s return from Sardinia, there was little for him to do in this recording session, which took place in Abbey Road’s studio two from 7pm until 3.30am the following morning. George Harrison worked alone, recording a backwards guitar solo for While My Guitar Gently Weeps. (see Sept 28)

LSD impregnated paper

In the early 1970s, LSD impregnated paper (“blotter”) first hit the streets. Very quickly the paper began being printed with colorful art.  Blotter paper begins to emerge as the most common form of LSD sold on the street. Previously it had been tablets and powder, but blotter and gel-tabs proved more consistent in purity and potency.

LSD

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

September 3, 1971 : Albert Hoffman, discoverer of LSD, and LSD’s most vocal proponent, Timothy Leary, met in Lausanne, Switzerland, while Leary was there in exile from the United States. Leary faced a possible ten years in prison for charges related to possession of a small amount of cannabis.(see November 19, 1975)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

September 3, 1967: last episode of the TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet airs on ABC. The show is still the longest running live-action (non-animated like The Simpsons) American sitcom in television history (14 Seasons, 435 Episodes). (see Sept 10)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

IRAQ

September 3, 1996: the U.S. launched Operation Desert Strike against Iraq in reaction to the attack on Arbil. [Global Security dot org article] (see December 16, 1998)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Gay marriage ban upheld

September 3, 2014: bucking a nationwide trend, U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in Louisiana upheld a state ban on same-sex marriage writing that “any right to same-sex marriage is not yet so entrenched as to be fundamental” and that gay marriage was “inconceivable until very recently.” “The Court is persuaded that a meaning of what is marriage that has endured in history for thousands of years, and prevails in a majority of states today, is not universally irrational on the constitutional grid,” Feldman wrote.

Feldman noted that his was the only federal court to uphold a gay marriage ban since the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013. [NYT article] (see December 13, 2022 re DoMA)

St Patrick’s Day Parade in NYC

September 3, 2014: the organizers of the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade announced that they were lifting a ban on gay groups participating in the march, ending a policy that had prompted protests, court battles and bitter debate for decades.

The decision to allow a gay group to march under its own banner came as Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened to once again boycott the parade and the organizers faced pressure from employees of NBC Universal, which broadcasts the festivities.

One of the event’s biggest sponsors, Guinness, pulled out of 2013’s parade and more companies had threatened to follow. The Irish government also threatened not to send a delegation unless the policy changed, according to an official familiar with the negotiations.

Christine C. Quinn, the former speaker of the City Council, who was gay and had long fought to have the policy changed, said that the ban had been a personal affront. “To have the parade point a finger and say to me and others, ‘You’re not as good as these other Irish people,’ has been very, very painful,” Ms. Quinn said. “That is now coming to an end.” [NYT article] (see Sept 4)

Kim Davis arrested

September 3, 2015,:  Rowan County (Kentucky) Clerk Kim Davis who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds was found in contempt by federal District Court Judge David Bunning for defying his order to do so and taken into custody. Davis was led away by U.S. marshals.

The court doesn’t do this lightly,” Bunning said in ordering Davis be taken into custody. “The court cannot condone the willful disobedience of its lawfully issued order….If you give people the opportunity to choose which orders they follow, that’s what potentially causes problems.”

Judge Bunning said Ms. Davis would be released once she agreed to comply with his order and issue the marriage licenses.

Later that day, Davis rejected a proposal that would have allowed her deputies to grant same-sex marriage licenses. Through her lawyer, Davis said she would not agree to allow the licenses to be issued under her authority as county clerk. [NYT article] (see Sept 4)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism
Colin Kaepernick

September 3, 2018: Colin Kaepernick signed a new, multiyear deal with Nike that made him a face of the 30th anniversary of the sports apparel company’s “Just Do It” campaign. The campaign featured his image with the words, “”Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” over the image.

Nike would produce new Kaepernick apparel, including a shoe and a T-shirt.

Nike would also donate money to Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights” campaign. (see Oct 17)

September 3 Peace Love Art Activism

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

September 2, 1862: the Battle of Birch Coulee. Dakota fighters attacked a detachment of 150 American soldiers. Thirteen soldiers were killed and 47 were wounded. Two Dakota were killed. [MNOPEDIA article] (see September 23, 1862)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Immigration History

September 2, 1885: 150 white miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, attacked their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15 others, and driving several hundred more out of town.

The miners working in the Union Pacific coal mine had been struggling to unionize and strike for better working conditions for years. But at every juncture the powerful railroad company had bested them. Searching for a scapegoat, the angry miners blamed the Chinese. The Union Pacific had initially brought Chinese coal miners to Roc Springs as strikebreakers. Outraged by a company decision to allow Chinese miners to work the richest coal seams, a mob of white miners impulsively decided to strike back by attacking Rock Spring’s small Chinatown. Most of the Chinese abandoned their homes and businesses and fled, but those who failed to escape in time were brutally beaten and murdered. [Politico article] (see Sept 9)

New union

September 2, 1893: the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers was founded in Chicago. (see February 8, 1894)

Expanded Social Security

September 2,1954: President Eisenhower signed legislation expanding Social Security by providing much wider coverage and including 10 million additional Americans, most of them self-employed farmers, with additional benefits. (see February 8, 1955)

ERISA

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

September 2, 1974: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act  set minimum standards for most private-sector pension and health plans. It provided key safeguards for employees.

By 1975 union membership had declined to 19.5% of employed workers. The first time it fell below 20% since 1942.  [US DoL article] (percent see January 21, 2011; Labor, see Feb 19)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Democratic Republic of Vietnam

September 2, 1945: Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh  proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. He paraphrased the U.S. Declaration of Independence: “All men are born equal: the Creator has given us inviolable rights, life, liberty, and happiness!” and was cheered by an enormous crowd gathered in Hanoi.

Shortly after his proclamation Allied troops landed to disarm Japanese forces: the British into southern Indochina below the 16th parallel and Chinese into the north, (The now liberated) France’s Charles de Gaulle, ordered French soldiers to re-establish colonial rule. The British allowed the French to dislodge the Viet Minh from Saigon, triggering war below the 16th parallel. (next Vietnam, see Sept 13; next ID, see April 17, 1946)

Ho Chi Min

September 2, 1969: Ho Chi Min, leader of North Vietnam, died. [NYT article] (see Sept 5)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

World War II

September 2, 1945: Japan unconditionally surrendered to the US. (Cold War, see Sept 8; Vietnam, see Sept 13)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Emmett Till

September 2, 1955:  in Chicago, Mamie Till arrived at the Illinois Central Terminal to receive Emmett’s casket. She is surrounded by family and photographers who snap her photo collapsing in grief at the sight of the casket. The body is taken to the A. A. Rayner & Sons Funeral Home. (see Emmett Till)

Edward Judge Aaron

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

September 2, 1957: the Klu Klux Klan abducted and mutilated Edward Judge Aaron in Birmingham, Ala. Aaron was walking home when six hooded Klansmen abducted him, castrated him, and poured turpentine into his open wound. The Klansmen taunted Aaron, telling him they would do the same thing to anyone black who sought integration. Joe Prichett, one of the Klansmen involved, was convicted and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. [2014 US Prison Culture article] (see Sept 4)

School Desegregation

September 2, 1963: Alabama Governor George Wallace surrounded the Tuskegee high school with Alabama National Guard troops in an effort to prevent its integration pursuant to a federal court order in Lee vs. Macon County. In response, President John F. Kennedy federalized the Guard and sent it back to its barracks. [ABA Journal article] (BH, see Sept 4; School Desegregation, see Sept 9)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural & Technological Milestones

CBS Evening News

September 2, 1963: “The CBS Evening News” expanded from 15 to 30 minutes. (see February 4, 1964)

ATM

September 2, 1969:  America’s first automatic teller machine (ATM) makes its public debut, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York. [Smithsonian article]  (see October 29, 1969)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

September 2, 1983:  Northern Cyprus declared itself independent from the Republic of Cyprus. Not recognized by all nations. (see Sept 19)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Hurricane Katrina

September 2, 2005: President George W. Bush told Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” during a tour of Hurricane Katrina damage in Alabama. (see Sept 4)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Marijuana

September 2, 2013: in a controversial move said to raise funds for a possible war in Syria, President Obama announced plans to auction off all of the marijuana that had been seized in drug raids since he took office in 2008. The auctions were to be held only in states that had legalized the drug and only to users with a medical marijuana card. (see Nov 5)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

September 2, 2015: Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland came out in support of President Obama’s Iran nuclear accord, the 34th Democrat in favor. Her announcement gave Mr. Obama the votes to assure the deal will survive a Congressional challenge.

Some have suggested we reject this deal and impose unilateral sanctions to force Iran back to the table. But maintaining or stepping up sanctions will only work if the sanction coalition holds together,” wrote Ms. Mikulski, the longest serving female senator in history.

It’s unclear if the European Union, Russia, China, India and others would continue sanctions if Congress rejects this deal. At best, sanctions would be porous, or limited to unilateral sanctions by the U.S.”  [CNN article] (next N/C N, see January 6, 2016; next Iran, see September 26, 2017)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

September 2, 2015: part of the Mississippi River was closed as crews investigated an oil spill caused by the collision of two tow boats, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The collision near Columbus, Kentucky, damaged at least one barge carrying clarified slurry oil. The cargo tank was ruptured, causing thousands of gallons of oil to spill into the river, the Coast Guard said. No injuries were reported.

The barge was carrying approximately 1 million gallons, but the breach was only in one area, affecting just one of its six tanks. That tank holds 250,000 gallons, a little more than 120,000 gallons spilled into the river. The Coast Guard said it was working with the barge owner, Inland Marine Services, and an oil spill response organization. Inland Marine Services referred calls to its public relations person, Patrick Crowley, who did not return repeated calls seeking comment. [Chicago Tribune article] (see Sept 21)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

September 2, 2019: the Trump administration announced that it would reconsider its August 7 decision to force immigrants facing life-threatening health crises to return to their home countries, an abrupt move that generated public outrage and was roundly condemned by the medical establishment. (see Sept 9)

September 2 Peace Love Art Activism

September Peace Love Art Activism

September Peace Love Art Activism

LSD

Thomas De Quincey

September Peace Love Activism

In September – October 1821 :  the London Magazine published Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. It was an autobiographical account about DeQuincey’s laudanum addiction and its effect on his life. [text]

Fitz Hugh Ludlow

September Peace Love Activism

In 1857:  Fitz Hugh Ludlow  published The Hasheesh Eater, an autobiographical book in which Ludlow described his altered states of consciousness and philosophical flights of fancy while he was using a cannabis extract. In the United States, the book created popular interest in hashish, leading to hashish candy and private hashish clubs. [text]

Charles Baudelaire

In 1860:  French poet Charles Baudelaire published Les Paradis Artificiels (Artificial Paradises), a book about the state of being under the influence of opium and hashish.

Baudelaire described the effects of the drugs and discussed the way in which they could theoretically aid mankind in reaching an “ideal” world.

Baudelaire analyzed the motivation of the addict, and the individual psychedelic experience of the user. His descriptions have foreshadowed other such work that emerged later in the 1960s regarding LSD. [Parisian Review article]

Louis Lewin

September Peace Love Activism

In 1886:  Louis Lewin, a German pharmacologist, published the first systematic study of the the cactus from which the mescal buttons were obtained (his own name was subsequently given to the plant: Anhalonium lewinii.

The plant was new to science, but not to the Indians of Mexico and the American Southwest. It was (according to Aldous Huxley’s 1954 essay, The Doors of Perception, “a friend of immemorially long standing. Indeed, it was much more than a friend. In the words of one of the early Spanish visitors to the New World, “they eat a root which they call peyote, and which they venerate as though it were a deity.” [Psychedelic Press UK article]  (see April 3, 1896)

Timothy Leary

September Peace Love Activism

In September, 1962: Timothy Leary founded International Foundation for Internal Freedom (IFIF) to promote LSD research & publishes The Psychedelic Review. [Harvard Crimson article]

Mainstream media

In 1963: LSD first appeared on the streets as liquid on sugar cubes. Articles about LSD first appeared in mainstream media Look, Saturday Evening Post. (see May,  6, 1963)

Millbrook, New York

In September 1963: Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and other Harvard alumni LSD researchers moved to the Hitchcock estate in Millbrook, New York. [Shadow Vue article] (see Nov 22)

Owsley Stanley

September Peace Love Activism

In September 1965: Owsley Stanley became the primary LSD supplier to Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.  [NYT obit] (see Oct 15)

League for Spiritual Discovery

In September 1966: Timothy Leary held a press conference at NY Advertising Club, to announce the formation of a psychedelic religion – League for Spiritual Discovery (“Like every great religion of the past we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present—turn on, tune in, drop out”) [LSD site]

September Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

Matilda Joslyn Gage

September Peace Love Activism

In September 1852: Gage gave her first public address at the third national women’s rights convention in Syracuse stating: While so much is said of the inferior intellect of woman, it is by a strange absurdity conceded that very many eminent men owe their station in life to their mothers. (next Feminism, see May 1, 1855)

Gage disputes Lincoln

In 1862 Gage gave Flag Presentation Speech to 122nd regiment as they went off to the Civil War. Opposing President Lincoln, who said the war was being fought to preserve the union, Gage tells soldiers they were fighting for an end to slavery and freedom for all citizens. (next Feminism, see June 25, 1863)

New York State Woman Suffrage Association

September Peace Love Activism

In 1869 Gage helped found New York State Woman Suffrage Association; served as president for nine years. (next Feminism, see April 1869)

Gage on Native Americans

In the 1870s, Gage wrote a series of articles speaking out against United States’ unjust treatment of American Indians and describing superior position of native women. “The division of power between the sexes in this Indian republic was nearly equal,” Gage wrote of the Iroquois. In matters of government, “…its women exercised controlling power in peace and war … no sale of lands was valid without consent” of the women, while “the family relation among the Iroquois demonstrated woman’s superiority in power … in the home, the wife was absolute … if the Iroquois husband and wife separated, the wife took with her all the property she had brought … the children also accompanied the mother, whose right to them was recognized as supreme.” “Never was justice more perfect, never civilization higher,” Gage concluded. (next Feminism, see February 3, 1870; see Gage for expanded story)

September Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Colored Caulkers’ Trade Union Society

In September 1866: the first African-American trade union called the Colored Caulkers’ Trade Union Society of Baltimore was founded, with Isaac Myers as the union’s first president.

Isaac Myers grew up in Baltimore as the son of poor free parents. By 1841 Myers was apprenticed to James Jackson, a prominent black ship caulker. Within 20 years Myers was working as a skilled caulker and supervising other men in the caulking of clipper ships within the harbor. However, black workers, noticeably in the shipbuilding and maritime industries, were regularly dismissed from their jobs to make room for the growing number of whites looking for work. This unjust, but frequently occurring, situation led Myers and others to organize the black workers. (see Oct 26)

Afro-American Council

In September 1898: the Afro-American Council (AAC) was established in Rochester, New York, by newspaper editor T. Thomas Fortune and Bishop Alexander Walters of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.  They envisioned the organization as a revival of the earlier National Afro-American League (NAAL), which in 1890 became the first national black organization specifically created to challenge racial segregation and discrimination. [Black Past article] (see Nov 8)

Scottsboro Travesty/Charlie Weems

In September 1943 Charlie Weems was paroled.

Scottsboro Travesty/Charlie Norris and Andy Wright

In September 1944 Charlie Norris and Andy Wright left Montgomery in violation of their paroles. (see Scottsboro Travesty for full story)

School Desegregation

In September 1946: Gary, Indiana school district adopted a new policy that dictated, ”children may not be discriminated in the school district in which they live, or within the schools in which they attend, because of race, color or religion.”

The policy did not take effect until the following 1947 school year to allow the community time to adjust. (BH, see Dec 5; SD, see April 14, 1947)

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR

In September 1957: King visited Highlander Folk School. Pete Seeger introduced “We Shall Overcome” to him. Vernon Jordan, a Georgia activist at that time, remarked: “The people were cold with fear until music did what prayers and speeches could not do in breaking the ice.”  [Stanford U article] (BH, see Sept 2; MLK, see April 6, 1958)

Jimmie Lee Jackson murder

In September 1965: a grand jury declined to indict James Fowler in the shooting death of Jimmie Lee Jackson. (next BH, see Sept 6; see Jackson for expanded story)

Muhammad Ali

In September 1984:  Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. (BH, see May 13, 1985; Ali, see July 19, 1996)

Stop and Frisk Policy

In September 2009: Stop-and-Frisk became an issue in the mayoral race, as well as the Manhattan DA’s race. (see December 2009)

September Peace Love Art Activism

September Music et al  

Ornette Coleman

In September 1961: Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman released. According to the Internet site, allmusic: As jazz’s first extended, continuous free improvisation LP, Free Jazz practically defies superlatives in its historical importance. Ornette Coleman’s music had already been tagged “free,” but this album took the term to a whole new level. Aside from a predetermined order of featured soloists and several brief transition signals cued by Coleman, the entire piece was created spontaneously, right on the spot.

News Music

Bob Dylan & The Road to Bethel

In September 1962:  Dylan wrote A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall in the basement of the Village Gate, in a small apartment occupied by Chip Monck, later to become one of the most sought-after lighting directors in rock music and a voice associated with the Woodstock Festival. (Dylan, see Dec 14; see Woodstock, Chronology for expanded story)

Janis Ian

In September 1966: Society’s Child released. Recorded in 1965, 15-year-old Janis Ian’s song about teenage interracial romance was daring even in an age of openness. She was criticized by both conservatives because of the song’s topic and by folk musicians because of the song’s use of drums and harpsichord. (see Sept 10)

2009 interview with Ian

September Peace Love Art Activism

September Music et al

Beatles

In September 1966: George Harrison went to India for 6 weeks to study sitar with Ravi Shankar (see Sept 10)

Arlo Guthrie

In September 1967: Arlo Guthrie (age 20) released first album, Alice’s Restaurant. (see “in October”)

Rock Against Racism

In September 1976: Rock Against Racism (RAR) founded by Red Saunders, Roger Huddle and others in the United Kingdom as a response to an increase in racial conflict and the growth of white nationalist groups such as the National Front. The campaign involved pop, rock, punk rock and reggae musicians staging concerts with an anti-racist theme, in order to discourage young people from embracing racist views. David Widgery, active with the RAR, wrote, “We want Rebel music, street music, music that breaks down people’s fear of one another. Crisis music. Now music. Music that knows who the real enemy is.”

September Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Daniel Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers

in September 1969: Ellsberg met draft resister and antiwar activist Randy Kehler, whose willingness to go to prison based on his opposition to the war has a great impact on Ellsberg. Shortly thereafter, Ellsberg finishes reading a copy of the entire McNamara study, which revealed a pattern of escalation of the war, even in the face of evidence that the war is unwinnable. The study also revealed lies told to the public about U.S. military actions. Ellsberg was inspired to take action against what he now sees as “a wrongful war.” (see Ellsberg for full story)

September Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS & Ryan White

in September, 1986: White attended Western Middle School for eighth grade for the entire 1986–87 school year, but was deeply unhappy and had few friends. In 1988 White would speak before President Reagan’s AIDS Commission. At it he would state:

Even though we knew AIDS was not spread through casual contact. Nevertheless, parents of twenty students started their own school. They were still not convinced. Because of the lack of education on AIDS, discrimination, fear, panic, and lies surrounded me:

  • I became the target of Ryan White jokes
  • Lies about me biting people
  • Spitting on vegetables and cookies
  • Urinating on bathroom walls
  • Some restaurants threw away my dishes
  • My school locker was vandalized inside and folders were marked FAG and other obscenities.
  •  I was labeled a troublemaker, my mom an unfit mother, and I was not welcome anywhere.
  • People would get up and  leave so they would not have to sit anywhere near me. Even at church, people would not shake my hand.  [entire text]

Threats continued. When a bullet was fired through the Whites’ living room window, the family decided to leave Kokomo. [Elton John loaned $16,500 to put toward a down payment on the Cicero home, and rather than accept repayment placed the repaid money into a college fund for Ryan’s sister.] (see Ryan White for full story)

September Peace Love Art Activism

Student Rights

In September 1989: the Veronia, OR school district, in order to prevent student athletes from using drugs, to protect their health and safety, and to provide drug users with assistance programs, instituted a random drug testing regimen. (see June 26, 1995)

September Peace Love Art Activism

Religion and Public Education

In September 1996:  Ohio began the “Pilot Project Scholarship Program” which allowed parents of students in the Cleveland School District to use public monies to pay for tuition at private schools, including religious schools. Aid was give to parents according to financial need, and where the aid was spent depended only upon where parents chose to enroll their children. [Princeton U article] (Religion, see June 23. 1997; Ohio, see June 27, 2002)

September Peace Love Art Activism

Operation Popeye

In September 2010: James Rodger Fleming published Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control. In it he wrote: Although some claimed that [Operation Popeye] induced from 1 to 7 inches of additional rainfall annually along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, no scientific data were collected to verify the claim. General Westmoreland thought there was “no appreciable increase” in rain from the project. Even if the cloud seeding had produced a tactical victory or two in Vietnam (it did not), the extreme secrecy surrounding the operation and the subsequent denials and stonewalling of Congress by the military resulted in a major strategic defeat for military weather modification.(Vietnam, see May 23, 2016; see Operation Popeye for expanded story)

September Peace Love Art Activism