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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, MAY 7–13, 2025  
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_ A Racist, Anti-Worker Judge? Not This Year (1930), Curtains for
Smallpox (1980), Covid Kills Jobs, Too (2020), The Road to Revolution
(1775), A Bad, Bad, Day in Augusta (1970), Even a King’s Word Is Not
Law (1215), Red-Baiters Go Home! (1960) _

Herbert Hoover and the ashes of Judge John Parker's failed
nomination, Rollin Kirby in New York World

 

_A RACIST, ANTI-WORKER JUDGE? NOT THIS YEAR (1930)_

MAY 7 IS THE 95TH ANNIVERSARY of a major and surprising victory
resulting from an unusual moment of tactical unity between the NAACP
and the American Federation of Labor in the midst of the economic and
political crisis caused by the Great Depression.

In the spring of 1930, U.S. businesses were going bankrupt at an
unprecedented rate and the ranks of the unemployed were growing every
day. The Hoover administration was doing almost nothing to provide
relief except to insist that “prosperity was just around the
corner.” Blue-collar workers and African-American workers were being
laid off at far greater rates than others. 

When a Supreme Court justice died, Hoover nominated John Parker, a
federal appeals court judge, who had recently ruled against the rights
of union members in an important case that had caught the attention of
many union members and their supporters, because Parker’s written
opinion was openly antagonistic to the rights of any worker, union
member or not. 

In addition to Parker’s recent declaration of antipathy to workers,
his explicit racism was over the top. Ten years earlier, in 1920,
before Parker became a judge, he had been a candidate for governor of
North Carolina. During that campaign, Parker was widely quoted as
having said: “The participation of the Negro in politics is a source
of evil and danger to both races and is not desired by the wise men in
either race or by the Republican Party of North Carolina.” After
Hoover nominated Parker to join the Supreme Court, the head of the
NAACP sent Parker a telegram asking him whether he stood by his 1920
remarks.  Parker never replied, despite his being repeatedly and
publicly asked for an answer.

As a result, both the AFL and the NAACP could make a convincing case
that Parker was unfit to sit on the Supreme Court, which is exactly
what they did for the weeks Parker’s nomination was pending.
Somewhat surprisingly, the Senate, with a large Republican majority,
rejected Parker by 41-39. Many of the Senators voting ‘no’
referred explicitly to the extremism of Parker’s anti-union ruling,
while a smaller number referenced his racist rhetoric to explain their
votes.

Many on the radical left, including the Communist Party, called the
Senators hypocrites for having in the past put so many anti-union
racists on the Supreme Court and then drawing the line at Parker’s
opinions. The Communists pointed out that the Depression was making
the Senators nervous about their reelection chances, so they were
making an example of Parker to save themselves. 

But the AFL and NAACP were happy to have won an unlikely victory,
nevertheless.
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_CURTAINS FOR SMALLPOX_

MAY 8 IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY of the World Health Assembly’s
announcement that smallpox had been globally eradicated. 

The 1980 eradication of smallpox was the result of a World Health
Organization effort that began in 1959, when roughly 50 million cases
of smallpox occurred every year, resulting in about 2 million deaths.

The world’s only living smallpox virus was being held in two highly
secure laboratories, one belonging to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and the other to the Soviet Union's (now Russia's) State
Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology. There has been a long,
and as yet unresolved debate about whether there is any scientific
benefit to maintaining those two samples.
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_COVID KILLS JOBS, TOO (2020)_

MAY 9 IS THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
report that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate was
14.7 percent, the highest recorded since the Great Depression of the
1930s. During April more than 20 million jobs had been lost, with the
hospitality, leisure and healthcare industries hit hardest and people
with lower incomes, and racial and ethnic minority workers
disproportionately effected.
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_THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION (1775)_

MAY 10 IS THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY of two crucial events in the U.S. War
for Independence. 

It was the day in 1775 when representatives of 12 of the 13 British
colonies convened in Philadelphia in the Second Continental Congress.
After 14 months of discussion, the group would issue the Declaration
of Independence. 

On the same day a detachment of rebels known as the Green Mountain
Boys led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured a large British
fortification in upstate New York – Fort Ticonderoga – along with
a large quantity of cannons and gunpowder. The captured weapons were
quickly transported to eastern Massachusetts, where they were used to
fortify the hills overlooking British-occupied Boston. The large
cannons and generous supply of gunpowder quickly forced the British to
flee by sea and give up control of one of the most important cities in
North America. [link removed]
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_A BAD, BAD, DAY IN AUGUSTA_

MAY 11 IS THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY of a massive 1970 rebellion against
racist injustice in Augusta, Georgia, during which police killed six
unarmed Black protesters, all of whom were shot in the back. In
addition,at least 60 people were wounded by police gunfire. For a
detailed examination of what happened and what occurred as a result
click here
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to listen to the podcast “Shots in the Back: Exhuming the 1970
Augusta Riot”.

 

_EVEN A KING’S WORD IS NOT LAW (1215)_

MAY 12 IS THE 810TH ANNIVERSARY of the delivery, in 1215, of an
ultimatum from the English nobility to King John, demanding that the
King agree to give up ruling arbitrarily based on the principle the
king was above the law. 

The barons demanded the King promise protection from illegal
imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and the
protection of the rights of the church, all to be implemented through
a council of 25 barons.

After a month of discussion, the King and the barons agreed to a
document called Magna Carta Libertatum (Great Charter of Liberties) or
just Magna Carta, which was the first written set of limitations on
the hitherto absolute authority of the English monarch.
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_RED-BAITERS GO HOME! (1960)_

MAY 13 IS THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY of a watershed moment for the New Left,
when the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) held a hearing
in San Francisco’s City Hall and a police riot ensued.

For the virulently reactionary HUAC to hold a public hearing in
proudly progressive San Francisco in 1960 was a bit like waving a red
flag in front of a bull. Inspired by the militant anti-Jim Crow
sit-ins that were sweeping through the southeastern states, thousands
of students (the vast majority of whom were white) from all over the
Bay Area flocked to San Francisco’s ornate Civic Center to
protest. 

The hearing was open to the public, but the Congressmen (they were all
men) wanted to keep protesters out of the room, so they limited
admission to supporters who had been given admission tickets. When
hundreds of people who were inside City Hall but denied admission to
the hearing room raised a cry of protest, the police charged at them
with high-pressure fire hoses to drive them outdoors. At first, the
protesters sat down and sang civil-rights movement songs. When the
water pressure eventually forced them to leave, their only exit was
via a grand marble staircase. The result was highly photogenic bedlam,
with protesters being literally hosed down the stone stairs, in the
full view of many camera crews. Some of the protesters were seriously
injured and more than 60 were arrested. 

On the next and last day of the hearings, the area surrounding City
Hall was mobbed with thousands of protesters. One day later, San
Francisco’s mayor announced that any future HUAC events in the city
would have to be held on federal property.
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For more People's History, visit
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* Supreme Court
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* smallpox
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* Covid-19 Pandemic; Medicare for All;
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* American Revolution
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* police killings
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* Civil Rights
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* HUAC
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