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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, JUL 30-AUG 5, 2025  
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_ It’s Your Birthday Medicaid, Chin Up! (1965), A Night at the
Opera in the Infield (1925), Who Won the Civil War, Anyway? (1900),
Candidate Reagan Shows His True Colors (1980), Robert Purvis, Fighter
for Justice (1810), The Jury Knew Right from Wrong _

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_IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY MEDICAID, CHIN UP!_

JULY 30 IS THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY of President Lyndon Johnson signing
the bill that created both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The
anniversary is of special note this year because after nearly six
decades of steady expansion of both programs, Medicaid began to shrink
in 2024 for the first time ever as a result of the end of the
emergency caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. 

The contraction of Medicaid that began in 2024 will continue for the
next decade if the law is not amended. The cuts in Medicaid will have
the spillover effect of causing the Medicare program to shrink for the
first time since it began in 1966. The continuing shrinkage of both
programs will be a result of the restrictions placed on them by the
Trump administration’s omnibus domestic spending bill, which was
enacted on July 4.

Right now, 26 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance. A
decade from now, unless something changes, that number will have risen
to 38 million. Nice job, MAGA!
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In the photo, former President Harry Truman grins during the signing
ceremony for the Medicare/Medicaid bill, which was a program that
Truman had first proposed two decades previously.

 

_A NIGHT AT THE OPERA IN THE INFIELD_

AUGUST 1 IS THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY of New York City’s very first free
outdoor opera performance, which took place in front of some 25,000
spectators at Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn. The performance of Verdi’s
Aida, with a cast of 400 singers, an 125-piece orchestra, plus
elephants, camels, and 60 horses, was broadcast live by the city’s
municipal radio station, WNYC, which was just a year old.
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_WHO WON THE CIVIL WAR, ANYWAY?_

AUGUST 2 IS THE 125TH ANNIVERSARY of the 1900 North Carolina election
that amended the state’s Constitution to make it almost impossible
for any African-American to cast a vote in any election. For the next
65 years, Blacks in North Carolina lacked the right to vote.
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_CANDIDATE REAGAN SHOWS HIS TRUE COLORS_

AUGUST 3 IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY of presidential candidate Ronald
Reagan’s first speech after he was nominated by the Republican Party
two weeks earlier.

For his maiden speech as the Republican nominee, Reagan’s choice
of  language and a location that made crystal clear his intention to
win the support, and the votes, of "George Wallace-inclined voters."
White-supremacists that is.

To kick off his campaign, Reagan chose to speak to a nearly all-white
crowd at the Neshoba County Fair just outside Philadelphia, Miss.

While he spoke, he was within walking distance of the location of the
infamous 1964 murders of three civil rights workers -- James Chaney,
Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner -- by the Ku Klux Klan. 

In his speech Reagan didn't refer to the murders or the Klan, but he
did say "I believe in states’ rights. … And I believe that we’ve
distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that
were never intended in the Constitution to that federal establishment.
…" 

The message was loud and clear.  Visit the Zinn Education Project
site at
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for much more.

 

_ROBERT PURVIS, FIGHTER FOR JUSTICE_

AUGUST 4 IS THE 215TH ANNIVERSARY of the birth of the militant
abolitionist Robert Purvis in Charleston, South Carolina. Purvis was
the son of William Purvis and Harriet Judah. His father was a wealthy
white cotton merchant and his mother a free Black woman. The couple
would have been married to except that the racist laws of South
Carolina made interracial marriage a crime.

Purvis’s father moved the whole family, which included Robert’s
two mixed-race brothers, to Philadelphia in 1819, where the family
would be able to live at least somewhat less stressfully. Robert and
his brothers all attended the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society's
Clarkson School, after which Robert studied at the Amherst Academy
secondary school in Massachusetts.

When Robert was 16, his father died, leaving each of his sons a small
fortune.  Robert devoted the rest of his life to promoting the
abolition of slavery, to the work of the Underground Railroad, to the
civil rights of all citizens and to the political rights of
women. [link removed]
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_ZENGER’S JURY KNEW RIGHT FROM WRONG_

AUGUST 5 IS THE 290TH ANNIVERSARY of a stunning and unexpected victory
for freedom of the press, when a jury acquitted printer and publisher
John Peter Zenger of libel against the governor of the New York
colony.

Zenger’s legal victory is particularly memorable because it was the
result of a clear case of jury nullification. According to the law at
the time, a person committed libel by printing information that was
“scandalous, virulent, or seditious.” As far as the law was
concerned, the truth or falsity of the information was irrelevant.

If Zenger were to be found guilty of seditious libel, he stood to lose
a lot. His penalty – a fine, imprisonment, or both – was entirely
up to the discretion of the judge, whose prejudice against Zenger was
manifest. 

Zenger’s lawyer, knowing that Zenger’s defense – that his
criticism of the governor was accurate – was hopeless as a purely
legal matter, focussed all of his attention on the jury, showing in
great detail how everything Zenger had printed about the governor was
true, and that Zenger did not deserve to be punished for printing the
truth, no matter what the law said.

After 10 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous
verdict of not guilty. Zenger walked out of the courtroom a free
man. 

Despite the outcome of Zenger’s case, the law in New York colony
remained unchanged.  It was not until 1821 that New York State
adopted a constitutional provision that truth was, indeed, a defense
against a libel charge.
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* John Peter Zenger
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