COVE

Isaac Land, “On the Foundings of Sierra Leone, 1787-1808″

Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Jan 1789

1789 saw the publication of Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. Exact month of publication unknown; if you have information about the correct date, please email felluga@purdue.edu with this information. The book describes Equiano's time as a slave and his life after achieving his freedom. Image: Engraving for Equiano's Interesting Narrative. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

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Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

Anne K. Mellor, "On the Publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"

Vindication of the Rights of Woman

1 Jan 1792

In January 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which laid out the tenets of what today we call ‘equality’ or ‘liberal’ feminist theory. She further promoted a new model of the nation grounded on a family politics produced by egalitarian marriages. Image: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman title page from the first American edition, 1792 (Library of Congress). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Ghislaine McDayter, "On the Publication of William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1798"

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

Ghislaine McDayter, "On the Publication of William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1798"

Death of Wollstonecraft

10 Sep 1797

Death of Mary Wollstonecraft on 10 September 1797. Mary Shelley, Wollstonecraft’s second daughter, was born on August 30th, after which complications from childbirth set in. Wollstonecraft developed a fever, and died on September 10th. She was buried at St. Pancras Churchyard. Image: William Blake's frontispiece to the 1791 edition of Mary Wollstonecraft's Original Stories from Real Life. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Anne K. Mellor, "On the Publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"

Associated Places

St. Pancras Churchyard

Ghislaine McDayter, "On the Publication of William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1798"

Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication

Jan 1798

On January 1798, publication of William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The publication of this first biography of Wollstonecraft causes a scandal and Godwin publishes a second “corrected” edition of the Memoirs in the summer of the same year.

Articles

Anne K. Mellor, "On the Publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Criminal Jurisdiction Act passed

22 Jun 1802

An amendment of the Colonial Governors Act (1700), the Criminal Jurisdiction Act holds colonial officials accountable to the Court of King’s Bench in England for crimes committed in the colonies. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Associated Places

Palace of Westminster
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

St. Peter's Field meeting

18 Jan 1819

On 18 January 1819, Henry Hunt presided at a meeting of 8,000 operatives on St. Peter’s Field in Manchester.

Articles

St. Peter's Field in Manchester
Cato Street

Associated Places

Sandy Brow Fight

15 Feb 1819

On 15 February 1819, William Fitton presided at a public meeting at Sandy Brow in Stockport (the so-called “Sandy Brow Fight”), number present not known, where a scuffle involving stones and brickbats occurred over an attempt by the military to seize the Cap of Liberty; the Riot Act was read three times.

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Ashton-under-Lyne meeting

14 Jun 1819

On 14 June 1819, Joseph Harrison presided at a meeting of 12,000–15,000 at Ashton-under-Lyne; this was typical of a spate of June meetings at Oldham, Bolton, Royton, Bury, Heywood, Stockport, Failsworth, Gee Cross, Lees, Middleton, Rochdale, Todmorden, Barnsley, Holmfirth, Leeds, and other towns that were unrepresented in Parliament.

Articles

Associated Places

Glasgow meeting of weavers

16 Jun 1819

On 16 June 1819, 40,000 weavers met at Glasgow to petition the Prince Regent for passage money to Canada for the unemployed.

Articles

Associated Places

Glasgow
Cato Street

Stockport meeting

28 Jun 1819

On 28 June 1819, at the great Stockport meeting, the largest of its kind besides Peterloo, upwards of 20,000 assembled to hear Sir Charles Wolseley speak on Parliamentary reform.

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Peterloo massacre

16 Aug 1819

On 16 August 1819, at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, more than 60,000 workers gathered to demonstrate in favor of an expansion of suffrage in England. In an attempt to disperse the crowd and arrest the organizers of the demonstration, local cavalry and members of the 15th Hussars and 88th Foot attacked the crowd, killing a dozen protestors and injuring as many as 600. Though Wellington was not involved, the incident was dubbed “Peterloo” because of his persistent opposition to reform in the House of Lords. Image: Richard Carlisle, To Henry Hunt, Esq., as chairman of the emeeting assembled in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, sixteenth day of August, 1819, and to the female Reformers of Manchester and the adjacent towns who were exposed to and suffered from the wanton and fiendish attack made on them by that brutal armed force, the Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry, this plate is dedicated by their fellow labourer, Richard Carlile: a coloured engraving that depicts the Peterloo Massacre (1 October 1819), Manchester Library Services. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″

Associated Places

St. Peter's Field in Manchester
Cato Street
St Peter's Field, Manchester, England

Westminster meeting

2 Sep 1819

On 2 September 1819, 15,000–50,000 people assembled in Westminster and were addressed by Francis Burdett and Major Cartwright. The Examiner for that date confirmed 2 September as the correct date. This followed a smaller protest meeting at Smithfield the week before.

Articles

Associated Places

Cato Street
Westminster

Simultaneous radical meetings

1 Nov 1819

On 1 November 1819, simultaneous meetings were held, by prior agreement, at Newcastle, Carlisle, Leeds Halifax, Manchester, Bolton, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, and elsewhere in England and Scotland.

Articles

Associated Places

Newcastle
Cato Street
Halifax

Simultaneous Scottish radical meetings

15 Nov 1819

On 15 November 1819, simultaneous radical meetings occurred at Paisley, Glasgow, and other locations across Scotland.

Articles

Associated Places

Paisley
Glasgow
Cato Street

Gag Acts

30 Dec 1819

On 30 December 1819, the British parliament passed the Six Acts (or Gag Acts), which labeled any meeting for radical reform as “an overt act of treasonable conspiracy.” The acts were aimed at gagging radical newspapers (the Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act, the Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act, and the Misdemeanors Act), preventing large meetings (the Seditious Meetings Prevention Act), and reducing what the government saw as the possibility of armed insurrection (the Training Prevention Act and the Seizure of Arms Act). Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act"

Slavery Abolition Act

29 Aug 1833

The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 received the Royal Assent (which means it became law) on 29 August 1833. The Act outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire; Britain’s colonial slaves were officially emancipated on 1 August 1834 when the law came into force, although most entered a form of obligatory apprenticeship that ended in 1840. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Associated Places

Palace of Westminster
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus
Mississippi Delta
New Orleans

First Chartist Petition

14 Jun 1839

On 14 June 1839, the First Chartist Petition was presented to the House of Commons. The Petition was summarily rejected without a hearing on 12 July 1839. The Petition sought universal male suffrage, a secret ballot, and parliamentary reform. Image: Engraving depicting a Chartist riot from 1886 book True Stories of the Reign of Queen Victoria by Cornelius Brown. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Jo Briggs, “1848 and 1851: A Reconsideration of the Historical Narrative”

Associated Places

Kersal Moor

Newport Uprising

Nov 1839

Newport uprising on 3-4 November 1839. This was an armed uprising in support of the Chartist Petition. A few months after the rejection of the first Chartist petition, 9,000 laborers—some of them ignorant of the intentions of their leaders—marched into Newport with the plan of taking control of the town, but were quickly routed by local forces. Image: The attack of the Chartists on the Westgate Hotel, Newport, Mon. Nov 4th 1839. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Jo Briggs, “1848 and 1851: A Reconsideration of the Historical Narrative”

Associated Places

Newport
Kersal Moor

Second Chartist Petition

2 May 1842

Presentation of the Second Chartist Petition to the House of Commons on 2 May 1842. Like the first Chartist Petition, which was presented in June 1839, this was rejected without a hearing on the next day, 3 May 1842. Image: Engraving depicting a Chartist riot from 1886 book True Stories of the Reign of Queen Victoria by Cornelius Brown. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Jo Briggs, “1848 and 1851: A Reconsideration of the Historical Narrative”

Associated Places

Kersal Moor

Manchester strike

8 Aug 1842

Manchester strikes began on 8 August 1842. Following the rejection of the second petition, the Chartists sought to join forces with striking workers in the industrial region around Manchester, who were protesting a reduction in wages, but once again government forces moved quickly to suppress the ensuing riots. Image: Engraving depicting a Chartist riot from 1886 book True Stories of the Reign of Queen Victoria by Cornelius Brown. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Jo Briggs, “1848 and 1851: A Reconsideration of the Historical Narrative”

Associated Places

Manchester
Kersal Moor

Ellen Rosenman, “On Enclosure Acts and the Commons”

Formation of the Chartist Land Company

Apr 1846

In April 1846, the Chartist National Delegates Meeting approved the formation of the Chartist Cooperative Land Company. The Chartist Land Company was a large-scale, explicitly political version of freehold societies. Conceived by the Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor in 1842, the Company, like freehold societies, purchased large tracts of land through subscriptions and then sold smaller parcels to subscribers. It attempted to re-create village life by building cottages, hospitals, and schools, and setting aside one hundred acres for common use. Image: Plaque commemorating Feargus O'Connor at Heronsgate, Hertfordshire. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Articles

Associated Places

Ellen Rosenman, “On Enclosure Acts and the Commons”

Opening festival for O’Connorville

17 Aug 1846

17 August 1846 saw the opening festival for O’Connorville, the first Chartist settlement. Image: Plaque commemorating Feargus O'Connor at Heronsgate, Hertfordshire. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Articles

Associated Places

Jo Briggs, “1848 and 1851: A Reconsideration of the Historical Narrative”

Chartist Rally, Kennington

10 Apr 1848

On 10 April 1848, Chartists rally on Kennington Common, south London. Image: Poster advertising the "Monster" Chartist Demonstration, held on 10 April 1848, proceeding to Kennington Common, Rodney Mace, British Trade Union Posters: An Illustrated History. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Led by Feargus O’Connor, an estimated 25,000 Chartists meet on Kennington Common planning to march to Westminster to deliver a monster petition in favor of the six points of the People’s Charter. Police block bridges over the Thames containing the marchers south of the river, and the demonstration is broken up with some arrests and violence. However, the large scale revolt widely predicted and feared fails to materialize.

Articles

Chris Vanden Bossche, "On Chartism"

Associated Places

Kennington Common
Heronsgate
Kersal Moor

Jo Briggs, “1848 and 1851: A Reconsideration of the Historical Narrative”

Trial of Chartist leaders

1 Jul 1848

Trial and conviction of the prominent Chartist Ernest Jones and other Chartist leaders, July 1848. Image: A daguerrotype of Ernest Charles Jones, taken in the 1850s. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

The summer of 1848 witnesses violence as Chartist leaders are arrested and secret plots against the government are infiltrated. By the end of August, after the arrest of several hundred Chartists and Irish Confederates, the movement for violent uprising in England is broken.

Articles

Chris Vanden Bossche, "On Chartism"

Associated Places

Kersal Moor

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Carlyle's "Negro Question"

Dec 1849

On December 1849, Thomas Carlyle published “Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question” in Fraser’s Magazine; the article was later republished in his Critical and Miscellaneous Essays as “On the Nigger Question.” Image: Photograph of Thomas Carlyle, circa 1860s, by Eliott & Fry. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

Ellen Rosenman, “On Enclosure Acts and the Commons”

“Ain’t I a Woman?” Speech at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention

29 Spring 1851

On May 29^th, 1851, Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist and women’s rights activist, delivered her famous “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

This convention was one of many that brought together a variety of activists who later helped to win the passage of the 19^th amendment. The activists at this convention were inspired by the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments created at the Seneca Falls convention of 1848. This Declaration described women’s grievances and demands for their rights to equality as U.S. citizens, and the conversation continued in Akron, Ohio. The Ohio Women’s Rights Convention is most well known for being the venue in which Sojourner’s “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech took place.

Though there are different versions of her speech, one published a month after the speech was given, by Reverend Marius Robinson, and one twelve years after the speech was given, published by Frances Gage, both touch on the intersectionality that exists between feminism and anti-racism. In Gage’s inaccurate transcript, Truth says “I think that betwixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North all talking about rights, these white men going to be in a fix pretty soon.” In Robinson’s historically correct transcript, Truth says “But man is in a tight place, the poor slave is on him, woman is coming on him, and he is surely between-a hawk and a buzzard.” Both versions of Sojourner Truth’s speech present the idea of white feminists and black feminists working together to simultaneously defeat the patriarchy and abolish slavery, rather than to let white feminism drown out black women’s voices.

Podell, Leslie. “Compare the Two Speeches.” The Sojourner Truth Project, www.thesojournertruthproject.com/compare-the-speeches/.

History.com Editors. “Seneca Falls Convention.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 10 Nov. 2017, www.history.com/topics/womens-rights/seneca-falls-convention.

“Ain't I A Woman?” Learning for Justice, www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/texts/aint-i-a-woman.

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No places have been associated with this event

by Arden Woodall

Chancery Court orders closing of O’Connorville

Aug 1851

In August 1851, Chancery Court ordered the closing of O’Connorville, the first Chartist settlement. Image: Plaque commemorating Feargus O'Connor at Heronsgate, Hertfordshire. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Articles

Associated Places

Priti Joshi, “1857; or, Can the Indian ‘Mutiny’ Be Fixed?”

Indian Uprising

10 May 1857 to 20 Jun 1858

The Indian Rebellion or Uprising, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny, began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions. It was not contained until the fall of Gwalior on 20 June 1858. Image: Felice Beato, Print of the hanging of two rebels, 1858 (albumen silver print). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Julie Codell, “On the Delhi Coronation Durbars, 1877, 1903, 1911″

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Associated Places

Meerut
Gwalior
Lucknow
Jhansi
Oude/Awadh
Bundelkhand
Indo-Gangetic Plain
Allahabad
Aligarh
Delhi
Mumbai
Agra
Kolkata
Jaipur
Ahmedabad
Bengal
Mysuru
Pune
Ahmednagar
Chennai
Odisha
Deccan Plateau
Cachar
Darjeeling
Kangra
Dehradun
Kumaon

Ellen Rosenman, “On Enclosure Acts and the Commons”

Sale of the final piece of Chartist property

Jun 1858

June 1858 saw the sale of the final piece of Chartist property, definitively bringing to an end the efforts of the Chartist Cooperative Land Company. The Chartist Land Company was a large-scale, explicitly political version of freehold societies. Conceived by the Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor in 1842, the Company, like freehold societies, purchased large tracts of land through subscriptions and then sold smaller parcels to subscribers. It attempted to re-create village life by building cottages, hospitals, and schools, and setting aside one hundred acres for common use.

Articles

Associated Places

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Birth of Clemence Annie Housman

23 Nov 1861

Clemence Annie Housman was born in Bromsgrove, England, on November 23, 1861. Saint Clement’s Day in the liturgical calendar marks the traditional beginning of winter. Housman was the third child and oldest girl in a family of seven children, the eldest of whom was A.E. Housman (1859-1936), the poet. Clemence was very close to the second youngest of her siblings, Laurence Housman (1865-1959), with whom she lived and worked her entire life. In addition to writing novels, Houseman was a wood engraver and an activist in the feminist movement for female suffrage. (Oakley, Inseparable Siblings)

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra

George William Gordon executed

2 Oct 1865

Gordon, a Jamaican former slave and elected member of the Jamaica House of Assembly, is executed by hanging after a court martial condemns him to death for his alleged role in encouraging the Morant Bay rebellion.

Articles

Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Morant Bay Rebellion

11 Oct 1865

A rebellion by Black peasants against unjust treatment by Jamaican courts breaks out at Morant Bay, Jamaica on 11 October 1865. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Associated Places

Morant Bay, Jamaica
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

“Jamaica Committee”

Dec 1865

The Jamaica Committee, a coalition of politicians, writers, and scientists, is organized to seek governmental and legal accountability for the actions undertaken by Governor Edward John Eyre and his subordinates during thirty days of martial law in the aftermath of the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

Peter Melville Logan, “On Culture: Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy, 1869″

Hyde Park demonstration

2 Jul 1866

Hyde Park Demonstration of the Major Reform League on 23 July 1866. After the British government banned a meeting organized to press for voting rights, 200,000 people entered the Park and clashed with police and soldiers.

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Associated Places

Hyde Park

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Trafalgar Square demonstration

11 Feb 1867

Major Reform League march and demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London on 11 February 1867.

Associated Places

Trafalgar Square, London

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Edward John Eyre indictment hearing

27 Mar 1867

The Jamaica Committee’s first attempted indictment, at Market Drayton in Shropshire, of Edward John Eyre, ex-Governor of Jamaica, for the murder of George William Gordon; hearing ends in Eyre’s discharge by the grand jury. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Associated Places

Market Drayton in Shropshire
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Nelson and Brand charges dismissed

11 Apr 1867

A Middlesex grand jury at London’s Old Bailey criminal court dismissed charges brought by the Jamaica Committee against Colonel Abercrombie Nelson and Lieutenant Herbert Brand for the murder (via illegal court martial) of George William Gordon at Morant Bay, Jamaica in October 1865. The trial was a result of the Morant Bay Rebellion of 11 October 1865.

Articles

Associated Places

London's Old Bailey
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

Janice Carlisle, "On the Second Reform Act, 1867"

Second Reform Act

15 Aug 1867

On 15 August 1867, the Representation of the People Act, 1867 (also known as the Second Reform Act), received the royal assent. This act increased the electorate of England and Wales to approximately one man in three, theoretically including substantial numbers of working-class men. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Carolyn Vellenga Berman, “On the Reform Act of 1832″

Elaine Hadley, “On Opinion Politics and the Ballot Act of 1872″

Herbert F. Tucker, "On Event"

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Edward John Eyre acquitted

Jun 1868

3 June 1868 saw the last, unsuccessful action against Edward John Eyre. This was the final effort by the Jamaica Committee to prosecute ex-Governor of Jamaica Edward John Eyre under the Colonial Governors Act for abuse of power in imposing an extended period of martial law during the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion; the case is sent forward to a grand jury, but Eyre is not indicted. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

Civil suit against Edward John Eyre nullified

Jun 1870

Appeal before the Exchequer Chamber of the civil suit brought by Jamaican citizen Alexander Phillips against ex-Governor of Jamaica, Edward John Eyre, for assault, battery and false imprisonment during martial law from October 13 to November 13, 1865 at Morant Bay, Jamaica, results in the upholding of the Jamaica Assembly’s Indemnity Act for military and administrative actions under martial law, nullifying Phillips’s right to sue Eyre in English courts. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

Mary Jean Corbett, “On Crawford v. Crawford and Dilke, 1886″

Criminal Law Amendment Act

14 Aug 1885

Criminal Law Amendment Act passed on 14 August 1885. The Act raised the age of consent for girls from 13 to 16 and introduced the misdemeanor of “gross indecency” to criminalize sexual acts between men in public or private. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Andrew Elfenbein, “On the Trials of Oscar Wilde: Myths and Realities”

Associated Places

Palace of Westminster
Clark Memorial Library
The Dancer's Reward, Illustration for Salome

Andrew Elfenbein, “On the Trials of Oscar Wilde: Myths and Realities”

Trials of Oscar Wilde

Apr 1895 to May 1895

The trials of Oscar Wilde, which occurred in April and May of 1895, have become legendary as a turning-point in the history of public awareness of homosexuality. By their close, Wilde had gone from being a triumphantly successful playwright to a ruined man, condemned to two years of hard labor for gross indecency. They garnered extensive coverage first in the London press and then in newspapers around the world; the story of the trials continues to be retold in ways that have persistent relevance for contemporary queer culture. Image: Photograph of Oscar Wilde, by Napoleon Sarony. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Associated Places

Tite Street
Cimetière de Bagneux
Hôtel d’Alsace
Clark Memorial Library
The Dancer's Reward, Illustration for Salome

Jo Briggs, “The Second Boer War, 1899-1902: Anti-Imperialism and European Visual Culture”

The Rise of Gay Rights

14 Spring 1897 to 1933

The first gay-rights organization that was founded and recorded in history was in Berlin, called the Scientific-Humanitarian Commitee or Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee; WhK in German. It was founded in 1897, on the 14th or 15th of May, which was four days before Oscar Wilde's release from prison, and shut down in 1933. The founder of the Scientific-Humanitarian Commitee was Magnus Hirschfeld, who opened an Institute for Sexual Science in 1919, which was anticipated by decades of other scientific centres that specialized in sex research. Another notable thing that he did was sponsor the World League of Sexual Reform in 1928. Original members of the WhK included Hirschfeld, publisher Max Spohr, lawyer Eduard Oberg and writer Franz Joseph von Bülow, Adolf Brand, Benedict Friedländer, Hermann von Teschenberg and Kurt Hiller also joined the organization. There was a brief split in 1907, and In 1929, Hiller took over as chairman of the group from Hirschfeld.

At its peak, the Scientific-Humanitarian Commitee had branches in approximately 25 cities in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. The Scientific-Humanitarian Commitee inspired many gay-rights organizations that came after it. Henry Gerber, who was a German Immigrant that served in the U.S. Army during World War I, was inspired to create his own gay-rights organization in 1924 called the Society for Human Rights, and it is considered the first documented gay rights organization in the United States. It was a very small group, but they did publish a few issues of a newsletter called “Friendship and Freedom,” and that is known as the country’s first gay-interest newsletter.

The Society for Human Rights was very short lived and disbanded in 1925 after police raids. After that there were many organizations that came to be such as the Mattachine Society, founded in L.A. in 1950 and is regarded as the first viable U.S. gay rights organization. Also the Daughters of Bilitis, founded in San Francisco in 1955 as the first U.S. lesbian organization.

Encarnación, Omar G. “Gay Rights: Why Democracy Matters.” Journal of Democracy, Johns Hopkins University Press, 14 July 2014, muse.jhu.edu/article/549501/su….

History.com Editors. “Gay Rights.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 28 June 2017, www.history.com/topics/gay-rig….

“Gay Rights Movement.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/gay-r….

“Scientific-Humanitarian Committee Information.” WISSENSCHAFTLICH-HUMANITäRES KOMITEE - Encyclopedia Information, webot.org/info/en/?search=Wiss….

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Jessica Moya

The Newsboys Strike of 1899

18 Jul 1899 to 2 Aug 1899

1898: the Spanish–American Warincreased newspaper sales, which led to several newspapers raising the cost of newsboy's bundles from 50¢ to 60¢. After sales dropped, most papers reduced their costs back to 50¢, except the World and the Journal.

July 18, 1899: a group of newsboys in Long Island City turned over a distribution wagon and declared a strike against the World and the Journal, asserting they would actively keep those papers from selling until prices were rolled back to 50¢ and would only sell other papers. The newsboys of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and other surrounding cities were quick to follow.
- For a few days after the strike was declared, the newsboys used violence to keep people from selling those papers: any male caught selling the World or Journal was beaten, and his papers were destroyed, often police protection couldn’t save them.

July 24, 1899: a rally was held at Irving Hall and almost eight thousand newsboys from all over New York attended. Many people made speeches, the most notable being Louis "Kid Blink" Baletti who was seen as one of the leaders of the strike and union president David Simmons who read out the list of newsboys demands and told everyone listening that they would not end the strike until their conditions were met but also asked the strikers to use non-violent methods.
- Simmons speech was heeded, and most strikers stopped using violent methods, however it was because they didn’t really need to after that. There were two major factors that helped in this: flyers which newsboys hung explaining their cause and other newspapers which had begun reporting on the strike. This garnered sympathy from the public, so the majority of people agreed with the newsboys stopped buying the Worldand Journal on their own.

July 26, 1899: a parade was supposed to take place where over 6,000 boys would march with a band and the lighting of fireworks, but this parade never happened as they couldn’t get a permit.

August 1, 1899: the Worldand Journal refused their conditions but offered a compromise: the newsboy bundle would stay priced at 60¢, but whatever papers they didn’t sell would be bought back.

August 2, 1899: This compromise was accepted by the newsboys which ended the strike.

Hicks, Greg. “University of North Carolina at Asheville. an Uncivil War: The New York City Newsboys Strike of PDF Free Download.” University of North Carolina at Asheville. An Uncivil War: The New York City Newsboys Strike of PDF Free Download, docplayer.net/34730531-Univers…....

Newsboys' Strike of 1899 Explained, Everything.Explained.Today , everything.explained.today/New….

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Mackenzie Fischer

Second Boer War

11 Oct 1899 to 31 May 1902

On 11 Oct 1899, war was declared between Britain and the Transvaal Republic and Orange Free State, two independent Boer nations in southern Africa. The Treaty of Vereeniging concluded the Second Boer War on 31 May 1902. The fighting had resulted in c. 45,000 British military casualties and around 40,000 combined military and civilian casualties among the Boers. Eight years later in 1910, the Union of South Africa made the region a dominion of the British Empire. Image: Walter Crane, “Stop the War,” page 297, The War Against War in South Africa, 23 February 1900, wood engraving, courtesy of Yale University.

Articles

Associated Places

South Africa
KwaZulu Natal Province

Jo Briggs, “The Second Boer War, 1899-1902: Anti-Imperialism and European Visual Culture”

Siege of Mafeking lifted

17 May 1900

On 17 May 1900, after 217 days, the siege of the town of Mafeking, occupied by British forces, was lifted (as part of the Second Boer War). When news of the relief of the town reached London the following day, street celebrations lasted through the night. This event is often seen as marking the height of jingoism in Britain. Image: Walter Crane, “Stop the War,” page 297, The War Against War in South Africa, 23 February 1900, wood engraving, courtesy of Yale University.

Articles

Associated Places

Mafeking, South Africa
KwaZulu Natal Province

Ellen Crowell, “Oscar Wilde’s Tomb: Silence and the Aesthetics of Queer Memorial”

Death of Wilde

30 Nov 1900

30 November 1900 was the day Oscar Wilde died (in the Latin Quarter, Paris). Image: Photograph of Oscar Wilde. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Andrew Elfenbein, “On the Trials of Oscar Wilde: Myths and Realities”

Associated Places

Latin Quarter, Paris
Paris
Cimetière de Bagneux
Hôtel d’Alsace
Clark Memorial Library

Jo Briggs, “The Second Boer War, 1899-1902: Anti-Imperialism and European Visual Culture”

Hobhouse report on Second Boer War

Jun 1901

Following a June 1901 report to the British government by Emily Hobhouse, news of high mortality rates among Boer women and children displaced by the scorched earth policy of the British army and placed in concentration camps began to appear in European newspapers, adding to the international outcry against the war. After the war, it was estimated that approximately 28,000 Boer civilians lost their lives in the camps through starvation, disease, and exposure. Image: Walter Crane, “Stop the War,” page 297, The War Against War in South Africa, 23 February 1900, wood engraving, courtesy of Yale University.

Articles

Associated Places

KwaZulu Natal Province

Women's Suffrage Procession at Coronation of George V

17 Jun 1911

In this famous suffrage procession marking the Coronation of George V, the banner designed by Laurence and created by Clemence in 1908 for the Kensington Women’s Social and Political Union made one of its numerous appearances in public parades. The striking banner, “From Prison to Citizenship,” features the suffragist colours, depicting a white figure on a purple background, decorated with green vines. The design was so popular it was also incorporated into a postcard for wider distribution. Clemence personally enacted this slogan later in 1911, when she spent a week in Holloway Prison for refusing to pay property taxes until she was granted full citizenship. Her act of civil disobedience did not grant her full citizenship, but it did add strength to the movement. Some women got the vote in 1918, but it took until 1928 for universal female suffrage to be achieved in the United Kingdom (Liddington, Vanishing).

Associated Places

Holloway Prison
Holloway

by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra

Clemence Housman imprisoned for tax resistance

29 Sep 1911 to 6 Oct 1911

On Friday, September 29th, 1911, Clemence Housman was arrested for purposefully resisting the payment of taxes. This action was born out of her active participation and creative leadership within suffrage movements. Both Clemence and Laurence, who lived in Kensington, were geographically central to the suffrage movements, and loaned their creative skills to the Women’s Freedom League, through their efforts at their Suffrage Atelier. Clemence, with her considerable sewing skills, was the “chief banner-maker of the suffrage movement,” and collaborated with Laurence on the famous banner bearing the slogan “From Prison to Citizenship.”

Clemence’s own tax resistance was part of a larger movement of the Women’s Tax Resistance League (WTRL), which used strategies of civil disobedience to campaign for women’s suffrage. Clemence, who lived with her brother, did not legally have any property on which to pay taxes, so she rented out a house in the rural community of Swanage, where she eluded the census of 2 April 1911. An entry in her diary at this time was “No Vote No Census Clemence Housman.” Along with other WTRL members, Clemence refused to pay taxes on her rental property in 1911, and was admonished in a government letter in July, to which she replied that she was on holiday and unable to pay taxes. Finally, on September 29th, the tax authorities caught up with her, and she was arrested from her Kensington house. The suffrage community gathered at her house to show support, and Laurence himself escorted her to Holloway Prison. Immediately after her incarceration, Clemence petitioned the home office explaining her reason for alluding taxes, that she felt that she had “personally fulfilled a duty, moral, social and constitutional, by refusing to pay petty taxes into irresponsible hands.” At this time, Laurence commented to the press: "when they give her her freedom, she will do it again until representation has been granted." Clemence was released from Holloway quietly on 6 October, an event that attracted considerable press because of the position of her and her family within the artistic and suffrage communities. A special cable to the New York Times called Clemence a "Suffragette Martyr" (Liddington, Vanishing for the Vote; "Suffragette Martyr," The New York Times).

Associated Places

Holloway Prison
Holloway

by Emily Hunsberger

Japanese Internment Camps 1942

Spring 1942 to The start of the month Autumn 1945

December 7,1941 a day which will live in infamy. These words marked the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States entry into the war. Fear brewed in the general American population as the war waged in the Pacific and in February 1942 Executive Order 9066 was passed to relocate 122,000 Japanese Americans on the west coast into internment camps to locations being: Topaz Internment Camp (Utah), Colorado River Internment Camp (Arizona), Gila River Internment Camp (Arizona), Granada Internment Camp (Colorado), Heart Mountain Internment Camp (Wyoming), Jerome Internment Camp (Arkansas), Manzanar Internment Camp (California), Minidoka Internment Camp (Idaho), Rohwer Internment Camp (Arkansas), Tule Lake Internment Camp (California). These camps were made as a means to increase surveillance against potential espionage. The WRA (War Relocation Association) hoped to have life in these camps normalized with their own form of governmental body with voting, jobs, and an inmate security force.

Unfortunately, hindsight is always 20/20. Looking back, the actions we took out of fear of the Japanese became eerily close to what the Nazis did to the Jews. These people that were put into these camps were in many cases unable to pay for their mortgages and defaulted on their homes and properties during this time of confinement. When they were eventually released from these internment camps, they found themselves unable to go back to their old jobs. Even if they were to work in an internment camp, they would only be paid a fraction of the average American wage. They had to live in military style barracks and had to live off rationed food.

Japanese internment camps were a clear example of discrimination based solely on race in American history. This blatant discrimination and harassment toward these people have largely been overlooked by the de facto reasoning that America were the glorious victors of World War 2, they were the ones that saved the world from imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. However, this is far from the truth. It is important to recognize that during times of war a nation and its people often turn to extremely racist and bigotry measures to secure their own safety.

The relocation of Japanese Americans is eerily similar to the relocation of Native Americans, yet the former is often glanced passed in American education, while the latter has gained much notoriety and significance.

Sources:

Kessler, L. (1988). Fettered freedoms: The journalism of World War II japanese internment camps. Journalism History, 15(2-3), 70–79. doi.org/10.1080/00947679.1988.…

National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). Japanese-American internment during World War II. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from www.archives.gov/education/les…;

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by Stephen Jiang

Timeline of Black Representation in Comic Books

1947

The idea of creating a comic book featuring all African American characters was not a completley original idea in 1993 when Milestone Comics first debuted. In 1947, All Negro Comics, a privately produced comic made its debut. It was the first and only issue (Brown, 27).

Brown, Jeffrey A. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans Milestone Comics and Their Fans. University Press of Mississippi, 2000.

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The Constitution of India

Indian Government Outlaws Caste System

1948

The Indian government outlawed discrimination on the basis of caste in 1948, after decades of movements and protests. This ratification became part of an amendment to the Indian constitution, with article 15 prohibiting discrimination based on caste and Article 17 declaring the practice of untouchability to be illegal.

The anti-caste Dalit movement began with Jyotirao Phule in the mid-19th century, who worked to abolish the idea of “untouchability”. Figures such as B.R. Ambedkar and Gandhi also became prominent through advocacy for the abolishment of the caste system. Ambedkar campaigned for greater rights for Dalits in British India beginning in the 1920s and 30s, continuing even after independence in 1947, and during the national movement, Gandhi began using the term “Harijans” (God’s people) to refer to the untouchable class. He believed it to be a moral issue that could be abolished through goodwill among Hindus of the upper-caste.

In 1935, the British Government of India came up with a list of 400 groups considered untouchable, including many native tribes, that would be afforded special privileges in order to combat historical discrimination. The groups included on this list became known as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the affirmative action plan established by the government. The Scheduled Castes are comprised of communities considered to be of the lowest in the social hierarchy, and the Scheduled Tribes include those communities who rejected the caste system in favor of living isolated from society in the jungles, forests, and mountains of India. These groups are eligible for preferential policies with reserved seats in legislatures, government jobs, public sector enterprises, and state-supervised educational institutions. Unfortunately, however, only a relatively small proportion of the lower castes have benefited from these preferential policies due to continued hostility and violence against the lower class in many parts of India even today.

Associated Places

Delhi
Fort St. George at Madras (Chennai), India

by Mahum Zaidi

Pan-Arabism: Nasser's Presidency

1954 to 1970

Pan-Arabism came most alive during the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (جمال عبد الناصر حسين), typically referred to by Nasser, one of Egypt’s most notable leaders. He was president from 1954 until his death in 1970, and was highly influential to the development of Egypt and the Middle East. Almost immediately, Nasser began implementing elements of Pan-Arabism. This is very evident in one of his speeches given in 1954:

“[A]ll countries that speak Arabic are our countries, and we must liberate our countries… the Muslims across the world are siblings, and siblings must cooperate in times of hardship… We the East, confronting the greed of the West, are one Nation!… [W]e desire— we the Arabs, we the Muslims, we the people of this East— to become one bloc.” (Nasser 1954)

This idea was hammered into the Arab people over the next few years in a variety of different ways, and they began to get excited. Nasser was so influential that Syria became interested, so interested that they advocated for unity with Egypt, and for a time, there was talk of a combined state— the first step in creating the grand Pan-Arab state. However, even this union was short lived, and “turned into a struggle for dominion… the Egyptians ran Syria like a colony— and a badly run colony at that” (Kramer). So in 1961, the Syrians launched a coup that “ousted Nasser’s viceroy from Damascus and declared the union finished” (Kramer). And ever since this failed union of Egypt and Syria, Pan-Arabism has been withering, backsliding.

Works Cited

Fallatah, Mohammed A. S. The Emergence Of Pan-arabism And Its Impact On Egyptian Foreign Policy: 1945-1981 (Egypt), University of Idaho, Ann Arbor, 1986. ProQuest, www.proquest.com/dissertations…....

Abou-El-Fadl, Reem. “Early Pan-Arabism in Egypt's July Revolution: The Free Officers' Political Formation and Policy-Making, 1946-54.” Nations and Nationalism, vol. 21, no. 2, 2015, pp. 289–308., doi.org/10.1111/nana.12122. Accessed 12 Nov. 2021.

Kramer, Martin. “Arab Nationalism: Mistaken Identity.” Arab Awakening and Islamic Revival, 2017, pp. 19–52., doi.org/10.4324/9781315082172-…. Accessed 12 Nov. 2021.

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by Victoria Strong

The Feminine Mystique and the Second Wave of Feminism

1963

The Second Wave of Feminism is after the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920, which allowed women to vote. After this, feminism seemed to slow down greatly. During this time, there was the Great Depression and then World War Two took place. Women have always worked outside of home but never in the great numbers as during WW2 when the men were overseas. After the war, most women returned home, and let go of their jobs to the men. Over this time, there was activists fighting for women’s rights but the next greatly significant feminist movement is believed to have been started in the 1960s. This second wave of feminism broaden the debate of issues: sexuality, workplace, reproductive rights, and legal inequalities. This took place along with other social and political movements. Historians view the end of the second-wave feminist era in America to end in the early 1980s due to intra-feminism disputes over issues as pornography ad sexuality.

Ten years after the publishing of "The Second Sex", “The Feminine Mystique" was published by American feminist writer Betty Friedan in 1963. She builds up the foundation of Simone de Beauvoir’s ideas and implemented the philosophical thought into her own personal experiences. Friedan was a writer, journalist and activist but she then got married and had children. She was a housewife in the suburbs for years and was unhappy and saw society’s pressure for women to be pink-collar workers, mothers and homemakers. Friedan wanted to see if she was alone in her feelings so she conducted interviews over 5 years to white middle-class women and they all felt the same dissatisfaction. These women felt trapped and unfulfilled in a world where men monopolized the positions of power and autonomy.

In the book she criticized that the separation and constraint of motherhood and homemaking, were just to women. When in comparison to men, they were allowed to excel in power, politics and work while women were trapped. Friedan encouraged women to fight gender oppression, which she called “the problem that has no name”. Also, she wanted women to pursue careers that were “the life long commitment to an art or science, to politics or profession” (Friedan). Although there was a blind spot with “The Feminine Mystiques” with her not taking account systemic barriers especially towards working-class women and women of color where having a job isn’t a choice but a necessity. Although her book brought great attention to the disparities of the work force and the realization for women’s efforts to reform and realize the needed new rights at the workplace. This then helped make gains though civil rights and labor movements.

Works Cited

Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 286, 289. On women’s responses to the book, see Stephanie Coontz, A Strange Stirring: Th e Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s (New York: Basic Books, 2011

Turk, Katherine. “‘To Fulfill an Ambition of [Her] Own’: Work, Class, and Identity in The Feminine Mystique.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 36, no. 2, 2015, pp. 25–32. EBSCOhost, doi:10.5250/fronjwomestud.36.2.0025.

Associated Places

Washington, DC

by Brooke Wisda

July 16, 1964

The middle of the month Summer 1964 to The middle of the month Summer 1964

James Powell was fatally shot by officer Thomas Giligan, sparking a six day long string of riots. Giligan stated he heard glass break and inspected it to find Powell wielding a knife, and held this story through his trial where he was cleared of any crime. Witnesses claim they did not see Powell holding a knife, and people in the Harlem Community believed this was an act of police brutality.

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No places have been associated with this event

New York's 'Night Of Birmingham Horror' Sparked A Summer Of Riots : Code Switch : NPR

The Harlem Riot of 1964

The middle of the month Summer 1964 to The end of the month Summer 1964

July 16, 1964: James Powell was fatally shot by officer Thomas Giligan, sparking a six day long string of riots. Gilligan stated he heard glass break and inspected it to find Powell wielding a knife, and held this story through his trial where he was cleared of any crime. Witnesses claim they did not see Powell holding a knife, and people in the Harlem Community believed this was an act of police brutality.

July 17, 1964: The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) showed up at the scene the morning after his death. They were met by 50 NYPD officers carrying night sticks as they chanted, “Stop Killer Cops!” They called for discipline against the police for this act.

July 18, 1964: James Powell’s funeral was held, and 250 people attended. The crowd called for the arrest of Gilligan as they were met with shards of glass and garbage lids thrown from residents of rooftops above them, and the swinging clubs of officers. The rioters looted over 22 stores, 19 people and 12 police officers were injured and 1 rioter died.

July 19, 1964: Hostility between the community and the NYPD grew as rioters continued. A Black Citizens Council was held, and speakers tried reasoning with rioters for a peaceful protest, but members of the crowd disagreed. The crowd moved to Delaney Funeral Home, where a service was being held for Powell. One person threw a glass bottle at an officer, and he threw it back into the crowd. From this point on, bricks and bottles began to be thrown off rooftops into crowds. The ferocity ended at around 1:30am. By the end of the night, 45 stores were looted, 93 citizens and 27 police officers were injured, and 108 people were arrested.

July 20, 1964: The President of the New York City Council, Paul Screvane announced that a Grand Jury would investigate the killing of James Powell. A United Nations demonstration was held in protest of terrorism against African Americans, and a riot followed this event. A march was planned for Monday by the Brooklyn CORE, and later they set up a rally where police eventually charged the mob without distincting innocent civilians and rioters, this continued until 7am on July 21.

July 21, 1964: Black Nationalist speakers spoke to a large crowd. The crowd grew more emotional after each speech, and after one speech in particular a riot broke out, and the police charged the crowd as rioters threw bottles at them. The situation was calm again at 2am Wednesday, July 22.

Sources:

The New York Riots of 1964: Violent history with a haunting familiarity - The Bowery Boys: New York City History (boweryboyshistory.com)

Remembering James Powell and the Harlem Riots of 1964 | by darryl robertson | Medium

CITY TO INCREASE NEGROPOLICEMEN ON HARLEM DUTY; Killing of Boy by Officer Will Go to Grand Jury Today, Screvane Says; WAGNER IS RETURNING; Backs Steps to Ease Tension — Rulings on Brutality Charges to Be Studied - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

July 17, 1964

The middle of the month Summer 1964 to The middle of the month Spring 1964

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) showed up at the scene the morning after his death. They were met by 50 NYPD officers carrying night sticks as they chanted, “Stop Killer Cops!” They called for discipline against the police for this act.

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

July 18, 1964

The middle of the month Summer 1964 to The middle of the month Summer 1964

James Powell’s funeral was held, and 250 people attended. The crowd called for the arrest of Gilligan as they were met with shards of glass and garbage lids thrown from residents of rooftops above them, and the swinging clubs of officers. The rioters looted over 22 stores, 19 people and 12 police officers were injured and 1 rioter died.

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

VIOLENCE FLARES AGAIN IN HARLEM; RESTRAINT URGED; 19 Hurt in New Outbreaks Near Scene of the Funeral for Boy Who Was Slain; SCREVANE SEEKS CALM; Plea Made by Acting Mayor After One Is Killed and 100 Injured in Riot - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Hostility Continues

The middle of the month Summer 1964 to The middle of the month Summer 1964

Hostility between the community and the NYPD grew as rioters continued. A Black Citizens Council was held, and speakers tried reasoning with rioters for a peaceful protest, but members of the crowd disagreed. The crowd moved to Delaney Funeral Home, where a service was being held for Powell. One person threw a glass bottle at an officer, and he threw it back into the crowd. From this point on, bricks and bottles began to be thrown off rooftops into crowds. The ferocity ended at around 1:30am. By the end of the night, 45 stores were looted, 93 citizens and 27 police officers were injured, and 108 people were arrested.

Source:

Associated Places

Harlem, New York

Investigations Begin

The end of the month Summer 1964

The President of the New York City Council, Paul Screvane announced that a Grand Jury would investigate the killing of James Powell. A United Nations demonstration was held in protest of terrorism against African Americans, and a riot followed this event. A march was planned for Monday by the Brooklyn CORE, and later they set up a rally where police eventually charged the mob without distincting innocent civilians and rioters, this continued until 7am on July 21.

Associated Places

Harlem, New York

July 21, 1964

The end of the month Summer 1964 to The end of the month Summer 1964

Black Nationalist speakers spoke to a large crowd. The crowd grew more emotional after each speech, and after one speech in particular a riot broke out, and the police charged the crowd as rioters threw bottles at them. The situation was calm again at 2am Wednesday, July 22.

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

Black Panther First Appearance

Summer 1966

Although superhero comics have been around since 1938 with the debut of Superman, it would be another 30 years before the debut of the first black superhero. In 1966, the superhero Black Panther made his debut in Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four #52 as a guest character. In 1969 Marvel debuted the 2nd ever black superhero, the Falcon, a sidekick to Captain America. The Falcon became a popular character but never surpassed the popularity of Captain America. Brown states, he was destined to remain in the shadow of Captain America; their often unequal relationship was seen by some as an unintended metaphor for the black experience in white America (20).

Brown, Jeffrey A. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans Milestone Comics and Their Fans. University Press of Mississippi, 2000.

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

The Dirty War: Timeline

1970 to 1983

June 8, 1970: Juan Carlos Ongania is forced to resign, paving the way for Juan Peron to return to office.

October 12, 1973: Juan Peron takes office again, signalling a return to a pre-military rule government.

June 1, 1974: Juan Peron dies, his wife, Isabel Peron, takes the office in his stead.

March 24, 1976: Isabel Peron is arrested and the military announces The Act of National Reorganization, with which they intended to restore “"proper moral values"' national security, economic efficiency and "authentic representative democracy”, with

June, 1977: The banks in Argentina were deregulated, allowing lenders to charge borrowers and reward depositors with whatever rates they desired. This was an attempt to stimulate the economy, however the ultimate result was middling, devaluing the Argentine peso by encouragin more people to spend their money.

March 29, 1981: General Robierto Viola takes the presidency after Videla steps down.

December 11, 1981: An internal coup removes Viola, placing General Leopoldo Galtieri in the Casa Rosada. Announced over a number of speeches that he would reign in the military so that it could once again resemble a cohesive force of order.

April 2, 1982: Argentine forces make landfall on the contested Falklands Islands, which were caught between the claims of the Argentinean government and the British. The goal was to refocus the military which had been given a great deal of power during the junta, but nothing to do with it. However, none of the military leaders anticipated an actual war to break out. When it did, though, what followed was a mad dash by generals to attempt to form a cohesive defence of the islands. Something that had been made difficult by their decision to send new recruits to garrison it, with a commander that had never lead troops, into a terrain that none of them were familiar with. While it is believed that the Argentine defeat was not responsible for the ultimate fall of the Junta, it is widely accepted that it did accelerate it.

December, 1983: The transition from military rule to a civilian is enacted marking the end of the junta.

1985: Two years after the civilian government was restored, Videla, amongst numerous other military official, had human rights abuse charges leveled against him. These charges ended in him receiving a life sentence which was carried out partially in a military prison, and partially in a civilian one.

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No places have been associated with this event

by Martin Repetto

Black-Owned Communications Alliance PSA

circa. 1970

‘‘if the child is Black and can’t even imagine a hero the same color he or she is.’’

Brown claims that this advertisement's concern is clear, that children are impressionable and learn from what they see (3). At this point in time there were hardly any black superheros that children could identify with. Brown later says, "for comic book readers of different ethnic backgrounds there were no heroic models that they could directly identify with, no heroes they could call their own. Instead, they were required to imaginatively identify across boundaries of race since the only depiction of visible minorities in most comic books were the nameless criminals and barbarous savages that the real heroes defeated month after month (3)." This ad calls attention to the need for more diverse role models to reflect the diverse audience that is comic consumers.

Brown, Jeffrey A. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans Milestone Comics and Their Fans. University Press of Mississippi, 2000.

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No places have been associated with this event

1971: Blaxploitation

31 Mar 1971

The term "blaxploitation" was coined by Junius Griffin, the then-head of the Los Angeles National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in the early 70s as a criticism for the less-than-positive images of African Americans depicted in the genre, and his influence would later contribute to its demise.

In 1971, the film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was released. The film is often regarded as the best example of blaxploitation and credited as the first film of its kind.

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Kennedy Christian

Luke Cage

1972 to 1986

At this point in comics history, publishers were looking to other forms of media for inspiration, clearly taking inspiration from the Blaxploitation films of the era to emulate into comic book characters. Both of the two big comic publishers, DC and Marvel, tried and failed to create long-lasting black superheros. Brown claims the reason for this is that their black characters were too closely identified with the limited stereotype commonly found in the blaxploitation films of the era.

In the introduction of Frances Gatewar and John Jennings' book The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art, they claim that comics traffic in stereotypes and fixity, often portraying black superheros in a positive light due to their physicality and nothing else. They claim that black characters have inherent issues built into the very conventions of the genre due to the fact that the Black Body has historically been linked to physicality and not intelligence. 20 years from now, Milestone Comics will set out to reverse this sterotype, creating characters that are centered around their compassion and intelligence rather than their physicality.

Brown, Jeffrey A. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans Milestone Comics and Their Fans. University Press of Mississippi, 2000.

Gateward, Frances K., and John Jennings. The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art. Rutgers University Press, 2015.

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

Title IX Enactment

23 Jun 1972

On June 23^rdin 1972, Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments into law. Title IX was set into place to avoid discrimination based on sex, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”. Since Title IX has gone into enactment, there has been a turning point in equality including education equality. Prior to the enactment, women only had limited access to programs and were often excluded which began the fight for women’s equality. At first, legislators were planning on adding this movement to the Civil Rights Act, Title VII, which “prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin”. Although Title IX relates to Title VII, it became its own legislation because of the power it holds.

Title IX was still not practiced directly after the legislation was passed. It took time for people to adjust, one case involves United States vs. Virginia. The court case was argued January 17^th, 1996 and wasn’t decided till June 26^th, 1996; twenty years after title IX was already passed. This court case involved Virginia Military Institute a single-sex school that prepared men into citizen-soldiers. The case was taken to court due to violating Title IX by not opening the program towards women. In response to labeling the situation unconstitutional, VMI proposed an “identical” program: Virginia Women’s Institute for leadership. The court allowed them to open but once the educational programs were compared, they were not the equal. Women were still not getting the same education that men were receiving. In a 7-1 supreme court decision, it was concluded that Virginia’s male-only admission was deemed unconstitutional because there were not equal opportunities for women compared to the programs designed for men.

A case that was positive towards the impact of Title IX includes Kelley vs. The Board of Trustees. On May 7^th, 1993, the University of Illinois announced they had to cute four varsity sports from the athletics department. One of these sports included men’s swimming. In distress, the men on the swim team went to the board of trustees at the University and brought up a lawsuit against them. The school mentioned there needed to be budget cuts while still staying in line with Title IX. By the University complying with Title IX, it showed that education systems were following laws that were produced for equal rights among women. The school had to have an equal amount of men’s sports and women’s sports offered in order to comply with Title IX. This court case was very impactful towards the women’s movement and improved the effects of Title IX.

United States Department of Justice. “Equal Access to Education: Forty Years of Title IX.” Last modified June 23, 2012. www.justice.gov/crt/about/edu/….

United States v. Ratliff - Casemine.com. www.casemine.com/judgement/us/…;

“United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996).” Justia Law, supreme.justia.com/cases/feder…;

“Title IX Enacted.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 16 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-hi…;

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by Madelyn Menke

San Francisco Bisexual Center's First Press Conference

30 Jun 1977 to 30 Jun 1977

On June 30th of 1977, the San Francisco Bisexual Center has had it's first press conference. The speakers of the conference included one of the co-founders Dr. Harriet Leve, and others including Dr. Benjamin Spock, Dr. Phyllis Lyon, Ruth Falk, and Dr. Claude Steiner. These people have spoken up against the anti-gay activist and singer Anita Bryant, as she desired for homosexuals to never be allowed to become school teachers, which is what the speakers are fighting for.

They have also discussed other civil rights issues as well, but it was Dr. Harriet Leve's goal to get across the fact that "It is imperative for bisexuals to support and form a unity with our gay sisters and brothers in order to demand what's rightfully ours" (Rubenstein 228). This powerful sentiment has perfectly demonstrated what the center is all about, which is the inclusion of every sexual identity and that they all deserve peace and freedom.

The conference has been broadcasted on two local news TV programs and was reported and talked about by several radio stations all around San Francisco. It has also been included in many newspaper articles, such as The San Francisco Examiner, The Oakland Tribune, and The Bay Area Reporter, all very prominent sources of news during this time. Because of the popularity the conference has created, the Bisexual Center has seen a large increase in it population. Four Hundred and Thirty Five people have joined the center in just a month after the conference has taken place. The San Francisco Bisexual Center was on it's way to prominence.

Sources

Rubenstein, Maggi. “A Profile of the San Francisco Bisexual Center.” Journal of Homosexuality, 18 Oct. 2010, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10….

Gindorf, R., and EJ. Haeberle. “SAN FRANCISCO'S BISEXUAL CENTER AND THE EMERGENCE OF A BISEXUAL MOVEMENT.” BAY AREA BISEXUAL+ & PANSEXUAL NETWORK, 1998, www.babpn.org/sfbc.html.

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San Francisco

by Braden Chandler

Milestone Comics is Founded

1993 to 1997

‘‘If you’re not there, you just won’t get it.’’

‘We got together to fill what we saw as a lack of minority representation in comics," Denys Cowan.

In 1993, independent publishing company, Milestone Media is created by the four founding members: Derek T. Dingle, Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, and Michael Davis. Brown quotes McDuffie on what the main goal of the company is, "to increase the diversity of the comics industry by reflecting the complexity and the diversity of the real world that we all live in. We could have done just African American comics because that is obviously the experience that we understand best, but we realize that that is only one of many possible viewpoints that we want to bring forward for our readers (29)." The company ended in 1997.

Brown, Jeffrey A. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans Milestone Comics and Their Fans. University Press of Mississippi, 2000.

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