Wednesday, May 31, 1961: The Republic of South Africa

The country officially becomes a republic, breaking away from the Commonwealth of Nations (the remnants of the British Empire). The act followed a referendum in October 1960 in which 52 percent of whites had voted in favor of such a move.

* "Formation of the South African Republic": @

* South African History Online: @

* Country Studies: South Africa (from Library of Congress): @

* Newsreels: @ and @ and @

* Interview with Nelson Mandela (May 1961): @

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Monday, May 29, 1961: Food stamps

The second food stamp program in 20th-century America -- the first was during the latter part of the Great Depression -- goes into effect. From the U.S. Department of Agriculture: "Mr. and Mrs. Alderson Muncy of Paynesville, West Virginia, were the first food stamp recipients on May 29, 1961. They purchased $95 in food stamps for their 15-person household. In the first food stamp transaction, they bought a can of pork and beans at Henderson's Supermarket."

* Summary (from livinghistoryfarm.org): @

* Summary (from The West Virginia Encyclopedia): @

* History of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Progam (from USDA): @

* Executive Order 10914, "Providing for an Expanded Program of Food Distribution to Needy Families." (Signed by President Kennedy on January 21, 1961): @

* "20 Years Later, Food Stamps Change" (New York Times, 1981): @

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Sunday, May 28, 1961: Amnesty International

The human rights group has its beginnings in an article that appears May 28 in The Observer newspaper in London. Written by Peter Benenson, a British lawyer, it begins: "Open your newspaper any day of the week and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government." And later: "We have set up an office in London to collect information about the names, numbers and conditions of what we have decided to call 'Prisoners of Conscience.' "

Berenson outlined the goals of what, at the time, was called Appeal for Amnesty, 1961:

1. To work impartially for the release of those imprisoned for their opinions.

2. To seek for them a fair and public trial.

3. To enlarge the Right of Asylum and help political refugees to find work.

4. To urge effective machinery to guarantee freedom of opinion.

Within a year the effort would grow into a formal, international organization. (The now-familiar logo of a candle wrapped in barbed wire first appeared widely in 1963.)

* Official website: @

* Timeline (from amnesty.org): @

* Text of original article: @

* Image of original article: @

* History (video): @

* "Like Water on Stone: The Story of Amnesty International" (book): @

* Selected posters through the years: @

* Peter Benenson obituary (The Economist, 2005): @

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Thursday, May 25, 1961: A mission to the moon

The speech's official name was "Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs." And while President John F. Kennedy spoke about U.S. goals and challenges at home and abroad, the most memorable passage -- and objective -- was this:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."

* Video (from Miller Center of Public Affairs) : @

* Transcript and audio (from JFK library): @

* Draft of speech, press copy and reading copy (from JFK library): @

* Memo from Kennedy to Vice President Johnson, April 20 (from NASA): @

* Memo from Johnson to Kennedy, April 28 (from NASA): @

* Letter from Dr. Wernher von Braun to Johnson, April 29 (from NASA): @

(Click here for earlier entry on von Braun and Marshall Space Flight Center)

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Freedom Rides resources

-- Summaries

* From The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute (Stanford University): @

* From Federal Highway Administration (chapters 25-32): @

* From Upfront (New York Times newsmagazine for teens): @

* From findingdulcinea.com: @

* From blackpast.org: @

* From watson.org: @

-- Map

* Associated Press, February 1962 (from crmvet.org): @

-- Websites

* Civil Rights Movement Veterans: @

* Freedom Rides Revisited (from Mississippi Department of Archives and History): @

* Mississippi Freedom 50th (anniversary website): @

-- Documentaries

* "Freedom Riders" (shown on PBS): @

* Study guide for "Freedom Riders": @

* News report on "Freedom Riders" (from democracynow.org): @

* More from "Eyes on the Prize" (PBS/WGBH documentary): @

* "The Children Shall Lead" (documentary website): @

* "You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!" (about the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation): @

-- Videos

* "Riding to Freedom" (from Smithsonian magazine): @

* Interview with James Farmer (from teachersdomain.org): @

* Remembrances (from Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.): @

* "Freedom Ride inspires participants to create change" (Vanderbilt University, 2007): @

* From Mississippi Public Broadcasting: @

-- Books

* "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice" (Raymond Arsenault): @

* "Freedom's Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides" (Derek Catsum): @

* "Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders" (Eric Etheridge, book and blog): @

* "The Politics of Injustice: The Kennedys, the Freedom Rides, and the Electoral Consequences of a Moral Compromise" (David Niven): @

* Beyond the Burning Bus: The Civil Rights Revolution in a Southern town" (Phil Noble): @

-- Photos

* From Life magazine: @

* From Getty Images: @ and @

* From Corbis Images: @

* From Magnum Photos: @

* Photo gallery, The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal: @

-- Other resources

* Complete roster of participants (from "Freedom Riders" book): @

* Recollections by David Fankhauser: @

* Links from Civil Rights Digital Library: @

* Links from findingdulcinea.com: @

* Links from crmvet.org: @

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May 1961: Freedom Rides

United Press International photo. The original caption reads:

JACKSON, MISS.: Jackson police and their police dogs watch from sidewalk as Trailways bus carrying "Freedom riders" arrives here 5/24. There were no incidents of violence, but "riders" were arrested and jailed almost immediately.

Thursday, May 4

Aboard two buses, 13 civil rights activists leave Washington, D.C., en route to the American South to test those states' acceptance of and adherence to Boynton v. Virginia, the 1960 Supreme Court ruling that had extended desgregation on interstate travel. The plan was to arrive in New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 17, the seventh anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

The Associated Press reports: "Thirteen members of an interracial group headed for the Deep South today on a bus trip to challenge segregation. Traveling by regular interstate buses, they planned to reach New Orleans on May 17 after numerous stops. Among the seven Negroes on the journey was James Farmer, 41 years old, of New York, national director of the sponsoring organization, the Congress of Racial Equality. At a news conference, Mr. Farmer indicated the project would be a sit-in on wheels, designed to discourage segregation at interstate bus terminal restaurants, rest rooms and similar facilities. "If there is arrest, we will accept that arrest," he said, "and if there is violence, we are willing to receive that violence without responding in kind."

* April 26 letter from James Farmer to President Kennedy (from JFK Library): @

* Original itinerary (from visionaryproject.org): @

* "Pilgrimage Off On Racial Test" (Washington Post, May 5, 1961): @

Monday, May 8

First arrest: Joseph Perkins is charged with trespassing after trying to have his shoes shined at a barber shop in Charlotte, North Carolina. He spends two nights in jail, then is released when a local judge cites Boynton v. Virginia.

Tuesday, May 9

First violence: John Lewis, Albert Bigelow and Genevieve Hughes are roughed up by a group of white men at the bus terminal in Rock Hill, South Carolina. They decline to press charges.

Sunday, May 14

Anniston, Alabama: The first of two buses arrives in Anniston, en route to Birmingham. A white mob attacks at the bus station, smashing windows and slashing tires. After 20 minutes the bus leaves, stopping six miles outside town because of the flat tires -- but the crowd has followed, with cars in front and behind. A firebomb is thrown into the bus, and as it burns, the passengers are beaten as they scramble to get out. (Photo taken by Joe Postiglione of The Anniston Star.)

* Account from "Freedom Riders" book: @

* Anniston Star newspaper (stories, photos, documents): @

* Historical marker: @

Birmingham, Alabama: Running an hour behind the first bus, a second bus also stops in Anniston, where several whites board and attack the riders. They leave Anniston for Birmingham, but it only gets worse there. Bull Connor, the commissioner of public safety, had agreed to let the attackers have a free hand for 15 minutes before police would intervene. Another, more vicious attack follows.

* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: @

* "Alabama Mob Ambush Bus, Beat Biracial Group and Burn Bus" (Jet magazine, May 25): @

* "But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle": (book by Glenn T. Eskew) @

* Historical marker: @

* Telegram from James Farmer to President Kennedy: @

Monday, May 15

End of first Freedom Ride: The Birmingham riders are unable to leave for Montgomery, Alabama, their next planned stop; bus drivers are unwilling to make the trip if they are aboard. The U.S. government finally arranges a late-night flight to New Orleans.

* "Eyewitness Report on Dixie 'Freedom Ride' " (Jet magazine, June 1): @

* Phone conversation between Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and George Cruit, superintendent of the Greyhound Bus Depot in Birmingham (from Birmingham History Center): @

Wednesday, May 17

Birmingham: College students in Nashville, Tennessee, decide to keep the Rides going. They travel to Birmingham, where several are held in "protective custody," then driven to the Alabama-Tennessee border just after midnight on May 18, left by the side of the road and advised to return to Nashville. Instead they make their way back to Birmingham.

Saturday, May 20 - Tuesday, May 23

Mongomery, Alabama: The riders leave Birmingham on May 20. They are accompanied by state troopers to the Montgomery city limits and no farther. As was the case in Birmingham, there is no immediate police protection at the Montgomery bus station, and the Riders are attacked. James Zwerg (above) is beaten unconscious, his teeth fractured and several vertebrae cracked. John Seigenthaler, an assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, is in Montgomery to try to ensure the Riders' safety, but cannot ensure his own as he is knocked out by a lead pipe to the head. The Riders take refuge in the First Baptist Church; outside, federal marshals (sent in by Kennedy) and then the Alabama National Guard (after Gov. John Patterson declares martial law) keep the white mob at bay. On May 21, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at the church during a rally for the riders. (Click here for transcript). State and federal officials, thoroughly at odds, wrestle with how to get the riders out of town.

* Account from "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63" (book by Taylor Branch): @

* New York Times front page (May 21): @

* "Trouble in Alabama" (Time magazine, May 26): @

* "Bloody beatings, burning bus in the South" (Life magazine, May 26): @

* James Zwerg, speaking from hospital bed: @

* Interview with Zwerg (from pbs.org): @

* 2011 story on Zwerg (from CNN): @

* Account from Susan Herrman (as told to Los Angeles Times, 1961): @

* Photos from opening of Freedom Rides Museum (Montgomery Advertiser, May 20, 2011): @

* Summary of all Alabama incidents (from Encyclopedia of Alabama): @

* Newspaper clippings (from Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections; Freedom Riders coverage starts on Page 49): @

* Historical marker: @

Wednesday, May 24

Jackson, Mississippi: The first busload of Riders travels from Montgomery to Jackson. National Guardsmen, the highway patrol and local police line the route and travel alongside -- and aboard -- the bus. (A second busload would arrive later in the day.) Riders are arrested and charged with breach of peace, inciting to riot and failure to obey a police officer. In the coming months, new Riders would answer a nationwide call and descend on Jackson; more than 300 would be arrested at bus and train stations and at the airport. Employing the strategy of "jail, no bail," they would overflow Jackson's city and county jails, and some would be sent to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

* Mugshots of people arrested in Jackson (from Mississippi Sovereignty Commission): @

* Time magazine, June 2 (click on "Crisis in Civil Rights," "Three Questions of Law" and "Four Freedom Riders"): @

* Time magazine, June 9: @

* Life magazine, June 2: @

* Jet magazine, June 8: @

* Newspaper clippings (from Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections; Freedom Riders coverage starts on Page 8): @

* The Citizens' Council newspaper (organization originally known as White Citizens' Council; coverage of events in Jackson is in June edition): @

* Letter from Parchman superintendent Fred Jones to mother of Joan Trumpower, arrested June 8 (from "Breach of Peace" blog): @

* Bus station historical marker (dedicated May 24, 2011): @ 

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May 1961: Archigram

Six London architects publish their ideas for transforming cities in a series of influential magazines, the first of which appeared in May 1961 (left). The collective and the magazine, both titled Archigram (combining ARCHItecture and teleGRAM), outlined projects that mixed urban planning with pop culture, futurism and fun.

* Summary from London's Design Museum: @

* Summary from School of Architecture, University College London: @

* Official website: @

* The Archigram Archival Project: @

* "Archigram: Architecture without Architecture" (book by Simon Sadler): @

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Undated: Illuminated tires

The original caption from this 1961 photo (by Getty Images, likely taken in England -- note the spelling of "tyre") reads: "A woman adjusts her stocking by the light of the new Goodyear illuminated tyres. The tyre is made from a single piece of synthetic rubber and is brightly lit by bulbs mounted inside the wheel rim. The Goodyear Tyre Company intend to produce the tyres in a variety of colours."

* "Colorful use for tires of future" (Life magazine, December 5, 1960): @

* Footage (Germany, 1962): @

* "30 Dumb Inventions" (photo gallery from Life.com): @

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Thursday, May 11, 1961: Vietnam

President Kennedy approves National Security Action Memorandum 52 "to prevent Communist domination of South Vietnam; to create in that country a viable and increasingly democratic society, and to initiate, on an accelerated basis, a series of mutually supporting actions of a military, political, economic, psychological and covert character." It authorizes several means to that end, including sending in 400 U.S. Special Forces soldiers and 100 military advisers to teach the South Vietnamese guerrilla-type tactics.

* Contents of memorandum (from JFK library): @

* "A Program of Action to Prevent Communist Domination of South Vietnam" (from Vietnam Task Force, May 1961): @

* "Guerrilla Warfare and Special Forces Operations" (U.S. Army publication, September 1961): @

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Undated: 'Mud Pies and Other Recipes'

Written by Marjorie Winslow and illustrated by Eric Blegvad, "Mud Pies and Other Recipes" encourages children to go outside and make a fine mess (on occasion) while having a fine time. Winslow writes: "This is a cookbook for dolls. It is written for kind climates and summertime. It is an outdoor cookbook, because dolls dote on mud, when properly prepared. ... Doll cookery is not a very exacting art. The time it takes to cook a casserole depends upon how long your dolls are able to sit at table without falling over. And if a recipe calls for a cupful of something, you can use a measuring cup or a teacup or a buttercup. It doesn't much matter. What does matter is that you select the best ingredients available, set a fine table, and serve with style."

* Article from The Economist (2010): @

* Article from New York Review Books (2010): @

* Article and selected pages from Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves (2008): @

* Article from Time magazine (1961): @

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Tuesday, May 9, 1961: 'Vast wasteland' speech

Newton Minow, newly appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, gives a provocative speech to the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Washington, D.C. The speech is titled "Television and the Public Interest." In it, Minow says:

"... When television is good, nothing -- not the magazines or newspapers -- nothing is better.

"But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, with a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.

"You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials -- many screaming, cajoling and offending. And, most of all, boredom."

* Text and audio of speech: @

* Biography (from Museum of Broadcast Communications): @

* 1999 interview (from Archive of American Television): @

* "The Vast Wasteland Revisited" (Federal Communications Law Journal, 2003): @

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Undated: Debbie Drake

"The Debbie Drake Show," a morning exercise program, began in 1960 and was shown on TV stations across the country. Drake followed up the show with a syndicated newspaper column along with record albums and books, including "Debbie Drake's Easy Way to a Perfect Figure and Glowing Health" in 1961.

* Watch episode of "The Debbie Drake Show": @

* "Debbie Drake Will Help Keep You Healthy, Happy and Trim" (January 2, 1962): @
* Article from AARP: @
* "One, two" (Time magazine article, May 5, 1961; subscription only): @

* "How to Keep Your Husband Happy" (album cover): @

* Excerpts from book: @

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Friday, May 5, 1961: First American in space

Three weeks after Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union made history as the first man in space, the United States launches Alan Shepard aboard the Freedom 7. The flight lasts 15 minutes and takes Shepard to an altitude of 116 miles.

* Short biography: @

* More from nasa.gov (click on "links" for flight summary): @

* NASA's "This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury" (go to Chapter 11, "Suborbital Flights Into Space"): @

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Monday, May 1, 1961: Legalized betting in England

A portion of the Betting and Gaming Act of 1960 is enacted as betting shops open throughout England. (They had been outlawed since 1853.) Within six months 10,000 shops would appear.

* Summary (from information-britain.co.uk): @

* Summary (from BBC): @

* 2008 article from The Independent: @

* "An Act for the Suppression of Betting Houses" (from 1853): @

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Monday, May 1, 1961: Hijacked to Cuba

The first hijacking of a U.S. flight occurs when Antulio Ramirez Ortiz, armed with a gun and a knife, takes control of a National Airlines flight en route from Miami to Key West, Florida, and redirects it to Cuba. Ortiz, an electrician in Miami, said he had been offered $100,000 to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro and wanted to reach Cuba to warn Castro. Ortiz was allowed to stay, while the plane, crew and passengers would return to the United States.

* Summary from "The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings" (book by Michael Newton): @

* Account from "Terrorism on American Soil" (book by Joseph T. McCann): @

* Account from flight attendant: @

* History of the Federal Air Marshal Service (from propublica.org): @

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Monday, May 1, 1961: "To Kill a Mockingbird" wins Pulitzer Prize

Click here for entry of July 11, 1960, when the book was first published. Other Pulitzer winners include the photo from a political assassination in Japan (click here for that entry from October 12, 1960), and a special citation for "The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War."

* Full list of winners: @

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