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March 3, 2015 – Segment 1
Marc talks about what happened today in history, including the day President Thomas Jefferson signed a law banning the importation of slaves to the United States, the day the Freedman’s Bank was established, and the day the LA police beating of Rodney King was caught on tape.
Transcript of this day in history included below.
This is Marc Steiner, and today is March the 3rd.
(The Temptations – My Girl)
That was “My Girl” by the Temptations. That song was #1 on the Billboard Pop Charts today in 1965.
On this day in 1284 Wales is incorporated into England, and for the last 731 years Wales has fought to keep it’s own identity and language and now once again it’s political autonomy. Humans’ love of their own national heritage runs deep.
In 1807 President Thomas Jefferson signed a law banning the importation of slaves to the United States and while that still occurred the sale of human only intensified within the United States and between the nations that held human beings in bondage in this hemisphere.
And 17 years later in 1821 the Missouri Compromise came into existence allowing Missouri to come in as a slave holding territory and drew those in the new acquitted land from France called the Louisiana Purchase.
And on this day in 1865 President Abraham Lincoln signed two ordinances, one was to establish the Bureau of Refugees, Freedman and Abandoned Lands and also the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. The Freedman’s was supposed to have a life of one year, and was a compromise with some Radical Republicans and their abolitionist allies want to have plantations seized with the land then divide up among the formerly enslaved. Instead it said all abandoned land would be given to the formerly enslaved. The Freedman’s Bank was established so that Black veterans and newly freed people would have a place to deposit and save their earnings and wages to build for the future. Two months later after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, his Vice President now President Andrew Johnson returned all properties to former slave owners throwing freedman off the land and began the battle to gut the Bank.
Two of America’s oldest extant communications companies started today … AT&T – Atlantic Telephone and Telegraph opens today in 1885 in New York City and the weekly Time Magazine puts out its first issue in 1923 … and the man who altered our communications technology forever – by inventing the telephone – Alexander Graham Bell was born today inn 1847
Canada Lee was born today in 1907 – he got that name when he was boxer and the announcers stumbled over hi real name Lionel Cornelius Cangegata. So he kept the name, and went on to become one of the greatest actors on stage and in film ever, in 1941 the New York Times said he was the greatest Negro actor of his era and one of the finest actors in the country. Then this life civil right activist was attacked by the House UN American Activates committee accused of being a communist. They said they would clear his name if he called Paul Robeson a communist … he refused … a great actor, a
great man we remember Canada Lee today
And this is the day the videos began capturing police violence against Black people when the LA police beating of Rodney King was caught on tape in 1991
Here’s a song to think about on March the 3rd. It’s called “I Second That Emotion” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. We lost one of the members of that group, Bobby Rogers, today in 2013.
(I Second That Emotion – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles)
To continue your exploration of this day in history, take a look at some of our favorite sources: Charles H. Wright Museum: Today in Black History; African American Registry; BlackPast; NYTimes on this Day; EyewitnessToHistory.com; The Civil War Trust; Voices in Labor: Today in Labor History; Union Communication Services at The Worker Institute: Today in Labor History; BBC On This Day; The Holocaust History Project; PBS African American World; PBS; Today in Women’s History; South African History Online; This Day In North American Indian History; Jewish Virtual Library; The People History; Wikipedia List of Historical Anniversaries; Yenoba; and This Day in Music
