Tulsa, Oklahoma - Whites made airstrikes against Black Americans. This was the second day of The Tulsa Race Riots.
Early Wednesday morning, whites flew airplanes over the Greenwood District of Tulsa. From the air, whites shot rifles and made aerial bombing runs against Black Americans.
The bombs landed on buildings and homes. The bombers aimed at fleeing families. The aircraft was privately owned. Police participated. The police claimed it was to prevent a 'Negro uprising' in the town.
One witness made this report. There were 'a dozen or more' planes. They circled the neighborhood. The planes dropped 'burning turpentine balls' on an office building, a hotel, a filling station and other buildings. Shots were fired at Black Americans. They were gunned down in the street.
This was the first aerial bombing in the United States.
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West of Hội An, Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam - Dan Bullock was the youngest soldier to die in the Vietnam War. He was a Black American teenager, and only 15 years of age. His rank was private first class in the United States Marines.
Bullock was born December 21, 1953, in Goldsboro, North Carolina. His mother died when he was 12 years of age. He moved to Brooklyn to live with his father. Due to his life in Brooklyn, he joined the military.
On December 10, 1968, Bullock finished army basic training (boot camp). He was 14 years of age.
On May 18, 1969, he was sent to Vietnam. In three (3) weeks, he was killed, while on night watch duty.
Until 2000, there was no marker for his grave. His name appeared on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. It was placed on Panel 23W, Row 96.
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Atlanta, Georgia - The name of the first Black American baseball league was the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists. The Georgia Champions’ won against the Memphis Eclipse. The score was 11-10.
The league only lasted one year. But, it was not the last. The next year, the National Colored Base Ball League began in 1887. The leagues were formed due to racial exclusion laws in the United States.
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Jackson, Mississippi - Medger Evers was murdered, at his home. The murderer, Byron De La Beckwith, was tried and convicted.
Early Wednesday morning, Medger Evers returned home to his waiting wife and children. Evers got out of his car. He carried T-shirts that read 'Jim Crow Must Go' in his hands. There, he was shot in the back, from an Enfield 1917 rifle. The bullet struck the 37 year-old Evers through his heart.
After the shot, Evers staggered 30 feet, to the front door of his house. There he collapsed. His wife, Myrtle, found him there.
Evers was taken to the local hospital. He was refused entry, because he was a Black American man. His family explained who he was and the hospital admitted him. Evers was in the hospital for 50 minutes, and died.
On June 19th, 1963, Evers was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in the funeral procession. Evers' funeral got full military honors.
Myrtle Evers fought to get the murderer convicted. On February 5th, 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of Evers' murder. It took 30 years, but Evers' murderer was sent to prison. Beckwith died in prison on Jaunary 21st, 2001.
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Washington D. C. - The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. It gave citizenship to anyone born in the United States and full protection under the law.
Source:
Fourteenth Amendment
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Greenwood, Mississippi - Stokely Carmichael said 'We want Black Power.' This was the first use of the term in a political movement.
The phrase was used for many years before Carmichael. Richard Wright wrote a book called 'Black Power' in 1954. On May 29, 1966, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell used the phrase, in a speech, at Harvard.
Carmichael was part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was elected chairman, May, 1966. His election showed that integration of SNCC, with whites, was not wanted.
To make the point plain, Carmichael said 'Black Power' at a voting rights rally. He said this in Mississippi, where a number of civil rights workers had been killed, by whites.
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Columbia, South Carolina - Whites executed George Stinney, three (3) months after trial. Stinney was killed, on the word of a white deputy, H. S. Newman. At the time of his death, Stinney was only 14 years of age.
On March 23, 1944, two (2) white female bodies were found in a ditch. They were girls, killed from blows to the head. Stinney was arrested for the crime. No investigation took place.
On April 24, 1944, an all-white jury met. They tried and convicted Stinney, in ten (10) minutes. The white judge sentenced him to death, that day.
The only evidence came from Newman, that Stinney confessed. No Black Americans were allowed in the courtroom. Stinney never saw his family, until after the sentence.
On June 16, 1944, whites electrocuted Stinney to death.
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Charleston, South Carolina - Just before 9:00 p.m., a 21 year-old Dylann Roof murdered nine (9) Black Americans. The massacre took place at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. 5 survived.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015, at about 8:00 p.m., Roof came to the church. Inside, there were fourteen (14) people. They started a bible study. Senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney ran the bible study.
Once Roof entered the church, he asked for Pinckney. Roof sat next to Pinckney. Once the bible study ended, prayer began. As people prayed, Roof stood, and began shooting people to death. Roof said, 'Y'all want something to pray about? I'll give you something to pray about.'
Roof reloaded his gun 5 times. Each victim was shot at least 5 times. He fired 70 shots. Roof shouted racial slurs at his victims, as he shot them.
All of the survivors were female. 2 survived playing dead. 2 survived, in another room, that Roof never saw. 1 survived because Roof wanted her to tell others.
On December 15, 2016, Roof was convicted on all charges. This included 9 counts of murder.
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Washington, D. C. - Posse Comitatus was passed which ended Federal protection for Black Americans in the South. It was a result of the compromise of 1877, that gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency. Hayes signed the law.
The Reconstruction Acts and Enforcement Acts were passed to protect the rights of Black Americans, from traitorous whites, in the South. President Ulysses S. Grant used the military to enforce the law and uphold the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.
Black people were attacked and killed for voting, assembling, and holding office, by whites. President Ulysses S. Grant used the Army to protect the rights of Black Americans, in the South. Yet, Grant gave up on Black Americans to help the Republican party in Ohio, in 1875.
The governor of Ohio, that won the election, in 1875, was Rutherford B. Hayes. From that point, the Republicans made a further deal to sacrifice Black Americans in the 1876 Presidential election. It made Rutherford B. Hayes the first Democrat elected since the Slavery War.
The deal made between the Republican and Democrat party led to the law that ended Federal protection for Black Americans in the South.
Source:
Posse Comitatus - p.190 Section 15
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Galveston, Texas - General Order Number 3 was read. It was from the Emancipation Proclamation. This began the end of chattel slavery in Texas.
The Proclamation withdrew legal support for slavery. It was limited to the Confederacy. Those who were loyal to the Union, were compensated for any people the government freed. It was not a law. It was similar to a military order.
Chattel slavery was not officially abolished until the (13th) Thirteenth Amendment went into effect. That was six months later, on December 6th, 1865.
In June 1866, Juneteenth began. It is the oldest celebration of the end of chattel slavery, in the world.
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The Bronx, New York - Heavyweight champion Joe Louis beat Max Schmeling, in Yankee Stadium. It was an historic fight because Schmeling was German, when the Nazi Party and Hitler were at their height.
The Nazis promoted racial dominance of whites over Black Americans, in mind and body. With the defeat, it showed the belief to be a lie. These race beliefs of the Nazis led to World War 2, the next year.
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Washington, D. C. - The GI Bill was the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law.
In 1944, the United States military was segregated. The GI Bill was written to support legal segregation when the Black American veterans returned.
This Act provided 4 major benefits. Veterans got low-cost mortgages. There were low-interest loans to start a business or farm. One (1) year of unemployment compensation went to veterans. And, there were dedicated payments of tuition and living expenses. This was for high school, college, or vocational school.
Over one (1) million Black American men returned from World War 2. Under the Act, these Black American veterans were due these benefits. But, they were blocked from most of them.
Banks denied low-cost, zero down-payment home loans to Black American veterans. From 67,000 mortgages, less than 100 in New York and northern New Jersey went to Black American veterans.
The GI Bill helped Black American veterans get an education. But, the gap, between Black Americans and whites, got worse. Whites got college degrees while Black American veterans got high school diplomas.
There were not enough segregated schools for Black American veterans. White schools denied Black American veterans admission. Whites had full access to higher education degrees and benefits. Black American veterans were denied access to these same white colleges and schools.
Almost all Black American veterans were denied the low-interest loans to start a business or a farm. This was despite what was promised in the GI Bill.
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Washington, D. C. - President Ulysses Grant signed the Act to Establish the Department of Justice. It was formed to enforce the laws of the post-Slavery War era. These included the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. It was also a way to stop the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Source:
Birth of the Justice Department
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Washington, D. C. - President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, into law. The FLSA blocked farm workers. It did not cover domestic workers. At the time, about 65% of Black Americans were farm and domestic workers. The FLSA left them without any legal safeguards.
The FLSA was another piece to Roosevelt's New Deal. With Congress, he helped whites and excluded Black Americans. Not until 1966 were some farm workers given help under the FLSA. This was well after many Black Americans had left the farms for the factories. Domestic workers were added, in 1974.
Source:
Original - Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
Racist Exclusions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
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Washington, D. C. - The 'Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry' was signed. It was Executive Order 8802.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued this order. It was meant to stop a planned march on Washington, by Black Americans. The march was planned for the following week.
A. Phillip Randolph planned the March on Washington Movement (MOWM), for July 1st, 1941. 100,000 Black Americans were to attend. After Order 8802 was issued, Randolph stopped the march.
The Order said racial bias was not allowed in the war business. It had little power. On May 27th, 1943, Executive Order 9346 replaced Order 8802 and 8823, with much more Presidential power.
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Washington, D. C. - The Mann Act, or White-Slave Traffic Act, became law. It was passed to stop boxing champion Jack Johnson, a Black American man, from travelling with the white woman, Lucille Cameron.
Whites tried to use Cameron to make a case against Johnson. She refused to help. Whites went to Belle Schreiber. She was a white woman Johnson knew before the Mann Act had passed (1909 and early 1910). In court, she said Johnson was with her. An all-white jury convicted Johnson of being with a white woman.
To escape jail, Johnson fled the country, for seven (7) years. When he came back, federal agents arrested him. Johnson was sent to the Federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. He was behind bars from September 1920, until July 9, 1921.
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Collegeville, Pennsylvania - Bill Cosby was freed from state prison in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled earlier that day, to end his prison term.
On April 26, 2018, Cosby was accused, tried, and convicted of aggravated indecent assault. All of the testimony was from white women. There was no physical evidence. No one backed any of their claims.
On September 25, 2018, Judge Steven O'Neill sent Cosby to jail for three (3) to ten (10) years. Cosby appealed the case and it was denied in the appeals court. It went to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, to be heard in 2021.
On June 30, 2021, the state Supreme Court made the decision that follows. 'As a practical matter, the moment that Cosby was charged criminally, he was harmed: all that he had forfeited earlier, and the consequences of that forfeiture in the civil case, were for naught,'
Cosby spent almost 3 years in prison on a false charge.
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