Working Class Calendar

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890 - 1964)

Thu Aug 07, 1890

Image: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn addressing strikers in Paterson, N.J. (1913) [socialistworker.org]

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, born on this day in 1890, was a communist activst and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).

Flynn was a vigorous proponent of women's rights, birth control, and women's suffrage. She joined the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in 1936 and late in life, in 1961, became its chairwoman.

Flynn was also a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), but was expelled in 1940 during an institution-wide purge of all communists from ACLU leadership. This decision was reversed twelve years after her death, in 1976.

In 1948, Flynn was arrested, along with eleven other prominent members of the Communist Party, for violating the Smith Act. She served two years in prison, and continued her political activism after her release.

Flynn died during a visit to the Soviet Union, where she was accorded a state funeral with processions in the Red Square attended by over 25,000 people.

"I fell in love with my country - its rivers, prairies, forests, mountains, cities and people. No one can take my love of country away from me! I felt then, as I do now, it's a rich, fertile, beautiful land, capable of satisfying all the needs of its people. It could be a paradise on earth if it belonged to the people, not to a small owning class."

- Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

• Date: 1890-08-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, socialistworker.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Jourdon Anderson Letter (1865)

Mon Aug 07, 1865

On this day in 1865, freedman Jourdon Anderson (1825 - 1907) wrote a humorous and pointed response to decline the request of his former master to return to the plantation, which had fallen into disrepair after the Civil War.

The letter's dry wit has been compared to the style of Mark Twain, and it became an immediate sensation, becoming published in the press a few weeks later.

Jourdon had been enslaved since he was a child in Wilson County, Tennessee, working the plantation of the Anderson family. In 1864, Union Army soldiers camped on the Anderson plantation and freed him. Subsequently, he moved to Dayton, Ohio with his family, finding work as a sexton with the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

In 1865, he received a letter from Colonel P.H. Anderson, his former master, who requested that Jourdon return to the plantation in a last-ditch to save the farm, which had fallen into disrepair after the Civil War.

On August 7th, 1865, Jourdon dictated his response. Here are some excerpts (the letter in full is linked below):

"I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house.

...[My wife and I] have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you...I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars.

Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future.

...P.S.—Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me."

Jourdon's offer was declined, and he continued to live in Dayton, dying there at the age of 81 in 1907. Colonel Anderson, having failed to attract his former slaves back, sold the land for a pittance to try to get out of debt, dying two years later.

Prior to 2006, historian Raymond Winbush tracked down the living relatives of the Colonel Anderson, reporting that they "are still angry at Jordan for not coming back", knowing that the plantation was in serious disrepair after the war.

• Date: 1865-08-07
• Learn More: www.smithsonianmag.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Tompkins Square Riot (1988)

Sat Aug 06, 1988

Image: Protesters confront police, holding a banner which says "GENTRIFICATION IS CLASS WAR FIGHT BACK" [libcom.org]

On this day in 1988, New York City police attacked an anti-curfew and anti-gentrification rally in Tompkins Square, Manhattan, indiscriminately attacking activists, reporters, and bystanders, injuring thirty-eight people.

The violent clash took place in the context of the city attempting to remove homeless people and squatters from the park by enforcing a curfew on what was previously a 24-hour public space. The park had previously been used as a spot for rallies in protest of this policy.

On August 6th, 1988, activists attempted to hold another rally in the park and were met by a strong police presence. Protesters held banners proclaiming "Gentrification is Class War" (shown).

Although police accused protesters of throwing bricks and bottles at police, eyewitnesses agreed that the cops initiated the violence by charging the crowd. Police indiscriminately attacked and harassed all present, including the activists, reporters, and bystanders. One reporter, a black woman, was called a racial slur and attacked, the aftermath of which was caught on film.

In total, 38 were injured, including several police officers, and 9 were arrested. More than 100 formal complaints about police brutality were filed. When questioned about it, Captain McNamara, a commander at the scene, said "Obviously tempers flared. But all these allegations will be investigated." No cops were charged with any crime related to the event.

The Tompkins Square Park Riot figured prominently in the local arts community. Poet Allen Ginsburg was an eyewitness to the police riot, and various artists have alluded to it in their work, including Lou Reed, the industrial anarchist band Missing Foundation, and Jonathan Larson, in his musical "Rent".

On November 7th, 2004, about 1,000 people gathered in Tompkins Square Park to attend a concert held there in a yearly ritual commemorating the 1988 riot. According to the NYPD, when officers attempted an arrest for an open container of alcohol, concertgoers "surrounded and assaulted" the officers. Six arrests were made on charges including assault and inciting to riot.

• Date: 1988-08-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Riots, #Journalism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Bolton Hall (1854 - 1938)

Sat Aug 05, 1854

Bolton Hall, born on this day in 1854, was an American lawyer, author, and Georgist activist who worked on behalf of the poor and helped start the back-to-the-land movement in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

He was very sympathetic with libertarian socialist thinkers, such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Benjamin Tucker, but remained a committed anti-Marxist throughout his life.

Hall is perhaps most remembered today for his widely circulated plea for the working class to oppose the Spanish-American War, titled "A Peace Appeal to Labor" (1898). He also helped create a still-existing Georgist commune known as "Free Acres" in New Jersey by deeding 68 acres of land to the project in 1910. Hall was also arrested with Ida Rauh for handing out pamphlets on birth control in 1916.

"If there is a war, you will furnish the corpses and the taxes, and others will get the glory. Speculators will make money out of it -- that is, out of you.

Men will get high prices for inferior supplies, leaky boats, for shoddy clothes and pasteboard shoes, and you will have to pay the bill, and the only satisfaction you will get is the privilege of hating your Spanish fellow-workmen, who are really your brothers and who have had as little to do with the wrongs of Cuba as you have."

• Bolton Hall

• Date: 1854-08-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, peoplepill.com.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

James Cone (1938 - 2018)

Fri Aug 05, 1938

Image: **

James Hal Cone, born on this day in 1938, was an American theologian known for his advocacy of black liberation theology, authoring texts such as "The Cross and the Lynching Tree" (2011) and "God of the Oppressed" (1975).

His 1969 work "Black Theology and Black Power" provided a new way to comprehensively define the distinctiveness of theology in the black church.

On the text, Cone stated "This book was my initial attempt to identify liberation as the heart of the Christian gospel and blackness as the primary mode of God’s presence. I wanted to speak on behalf of the voiceless black masses in the name of Jesus whose gospel I believed had been greatly distorted by the preaching and the theology of white churches."

After receiving his doctorate, Cone taught theology and religion at Philander Smith College and Adrian College. He later taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, which had not accepted a black student into its doctoral program since its founding in 1836. Cone supervised over 40 black doctoral students while teaching there.

"Until we can see the cross and the lynching tree together, until we can identify Christ with a 'recrucified' black body hanging from a lynching tree, there can be no genuine understanding of Christian identity in America, and no deliverance from the brutal legacy of slavery and white supremacy."

- James Cone

• Date: 1938-08-05
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, archive.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

British Communists Arrested (1925)

Tue Aug 04, 1925

On this day in 1925, twelve organizers with the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) were arrested and charged with violating the Mutiny Act of 1797. Six served time in prison after refusing to renounce communism.

The names of the twelve arrested were John Ross Campbell, Jack Murphy, Wal Hannington, Ernie Cant, Tom Wintringham, Harry Pollitt, Hubert Inkpin, Arthur McManus, William Rust, Robin Page Arnot, William Gallacher, and Tom Bell.

Many of those arrested were Party leaders. The CPGB elected to be silent on the arrests, for fear of the next set of leaders being arrested like the first.

The arrested communists were subjected to a highly politicized trial that lasted for eight days. Five of the group were sentenced to a year in prison for "members of an illegal party carrying on illegal work in this country".

To the remaining seven, the conservative judge offered an ultimatum: "Those of you who will promise me that you will have nothing more to do with this association or the doctrine it preaches, I will bind over to be of good behaviour in the future. Those of you who do not promise will go to prison." All but one refused.

• Date: 1925-08-04
• Learn More: spartacus-educational.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Communism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

PATCO Strike (1981)

Mon Aug 03, 1981

Image: PATCO workers on the picket line [socialistworker.org]

On this day in 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) declared a strike, seeking better working conditions, better pay, and less hours, resulting in their mass firing and union decertification.

By striking, the union violated the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, which prohibits strikes by federal government employees.

Despite supporting PATCO in his 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan declared their strike a "peril to national safety" and ordered them back to work under the terms of the Taft-Hartley Act. Reagan demanded those remaining on strike return to work within 48 hours or officially forfeit their positions.

Only 1,300 of the nearly 13,000 controllers returned to their jobs, with the remaining disobeying a federal court injunction ordering an end to the strike.

On August 5th, Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order and banned them from federal service for life. PATCO was also decertified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority a few months later.

• Date: 1981-08-03
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, socialistworker.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Roger Casement Executed (1916)

Thu Aug 03, 1916

Roger Casement was a human rights journalist and Irish revolutionary who was executed on this day in 1916 by the British state for treason after trying to acquire military aid for Irish Republicans before the Easter Rising. Casement's work in the first decade of the 20th century exposed imperialist atrocities in the Congo and Peru.

Casement began his career working for Henry Morton Stanley and the African International Association, a front for King Leopold II of Belgium in his efforts to colonize the Congo.

In 1890, Casement met author Joseph Conrad, who had come to the Congo to pilot a merchant ship. According to author Liesl Schillinger, both were inspired by the idea that "European colonisation would bring moral and social progress to the continent and free its inhabitants 'from slavery, paganism and other barbarities.' Each would soon learn the gravity of his error."

In 1904, Casement published the "Casement Report", which, via interviews with workers, overseers, and mercenaries, exposed the enslavement, mutilation, and torture of natives on the rubber plantations. The report caused an international scandal and led to the creation of various reform organizations in the West.

A few years later, Casement traveled to the Putumayo District in South America, where rubber was being harvested in the Amazon Basin, and exposed the treatment of indigenous people in Peru. Finding conditions just as inhumane as what he witnessed in the Congo, Casement interviewed both the Putumayo and men who had abused them, publishing his findings in a first-person narrative that again caused an international scandal.

In November, 1914 Casement helped form the Irish Volunteers. He traveled to both the United States and Germany to both promote the Irish nationalist cause and acquire aid for it.

In 1916, Casement was captured by the British government and charged with high treason after he attempted to acquire military aid from Germany to aid the Irish nationalist cause. During trial proceedings, the government secretly circulated alleged excerpts from Casement's journals, the "Black Diaries", which detailed sexual acts with other men. The authenticity of these documents is still debated today.

Casement was hanged at Pentonville Prison on August 3rd, 1916 at 51 years old.

"Self government is our right, a thing born to us at birth a thing no more to be doled out to us by another people then the right to life itself then the right to feel the sun or smell the flowers or to love our kind."

- Roger Casement

• Date: 1916-08-03
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.rte.ie.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Sheldon Wolin (1922 - 2015)

Fri Aug 04, 1922

Sheldon Wolin, born on this day in 1922, was a political theorist notable for coining the term "inverted totalitarianism" in his landmark 2008 text "Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism".

A political theorist for fifty years, Wolin became Professor of Politics, Emeritus, at Princeton University, where he taught from 1973 to 1987. Wolin also taught at the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Santa Cruz, Oberlin College, Oxford University, Cornell University, and University of California, Los Angeles.

Wolin's political thought is particularly concerned with the fate of democracy at the hands of bureaucratic imperatives, elitism, and managerial principles and practices. His concepts of "inverted totalitarianism" and "fugitive democracy" are a particularly important legacy of his work.

"Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler did not just invent their personae; they literally built the organizations of their respective dictatorships. Each system was inseparable from its Führer, or Duce. Inverted totalitarianism follows an entirely different course: the leader is not the architect of the system but its product."

- Sheldon Wolin

• Date: 1922-08-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.youtube.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mother Jones (1837 - 1930)

Tue Aug 01, 1837

Mary "Mother" Jones, baptized on this day in 1837, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent and militant union organizer in American labor movement. "I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser." Jones helped coordinate major strikes and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

Fighting to abolish child labor was one of Jones' flagship issues. In 1903, Jones organized children who were working in mills and mines to participate in a "Children's Crusade", a march from Kensington, Philadelphia to Oyster Bay, New York, the hometown of President Theodore Roosevelt with banners demanding "We want to go to school and not the mines!"

Mother Jones was present during the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike of 1912 in West Virginia, speaking and organizing there despite a shooting war between United Mine Workers members and the private army of the mine owners.

Jones was arrested on February 13th, 1913, brought before a military court, and accused of conspiring to commit murder among other charges. She was sentenced to twenty years in the state penitentiary, but released after eighty-five days.

"I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser."

- Mother Jones

• Date: 1837-08-01
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.womenshistory.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964)

Sun Aug 02, 1964

Image: Official U.S. Navy photo taken from USS Maddox (DD-731) during her engagement with three North Vietnamese motor torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin, August 2nd, 1964. The view shows all three of the boats speeding towards the Maddox [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred when the American destroyer Maddox was damaged in North Vietnamese waters, an event the U.S. government lied about in order to justify military action against Vietnam.

The incident began when three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were surveilling the American destroyer USS Maddox as it performed intelligence operations in North Vietnamese waters. The Maddox initiated the incident by opening fire, shooting off three "warning" shots; the North Vietnamese boats replied with torpedoes and machine gun fire.

The exchange caused ten North Vietnamese casualties and damaged one U.S. helicopter; there were no American casualties.

In response, the U.S. Congress passed a "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution", which granted U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression". The resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying U.S. conventional forces and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam.

On television, President Johnson made misleading statements about the incident and portrayed U.S. military escalation as an act of defense. Since then, the Pentagon Papers, the memoirs of Robert McNamara, and NSA publications from 2005 have proven that the U.S. government lied about the nature of the incident to justify a war against Vietnam.

• Date: 1964-08-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.wsws.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Roger Casement Executed (1916)

Thu Aug 03, 1916

Roger Casement was a human rights journalist and Irish revolutionary who was executed on this day in 1916 by the British state for treason after trying to acquire military aid for Irish Republicans before the Easter Rising. Casement's work in the first decade of the 20th century exposed imperialist atrocities in the Congo and Peru.

Casement began his career working for Henry Morton Stanley and the African International Association, a front for King Leopold II of Belgium in his efforts to colonize the Congo.

In 1890, Casement met author Joseph Conrad, who had come to the Congo to pilot a merchant ship. According to author Liesl Schillinger, both were inspired by the idea that "European colonisation would bring moral and social progress to the continent and free its inhabitants 'from slavery, paganism and other barbarities.' Each would soon learn the gravity of his error."

In 1904, Casement published the "Casement Report", which, via interviews with workers, overseers, and mercenaries, exposed the enslavement, mutilation, and torture of natives on the rubber plantations. The report caused an international scandal and led to the creation of various reform organizations in the West.

A few years later, Casement traveled to the Putumayo District in South America, where rubber was being harvested in the Amazon Basin, and exposed the treatment of indigenous people in Peru. Finding conditions just as inhumane as what he witnessed in the Congo, Casement interviewed both the Putumayo and men who had abused them, publishing his findings in a first-person narrative that again caused an international scandal.

In November, 1914 Casement helped form the Irish Volunteers. He traveled to both the United States and Germany to both promote the Irish nationalist cause and acquire aid for it.

In 1916, Casement was captured by the British government and charged with high treason after he attempted to acquire military aid from Germany to aid the Irish nationalist cause. During trial proceedings, the government secretly circulated alleged excerpts from Casement's journals, the "Black Diaries", which detailed sexual acts with other men. The authenticity of these documents is still debated today.

Casement was hanged at Pentonville Prison on August 3rd, 1916 at 51 years old.

"Self government is our right, a thing born to us at birth a thing no more to be doled out to us by another people then the right to life itself then the right to feel the sun or smell the flowers or to love our kind."

- Roger Casement

• Date: 1916-08-03
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.rte.ie.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Denise Oliver-Velez (1947 - )

Fri Aug 01, 1947

Image: **

Denise Oliver-Velez, born on this day in 1947, is a former member of both the Young Lords and Black Panthers, as well as an American professor, activist, and community organizer. Oliver-Velez is an adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies at State University of New York (SUNY) New Paltz.

Oliver-Velez was a member of both the Young Lords and the Black Panther Party (BPP), and fought to make the Young Lords an organization more conscious of women's liberation, stating "Machismo will never be fucking revolutionary". In 1970, Oliver-Velez was appointed as Minister of Economic Development, becoming the highest ranking woman in the Young Lords.

In addition to her activism with the Young Lords, Oliver-Velez was also an AIDS movement activist, publishing ethnographic research as part of HIV/AIDS intervention projects. She has also worked in public broadcasting and community media for many years, becoming a program director and co-founder of WPFW-FM in Washington, D.C., Pacifica Radio's first minority-controlled station.

Oliver-Velez is featured in the feminist history film "She's Beautiful When She's Angry".

• Date: 1947-08-01
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com, www.blackwomenradicals.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising (1903)

Sun Aug 02, 1903

Image: A map of the Balkans showing hots spots for uprisings of Ilinden, Preobrazhenie and Krastovden and also insurrectionary actions in Rhodope Mountains, in Macedonia and Thrace regions respectively [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1903, 800 Bulgarian rebels associated with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) seized the North Macedonian town of Kruševo, beginning the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising against the Ottomon Empire.

The name of the uprising refers to Ilinden, another name for Elijah's Day (a Catholic commemoration of biblical prophet Elijah), and to Preobrazhenie which means "Transfiguration".

Organized by IMRO, a revolutionary organization dedicated to achieving autonomy for the regions of Macedonia and Adrianople from the Ottoman Empire, the revolt lasted from the beginning of August until the end of October, covering a vast territory from the eastern Black Sea to the shores of Lake Ohrid.

Although the rebellion was successfully planned in secret, taking the Ottomans by surprise, many of its potential leaders had already been arrested or killed by the Empire. The revolution was crushed by overwhelming military force, and Turkish forces slaughtered the civilian population. Anarchist historian Georgi Khadziev wrote that 201 villages and 12,400 houses were burned, 4,694 people killed, and approximately 30,000 refugees fled to Bulgaria.

The survivors waged a guerrilla campaign for a few years, but the greater effect of the rebellion was the creation of the Mürzsteg reforms, which provided for foreign policing of the Macedonia region, financial compensation for victims of the violence, and establishment of ethnic boundaries in the region. These reforms, however, did little to solve the crisis, and the Empire lost nearly all of its European territory in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13.

Today, August 2nd is a national holiday in North Macedonia, known as "Day of the Republic". There are towns named after the rebellion's leaders in both Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

When the uprising began, IMRO issued a statement on its revolutionary aims. Here is a short excerpt:

"We are taking up arms against tyranny and inhumanity; we are fighting for freedom and humanity; our cause is thus higher than any national or ethnic differences. Therefore we express our solidarity with all others who suffer in the Sultan's dark Empire.

Today it is not only the whole Christian population which suffers, but ordinary Turkish villagers as well. Our only enemies are the Turkish authorities, those who use arms against us, betray us, or who carry out acts of retaliation against helpless old people, women and children rather than against us, the rebels. We will fight these enemies and avenge all wrongs!"

• Date: 1903-08-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.savanne.ch.
• Tags: #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Maji Maji Rebellion Begins (1905)

Mon Jul 31, 1905

Image: Wilhelm Kuhnert's painting "Battle at Mahenge", German East Africa, 1905 [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1905, Matumbi tribesmen in colonial German East Africa (modern Tanzania) destroyed cotton crops and a trading post in the city of Samanga, beginning the Maji Maji Rebellion. German repression killed 250,000-300,000 people.

The Maji Maji Rebellion (Swahili: "Vita vya Maji Maji"), was an armed rebellion of Islamic and Animist Africans against German colonial rule, triggered by a colonial policy designed to force the indigenous population to grow cotton for export.

In the days leading up to the rebellion, a spirit medium named Kinjikitile Ngwale developed a belief that the people of German East Africa had been called upon to eliminate the Germans. After the Matumbi tribesmen attacked Samanga, Kinjikitile was arrested. Before being executed, he stated that he had already spread the "medicine of rebellion" throughout the region.

The resulting war lasted two years, with the Germans successfully putting the rebellion down by force. As a means to weaken the rebellion, German soldiers deliberately orchestrated a famine by destroying available food sources, devastating the region and killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Such was the scale of this destruction that, in 1953, journalist John Gunther noted "even today the Southern Province of Tanganyika, the 'Cinderella Province,' has not fully recovered from the German terror half a century ago. The economy of the region has never been successfully rebuilt".

Although Tanzania demanded reparations from Germany for these atrocities in 2017, the German government has not paid them as of July 2021.

• Date: 1905-07-31
• Learn More: scholarblogs.emory.edu, www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Colonialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Whitney Young Jr. (1921 - 1971)

Sun Jul 31, 1921

Whitney Young Jr., born on this day in 1921, was a civil rights leader known for his aggressive organizing with the National Urban League and proposal of a "domestic Marshall Plan" to alleviate poverty in black communities.

Young spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the United States and turning the National Urban League from a relatively cautious and passive civil rights organization into one that more aggressively lobbied the U.S. government and business leaders to provide equitable access to socioeconomic opportunity.

"The hardest work in the world is being out of work."

- Whitney Young Jr.

• Date: 1921-07-31
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

C.T. Vivian (1924 - 2020)

Wed Jul 30, 1924

Cordy Tindell Vivian, born on this day in 1924, was an American minister, author, and close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King, helping organizing the first Nashville sit-ins and participating in the 1961 Freedom Rides.

Vivian also helped found the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference and worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as the national director of affiliates for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

During the summer following the Selma Voting Rights Movement, Vivian conceived and directed an educational program "Vision", and put 702 Alabama students in college with scholarships, a program later became "Upward Bound".

Vivian died from natural causes on July 17th, 2020, two weeks before his 96th birthday and on the same day that his friend and fellow civil rights activist John Lewis died.

"People do not choose rebellion, it is forced upon them. Revolution is always an act of self- defense."

- C.T. Vivian

• Date: 1924-07-30
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.npr.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

C.T. Vivian (1924 - 2020)

Wed Jul 30, 1924

Cordy Tindell Vivian, born on this day in 1924, was an American minister, author, and close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King, helping organizing the first Nashville sit-ins and participating in the 1961 Freedom Rides.

Vivian also helped found the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference and worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as the national director of affiliates for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

During the summer following the Selma Voting Rights Movement, Vivian conceived and directed an educational program "Vision", and put 702 Alabama students in college with scholarships, a program later became "Upward Bound".

Vivian died from natural causes on July 17th, 2020, two weeks before his 96th birthday and on the same day that his friend and fellow civil rights activist John Lewis died.

"People do not choose rebellion, it is forced upon them. Revolution is always an act of self- defense."

- C.T. Vivian

• Date: 1924-07-30
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.npr.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

C.T. Vivian (1924 - 2020)

Wed Jul 30, 1924

Cordy Tindell Vivian, born on this day in 1924, was an American minister, author, and close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King, helping organizing the first Nashville sit-ins and participating in the 1961 Freedom Rides.

Vivian also helped found the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference and worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as the national director of affiliates for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

During the summer following the Selma Voting Rights Movement, Vivian conceived and directed an educational program "Vision", and put 702 Alabama students in college with scholarships, a program later became "Upward Bound".

Vivian died from natural causes on July 17th, 2020, two weeks before his 96th birthday and on the same day that his friend and fellow civil rights activist John Lewis died.

"People do not choose rebellion, it is forced upon them. Revolution is always an act of self- defense."

- C.T. Vivian

• Date: 1924-07-30
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.npr.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Sadah and Badawi Arrested (2018)

Mon Jul 30, 2018

Image: Saudi Arabian women's rights activists Nassima al-Sadah (right) and Samar Badawi (left)

On this day in 2018, Saudi Arabian women's rights activists Nassima al-Sadah and Samar Badawi were arrested in a government crackdown of political activists, serving three years in prison. Both were released in June 2021.

Nassima al-Sadah is a Shia human rights writer and activist from Qatif, Saudi Arabia. She has campaigned for civil and political rights, women's rights and the rights of the Shi'a minority. In 2012, she, along with other prominent Saudi Arabian activists Samar Badawi and Manal al-Sharif, filed a lawsuit against the Saudi Arabian government for the right of women to drive.

On July 30th, 2018, Sadah and Badawi were arrested by Saudi authorities in a government crackdown on "activists, clerics and journalists", including many of those involved in the Saudi anti male-guardianship campaign. In June 2021, Sadah and Badawi were released after serving nearly three years in prison.

• Date: 2018-07-30
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.omct.org.
• Tags: #Feminism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Tavio Amorin Assassinated (1992)

Wed Jul 29, 1992

Image: **

Tavio Amorin was a Togolese socialist politician, Pan-Africanist, and human rights activist who was likely assassinated by Togolese state police on this day in 1992. Amorin organized with the Togolese Pan-African Socialist Party, a movement associated with figures like Kwame Ture, Julius Nyerere, and Marcus Garvey.

In the 1980s, Amorin studied engineering in France. In 1991, after increasingly strong pressure from the Togolese public, President Eyadéma decided to legalize political parties.

Shortly afterward, the "Haut Conseil de la République" (English: High Council of the Republic, HCR) was formed, which Tavio participated in after his return to Togo. There, he became an outspoken critic of the government. In his role as the Chair of Political Affairs, Human Rights, and Liberties Commission, he worked to expose the human rights abuses committed by the Togolese state, and sought systemic reforms.

On July 29th, 1992, Amorin died of gunshot wounds sustained on the 23rd, when he was visiting a relative. He died at the age of 34, leaving behind a wife and a one year old child.

"I am fighting against all forms of tribalism and make no distinction between the north and south of Togo."

- Tavio Amorin

• Date: 1992-07-29
• Learn More: www.amnesty.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Pan-Africanism, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Dr. John Britton Murdered (1994)

Fri Jul 29, 1994

Image: Dr. John Britton with the .357 Magnum he carried for protection when visiting the Pensacola Ladies' Centre to perform abortions, 1993 [rarehistoricalphotos.com]

On this day in 1994, Dr. John Britton was murdered by a far-right anti-abortionist in Pensacola, Florida. Britton, who had replaced Dr. David Gunn after he was murdered the previous year, had armed himself after receiving death threats.

After Gunn's assassination by an anti-abortionist, Dr. Britton began flying across the state of Florida to Pensacola weekly in order to perform abortions at the Pensacola Ladies' Center. He continued to provide abortions even after receiving harassment and death threats, and began wearing a homemade bulletproof vest, carrying a .357 Magnum, and enlisted volunteer bodyguards to protect himself.

As Britton arrived at the clinic on July 29th, 1994, an anti-abortionist shot him dead with a twelve-gauge shotgun. The assassin also killed Britton's bodyguard, retired Air Force lieutenant colonel James Barrett (aged 74), and wounded Barrett's wife, June, a retired nurse.

Britton's killer became the first American executed for assassinating a doctor who was providing abortion services.

• Date: 1994-07-29
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, rarehistoricalphotos.com.
• Tags: #Assassinations, #CivilRights, #Feminism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Anne Braden (1924 - 2006)

Mon Jul 28, 1924

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Anne Braden, born on this day in 1924, was an American civil rights activist and educator who, along with her husband Carl, was arrested several times for breaking the law in the name of racial equality.

Raised in the rigidly segregated Anniston, Alabama, Braden grew up in a white, middle-class family that accepted southern racism, later experiencing a "a conversion of almost religious intensity" and becoming an anti-racist activist.

In 1954, Andrew and Charlotte Wade, a black couple who knew Anne and her husband Carl Braden, approached them with a proposal to buy a house on their behalf in a suburb in which they couldn't purchase a home due to Jim Crow laws.

The Bradens agreed to the deal, and, on the Wades' first night in the new suburbs, angry residents burned a cross in their yard and shot out the windows to the house. Six weeks later, the Wades' new house was dynamited one evening while they were out.

After a sensationalized trial, her husband Carl Braden - the perceived ringleader - was convicted of sedition and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment, although the Supreme Court ruled the laws on which he was convicted unconstitutional and he was freed after eight months.

Later in life, Anne Braden joined Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow/PUSH Coalition" and continued her social activism. In 2005, a year before her death, she joined Louisville antiwar demonstrations in a wheelchair.

• Date: 1924-07-28
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, snccdigital.org, crossculturalsolidarity.com, www.zinnedproject.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Lucy Burns (1879 - 1966)

Mon Jul 28, 1879

Image: Lucy Burns in Occoquan Workhouse, Washington [loc.gov]

Lucy Burns, born on this day in 1879, was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate who was arrested and force-fed multiple times as part of a campaign of direct action in the United Kingdom and United States.

She was born on July 28th, 1879, to an affluent Irish Catholic family in New York. Burns was a prodigious student who studied at the universities of Yale and Columbia in the United States, Oxford in the United Kingdom, and Bonn and Berlin in Germany.

Burns became involved in suffragette activism while traveling in Britain, becoming employed by and organizing with the Women's Social and Political Union.

Working with her friend Alice Paul, Burns engaged in multiple acts of rebellion while in Britain, getting arrested and force-fed when attempting to hunger strike. When Burns refused to open her mouth, the feeding tube was inserted up her nostril, causing severe nosebleeds.

One incident involving Burns and Paul that led to such treatment was crashing the London Lord Mayor's Ball, mingling with guests before approaching Winston Churchill with a hidden banner shouting "How can you dine here while women are starving in prison?"

Burns and other suffrage activists in the U.S. successfully got Congress to vote on a women's suffrage amendment in 1918, however it narrowly failed in the Senate. It was later passed and officially ratified on August 18th, 1920.

After achieving this goal, Burns stated "I don't want to do anything more. I think we have done all this for women, and we have sacrificed everything we possessed for them, and now let them fight for it now. I am not going to fight anymore" and retired from public life.

• Date: 1879-07-28
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.loc.gov, suffragistmemorial.org.
• Tags: #Feminism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Lucy Burns (1879 - 1966)

Mon Jul 28, 1879

Image: Lucy Burns in Occoquan Workhouse, Washington [loc.gov]

Lucy Burns, born on this day in 1879, was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate who was arrested and force-fed multiple times as part of a campaign of direct action in the United Kingdom and United States.

She was born on July 28th, 1879, to an affluent Irish Catholic family in New York. Burns was a prodigious student who studied at the universities of Yale and Columbia in the United States, Oxford in the United Kingdom, and Bonn and Berlin in Germany.

Burns became involved in suffragette activism while traveling in Britain, becoming employed by and organizing with the Women's Social and Political Union.

Working with her friend Alice Paul, Burns engaged in multiple acts of rebellion while in Britain, getting arrested and force-fed when attempting to hunger strike. When Burns refused to open her mouth, the feeding tube was inserted up her nostril, causing severe nosebleeds.

One incident involving Burns and Paul that led to such treatment was crashing the London Lord Mayor's Ball, mingling with guests before approaching Winston Churchill with a hidden banner shouting "How can you dine here while women are starving in prison?"

Burns and other suffrage activists in the U.S. successfully got Congress to vote on a women's suffrage amendment in 1918, however it narrowly failed in the Senate. It was later passed and officially ratified on August 18th, 1920.

After achieving this goal, Burns stated "I don't want to do anything more. I think we have done all this for women, and we have sacrificed everything we possessed for them, and now let them fight for it now. I am not going to fight anymore" and retired from public life.

• Date: 1879-07-28
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.loc.gov, suffragistmemorial.org.
• Tags: #Feminism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org