| May 20, 1916 Emma Goldman spoke to garment workers in Union Square about the benefits of birth control.  Goldman speaking to a crowd of garment workers about birth control in New York City’s Union Square Read more about Emma Goldman: Birth Control Pioneer |
| May 20, 1961 A mob of 300 white segregationists, with the tacit assent of the local police, attacked a busload of both black and white “Freedom Riders” in Montgomery, Alabama’s bus depot. Among those beaten was Justice Department official John Seigenthaler who had tried to negotiate their safety.  Freedom Riders challenged racial segregation at Montgomery bus depot. Attention to the violence forced Attorney General Robert Kennedy to send in U.S. Marshals to protect the Riders. They had been seeking to guarantee equal access to interstate transportation by riding the bus but had been met by violence elsewhere in Alabama as well as South Carolina. The Freedom Rides discussed NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross (with transcript)  Robert Kennedy and John Seigenthaler The Freedom Rider story 50 Years After Their Mug Shots, Portraits of Mississippi’s Freedom Riders |
| May 20, 1968 In the first such instance during the Vietnam War, Arlington Street Unitarian-Universalist Church in Boston offered sanctuary to Robert Talmanson and William Chase, both of whom had refused to participate in the war. Talmanson had been convicted of refusing induction, and Chase had gone AWOL (absent without leave) as an army private after having served nine months at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam. Church leaders had declared theirs a “liberated zone” on the first day of the trial of Dr. Benjamin Spock and four others in federal court for counseling draft resistance. They believed that individuals had a right to decide not to kill as nonviolent persons, most especially in a war they considered unjust. |
| May 20, 1971 A delegation of U.S. pacifists traveled to Cuba to exchange children’s art. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymay.htm#may20
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