Portside

LBJ Wouldn’t Give Peace a Chance (1965)

APRIL 2 IS THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY of a speech that so infuriated President Lyndon Johnson that he assaulted the speaker, who was the Prime Minister of Canada. 

Prime Minister Lester Pearson – who had already won the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership role in bringing a peaceful conclusion to the illegal 1956 invasion of Egypt by France, Britain and Israel – was speaking in Philadelphia while accepting an award for his world-renowned ability to calm international conflict. 

At the time of his speech Pearson expressed concern about the enormous ongoing escalation – which began a month earlier – of the U.S. war against Vietnam. The day-in, day-out bombardment of North Vietnam by the U.S. was inflicting enormous damage but also failing to achieve its stated objective, which was to bring about a negotiated cease-fire.

In his speech, Pearson offered a modest suggestion: “If increasingly powerful retaliatory strikes against North Vietnam does not bring about this preliminary condition of cease-fire, surely serious consideration must be given to every other way in which the stalemate might be broken,” he said. “There does appear to be at least a possibility that a pause in such air strikes against North Vietnam at the right time might provide the Hanoi authorities with an opportunity, if they wish to take it, to inject some flexibility into their policy without appearing to do so as the direct result of military pressure.”

It was good advice from a man with a track record of averting bloodshed, but not what LBJ wanted to hear. The next day, at a private meeting, Johnson literally attacked Pearson by grabbing the Prime Minister’s lapels, lifting him off the ground, and yelling, “When you’re in my home, don’t piss on my rug!” 

The confrontation took place when Johnson and Pearson were alone on an outdoor terrace of the presidential retreat at Camp David, but it was witnessed by high-level aides who could see the two men from inside the house. The angry exchange was the subject of rumors at the time, but the details remained a secret for nearly a decade. https://potus-geeks.livejournal.com/1102233.html

A Mob Stands Strong to Defend Justice (1860)

APRIL 3 IS THE 115TH ANNIVERSARY of a dramatic example of a mob’s successful effort to prevent a shameful miscarriage of justice.

In 1860 Frank Sanborn was a militant abolitionist living in Concord, Massachusetts. Sanborn had been a member of a 6-person committee that had secretly been raising money to support the work of radical abolitionist John Brown. The so-called Secret Six might or might not have helped to plan Brown’s unsuccessful effort to seize control of the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and thereby start a shooting war against slavery, but the Sanborn and the rest of the committee were at least aware of Brown’s plan, which put the committee members at risk of arrest for conspiracy to commit treason.

More than four months after Brown and four of his collaborators had been executed, federal marshals arrived in Concord to serve a warrant on Sanborn and force him to travel to Washington, D.C., where a Senate committee wanted his testimony about the Harpers Ferry raid. 

If Sanborn had been compelled to testify, he would have been at risk of either being charged with aiding and abetting Brown’s attack, or with perjury.

Before the marshals could take him away, Sanborn raised a ruckus to attract the attention of his neighbors. By surrounding the carriage, the townspeople made it impossible for the marshals to take Sanborn anywhere, which gave Sanborn’s lawyer time to go to the nearby home of a judge, who gave the lawyer a writ of habeas corpus, which required the marshals to take Sanborn to a judge for a hearing on their right to force Sanborn to travel to Washington. 

As might be expected, the marshals tried to ignore the writ and take Sanborn away, but they did not reckon with the local county sheriff, who deputized many of Sanborn’s neighbors, who then overpowered the marshals and forced them to release Sanborn. The crowd then chased the marshals out of town. The next day the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the marshals’ warrant had been served illegally, which cleared him and his rescuers of any liability for having taken the law into their own hands. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/amazing-escape-of-franklin-sanborn-1860/

March for Women’s Lives (1992)

APRIL 5 IS THE 33RD ANNIVERSARY of the March for Women’s Lives, during which some 400,000 protesters, organized by the National Organization for Women, marched through Washington, D.C. It was one of the largest pro-choice demonstrations ever.

In addition to NOW, the event’s main organizers were the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro Choice America, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The demonstration was called to impress members of Congress and federal judges of breadth and depth of support for abortion rights, which were coming under increasing attack. https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-history-of-planned-parenthood-v-casey-and-pro-choice-activism-roe-v-wade/

A Rare Benefit of the Great Pandemic (2020)

APRIL 6 IS THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of one of the Covid pandemic’s silver-lining moments. 

On this day San Francisco needed to temporarily close a 2.5-mile stretch of the Great Highway because it was covered with wind-blown beach sand. Great Highway closures for sand removal were not unusual, but they normally lasted several hours at most.

But in the spring of 2020 – when thousands of San Franciscans were looking for outdoor spaces where they could recreate without fear of infection and when  pandemic-related lockdowns were causing record lows in traffic volume – the unplanned closure of a 4-lane divided highway posed an opportunity. 

Because the highway, which borders the city’s Pacific coast beach, is a beautiful location to walk or bike or just hang out, the city decided to leave the sand be and kept the road closed for more than a year, giving countless San Franciscans easy access to what became a very popular recreation area.

In August 2021 the city reopened the highway to traffic, but only on weekdays, leaving the closure in effect on weekends and holidays. When advocates of permanently closing the highway managed to put the question on the ballot in November 2024, it passed by a 55-45 margin. San Francisco’s newest ocean-front park, which has yet to be named, will open officially on April 12. https://sfrecpark.org/1555/Great-Highway-Project

A Brave Bid for Freedom Fails (1760)

APRIL 7 IS THE 265TH ANNIVERSARY of one of the most well-planned and initially successful rebellions of enslaved people ever, which began when rebels led by Tacky captured Fort Haldane in Port Maria, Jamaica. 

During four months of fighting many enslavers were killed. The only thing that enabled the enslavers to defeat the rebellion was their ability to call for the assistance of British ships and soldiers from all over the Western Hemisphere. https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/tackys-rebellion-began/

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