Peacebuttons.info has served the peace-left community for decades, providing high-quality social justice buttons and the thoughtful series Today in Peace and Justice History. Please support them; the buttons are primo.
Be part of the apparent few working not to repeat history’s mistakes. Check in often and learn about the past so you can help build a better future and a green world.
Today in Peace and Justice History
Dec. 23, 1943
A 135-day strike by 23 conscientious objectors ended dining hall segregation at Danbury Federal Penitentiary in Connecticut. It appears the spirit of pacifism made its way throughout the correctional facility because the number of COs grew from 15 in early 1941 to 200 by the time of the strike.
Dec. 23, 1944
On this day in peace and justice history, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower endorsed the finding of a court-martial in the case of desertion defendant Eddie Slovik and authorized his execution. It was the first such sentence of state-sanctioned killing against a U.S. Army soldier since the Civil War. Slovik was the only soldier so punished during World War II.
Slovik made no secret of his unwillingness to enter combat, the government rejected his pleas for reassignment to non-combat status. Eisenhower ordered Slovik’s execution to deter others from deserting in the late stages of the war.
Eddie Slovik
Read more
Dec. 23, 1946
The University of Tennessee refused to play Duquesne University because it might put a Black player into the basketball game [see July 14, 1887]. The Boston Celtics eventually drafted that player, making him the National Basketball Association’s first Black player. Chuck Cooper played his first NBA game on the same day as the debut of head coach Red Auerbach, guard Bob Cousy, and center “Easy” Ed Macauley.
Chuck Cooper
Dec. 23, 1961
James Davis
James Davis of Livingston, Tenn., was killed by the Viet Cong (South Vietnamese insurgents) on this day 63 years ago. Davis became the first of some 58,000 U.S. soldiers killed during the Vietnam War. President Lyndon Johnson later referred to him as “the first American to fall in defense of our freedom in Vietnam.” More than two million Vietnamese people would die before the end of the war.
Post Comment