Starting on Jan 14th,
1963, with George Wallace's pledge for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" there followed a year that included 930 demonstrations and over 20,000 arrests, the year ended with a conversation between
Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson on December 3rd, only two weeks after the assasination of John F. Kennedy.
It was the beginning of a long struggle, Susan Glisson, director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi said it well with the statement,
"It took grass roots — women and children and men — to lead the effort for social change, and it was much harder in Mississippi than other places. And that story needs to be told. It's not just this easy, Martin stood up and Rosa sat down and everybody's free." [more inside]
posted by HuronBob
on Jun 5, 2013 -
7 comments
Will Campbell, the only white person present at the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, friend of Klansmen, and iconoclast preacher, has died at age 88.
[more inside]
posted by willF
on Jun 4, 2013 -
10 comments
A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.
posted by Malor
on Feb 4, 2013 -
148 comments
Gomer Pyle got married to his partner of 38 years, Stan Cadwallader, last week. Jim Nabors, aka Gomer Pyle of Mayberry and of the U.S.M.C., also of many records featuring his inimitable voice, particularly
this rendition of "The Impossible Dream,", and
the national anthem, married his partner of 38 years, Stan Cadwallader, last week in Seattle.
[First link opens a news window, which can be loud.]
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posted by goofyfoot
on Jan 30, 2013 -
87 comments
"Better known as the “Jane Roe” in the landmark Supreme Court case
Roe v. Wade,
Norma McCorvey has led a conflicted life. Forty years ago, she was at the center of the court decision that famously legalized abortion. Today, she is a zealous anti-abortion
advocate." Why did McCorvey turn against the cause she once championed? Tracing the life of an
Accidental Activist.
Via
posted by zarq
on Jan 24, 2013 -
39 comments
Jennie Linn McCormack "isn’t the only woman in recent years to be prosecuted for ending her own pregnancy. But her case could change the trajectory of abortion law in the United States":
The Rise of DIY Abortions.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Jan 3, 2013 -
66 comments
Gideon Oliver spoke to me of the devastating effect this kind of surveillance has had on activists. “People fear that detectives are following them around. They panic. It’s a movement-dismantling tactic.” Most Occupy protesters are new to activism and are emotionally unprepared to deal with this kind of intimidation. Nor, so far as I have seen, are they inclined to seek the advice of older activists who were under surveillance in the 1960s and 1970s, before the protections of the original Handschu Decree, which prohibited political spying, were put in place. Those activists nevertheless found ways to continue their political work.
From
an article on the NYPD's Intel Division.
[more inside]
posted by eviemath
on Oct 23, 2012 -
34 comments
Years of labour peace between the government of Ontario and teachers came to an end this year. Like their
colleagues in British Columbia, Ontario teachers and support staff are complaining of unfair, unnecessary, and unconstitutional legislation -- the
Putting Students First Act, 2012 -- that gives the Education Minister,
Laura Broten, unchallenged power to ban strikes, job actions, set compensation and benefits, and to
take over local school boards who are non-compliant. Ontario school boards are
unanimously opposed to the Act, which reduces their power, and so are teachers and support staff, who feel the government is
manufacturing a crisis. Most see this as a cynical ploy to capture
public support for two by-elections this week that could nudge the Liberal government into majority status. ETFO and OSSTF, two of the teacher unions involved, have repeatedly pointed out that
"the school year is not in jeopardy", that they had already accepted a wage freeze, and that local bargaining is proceeding well.
As legislation looms aheads, teachers, support staff, and labour activists are wondering: is this the end of collective bargaining for the public sector?
[more inside]
posted by The Hyacinth Girl
on Aug 31, 2012 -
49 comments
Panhandling in Arcata tests the city's tolerance. 'Long known as the "Berkeley of the North," Arcata traditionally has welcomed the downtrodden, embraced the leftist fringe and fostered a live-and-let-live ethos.' 'But balancing the comfort of the haves with tolerance for the have-nots has come down to a complex question of just who is worthy of help.' 'Councilwoman Susan Ornelas reflected the community's torn conscience: "While we're a progressive town and we're very open-hearted," she said, "we have limits on our tolerance."' 'A report last fall by the
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty found that slightly
more than half of 234 cities surveyed had bans on aggressive panhandling, the same proportion had outlawed it in specific areas, and one-fourth forbade begging citywide.'
[more inside]
posted by VikingSword
on Aug 7, 2012 -
162 comments
Silent march by thousands protest NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics. 'Nearly 300 civil rights groups were represented in the 30-block walk, from elected officials and labor union members to New York residents angry about how they're being treated when they walk the streets. Critics say the NYPD's practice of stopping, questioning and searching people who police consider suspicious is illegal and humiliating to hundreds of thousands of law-abiding blacks and Hispanics. Last year, the NYPD stopped close to 700,000 people, up from more than 90,000 a decade ago.'
[more inside]
posted by VikingSword
on Jun 18, 2012 -
55 comments
In 1971, "decades before any state had seriously considered legalizing gay marriage, long before anyone had thought of creating—never mind repealing—a policy called “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” before Reagan, before AIDS, before the American Psychiatric Association determined that homosexuality was not a mental illness, and before half the people currently living in America were even born, a man named John Singer stepped into the King County marriage license office in Seattle."
Meet Faygele ben Miriam, the radical activist who pioneered the fight for same-sex marriage in Washington State, 41 years ago. Via.
posted by zarq
on Jun 7, 2012 -
16 comments
Andrew Sullivan's Daily Beast reports that Jan van Lohuizen, "highly respected Republican pollster", has advised his fellow conservatives to embrace GLBT civil rights. The text of the memo is reproduced in full at the link.
posted by Ipsifendus
on May 12, 2012 -
65 comments
When the Supreme Court decision
Loving v. Virginia in 1967 declared laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional, the last affected state in which a legal interracial marriage occurred was South Carolina in January, 1969, in the city where the Civil War started. What most people don't know is the
bride was a transsexual.
[more inside]
posted by 23
on May 10, 2012 -
29 comments
We Who Are About to Bug Out Salute YouRutherford B. Hayes.... brought the troops home and ended Reconstruction, with the almost unanimous support of the nation’s liberal establishment. They too fought politically against slavery before the Civil War, risked their lives to emancipate its victims, and, too soon, couldn’t wait to bug out of the South.
posted by Joe in Australia
on May 7, 2012 -
73 comments
Civil rights activist, (and adopted Newfie) dies at 88 As reported
previously, Philips was the sole black survivor in a shipwreck of US navy vessels of the coast of Newfoundland. The kindness shown to him by those who nursed him in the tiny town, where no one had seen a black man before, inspired Phillips' life of activism for civil rights.
A good reminder of the power of small kindnesses ...
posted by chapps
on Mar 13, 2012 -
14 comments
Even as medical marijuana activists in states like
Arkansas,
Ohio, and
Massachusetts look to legalize medical use in 2012, the ATF has sent
letters to gun shops in existing medical marijuana states. The letter says that shop owners cannot sell guns or ammunition if they have
"reasonable cause to believe" that the customer is a drug user, even if their use is legal under state law -- and that having or even mentioning a medical marijuana card constitutes reasonable cause. The entire text of the letter can be viewed
here.
[more inside]
posted by vorfeed
on Oct 5, 2011 -
145 comments
