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On this day … Jul 28, 1868 a repost from 2014
Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution.
Two years after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the South into five military districts, where new state governments, based on universal manhood suffrage, were to be established. Thus began the period known as Radical Reconstruction, which saw the 14th Amendment, which had been passed by Congress in 1866, ratified in July 1868. The amendment resolved pre-Civil War questions of African American citizenship by stating that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States...are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.” The amendment then reaffirmed the privileges and rights of all citizens, and granted all these citizens the “equal protection of the laws.”
In the decades after its adoption, the equal protection clause was cited by a number of African American activists who argued that racial segregation denied them the equal protection of law. However, in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that states could constitutionally provide segregated facilities for African Americans, so long as they were equal to those afforded white persons. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which announced federal toleration of the so-called “separate but equal” doctrine, was eventually used to justify segregating all public facilities, including railroad cars, restaurants, hospitals, and schools. However, “colored” facilities were never equal to their white counterparts, and African Americans suffered through decades of debilitating discrimination in the South and elsewhere. In 1954, Plessy v. Ferguson was finally struck down by the Supreme Court in its ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/14th-amendment-adopted
Source : history.com
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On this day, 7/27
214 – At the Battle of Bouvines in France, Philip Augustus of France defeated John of England.
1245 – Frederick II was deposed by a council at Lyons after they found him guilty of sacrilege.
1663 – The British Parliament passed a second Navigation Act, which required all goods bound for the colonies be sent in British ships from British ports.
1689 – Government forces defeated the Scottish Jacobites at the Battle of Killiecrankie.
1694 – The Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution.
1775 – Benjamin Rush began his service as the first Surgeon General of the Continental Army.
1784 – “Courier De L但merique” became the first French newspaper to be published in the United States. It was printed in Philadelphia, PA.
1777 – The marquis of Lafayette arrived in New England to help the rebellious American colonists fight the British.
1778 – The British and French fleets fought to a standoff in the first Battle of Ushant.
1789 – The Department of Foreign Affairs was established by the U.S. Congress. The agency was later known as the Department of State.
1804 – The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. With the amendment, Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President.
1866 – Cyrus Field successfully completed the Atlantic Cable. It was an underwater telegraph from North America to Europe.
1909 – Orville Wright set a record for the longest airplane flight. He was testing the first Army airplane and kept it in the air for 1 hour 12 minutes and 40 seconds.
1914 – British troops invaded the streets of Dublin, Ireland, and began to disarm Irish rebels.
1918 – The Socony 200 was launched. It was the first concrete barge and was used to carry oil.
1921 – Canadian biochemist Frederick Banting and associates announced the discovery of the hormone insulin.
1940 – Bugs Bunny made his official debut in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon “A Wild Hare.”
1944 – U.S. troops completed the liberation of Guam.
1947 – The World Water Ski Organization was founded in Geneva, Switzerland.
1953 – The armistice agreement that ended the Korean War was signed at Panmunjon, Korea.
1955 – The Allied occupation of Austria ended.
1964 – U.S. President Lyndon Johnson sent an additional 5,000 advisers to South Vietnam.
1965 – In the U.S., the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act was signed into law. The law required health warnings on all cigarette packages.
1967 – U.S. President Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of the violence in the wake of urban rioting.
1974 – The U.S. Congress asked for impeachment procedures against President Richard Nixon.
1980 – The deposed shah of Iran, Muhammad Riza Pahlavi, died in a hospital near Cairo, Egypt.
1984 – Pete Rose passed Ty Cobb痴 record for most singles in a career when he got his 3,503rd base hit.
1993 – IBM’s new chairman, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., announced an $8.9 billion plan to cut the company’s costs.
1995 – The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC, by U.S. President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam.
1999 – The U.S. space shuttle Discovery completed a five-day mission commanded by Air Force Col. Eileen Collins. It was the first shuttle mission to be commanded by a woman.
2006 – Intel Corp introduced its Core 2 Duo microprocessors.
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on this day 7/26
1775 – A postal system was established by the 2nd Continental Congress of the United States. The first Postmaster General was Benjamin Franklin.
1788 – New York became the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1881 – Thomas Edison and Patrick Kenny execute a patent application for a facsimile telegraph (U.S. Pat. 479,184).
1893 – Commercial production of the Addressograph started in Chicago, IL.
1907 – The Chester was launched. It was the first turbine-propelled ship.
1908 – U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order that created an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the FBI.
1945 – Winston Churchill resigned as Britain’s prime minister.
1947 – U.S. President Truman signed The National Security Act. The act created the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
1948 – Babe Ruth was seen by the public for the last time, when he attended the New York City premiere of the motion picture, “The Babe Ruth Story.”
1948 – U.S. President Truman signed executive orders that prohibited discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment.
1952 – King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
1953 – Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba. Castro eventually ousted Batista six years later.
1956 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.
1971 – Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy, FL.
1998 – AT&T and British Telecommunications PLC announced they were forming a joint venture to combine international operations and develop a new Internet system.
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This is what segregation looks like ~~ Alabama – an ugly reminder
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Aggressive gerrymandering efforts designed to dilute Black Alabamians’ votes have delivered supermajority control of the state’s legislature — and Alabama’s entire executive branch — to the extreme right wing. With Black voters largely blocked from electing their candidates of choice, Alabama’s unaccountable politicians are hard at work shredding the social safety net and attacking federal laws that protect our health.
Demonstrating just how reckless Alabama’s political leadership has become, the GOP is actually invoking Brown v. Board of Education in its latest campaign to harass and vilify Black women and families. Comparing herself to civil rights champions fighting to end school segregation, Rep. Mary McClurkin (R-Indian Springs) just pushed a package of bills through the House that would force women to carry pregnancies to term even where pregnancy results from rape.1
The GOP is appropriating the civil rights struggle to ram through its extreme, unconstitutional policy agenda,2 while depending on massive civil rights violations to win and hold office. And with November’s election already heating up, we can expect the hypocrisy will only get worse — unless national attention makes Alabama’s government’s predatory behavior toward its own Black constituents too difficult to publicly justify.
While Alabama’s white political bosses mock both the civil rights movement and Deep South’s continuing legacy of chattel slavery to the faces of their few remaining Black colleagues in Montgomery,3 everyday Alabamians are struggling to survive. Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families dollars are consistently diverted to projects that have nothing to do with fighting Alabama’s staggering poverty rates, and the state has flirted with becoming the first to end TANF entirely.4,5
Alabama insists single adults making just $1,332 a year are too wealthy to qualify for Medicaid,6 blocking access to basic medical care for hundreds of thousands of residents. Gov. Bentley could easily expand Medicaid coverage with funding from President Obama’s Affordable Care Act — creating 30,000 much-needed jobs, growing wages, and generating nearly $1 billion in new revenue — but he’s refused.7,8 Alabama’s already low abortion rate could be further reduced under the ACA’s expanded access to contraception, but Attorney General Luther Strange is suing to keep that from happening.9,10
It’s clear the right wing’s retrograde agenda has nothing to do with standing up for families or protecting the vulnerable — it’s about foreclosing opportunity for Black communities and suppressing Black political power. Despite our growing numbers — over 26% of Alabamians identify as Black — and record levels of voter registration, Black voters and elected officials now have less influence than at any time since the civil rights era.
The GOP strategy is to “pack” Black constituents into fewer districts, “crack” up influential communities in non-majority Black districts, and otherwise “bleach” formerly diverse districts prone to cross-racial coalition building. The resulting, unearned Republican wins have stripped formerly influential Black legislators of leadership positions and the ability to move policy or conduct oversight,11 making Alabama’s government increasingly indifferent to Black constituents’ interests. Even before last year’s Shelby County Supreme Court ruling validated Alabama’s “unbroken chain of repetitive discrimination” dating to the early days of the Voting Rights Act,12 this ruthless redistricting push has sought to reinstate the bad old days of political apartheid, when representing Black folks was simply not required of white officials.13
Thanks and Peace,
–Arisha, Rashad, Matt, Kim, Johnny, Hannah and the rest of the ColorOfChange team
April 1st, 2014
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References
1. “Alabama House Passes Extreme ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Ban, Three Other Anti-Choice Bills,” RH Reality Check, 03-05-2014
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3386?t=9&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
2. “Alabama Lawmakers Propose Near-Total Abortion Ban, Other Severe Restrictions,” RH Reality Check, 02-20-2014
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3398?t=11&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
3. “Equating Slavery and Abortion: Where are the Women in this story?” Feministing, 01-24-2011
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3387?t=13&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
4. “Alabama Voters to Decide Whether to Save Poor Kids,” Mother Jones, 09-18-2012
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3389?t=15&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
5. “Alabama: The sixth poorest state in America,” AL.com, 01-16-2014
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3390?t=17&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
6. “As Alabama Cuts Benefits, Desperate Man ‘Robs’ Bank To Get Food, Shelter In Jail,” ThinkProgress, 07-11-2013
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3388?t=19&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
7. “Study: Expanding Medicaid would create 30,700 jobs,” AL.com, 10-09-2013
blog.al.com/wire/2013/10/study_expanding_medicaid_would.html
8. “Senate Democrats Remind Governor Bentley that Alabama Must Expand Medicaid,” Alabama Political Reporter, 10-12-2013
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3391?t=21&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
9. “Alabama joins EWTN in new lawsuit against Obamacare contraception mandate,” AL.com, 10-28-2013
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3392?t=23&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
10. “Study: Abortion rate at lowest point since 1973,” Washington Post, 02-02-2014
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3393?t=25&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
11. “The Decline of Black Power in the South,” New York Times, 07-10-2013
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3394?t=27&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
12. “What Is Alabama’s Problem With the Voting Rights Act?” The Nation, 02-26-2013
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3395?t=29&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
13. “Keeping Black Voters in Their Place,” New York Times, 11-05-2013
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3396?t=31&akid=3341.1689899.mOw4eJ
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