Selections from the Equal Justice Initiative History of Racial Injustice calendar. I’ve chosen historical items from after 1900.
From the month of June
June 1, 1921 (one hundred years ago)
White people attack prosperous Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and burn it to the ground during two days of rioting that leaves up to 300 people dead.
June 2, 2011 (ten years ago)
Alabama legislature passes anti-immigrant law designed to force immigrants to flee the state; Governor Robert Bentley later signs it despite language that legalizes racial profiling.
(My understanding, after glancing at headlines, is that some parts of this law have since been annulled through court cases.)
June 9, 1963
Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer and other civil rights activists are arrested on false charges in Winona, Mississippi, and severely beaten by police while in jail.
June 12, 1963 (3 days after the previously mentioned event)
NAACP field secretary and World War II veteran Medgar Evers is assassinated by a white supremacist in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi, in front of his wife and children.
June 14, 1973
Two young Black girls, 14-year-old Minnie and 12-year-old Mary Alice Relf, are sterilized at a health clinic in Montgomery, Alabama, without their knowledge or consent.
June 17, 1971
President Richard Nixon declares “War on Drugs,” contributing to 700% increase in U.S. prison population by 2007.
June 26, 1959
Prince Edward County, Virginia, avoids integration by closing public schools for years.
