"We, the People" In Action

The looooong history of speaking out

Welcome back to the This Day In Esoteric Political History newsletter. Each week, a member of our team (or a friend of the show) gathers together bits of America’s past and attempts to find a throughline that might add a little understanding to our current moment.

Here’s what happened over the week ahead in American political history…

November 14

• 1864: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman left Atlanta and began a destructive march to the sea, burning buildings and supply lines in his attempt to “break the back” of the Confederacy

• 1881: the Trial begins for President James Garfield assassin Charles J. Guiteau

• 1918 : Famed industrialist Henry Ford starts to raise questions about the result of the Michigan Senate election, in which he lost by a narrow margin

November 15

• 1777: The Articles of Confederation are approved by the Continental Congress

• 1937: Air conditioning comes to Congress

• 1969: 500,000 people protest the Vietnam War in D.C.

• 2011 : The NYPD issued orders to clear the encampment at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, the site of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

November 16

• 1907: Oklahoma becomes the 46th state

• 1933: The US and Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations after almost 16 years of American non-recognition of the Soviet Union

• 2004: George W. Bush names Condoleezza Rice secretary of state

• 2010: Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski prevails in her re-election effort — one in which she was forced to mount a write-in campaign after losing the primary

• 2016: Vice President-elect Mike Pence attends a performance of the hit Broadway show “Hamilton,” where he is booed by the audience before the show; and after the show the cast reads him a statement of protest

November 17

• 1858: Denver is set up by a group of gold prospectors 

• 1914: Activist William Monroe Trotter confronts President Woodrow Wilson, in the Oval Office, over the treatment and degradation of Black Americans. Wilson became enraged at the conversation and threw Trotter out of the White House

• 2003: Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as governor of California

November 18

• 1872: Susan B. Anthony is arrested for voting illegally

• 1987: Congress’ joint Iran-Contra investigatory committee say President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility."

• 1988: President Ronald Reagan signs a bill authorizing the death penalty for drug traffickers.

November 19

• 1863: President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address.

• 1915: IWW activist and songwriter Joe Hill is executed by the state of Utah

• 1955: National Review publishes its first issue

November 20

• 1923: In Cincinnati, a referendum to limit the speed of cars fails after massive lobbying on the part of the auto industry. The referendum came up for a vote after tens of thousands of people signed a petition asking to limit the damage cars could do to pedestrians

• 1969: Native American activists that called themselves Indians of All Tribes, many of whom were UC Berkeley students, seize control of Alcatraz Island

In which we take the above collection of events and find themes, throughlines, rabbit holes and more. This week it’s Kellie Carter Jackson’s turn at the typewriter.

This week in connecting the dots I examine a concept, a mantra, and a mandate of sorts: “We, the People.”

I was inspired by Jody’s thread after the election results about what people can do and have always done to push for collective action and justice. Protest and speaking truth to power is also baked into American DNA. The people have always had agency to refuse, to speak out, and to advocate for their beliefs. Few exemplified this more than activist William Monroe Trotter when in 1914, he confronted President Wilson over the treatment of Black Americans.

Wilson could not believe the audacity of Trotter, to speak to a President as though he was entitled to an explanation. Wilson kicked him out.  But not to be denied, there on the front lawn, Trotter held a press conference. “We, the People,” refused Wilson’s second-class citizenship. If the president would not listen, perhaps the press would.

Fast forward to about fifty years later and “We the People,” became a collective mandate of 250,000 protestors speaking out against the Vietnam War in Washington, DC. In 1969, the public was disillusioned and distraught by the war. They wanted an end to the violence. They made their demands known and the Vietnam War remains one of the most contested wars in the twentieth century.

That same year, Native American activists seized control of Alcatraz Island. “We the People,” was predominantly made up of UC Berkeley students who managed to occupy the island for 19 months! To this day, this protest is considered the birth of the modern Indigenous rights movement.

In 1972, the people of Colorado rejected a proposal that would have funded the 1976 Olympic Games. Denver residents began to understand the devastating economic and environmental consequences of bringing the Games to their city. It was a valid critique. And when people are informed, they are also empowered. A no-vote was an expression of their belief that just because something is popular does not make it beneficial.

Finally, in 2016, the cast of the Broadway hit “Hamilton” called out then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence after a performance. It was the ultimate, “We, the People” moment, a reflection of art and reality. In our current moment, we could all use a little bit of Trotter, war protestors, and activism. America is fueled by the spirit of audacity and refusal. If not for the people, then who?

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A little more esoterica

• This Day is on the lookout for some more mystical episode hooks. In the meantime, this essay on America’s “occult origins” got our wheels turning.

• The Wall Street Journal has a great profile of “the world’s most popular history podcast,” AKA The Rest Is History.

• This week, we pause to remember Exploding Whale Day.

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