May Events - Today in Civil Liberties History

May

May 1

1919

California Criminal Syndicalism Law Takes Effect

1925

ACLU to Seek Repeal of Espionage Act

1948

Senator Glen Taylor Arrested in Civil Rights Protest

1950

Mosinee, Wisconsin, (Pop. 1,400) Occupied by “Reds” in Mock Communist Takeover

1952

Actor Edward G. Robinson Confesses to HUAC — “I Was a Sucker”

1959

Prince Edward County, Virginia, Closes Schools Rather Than Integrate

1961

Frank Wilkinson, Anti-HUAC Activist, Sent to Prison for Contempt of Congress

1970

Massive Nationwide Student Strike Protests Cambodian Invasion in Vietnam War

1984

Indianapolis Anti-Pornography Ordinance Signed

May 2

1917

War Opponents Tarred and Feathered in San Jose, CA

1927

“Three Generations of Idiots is Enough:” Supreme Court Upholds Involuntary Sterilization

1936

YWCA to Include Sex Education in its Program

1957

Senator Joe McCarthy Dies – McCarthyism Lives On

1963

“D” Day in Birmingham – Martin Luther King Mobilizes Children for Demonstrations

1972

J. Edgar Hoover, Long-Time FBI Director, Dies

1975

Eighteen Years Late, Blacklisted Dalton Trumbo Receives His Oscar

2004

Taguba Report Confirms Abuse by U.S. Military at Abu Ghraib Prison

2015

Folk Singer Guy Carawan Dies; Taught “We Shall Overcome” to Sit-In Leaders

May 3

1923

“No Woman Was Ever Ruined By a Book”

1937

Flag Salute Controversy Begins: Gobitas Sues Minersville, PA, School Board

1948

Supreme Court Rules Restrictive Racial Covenants in Housing Not Enforceable

1954

All Racial and Ethnic Groups Guaranteed Equal Protection: “Hernandez v. Texas”

1961

Harvard Bans Pete Seeger From Singing – Faculty Protest

1963

Fire Hoses and Police Dogs Attack Birmingham Civil Right Demonstrators

1993

United Nations World Press Freedom Day

2006

Victims of WW I Repression Pardoned in Montana

May 4

1953

FBI Opens File on Malcolm [X] Little — As a Communist !

1961

Freedom Ride Begins, Challenges Segregation in Interstate Travel

1970

Kent State: Ohio National Guard Shoots and Kills Four Anti-Vietnam War Protesters

1970

Tax Exemptions for Churches Held Constitutional

1980

Pope John Paul II Bars Priests from Elective Office; Liberal Rev. Drinan Forced to Leave U.S. Congress

1987

ACT UP Demands Action on HIV / AIDS Crisis

1989

Oliver North Convicted of Iran-Contra Crimes

May 5

1919

First-Ever National Conference on Lynching Held in New York City

1920

Sacco and Vanzetti Arrested: Famous Controversial Case Begins

1925

John T. Scopes Charged with Violating Tennessee Anti-Evolution Law

1953

Famed Dancer Jerome Robbins “Names Names” Before HUAC

1965

Music Giant Duke Ellington Denied Pulitzer Special Citation

1972

Groups Fight Corporal Punishment in Schools

May 6

1882

Chinese Exclusion Act Signed

1917

Private — and Only — Showing of Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Film

1941

Ernest Hemingway Denied Pulitzer Prize for “For Whom the Bell Tolls”

1959

California Ratifies 14th Amendment — 91 Years Late!

1959

New York Post Office Seizes “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”

1960

Weak 1960 Civil Rights Act Signed Into Law

2009

Maine (Temporarily) Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

2015

Nebraska Woman Sues All Gay People on Earth !

May 7

1930

NAACP “Comes of Age:” Helps Senate Reject Supreme Court Nominee

1940

ACLU Expels Elizabeth Gurley Flynn from Board of Directors

1942

NY Governor Signs Two Early Anti-Discrimination Bills into Law

1969

Women Picket White House – FBI Sees National Security Threat!

1973

The “Family Jewels:” CIA Director Orders Full Report on CIA Misdeeds

1975

Betty Ford Takes Credit for a Woman in President Ford’s Cabinet

2015

Second Ciruit Court of Appeals Rules NSA “Bulk Mail” Collection Illegal

May 8

1925

A. Philip Randolph Organizes Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

1933

Interracial March in Washington Demands Justice for Scottsboro Defendants

1943

CORE Leads Early Sit-in in Chicago

1947

Syracuse University Integrates Football Stadium – Women and Men Can Now Sit Together!

1967

“Redrup:” Supreme Court Gives Up Trying to Define Obscenity

1970

“Hard Hat Riot:” Union Workers Attack Anti-War Demonstrators in NYC

1973

War on Drugs Really Begins: NY Rockefeller Drug Laws Enacted

May 9

1928

“There is Nothing to Repress” – ACLU Leader Laments State of Civil Liberties

1933

No Left-wing Murals in Rockefeller Center!

1961

Freedom Rider John Lewis Beaten in Rock Hill, South Carolina

1968

J. Edgar Hoover Orders FBI COINTELPRO Action Against New Left Organizations

1969

The Road to Watergate Begins: NY Times Exposes Secret Bombing of Cambodia; President Nixon Orders Illegal Wiretapping

1976

World Press Freedom Committee Formed

2012

President Obama Endorses Same-Sex Marriage

2017

President Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey, Firestorm Erupts

May 10

1924

J. Edgar Hoover Appointed Head of Bureau of Investigation, Ordered to End Violations of Civil Liberties

1960

Nashville Becomes First Major Southern City to Desegregate Public Facilities

1963

“Bombingham:” Racists Bomb Birmingham Motel

1970

Protester Hangs American Flag Upside Down, With Peace Symbol, Heads to Supreme Court

2007

Compulsory Patriotism at Yankee Stadium

May 11

1917

Bureau of Legal Advice Established to Aid World War I Opponents

1952

Linus Pauling, Distinguished Scientist, Denied Passport For His Political Views

1960

FDA Approves First Birth Control Pill, Sexual Revolution Begins

1973

Judge Dismisses Charges Against Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo Because of Government Misconduct

2016

Michael Ratner, Civil Liberties Attorney, Dies

May 12

1925

OK to Issue Passports in a Woman’s Maiden Name

1932

Judge to Accompany ACLU Leaders in West Virginia Coal Area to Protect Them

1950

It’s a Strike for Equality! American Bowling Congress Abolishes All-White-Male Policy

1960

Major Anti-HUAC Protest Begins in San Francisco; Police Brutality the Next Day

1994

Abortion Clinic Access Law (FACE) Passes in Congress

1996

Three Federal Judges Visit Internet Porn Sites in Communications Decency Case

May 13

1924

Attorney General Stone Orders J. Edgar Hoover to Clean up Bureau of Investigation

1946

U.S. Occupying Forces Destroy Books in Germany

1958

Jackie Robinson Denounces President Eisenhower’s Weak Leadership on Civil Rights

1966

Role of Women in the Civil Rights Movement Generates Conflict, Controversy

1967

Mexican-American Students Protest in LA

2013

Associated Press Denounces Obama Justice Department Demand for Records

May 14

1928

Roger Baldwin’s Conviction Overturned by New Jersey High Court

1940

Emma Goldman, Anarchist, Anti-WW I Activist, Feminist, Birth Control Advocate, Dies

1951

HUAC Publishes “Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications”

1961

Burning Buses in Alabama – Racists Attack Freedom Riders

1961

Folk Singing Returns to NYC Washington Square Park

1961

Jim Peck, Freedom Rider, Assaulted in Alabama

1973

Equal Protection for Women: “Frontiero v. Richardson”

May 15

1923

Upton Sinclair Arrested in LA for Reading the Bill of Rights

1926

Conservative Women’s Group Seeks to Ban Radical Magazines From the Mails

1967

Supreme Court Declares State Juvenile Court Procedures Unconstitutional

1972

Free Exercise of Religion Protects Parents’ Right to Control of Children’s Education

1982

International Conscientious Objection Day

May 16

1914

Judge Learned Hand Rebukes Anti-Obscenity Crusader Anthony Comstock

1918

Sedition Act Passed: World War I Repression Intensifies

1927

First Amendment Breakthrough – Supreme Court Invalidates Kansas Criminal Syndicalism Law

1927

Historic Brandeis Opinion in “Whitney v. California”

1942

Gordon Hirabayashi Tells FBI He Won’t Register for Evacuation

1949

Supreme Court: First Amendment Protects Provocative Speech

1956

Mississippi Hires Secret Spies to Fight Integration

1973

“Anything the NSA Did is Totally Defensible” — President Nixon

1997

President Clinton Apologizes for Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

May 17

1921

Women Should Keep their Own Names: Lucy Stone League Formed

1924

Notre Dame Students Attack, Stop KKK Rally

1929

First Convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)

1954

President Eisenhower Issues Executive Privilege Memo

1954

President Eisenhower: “Women: Where Are They Not Equal?”

1954

“Separate but Equal” Unconstitutional: Landmark “Brown v. Board of Education” Decision

1955

Rock Around the Quad! 1,000 Princeton Students “Riot” Over “Rock Around the Clock”

1957

“Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom:” 1957 Civil Rights March on Washington

1967

Tennessee Repeals Anti-Evolution Law — 42 Years After the Scopes Case

2004

Same-Sex Marriages Begin in Massachusetts

May 18

1896

Plessy v. Ferguson – “Separate but Equal” Held Constitutional

1917

Congress Creates World War I Draft: Protests, Civil Liberties Violations Follow

1917

Anarchist Emma Goldman Denounces WW I Draft, Is Soon Arrested, Deported

1931

Supreme Court Declares California “Red Flag” Law Unconstitutional

1970

First Same-Sex Marriage Test Case Begins

1973

Jeanette Rankin, First Woman Elected to Congress, Voted Against Both WWI and WWII, Dies at Age 93

1981

A Prophetic Warning: ACLU Official Warns that Fear of “Terrorism” May Become Greatest Threat to Civil Liberties

1984

ACLU Issues “Free Trade in Ideas” Report; Condemns Reagan Administration Actions

May 19

1918

Wilson Administration Severs Contact with National Civil Liberties Bureau

1925

Malcolm [X] Little Is Born in Omaha, Nebraska

1938

ACLU Lawyer Arthur Garfield Hays Evicted From Jersey City

1950

“The Lavender Scare:” Homophobic Panic Hits Washington

1954

President Eisenhower Fails to Give Strong Endorsement of Historic “Brown v. Board of Education” Decision

1961

Supreme Court Rules Sunday “Blue” Laws Constitutional

1961

President Kennedy to Seek “Men and Women of Unquestioned Ability” as Judges

2001

First Women Graduate From VMI

May 20

1940

Free Exercise of Religion Affirmed: “Cantwell v. Connecticut”

1951

NAACP Declares Today “Josephine Baker Day” in Harlem

1954

Attorney General Brownell Advises FBI to Evade Supreme Court Decision on Eavesdropping

1961

President Kennedy Fails to Support Freedom Ride

1964

FBI Can’t Decode “Louie Louie” Lyrics; U.S. Will Not Prosecute

1966

“The Big Snoop:” Life Magazine Cover Story Exposes Government Spying

1968

Supreme Court: “Illegitimate” Children Are Persons with Rights

1996

Victory for Lesbian and Gay Rights in the Supreme Court: “Romer v. Evans”

2015

Edward Snowden, in Exile, Savors Recognition, Victories

May 21

1926

ACLU Banned from New York City Schools

1940

FDR Okays Continued FBI Wiretapping

1944

“Liberty Lies in the Hearts of Men and Women” — Judge Learned Hand

1952

Playwright Lillian Hellman Famously Rebukes HUAC

1959

A First Step: American Law Institute Proposes Abortion Law Reform

1976

Candidate Jimmy Carter Opposes Discrimination Against Homosexuals

1976

Morris L. Ernst, Pioneering Civil Liberties Attorney, Dies

May 22

1916

Margaret Sanger Speech Cancelled in St. Louis

1920

Henry Ford’s Newspaper Publishes Notorious Forged Anti-Semitic Document

1955

Lock Up Your Teenagers! Fats is Coming

1978

7th Circuit Affirms Nazi Free Speech Rights in Skokie

2007

Edie Windsor and Thea Speyer Marry – Then Make History in 2013

May 23

1923

New York Law Makes it a Crime to “Loiter” and Solicit “A Crime Against Nature.”

1929

ACLU Leaders Meet with NYC Police Commissioner, Demand Protection of Civil Liberties

1957

Cleveland Police Raid Dolree Mapp’s House: Case Leads to Exclusionary Rule

1961

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee Denounces HUAC Investigation

2013

Boy Scouts Drop Ban on Homosexuality

2018

“No President is Above the Law:” Judge Rules that President Trump Illegally Blocked Critics Access to His Twitter Account

May 24

1937

New York Law Allows Women as Jurors

1961

Freedom Riders Immediately Arrested in Jackson, MS – Secret Deal by AG Robert Kennedy

1963

AG Robert Kennedy-James Baldwin Meeting: Kennedy Gets Earful

1965

Supreme Court Strikes Down Postal Censorship Law

1976

“Hollywood on Trial” Shown at Cannes Film Festival

1983

No Tax Exemptions for Universities that Discriminate

May 25

1920

You Can’t Teach German in Nebraska!

1925

John T. Scopes Indicted: Scopes Case Begins

1938

FDR Signs Bill Providing $15 Million for Eradication of Venereal Disease

1959

Three Segregationists Voted Off Little Rock, Arkansas, School Board; Integration Struggle Continues

1964

Supreme Court Orders Virginia County to Reopen Public Schools

2020

George Floyd Murdered by Minneapolis Police; Massive Protests Sweep the Nation

May 26

1924

Discriminatory 1924 Immigration Act Passed

1924

Oriental Exclusion Act Passed

1934

McCormack-Dickstein Committee Hearings Begin; Forerunner of HUAC

1938

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Established – 37 Years of Civil Liberties Violations Follow

1947

FBI Memo Attacks “It’s A Wonderful Life” As Subversive, Anti-Capitalist Propaganda

1952

“The Miracle!” Movies Protected by First Amendment

1957

Paul Robeson Denied Passport – Gives London Concert by Phone

1965

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., Becomes First Chair of New EEOC

1975

President Ford Puts Foot in Mouth on “Brown”

1987

Preventive Detention: “Dangerous” Offenders Have No Right to Bail

May 27

1929

“Freedom for the Thought We Hate”

1944

First Television Censorship!

1954

AEC Denies Noted Scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer Appeal Over Security Clearance

1964

AG Kennedy Opens National Conference on Bail: Reform Soon Follows

1968

First Amendment Does Not Protect Burning Draft Card Rules Supreme Court

1977

Eleanor Holmes Norton Becomes First Female Chair of EEOC

1977

Senator Proxmire Gives One of 3,000 Speeches Urging Adoption of the Genocide Convention

1997

The President is Not Above the Law: Bill Clinton Edition

May 28

1920

Prominent Lawyers Issue Report Condemning Palmer Raids

1961

Amnesty International Founded

1965

FBI Investigates Actor Rock Hudson for “Homosexual Tendencies”

1968

NYCLU Supports Eight Civil Liberties Bills in NY State Legislature

1969

FBI Informant: Women’s Rights Activists Feel U.S. is “Oppressive Society”

1980

First Women Graduate From West Point

1982

Ishmael Jaffree Objects to Alabama Schools’ “Moment of Silence”

May 29

1932

Bonus Army Arrives in Washington, D.C. – Freedom of Assembly Confrontation Ahead

1950

Businessman: Civil Liberties “Best Defense Against ‘Isms’ ”

1967

Cleveland Bar Association Criticizes Mayor for Not Meeting with Martin Luther King

2007

Supreme Court Denies Lily Ledbetter Remedy for Unequal Pay

May 30

1922

Lincoln Memorial Dedicated; Audience Segregated

1942

Fred Korematsu Arrested – Test of Japanese-American Evacuation Ahead

1961

“We’ve Been ‘Cooling Off’ for 350 Years!” Civil Rights Leader Rebukes AG Kennedy’s Call for Halting the 1961 Freedom Ride

1963

VP Lyndon Johnson Gives Powerful Civil Rights Speech at Gettysburg

1987

Rep. Barney Frank Comes Out

May 31

1921

Tulsa Race Riot Devastates African-American Community

1955

“All Deliberate Speed:” Implementing “Brown v. Board of Education”

1957

Famed Playwright Arthur Miller Convicted of Contempt of Congress

2009

Dr. George Tiller, Abortion Provider, Shot and Killed

Index

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