Tag: Peace

Peace & Justice History for 9/28:

September 28, 1836
Cherokee Chief John Ross wrote a letter to both houses of the U.S. Congress stating that the Treaty of New Echota was not negotiated by any legitimate representatives of his nation.
Its terms required the Cherokees to relinquish all lands east of the Mississippi River for a payment of $5 million. Ross was the democratically chosen leader of a nation with its own language, its own newspaper, a bi-cameral legislature and a republican form of government.

Cherokee Chief John Ross
The Cherokee Nation celebrated its own arts and sports, and produced a wide variety of agricultural and commercial goods. I had twelve political units ranging from northern Alabama to western North Carolina.Writing from north Georgia, Ross said: “The makers of it [the treaty] sustain no office nor appointment in our Nation, under the designation of Chiefs, Head men, or any other title, by which they hold, or could acquire, authority to assume the reins of Government, and to make bargain and sale of our rights, our possessions, and our common country . . . .
“ We are despoiled of our private possessions, the indefeasible property of individuals. We are stripped of every attribute of freedom and eligibility for legal self-defence. Our property may be plundered before our eyes; violence may be committed on our persons; even our lives may be taken away, and there is none to regard our complaints. We are denationalized; we are disfranchised. We are deprived of membership in the human family!”
Full text of the letter 
September 28, 1917
166 people who were (or had been) active in the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World, whose members were also known as Wobblies) were indicted for protesting World War I.They were accused of trying to “cause insubordination, disloyalty, and refusal of duty in the military and naval forces” in violation of the Espionage Act. One hundred and one defendants were found guilty, and received prison sentences ranging from days to twenty years, with accompanying fines of $10,000-$20,000. This was part of a successful U.S. government campaign to cripple the radical union movement.

The I.W.W. – A Brief History (U.S.) 
I.W.W. home 
September 28, 1943
In Denmark, underground anti-Nazi activists began systematic smuggling of Jews to Sweden. In just three weeks, all but 481 of Denmark’s 8000 Jews had been moved to safety.
Kim Malthe-Bruun, a 21-year-old Danish resistance fighter. Unfortunately one of the ones who did not make it.


A Danish Jewish family ready to go
Read more about Kim 
September 28, 2005
The lawyer who wrote the original legal complaint in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, Constance Baker Motley, died in New York City. She had led a remarkable career which began at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) where she was their first female attorney. The first black woman to argue before the Supreme Court, she was successful in nine of her ten cases. Motley went on to achieve three more firsts as an African American woman: being elected to the New York State Senate and shortly thereafter to the Manhattan Borough presidency. Finally, Pres. Lyndon Johnson appointed her to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1966 where she served until her passing.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september28

Peace & Justice History for 9/27:

September 27, 1962
Rachel Carson’s book indicting the pesticide industry, Silent Spring, was published.

The scientist (17 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and writer demonstrated the connection between the excessive and ubiquitous use of DDT and its long-term effect on plants and animals.

Rachel Carson at work c. 1936
The impact of her book proved seminal to a new ecological awareness. But even 30 years later, Carson was denounced for “preservationist hysteria” and “bad science.” But she had said when the book was published: “We do not ask that all chemicals be abandoned. We ask moderation. We ask the use of other methods less harmful to our environment.“ Rachel Carson, her Silent Spring and its impact
 September 27, 1967
An advertisement headed “A Call To Resist Illegitimate Authority,” signed by over 320 influential people (professors, writers, ministers, and other professional people), appeared in the New Republic and the New York Review of Books, asking for funds to help youths resist the draft.
September 27, 1990
The last U.S. Pershing II tactical nuclear missiles were removed from Germany, fewer than ten years after their installation provoked a massive anti-nuclear movement across Europe.The range and accuracy of the Pershing II pushed the Soviet Union to negotiate the Treaty on Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) which completely eliminated all nuclear-armed ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (about 300 to 3400 miles) and their infrastructure.
The INF Treaty was the first nuclear arms control agreement to actually reduce nuclear arms, and the signatories destroyed almost 2700 nuclear weapons (including 234 Pershing II) by May of 1991.
September 27, 1991
President George H.W. Bush announced a major unilateral withdrawal of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons:
“I am . . . directing that the United States eliminate its entire worldwide inventory of ground-launched short-range, that is, theater, nuclear weapons. We will bring home and destroy all of our nuclear artillery shells and short-range ballistic missile warheads. We will, of course, insure that we preserve an effective air-delivered nuclear capability in Europe.
“In turn, I have asked the Soviets . . . to destroy their entire inventory of ground-launched theater nuclear weapons . . . .
“Recognizing further the major changes in the international military landscape, the United States will withdraw all tactical nuclear weapons from its surface ships, attack submarines, as well as those nuclear weapons associated with our land-based naval aircraft. This means removing all nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. ships and submarines, as well as nuclear bombs aboard aircraft carriers.”

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september27

Peace & Justice History for 9/26:

September 26, 1909

International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU Local 25) began a strike against the Triangle Shirtwaist Company.
In November their strike would become part of the “Uprising of the 20,000,” during which 339 of 352 firms would be struck and reach agreements with the union over the following five months but Triangle was not one of them. The strike ended after thirteen weeks that saw over 700 striking workers arrested.
More info 
Chronology 
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September 26, 1945
OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the CIA) officer Lieutenant Colonel A. Peter Dewey became the first American to die in Vietnam. During unrest in Saigon, he was killed by Viet Minh guerrillas who mistook him for a French officer. Before his death, Dewey had filed a report on the deepening crisis in Vietnam, stating his opinion that the U.S. “ought to clear out of Southeast Asia.”
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September 26, 1957

The Buffalo Nuclear Test, Maralinga
Despite international protests, the United Kingdom began a series of atmospheric nuclear bomb tests beginning with Operation Buffalo on aboriginal land
at Maralinga, South Australia. The series of tests included dropping a bomb from a height of 30,000 feet. This was the first launching of a British atomic weapon from an aircraft.
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September 26, 1983
Five members of Puget Sound Women’s Peace Camp entered Boeing’s cruise missile production plant in Seattle, Washington, to leaflet the workers and were arrested.
In November of 1980 and 1981 the Women’s Pentagon Actions, where hundreds of women came together to challenge patriarchy and militarism, took place.A movement grew that found ways to use direct action to put pressure on the military establishment and to show positive examples of life-affirming ways to live together. This movement spawned women’s peace camps at military bases around the world from Greenham Common, England, to the Puget Sound Peace Camp, as well as camps in Japan and Italy, among others.

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September 26, 1988
President Ronald Reagan urged the United Nations General Assembly to call a conference about the use of chemical weapons. Though the U.S. and other nations had signed the Geneva Protocol banning chemical (as well as bacteriological) arms, such weapons had been used repeatedly by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in its war against Iran.
Background on the treaty and the issue 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september261909

Peace & Justice History for 9/25:

Jazz for Peace!

September 25, 1789
The first U.S. Congress passed the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and sent them on to the states for ratification.
See the actual document and learn more 
September 25, 1957
Nine African-American children, protected by 300 members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, with fixed bayonets, entered the previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.The troops were there to escort the children past white segregationists and the Arkansas Militia (National Guard) thatArkansas Governor Orval Faubus had activated to prevent its federal court-approved racial integration plan.
 
After a tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent troops to Little Rock to enforce the court order. The order to de-segregate the Little Rock schools flowed from the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision.
The troops remained for the entire school term.

Watch a video about the Little Rock 9 
September 25, 1961
Herbert Lee, a farmer who worked with civil rights leader Bob Moses to help register black voters, was killed by a state legislator, E. H. Hurst, in Liberty, Mississippi. Hurst claimed self-defense and was acquitted by a coroner’s jury the same day as the killing. Lewis Allen, who witnessed the shooting, said otherwise, and was himself murdered two years later.

Herbert Lee

More about Herbert Lee 
September 25, 2002
Rick DellaRatta and Jazz For Peace performed at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. He led a band consisting of Israeli, Middle Eastern, European, Asian and American jazz musicians in concert for an international audience.
Jazz for Peace continues to perform concerts to raise money for non-profit organizations.

Rick DellaRatta

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september25

Peace & Justice History for 9/24:

September 24, 1968

10,000 draft files were destroyed by fourteen anti-war activists with homemade napalm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Milwaukee 14 home 
Watch a video of the event 
September 24, 1969
The Chicago 8 trial opened in Chicago. It was the prosecution of eight anti-war activists charged with responsibility for the violent demonstrations at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.The defendants included David Dellinger of the National Mobilization Committee (NMC); Rennie Davis and Thomas Hayden of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, founders of the Youth International Party (“Yippies”); Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party; and two lesser-known activists, Lee Weiner and John Froines.

The Chicago 8 minus Bobby Seale
Chicago 8 background

Bobby Seale, after repeatedly asserting his right to an attorney of his own choosing or to defend himself, was bound and gagged in the courtroom and his trial was severed from the rest on November 5th. The group then became known as the Chicago 7.
About Bobby Seale   
September 24, 1976
Ian Smith, leader of the whites-only government of Rhodesia, a former British colony, agreed to introduce black majority rule to the country within two years. He was under pressure from the United States through Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and from British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september24

Peace & Justice History for 9/23:

September 23, 1949
President Harry Truman announced that the Soviet Union had exploded its first atomic bomb, an implosive plutonium weapon, the previous month (it had happened on August 29). “We have evidence,” the White House statement said, “that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R.”
September 23, 1979

200,000 attended an anti-nuclear rally in New York City’s Battery Park. It was the largest political protest of the late ’70s in the U.S., six months after the partial meltdown of the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. Two days earlier the ‘No Nukes’ concert, also known as the “Muse (Musicians United for Safe Energy) concert,” was held in Madison Square Garden, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Crosby Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne and others.
More about the concert, the record and the film 
September 23, 1982
Dr. Jane Goodall created Roots & Shoots Day of Peace in 1982 in honor of U.N. International Day of Peace; each year, Roots & Shoots Day of Peace is observed in late September. Roots & Shoots groups around the world fly Giant Peace Dove puppets to celebrate Roots & Shoots Day of Peace for its symbolic meaning. They also plan and implement peace project initiatives to help make the world a better place for animals, the environment and the human community.
Hear Jane Goodall on World Peace Day 
Dr. Goodall was appointed a Messenger of Peace in 2002 by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. People selected as Messengers of Peace are widely recognized for their achievements in music, literature, sports and the arts.To commemorate her appointment, Roots & Shoots members at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point first conceived of and created the Giant Peace Dove puppets. Since then, Roots & Shoots groups have flown doves in over 40 countries around the world.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september23

Peace & Justice History for 9/22:

September 22, 1966
Eight hundred Puerto Rican men pledged in Lares to refuse U.S. Vietnam draft. They saw compliance as “part of the colonial subjugation of our country.”
September 22, 1980
The Solidarity union under leadership of Lech Walesa was allowed to organize by the Communist-led Polish government. The previous month the group had occupied the Lenin shipyards in Gdansk and had inspired a national general strike.
September 22, 1985
The first Farm Aid concert, organized principally by Willie Nelson, was held with more than 50 musicians raising $9 million for debt-ridden U.S. farmers. 
Farm Aid home 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september22

Astronomy Picture of the Day

First, peace to all, and make it a good International Day of Peace. Next, the Autumnal/Spring Equinox is tomorrow morning at 7:44 AM USCDT/whatever time it is where you are. Here’s a beautifully peaceful photo from NASA’s Photo of the Day:

2024 September 21

Sunrise Shadows in the Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Emili Vilamala

Explanation: The defining astronomical moment of this September’s equinox is at 12:44 UTC on September 22, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving south in its yearly journey through planet Earth’s sky. That marks the beginning of fall for our fair planet in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere, when day and night are nearly equal around the globe. Of course, if you celebrate the astronomical change of seasons by watching a sunrise you can also look for crepuscular rays. Outlined by shadows cast by clouds, crepuscular rays can have a dramatic appearance in the twilight sky during any sunrise (or sunset). Due to perspective, the parallel cloud shadows will seem to point back to the rising Sun and a place due east on your horizon on the equinox date. But in this spectacular sunrise skyscape captured in early June, the parallel shadows and crepuscular rays appear to converge toward an eastern horizon’s more northerly sunrise. The well-composed photo places the rising Sun just behind the bell tower of a church in the town of Vic, province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Tomorrow’s picture: Equinox in the City

Peace & Justice History for 9/21; also Have A Wonderfully Peaceful International Day of Peace today!

September 21, 1963
The War Resisters League organized the first American anti-Vietnam War demonstration in New York City. The League, founded in 1923, was the first peace group to call for U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, and played a key role throughout the war, organizing rallies, the burning of draft cards, civil disobedience at induction centers, and assisting resisters.
History of WRL
 
WRL home 
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September 21st (since 1982)

The International Day of Peace was established by United Nations resolution in 1981 and first celebrated in 1982 (then as the 3rd tuesday of the month).
Events are planned all over the world to promote peace and make it more visible.
About Peace Day and plans around the world 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september21

Peace & Justice History for 9/20:

September 20, 1830
The National Negro Convention, a group of 38 free black Americans from eight states, met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the express purpose of abolishing slavery and improving the social status of African Americans. They elected Richard Allen president and agreed to boycott slave-produced goods and encourage free-produce organizations. One of the most active would be the Colored Female Free Produce Society, which urged the boycott of all slave-produced goods.
Read more
 Richard Allen
 
National Negro Convention leaders 1879
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September 20, 1850
The District of Columbia abolished the slave trade though slavery itself was not outlawed. Washington had been home to the largest slave market in the country. This was an element of the Compromise of 1850.
The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act 
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September 20, 1906
Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” a realist novel, was published, exposing the dangerous conditions and deplorable sanitation in Chicago’s meat-packing plants. Reaction from readers was intense, including President Theodore Roosevelt who coined the term “muckrakers” to describe Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell and other writers who exposed corruption in government and business [what we’d now call investigative reporting].

“The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society …
if they gradually grow to feel that the whole world is nothing
but muck, their power of usefulness is gone.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
More on the muckrakers 
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September 20, 1932
Rabindranath Tagore urges resistance to practice of “untouchability,” British India.
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September 20, 1946
The first Cannes Film Festival began in that French Riviera resort town. It had originally been planned for 1939 but Hitler’s invasion of Poland that year, and later France, delayed plans until after the war.
The first Grand Prix and the International Peace Prize were awarded to “The Last Chance” by Leopold Lindtberg of Switzerland, a movie (shot on location) about how three Allied soldiers, including two escaped prisoners of war, lead a group of Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied northern Italy across the Alps to safety in nominally neutral Switzerland. Cannes festival history 
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September 20, 1997
3,000 protesters helped to rip up the railroad tracks leading from Krummel nuclear power station to the main Hamburg-Berlin line. The previous year two doctors had sued for closure of the plant due to the increased incidence of leukemia among the population around the plant.
In January, a train carrying nuclear waste derailed near the reactor at Krummel.
At the time, Germany’s 19 nuclear reactors generated 34 per cent of the country’s electricity; in 2005 it was down to 26 percent.
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September 20, 1999
A multinational peacekeeping force landed in East Timor in an attempt to restore law and order to the territory. Indonesian militias had killed thousands following the overwhelming vote by the East Timorese for independence from Jakarta on September 4.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september20