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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, JULY 10–16  
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_ No Job Is Worth Dying For (1974), Two Big Nights of Folk Music
(1959), How Long Can a Stone Roll? (1962), The Hate That Hate Produced
(1959), Long Live the 14th of July! (1789), No Nukes in Africa!
(2009), A Freedom-Rider Long Before Her Time (1854) _

, Courtesy of Huck/Konopacki

 

_‘NO JOB IS WORTH DYING FOR’_

50 YEARS AGO, on July 10, 1974, a foreman told two maintenance workers
at a Whirlpool appliance plant in Marion, Ohio, to stand on a wire
mesh screen while they worked twenty feet above the factory floor. The
men knew from experience that the screen might support a person’s
weight, but it was not designed to do so.  In fact, they knew (as did
the foreman) that just two weeks earlier another maintenance worker
had stood on the same kind of screen, fell through it, and was killed
by the fall. 

The workers told the foreman why they were reluctant to stand on the
screen.  One of them said, “No job is worth dying for.” The
foreman said, if you don’t do what I say, you must clock out and
leave the premises (which would cost each of them six hours pay). They
clocked out.

Then the foreman added an official reprimand to each worker’s
personnel file. Fortunately, the workers were both union members with
a contract, which prevented Whirlpool from firing them for
“insubordination.”

The workers contacted the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, which sent a compliance officer. After inspecting the
screen, OSHA determined the workers had been within their rights to
refuse to follow the foreman’s order. The Labor Department (which
has oversight of OSHA) asked a federal judge to enjoin Whirlpool from
disciplining workers for refusing to follow potentially deadly orders
and to order Whirlpool to withdraw the reprimands, which were illegal
according to the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Whirlpool refused to follow the judge’s order. Six years later, the
case reached the Supreme Court, which agreed with OSHA. As a result,
every worker in the U.S. has the legal right to refuse to follow a
supervisor’s direction to do something that could result in
foreseeable injury or death.
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_TWO BIG NIGHTS FOR FOLK MUSIC_

65 YEARS AGO, on July 11, 1959, it was doors-open at the very first
Newport Folk Festival. Headliners included Oscar Brand, Barbara Dane,
Bob Gibson, The Kingston Trio, the New Lost City Ramblers, John Jacob
Niles, Odetta, Earl Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry and Brownie
McGhee plus the surprise debut of 18-year-old Joan Baez. All of them,
plus many more, over just two nights plus one afternoon! You can
listen to 40 minutes of it here:
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_HOW LONG CAN A STONE ROLL?_

62 YEARS AGO, on July 12, 1962, The Rolling Stones played their first
show at the Marquee Club in London. More than 61 years later, the
group released their 24th studio album. Two of the founding members,
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, will be celebrating their 81st
birthdays later this year. [link removed]

_'THE HATE THAT HATE PRODUCED'_

65 YEARS AGO, on July 13, 1959, the three national television networks
(ABC, CBS and NBC) lost many of their regular viewers who were
watching a syndicated program produced by a little-known outfit called
National Telefilm Associates. The half-hour documentary, anchored by
Mike Wallace with the invaluable assistance of Louis Lomax, which was
titled “The Hate That Hate Produced,” was the first of five daily
episodes all about The Nation of Islam that devoted a lot of time to
interviews with Malcolm X.

The program began Wallace’s narration: “While city officials,
state agencies, white liberals, and sober-minded Negroes stand idly
by, a group of Negro dissenters is taking to street-corner step
ladders, church pulpits, sports arenas, and ballroom platforms across
the United States, to preach a gospel of hate that would set off a
federal investigation if it were preached by Southern whites.”

The cameras cut to a scene of Louis X (later known as Louis Farrakhan)
indicting "the white man" for his crimes:

“I charge the white man with being the greatest liar on Earth! I
charge the white man with being the greatest drunkard on Earth.... I
charge the white man with being the greatest gambler on Earth. I
charge the white man, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, with being the
greatest murderer on Earth. I charge the white man with being the
greatest peace-breaker on Earth.... I charge the white man with being
the greatest robber on Earth. I charge the white man with being the
greatest deceiver on Earth. I charge the white man with being the
greatest trouble-maker on Earth. So therefore, ladies and gentlemen of
the jury, I ask you, bring back a verdict of guilty as charged!”

Wallace returned to tell the audience: “The indictment you've just
heard is being delivered over and over again in most of the major
cities across the country. This charge comes at the climax of a
morality play called The Trial. The plot, indeed the message of the
play, is that the white man has been put on trial for his sins against
the Black man. He has been found guilty. The sentence is death. The
play is sponsored, produced, by a Negro religious group who call
themselves The Muslims."

“The Hate That Hate Produced” was an overnight sensation, largely
because the Nation of Islam was almost totally unknown outside the
Black community and was far from being familiar to many
African-Americans. It was immediately the focus of widespread
reporting both print and electronic. With each daily episode, the
program’s Nielson ratings climbed higher.  When it was over, all
the attention led the producers to repeat all five episodes on the
night of July 22. 

The Nation of Islam’s leadership wasn’t happy (for good reason)
about the way Wallace presented their message, but like it or not, the
show provided them with a national reputation (and a membership boost)
unlike anything they had experienced until then. You could watch it
yourself here: [link removed]

_LONG LIVE THE 14TH OF JULY!_

235 YEARS AGO, on July 14, 1789, the French people’s progress in
overthrowing Louis XVI and everything he represented passed an
unforgettable milestone when insurgents seized control of the
Bastille, a medieval armory in the center of Paris that was being used
as a prison.

Storming the Bastille, killing its commander and releasing his seven
prisoners was a largely symbolic act, but it made clear to all that
the king’s power was rapidly diminishing. The king had already given
in to the demand that he allow the first meeting of an elected
constituent assembly, which immediately started to take over part of
the king’s authority, but another two years would pass before the
king would be forced to accept a revolutionary constitution.
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_NO NUKES IN AFRICA!_

15 YEARS AGO, on July 15, 2009, the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone of Africa
came into existence. It was established by the African
Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty when the treaty was ratified by 28
states, 28, as treaty requires. The treaty has since been ratified by
another 16 countries. The Treaty prohibits the research, development,
manufacture, stockpiling, acquisition, testing, possession, control or
stationing of nuclear explosive devices in the territory of the treaty
parties. The African nuke-free treaty is one of nine similar treaties
that apply to a total of 116 countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean, the South Pacific,  Southeast Asia, Central Asia and
Mongolia, as well as to the ocean seabed and to outer space.
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_A FREEDOM-RIDER LONG BEFORE HER TIME_

170 YEARS AGO, ON July 16, 1854, Elizabeth Jennings, the organist at
the First Colored Congregational Church in New York City struck a
heavy blow against racism. 

At the time, New York City public transportation was segregated not by
law, but by the whim of the streetcar companies. Some companies ran
cars for African-Americans only, some ran cars with segregated
seating, some required African-American to ride on the outside of the
cars. Some companies allowed African-Americans to ride if no other
passengers objected. 

On this day, Elizabeth Jennings was in a hurry because she was afraid
she was going to miss the beginning of a church service that needed
her work as a musician. 

She took a chance and boarded a streetcar, but a passenger objected.
When the conductor told her to get off, she demanded to know why. The
conductor told her the car was full, which was obviously not true. 
When she stayed on board, the conductor tried unsuccessfully to eject
her by force. Eventually a policeman intervened and removed Jennings
from the car.  

The ugly incident inspired an organized movement to end streetcar
segregation which received the immediate support of Frederick
Douglass, who was then the owner and editor of Frederick Douglass’
Paper. The Jennings family sued the streetcar company for damages and
won. The judge ruled that streetcars were common carriers, and as such
bound to carry all comers. The ruling was not binding on other
streetcar companies, so disputes over streetcar segregation continued
until the state legislature passed the Civil Rights Act of 1873 which
finally abolished transit segregation throughout the state.
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