Peace & Justice History for 12/14

December 14, 1917
U.S. peace activist and suffragist Kate Richards O’Hare was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for a speech denouncing World War I.
Occupying a neighboring jail cell was Emma Goldman, the well-known anarchist organizer, feminist, writer and anti-war critic was imprisoned for obstructing the draft. O’Hare was one of a number of prisoners Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs cited in his “Canton Speech” for which he in turn was imprisoned.
More about activist Kate Richards O’Hare 
Read the speech 
December 14, 1961
In a public exchange of letters with South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, U.S. President John F. Kennedy formally announced the United States would increase aid to South Vietnam, including the expansion of the U.S. troop commitment. Kennedy, concerned with recent advances made by the communist insurgency movement in South Vietnam, wrote: “We shall promptly increase our assistance to your defense effort.”

President Ngo Dinh Diem

President Kennedy and Secretary of Defense McNamara
Kennedy – Diem letter exchange 
December 14, 1980

At Yoko Ono’s request, John Lennon fans around the world mourned him with 10 minutes of silent prayer. In New York over 100,000 people converged on Central Park in tribute, and in Liverpool, England, his hometown, a crowd of 30,000 gathered outside of St. George’s Hall on Lime Street.
johnlennon.com  “You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.”
Time capsules to mark John Lennon’s legacy 
December 14, 1985
Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe when she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

Wilma Mankiller on the day in 1985 when her election as chief of the Cherokee Nation was announced
December 14, 1994
After eight years of negotiations, the United States finally agreed to honor New Zealand’s ban on nuclear weapons in its territory.
U.S. Navy ships armed with nuclear weapons no longer visited New Zealand’s ports.
December 14, 1995
Leaders of the states that were parts of the former Yugoslavia signed the Bosnia peace treaty, formally ending four years of bloody and vicious ethnic/religious conflict. The Dayton Accords, as they are known, committed the Balkan states of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina to accept a division of territory, a process to deal with the more than 2 million refugees, and the introduction of 60,000 NATO peacekeeping forces.
The negotiations were led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, and held principally at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.

The Dayton Accords 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorydecember.htm#december14

Peace & Justice History 9/2

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september2

September 2, 1885
A mob of white coal miners, led by the Knights of Labor, violently attacked their Chinese co-workers in Rock Springs, Wyoming, killing 28 and burning the homes of 75 Chinese families. The white miners wanted the Chinese barred from working in the mine. The mine owners and operators had brought in the Chinese ten years earlier to keep labor costs down and to suppress strikes.Chinese fleeing Rock Springs
The unfortunate story and illustrations of the scene  (scroll down)
September 2, 1945

Revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam a republic and independent from France (National Day). Half a million people gathered in the capital of Hanoi to hear him read the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, which was modeled on the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

note: Ho Chi Minh translates to ‘He Who Enlightens’
Read about how it was influenced by the U.S. Declaration 
September 2, 1966
On what was supposed to be the first day of school in Grenada, Mississippi—and the first day in an integrated school for 450 Negro children—the school board postponed opening of school for 10 days because of “paperwork.” Nevertheless, the high school played its first football game that night. Some of the Negro kids who had registered for that school tried to attend the game but were beaten, and their car windows smashed.
September 2, 1969
Vietnamese revolutionary and national leader Nguyen Tat Thanh (aka Ho Chi Minh), 79, died of natural causes in Hanoi.
  Uncle Ho, Ho Chi Minh
Ho and his struggle for Vietnamese independence