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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, SEPT 11–17  
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_ I Hate to See the Evenin' Sun Go Down (1914), Take National Defense
Day and Shove It! (1924), Apartheid on the Skids (1989), Death of an
Organizer (1929), Whose Streets? Our Streets! (1964), Big Win for
Solidarity (1889), Moses of Her People (1849) _

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_I HATE TO SEE THE EVENIN' SUN GO DOWN_

110 YEARS AGO, on Sept. 11, 1914, composer and bandleader W.C. Handy
published his immortal composition "The Saint Louis Blues," which has
since been performed and recorded by, among others, Count Basie, Cab
Calloway, Eartha Kitt, Art Tatum, Ethel Waters, Stevie Wonder, Benny
Goodman, Glenn Miller and Guy Lombardo. Handy often referred to
himself, with only slight exaggeration, as Father of the Blues. Here
is a 1925 recording by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong:
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_TAKE YOUR ANNUAL NATIONAL DEFENSE DAY AND SHOVE IT!_

100 YEARS AGO, on Sept. 12, 1924, the U.S. government held the first
annual (and nearly the last) so-called National Defense Day. 

When the event was first scheduled in January 1924, the Army and Navy
had called it “National Mobilization Day.” But when the public
recoiled strongly against a practice military mobilization so soon
after the slaughter of World War 1, the military brass and the
President took shelter in a euphemism.

Nevertheless, President Coolidge issued a proclamation that September
12 would be "The Defense Test of the American Nation." The military
used the day to make the first-ever coast-to-coast radio broadcast, a
90-minute program originating from War Department headquarters in
Washington and featuring speeches by the Secretary of War and the
Army’s commanding officer. The day also featured a mock attack on
Staten Island by the Army Air Corps and a large war game in
northwestern Maryland by several Marine battalions.

In mid-Manhattan, the Advisory Board of the New York Ordnance
District, which included the heads of U.S. Steel, New York Central
Railroad, New York Telephone and Westinghouse Electric, practiced
using code to share information with U.S. military leadership in
Washington.

National Defense Day was reported to have been observed with parades
and other quasi-military events in more than six thousand cities and
towns, including a Washington, D.C. fly-over and parade of 30,000
soldiers and civilians.

Public approval of National Defense Day was far from universal. The
Governors of Colorado, Maine, Nebraska and Wisconsin all protested its
launch, and numerous pacifist and religious organizations accused the
government of war-mongering. The annual convention of the Illinois
State Federation of Labor unanimously condemned Defense Day as a
“militaristic demonstration more apt to lead to another war than be
helpful in establishing world peace and brotherhood.”

In 1925, a second National Defense Day, considerably smaller than the
first, was held. If there was ever a plan to hold another one, it has
been totally forgotten.
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_THE BEGINNING OF APARTHEID’S END_

35 YEARS AGO, on Sept. 13, 1989, relations between South Africa’s
ultra-racist white minority government and the disfranchised majority
of the country’s population took a major step forward. 

After more than a decade of glacially incremental relaxation of the
strictures imposed by the apartheid regime, a multi-racial crowd of
some 30,000 South Africans marched through the center of Cape Town in
an unprecedented (and illegal) anti-apartheid demonstration while the
police looked and did not intervene. 

Thanks to the apartheid government’s continuing relaxation of racial
and political restrictions, the protest was later considered to be the
“last illegal march.” Less than three years later, a referendum
– in which only whites could vote – on whether to end apartheid
passed by a large majority. A year after that, South Africa held its
first election in which the entire adult population was eligible to
vote.
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_THE DEATH OF AN ACTIVIST_

95 YEARS AGO, on Sept. 14, 1929, anti-union thugs murdered union
activist and musician Ella May Wiggins while she was on her way to a
union rally outside the strike-bound Loray textile mill in Gastonia,
North Carolina.

Wiggins, who was one of the leaders of the strike, was part of a group
of strikers all of whom were headed for the rally. She was the only
person in the group who was shot, making it apparent that she was
singled out because of her leadership role.

You can read the story of Ella May Wiggins’ martyrdom here:
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You can listen to Peter Seeger’s rendition of Mill Mother’s Lament
by Ella May Wiggins here:
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_WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS!_

60 YEARS AGO, on Sept 15, 1964, the administration at the Berkeley
campus of the University of California decided it would “strictly
enforce” all university policies on all university-owned property,
which included the campus entrance at the intersection of Bancroft and
Telegraph. As a result of that decision, the Free Speech Movement was
born, and university campuses in the U.S. have never been the same.
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_LABOR SOLIDARITY WINS BIG IN LONDON_

135 YEARS AGO, on Sept. 16, 1889, a hard-fought 5-week strike by some
100,000 London dockworkers ended in victory for the workers. 

The successful dockworkers strike was unprecedented in many ways. It
was, at the time, the largest-ever successful strike. The vast body of
strikers and their families accounted for close to five percent of
London’s population. The strikers had not formed a large
organization before the strike began. They began to form a labor union
when the strike began, and by the time the strike had ended, their
brand-new organization was one of largest unions in Europe. The
dockworkers union was practically unique at the time because its
members were not considered to be skilled workers.

The strike, which was almost entirely peaceful, was widely supported
by many unions of skilled workers, such as stevedores, colliers,
sailors, and teamsters. The strike received an essential boost when
maritime unions in Australia contributed more than 30,000 pounds
sterling to the strike fund, which saved the strikers from being
starved back to work.
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_THE MOSES OF HER PEOPLE_

175 YEARS AGO, on Sept. 17, 1849, Harriet Tubman, the heroic
abolitionist and fierce advocate for the rights of women, emancipated
herself from slavery in Maryland by absconding to Philadelphia.

Tubman’s bold self-liberation will never be forgotten because her
hatred of both slavery and of misogyny led her to spend the rest of
her life fighting against both of them.  

Her fight against slavery in the U.S. ended after 16 years, when
slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment. But until she died in
1913 she remained a staunch supporter of the fight to obtain for women
all the rights they were denied by men. 

Anyone who is unfamiliar with the dramatic story of Tubman’s
personal war against slavery should at least be aware that at least 13
times she took her life in her hands and traveled into slave territory
to rescue scores of enslaved people and escort them north to freedom.
Not only that, she worked as a spy behind enemy lines for the U.S.
Army in South Carolina and Florida in 1863.
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