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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, APRIL 9–15, 2025  
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_ Peddling Snake Oil from the Oval Office (2020), Refugees from the
Great Dust-Up (1935), Jonas Salk, Lifesaver (1955), Fighting Racism
for the Long Haul (1775), Ireland’s Prelude to Freedom (1920),
Getting Organized to Fight Jim Crow (1960) _

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_PEDDLING SNAKE OIL FROM THE OVAL OFFICE (2020)_

THE WEEK OF APRIL 9 IS THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of the moment when I and
many others began to truly understand we were enmeshed in a global
public-health catastrophe completely unlike anything we had ever
experienced. 

At the time, much of the world had been in lockdown for weeks. But
lockdowns, by themselves, were proving to be incapable of
short-circuiting the Covid-19 pandemic. The spread of infection was
not going to be denied that easily.

President Trump, having tried denial – "For the vast majority of
Americans, the risk is very very low” he said – was making a
blustery show of action and angry rhetoric, such as banning travel
from Covid-19 hot spots and blaming the World Health Organization for
“severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the
coronavirus."

But having already spent three years hollowing out federal
public-health agencies, the Trump administration had blinded itself to
what was happening and what needed to be done. By mid-February 2020,
South Korea was administering tens of thousands of Covid tests daily,
which was essential to slow the spread of the virus. In the U.S.
similar testing was only available in September 2020.

On April 10, Trump told reporters the pandemic would kill
“substantially” fewer than 100,000 in the U.S. In fact, the
hundred-thousandth U.S. fatality occurred only eight weeks later;
there would be four hundred thousand fatalities before the end of
2020. By the end of 2023 the U.S. experienced some 1,150,000,000
Covid-19 deaths. Many public-health specialists believe that nearly
half of the Covid-19 fatalities in the U.S. could have been prevented
if the country’s resources had been used more wisely. 

Living through months and years of events that had once seemed to be
beyond the realm of possibility makes it difficult to recall them
accurately. There may be comfort in forgetfulness, but it offers no
protection from a new virus or an unprecedented heat wave.
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_REFUGEES FROM THE GREAT DUST-UP (1935)_

APRIL 11 IS THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY of the worst day of one of the most
damaging of the vast weather systems that turned millions of acres of
farmland in 11 midwestern states and three Canadian provinces into
what was known as the Dust Bowl.

On this day in 1935 wind-blown dust sharply reduced visibility in
large areas of seven states: Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado,
Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico. Many schools and businesses either
closed early or never opened. Visibility was so limited that vehicles
of all kinds were forced to slow to walking speed or stop altogether.
Breathing the dust-filled air was very hazardous. In places the winds
were so powerful they broke windows. In addition, the wind stripped
all the topsoil from vast swathes of farmland.   

On other days similar storms ravaged parts of Montana, North Dakota,
South Dakota, and Iowa as well as southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and
Manitoba in Canada. [link removed]
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_JONAS SALK, LIFESAVER (1955)_

APRIL 12 IS THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY of the U.S. government’s approval
of the first polio vaccine, which was developed by Jonas Salk in 1955.
Mass vaccination campaigns began almost immediately. As a result,
annual polio infections in the U.S. fell from about 35,000 in 1953 to
160 cases in 1961, to zero in 1979. [link removed]
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_FIGHTING RACISM FOR THE LONG HAUL (1775)_

APRIL 13 IS THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY of the establishment of the first
organization dedicated to outlawing the practice of slavery in what
would soon become the United States. 

The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage
was founded in 1775 by a meeting of 24 men in the Rising Sun Tavern in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1784 it renamed itself the Pennsylvania
Abolition Society and it continues to devote itself to the cause of
combating racism. [link removed]
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_IRELAND’S PRELUDE TO FREEDOM (1920)_

APRIL 14 IS THE 105TH ANNIVERSARY of an important victory in the Irish
War of Independence, when a 2-day long general strike by thousands of
Irish workers forced British authorities to unconditionally release
all 89 revolutionary prisoners awaiting trial on sedition charges. The
successful outcome of the strike in 1920 was a prelude to the eventual
victory of pro-independence forces in December 1921.

The general strike, which began April 13, was called in support of the
demand that 89 revolutionary prisoners, most of whom were being held
indefinitely without charges, be unconditionally released. 

The workers’ strike was enormously effective, except in the
pro-British stronghold of Ulster. Throughout Dublin and all 26 of the
southern Irish counties virtually all shops, restaurants and hotels
were shut down, as were the docks, the post office, public
transportation and intercity railroads.

The situation was so dire in such a vast territory, the leaders of the
British forces decided to agree to the strikers’ demand for the
prisoners’ release in exchange to the end of the strike.
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_GETTING ORGANIZED TO FIGHT JIM CROW (1960)_

APRIL 15 IS THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY of the founding of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at a 3-day conference of some 200
people, most of whom were Black college students, at Shaw University
in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The 1960 meeting took place just 10 weeks after the beginning of the
fast-expanding student-led civil rights sit-in movement that had been
sweeping cities and towns throughout the southern U.S. The students
who were sitting-in at lunch counters were part of a largely
spontaneous campus-based region-wide movement. The many campus
organizations involved had no central body that could help to support
and coordinate their work and train their members.    

Seeing the need for such a coordinating body, the Shaw University
meeting was initiated by Ella Baker, Executive Director of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, one of the leading civil
rights movement organizations at the time. Baker, with SCLC’s
support, invited representatives of almost 60 campus organizations in
12 southern states, some 20 campus organizations from colleges in the
North, plus representatives of Congress of Racial Equality, Fellowship
of Reconciliation, National Student Association, SCLC and Students for
a Democratic Society. [link removed]
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For more People's History, visit
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* Covid-19; Public Health
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* Climate
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* Polio eradication vaccines
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* slavery and abolition
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* Irish history
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* SNCC
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