Selections from my Equal Justice Initiative History of Racial Injustice calendar. I’ve chosen historical items from after 1900, all from the month of January.
Jan 2, 1944
William James Howard, a Black 15-year-old, is lynched by three white men in Suwannee County, Florida, after one of the men accuses Howard of writing a love note to his daughter.
Jan 4, 2008
Ohio SWAT team fatally shoots Black mother, injures baby in her arms.
Jan 7, 1966
After student activist Samuel Younge Jr. is killed by a white gas station attendant because Younge insisted on using the white bathroom, Tuskegee University students march in protest.
Jan 11, 1960
Georgia Governor Ernest Vandiver Jr. threatens to withhold state funding from any public school that attempts to integrate Black and white students.
Jan 15, 1991
In Board of Education of Oklahoma City Schools v. Dowell, U.S. Supreme Court ends federal desegregation order even though it will cause racial re-segregation of school system.
January 19, 1930
For five days, white mobs harass, beat, shoot, and destroy property of Filipino farmworkers in Watsonville, California, following interracial dancing and economic competition.
January 24, 1956
Men who murdered Emmett Till confess in Look magazine.
January 30, 1956
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s house in Montgomery, Alabama is bombed while he speaks at a mass meeting; King later addresses angry crowd and pleads for nonviolence.
* * * * * * * * *
Black history made in the past ~ 2 years in January, as hastily compiled by me
January 5, 2021
Senator Raphael Warnock wins election to become the first Black U.S. Senator from Georgia.
(Black people have been living in Georgia for ~260 years.)
January 6, 2021
Insurrectionists storm the U.S. Capitol Building. The Confederate Flag is carried through the halls of U.S. Government. Most of those involved are white. Most walk away that day without being arrested, a stark contrast to those involved in protests against the killing of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a White police officer.
January 14, 2019
US Representative Steve King of Iowa is stripped of his committee assignments, following his white supremacist remarks. (He lost his seat in the primary election of 2020. He had been introducing racist legislation and public comments for ~ 17 years.)
January 20, 2021
Madam Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the first Black woman VPOTUS.
January 29, 2019
New York City Reaches $3.3 Million Settlement With Kalief Browder's Family.
Kalief Browder, arrested at age 16, was imprisoned for three years without trial, on accusation of stealing a backpack. His imprisonment included two years in solitary confinement, and also beatings by guards and other inmates. The charges were dismissed and he was released from prison. He later committed suicide.
1 comment:
Baby steps indeed. It's distressing how slow we're progressing. Maybe with more people agitating for change we can reshape this.
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