audio by artist arturo contreras

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

3,000 black Americans in Philadelphia protested the opening of a play called "The Clansman."  The play, based on a novel by Thomas Dixon, was extremely racist, glorifying the Ku Klux Klan and encouraging the strict enforcement of racial segregation. Despite the demonstration "The Clansman" continued to play in U.S. cities, later becoming the inspiration for the controversial film "The Birth of a Nation" which was released in 1915. The movie vividly depicted scenes of racial violence.  It also portrayed black people as savage and expressed that their presence in America was a huge threat to white superiority.  Lastly, the movie suggested that all black people had an intense desire to attain whiteness.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The First National Women's Rights Convention was held at Brinley Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. The conference was viciously attacked by mainstream media as an event unworthy of public attention, and a huge percentage of the audience rejected the radical ideas that women could and should demand political power. The presenters discussed inequalities from voting and property rights, to marriage and education. While this era of western feminism has been appropriately critiqued for its Eurocentric ideals, this particular national forum was a huge step towards the future of women's rights in America and was an inspiring collaboration between feminists and abolitionists alike.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Alabama's Governor George Wallace finally pardoned Clarence Norris who was one of the young men convicted in the 1931 Scottsboro trial. The Scottsboro Boys were a group of nine black youths, from age 13-19, who despite the weak evidence and the contradictory witnesses were convicted of raping two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama. Throughout the long and infamous trials of The Scottsboro Boys, Clarence Norris was sentenced to death a total of three times. His death sentence was later commuted but Norris spent 15 years in prison and spent another 30 as a fugitive after fleeing Alabama before the Alabama Pardon and Parole Board unanimously found him innocent.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Several black people in St Bernard Parish, Louisiana were massacred and terrorized by a group of white supremacists. Although racial killings took place quite often in the South during these times, this one was noted for its brutality. This event has been successfully silenced from historical accounts and the specific facts about it are not easily accessible. But here are some facts to put it into context: During this year, Louisiana saw a huge rise in Ku Klux Klan membership and there was also a shocking increase in racially motivated 'election murders' in 1868; these were murders committed to ensure that the white population sustained its political power in the South. Too bad so many important events get lost in translation.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Pacifica radio station WBAI aired a monologue called "Filthy Words" done by the comedian George Carlin. In his routine, Carlin listed and made fun of the "seven dirty words," words which can not now be uttered over public airwaves. Apparently a complaint was filed with the Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC. Although this was the only complaint filed, it eventually landed the Pacifica Foundation in a Supreme Court case against the FCC. The final ruling was in favor of the FCC and it established many restrictions on the content of publicly broadcast material.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Shortly after the United States Army began accepting African American recruits, they declared that the black enlistees needed score of 100 on the Army General Classification Test to qualify, while white enlistees only needed to earn a 70. The army also restricted black officers from choosing their own assignments. Despite the controversial and discriminatory nature of these policies the Army continued to enforce them using a document called the Gillem Board Report as its justification. Seeing as how the army was obviously trying to restrict the number of black soldiers, it is ironic that they now aggressively recruit people-of-color, who just happen to make up a disproportionate percentage of military recruits these days.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Two members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Movement, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, attempted to force their way into Blair House in Washington DC and assassinate President Truman. At that time, the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was lead by the revolutionary figure Pedro Albizu Campos. The movement was dedicated to the Puerto Rican struggle for Independence and went to great lengths to resist the violence that was taking place in Puerto Rico under US domination. The assassination attempt on President Truman failed, and Griselio Torresola, was killed on the scene. Oscar Collazo, who was originally sentenced to death, spent a total of 29 years in prison before returning to Puerto Rico.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The British government issued a classified statement known as the Balfour Declaration, which proclaimed Britain's support for Zionist plans to create a Jewish "national home" in Palestine. Although the Balfour Declaration stated that the civil and religious rights of existing communities in Palestine should not be compromised, the British governments obvious alliance with the Zionist Federation was enough to worry the Palestinian people and provoked Arab opposition and revolt. The tension quickly grew between the Arab people and the new Jewish state of Israel, which later became viciously protected by both the British and American governments. Hmm, no wonder this document has often been called the Root of the current problem in Palestine.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

"Black Tuesday" also known as the Wall Street crash of 1929 occurred, devastating the stock market and causing widespread economic panic throughout America. Although there is debate about whether the Crash of '29 was a result of the Great Depression or a cause, it is definitely agreed that it was one of the most devastating stock market crashes in American History. The quick drop in stock prices caused bankruptcies and severe financial difficulties for businesses; the result was mass unemployment and quickly deteriorating living conditions for the American working class, which happens to be a majority of the American population.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

A crowd of white people in Los Angeles began angrily attacking a group of Chinese Americans after the accidental death of a white man. The incident began when a large crowd of white spectators began to gather around a street fight that was taking place between two Chinese people. As the fight escalated, shots were fired and a white man accidentally killed. The White mob violence immediately followed as they began assaulting a nearby group of Chinese Americans. Homes and businesses were looted causing immense economic loss for the Chinese Community and 19 Chinese American citizens were killed. The leaders of that nights massacre all escaped punishment.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

American politician Victor Berger was denied his seat in the House of Representatives because he was a socialist.  Years before this incident, Berger had been voted in to the House of Reps, becoming the first socialist candidate to ever take a seat in the US Congress.  During his time in congress, Berger proposed the elimination of the Presidents veto and strongly voiced his opposition to US participation in WWI.  Berger was later elected to Congress two more times but was  refused his seat each time due to his socialist views.  Now how democratic is that!

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The "Bread and Roses" strike began at a textile factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts. At the factory, which relied heavily on the cheap labor of immigrants, women, and children, anywhere between 25 and 30 thousand workers walked out to protest exploitative factory policies, physical abuse, sexual harassment, poor working conditions, and inhumane wages. The National Guard was immediately called in to quell the strike and began to violently assault the strikers, almost all of who were women and children. Members of the Industrial Workers of the World quickly collaborated with the strikers to become more organized, yet most major media outlets still refused to report on the strike. Now that's subjective journalism!

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

A political document, known as The Fundamental Orders, was adopted by the Connecticut Colony council. This document officially established a government within the English Colony of Connecticut by dictating the powers and limitations of its new governing body. It is also largely considered to be the first written constitution in Western history. Certain principles embodied by the Fundamental Orders, including the section on individual rights and the use of secret ballots, were later applied to the United States Constitution. If you think about it, the American government is founded on ideas of individualism.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The United States Congress secretly authorized the US government to take possession of East Florida. This land, which had previously been under Spanish control, was heavily pursued by the US for many reasons and was promptly seized after this secret act of congress took place. Once under American control, the interest and well being of American settlers became top priority, and the rights of the Native Americans who resided there were frequently abused. Many expansionist policies, including the East Florida decision, were enacted without any consent from the inhabitants of that territory. No doubt this was common of expansionist mentality.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Sullivan Ordinance was passed in New York City, making it illegal for women to smoke cigarettes in any public place. This law, which could have possibly been the first no-smoking legislation enacted in the US, was unanimously approved by the city's Board of Aldermen, which is similar to a city council. During the early 20th Century when this legislation was passed, smoking among women was not too common anyways, but the percentage of female smokers has been steadily increasing since. This is understandable seeing as how tobacco companies aggressively target women in their advertising campaigns. Unfortunately, I'm sure this New York law was not solely motivated by the health and wellbeing of women.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The minimum wage in America was raised from 40 cents an hour to 75 cents an hour. This, today, is about equivalent to a 5-dollar an hour pay rate. This makes sense considering that the federal minimum wage was only 5.15 an hour up until 2007, when it was raised a whole 70 cents. This implies that the minimum wage in America has not changed much proportionally in over a century, and it is still not considered to be a living wage. A living wage would be the minimum hourly pay necessary to achieve a decent standard of living in a certain space. A minimum wage on the other hand is the minimum hourly wage set by law, and unfortunately, that amount is often way below a living wage. That might explain why so many people in the US are living below the national poverty line.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Native American Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier was sentenced to an additional 7-years in prison, where he had already spent three years of a double life sentence. Peltier, who is still in prison to this day, was originally arrested and tried for the murder of two FBI Agents. Although his trial was extremely sketchy and filled with holes and missing evidence, Peltier received two consecutive life sentences. His supporters argue that he is innocent and was targeted for his radical beliefs and political Involvement. In 2004, Leonard Peltier was an American presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom party. Ironically, while convicted felons are allowed to run for federal offices, they are often prohibited from voting. Hmm, can somebody say 'control tactic'?

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The US Supreme Court delivered its famous ruling on Roe v. Wade. By determining that state laws banning abortion were in violation of an individual's constitutional right to privacy, the Court's decision served to legalize abortion as a woman's fundamental right and personal choice. There was a huge pro-life backlash directly following Roe v. Wade as religious, right wing, fanatics increased their efforts to terrorize pro-abortion health clinics and the women who were seen entering them. It's kind of ironic when you consider all the health clinics that were bombed... the pro- lifers killing people and all.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Mangas Coloradas, Chief of the Mimbrenos Apache, was shot to death in New Mexico by the American Military. Prior to this, there had been a longstanding history of tension between the Apache people and the American settlers who invaded their land, and this tension quickly increased as the Gold Rush era progressed. After being fed up with the enduring abuse at the hands of American miners, Mangas Coloradas led an attack on the American Army. Later, after being promised a truce, Coloradas agreed to resolve issues through negotiation, but upon his peaceful arrival to a US military camp was shot dead by American Soldiers.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

White American inventor, Samuel Colt, sold his first revolver pistol to the US government for use in the Mexican-American war. Later, the U.S. Dragoon forces and Texas Rangers credited Colt firearms for their great 'success' in defeating Native American Forces. Business for Samuel Colt continued to be successful and his guns have greatly contributed to the development of war technology for example Colt's M16 full-automatic rifle has repeatedly been used by the US for military operations and invasions. Sadly, this unfortunate invention has played a very decisive role in the course of American history and culture.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The US officially severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, an event that had been approaching since the Cuban Revolution two years earlier. Back in the late 1800's, American corporations began to search for new markets and investments abroad. Cuba was one of the countries recognized as a capitalist goldmine and was eventually transformed into one at the expense of Cuba's own economy. In 1959, when Fidel Castro reclaimed full control over the Cuban government and economy, he began to openly speak out against America's exploitation of the country and its people.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Governor Philip LaFollette of Wisconsin signed the nations first ever unemployment compensation law. Three years later, the federal Social Security Act of 1935 established a national unemployment insurance program, designed to work with the individual state programs. The unemployment compensation program provides workers who have lost their jobs with monetary compensation for a given period of time, or until they find a new job. This is supposed to provide an unemployed worker enough time to find a new job equivalent to their old one. Another important aspect of this program is its guarantee to sustain consumer spending during periods of economic hardship and high unemployment. I suppose this makes sense in the context of a Capitalist society.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

During WWII, Thailand declared war on both Britain and the United States. Since the War broke out, the Japanese Military had been pressuring Thailand to give Japanese troops uninhibited access to their land. This would enable Japan to easily move through and attack certain British Military camps. In accordance and cooperation with Japan's wishes, Thailand temporarily declared war on the US and the UK. As the Thai government became increasingly wary of Japanese occupation, America spotted a perfect opportunity to intervene. The US offered to organize an underground movement to get rid of the Japanese. What a familiar scenario… I wonder if this was a benevolent act of American exceptionalism or if it was a strategic move based solely on self-interest?

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

President Harry Truman announced that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb. One year earlier, the US had detonated the first weapon of this kind in an experiment known as the "Ivy Mike" nuclear test. Similar devices were also developed and tested by countries such as the Soviet Union, the UK, France, and China. The American government continued to perfect its own nuclear technology and in 1954 performed another experiment, which turned out to be the largest nuclear test ever carried out by the US. When a hydrogen bomb is detonated, it produces an explosion that is hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki… Talk about weapons of mass destruction.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The United States bought what is now the US Virgin Islands from Denmark for 25 million dollars. Before being colonized by Denmark, the Virgin Islands were home to the Ciboney, Carib, and Arawak people, almost all of who perished under the harsh and devastating effects of colonization. After the indigenous population died off, the islands became a destination for thousands of African people who were enslaved on sugar plantations, many of whom continued to reside there long after slavery was legally abolished. The US Virgin Islands are now known for their lucrative tourist industry, on which American industries continue to profit and feed off of.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Black feminist and American civil-rights activist Florynce Kennedy was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Flo Kennedy began her career as a lawyer, but quickly lost faith in the American judicial system, and decided that practicing law might never "be an effective means of changing society or resisting oppression". Flo turned to political activism, and in 1966 set up an organization called the Media Workshop to fight racism in journalism and advertising. She continued her struggle for justice, both in the courts and on the streets, aligning herself with movements from the Black Panther Party to abortion rights, and even publicly rallied against the Vietnam War.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet, Audre Lorde was born in New York City. Throughout the 1960's Lorde was politically active in the civil rights, the antiwar and the feminist movements. Also during this time Lorde completed many volumes of poetry, in which she wrote passionately against both racial and sexual oppression, and while her poetry was often very political, she also addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth, and intimacy. Throughout her career as a poet and activist, Lorde was a powerful contributor to the evolution of feminist discourse. She often critiqued hegemonic feminist theory in its exclusion of race and sexuality.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Bank of America building in the small coastal community of Isla Vista went up in flames as heated student protests against the Vietnam War gained momentum. The protesters in this area of Santa Barbara managed to overpower baton-swinging and gun-toting police for three consecutive nights, successfully seizing its business district and running police out each night. The students, who had an explicitly anti-capitalist agenda, were said to have targeted big corporations while strategically leaving small businesses intact. Many of the students were openly acting in solidarity with the 7 defendants of the Chicago conspiracy, a massive demonstration that took place in Chicago against the Vietnam War and was violently attacked by police.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

African American actress Hattie McDaniel became the first black performer in the U.S. to win an Academy Award. The movie "Gone With the Wind", which McDaniel's won the Oscar for, premiered in Atlanta, Georgia a few months earlier in an event that barred all the black actors from attending. McDaniel's usually played the roles of domestic servants or maids and while she did received some criticism from the black community for choosing these roles, they were often the only roles that black actors and actresses were able to get. Aside from acting, McDaniel was also a professional singer-songwriter, comedienne, and radio performer. The history of American film is just another door into the history of racism in this country.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Congress passed the Immigration Act, overruling Woodrow Wilson's Veto. The immigration Act of 1917 implemented an "Asiatic Barred Zone", which specifically prevented immigrants from India, Indochina, Afghanistan, Arabia, the East Indies, and other Asian Countries from entering America. The Act also established a literacy test, which was designed in such a way that most working-class immigrants could not pass it. This is a classic example of racism and classism being inserted into our legal system in discrete ways; Hmmm… The dangers of institutionalized racism.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

More than 400 Chinese people were forcefully driven from their homes in Seattle Washington by a rioting mob of white citizens who wanted them gone. The governor of Washington State quickly ordered that they not be forced to leave, but many Chinese people gathered that next morning at the docks and voluntarily left Seattle on the next boat to San Francisco. Four years before this, the United States government had passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, and since that date, violence and abuse against people of Chinese decent began to heavily increase. Unfortunately, violence is often the outcome when government legislation seems to legitimize the 'inferior' status of a certain group.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The first coffee house on the North American continent opened up in Mexico. In it's more recent years, Coffee, which is native to Ethiopia, has grown into a multinational industry worth over 80 billion dollars. Unfortunately, in accordance with our global capitalist marketplace, this money is seen only by the corporations who sell the product, while the coffee farmers who produce it are paid so little that they are often forced into an dangerous and endless cycle of debt. Huge companies, such as Starbucks, could definitely afford to pay a fair price for these profitable little beans, so why won't they?

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Congress passed the first draft law in United States history, authorizing the President to draft citizens into the Civil War. While most of the North supported the Union, the shortage of men enlisting in the military, especially in New York City, is what sparked this law. One of the provisions of the draft law allowed a man to exempt himself from being drafted in exchange for $300. This was controversial because $300 dollars in 1863 was a sum of money that only rich people could afford and the war quickly became known among the middle and lower classes as "the rich man's war and the poor man's fight". Soon after this legislation passed, rioting spread angrily through New York City in a violent expression of displeasure with the law.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Taylor Law was passed establishing rights and limitations for New York state employees and their unions. The law was ultimately a backlash from the previous year's transit strikes, which cost the government huge sums of money and made them weary of union activity. While the Taylor Law does allow state employees the right to unionize, it also heavily restricts union activity, namly by prohibiting the workers from striking. The Taylor Law punishes striking state workers with fines and jail time and is critiqued by many union representatives as harsh a harsh measure that crimilalizes workers. It's pretty crazy; I mean, if we could only fight injustices in ways that the government deemed acceptable, then how would there be change - Isn't that the point of protest and resistance?

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The United States Congress passed the Coinage Act, a federal law that altered the one-cent coin and authorized the mining of the two-cent coin onto which the motto "In God We Trust" first appeared. The following year this practice was expanded as the motto began to be placed on all US coins. The motto eventually was included on paper money 90 years later, right after President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a joint resolution declaring "In God We Trust" the national motto of the United Staes.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

On this day, May 10, in 1869, the ‘Golden Spike’ was driven into place at Promontory Point, Utah, completing the first American Transcontinental Railroad that stretched from coast to coast with over 2000 miles of track. The railroad functioned as a glorified symbol of Western Expansion and disguised the exploitation and violent conquest that occurred during its construction. Chinese laborers were paid the lowest wages, suffered constant abuse, and were assigned the most dangerous jobs, where many died. The railroad companies responded to Native American resistance in the Great Plains region by killing off their main food supply, buffalo. Maybe a better name would be the Bloody Spike.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The United States Postal Service was officially established. It had originally been created in 1775, but the Act of May 8 1794 mandated that the institution should continue indefinitely. Defined as an “independent establishment of the executive branch” the Post Office is a quasi-governmental organization. It has a legal monopoly on all non-urgent mail delivery, holds the exclusive right to put mail in private mailboxes, and has sovereign immunity, meaning it cannot be sued without its own consent. The US Postal Service is also the third-largest employer in America, preceded only by the United States Department of Defense and Wal-Mart.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The first known chapter of the White Citizens Council was founded in Indianola, Mississippi, and within a few months had spread to the rest of the Deep South. The White Citizens Council had white supremacist beliefs similar to that of the KKK, but they used economic pressure and political tactics rather than direct violence in order to oppress people of color. The Council was often referred to as an “uptown Klan,” as many members were in positions of power. Its successor organization, the Council of Conservative Citizens, is still actively promoting many of the same racist principles today. And some people argue America’s racist legacy is in the past!

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Two years before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. was leading the Chicago Freedom Movement against the cities segregated slums. This was the first time that King and the SCLC had tackled desegregation issues in the North, and to their surprise it proved to be a more hostile battleground than the outright racism of the South. Kings experience in Chicago caused him to reshape his views on American Capitalism and the process of change. When King was later criticized for involving himself in the Anti-Vietnam War movement and the Poor Peoples Campaign in America, he argued that there was a direct relationship between poverty and racism and American Militarism and Imperialism.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Tension between blacks and whites in Newark, New Jersey exploded into six days of rioting when the police arrested and beat a black cab driver named John Smith. The rioting left 23 people dead and thousands of others were injured or arrested. Although Newark had quickly become one of the first major cities to have a majority black population, political power remained in the control of whites. The black community was plagued by rampant police brutality, unemployment, poor housing conditions, and poverty. After the riots, much of Newark’s white population left the city, and poverty continued to plague Newark’s black community.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Washington Star exposed the story of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, a cruel medical study that the US Public Health Service had been conducting on 399 poor black men for the last 40 years. The men, who were in the late stages of Syphilis and lacked access to proper health care, were not in a position to deny this supposedly ‘free treatment’. They were never told that they had Syphilis, and were actually left untreated while slowly dying from the degenerative disease. The experiment had continued despite the World Health Organization’s 1964 declaration that “informed consent” was mandatory for experiments involving human beings.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The US Army’s 25 Infantry Bicycle Corps pedaled into St. Louis from Montana after riding for 40 days as part of a military experiment. The 25 Infantry has been formed in 1869 as one of four African-American military units stationed west of the Mississippi, although their commander was always white. For this mission, 23 of the unit’s men volunteered to bicycle 1900 miles across every terrain imaginable to test the efficiency of bicycles in real military situations. The experiment proved that a bicycle corps could travel twice as fast as cavalry and infantry under the same conditions and at one-third the cost. In the end, the army decided not to establish a permanent bicycle corps.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Russell-Einstein Manifesto was published in London by Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein and nine other prominent scientists and intellectuals. The manifesto warned about the true threat of nuclear warfare, and suggested that the human race was in danger of total destruction if they continued producing and using nuclear weapons. Ten years earlier, the US had detonated the nuclear weapon at a test site in New Mexico. Months after, the US dropped atomic bombs on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 100,000 civilians in the blast and many more from the resulting radiation exposure. Since then, there has been a global race to see who could accumulate the most of these deadly weapons.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau was thrown in jail for refusing to pay his $1 poll tax in protest of American Slavery and the Mexican-American War. Thoreau had resisted his poll tax for six years because he did not support the government’s use of the money. Although he was only in jail for one night, the experience deeply impacted him and he began speaking out about the responsibility of individuals to hold their government accountable. Three years later, Thoreau wrote ‘Civil Disobedience,’ an essay explaining how the actions of the American government were controlled by a few individuals rather than the people. Thoreau’s essay was highly influential to many activists.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

 David Kalakaua, the king of the Hawaiian Islands, signed the Bayonet Constitution. The document greatly shifted the power from the King to an all white Cabinet and catered to the demands of the white Americans and Europeans who already had a monopoly on the Hawaiian sugar economy. It also created new guidelines for voting based on income that excluded two-thirds of Native Hawaiians. King Kalakaua was forced to accept the new Constitution, knowing that the threat of a violent overthrow was imminent if he resisted. Six years later the white cabinet overthrew his sister, Queen Liliuokalani, who had come to power after the Kings’ death. Hawaii was later annexed by the US in 1898.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Mattachine Society ratified its statement of “Missions and Purposes.” The Mattachine Society was the first sustained Gay Liberation Organization in the United States committed to encouraging public acceptance of homosexuality. Members saw gays, lesbians, and bisexuals as a minority group and tried to align themselves with the struggles of other subordinated groups. The organization’s five founders, who were white men, began secretly meeting in 1950 to discuss their shared vision of a unified and socially conscious homosexual community in America. Despite the danger of associating with a homosexual group, the idea quickly spread and similar organizations began appearing.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The “Bloody Thursday” riots occurred in San Francisco when police clashed with a group of striking longshore workers. The strikers were a part of the larger West Coast Waterfront Strike, which had been steadily growing and gathering support for two months in protest of worker exploitation at the hands of the wealthy ship-owners. On this day, the striking workers encountered a large police force armed with tear gas and clubs. When the crowd fought back, police began firing their guns, killing two strikers and injuring over 60. Outraged by this event, labor leaders organized workers and community members into the San Francisco General Strike, which lasted four days and shut down much of the city.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established to investigate claims and advocate for victims of employment discrimination. The commission was designed to enforce Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act Amendment, which makes job discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age and disability against federal law. Although some state laws are more comprehensive, as of 2007 there are still no federal laws protecting employees from discrimination based on political affiliation, sexual orientation or gender representation. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission does not enforce the protection of these groups either.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

 22,000 spectators gathered in Reno, Nevada to watch the former white heavyweight champion James Jeffries fight the Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion. The all-white crowd screamed derogatory remarks throughout the whole match while the ringside band played “all coons look alike to me.” Jeffries, who had publicly stated that he was only fighting to prove the superiority of whites, had to call in quits in the 15th round after being overpowered by Johnson. That night, in over 50 cities across America, small-scale race riots occurred as the black community celebrated and enraged white people retaliated. Certain states even banned the filming of Johnson’s victories over white fighters.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Sandinista National Liberation Front overthrew the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The US had appointed his father as head of the newly established Nicaragua National Guard in 1933, which had been established by US Marines as they withdrew from Nicaragua after 7 year of occupation. The Somoza family quickly took over the country, representing the wealthy Nicaraguan elite and US interests for most of its corrupt 46-year reign, and violently squashing any political resistance by murdering thousands of citizens. Many members of the family were educated and received military training in the US and regularly assisted the US with imperialist political and military ventures in the region.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

 Pedro Albizu Campos, president of the Puerto Rico Nationalist Party, was charged with trying to overthrow the government and sentenced to 6 to 10 years in prison. Albizu had dedicated his life to the liberation and decolonization of Puerto Rico. In 1950, he was arrested again and sentenced to a 72-year prison term, part of which he served in the US. While locked up, he claimed that he was subject to dangerous and painful radiation experiments that the US was conducting illegally in Puerto Rico. The American government consistently denied Albizu’s accusation and claimed that he was insane, but his health condition continued to mysteriously deteriorate until he died in prison 15 years later.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Over 250 Achi-Mayan people in the Guatemalan village of Plan de Sanchez were massacred by the armed forces of the nation’s US backed president, Rios Montt. Guatemala was in the middle of a 36-year Civil War, during which revolutionary groups resisted the oppressive policies of a string of conservative presidents. The violence peaked during Rios Montt’s Presidency, and in the early 80’s the Guatemalan government committed over 600 similar acts of genocide, targeting indigenous Guatemalans in a desperate attempt to destroy the guerilla uprising. Over 200,000 Guatemalans were killed. A peace treaty ended the civil war 1996 and Guatemala held a ‘democratic’ election that was supervised by the CIA.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Towards the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, issued an “eye-for-eye” order. This act stated that for every captured black soldier that the Confederacy shot or sold into slavery, the Union would either shoot a revel prisoner or condemn one to a life of hard labor. Despite the Order, many Confederate commanders and soldiers continued to murder black prisoners of war. Although the eye-for-eye order was considered to reflect Lincoln’s abolitionist views, it was actually intended to intimidate the Confederacy rather than stop the killing of black soldiers. Like many of Lincoln’s celebrated actions, this order was motivated by politics rather than compassion and ethics.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

 A huge explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Ammunitions Base in California killed 320 navy men, injured 390 others, the majority of who were black. WWII was a particularly controversial time for black soldiers in the US Armed forces, which were still heavily segregated. Many black enlistees were assigned to Port Chicago to load highly explosive materials onto Navy ships, despite being untrained for this task. They encountered rampant racism and poor work conditions and were deliberately uniformed of the dangers they faced. The month following the explosion, black sailors at Port Chicago staged the Port Chicago Mutiny in an attempt to resist the Navy’s racist policies.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

Toward the end of the Iran Iraq War, the US Navy shot down Iran Air Flight 655, killing all 290 passengers and crew on board the commercial airliner. The US Ship that launched the missiles was inside Iranian territorial waters, although America originally denied it. The US Government insisting that the crew had mistakenly thought they were under military attack and acted appropriately. Later reports proved that the Ships data system had identified the object as a civilian aircraft and that the captain of this particular ship had a reputation for being aggressive. The International Court of Justice dropped the case, the US never accepted responsibility for the events, and the crew even received combat action ribbons.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

  11 years before Rosa Parks, a 27-year-old black woman named Irene Morgan refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Greyhound bus. The driver stopped the bus in Virginia and summoned the sheriff, who dragged her off the bus. Although Morgan resisted the sheriff, she was eventually arrested and charged for resisting arrest and violating Virginia’s segregation law. Morgan took her case to the Supreme Court, and two years later it was decided that segregation on interstate travel was unconstitutional. Despite this ruling, Southern states refused to accept the desegregation of interstate buses and trains, sparking civil rights campaigns like the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 began, lasting 5 days and claiming the lives or 23 blacks and 15 whites. The riot was sparked when a black teenager named Eugene Williams drowned after a group of white men pelted him with rocks when he drifted into the ‘all-white’ section of a beach. The uprising was a culmination of the city’s re-occurring racial violence and the deteriorating social and economic conditions faced by blacks, but it also reflected growing racial tensions nationwide. The year 1919 saw over 20 race riots, as black and white WWI veterans returned home to fierce job competition caused by inflation and rising unemployment rates.

• produced by Arturo Contreras
• in

The Continental Congress of the United States unanimously passed the Northwest Ordinance, which established a formal process to admit new states. The Ordinance also provided many of the civil rights that would eventually be replicated in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. It distinguished slave states from Free states, prohibiting slavery in the territories north and West of the Ohio River. Lastly, the Ordinance stated very clearly that Native Americans would be treated with respect, that their freedom would never be compromised, and that their land would never be taken without their consent. I wonder what happened??