September Events - Today in Civil Liberties History

September

Sep 1

1919

First U.S. Communist Parties Founded; Greeted by Police, Repression

1922

Sweeping Injunction Denies Railroad Workers First Amendment Rights

1926

Virginia KKK Kidnap Catholic Priest for Teaching African-American Children

1950

Folk Singer Josh White Reads Lyrics of “Strange Fruit” into the Congressional Record

1955

Blacklist Victim Philip Loeb Commits Suicide

1955

Huck Finn Whitewashed – No Slavery, No African-Americans in TV Movie

Sep 2

1918

Theodore Roosevelt: Men Who Loaf on Defense Jobs Are “Traitors”

1934

Clara Shortridge Foltz Dies – First Female Lawyer in California

1939

FBI Memo Launches Notorious Custodial Detention Index

1957

Martin Luther King Speaks at Highlander Folk School – Is Falsely Accused of Attending a “Communist Training School”

1958

National Defense Education Act Includes Loyalty Oath and Bar to Civil Rights Enforcement

1966

Gov. George Wallace Signs Law Declaring Federal School Desegregation Regulations “Null and Void”

Sep 3

1918

“Slacker Raids” in New York Round up 10,000

1950

Into the Quagmire: First U.S. Military Assistance Group Arrives in Vietnam

1964

Secret CIA Funding of Private Foundations Revealed, But No Outrage Follows

1971

FBI to Investigate Police Violence Against Latinos, African-Americans in Bridgeport, CT

Sep 4

1949

Rescheduled Peekskill, NY, Concert Held

1951

Ohio State Imposes Speaker Ban

1953

HUAC Loves Lucy

1957

African-American Students Blocked From Entering Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas

1957

Wolfenden Report in UK Recommends De-criminalizing Private, Consensual Homosexual Behavior Between Adults

1968

CIA Delivers “Restless Youth” Report on U.S. Peace Groups

Sep 5

1917

DOJ Agents Raid I.W.W. Offices Around the Country – Complete Suppression of I.W.W. Begins

1917

Government Raids Socialist Party Offices; Publications Halted

1937

“Ladies of the Jury” Make First New York Appearance

1951

Only One Senator Supports President Truman’s Firing of General MacArthur

1959

South Carolina Congressman Wants to “Kick Out” U.S. Civil Rights Commission

1995

“Women’s Rights are Human Rights” – Hillary Clinton Speaks In Beijing

2018

President Trump Attacks Right to Protest – Again

Sep 6

1939

FDR Authorizes FBI to Investigate “Subversive” Activities

1966

Margaret Sanger, Birth Control Pioneer, Dies at Age 86

1974

First Lady Betty Ford Supports Equal Rights Amendment

1977

President Carter Okays Affirmative Action, Opposes Quotas

2006

President Bush Lies – Says U.S. Does Not Torture

Sep 7

1922

Post Office Lifts Ban on Alexander Berkman’s “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist”

1957

First New York Meeting of the Daughters of Bilitis, First Lesbian Group in America

1957

Vatican Condemns Race Discrimination in the U.S.

1959

Post Office to Stop Circulating Christian Pro-Censorship Editorial

1960

Protestant Group Attacks John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism

1968

Feminists Protest Miss America Pageant – But Do NOT Burn Bras

1984

Chicago Bans Break Dancers, Jugglers, Mimes, Singers; ACLU Sues

2016

Woman WW II Veteran Wins Right to Burial at Arlington Cemetary

Sep 8

1930

Labor Educator Detained at Ellis Island – ACLU Protests

1952

ACLU Opens Washington, D.C., Lobbying Office

1974

President Gerald Ford Pardons Richard Nixon

1981

Iowa School District Voters Reject Bible as Textbook

1993

Freedom for the Thought We Hate – African American ACLU Lawyer Defends KKK First Amendment Rights; Criticized by NAACP

Sep 9

1919

Boston Police Strike Stirs Fears of Anarchy, Revolution

1925

White Mob Attacks Ossian Sweet’s Home in Detroit; Famous Trial Results

1956

From the Waist Up: Elvis Censored on Ed Sullivan Show

1957

President Eisenhower (Reluctantly) Signs the Historic 1957 Civil Rights Act

1963

Alabama Gov. George Wallace Defends “Rights of Whites”

1971

Attica Prison Rebellion Begins

1971

President Nixon’s “Plumbers” Burglarize Ellsberg’s Psychiatrist’s Office

1976

U.S. Civil Service Commission Drops Loyalty Questions from Job Applications

1982

Senate Rejects Federal Ban on Abortion

Sep 10

1933

ACLU to President Roosevelt: Admit Refugees from Nazi Germany

1934

New York City Relents, Opens Ten Parks to Public Meetings

1956

Police Must be Impartial, NYC Police Commissioner Says

1963

Alabama Fights School Integration – JFK Mobilizes National Guard

1963

Trashy Novels “Have a Place in Our Society,” Judge Rules

1965

NYC Police Commissioner: Supreme Court Makes Law Enforcement “More Difficult”

1974

ACLU Argues for Non-Disclosure of Political Party’s Contributor’s List

Sep 11

1917

Emma Goldman Speech Banned in New York – Appears On Stage Gagged

1940

Lawyers Guild Report: Laws, Violence Keep “Reds” off the Ballot

1958

Justice Department Drops Effort to Designate Lawyers Guild a Subversive Organization

1962

Four Clergy Sue Mississippi Police Over Civil Rights Arrests

1967

Kansas Loyalty Oath Declared Unconstitutional

2001

Terrorists Attack U.S. – War on Terrorism, Violations of Civil Liberties Escalate

2011

ACLU Report, “A Call to Courage,” on Civil Liberties in the Years After “9/11”

Sep 12

1910

Alice Stebbins Wells, First Policewoman in U.S., Sworn In

1936

Communist Party Meeting Banned in Queens

1951

LA Unitarian Minister Accused of “Aid and Comfort to the Communist Cause”

1958

“The Constitution is Supreme:” Cooper v. Aaron

1960

John F. Kennedy Gives Historic Speech on Religious Liberty

1974

Newark Mayor Bans All Demonstrations – New Jersey ACLU Sues

1977

African-American Students Boycott Sex-Segregated Mississippi Schools

Sep 13

1920

NAACP Leaders Have “Cordial” Meeting the GOP Presidential Candidate Harding

1948

Margaret Chase Smith First Woman Elected to Serve in Both Houses of Congress

1971

Massacre at Attica Prison, New York

1994

Violent Crime Control Act Addresses Police Abuse, Violence Against Women

1994

Violence Against Women Act Passed

2001

Jerry Falwell Blames 9/11 Attacks on ACLU, Secularism

Sep 14

1879

Margaret Sanger, Birth Control Pioneer, is Born

1918

“Civil Liberty Dead,” Laments The Nation Magazine

1918

WW I Conscientious Objectors Chained in Solitary Confinement, Dark Unsanitary Cells

1918

Eugene Debs Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Anti-War Speech

1937

Hugo Black, New Supreme Court Justice, Attacked for Past KKK Membership

1963

Pete Seeger Refuses to Sign Loyalty Oath, Is Barred from “Hootenanny” TV Show

1965

Stewardesses Win Grievance on Airline No Marriage Policy

1974

First Lady Betty Ford Endorses Equality For Women and African-Americans

1976

National Emergencies Act Limits Presidential Power

2001

War on Terror: Congress Passes Joint Resolution on Use of Force

2001

President Bush Declares National Emergency on Terrorism

2008

George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu, Marries His Same-Sex Partner

Sep 15

1921

War Department Removes 17 Alleged WW I “Slackers” From its List

1939

Censor Ruling Reversed: OK to Show Film of Unmarried French Peasants

1963

“Bombingham” – Birmingham Church Bomb Kills Four African American Girls

1970

VP Spiro Agnew: Rock Music Destroying America’s Youth!

1976

ACLU Sues Memphis over Destroyed Police Spying Files

Sep 16

1917

Pacifists Arrested for Protesting WW I, Celebrating the Constitution

1940

First Peacetime Draft in American History Enacted

1963

“A Time to Speak:” Chuck Morgan, White Birmingham Resident, Denounces Racist Bombing

1964

Berkeley Bans Off-Campus Political Advocacy on Campus, Sparks Free Speech Movement

1974

President Ford Offers Conditional Amnesty to Vietnam War Protesters

2001

Bush Promises “Wrathful, Shadowy and Inventive War” – Delivers on Promise

2001

Cheney Say U.S. Will Work “The Dark Side” in War on Terror – Delivers on Promise

Sep 17

1787

Constitution Day: U.S. Constitution Signed, Sent to the States for Ratification

1913

Anti-Defamation League Formed

1937

FDR’s Constitution Day Speech: Extraordinary Claims of Presidential Power

1950

HUAC Calls National Lawyers Guild the “Legal Bulwark of the Communist Party”

1952

Charlie Chaplin Sails for England – Visa Revoked

1971

Justice Hugo Black, Civil Liberties Giant, Retires from the Supreme Court

1985

President Reagan Finally Breaks Silence on HIV/AIDS Epidemic

2001

Authority to Torture: President Bush Signs Secret Directive Giving CIA Authority to Capture and Interrogate Terrorists

2003

Ohio Re-ratifies 14th Amendment

Sep 18

1928

Anti-Catholic Attacks on Candidate Al Smith Continue

1947

National Security Act in Effect on This Day: Decades of Lawless Abuses Begin

1951

Evasion of Hollywood Blacklist by Film Studios Exposed

1958

Cincinnati Public Library Bans “Lolita,” Acclaimed Novel

1987

New York Times Exposes FBI Library Awareness Program

2020

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Feminist and Civil Liberties Hero, Dies

Sep 19

1946

Truman Promises Presidential Civil Rights Committee

1951

All-Time “Namer of Names,” Martin Berkeley, Names 150+ to HUAC

1964

Nation’s First Gay Rights Demonstration Held

1985

Frank Zappa Zaps Music Censorship Idea

Sep 20

1950

ABA Convention Calls for Loyalty Oath for All Lawyers

1962

James Meredith Denied Registration at University of Mississippi

2006

Heart Mountain Relocation Center Designated a Historic Landmark

2011

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy Ends

Sep 21

1789

Congress Agrees to Religion Clauses in the First Amendment

1915

Anthony Comstock Dies – Censorship Lives On

1955

Daughters of Bilitis Founded; First U.S. Lesbian Group

1996

President Clinton Signs Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

Sep 22

1922

Cable Act Grants Women Citizenship Independent of Husband’s Status

1940

California Removes Communist Party From the Ballot

1950

Anti-Korean War Protester Waves “Peace” Flag; Gets Two Months in the Workhouse

1950

Congress Passes Emergency Detention Act

1950

Repressive McCarran Act Passed Over President Truman’s Veto

1961

ICC Bans Segregation in Interstate Travel Facilities

1988

Attorney General Richard Thornburgh Attacks ACLU for “Political Agenda”

1989

Univ. of Michigan Campus Speech Code Declared Unconstitutional

Sep 23

1946

Paul Robeson Confronts President Truman in Oval Office Over Lynching; Truman Ends Meeting

1952

Nixon: “I Am Not a Quitter” – 22 Years Later, He Quit

1953

Army Bans Kinsey Report on Women From its Libraries – Claims Subject “Not Of Interest to G.I.s”

1953

CIA Expands Secret and Illegal Mail Opening Program

1957

Segregationist Mob Blocks School Integration in Little Rock

Sep 24

1927

Jay Near Publishes “Defamatory” Articles, Heads for Supreme Court

1954

Billboard Magazine Calls for Censorship of R&B Songs

1965

President Johnson Orders Affirmative Action

1969

Chicago 8 (7) Trial Opens; Anti-Riot Act Tested

1975

CIA Spy Chief: “Certain Individual Rights Have to be Sacrificed for the National Security”

1982

Banned Books Week Begins – Last Week of September

2003

New York City Police “Stop and Frisk” Practices Unconstitutional — But Practices Continue

Sep 25

1789

Congress Passes the Bill of Rights; Sends it to the States for Ratification

1957

President Eisenhower Sends Troops to Little Rock to Enforce Integration

1971

Emergency Detention Act Repealed

1981

First Woman on the Supreme Court: Sandra Day O’Connor

1982

Reagan Attacks “Twisted Logic” of Separation of Church and State

2001

Memo to President Bush Says Congress Has No Authority to Limit His Powers on Terrorism

Sep 26

1917

Post Office to Ban Emma Goldman’s “Mother Earth”

1972

ACLU of Northern California Sues San Francisco Press Club Over Exclusion of Women

1973

Rights of the Disabled: Congress Passes Rehabilitation Act

1986

William Rehnquist Becomes Chief Justice

Sep 27

1940

A. Philip Randolph Confronts FDR In White House Over Segregated Military

1967

“A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority,” Key Anti-Vietnam War Protest, Published

1997

President Clinton Honors “Little Rock Nine” on 40th Anniversary of the Integration Crisis

2000

Frank Wills, Watergate Scandal Hero, Dies

Sep 28

1918

Theodore Roosevelt Calls for Universal Service in Peacetime and War, Women and Men

1919

Lynching, Riot in Omaha; Federal Troops Restore Order

1962

Arthur Goldberg Joins Supreme Court

1982

Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues Protests Low Number of Women at IRS

2003

International Right to Know Day

Sep 29

1943

Six Conscientious Objectors Begin Hunger Strike in Lewisburg Penitentiary over Censorship of Reading Materials

1956

Virginia Passes Five Repressive Anti-NAACP Laws

1976

Hyde Amendment Bars Federal Funds for Abortion

2011

Log Cabin Republicans Challenge “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy

2015

Planned Parenthood President Rebuts Faked Attack Videos

Sep 30

1933

Predecessor to “Strange Fruit” Introduced on Broadway

1942

FBI Creates “Obscene File,” Opens Crusade Against Pornography

1954

Rationale for Secrecy and Lawlessness: The Cold War is “A Different Kind of War”

1968

Real Freedom for the Thought We Hate: ACLU’s Eleanor Holmes Norton Defends Free Speech for George Wallace

1970

“A Rock Group of Some Sort:” FBI Investigates The Grateful Dead

1978

Belmont Report: Protection of Human Subjects in Research

2009

International Blasphemy Day Founded

2011

Can the U.S. Kill American Citizens Without Due Process? – Anwar Al-Awlaki Killing Raises Troubling Questions

Index

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