[Prohibition Gets Started (in 1919), Slave Owners Get Nervous
(1834), Swing Comes to the Opera House (1944), Repression Takes
Practice (1934), Nazis Make a Reality of Wage Slavery (1934),
Wilmington Occupation Ends (1969), Voting Rights Victory (1964)]
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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, JAN 16–22  
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_ Prohibition Gets Started (in 1919), Slave Owners Get Nervous
(1834), Swing Comes to the Opera House (1944), Repression Takes
Practice (1934), Nazis Make a Reality of Wage Slavery (1934),
Wilmington Occupation Ends (1969), Voting Rights Victory (1964) _

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_PROHIBITION GETS AN E FOR EFFORT_

105 YEARS AGO, on January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment, which
established the prohibition of alcohol in the U.S., was ratified by
the requisite number of states. Shortly thereafter, Congress passed
the Volstead Act, which prohibited the production, transport and sale
of alcohol and which went into effect on January 17, 1920. The 18th
Amendment has the distinction of being the only Constitutional
amendment to have been repealed, which took place on December 5, 1933.
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_Pity the Poor Nervous Slave Owner_
 
190 YEARS AGO on January 17, 1834, the Alabama state legislature
passed a law that made it illegal for owners of enslaved persons to
free any slaves. Under the law, Alabama slave owners could only free
enslaved people by taking them out of the state before doing so. Any
person freed in that way would automatically be re-enslaved if they
returned to Alabama. During the previous year, Alabama had enacted a
law requiring all free Blacks to leave the state within 30 days, if
they failed to do so they would be punished with 39 lashes.  If,
after being whipped, they had not left the state in 20 days, they
would be sold into slavery with the proceeds going to the state. 

The Alabama legislature was concerned that free Blacks, of whom there
were very few, posed a special threat because, unlike the enslaved,
they were not under constant surveillance. Free Blacks had played
significant roles in the 1831 Virginia slave rebellion led by Nat
Turner and the same was true of the unsuccessful 1831 uprising in
Jamaica of 60 thousand of the enslaved. Despite the Jamaica uprising's
lack of immediate success, it was the prime mover in the UK
parliament's 1833 decision to eliminate nearly all slavery in the
British Empire, which was going into effect in late 1834.
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_SWING COMES TO THE OPERA HOUSE_

80 YEARS AGO, on January 18, 1944, the Metropolitan Opera House in New
York City became the venue for its first-ever jazz concert. Performers
included Louis Armstrong, Mildred Bailey, Roy Eldridge, Benny Goodman,
Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Red Norvo, Artie
Shaw, Art Tatum and Jack Teagarden. The event, which was a benefit
concert for the sale of war bonds, drew a standing-room-only audience
of 3600 and raised $650,000 (the equivalent of $11 million of today's
dollars).
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_NAZIS GET OFF TO A BAD START_

90 YEARS AGO, on January 19, 1934, the Third Reich was forced to
permanently shut down one of their first concentration camps only six
months after it opened, because it  had become an embarrassing
political fiasco. Concentration camp Kemna was a failed experiment
because the Nazis, in their eagerness to terrorize the political
opposition, had not yet realized that such facilities should be built
in isolated places where their nature could be hidden from the general
public. Camp Kemna was created in an abandoned textile factory located
on the main street of Wuppertal, a small industrial city. Passers-by
could hear the screams of torture victims, and the staff of the local
hospital was frequently called upon to give emergency care to
prisoners. The camp's infamy quickly reached nearby Dusseldorf. To
prevent the further spread of stories about torture, the Nazis shut
Camp Kemna down. In 1948, Camp Kemna's commandant, Alfred Hilgers, was
arrested and convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to
death, but the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment; in 1956 he
was released from custody. There is now a small memorial monument
across the road from the camp's main building, which is now occupied
by a mechanical engineering company.
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_NAZIS MAKE A REALITY OF WAGE SLAVERY _

90 YEARS AGO, on January 20, 1934, the Third Reich enacted a Draconian
labor law outlawing strikes and making it illegal for workers to
negotiate with employers. When the Nazis outlawed trade unions in May
1933, they did not outlaw all efforts by workers to stand up for
themselves. The new law made it illegal for individual workers to ask
for higher pay or better working conditions, or even to protest a pay
cut or increase in hours. The new law, which gave employers absolute
authority over their workers, remained in effect until the end of
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_RACIST NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT ENDS_

55 YEARS AGO, on January 21, 1969, Delaware National Guard troops were
ordered to end their unprecedented 9-month occupation of Wilmington,
Delaware's, Black neighborhoods. The troops' withdrawal marked the
conclusion of the longest-lasting enforcement of modified martial law
in a U.S. urban center in more than a century. The occupation had
continued for many months after Wilmington mayor John Barbiarz asked
Delaware's governor to call it off. The governor repeatedly explained
that his refusal was based on "intelligence reports of planned
violence" none of which were ever authenticated. The troops' principal
responsibility had been to patrol Black neighborhoods in jeeps at
night and break up any gatherings of people that they deemed to pose a
potential threat. The occupation only came to an end when the new
governor of Delaware (who had defeated the incumbent in an election
that had focussed on the unnecessarily prolonged deployment of the
National Guard) was inaugurated, and ordered its immediate end.
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_A HARD-WON VICTORY FOR VOTING RIGHTS _

60 YEARS AGO, on January 22, 1964 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee's voting rights campaign celebrated Freedom Day in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Here is a sample of a vivid description,
taken verbatim from the Civil Rights Movement Archive. "A cold rain is
falling. Fifty Blacks, mostly students plus a few adults, plus thirty
of the northern clergy, picket the Forrest County courthouse. Some
carry signs with SNCC's new slogan, 'One Man One Vote.' Close to 100
Black adults are lined up at the building to register, their numbers
dwarfing all previous attempts. A phalanx of cops and volunteer
"auxiliary police" (possemen) in helmets and rain slickers, guns on
their hips, clubs in their hands, march down the middle of Main Street
towards the protesters. Using a bullhorn, they issue their order:
'This is the Hattiesburg Police Department. We're ordering you to
disperse. Clear the sidewalk!' The pickets hold the line. No one
leaves. The cops threaten again. The pickets hold. SNCC leader Bob
Moses is arrested for "Disturbing the Peace" when he tries to escort
an elderly Black women into the courthouse to register. But none of
the pickets are arrested. For the first time in living memory, an
inter-racial civil rights demonstration in Mississippi is not
suppressed. As it becomes clear there won't be a mass jailing, more
people join the picket line, swelling it to over 200 who by the end of
the day are massed on the courthouse steps singing freedom songs." The
complete story, with photos, is here:
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* U.S. history
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* German history
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* alcohol
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* Prohibition
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* U.S. Slavery
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* Alabama
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* Jazz
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* The Third Reich
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* voting rights
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* SNCC
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