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James Peck (pacifist)
James Peck (December 19, 1914July 12, 1993) was an American activist who practiced nonviolent resistance during World War II and in the Civil Rights Movement. He is the only person who participated in both the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947 and the first Freedom Ride of 1961, and has been called a white civil rights hero. Peck advocated nonviolent civil disobedience throughout his life, and was arrested more than 60 times between the 1930s and 1980s. Biography Overview James Peck (usually called "Jim") was born in Manhattan, the son of Samuel Peck, a wealthy clothing wholesaler, who died when his son was eleven years old. He attended Choate Rosemary Hall, a private boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. Even though Peck and his family had converted from Judaism to the Episcopalian Church, Peck was still considered a social outsider at Choate. Peck preferred the fellowship of scholarly intellectuals, and in their company he developed a reputation as an independen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the Racial segregation in the United States, segregated Southern United States, Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court decisions ''Morgan v. Virginia'' (1946) and ''Boynton v. Virginia'' (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. ''Boynton'' outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines. Five years prior to the ''Boynton'' ruling, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) had issued a ruling in ''Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company'' (1955) that had explicitly denounced the ''Ples ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing romantic comedy films and received numerous accolades including a British Academy Film Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award and three Writers Guild of America Awards. Ephron started her career writing the screenplays for '' Silkwood'' (1983), ''Heartburn'' (1986), and '' When Harry Met Sally...'' (1989), the last of which earned the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, and was ranked by the Writers Guild of America as the 40th greatest screenplay of all-time. She made her directorial film debut with comedy drama '' This Is My Life'' (1992) followed by the romantic comedies '' Sleepless in Seattle'' (1993), ''Michael'' (1996), '' You've Got Mail'' (1998), '' Bewitched'' (2005), and the biographical film '' Julie & Julia'' (2009). Ephron's first produced play, '' Imaginary Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin ( ; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an American political activist and prominent leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin was the principal organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Rustin worked in 1941 with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement to press for an end to racial discrimination in the military and defense employment. Rustin later organized Freedom Riders, Freedom Rides, and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership; he taught King about non-violence. Rustin worked alongside Ella Baker, a co-director of the Crusade for Citizenship, in 1954; and before the Montgomery bus boycott, he helped organize a group called "In Friendship" to provide material and legal assistance to people threatened with eviction from their tenant farms and homes. Rustin became the head of the AFL–CIO's A. P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Amnesty
Christmas amnesty (German: ''Weihnachtsamnestie'') or Grace (German: ''Gnadenerweis'') is the process of early amnesty of prisoners and their deeds in the run-up to 24 December (Christmas) in Germany and Austria. This process is intended to facilitate reintegration into society. Germany A reform of the system of federalism in 2006 made Christmas amnesty a matter for the states ( German: ''Länder''). Therefore, they individually decide how and to what extent they implement a Christmas amnesty. Bavaria does not conduct any Christmas amnesty, they reason that the Christmas amnesty would give some prisoners unfair advantages. Only prisoners whose prison term would end anyway in the period between mid-November and the first week of January can be released early. Usually prisoners with substitute custodial sentences benefit from this regulation, these are imposed on people who have not paid their fines. Excluded are those who have committed serious offences such as narcotics, violent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury
The Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury (FCI Danbury) is a low-security United States federal prison for male and female inmates in Danbury, Connecticut. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses minimum-security female offenders. History FCI Danbury was opened in August 1940 with the purpose of housing male and female inmates. It housed several high-profile prisoners during World War II. Conscientious objectors, including poet Robert Lowell and civil rights activist James Peck, were housed there for refusing to enter the military draft in the early 1940s. Robert Henry Best served most of his life sentence at FCI Danbury after being convicted of treason in 1948 for making propaganda broadcasts for the Nazis during the war. Screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr., a member of the Hollywood 10, a group of filmmakers who were charged with contempt of Cong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-war Activist
An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts, or to anti-war books, paintings, and other works of art. Some activists distinguish between anti-war movements and peace movements. Anti-war activists work through protest and other grassroots means to attempt to pressure a government (or governments) to put an end to a particular war or conflict or to prevent one from arising. History American Revolutionary War Substantial opposition to British war intervention in America led the British House of Commons on 27 February 1783 to vote against further war in America, paving the way for the Second Rockingham ministry and the Peace of Paris. Antebellum United States Substantial antiwar sentiment developed in the United States roughly between the end of the War of 1812 and the comme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conscientious Objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–industrial complex due to a crisis of conscience. In some countries, conscientious objectors are assigned to an alternative civilian service as a substitute for conscription or military service. A number of organizations around the world celebrate the principle on May 15 as International Conscientious Objection Day. On March 8, 1995, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights resolution 1995/83 stated that "persons performing military service should not be excluded from the right to have conscientious objections to military service". This was re-affirmed on April 22, 1998, when resolution 1998/77 recognized that "persons lreadyperforming military service may ''develop'' conscientious objections". History Many conscientious objectors h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Curran
Joseph Curran (March 1, 1906 – August 14, 1981) was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader. He was founding president of the National Maritime Union (or NMU, now part of the Seafarers International Union of North America) from 1937 to 1973, and a vice president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Early life Curran was born on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His father died when he was two years old, and his mother boarded with another family. He attended parochial school, but when he was 14 he was expelled during the seventh grade for truancy.Barbanel, "Joseph Curran, 75, Founder of National Maritime Union," ''New York Times,'' August 15, 1981; Kempton, ''Part of Our Time,'' 1998 (1955); "Retired Union Boss Joseph Curran Dies," ''Associated Press,'' August 14, 1981. He worked as a caddie and factory worker before finding employment in 1922 in the United States Merchant Marine. He worked as an able seaman and boatswain, washing dishes in restaurants when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Seamen's Union
The International Seamen's Union (ISU) was an American maritime trade union which operated from 1892 until 1937. In its last few years, the union effectively split into the National Maritime Union and Seafarer's International Union. The early years Originally formed as the National Union of Seamen of America in 1892 in Chicago, Illinois, the organization was a federation of independent unions, including the Sailors' Union of the Pacific, the Lake Seamen's Union, the Atlantic Coast Seamen's Union, and the Seamen's and Firemen's Union of the Gulf Coast. Formed by maritime labor representatives from America's West Coast of the United States, Pacific, Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes and Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast regions, in 1893, the ISU affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, and took the name International Seamen's Union of America in 1895. The union existed at a turbulent time in the United States ship transport, shipping industry. The u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Maritime Union
The National Maritime Union (NMU) was an American labor union founded in May 1937. It affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in July 1937. After a failed merger with a different maritime group in 1988, the union merged with the Seafarers International Union of North America in 2001. Early years The NMU was founded in May 1937 by Joseph Curran and his allies, which at the time included Jack Lawrenson. At the time Curran was an able seaman and boatswain aboard the Panama Pacific Line ocean liner . He was a member of the International Seamen's Union (ISU) but was not active in the work of the union. Lawrenson later married writer Helen Lawrenson. He was forced out of the union in 1947, and according to his wife, Curran essentially wrote Lawrenson out of the union's history. From March 1 to March 4, 1936, Curran led a strike aboard ''California'', then docked in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. Curran and the crew of ''California'' went on what was e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1935 Gulf Coast Longshoremen's Strike
The 1935 Gulf Coast longshoremen's strike was a labor action of the International Longshoremen's Association. Lasting for about ten weeks from October 1, 1935 to mid-December on the Gulf Coast of the United States, the strike was marked by significant violence. Motivations In Houston, New Orleans, and other major docks along the Gulf Coast, strikes and other labor conflict had been a regular annual occurrence through the 1930s. The 1934 West Coast waterfront strike of the previous summer, involving workers from both the ILA and the International Seamen's Union, had developed into a general strike in San Francisco, with encouraging results for dock workers. Moreover Texan union longshoremen tended to look to the West Coast for inspiration, rather than President Joe Ryan and his "dictatorial rule" as president of the national ILA. Locals of the ILA struck 23 major shipping companies of the Gulf Coast, beginning on October 1. The ports involved included Corpus Christi, Galveston, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NewsGuild-CWA
The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practices. The NewsGuild-CWA now represents workers in a wide range of roles including editorial, technology, advertising, and others at newspapers, online publications, magazines, news services, and in broadcast. The current president is Jon Schleuss. History The organization's founders were Joseph Cookman an editor of the ''New York Post'', Allen Raymond of the ''New York Herald Tribune'' and Heywood Broun of the ''New York World-Telegram''. The inaugural chapter was based in Cleveland, Ohio, and Carl Randau was its first director from 1934 to 1940.Abe C. Ravitz, ''Leane Zugsmith: Thunder on the Left'', Intl Pub, 1992, p. 10/ref> It was originally called the American Newspaper Guild, but it simplified its name to Newspaper Guild in the 197 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
