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: https://youtu.be/h_HNB_-boTk?si=SIRY6jig5xFZbox-
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. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/NationalDefenseTest.pdf
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. https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2024/30-years-south-africa-still-dismantling-racism-and-apartheid%E2%80%99s-legacy
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: https://wams.nyhistory.org/confidence-and-crises/jazz-age/ella-may-wiggins/
You can listen to Peter Seeger’s rendition of Mill Mother’s Lament by Ella May Wiggins here: https://youtu.be/jlaO0AsteD4?si=DxhMaBNEqecK4cyq
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. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Speech_Movement
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. https://libcom.org/article/great-london-dock-strike-1889
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. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/harriet-tubman
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