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Book Review:
“The Man Who
Hated Work and Loved Labor — The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi”
This is a fascinating book about a labor leader who has had tremendous
influence on our lives, but whose name is not even known by millions of
Americans. Please read my review.
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![[Image]](../images/nra2.gif)
Laws Designed to Disarm Slaves, Freedmen, and African-Americans
Overview
Before the Civil War ended, State “Slave Codes” prohibited slaves from owning
guns. After President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and after the
Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery was adopted and the Civil
War ended in 1865, States persisted in prohibiting blacks, now freemen, from owning guns
under laws renamed “Black Codes.” They did so on the basis that blacks were not
citizens, and thus did not have the same rights, including the right to keep and bear arms
protected in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as whites. This view was
specifically articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in its infamous 1857 decision in Dred
Scott v. Sandford to uphold slavery.
The United States Congress overrode most portions of the Black Codes by passing the
Civil Rights Act of 1866. The legislative histories of both the Civil Rights Act and the
Fourteenth Amendment, as well as The Special Report of the Anti-Slavery Conference of
1867, are replete with denunciations of those particular statutes that denied blacks equal
access to firearms. [Kates, Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second
Amendment, 82 Mich. L. Rev. 204, 256 (1983)] However, facially neutral disarming through
economic means laws remain in effect.
After the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in
1868, most
States turned to “facially neutral” business or transaction taxes on handgun
purchases. However, the intention of these laws was not neutral. An article in
Virginia’s official university law review called for a “prohibitive tax …
on the privilege” of selling handguns as a way of disarming “the son of
Ham”, whose “cowardly practice of ‘toting’ guns has been one of the
most fruitful sources of crime … .Let a negro board a railroad train with a quart of
mean whiskey and a pistol in his grip and the chances are that there will be a murder, or
at least a row, before he alights.” [Comment, Carrying Concealed Weapons, 15 Va L.
Reg. 391, 391-92 (1909); George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1,
“Gun Control and Racism,” Stefan Tahmassebi, 1991, p. 75] Thus, many Southern
States imposed high taxes or banned inexpensive guns so as to price blacks and poor whites
out of the gun market.
In the 1990s, “gun control” laws continue to be enacted so as to have a
racist effect if not intent:
- Police-issued license and permit laws, unless drafted to require issuance to those not
prohibited by law from owning guns, are routinely used to prevent lawful gun ownership
among “unpopular” populations.
- Public housing residents, approximately 3 million Americans, are singled out for gun
bans.
- “Gun sweeps” by police in “high crime neighborhoods” whereby
vehicles and “pedestrians who meet a specific profile that might indicate they are
carrying a weapon” are searched are becoming popular, and are being studied by the
U.S. Department of Justice as “Operation Ceasefire.”
Sample Slave Codes, Black Codes, Economic-Based Gun Bans Used To
Prevent The Arming Of African Americans, 1640-1995
| Year |
Jurisdiction |
Statute |
| 1640 |
Virginia |
Race-based total gun and self-defense ban. “Prohibiting
Negroes, slave and free, from carrying weapons including clubs.” (Los Angeles Times, To
Fight Crime, Some Blacks Attack Gun Control, January 19, 1992) |
| 1640 |
Virginia |
Race-based total gun ban. “That all such free Mulattos,
Negroes and Indians … shall appear without arms.” [7 The Statues at Large; Being
a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in
the Year 1619, p. 95 (W. W. Henning ed. 1823).] (GMU CR LJ, p. 67) |
| 1712 |
Virginia |
Race-based total gun ban. “An Act for Preventing Negroes
Insurrections.” (Henning, p. 481) (GMU CR LJ, p. 70) |
| 1712 |
South Carolina |
Race-based total gun ban. “An act for the better
ordering and governing of Negroes and slaves.” [7 Statutes at Large of South
Carolina, p. 353-54 (D. J. McCord ed. 1836-1873).] (GMU CR LJ, p. 70) |
| 1791 |
United States |
2nd Amendment to the U. S. Constitution ratified.
Reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” |
| 1792 |
United States |
Blacks excluded from the militia, i.e. law-abiding males thus
instilled with the right to own guns. Uniform Militia Act of 1792 “called for the
enrollment of every free, able-bodied white male citizen between the ages of eighteen and
forty-five” to be in the militia, and specified that every militia member was to
“provide himself with a musket or firelock, a bayonet, and ammunition.” [1 Stat.
271 (Georgetown Law Journal, Vol. 80, No. 2, “The Second Amendment: Toward an
Afro-Americanist Reconsideration,” Robert Cottrol and Raymond Diamond, 1991, p. 331)] |
| 1806 |
Louisiana |
Complete gun and self-defense ban for slaves. Black Code, ch.
33, Sec. 19, Laws of La. 150, 160 (1806) provided that a slave was denied the use of
firearms and all other offensive weapons. (GLJ, p. 337) |
| 1811 |
Louisiana |
Complete gun ban for slaves. Act of Apr. 8, 1811, ch. 14,
1811 Laws of La. 50, 53-54, forbade sale or delivery of firearms to slaves. (Id.) |
| 1819 |
South Carolina |
Master’s permission required for gun possession by
slave. Act of Dec. 18, 1819, 1819 Acts of S. C. 28, 31 prohibited slaves outside the
company of whites or without written permission from their master from using or carrying
firearms unless they were hunting or guarding the master’s plantation. (Id.) |
| 1825 |
Florida |
Slave and free black homes searched for guns for
confiscation. “An Act to Govern Patrols,” 1825 Acts of Fla. 52, 55 - Section
8provided that white citizen patrols “shall enter into all Negro houses and suspected
places, and search for arms and other offensive or improper weapons, and may lawfully
seize and take away such arms, weapons, and ammunition …” Section 9 provided
that a slave might carry a firearm under this statute either by means of the weekly
renewable license or if “in the presence of some white person.” (Id.) |
| 1828 |
Florida |
Free blacks permitted to carry guns if court approval. Act of
Nov. 17, 1828 Sec. 9, 1828 Fla. Laws 174, 177; Act of Jan. 12, 1828, Sec. 9, 1827 Fla.
Laws 97, 100 - Florida went back and forth on the question of licenses for free blacks;
twice in 1828, Florida enacted provisions providing for free blacks to carry and use
firearms upon obtaining a license from a justice of the peace. (Id.) |
| 1831 |
Florida |
Race-based total gun ban. Act of Jan. 1831, 1831 Fla. Laws 30
- Florida repealed all provision for firearm licenses for free blacks. (Id. p. 337-38) |
| 1831 |
Delaware |
Free blacks permitted to carry guns if court approval. In the
December 1831 legislative session, Delaware required free blacks desiring to carry
firearms to obtain a license from a justice of the peace. [Herbert Aptheker, Nat
Turner’s Slave Rebellion, p. 74-75 (1966).](GLJ, p. 338) |
| 1831 |
Maryland |
Race-based total gun ban. In the December 1831 legislative
session, Maryland entirely prohibited free blacks from carrying arms. (Aptheker, p. 75) (GLJ,
p. 338) |
| 1831 |
Virginia |
Race-based total gun ban. In the December 1831 legislative
session, Virginia entirely prohibited free blacks from carrying arms. (Aptheker, p. 81) (GLJ,
p. 338) |
| 1833 |
Florida |
Slave and free black homes searched for guns for
confiscation. Act of Feb. 17, 1833, ch. 671, Sec. 15, 17, 1833 Fla. Laws 26, 29 authorized
white citizen patrols to seize arms found in the homes of slaves and free blacks, and
provided that blacks without a proper explanation for the presence of the firearms be
summarily punished, without benefit of a judicial tribunal. (Id. p. 338) |
| 1833 |
Georgia |
Race-based total gun ban. Act of Dec. 23, 1833, Sec. 7, 1833
Ga. Laws 226, 228 declared that “it shall not be lawful for any free person of colour
in this state, to own, use, or carry fire arms of any description whatever.” (Id.) |
| 1840 |
Florida |
Complete gun ban for slaves. Act of Feb. 25, 1840, no. 20,
Sec. 1, 1840 Acts of Fla. 22-23 made sale or delivery of firearms to slaves forbidden.
(Id. p. 337) |
| 1840 |
Texas |
Complete gun ban for slaves. “An Act Concerning
Slaves,” Sec. 6, 1840 Laws of Tex. 171, 172, ch. 58 of the Texas Acts of 1850
prohibited slaves from using firearms altogether from 1842-1850. (Journal of Criminal
Law and Criminology, Northwestern University, Vol. 85, No. 3, “Gun Control and
Economic Discrimination: The Melting-Point Case-In-Point”, T. Markus Funk, 1995, p.
797) |
| 1844 |
North Carolina |
Race-based gun ban upheld because free blacks “not
citizens.” In State v. Newsom, 27 N. C. 250 (1844), the Supreme Court of North
Carolina upheld a Slave Code law prohibiting free blacks from carrying firearms on the
grounds that they were not citizens. (GMU CR LJ, p. 70) |
| 1845 |
North Carolina |
Complete gun ban for slaves. Act of Jan. 1, 1845, ch. 87,
Sec. 1, 2, 1845 Acts of N. C. 124 made sale or delivery of firearms to slaves forbidden. (GLJ,
p. 337) |
| 1847 |
Florida |
Slave and free black homes searched for guns for
confiscation. Act of Jan. 6, 1847, ch. 87 Sec. 11, 1846 Fla. Laws 42, 44 provided that
white citizen patrols might search the homes of blacks, both free and slave and confiscate
arms held therein. (Id. p. 338) |
| 1848 |
Georgia |
Race-based gun ban upheld because free blacks “not
citizens.” In Cooper v. Savannah, 4 Ga. 68, 72 (1848), the Georgia Supreme Court
ruled “free persons of color have never been recognized here as citizens; they are
not entitled to bear arms, vote for members of the legislature, or to hold any civil
office.” (GMU CR LJ, p. 70) |
| 1852 |
Mississippi |
Race-based complete gun ban. Act of Mar. 15, 1852, ch. 206,
1852 Laws of Miss. 328 forbade ownership of firearms by both free blacks and slaves. (JCLC
NWU, p. 797) |
| 1857 |
United States |
High Court upholds slavery since blacks “not
citizens.” In Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U. S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), Chief Justice
Taney argued if members of the African race were “citizens” they would be exempt
from the special “police regulations” applicable to them. “It would give to
persons of the Negro race … full liberty of speech … to hold public meetings
upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.” (Id. p. 417)
U. S. Supreme Court held that descendants of Africans who were imported into this country
and sold as slaves were not included nor intended to be included under the word
“citizens” in the Constitution, whether emancipated or not, and remained without
rights or privileges except such as those which the government might grant them, thereby
upholding slavery. Also held that a slave did not become free when taken into a free
state; that Congress cannot bar slavery in any territory; and that blacks could not be
citizens. |
| 1860 |
Georgia |
Complete gun ban for slaves. Act of Dec. 19, 1860, no. 64,
Sec. 1, 1860 Acts of Ga. 561 forbade sale or delivery of firearms to slaves. (GLJ,
p. 337) |
| 1861 |
United States |
Civil War begins. |
| 1861 |
Florida |
Slave and free black homes searched for guns for
confiscation. Act of Dec. 17, 1861, ch. 1291, Sec. 11, 1861 Fla. Laws 38, 40provided once
again that white citizen patrols might search the homes of blacks, both free and slave,
and confiscate arms held therein. (Id. p. 338) |
| 1863 |
United States |
Emancipation Proclamation President Lincoln issued
proclamation “freeing all slaves in areas still in rebellion.” |
| 1865 |
Mississippi |
Blacks require police approval to own guns, unless in
military. Mississippi Statute of 1865 prohibited blacks, not in the military“ and not
licensed so to do by the board of police of his or her county” from keeping or
carrying “fire-arms of any kind, or any ammunition, dirk or bowie knife.”
[reprinted in 1 Documentary History of Reconstruction: Political, Military, Social,
Religious, Educational and Industrial, 1865 to the Present Time, p. 291, Walter L.
Fleming, ed., 1960.] (GLJ, p. 344) |
| 1865 |
Louisiana |
Blacks require police and employer approval to own guns,
unless in military. Louisiana Statute of 1865 prohibited blacks, not in the military
service, from “carrying fire-arms, or any kind of weapons … without the special
permission of his employers, approved and indorsed by the nearest and most convenient
chief of patrol.” (Fleming, p. 280) (GLJ, p. 344) |
| 1865 |
United States |
Civil War ends May 26. |
| 1865 |
United States |
Slavery abolished as of December 18, 1865. 13th
Amendment abolishing slavery was ratified. Reads: “Section 1. Neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or in any place subject to their
jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.” |
| 1866 |
Alabama |
Race-based total gun ban. Black Code of Alabama in January
1866 prohibited blacks to own or carry firearms or other deadly weapons and prohibited
“any person to sell, give, or lend fire-arms or ammunition of any description
whatever” to any black. [The Reconstruction Amendments’ Debates, p. 209, (Alfred
Avins ed., 1967)] (GLJ, p. 345) |
| 1866 |
North Carolina |
Rights of blacks can be changed by legislature. North
Carolina Black Code, ch. 40, 1866 N. C. Sess. Laws 99 stated “All persons of color
who are now inhabitants of this state shall be entitled to the same privileges, and are
subject to the same burdens and disabilities, as by the laws of the state were conferred
on, or were attached to, free persons of color, prior to the ordinance of emancipation,
except as the same may be changed by law.” (Avins, p. 291.) (GLJ, p. 344) |
| 1866 |
United States |
Civil Rights Act of 1866 enacted. CRA of 1866 did away with
badges of slavery embodied in the “Black Codes,” including those provisions
which “prohibit any Negro or mulatto from having fire-arms.” [CONG. GLOBE, 39th
Congress, 1st Session, pt. 1, 474 (29 Jan. 1866)] Senator William Saulsbury
(D-Del) added “In my State for many years … there has existed a law … which
declares that free Negroes shall not have the possession of firearms or ammunition. This
bill proposes to take away from the States this police power …” and thus voted
against the bill. CRA of 1866 was a precursor to today’s 42 USC Sec. 1982, a portion
of which still reads: “All citizens of the United States shall have the same right,
in every state and territory, as is enjoyed by white citizens thereof to inherit,
purchase, lease, sell, hold and convey real and personal property.” |
| 1866 |
United States |
Proposed 14th Amendment to U. S. Constitution
debated. Opponents of the 14th Amendment objected to its adoption because they
opposed federal enforcement of the freedoms in the bill of rights. Senator Thomas A.
Hendricks (D-Indiana) said “if this amendment be adopted we will then carry the title
[of citizenship] and enjoy its advantages in common with the Negroes, the coolies, and the
Indians.” [CONG. GLOBE, 39th Congress, 1st Session, pt. 3, 2939
(4 June 1866)]. Senator Reverdy Johnson, counsel for the slave owner in Dred Scott,
opposed the amendment because “it is quite objectionable to provide that ‘no
State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of
citizens of the United States’.” Thus, the 14th Amendment was viewed
as necessary to buttress the Civil Rights Act of 1866, especially since the act “is
pronounced void by the jurists and courts of the South,” e. g. Florida has as “a
misdemeanor for colored men … and the punishment … is whipping …”
[CONG GLOBE, 39th Con., 1st Session, 504, pt. 4, 3210 (16
June1866)]. |
| 1866 |
United States |
Klu Klux Klan formed. Purpose was to terrorize blacks who
voted; temporarily disbanded in1871; reestablished in 1915. In debating what would become
42 USC Sec. 1983, today’s federal civil rights statute, Representative Butler
explained “This provision seemed to your committee to be necessary, because they had
observed that, before these midnight marauders [the KKK] made attacks upon peaceful
citizens, there were very many instances in the South where the sheriff of the county had
preceded them and taken away the arms of their victims. This was especially noticeable in
Union County, where all the Negro population were disarmed by the sheriff only a few
months ago under the order of the judge … ; and then, the sheriff having disarmed the
citizens, the five hundred masked men rode at nights and murdered and otherwise maltreated
the ten persons who were in jail in that county.” [1464 H. R. REP. No. 37, 41st
Cong., 3rd Sess. p. 7-8 (20 Feb. 1871)] |
| 1867 |
United States |
The Special Report of the Anti-Slavery Conference of 1867.
Report noted with particular emphasis that under the Black Codes, blacks were
“forbidden to own or bear firearms, and thus were rendered defenseless against
assaults.” (Reprinted in H. Hyman, The Radical Republicans and Reconstruction,
p. 219, 1967.) (GMU CR LJ, p. 71) |
| 1868 |
United States |
14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution adopted,
conveying citizenship to blacks. Reads, in part: “Section 1. All persons born or
naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of
the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of
law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws.” “Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article.” |
| 1870 |
Tennessee |
First “Saturday Night Special” economic handgun ban
passed. In the first legislative session in which they gained control, white supremacists
passed “An Act to Preserve the Peace and Prevent Homicide,” which banned the
sale of all handguns except the expensive “Army and Navy model handgun” which
whites already owned or could afford to buy, and blacks could not. (Gun Control: White
Man’s Law, William R. Tonso, Reason, December 1985) Upheld in Andrews v. State,
50 Tenn. (3 Heisk.)165, 172 (1871) (GMU CR LJ, p. 74) “The cheap revolvers of the
late 19th and early 20th centuries were referred to as ”Suicide
Specials,“ the ”Saturday Night Special“ label not becoming widespread until
reformers and politicians took up the gun control cause during the 1960s. The source of
this recent concern about cheap revolvers, as their new label suggest, has much in common
with the concerns of the gun-law initiators of the post-Civil War South. As B.
Bruce-Briggs has written in the Public Interest, ”It is difficult to escape the
conclusion that the “Saturday Night Special” is emphasized because it is cheap
and being sold to a particular class of people. The name is sufficient evidence -- the
reference is to “niggertown Saturday night.” (Gun Control: White Man’s
Law,William R. Tonso, Reason, December 1985) |
| 1871 |
United States |
Anti-KKK Bill debated in response to race-motivated violence
in South. A report on violence in the South resulted in an anti-KKK bill that stated
“That whoever shall, without due process of law, by violence, intimidation, or
threats, take away or deprive any citizen of the United States of any arms or weapons he
may have in his house or possession for the defense of his person, family, or property,
shall be deemed guilty of a larceny thereof, and be punished as provided in this act for a
felony.” [1464 H. R. REP. No. 37, 41st Cong., 3rd Sess. p. 7-8
(20 Feb. 1871)]. Since Congress doesn’t have jurisdiction over simple larceny, the
language was removed from the anti-KKK bill, but this section survives today as 42 USC
Sec. 1983: “That any person who, under color of any law, … of any State, shall
subject, or cause to be subjected, any person … to the deprivation of any rights,
privileges, or immunities to which … he is entitled under the Constitution …
shall be liable … in any action at law … for redress … .” |
| 1875 |
United States |
High Court rules has no power to stop KKK members from
disarming blacks. In United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. at 548-59 (1875) A member of
the KKK, Cruikshank had been charged with violating the rights of two black men to
peaceably assemble and to bear arms. The U. S. Supreme Court held that the federal
government had no power to protect citizens against private action (not committed by
federal or state government authorities) that deprived them of their constitutional rights
under the 14th Amendment. The Court held that for protection against private
criminal action, individuals are required to look to state governments. “The doctrine
in Cruikshank, that blacks would have to look to state government for protection against
criminal conspiracies gave the green light to private forces, often with the assistance of
state and local governments, that sought to subjugate the former slaves and … With
the protective arm of the federal government withdrawn, protection of black lives and
property was left to largely hostile state governments.” (GLJ, p. 348.) |
| 1879 |
Tennessee |
Second “Saturday Night Special” economic handgun
ban passed. Tennessee revamped its economic handgun ban nine years later, passing “An
Act to Prevent the Sale of Pistols,” which was upheld in State v. Burgoyne, 75 Tenn.
173, 174 (1881). (GMU CR LJ, p. 74) |
| 1882 |
Arkansas |
Third “Saturday Night Special” economic handgun ban
passed. Arkansas followed Tennessee’s lead by enacting a virtually identical
“Saturday Night Special” law banning the sale of any pistols other than
expensive “army or navy” model revolvers, which most whites had or could afford,
thereby disarming blacks. Statute was upheld in Dabbs v. State, 39 Ark. 353 (1882) (GMU CR
LJ, p. 74) |
| 1893 |
Alabama |
First all-gun economic ban passed. Alabama placed
“extremely heavy business and/or transactional taxes“ on the sale of handguns in
an attempt ”to put handguns out of the reach of blacks and poor whites.“ (Gun
Control: White Man’s Law, William R. Tonso, Reason, December 1985) |
| 1902 |
South Carolina |
First total civilian handgun ban. The state banned all pistol
sales except to sheriffs and their special deputies, which included the KKK and company
strongmen. (Kates, ”Toward a History of Handgun Prohibition in the United
States“ in Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, p. 15, 1979.)
(GMU CR LJ, p. 76) |
| 1906 |
Mississippi |
Race-based confiscation through record-keeping. Mississippi
enacted the first registration law for retailers in1906, requiring them to maintain
records of all pistol and pistol ammunition sales, and to make such records available for
inspection on demand. (Kates, p. 14) (GMU CR LJ, p. 75) |
| 1907 |
Texas |
Fourth ”Saturday Night Special“ economic handgun
ban. Placed ”extremely heavy business and/or transactional taxes” on the sale of
handguns in an attempt “to put handguns out of the reach of blacks and poor
whites.” (Gun Control: White Man’s Law, William R. Tonso, Reason,
December 1985) |
| 1911 |
New York |
Police choose who can own guns lawfully. “Sullivan
Law” enacted, requiring police permission, via a permit issued at their discretion,
to own a handgun. Unpopular minorities were and are routinely denied permits. (Gun
Control: White Man’s Law, William R. Tonso, Reason, December 1985) “(T)here
are only about 3, 000 permits in New York City, and 25, 000carry permits. If you’re a
street-corner grocer in Manhattan, good luck getting a gun permit. But among those who
have been able to wrangle a precious carry permit out of the city’s bureaucracy are
Donald Trump, Arthur Ochs Sulzburger, William Buckley, Jr., and David, John, Lawrence and
Winthrop Rockefeller. Surprise.” (Terrance Moran, Racism and the Firearms
Firestorm, Legal Times) |
| 1934 |
United States |
Gun Control Act of 1934 (National Firearms Act) passed. |
| 1941 |
Florida |
Judge admits gun law passed to disarm black laborers. In
concurring opinion narrowly construing a Florida gun control law passed in 1893, Justice
Buford stated the 1893 law “was passed when there was a great influx of Negro
laborers … The same condition existed when the Act was amended in 1901 and the Act
was passed for the purpose of disarming the Negro laborers … The statute was never
intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied
… .” Watson v. Stone, 148 Fla. 516, 524, 4 So. 2d 700, 703 (1941) (GMU CR LJ, p.
69) |
The Following Historical Events Are Included as Context for Passage of
the Gun Control Act of 1968:
| Year |
Jurisdiction |
Statute |
| |
|
|
| 1954 |
United States |
Supreme Court held racial segregation of schools violates 14th
Amendment. |
| 1955 |
United States |
Alabama bus segregation ordinance held unconstitutional after
boycott and NAACP protest. |
| 1956 |
United States |
Massive resistance to Supreme Court desegregation ruling
called for by 101 Southern congressmen. |
| 1957 |
United States |
Congress approved first civil rights law for blacks. Governor
ordered National Guard troops to prevent nine blacks from entering all-white high school
in Little Rock; President Eisenhower had to send federal military troops to enforce court
order that Guardsman be removed. |
| 1960 |
United States |
Sit-ins began February 1 when four black college students in
Greensboro, NC, refused to move from a lunch counter after being denied service; by 1961,
more than 700, 000 students, black and white, had participated in sit-ins. |
| 1962 |
United States |
3,000 troops were required to quell riots after University of
Mississippi accepted first black student. |
| 1963 |
United States |
200, 000 people participated in March on Washington, at which
Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech. President John
F. Kennedy assassinated in November. |
| 1964 |
United States |
Omnibus civil rights bill barring discrimination in voting,
jobs, discrimination, etc.; three civil rights workers reported missing in Mississippi,
found buried two months later, 21 white men arrested, seven of whom an all-white federal
court jury convicted of conspiracy only. |
| 1965 |
California |
34 dead in race riot in Watts area of Los Angeles, CA. |
| 1966 |
United States |
First black U. S. senator in 85 years elected (Edward Brook,
R-MA) |
| 1967 |
United States |
Race riots in Newark, NJ, kill 26, injure 1, 500, with over
1, 000 arrested. Race riots in Detroit, MI, killed at least 40, injured 2, 000 and left 5,
000 homeless; was quelled by 4, 700 federal paratroopers and 8, 000 National Guardsmen.
Thurgood Marshall sworn in Oct. 2 as first black justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. |
| 1968 |
United States |
Martin Luther King assassinated in April. Robert F. Kennedy
assassinated in June. |
| 1968 |
United States |
Gun Control Act of 1968 passed. Avowed anti-gun journalist
Robert Sherrill frankly admitted that the Gun Control Act of 1968 was “passed not to
control guns but to control Blacks.” [R. Sherrill, The Saturday Night Special, p. 280
(1972).] (GMU CRLJ, p. 80) “The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed not to control
guns but to control blacks, and inasmuch as a majority of Congress did not want to do the
former but were ashamed to show that their goal was the latter, the result was they did
neither. Indeed, this law, the first gun-control law passed by Congress in thirty years,
was one of the grand jokes of our time. First of all, bear in mind that it was not passed
in one piece but was a combination of two laws. The original 1968 Act was passed to
control handguns after the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been assassinated with a rifle.
Then it was repealed and repassed to include the control of rifles and shotguns
after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy with a handgun … The moralists of
our federal legislature as well as sentimental editorial writers insist that the Act of
1968 was a kind of memorial to King and Robert Kennedy. If so, it was certainly a weird
memorial, as can be seen not merely by the handgun/long-gun shell game, but from the
inapplicability of the law to their deaths.” (The Saturday Night Special and Other
Guns, Robert Sherrill, p. 280, 1972) |
| 1988 |
Maryland |
Fifth “Saturday Night Special” economic handgun ban
passes. Ban on “Saturday Night Specials,” i.e. inexpensive handguns, passes. |
| 1988 |
Illinois |
Poor citizens singled out for gun ban in Illinois. Starting
in late 1988, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) and the Chicago Police Dept. (CPD)
enacted and enforced an official policy, Operation Clean Sweep, which applied to all
housing units owned and operated by the CHA. The purpose was the confiscation of firearms
and illegal narcotics and consisted of warrantless searches and of a visitor exclusion
policy severely limiting the right of CHA tenants to associate in their residences with
family members and other guests, tenants had to sign in and out of the building, producing
to the police or CHA officials photo Id. Relatives, including children and grandchildren,
were not allowed to stay over, even on holidays. CHA tenants who objected or attempted to
interfere with these warrantless searches were arrested. The ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking
declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of the CHA tenants against the enforcement of
Operation Clean Sweep. The complaint was filed in the United Sates District Court for the
Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on December 16, 1988, as Case No.
88C10566 and is styled as Rose Summeries, et al. v. Chicago Housing Authority, et al. A
consent decree was entered on November 30, 1989 in which the CHA and CPD agreed to abide
by certain standards and in which the scope and purposes of such “emergency housing
inspections” were limited. (GMU, p. 98) |
| 1990 |
Virginia |
Poor citizens singled out for gun ban in Virginia. U. S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia upheld a ban imposed by the Richmond
Housing Authority on the possession of all firearms, whether operable or not, in public
housing projects. The Richmond Tenants Organization had challenged the ban, arguing that
such requirement had made the city’s 14, 000 public housing residents second-class
citizens. [Richmond Tenants Org. v. Richmond Dev. & House. Auth., No. C. A.
3:90CV00576 (E. D. Va. Dec. 3, 1990).] (GMU, p. 97) |
| 1994 |
United States |
President seeks to single out all poor citizens residing in
federal housing for gun ban. The Clinton Administration introduced H. R. 3838 in 1994 to
ban guns in federal public housing, but the House Banking Committee reject edit. Similar
legislation was filed in 1994 in the Oregon and Washington state legislatures. |
| 1995 |
Maine |
Poor citizens singled out for gun ban in Maine. Portland,
Maine, gun ban in public housing struck down on April 5, 1995. |
This information comes from the NRA/ILA.
URL: http://www.nraila.org/
|
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