Protecting Laws... Or Protecting People
Looking back during a tough, tough week
Welcome back to the This Day newsletter. Each week, a member of our team gathers together bits of America’s past and attempts to find a throughline that might add a little understanding to our current moment.
Note: We’re releasing a video episode this weekend, talking about protests in LA, efforts to update (or un-update, as it were) National Park signage, and plenty more. Stay tuned!
Here’s what happened over the week ahead in American political history…
June 12
1963: Civil rights activist Medgar Evers is assassinated
1987: President Ronald Reagan delivers his famous speech in West Berlin, urging the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall"
2017: Otto Warmbier returns from North Korea in a coma
2018: The Singapore Summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump takes place
June 13
1777: Marquis de Lafayette arrives in South Carolina to serve alongside General George Washington in the American Revolutionary War
1866: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 14th Amendment, extending liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people
1966: The Supreme Court establishes Miranda rights, requiring law enforcement to inform suspects of their rights before questioning them
1971: The New York Times begins publishing the "Pentagon Papers," revealing classified government documents about the Vietnam War
1986 : The Rogers Commission has issued a report and is conducting a series of hearings on the causes of the Challenger space shuttle disaster earlier that year
June 14
1777: The Continental Congress adopts the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States
1922: President Warren G. Harding becomes the first president to be heard on the radio during the dedication of a memorial site for Francis Scott Key
1985: TWA Flight 847 leaving Athens is hijacked by Hezbollah terrorists
2017: A shooting occurs at a charity baseball game, injuring several individuals, including Republican congressman Steve Scalise
June 15
1775: George Washington appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, the day after Congress establishes the force
1877: The first African-American graduate of West Point, Henry Ossian Flipper, completes his education
1877: A prominent Jewish businessman by the name of Joseph Seligman is turned away from staying at the Grand Union Hotel, with the hotel claiming a new policy “no Israelites shall be permitted in the future to stop at this hotel.”
1917: Congress passes the Espionage Act during World War I, impacting freedom of speech and the press.
1946: The United States presents the Baruch Plan at the United Nations, proposing international control of atomic energy to prevent nuclear proliferation.
1970 : Russian television reporter Valentin Zorin airs an episode of his series “Masters Without Masks.” For decades, Zorin was the primary source by which Russians understood what life in America was like.
June 16
1858: Abraham Lincoln says "A house divided against itself cannot stand," accepting the Illinois Republican Party's nomination for the Senate
1897: A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed, leading to Hawaii becoming a US territory
1908: The Republican Party convenes in Chicago, where President Theodore Roosevelt picks William Howard Taft as his successor
1933: The passage of the first raft of legislation that would come to be known as The New Deal
1944: George Stinney, a 14-year-old African-American boy, is wrongfully executed for the murder of two white girls, becoming the youngest person ever executed in 20th-century America
June 17
1775: The Battle of Bunker Hill begins during the American Revolutionary War throughout a hilly landscape of fenced pastures that were situated across the Charles River from Boston
1856: The Republican Party opens its first national convention in Philadelphia
1930: President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff bill into law, raising import duties to protect American businesses and farmers
1972: The Watergate burglars are arrested
1991: The body of Zachary Taylor, the 12th President of the United States is exhumed to deal with persistent speculation that Southern politicians had arranged to have the nation’s 12th president poisoned because he opposed extending slavery to the Western territories
June 18
1682: William Penn founds Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1798: The Alien and Sedition Acts, which impacted immigration and freedom of speech, pass
1812: The War of 1812 begins
1912: The Chicago national Republican Convention splits between President William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt; after Taft is nominated, Roosevelt and progressive elements of the party form the Progressive Party (also known as the 'Bull Moose Party')
1953: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott wed 18 months after meeting in Boston
1968: The Supreme Court bans racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing
In which we take the above collection of events and find themes, throughlines, rabbit holes and more. This week, Kellie Carter Jackson looks back.
This week is tough, really tough. Over the weekend, I watched the footage coming out of Los Angles regarding the increased violence by ICE officials to detain and deport undocumented people living in the United States. Against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom, President Donald Trump ordered 2,000 National guardsmen to LA to operate as a show of force against protestors demanding answers to the chaos and confusion of ICE sweeps. The footage was difficult to watch primarily because of the grief and terror that directly targeted the Latino community.
Looking back, so many historical dots resonated with me such as the 1798: Alien and Sedition Acts, which impacted immigration and freedom of speech in the United States. The act did a number things which impacted immigrants. It empowered the President to deport any non-citizen deemed “dangerous to the peace and safety” of the United States. According to Trump and his administration, the very existence of undocumented residents is considered “dangerous to the peace and safety” of the public. The irony is that ICE sweeps and their nefarious tactics are actually causing more harm to the public and inflaming tensions over immigration. This 1798 act also criminalized “the publication of false, scandalous, and malicious writings against the government,” silencing detractors looking to speak out against federal wrongdoing.
I think and hope this moment is going to cause Americans to think beyond the law. Yes, the law matters, but so does dignity and decency. I think often about activist Mariame Kaba, who posed the notion that “not all crimes are harms and not all harms are crimes.” What matters most is not the crime; what matters most is what is harmful. The law matters, such as in 1866 when the US House of Representatives passed the 14th Amendment, extending liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people or in 1966, when the Supreme Court established Miranda rights, requiring law enforcement to inform suspects of their rights before questioning them. Laws can protect people and laws can protect systems. But what happens when people and systems are harmful? What then do we make of the law? It’s a lot to consider. One thing is clear, the country is not in agreement about what matters more. And once again, I point to another pivotal historical moment this week when in 1858, Abraham Lincoln declared, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” As a country we are going to have to decide fairly quickly what kind of country we want to live in: one that protects laws or one that protects people.
A Bit More Esoterica
Thanks to listener Benny who wrote in with this great note after our recent episode on the attempt to ban margarine:
My grandfather was the director of a Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin in the 1960s and 70s. Margarine, as a dairy-free butter alternative, is critical for keeping kosher. Growing up I heard stories about how my grandfather would drive several hours to the Illinois border to load up his car with margarine for the camp kitchens. He used to laugh about worrying that the Wisconsin State Highway Patrol would pull him over and confiscate his illicit margarine imports. I never really knew if these stories were true, but listening to the episode it seems possible.
My grandfather passed away last week at the age of 97. One of the things I love so much about the podcast is how it gives weight to the obscure, sometimes implausible stories that surround us all the time. Thank you for the opportunity to reflect on and better believe—maybe—these stories from my grandfather.
If you have obscure, sometimes implausible stories from family members, let us know!! There’s probably another good episode in them somewhere.
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