April
Apr 1
1920

Red Scare in New York: Legislature Expels Socialist Party Members

 
1935

Scottsboro Case Conviction Overturned: African-Americans Excluded From Jury

 
1970

Grateful Dead Provokes First-Ever FCC Indecency Fine

Apr 2
1914

Post Office Bans Margaret Sanger’s “Woman Rebel”

 
1917

President Wilson Seeks Declaration of War, To Make World Safe for Democracy – Warns of Repression

 
1956

Pennsylvania Sedition Law Unconstitutional Under Federal Preemption Doctrine

 
1963

Supreme Court Invalidates Virginia Anti-NAACP Laws, Upholds Lawyers’ Activism

 
1970

Massachusetts Declares Vietnam War Unconstitutional

 
1972

Charlie Chaplin, Excluded in 1952, Returns to U.S. After 20 Years

Apr 3
1902

New York Criminal Anarchy Law Signed

 
1944

Supreme Court Declares All-White Primary Unconstitutional

 
1962

Defense Dept. Orders Racial Integration of all Military Reserves – But Not the National Guard

 
1963

“B” Day – Rev. Martin Luther King Launches Birmingham Demonstrations

 
1964

Malcolm X Gives Famous “The Ballot or the Bullet” Speech in Cleveland

 
1968

King’s Final Speech: “I Have Been to the Mountaintop”

 
2009

Iowa Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

 
2014

Senate Intelligence Committee Votes to Release Report on CIA Torture

 
2017

Attorney General Sessions Suspends DOJ Police Reform Program

Apr 4
1913

Racially Integrated Suffrage Conference Held in St. Louis

 
1919

Government Drops Espionage Act Charges Against Radical, Author John Reed

 
1944

“Strange Fruit,” The Novel, Banned in Boston

 
1950

Burnita Matthews Confirmed as First Female U.S. District Court Judge

 
1960

Anti-HUAC Demonstrations Planned

 
1968

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated

 
1969

CBS Cancels Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Apr 5
1926

H. L. Mencken Arrested in Boston in Arranged Censorship Case

 
1947

White Girl Expelled from Segregated All-Black Washington, DC, School

 
1953

Joe McCarthy Aides Tour Europe, Purge Overseas U.S. Libraries

 
1971

Senator Hatfield Places Vietnam War Crimes Testimony in Congressional Record

 
1977

“504” Sit-in at HEW by Disability Rights Activists

 
1992

March for Women’s Lives in Washington

Apr 6
1917

Congress Declares War – Suppression of Civil Liberties Begins

 
1921

President Harding Promises to Act on Women’s Equality

 
1931

U.S. versus Married Love . . . . Really?

 
1937

Julia Sims First Woman Foreperson of a Federal Grand Jury

 
1952

ACLU Report Blasts Cold War Blacklisting

 
1961

Highlander Center, Labor, Civil Rights Advocate, Loses License Revocation Case

 
1967

Bill Baird Arrested for Giving Contraceptive to Unmarried Woman

 
1976

“Ethnic Purity”: Candidate Jimmy Carter Puts Foot in Mouth on Housing Discrimination

Apr 7
1890

Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Writer, Environmentalist, Suffragist and Civil Libertarian, Born on This Day

 
1911

Free Speech League Incorporated, First Free Speech Organization in U.S.

 
1912

Harry Hay, Gay Rights Pioneer, is Born

 
1917

President Wilson Issues Secret Loyalty Order

 
1924

Harlan Fiske Stone Becomes Attorney General; Ends Justice Department Abuses

 
1942

What Do We Do With the Japanese-American Evacuees?

 
1963

NY Times Reviewer Blasts Friedan’s Classic “Feminine Mystique:” Blames Women for Their Own Problems

 
2009

Vermont Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Apr 8
1943

Arthur Garfield Hays, ACLU General Counsel, Quits ABA Over Exclusion of African-Americans

 
1948

Southern Leaders Attack President Truman’s 1948 Civil Rights Speech

 
1952

ACLU Files FCC Complaint Over Radio & TV Blacklisting

 
1952

Truman Seizes Steel Mills – Begins Confrontation Over Presidential Power

 
1965

Senate to Investigate Invasions of Privacy by Post Office

 
1997

Tennessee Becomes Last State to Ratify 15th Amendment — 127 Years Late!

 
2014

NSA Spied on Human Rights Watch, Other Activist Groups

Apr 9
1919

Nebraska Outlaws Teaching German

 
1939

Marian Anderson Gives Historic Lincoln Memorial Concert

 
1947

The First Freedom Ride: Journey of Reconciliation Begins

 
1984

U.S. Begins Ambassadorship to the Vatican – Church-State Controversy Results

 
2014

Pat Robertson Asks God to “Deliver” U.S. from Obama

Apr 10
1947

Branch Rickey Acquires Jackie Robinson’s Contract

 
1947

Reagan “Names Names” to the FBI

 
1952

Naming Names: Famed Director Elia Kazan Names 8 People Before HUAC

 
1956

Birmingham Racists Attack Nat King Cole on Stage

 
1972

Charlie Chaplin Receives Honorary Oscar, 20 Years After Being Excluded From U.S.

 
2014

Senate Report on Torture: CIA “Harsh Interrogations” Exceeded Legal Authority

Apr 11
1913

President Wilson Segregates Federal Agencies

 
1938

“Birth of a Baby” Public Health Photographs Called Obscene

 
1951

President Truman Fires Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Asserts Civilian Control Over Military

 
1953

Mattachine Society Draws 500 to Gay Rights Convention in LA

 
1956

CIA Narrowly Escapes Closer Senate Oversight

 
1961

No Folk Singing Allowed in the Park!

 
1968

Congress Passes Anti-Riot Act

 
1968

Congress Passes Fair Housing Act

 
1968

Congress Passes Indian Civil Rights Act

 
1970

Governor Rockefeller Signs NY Abortion Reform Law

Apr 12
1917

Free Speech League, Others, Criticize Proposed Espionage Act

 
1921

President Harding Sends Civil Rights Message to Congress: Calls for End to “Barbaric Lynching”

 
1923

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Protests Army “Spiderweb” Chart

 
1936

Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa Play First Racially Integrated Jazz Concert in Major Venue

 
1945

President Franklin D. Roosevelt Dies at Warm Springs, Georgia

 
1950

U.S. Occupation Officials Allow Birth Control Magazine in Japan; Deny Margaret Sanger Permission to Visit

 
1963

Martin Luther King Arrested in Birmingham Demonstration: Writes Famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

 
2016

Sewall-Belmont House, Center of Women’s Rights Activity in Washington, Designated National Monument

Apr 13
1743

Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, is Born

 
1906

The Brownsville Outrage: African-American Soldiers Framed, Discharged

 
1917

Committee on Public Information Created – Federal Propaganda Agency in WWI

 
1917

Socialist Party Opposes US Entry into European War – Swift Repression Folllows

 
1953

CIA Launches MKULTRA – Secret Drug Experiments Project

 
1970

Nine Women’s Liberation Activists Arrested for Sit-in at Grove Press, Pioneering Anti-Censorship Publisher

Apr 14
1942

Attorney General Biddle OKs Censoring Father Coughlin’s “Social Justice” Magazine

 
1944

WW II “Great Sedition Trial” Begins

 
1947

Appeals Court Rules Segregated Mexican-American Schools in California Unconstitutional

 
1947

“I Am Not a Communist,” Says Charlie Chaplin

 
1974

Texas Labels Evolution a Theory, Not a Fact

 
2014

Pulitzer Prizes for Snowden-Related NSA Stories

 
2018

Tens of Thousands Hold March for Science in U.S., Around the World

Apr 15
1920

Congressman Calls for Impeachment of Secretary of Labor for Not Deportating Radicals

 
1929

NYC Birth Control Clinic Raided, Dr. Hannah Stone Arrested

 
1939

William O. Douglas Joins Supreme Court

 
1947

Jackie Robinson Breaks Baseball Color Line

 
1955

First Abortion Conference in the U.S.

 
1960

SNCC Founded by Sit-In Leaders

Apr 16
1929

“An American Tragedy:” Obscenity Trial Opens in Boston

 
1929

Margaret Sanger Appears on Stage Gagged in Boston

 
1945

Los Angeles First Unitarian Church Labeled a “Communist Meeting Place”

 
1959

“Just Don’t Mention Gas Chambers;” CBS Censors TV Program on Nuremberg Trials

 
1963

Martin Luther King, Jr., Writes Famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

 
1997

Consent Degree to End “Pattern or Practice” of Abuse by Pittsburgh Police

 
2016

Washington Post Wins Pulitzer for Path-Breaking Reporting on People Shot by the Police

Apr 17
1927

WW I Veterans Charge Schools Teach “Radicalism”

 
1932

Kentucky Prosecutor: Suppress ACLU Like a “Mad Dog”

 
1943

First Sit-in Challenges Segregated Washington D.C. Restaurants

 
1963

Forced Retirement at Age 32? Stewardesses Challenge American Airlines Rule

 
1965

First Big Anti-Vietnam War March on Washington

 
1965

Mattachine Society Pickets White House to Demand Equal Rights for Homosexuals

 
1990

Religious Use of Peyote Not Constitutionally Protected

Apr 18
1918

Dyer Anti-lynching Bill Introduced in House

 
1927

Al Smith Replies to Attacks on His Catholicism

 
1950

No Political Test for Jury Duty

 
1959

Third Youth March for Integrated Schools

 
1968

Attorney General Ramsey Clark Criticizes Chicago Mayor Daley’s “Shoot to Kill” Order

 
1988

U.S. Signs UN Convention Against Torture (But Takes Six Years to Ratify It)

 
2019

Justice Department Releases Mueller Report on President Trump — Stirs More Controversies

Apr 19
1929

Supt. of NYC Schools Bars Talk on “Free Speech” by ACLU’s Roger Baldwin

 
1929

“The Well of Loneliness,” Famous Lesbian-theme Novel, Ruled Not Obscene

 
1939

AG Frank Murphy Urges U.S. Attorneys to Protect Civil Liberties

 
1939

Connecticut Ratifies the Bill of Rights – 148 Years Late

 
1982

NASA Names Sally Ride First Woman Astronaut

 
2018

Sen. Tammy Duckworth Breaks Glass Door: Allowed to Bring Her Newborn and Breastfeed on Senate Floor

Apr 20
1932

Reed Harris Reinstated by Columbia University, But He Resigns

 
1937

From Internee to Star Trek to Same-Sex Activist: George Takei Born

 
1939

Billie Holiday Records “Strange Fruit”

 
1949

African American Youth Told to Accept “Half a Loaf”

 
1964

Mississippi Passes Package of Anti-Civil Rights Activity Laws

 
1971

Supreme Court Upholds Busing to Achieve School Integration

 
2004

President Bush Lies About Warrantless Wiretapping

 
2019

NY Yankees, Philadelphia Flyers Stop Honoring Kate Smith and “God Bless America” Over Racism

Apr 21
1938

FDR: “All Of Us . . . Are Descended From Immigrants”

 
1950

University of California Regents Adopt Loyalty Oath

 
1954

Danger! Comic Books!

 
1955

“Inherit the Wind” Opens on Broadway

 
1965

Ohio State Bans Marxist Speaker, Herbert Aptheker

 
1966

Gay Rights “Sip-In” at Julius’ Bar, NYC

 
1971

Vuitch: Supreme Court Rules in First-Ever Abortion Case

 
1985

“The Normal Heart,” By Gay Rights Activist Larry Kramer, Opens Off-Broadway

Apr 22
1935

Rep. Hamilton Fish: No Free Speech for Alien Radicals

 
1944

Sit-in Challenges Restaurant Segregation in Washington, D.C.

 
1950

Charles Hamilton Houston, Civil Rights Pioneer, Dies

 
1951

NY Times Columnist Charges “Conspiracy of Silence” over Radio and Television Blacklisting

 
1954

Army-McCarthy Hearings Begin – McCarthy Destroys Himself

 
2014

Supreme Court Upholds Michigan Constitutional Ban on Affirmative Action

 
2016

Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights to 200,000 Convicted Felons

Apr 23
1922

Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes Calls for Religious Tolerance

 
1929

Mary Ware Dennett, Sex Education and Birth Control Pioneer, Found Guilty of Obscenity

 
1943

Women in the Air Force; WASPS Unit Formed

 
1952

Mississippi Rep. John Rankin Slurs Jews on the House Floor

 
1966

Famed Boxer Muhammad Ali Refuses Induction; Applies for CO Status

 
1985

Farley Mowat, Canadian Author, Denied Entry into U.S.

 
1991

Harriet Pilpel Dies; Civil Libertarian, Reproductive Rights Pioneer

Apr 24
1913

Men Invited to Join Pro-Suffrage Parade in NYC

 
1920

“Revolutionary Radicalism” Report Slurs Pacifists, Civil Libertarians, Liberals

 
1960

Biloxi “Wade-In” Challenges Segregated Beaches

 
1967

Gen. Westmoreland Blames War Protesters for Lack of Progress in Vietnam War

 
2004

Manzanar Historic Site Interpretive Center Opens

Apr 25
1906

William J. Brennan, Jr., Future Supreme Court Justice, is Born

 
1938

Supreme Court Footnote Outlines Future Protection of Civil Liberties

 
1951

Hollywood Director Edward Dmytryk “Rehabilitates” Himself: Gives HUAC 26 Names

 
1960

“Dragonslayers” Speech: Rep. Jimmy Roosevelt Calls for Abolition of HUAC

 
1967

Colorado Passes Nation’s First Abortion Reform Law

 
1971

Rep. Ron Dellums Holds Hearings on U. S. War Crimes in Vietnam

 
1993

Huge Gay Rights March in Washington, D.C.

Apr 26
1936

Hollywood Anti-Nazi League Organized

 
1938

Cantwell Family Arrested; Case Establishes Free Exercise of Religion

 
1964

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Founded

 
1965

Supreme Court Limits Seizure of Organization’s Records: Dombrowski v. Pfister

 
1968

“Fuck the Draft” – Robert Paul Cohen Arrested

 
2000

Vermont Legalizes Civil Unions

Apr 27
1918

Hung Jury: “The Masses” Editors Not Convicted

 
1946

Civil Rights Congress Formed

 
1953

President Eisenhower Expands Loyalty Program to Cover Homosexuality

 
1955

California Supreme Court Imposes Exclusionary Rule on Police

 
1961

President Kennedy Asks Press to Self-Censor National Security News: Uproar Follows

 
1965

SCOPE Voter Registration Drive Launched

 
2013

Georgia High School Holds Its First Integrated Prom

Apr 28
1915

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Formed

 
1917

Origins of American Spying: Cipher Bureau, Forerunner of NSA, Created During World War I

 
1940

Supreme Court Affirms Right to Picket

 
1952

Supreme Court Okays “Released Time” for Religious Instruction

 
1952

Supreme Court Upholds Illinois “Group Libel” Law

 
1960

Newly Formed SDS Holds “Act Now” Conference on Human Rights in the North

 
1971

FBI Director Hoover Terminates Illegal COINTELPRO Program

 
1975

Daniel Schorr Reveals CIA Assassination Plots on National TV

 
2004

“60 Minutes II” Broadcasts Exposé of Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse

Apr 29
1922

“Children’s Crusade:” Families of Political Prisoners Picket White House Seeking Amnesty

 
1934

First Brotherhood Day; Endorsed by FDR

 
1974

“Expletive Deleted:” Nixon Releases Edited White House Watergate Tapes

 
1992

LAPD Officers Acquitted in Rodney King Beating: Los Angeles Erupts in Riots

 
2010

Women Allowed to Serve on Navy Submarines

Apr 30
1917

Quaker Action: American Friends Service Committee Founded

 
1927

Authors Organize Group to Fight “Irresponsible Censorship”

 
1934

Free Speech for Nazis? ACLU Says Yes

 
1939

Mayor LaGuardia Dedicates Plaza of Freedom at World’s Fair

 
1954

History Teacher Fired for Taking the Fifth Amendment

 
1955

Ruth Shipley Retires – “Queendom” of Passports Ends

 
2006

Boston Globe Exposes President Bush’s Abuse of Signing Statements

Index

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Abortion Rights ACLU african-americans Alice Paul anti-communism Anti-Communist Hysteria Birth Control Brown v. Board of Education Censorship CIA Civil Rights Civil Rights Act of 1964 Cold War Espionage Act FBI First Amendment Fourteenth Amendment freedom of speech Free Speech Gay Rights Hate Speech homosexuality Hoover, J. Edgar HUAC Japanese American Internment King, Dr. Martin Luther Ku Klux Klan Labor Unions Lesbian and Gay Rights Loyalty Oaths McCarthy, Sen. Joe New York Times Obscenity Police Misconduct Same-Sex Marriage Separation of Church and State Sex Discrimination Smith Act Spying Spying on Americans Vietnam War Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of 1965 War on Terror Watergate White House Women's Rights Women's Suffrage World War I World War II Relocation Camps

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