[[link removed]]
THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, MAY 14–20, 2025
[[link removed]]
xxxxxx
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
_ Gun Control? What’s That? (2000), Many Bullets, No Justice
(1970), Famous But Unknown (1950), What’s In a Name? A Lot (1990),
Riot or Rebellion in Miami? (1980), Lay Down that Sword and Shield
(1960), Strong-Arm Tactics Aren’t Pretty, But . . (1960) _
,
_GUN CONTROL? NOT NOW, NOT SOON (2000)_
MAY 14 IS THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY of the Million Mom March, a day when
hundreds of thousands of mothers and other gun-control advocates
turned out in Washington, D.C. to protest gun violence. At the same
time, tens of thousands more joined in smaller demonstrations in
cities across the U.S. including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In
Washington, the marchers, who filled the National Mall, cheered
speakers demanding “sensible gun laws” and vowed to transform the
politics of gun control.
Despite the enormous turn-out on that day in 2000, and the continued
work of such organizations as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Everytown for Gun
Safety, gun-control advocates have had slight success. In fact,
restrictions on gun ownership have been substantially relaxed since
2000.
During the quarter-century after the Million Mom March, there have
been at least 21 mass shootings in U.S. schools resulting in four
deaths or more. Plus there have been at least seven mass shootings in
entertainment venues and other commercial spaces, and three shootings
in houses of worship.
During the same 25 years, the National Rifle Association has spent
enormous sums lobbying Congress to oppose any new legislation to
regulate gun ownership and to pass legislation to reduce the
regulation of gun ownership. In the same period, the U.S. Supreme
Court has ruled at least four times against gun ownership restrictions
and one time for gun ownership restrictions.
[link removed]
[[link removed]]
_MANY BULLETS, NO JUSTICE IN JACKSON (1970)_
MAY 15 IS THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY of 75 police officers in Jackson,
Mississippi, firing at least 460 rounds of ammunition at a group of
unarmed Jackson State College students and at a nearby dormitory.
Police claimed they had seen a sniper in the dormitory, but no sniper
was ever identified nor did any civilians corroborate what the police
said. Two students, 21-year-old Phillip Gibbs and 17-year-old James
Green, were killed by the police fusillade and 12 others were wounded.
Even though the deaths of Gibbs and Green were ruled to have been
homicides, no criminal charges were filed against any of the officers
responsible.
The Jackson State killings took place in 1970, 11 days after four
students at Kent State College had been killed by shots fired at them
by a platoon of Ohio National Guard members. Shortly after the
Jackson State killings, President Richard Nixon established the
President’s Commission on Campus Unrest, which published a 415-page
report four months later. Of the Jackson State shooting, the
Commission concluded "that the 28-second fusillade from police
officers was an unreasonable, unjustified overreaction.... A broad
barrage of gunfire in response to reported and unconfirmed sniper fire
is never warranted."
For more information about the events of May 15, 1970, at Jackson
State, visit [link removed]
[[link removed]] where you can
follow a link to a 22-minute documentary film on the subject.
_A FAMOUS CASE YOU PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF (1950)_
MAY 16 IS THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of the 1950 filing of Briggs v.
Elliott, which would be a world-famous lawsuit against the segregation
of South Carolina schools, had it not been for the fact that Briggs v.
Elliott was consolidated by the U.S. Supreme Court into the case known
as Brown v. Board of Education.
Briggs v. Elliott was the oldest and perhaps most egregious of the
five cases that came to have the collective name Brown v. Board. It
ought not be forgotten. You can learn more here:
[link removed]
[[link removed]]
_WHAT’S IN A CLASSIFICATION? A LOT (1990)_
MAY 17 IS THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY of the World Health Organization’s
decision to end its previous practice of classifying homosexuality as
a mental disorder.
As a result of the WHO’s 1990 decision, homosexuality was omitted
from the list of conditions in the International Statistical
Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, a standard
guide used the world over as the basis for health statistics with
implications for funding for health services and health insurance.
May 17, the day when WHO announced the change, has been designated
as International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and
Biphobia. [link removed]
[[link removed]]
_A REBELLION, NOT A RIOT IN MIAMI (1980)_
MAY 18 IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY of the first full day of a 4-day
outburst of deadly violence in Miami, Florida, known to some as the
1980 Miami Rebellion and to others as the Miami Riots.
The rebellion took place after four Miami police officers who had all
been involved in brutalizing Arthur McDuffie, a 33-year-old Black
insurance executive, were acquitted of all charges related to
McDuffie’s having been beaten to death after a traffic stop in
December 1979.
Eighteen people were killed in the rebellion, at least 350 were
injured, some 600 were arrested, and property damage was estimated to
amount to $100 million.
The reaction to the acquittals was so powerful because there was
absolutely no question that McDuffie had been beaten to death by
police. The only question was exactly which officers of all those
charged and those who received immunity in exchange for their
testimony had been responsible and exactly what each of them had done
while the beating took place.
“America On Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black
Rebellion Since the 1960s,” by Elizabeth Kai Hinton, which was
published in 2021, makes a strong case that “rebellion” is a more
accurate characterization of those events than “riot.” For
informative interview with Hinton, who teaches law and
African-American studies at Yale University, click here:
[link removed]
[[link removed]]
_GONNA LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD (1960)_
MAY 19 IS THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY of an anti-nuclear weapons rally by
some 20,000 supporters of the National Committee for a SANE Nuclear
Policy at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.
The crowd cheered anti-war presentations by Eleanor Roosevelt (FDR’s
widow), Harry Belafonte, Norman Cousins, Alf Landon, A. Philip
Randolph, Walter Reuther and Norman Thomas.
When the rally ended near midnight, some seven thousand people marched
to UN headquarters, where they called upon all the world’s nations,
particularly the U.S. and the Soviet Union, to agree to a permanent
ban on atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and on an effective
disarmament-promoting treaty.
[link removed]
[[link removed]]
_WHO NEEDS DEMOCRACY WHEN YOU’VE GOT THE COPS? (1960)_
MAY 20 IS THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY of the climax of what is known in Japan
as the “May 19th Incident,” when Japan’s political leadership
used grossly undemocratic and illegal means to ram through a
tremendously unpopular military treaty with the United States.
On May 19, 1960, Japanese Prime Minister (and probably guilty but
never indicted World War 2 war criminal) Kishi Nobusuke deployed 500
police officers in Japan’s parliamentary chamber, where the officers
physically removed enough Japan Socialist Party members to make
possible the treaty’s ratification by parliament at 12:17 a.m. on
May 20. [link removed]
[[link removed]]
For more People's History, visit
[link removed]
[[link removed]]
* 2nd Amendment
[[link removed]]
* Jackson State
[[link removed]]
* school segregation
[[link removed]]
* Rebellion
[[link removed]]
* Nuclear Disarmament
[[link removed]]
* Modern Japan
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT
Submit via web
[[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]
Twitter [[link removed]]
Facebook [[link removed]]
[link removed]
To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]
