Portside

A Racist, Anti-Worker Judge? Not This Year (1930)

MAY 7 IS THE 95TH ANNIVERSARY of a major and surprising victory resulting from an unusual moment of tactical unity between the NAACP and the American Federation of Labor in the midst of the economic and political crisis caused by the Great Depression.

In the spring of 1930, U.S. businesses were going bankrupt at an unprecedented rate and the ranks of the unemployed were growing every day. The Hoover administration was doing almost nothing to provide relief except to insist that “prosperity was just around the corner.” Blue-collar workers and African-American workers were being laid off at far greater rates than others. 

When a Supreme Court justice died, Hoover nominated John Parker, a federal appeals court judge, who had recently ruled against the rights of union members in an important case that had caught the attention of many union members and their supporters, because Parker’s written opinion was openly antagonistic to the rights of any worker, union member or not. 

In addition to Parker’s recent declaration of antipathy to workers, his explicit racism was over the top. Ten years earlier, in 1920, before Parker became a judge, he had been a candidate for governor of North Carolina. During that campaign, Parker was widely quoted as having said: “The participation of the Negro in politics is a source of evil and danger to both races and is not desired by the wise men in either race or by the Republican Party of North Carolina.” After Hoover nominated Parker to join the Supreme Court, the head of the NAACP sent Parker a telegram asking him whether he stood by his 1920 remarks.  Parker never replied, despite his being repeatedly and publicly asked for an answer.

As a result, both the AFL and the NAACP could make a convincing case that Parker was unfit to sit on the Supreme Court, which is exactly what they did for the weeks Parker’s nomination was pending. Somewhat surprisingly, the Senate, with a large Republican majority, rejected Parker by 41-39. Many of the Senators voting ‘no’ referred explicitly to the extremism of Parker’s anti-union ruling, while a smaller number referenced his racist rhetoric to explain their votes.

Many on the radical left, including the Communist Party, called the Senators hypocrites for having in the past put so many anti-union racists on the Supreme Court and then drawing the line at Parker’s opinions. The Communists pointed out that the Depression was making the Senators nervous about their reelection chances, so they were making an example of Parker to save themselves. 

But the AFL and NAACP were happy to have won an unlikely victory, nevertheless. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/senate-rejects-supreme-court-nominee-may-7-1930-222750

Curtains for Smallpox

MAY 8 IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY of the World Health Assembly’s announcement that smallpox had been globally eradicated. 

The 1980 eradication of smallpox was the result of a World Health Organization effort that began in 1959, when roughly 50 million cases of smallpox occurred every year, resulting in about 2 million deaths.

The world’s only living smallpox virus was being held in two highly secure laboratories, one belonging to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the other to the Soviet Union's (now Russia's) State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology. There has been a long, and as yet unresolved debate about whether there is any scientific benefit to maintaining those two samples. https://jech.bmj.com/content/62/10/909

Covid Kills Jobs, Too (2020)

MAY 9 IS THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate was 14.7 percent, the highest recorded since the Great Depression of the 1930s. During April more than 20 million jobs had been lost, with the hospitality, leisure and healthcare industries hit hardest and people with lower incomes, and racial and ethnic minority workers disproportionately effected. https://portside.org/2020-04-20/chomsky-and-pollin-heal-covid-19-we-must-imagine-different-world

The Road to Revolution (1775)

MAY 10 IS THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY of two crucial events in the U.S. War for Independence. 

It was the day in 1775 when representatives of 12 of the 13 British colonies convened in Philadelphia in the Second Continental Congress. After 14 months of discussion, the group would issue the Declaration of Independence. 

On the same day a detachment of rebels known as the Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured a large British fortification in upstate New York – Fort Ticonderoga – along with a large quantity of cannons and gunpowder. The captured weapons were quickly transported to eastern Massachusetts, where they were used to fortify the hills overlooking British-occupied Boston. The large cannons and generous supply of gunpowder quickly forced the British to flee by sea and give up control of one of the most important cities in North America. https://portside.org/2025-02-08/plan-resistance

A Bad, Bad, Day in Augusta

MAY 11 IS THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY of a massive 1970 rebellion against racist injustice in Augusta, Georgia, during which police killed six unarmed Black protesters, all of whom were shot in the back. In addition,at least 60 people were wounded by police gunfire. For a detailed examination of what happened and what occurred as a result click here https://www.npr.org/podcasts/824570049/shots-in-the-back-exhuming-the-1970-augusta- to listen to the podcast “Shots in the Back: Exhuming the 1970 Augusta Riot”.

Even a King’s Word Is Not Law (1215)

MAY 12 IS THE 810TH ANNIVERSARY of the delivery, in 1215, of an ultimatum from the English nobility to King John, demanding that the King agree to give up ruling arbitrarily based on the principle the king was above the law. 

The barons demanded the King promise protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and the protection of the rights of the church, all to be implemented through a council of 25 barons.

After a month of discussion, the King and the barons agreed to a document called Magna Carta Libertatum (Great Charter of Liberties) or just Magna Carta, which was the first written set of limitations on the hitherto absolute authority of the English monarch. https://www.ruleoflaw.org.au/magna-carta-and-human-rights

Red-Baiters Go Home! (1960)

MAY 13 IS THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY of a watershed moment for the New Left, when the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) held a hearing in San Francisco’s City Hall and a police riot ensued.

For the virulently reactionary HUAC to hold a public hearing in proudly progressive San Francisco in 1960 was a bit like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Inspired by the militant anti-Jim Crow sit-ins that were sweeping through the southeastern states, thousands of students (the vast majority of whom were white) from all over the Bay Area flocked to San Francisco’s ornate Civic Center to protest. 

The hearing was open to the public, but the Congressmen (they were all men) wanted to keep protesters out of the room, so they limited admission to supporters who had been given admission tickets. When hundreds of people who were inside City Hall but denied admission to the hearing room raised a cry of protest, the police charged at them with high-pressure fire hoses to drive them outdoors. At first, the protesters sat down and sang civil-rights movement songs. When the water pressure eventually forced them to leave, their only exit was via a grand marble staircase. The result was highly photogenic bedlam, with protesters being literally hosed down the stone stairs, in the full view of many camera crews. Some of the protesters were seriously injured and more than 60 were arrested. 

On the next and last day of the hearings, the area surrounding City Hall was mobbed with thousands of protesters. One day later, San Francisco’s mayor announced that any future HUAC events in the city would have to be held on federal property. https://www.foundsf.org/The_House_Un-American_Activities_Committee_(HUAC)_Hearing_and_Riot_of_1960

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