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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, SEP 17–23, 2025  
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_ No Way Out for Haiti (1915), Slavers Flex Political Muscles (1850),
Decades of Struggle Wins! (1935), Racial Justice Doesn’t Come Easy
(1975), A Boycott on Steroids (1939), ‘We Believe in Farmers’
(1985), No ‘Justice’ for Emmett Till (1955) _

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_PUTTING THE SQUEEZE ON HAITI_

SEPTEMBER 17 IS THE 110TH ANNIVERSARY of Haiti’s government bowing
to overwhelming military and economic pressure and signing a treaty
– the Haitian-American Convention of 1915 – that gave the U.S.
complete control of Haiti’s financial and government administration
for the next 10 years. 

Already occupied by U.S. Marines, who had forcibly removed all of the
Haitian government’s gold reserve, Haiti’s only choice was between
a U.S. occupation that could last indefinitely and an occupation that
would, according to the U.S., end after 10 years. Even that agreement
was broken by the U.S., which did not end its military occupation
until 1934.
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_SLAVERS FLEX THEIR POLITICAL MUSCLE_

SEPTEMBER 18 IS THE 175TH ANNIVERSARY of the signing of the Fugitive
Slave Act of 1850 by U.S. President Millard Fillmore. The 1850 law was
a much more draconian version of the existing Fugitive Slave Act of
1793.

The 1850 law greatly strengthened the enforcement powers of both
officials and of slave-catchers over anyone they accused of having
escaped slavery, at the same time it eliminated almost all of the
legal defenses that an accused fugitive could invoke.
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_DECADES OF STRUGGLE WINS IN THE END_

SEPTEMBER 19 IS THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY of an event is an inspiring
reminder that the struggle to protect the environment can be won, no
matter how long and difficult it may be.

In 1935, the federal government began the construction of a planned
107-mile barge canal across Florida to connect Jacksonville on the
Atlantic Ocean and Inglis on the Gulf of Mexico. Environmentalists'
opposition to the project was intense because the planned route would
have threatened the state's supply of fresh water and destroyed or
compromised many sensitive subtropical ecosystems.

Construction proceeded slowly and with long interruptions, until in
1971, when the canal was one-third completed, a lawsuit by the
Environmental Defense Fund and Florida Defenders of the Environment
resulted in a preliminary injunction. Four days later Richard Nixon
ordered an end to the project.

Part of the route of the unfinished canal is now the Marjorie Harris
Carr Cross Florida Greenway, named to honor one of the leaders of the
effort to stop the canal.
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_RACIAL JUSTICE DOESN’T COME EASY_

SEPTEMBER 20 IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of Florida’s governor pardoning
two inmates on death row, Freddie Lee Pitts and Wilbert Lee, for a
murder they did not commit.  The two had already served more than 12
years in prison.

Pitts and Lee, both young Black men who were accused of having
murdered two white gas station workers, appealed their convictions
multiple times. Their efforts to obtain justice increased three years
after they were first convicted, when a man who had no connection with
Pitts and Lee confessed to having committed the murders. 

Pitts and Lee eventually succeeded in winning the right to a new
trial, but they were both convicted again, because the trial judge
refused to admit any evidence concerning the third man’s admission
of guilt.

Pitts and Lee might have been executed or spent the rest of their
lives in prison had it not been for more than eight years of reporting
on their case by Gene Miller, a reporter for the Miami Herald.
Miller’s reporting convinced Florida governor Rubin Askew to
investigate the case, with the result that Askew became convinced of
their innocence. Saying that “the evidence which was not available
at the trial and is now available is conclusive. These men are not
guilty,” Askew pardoned them.  

Pitts and Lee finally won their freedom in 1975, and Gene Miller won a
Pulitzer Prize (his second) for his dogged reporting on a blatant
miscarriage of justice.
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_EVEN BETTER THAN A BOYCOTT_

SEPTEMBER 21 IS THE 86TH ANNIVERSARY of a very early example of a
successful lunch-counter sit-in demonstration. 

Cafeteria Employees Union Local 302 was on strike against Shack
Sandwich Shops in New York City. The union was demanding a closed
shop, an end to the employer’s racially discriminatory treatment of
the workforce, a 48-hour week, and a very substantial wage increase. 

After seven weeks on strike, on September 21, 1939, about a hundred
supporters of the union occupied all the seats at one of the struck
shops and refused to leave. After repeated sporadic sit-downs
continued for more than three weeks, the union and the employer agreed
to a contract that substantially satisfied all of the union’s
requirements.
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_‘WE BELIEVE IN FARMERS’_

SEPTEMBER 22 IS THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY of the first Farm Aid benefit
concert, which took place in 1985 in Champaign, Illinois, in front of
some 80,000 people.  

Performers included The Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffett, Glen Campbell,
Johnny Cash, John Denver, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Merle Haggard,
Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Billy Joel, B.B.King, Carole King,
Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Willie
Nelson, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, Lou Reed, Kenny Rogers,
Sissy Spacek and Neil Young, who raised $9 million for the benefit of
family farmers facing foreclosure.

Additional Farm Aid benefits have taken place almost annually before
huge audiences in venues all over the country, from Connecticut to
Washington State, and from Minnesota to Texas. This year’s concert
will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on September 20.  For
tickets to this week’s event and much more information about Farm
Aid, visit [link removed] [[link removed]]

 

_JIM CROW JUSTICE FOR EMMETT TILL’S MURDERERS_

SEPTEMBER 23 IS THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY of an all-white jury’s
acquittal of Emmett Till’s murderers in Sumner, Mississippi. For a
summary of the trial, visit the Equal Justice Initiative’s
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For a redacted version of the FBI’s shocking review of the case,
visit
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For more People's History,
visit [link removed]
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* Haiti-U.S. relations
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* Fugitive Slave Law
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* environmental movement
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* miscarriage of justice
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* Sit-Down Strikes
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* Farm Aid
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* Emmett Till
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