Short Tempers In a Polarized Nation (1860)
DECEMBER 3, 1860 – A LITTLE MORE THAN FOUR MONTHS BEFORE the start of the Civil War – is the 165th anniversary of a day violent attacks on abolitionists by pro-slavery mobs in Boston, Massachusetts. At the time, tension between pro- and anti-slavery activists was running high throughout the U.S.
During the four weeks that had passed since Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential election, slavery advocates in the South were openly discussing seceding from the United States to avoid having to answer to a federal government led by Lincoln.
Most of Boston’s population was opposed to slavery, but a significant minority was staunchly in favor of slavery, because many of Boston’s wealthiest citizens were heavily involved in cotton trading, and the production of cotton depended on slave-labor based agriculture.
On December 3, 1860, abolitionists planned a gathering in Boston’s Tremont Temple (a large Baptist church with a racially integrated congregation). Almost as soon as the meeting began, it was swarmed by a well-dressed mob of anti-abolitionists, who assaulted several of the scheduled speakers, including abolitionist firebrand Frederick Douglass.
Douglass viewed the attack as evidence of Northerners’ attempt to avoid succession and war by making him the sacrificial lamb. Afterward he wrote “I was roughly handled by a mob in Tremont Temple . . .headed by one of the wealthiest men of that city. The talk was that the blood of some abolitionist must be shed to appease the wrath of the offended South, and to restore peaceful relations between the two sections of the country.” For more, visit: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/frederick-douglass-speech-john-brown/
Justice At Last for the Wilmington 10, Better Late than Never
DECEMBER 4 IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY of a federal court’s overturning the convictions of ten innocent anti-racist activists known as the Wilmington 10, who had been framed and convicted of arson and conspiracy.
In 1980, when the federal court ruled that both a North Carolina trial judge and the prosecutor had violated the defendants’ rights, they had already been incarcerated for more than nine years. After they were released in accordance with the federal court’s order, they were never retried.
In 2012, each of the Wilmington 10 received a pardon of innocence from the Governor of North Carolina. Unfortunately, four of the 10 had died before the pardons were issued. Nevertheless, the six surviving frame-up victims plus the families for the four who were deceased were qualified to receive $50,000 compensation for each year they had been incarcerated. https://web.archive.org/web/20101018040247/http://triumphantwarriors.ning.com/
Just How Bad Can the Federal Courts Get?
DECEMBER 5 IS THE 115TH ANNIVERSARY of this ruling by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia: If an 8-year-old girl has one, and only one, great-grandparent who is Black, she cannot attend public school in the District of Columbia.
Not so pleasant to know, but important to not forget. For the details, please visit https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/dec/5
Witch Hunters Against Common Sense
DECEMBER 6 IS THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of a small, but hardly insignificant, triumph of anti-communist witch-hunters over common sense in the realm of entertainment.
In 1950, one of New York City’s biggest television stations agreed to cancel a weekly broadcast of short silent films by Charlie Chaplin when it was told by an organization of anti-communist war veterans to “withdraw the series” because Chaplin was alleged to be “a man with very definite Communist leanings.” According to the veterans’ leader, “It makes no difference if the pictures were made five, ten, twenty or more years ago. Entertainment for art’s sake just does not exist when you talk about communism.” https://progressive.org/magazine/charlie-chaplin-hollywood-s-political-exile
War Crimes Are Common, But Not Convictions
DECEMBER 9 IS THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY of one of the rarest legal phenomenon known: A court in Argentina found five of the leaders of the junta that seized power in 1974 guilty of war crimes and sentenced them to hard time.
They were convicted in 1985 of murder, torture, kidnapping and forced disappearance in the first major war crimes trial to take place since the Nüremberg Trials in Germany and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo following World War II.
Two of the war criminals were sentenced to life in prison, one to 17 years, one to eight years and one to four-and-a-half years. None served more than five years before being released. https://web.archive.org/web/20160514035930/http://thenation.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/11197743.pdf
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