Friday, February 7, 1964: Byron De La Beckwith mistrial

An all-white jury was unable to reach a decision Friday after trying for 11 hours to decide if Byron De La Beckwith assassinated Negro leader Medgar Evers and a mistrial was declared. 
     -- United Press International; full story: @
     
     -- Photo from Corbis Images. Caption reads: Jackson, Mississippi: Byron De La Beckwith, 43, went on trial here early January 27 for the ambush slaying last year of Negro leader Medgar Evers. Sheriff Fred Pickett, recalling the racial bitterness in the city after the slaying, has placed heavy security on trial arrangements. This photo was made last June as Beckwith was taken to the State Mental Hospital at Whitfield for tests. No pictures will be made during the trial of him.

* "Mistrial Declared in Beckwith Case" (UPI, February 7): @
* "Beckwith Case Ruled Mistrial" (Associated Press, February 7): @

* Earlier post on the death of Medgar Evers (June 12, 1963): @ 

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Thursday, January 23, 1964: 24th Amendment

Section 1.
      The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.
Section 2.
      The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
-- Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964.

An amendment banning the poll tax as a condition for voting in elections for federal office was added to the Consititution yesterday when the South Dakota Senate ratified it by a vote of 34 to 0. It is the 24th Amendment. South Dakota was the 38th state to approve the amendment. Ratification by three-fourths of the 50 states was required.
     -- Associated Press, January 24 (full story: @)
     -- "Abolishment of Poll Tax Approved" (New York Times): @
     -- Images of Texas poll tax receipts from www.studythepast.com

* Annotated amendment (from Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School): @
* Certification by General Services Administration: @
* "Civil Rights in America: Racial Voting Rights" (National Park Service, 2009): @
* "Democracy's Turnstile" (Dr. Seuss, PM newspaper, October 1942): @
* "You Have the Right to Vote Free" (Huey P. Long, 1934): @
* "ABC's on the Poll Tax" (Associated Press, July 1948): @
* "Poll Tax Time" (Delta Democrat Times, January 1959): @
* Poll tax entry from Encyclopedia of Virginia: @
* "Voting in Mississippi" (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1965): @

* "Poll Tax Voided in Mississippi" (April 1966): @ 

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Wednesday, January 8, 1964: State of the Union speech

President Johnson announced today a surprise budget cut to $97.9 billion, even below the current level. And he told Congress he will slash output of weapon-making uranium by 25 percent -- a move he challenged the Soviets to match.

and

President Johnson declared "unconditional war on poverty in America," and called on Congress today for enactment this month of a tax reduction designed to create new jobs and markets.

-- Associated Press; full stories: @

-- Photo from LBJ Library

* Text and audio (from American Rhetoric): @
* Video: @
* "Lyndon B. Johnson and the War on Poverty: Introduction to the Digital Edition" (Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia): @
* "Domestic Affairs" (from Miller Center): @
* LBJ for Kids! Poverty Module (from LBJ Library): @

* "Launching the War on Poverty: An Oral History" (Michael L. Gillette, 2010): @ 

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Tuesday, December 17, 1963: Clean Air Act

President Johnson today signed into law a "clean air" bill designed to channel $95 million in federal funds into a four-year program to fight air pollution.
     The legislation authorizes the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to conduct research into the problem of air pollution, which some experts say is becoming a national menace.
     It also would permit federal aid to states and communities which are fighting air pollution.
     In signing the measure, Johnson said it would combat a "serious and growing" hazard. He said an estimated 6,000 U.S. communities need the type of assistance provide by the bill.
     States will retain the primary responsibility for controlling and reducing pollution except in those cases where pollution from one source -- such as a concentration of factories -- affects more than one state.
     In such cases federal authorities may seek relief in court if a voluntary solution is unsuccessful.
     The federal aid program involves grants on a matching basis on a matching basis of one state dollar for every two federal dollars put up. Regional grants are based on matching of three-quarters federal, one-quarter state.
     The bill signed today is an authorization measure and sets the ceiling on how much money can be spent. Actual appropriations will come later.
     -- Story from United Press International.
     -- 1953 photo of New York from Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Original caption reads, "Several people standing on the top of a building looking down in to the downtown misty smog that is covering the Empire State and surrounding buildings."
* Text of original law (from www.wilderness.net): @
* President Johnson's remarks: @
* Text of amended law (from U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works): @
* "Clean Air Requirements and History" (from Environmental Protection Agency): @

* "Clean Air Act" (from The Encyclopedia of Earth): @

* "The History of Air Quality" (from Environmental Institute of Houston): @

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Thursday, December 12, 1963: Kenya

     NAIROBI, Kenya -- Nearly 100,000 Africans whistled, sang and cheered today as Kenya became Africa's 35th independent nation.

     But even as the shouts of "Uhuru" -- freedom -- echoed through the streets of this formal British colonial capital, monumental problems confronted the new nations. It must conquer tribal warfare, tribal rivalries and economic difficulties.

     When the Union Jack was hauled down and Kenya's flag of black, red and green went up amid wild jubilation at Nairobi's Freedom Stadium, Britain relinquished its last colonial holding in East Africa.

     -- From Associated Press; full story: @

     -- Photo of Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta from May 1963 (from Corbis Images)

* "A Free Kenya" (The Windsor Star, December 11): @

* "Kenya Gains Independence" (from New York Times Learning Network): @

* 1963 Kenya Constitution: @

* Kenya Independence Act (from legislation.gov.uk): @

* Kenya profile (from CIA): @

* Kenya timeline (from BBC): @ 

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Saturday, December 7, 1963: 'The Johnson Treatment'

President Lyndon Johnson presses his plans for the enactment of civil rights legislation during a White House meeting with Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia. 

     Accounts of exactly what was said at the meeting vary across biographies and histories. The following is from Jack Valenti, special assistant to President Johnson, who was present at the meeting. (From a 1997 speech and "Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History"; links: @ and @)

     The president ... said in a soft, even voice, "Dick, I love you, and I owe you. If it had not been for you, I would not have been leader, or vice president or now president. But I wanted to tell you face to face, Dick, please don't get in my way on this civil rights bill. It's been locked up in the Senate too long. I'm going to pass this bill, Dick. I will not cavil. I will not hesitate. And if you get in my way, I'll run you down."

     Russell sat mutely for a moment, impassive, his face a mask. Then he spoke, in the rolling accents of his Georgia countryside. "Well, Mr. President, you may just do that. But I pledge you that if you do, it will not only cost you the election, it will cost you the South forever." ...

     (Johnson) spoke softly, almost tenderly: "Dick, my old friend, if that's the price I have to pay, then I will gladly pay it."

     -- Photo by Yoichi Okamoto, official presidential photographer, from LBJ Library

* Account from "Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65" (Taylor Branch, 1999): @

* Account from "Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President" (Robert Dallek, 2004): @

* Account from "Civil Rights Act Leaves Mark on the American Political Landscape" (Michael Oreskes, New York Times, 1989): @ 

* Johnson-Russell telephone converations, December 7 (from Miller Center): @

* Johnson news conference, December 7 (from The American Presidency Project): @

* "How Will Civil Rights Bill Do Under New President?" (United Press International, December 10): @

* "LBJ Champions the Civil Rights Act" (Prologue magazine, National Archives, 2004): @

More about "The Johnson Treatment"
* Description (from Marshall Frady, New York Review of Books, 2002): @
* Summary (from National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution): @
* "Remembering the Johnson Treatment" (Tom Wicker, New York Times, 2002): @

* With Sen. Theodore Green of Rhode Island, 1957 (photos, New York Times): @

* With President Kennedy and Sen. Henry Jackson of Washington, early 1960s (photo, University of Washington Libraries): @

* With Rep. Albert Thomas of Texas, 1963 (audio, Miller Center): @

* With Supreme Court nominee Abe Fortas, 1965 (photo, LBJ Library): @

* With Louis Martin, Democratic National Committee, 1966 (photo, LBJ Library): @
* With Whitney Young, National Urban League, 1966 (photo, LBJ Library): @ 

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Wednesday, November 27, 1963: President Johnson's address to Congress

President Johnson asked a somber Congress Wednesday to honor John F. Kennedy's memory with swift action on the slain President's legislative program, topped by civil rights and tax deduction.
     Speaking for the first time as chief executive to a body in which he served for many years, the tall, solemn-faced President called too for "an end to the teaching and preaching of hate and evil and violence" in the land.
     -- from The Associated Press; full story: @
* Transcript (from American Rhetoric): @

* Video (includes telephone calls before and after speech; from C-SPAN): @
* Entry from Voices of Democracy project: @

* "Let Us Continue" (film by U.S. Information Agency; from Texas Archive of the Moving Image): @

* "The First 100 Days: Lyndon Johnson Fulfilled Kennedy's Legacy" (U.S. News & World Report, 2009): @ 

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Saturday, November 23, 1963

Photo by The Associated Press. Original caption: Personal belongings such as these two rocking chairs of the slain President John F. Kennedy are removed from the offices of the White House in Washington, D.C., Nov 23, 1963. 

* President Johnson's remarks to the Cabinet: @ (draft) and @ (final)
* "Nov. 23, 1963: The day after the assassination" (Washington Post): @ 

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Friday, November 22, 1963

-- United Press International teletype (image from kennedy-photos.blogspot.com)
-- Explainer (from UPI history website): @

Video

* David Von Pein's JFK Channel (this has an extensive collection of footage, including the breaking news reports of the major broadcast networks): @

* "The JFK Assassination: As It Happened" (Von Pein website): @

* From ABC News: @
* JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America" (The History Channel, 2009): @ and @ 
* Speech in Fort Worth: @
* "President Assassinated" (newsreel): @

Audio
* Lyndon Johnson taking oath of office aboard Air Force One (from LBJ Library): @
* Air Force One recordings: @
* Radio coverage: @
* BBC programs: @

President Lyndon B. Johnson
* President's daily dairy (from LBJ Library): @ and @
* From LBJ Library: "November 22, 1963 and Beyond": @
* From LBJ Library: "Nov. 22, 1963: Tragedy and Transition": @
* Selections from Mrs. Johnson's diary: @ (text) and @ (audio)

Front pages

* Dallas Morning News: @

* Dallas Times Herald: @

* Fort Worth Star-Telegram: @ and @

* Boston Globe: @

* New York Times: @

* Washington Post: @
* Los Angeles Times: @
* The Guardian (UK) : @

* Daily Mirror (UK): @

* Daily Trojan (University of Southern California, November 26): @
* Other newspapers (from www.downhold.org): @

* Other newspapers (from rarenewspapers.com): @

Other resources

* Timeline (from Dallas Morning News): @
* "Remembering JFK" (Fort Worth Star-Telegram): @
* "The Death of a President" (The Associated Press): @
* The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection (National Archives): @

* The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza: @

* JFK Tribute website (Fort Worth, Texas): @

* The JFK Assassination (Mary Ferrell Foundation): @

* The Harold Weisberg Archive: @

* The Kennedy Assassination (John McAdams): @

* "November 22, 1963: Death of the President" (from JFK Library): @ 

* "Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy" (Warren Commission report, from National Archives, 1964): @

* "Marking JFK anniversary, GPO releases digital Warren Commission report" (Washington Post): @
* "Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives" (from National Archives, 1979): @

* UPI reporter Merriman Smith's account of the day (November 23; Smith was the first to report the shooting, as shown in teletype above): @
* "Total Domination" (American Journalism Review, 1998): @

* "The Flight From Dallas" (Esquire, 2013): @
* "The Hours Before Dallas: A Recollection by President Kennedy's Fort Worth Advance Man" (Jeb Byrne, 2000): @
* Life magazine, November 29: @

* Life magazine, December 6: @

* Life magazine, December 13: @ 

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Saturday-Monday, November 2-4, 1963: Freedom Vote in Mississippi

The "freedom vote" was a mock statewide general election to parallel the Mississippi gubernatorial election of 1963. It was organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of civil rights organizations. Aaron Henry, a black pharmacist from Clarksdale, was on the mock ballot for governor and the Rev. Edwin King, a white chaplain at Tougaloo College in Jackson (and a native of Vicksburg), was on the ballot for lieutenant governor. Ballot boxes were placed in churches, businesses and homes across the state, and voting took place over the weekend. Henry and King "won" the mock election in which more than 80,000 black Mississippians voted. This event showed the country that African Americans would vote if given the chance.
-- Text from Aaron Henry biography, Mississippi Historical Society: @

-- Image from Freedom Summer Digital Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society
* Summary from Civil Rights Movement Veterans: @

* Summary from SNCC Project Group: @

* Photos from rally for Aaron Henry (Hattiesburg, October 29; from Mississippi Department of Archives and History): @
* Election flier (from Amistad Research Center): @ and @

* Pamphlets: Freedom Ballot and Freedom Registration (from Wisconsin Historical Society): @ 

* Freedom Registration pamphlet (from Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @
* "No Small Thing: Visual Rhetoric and the 1963 Mississippi Freedom Vote" (William Lawson, 2008): @

* "Aaron Henry: The Fire Ever Burning" (Aaron Henry and Constance Curry, 2000): @
* Edwin King entry from Civil Rights Digital Library: @
* COFO summary (from Martin Luther King Research and Education Institute): @

* "The Washington Merry-Go-Round" (Drew Pearson, November 4): @

* "Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi" (John Dittmer, 1994; see Chapter 9, "Conflicting Strategies"): @ 

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Thursday, October 3, 1963: Perry Mason loses a case

Dist. Atty. Hamilton Burger defeats Mason in "The Case of the Deadly Verdict." Girl is on trial for the murder of her aunt.
     -- Television listings, Milwaukee Journal, October 3

     There will be a big change in the television season that is about to begin. A Perry Mason client will be found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death. It will be Perry's first unfavorable verdict since he start practicing law over the Columbia Broadcasting System television network on the night of Saturday, Sept. 21, 1957, at 7:30 o'clock (Eastern daylight time).
     ... Viewers tuned to "Perry Mason" will observe a well-nigh peerless Perry facing his darkest hour. ... Although "Perry Mason" episodes usually begin with the early stages of a court case or trial, this one opens with a court verdict. The defendant ... is found guilty of murdering her aunt for money. Presumably this is the first time in six years that Mason, played by Raymond Burr, has been called upon to register surprise.
     The big question is what Perry and his client can do to reverse the circumstance just before the final commercial.
     -- New York Times, September 8

* Summary (from allmovie.com): @ 

* Summary of this and Mason's two other setbacks (from The Perry Mason TV Show Book): @ 

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Tuesday, September 17, 1963: 'The Fugitive'

The ABC show premieres with David Janssen starring as Dr. Richard Kimble, wrongfully convicted for the murder of his wife. The series follows Kimble as he searches for the one-armed man who he believes killed his wife while at the same trying to stay one step ahead of police Lt. Philip Gerard (Barry Morse). The show would run through August 1967; at the time of its airing, the second episode in the two-part finale was the highest-rated show in the history of television.

* Video of first episode, "Fear in a Desert City": @ and @ and @

* Review of premiere (from United Press International): @

* Summary from Museum of Broadcast Communications: @

* Episode guide, from TV.com: @

* Producers Leonard Goldberg and Alan A. Armer talk about finale: @ and @

* " 'The Fugitive' broke new ground to become an unlikely hit" (from A.V. Club): @
* "The Fugitive Recaptured" (Ed Robertson, 1993): @
* "The Fugitive in Flight: Faith, Liberalism and Law in a Classic TV Show" (Stanley Fish, 2011): @

* The David Janssen Archive: @ 

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Saturday, September 14, 1963: Tokyo Convention

This Convention, adopted at Tokyo on 14 Sepember 1963 (Tokyo Convention), was the first multilateral legal instrument to deal with the growing problem of hijacking. Its main objective is to establish primary jurisdiction of the State of registration over offences committed on board civil aircraft in flight or on the surface of the high seas or of any other area outside the territory of any State (articles 1 and 3). Although the Convention does not define nor list any particular offences or acts which must be suppressed, its article 11 deals with one specific form of terrorism, namely, aerial hijacking.
     -- From "International Law: Theory and Practice" (1998)

* "Convention on offences and certain other acts committed on board aircraft" (text): @

* "United Nations Treaties Against International Terrorism" (from www.un.org): @

* "Notes on the Tokyo Convention, 1963" (from www.airspacelaw.org): @

* "Jurisdiction Over Crimes On Board Aircraft" (Sami Shubber, 1973): @

* Aerial Piracy and International Terrorism: The Illegal Diversion of Aircraft and International Law" (Edward McWhinney, 1987): @ 
* Earlier post on Cuba hijacking (May 1, 1961): @

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Wednesday, August 28, 1963: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

     More than 200,000 Americans, most of them black but many of them white, demonstrated here today for a full and speedy program of civil rights and equal job opportunities.

     It was the greatest assembly for a redress of grievances that this capital has ever seen.
     One hundred years and 240 days after Abraham Lincoln enjoined the emancipated slaves to "abstain from all violence" and "labor faithfully for reasonable wages," this vast throng proclaimed in march and song and through the speeches of their leaders that they were still waiting for the freedom and the jobs.
     There was no violence to mar the demonstration. In fact, at times there was an air of hootenanny about it as groups of schoolchildren clapped hands and swung into the familiar freedom songs.
     But if the crowd was good-natured, the underlying tone was one of dead seriousness. The emphasis was on "freedom" and "now." At the same time the leaders emphasized, paradoxically but realistically, that the struggle was just beginning.
     -- New York Times (link to front page below)
     -- Aerial photo from Associated Press; Lincoln photo from New York World-Telegram and Sun
    

-- Summaries and links

* National Museum of American History: @

* Federal Highway Administration: @

* Civil Rights Digital Library: @

* Civil Rights Movement Veterans: @
* PBS: @

* NPR: @
* 50th Anniversary March on Washington website: @

* "One Dream" (Time magazine): @

-- Printed materials
* Program (from Wright State University Libraries): @ and @

* Final organization plans (from Tulane University Digital Library): @
* "An Appeal By The March Leaders" (from Social Welfare History Project): @
* Other materials (from crmvet.org): @
* Other materials (from Library of Congress): @

-- Videos

* Universal Newsreel: @ 

* Same newsreel as above, with different narration: @
* U.S. Information Agency: @

* "The March" (James Blue): @

* "The Bus" (Haskell Wexler): @
* Edith Lee-Payne: @

* Hollywood roundtable: @

* "Reflections on the 1963 March on Washington" (George Washington University, 1998): @

-- Photos
* Library of Congress (search for March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom): @
* National Archives (search for Civil Rights March on Washington): @
* Walter P. Reuther Library: @
* Life.Time.com: @
* Time LightBox: @
* Smithsonian Magazine: @

-- Speeches

* Audio and transcript of King's speech (from American Rhetoric): @

* Video: @

* Early draft of speech (from Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change): @
* Annotated version of 1963 speech in Washington (by Clayborne Carson, director, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University): @
* Post on earlier "I Have a Dream" speech (November 27, 1962): @
* "Freedom March on Washington" (from PRX; album includes other speeches from event): @
* "Two Versions of John Lewis' Speech" (from billmoyers.com): @

-- Radio
* Educational Radio Network coverage (from WGBH): @

-- Oral histories
* Smithsonian Magazine: @
* Capitol Hill History Project: @
* Robert Romer: @

-- Books / magazines / newspapers
* "The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights" (William P. Jones, 2013): @
* "Nobody Turn Me Around: A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington" (Charles Euchner, 2010): @
* "Like A Mighty Stream: The March on Washington, August 28, 1963" (Patrik Henry Bass, 2002): @

* "Memory, History and the March on Washington" (by Clayborne Carson): @
* Life magazine, August 23 (pages 4 and 63): @

* Life magazine, September 6: @

* The Crisis, October (NAACP magazine): @

* Ebony magazine, November (coverage starts on Page 29): @
* New York Times front page, August 29: @

* Washington Post front page, August 29: @
* "I Have a Dream ... / Peroration by Dr. King Sums Up A Day The Capital Will Remember"  (New York Times): @

* Associated Press, August 28: @
* Miami News, August 28: @ and August 29: @

* Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 29: @

-- President Kennedy's meeting with march leaders (August 28)

* "JFK, A. Philip Randolph and the March on Washington" (from White House Historical Association): @

* Kennedy statement (from American Presidency Project): @

* Photo (from JFK Library): @

-- Earlier post

* Plans for March on Washington (July 2, 1963): @ 

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