Tag: Peace

First Enslaved Africans Arrive in VA, & The Equal Opportunity Act Is Signed, In Peace & Justice History for 8/20

August 20, 1619
The first enslaved Africans brought to North America arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, aboard a Dutch ship.
August 20, 1964
A nearly $1 billion (about $5 billion in current dollars) anti-poverty measure, the Economic Opportunity Act, which created Head Start, VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America), and other programs that became part of the “War on Poverty,” was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.


Sargent Shriver & LBJ
Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps, drafted the legislation and became director of the Office of Equal Opportunity which implemented the new law.
The “Great Society” 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august20

Clara Luper, Desmond Tutu, & More, in Peace & Justice History for 8/19

(Click through on the Desmond Tutu link, and join me in what I’m pretty sure will be your first thought when you see the page. And enjoy your beverage while reading. -A.)

August 19, 1791

Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker, the first recognized African-American scientist, a son of former slaves, sent a copy of his just-published Almanac to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, along with an appeal about “the injustice of a state of slavery.”
More about Benjamin Banneker, his achievements and his letter to the president
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August 19, 1953

Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq
Royalist troops surrounded, bombarded and burned the residence of the Mohammed Mosaddeq, the recently dismissed elected Iranian Prime Minister. After having briefly fled his country for Italy due to the rioting over his unconstitutional dismissal of Mosaddeq, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was returned to the Peacock throne with dictatorial power. All this was done with the planning, financing and assistance of the CIA and its British counterpart, MI6.
Background on Mosaddeq
Stephen Kinzer on the U.S.-Iran relationship in perspective 
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August 19, 1958
The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Youth Council in Oklahoma City, led by Clara Luper, a high school history teacher, began sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters, inspired by success in Wichita, Kansas.
[see August 11, 1958].

Clara Luper
TV interview with Clara Luper 
More about Clara 
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August 19, 1970
The U.S. deployed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles near Greeley, Colorado. It was the first missile with multiple (then three-170 kiloton) nuclear warheads known as MIRVs (Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicles).

The MIRV: each cone is a warhead
All the details about this fearsome armament 
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August 19, 1989

Anglican Bishop and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu was among hundreds of black demonstrators, members of Mass Democratic Movement who were whipped and blasted with sand stirred up by helicopters as they attempted to picnic on a “whites-only” beach near Cape Town, South Africa.
Desmond Mpilo Tutu 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august19

Romance Books On Sale

M/M Romances and Historicals

Women Have Had The Right To Vote For 105 Out Of 249 Years & More, in Peace & Justice History for 8/18

August 18, 1914
In another step in the ethnic intimidation that led ultimately to the Armenian genocide in Turkey, looting was reported in Sivas, Diyarbekir, and other provinces. Under the guise of collecting war contributions (WWI had just begun), stores owned by Armenian and Greek merchants were vandalized. 1,080 shops and stalls owned by Armenians were burned at the Diyarbekir bazaar.
Chronology of the Armenian Genocide 
August 18, 1920
Women throughout the U.S. won the right to vote when the Tennessee legislature approved the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution (the last of 36 states then required to approve it). An amendment for universal suffrage was first introduced in Congress in 1878, and Wyoming had granted suffrage in state law by 1890.

This amendment to enfranchise all American women had been introduced annually for 41 years without passage; it had gotten two-thirds of both houses of Congress to approve it just the year before.
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
In the Tennessee House, 24-year-old Representative Harry Burn surprised observers by casting the deciding vote for ratification.  At the time of his vote, Burns had in his pocket a letter he had received from his mother urging him, “Don’t forget to be a good boy” and “vote for suffrage.”

Teaching With Documents: Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment (National Archives) (It is still there; I checked.)
August 18, 1963
 
James Meredith
James Meredith, the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, became the first to graduate. His enrollment at “Ole Miss” a year earlier had been met with deadly riots, forcing him to attend class escorted by heavily armed guards.

James Meredith being escorted to his classes by U.S. marshals and the military. 
Who was James Meredith
August 18, 1964
South Africa was banned from taking part in the 18th Olympic Games in Tokyo due to the country’s refusal to reform its racially separatist apartheid system.
Read more 
August 18, 1977
Steve Biko, the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement resisting apartheid, was arrested at a roadblock outside King William’s Town. He died while in custody from abuse during the weeks of interrogation that followed.

Steve Biko
“So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior.”
“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” – Biko speech in Cape Town, 1971
More about Biko

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august18

Resistance Strategy

Lots of little things people can do to build community, and stay safe. Here’s an idea, but it could easily be a house, or a she-shed, or a man-cave, etc., etc.

How a Black-Owned Members-Only Club in Washington D.C. is Responding to Trump’s Police Force Takeover

As the National Guard has been deployed to the streets of D.C., one private Black-owned networking club is offering a safe space to work and connect with others.

By Angela Johnson Published August 17, 2025

Last week, President Donald Trump declared a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C., a move that, according to the D.C. Home Rule Act of 1973, allows the federal government to take over the city’s police department for 30 days without congressional approval. Anxiety level is high as many are worried that taking over the Chocolate City — where Black people make up nearly 43 percent of the population, according to Data USA — is just the first part of Trump’s plan to implement a police state in America.

But one local membership club just made a move to make sure the city’s residents have a safe place to go during these uncertain times. The Gathering Spot is a Black-owned private membership club with locations in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Los Angeles, created to provide a space for executives, artists and entrepreneurs to connect and build community.

Although you normally have to pay to play, the club just launched a safe house initiative, which will provide complimentary access to its D.C. location (with a few less perks than full membership would get them).

Residents can complete an online form to request access. Once they are approved, they can use the space to “work, rest and connect” with others. The Gathering Spot’s CEO, Ryan Wilson, announced the plan in an August 12 Instagram post.

“This is an opportunity for people who are not members of the club to take advantage of the club. It is more important that we are in community during moments like this than ever,” he said.

Although we don’t know how long the safe house initiative will last, many TGS members said on social media that they are happy that the place they call home is opening its doors to others when they need it most.

“This is the 💪🏽💪🏽and vision needed. Proud to be a part of the TGS community,” wrote someone on Instagram.

Enten Eller, & John Lennon in Peace & Justice History for 8/17

August 17, 1966
Beatle John Lennon, while in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, expressed his admiration for American draft dodgers who resisted enlistment in the U.S. armed forces because of the Vietnam War.

An interview with the Beatles 8/17/1966 
August 17, 1982

Enten Eller
The first draft resister since the Vietnam era, Enten Eller, was convicted. A member of the Mennonite Church of the Brethren Resistance, he received three years’ probation in Bridgewater, Virginia, for refusing to register for the draft. Support demonstrations occurred all over the U.S.
The history of Mennonite resistance to conscription

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august17

Buddhists Protest, Monarch Coups, in Peace & Justice History for 8/16

August 16, 1953
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the constitutional monarch of Iran, dismissed the elected prime minister, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, without the approval of the parliament. In appointing Gen. Fazlollah Zahedi in his place, the Shah was following the coup plan, code-named TPAJAX, developed by the CIA under the direction of Kermit Roosevelt (grandson of President Theodore), and Great Britain’s intelligence service, MI6.
About Mohammad Mosaddeq 
The real story according to CIA records  (Yes, it is still there; also it’s a .pdf)
August 16, 1963
Buddhists staged protests across South Vietnam against the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic who removed Buddhists from important government positions and replaced them with Catholics. Buddhist monks protested Diem’s intolerance of other religions and the methods he used to silence them. Several Buddhist monks immolated themselves in protest of the war being waged against insurgents in the south, and against North Vietnam.

20,000 Buddhists in silent march for peace, Hue, South Vietnam. 1966

The Buddist monk Quang Duc became the first to kill himself in an anti-government protest in Vietnam in June, 1963 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august16

“Nimble Native”

Hawai‘i ʻĀkepa

Immigrants Just Take Over, Displacing Native Born Americans, Stealing Resources; Great Britain Partitions Its Empire; & More, In Peace & Justice History for 8/15

August 15, 1876
Congress passed a law to remove the Lakota Sioux and their allies from the Black Hills country of South Dakota after gold was found there. Often referred to as the “starve or sell” bill, it provided that no further appropriations would be made for 1868 Treaty-guaranteed rations for the Sioux unless they gave up their sacred Black Hills, or Paha Sapa. That treaty had granted them the territory and hunting rights in exchange for peace.

Lakota Sioux watch as their Black Hills are invaded. painting by Howard Terpning
The larger story of the Sioux and the U.S. 
August 15, 1947

Great Britain partitioned its empire on the Asian subcontinent into primarily Hindu, but nominally secular, India, and predominantly Muslim Pakistan (including the non-contiguous state of East Bengal, now the nation of Bangladesh). The two nations became independent of British rule after 200 years of colonial control, and more than two decades of Gandhi-led resistance. Rioting between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims followed, especially over the state of Kashmir, majority Muslim but newly part of India.Mahatma Gandhi had been an advocate for a united India where Hindus and Muslims would live together in peace. A few months later, at the age of 78, he began a fast with the purpose of stopping the sectarian bloodshed, in which hundreds of thousands died, and many more displaced. After five days the opposing leaders pledged to stop the fighting and Gandhi broke his fast.

Twelve days later he was assassinated by a Hindu opposed to his program of tolerance for all ethnicities, castes and religions.

One of the principal leaders of the independence movement, Jawaharlal Nehru, who became India’s first prime minister, spoke to the Constituent Assembly of India in New Delhi: “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.”
Among the tributes to Gandhi upon his death were these words by Albert Einstein:
“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked
the earth in flesh and blood.”
Listen to a portion of Nehru’s speech and a bit of old film
More on partition and independence
August 15, 1967

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, urged a massive civil disobedience drive in northern cities. Responding to the widespread rioting there, he said, “It is purposeless to tell Negroes they should not be enraged when they should be . . . Civil disobedience can utilize the militance wasted in riots . . . .”

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august15

More Progress Than Regress in Peace & Justice History for 8/14

August 14, 1935
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, creating unemployment compensation, old-age benefits and aid to dependent children.“We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.”

President Roosevelt signing Social Security Act of 1935 in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Library of Congress photo
A comprehensive history: 
August 14, 1941
In the German Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, a group of prisoners had been chosen by the camp’s commander for death by starvation. Roman Catholic Fr. Maximilian Maria Kolbe offered himself for death instead of one of the condemned because the man had a family he needed to be alive to support. Fr. Kolbe was put to death on this day by lethal injection following two weeks of starvation.
Pope John Paul II declared him a Saint in 1982.
August 14, 1945
President Harry Truman announced that Japan, one week following the atomic bomb attacks on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.
August 14, 1959
The U.S.-launched Explorer VI satellite recorded the first photograph of Earth taken from space, at an altitude of 17,000 miles (27,400 km).

August 14, 1966
Twenty people were arrested for trying to attend services at the white First Baptist Church in Grenada, Mississippi. They were charged with “disturbing divine worship.” Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) field staff member Jim Bulloch was arrested and his car fire-bombed while he was in jail.
August 14, 1968
400 anti-apartheid students occupied the university in Cape Town, South Africa, to protest its refusal to hire a black professor.
August 14, 1976
Majella O’Hare, a young Catholic girl, was shot dead by British soldiers while walking with other children to confession near her home in Ballymoyer, Whitecross, County Armagh.The soldiers, initially denying they had fired any weapons, claimed that the patrol had been fired upon by an unidentified gunman. But there were serious doubts about the army’s claim. Eyewitness reports failed to confirm it and, unofficially, police investigating the case referred to the army’s “phantom gunman.”
The same day 10,000 Northern Irish gathered at a demonstration in Andersontown, organized by the Women’s Peace Movement (later known as Peace People).

Majella O’Hare
How it happened from people who were there 
August 14, 1980

After months of labor turmoil, more than 16,000 Polish workers seized control of the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk. They helped form Solidarnos´c´ (Solidarity), the first independent labor union anywhere in the Soviet bloc, as the Warsaw Pact nations were known. Under the leadership of Lech Valensa [lek va wen´suh] and others, it helped unite the broad political, social and religious opposition to the Communist government.
Long-range look at Solidarity 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august14