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On this day in … 1802, aboriginal leader and resistance fighter, Pemulwuy, was shot and killed by explorer and sailor Henry Hacking, the first mate of the Royal Navy ship Lady Nelson.

Pemulwuy was a Bidjigal warrior of the Dharug, an Aboriginal Australian people from New South Wales. One of the most famous Aboriginal resistance fighters in the colonial era, he is noted for his resistance to British colonisation which began with the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788.

Pemulwuy lived near Botany Bay, which he would have known as Kamay in the Dharug language. He was born with a turned eyeball, or other blemish, in his left eye. It is a believed that this deformity forced him to try harder than anyone else at everything he did. “He could run further, he was one of the best, he could use a spear like no-one else could. And so, around him, was created an aura of difference. So much so that he was said to be a clever man. In an Aboriginal society, clever man is often a man who deals with the spiritual nature of things and sorcery even.” He was a Dharug spiritual healer and culture keeper. In 1790, Pemulwuy began a twelve-year guerrilla war against the colonists, which continued until his assasination.

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On this day in … 1968, Helen Keller passed away in Easton, Connecticut.

In 1909, Keller became a member of the Socialist Party of America; she actively campaigned and wrote in support of the working class from 1909 to 1921. Many of her speeches and writings were about women’s right to vote and the effects of war; in addition, she supported causes that opposed military intervention. She had speech therapy to have her voice understood better by the public. When the Rockefeller-owned press refused to print her articles, she protested until her work was finally published.

Keller supported the SPA candidate Eugene V. Debs in each of his campaigns for the presidency. In 1912, Keller joined the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW, known as the Wobblies), saying that parliamentary socialism was “sinking in the political bog”. She wrote for the IWW between 1916 and 1918. In Why I Became an IWW, Keller explained that her motivation for activism came in part from her concern about blindness and other disabilities.

Keller also cited the 1912 strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, for instigating her support of socialism. As a result of her advocacy, she was placed on the FBI’s watchlist; the FBI wrote on July 1, 1953, that although they have not “conducted an investigation with regard to Helen Adams Keller”, their files of Keller “reflect the following pertinent information concerning this individual”.

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On this day in … 1831, the British government ordered the army into Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, to put down a popular working class rebellion against low wages and bailiffs that had begun in May.

The Merthyr Rising, also referred to as the Merthyr Riots, of 1831 was the violent climax to many years of simmering unrest among the large working class population of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales and the surrounding area. The Rising marked the first time the red flag was used a symbol of working class rebellion in the United Kingdom.

After storming Merthyr town, the rebels sacked the local debtors’ court and the goods that had been collected. Account books containing debtors’ details were also destroyed. Among the shouts were cries of caws a bara (‘cheese and bread’) and i lawr â’r Brenin (‘down with the king’).

On Tuesday, June 1, the protesters marched to local mines and persuaded the men on shift there to stop working and join their protest. In the meantime, the Grey ministry had ordered in the army, with contingents of the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot dispatched to Merthyr Tydfil to restore order. Since the crowd was now too large to be dispersed, the soldiers were ordered to protect essential buildings and people.

By June 7 the authorities had regained control of the town through force, with up to twenty-four of the protesters killed. Twenty-six people were arrested and put on trial for taking part in the revolt. Several were sentenced to terms of imprisonment, others sentenced to penal transportation to Australia, and one was hanged –Richard Lewis (Dic Penderyn) — for stabbing a soldier in the leg with a seized bayonet, despite a general belief that he was innocent.

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On this day in … 1921, what is known as the Tulsa Race Massacre began in Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA.) it was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies and armed by city government officials, attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses. The event is considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. The attackers burned and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the neighborhood—at the time, one of the wealthiest black communities in the United States, colloquially known as “Black Wall Street.”

The massacre began during Memorial Day weekend after 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a black shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a white 21-year-old elevator operator in the nearby Drexel Building. He was arrested and rumors that he was to be lynched were spread throughout the city, where a white man named Roy Belton had been lynched the previous year. Upon hearing reports that a mob of hundreds of white men had gathered around the jail where Rowland was being held, a group of 75 black men, some armed, arrived at the jail to protect Rowland. The sheriff persuaded the group to leave the jail, assuring them that he had the situation under control. It is believed Rowland escaped the riots but his whereabouts afterward are largely unknown. But that was only the beginning.

The total death toll is hard to pin firm because so many bodies were disposed of in secret. Could be 300. Up to 1000 injured, a few hundred of those were serious. Thousands were displaced or lost their homes and businesses. Millions of dollars of black wealth evaporated.

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On this day in … 1989, C.L.R. James died in Brixton, England. He was a Trinidadian historian, journalist, Trotskyist activist, Marxist writer, and huge cricket fan. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts. His work is a staple of Marxism, and he figures as a pioneering and influential voice in postcolonial literature. A tireless political activist, James is the author of the 1937 work ‘World Revolution’ outlining the history of the Communist International, which stirred debate in Trotskyist circles, and in 1938 he wrote on the Haitian Revolution, ‘The Black Jacobins.’

“The rich are only defeated when they’re running for their lives.” — C.L.R. James

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On this day in … 1937, Chicago city policemen attacked a group of striking Republic Steel workers and their families who were attempting to picket the Chicago mill during a Memorial Day picnic. As the police viciously broke up the crowd they began firing at the backs of the fleeing protestors. Hundreds were treated for serious injuries, including children, and ten people were murdered. Nobody was ever charged or held accountable.

It was a heavily photographed incident, including newsreel film, and it showed the shocking details unfiltered. However, it was immediately framed by the media as a “red riot” in which the police were defending themselves from attackers, and what little footage did get out to the public was edited or censored. It quickly became clear that something else happened besides a “labor riot.” The leaked, original footage and eye witness testimony made its way to the U.S. Senate and an investigation into recent labor disputes and strikes.

Lupe Marshall, a Mexican-American social worker, was present at the holiday gathering. Despite injuries she sustained at the hands of the police, she continued to help the other wounded even as she arrived at the hospital, still bleeding. Her testimony at the hearings, in the same dress she wore on the day of the massacre, and her presence in the news footage, is believed to be the star witness that turned public support against the police. The hearings and the evidence they exposed increased public sympathy for union workers, in general.

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On this day in … 1822, two enslaved men betrayed a planned slave revolt organized by Denmark Vesey in Charleston, South Carolina, confirming an earlier warning.

Denmark Vessey, aka Telemaque, a free Black man and community leader in Charleston, SC, was accused & convicted of planning the slave revolt. Although the alleged plot was discovered before it could be realized, its potential scale stoked the fears of the “antebellum planter class” (slaveholders) that led to increased restrictions on both enslaved and free African Americans.

Likely born into slavery in St. Thomas, Vesey was enslaved in Bermuda for some time before being brought to Charleston. Historian Douglas Egerton suggested that Vesey could be of Coromantee (an Akan-speaking people) origin, based on remembrance by a free black carpenter who knew Vesey toward the end of his life. In Charleston, Vesey won a lottery and purchased his freedom around the age of 32. He had a good business and a family but was unable to buy his first wife, Beck, and their children out of slavery. Vesey worked as a carpenter and became active in the Second Presbyterian Church. In 1818, he helped found an independent African Methodist Episcopal congregation in the city, today known as Mother Emanuel.

His insurrection, which was to take place on Bastille Day, 14 July 1822, became known to thousands of blacks throughout Charleston, South Carolina, and along the Carolina coast. The plot called for Vesey and his group of enslaved people and free blacks to execute their enslavers and temporarily liberate the city of Charleston. Vesey and his followers planned to sail to Haiti to escape retaliation. Charleston authorities charged 131 men with conspiracy. In total, 67 men were convicted and 35 hanged, including Denmark Vesey.

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On this day in … 1381, the Great Rising began in England when a tax collector called John Bampton attempted to collect a Poll Tax in Brentwood, Essex. The violent confrontation that followed ended up sparking “The Peasants’ Revolt,” as it is also known. It rapidly spread across the southeast of the country. A wide spectrum of rural society, including many local artisans and village officials, rose up in protest, burning court records and opening the local prisons. The rebels sought a reduction in taxation, an end to serfdom, and the removal of King Richard II’s senior officials and law courts.

Inspired by the sermons of radical cleric John Ball and led by veteran Wat Tyler, a contingent of Kentish rebels advanced on London. They were met at Blackheath by representatives of the royal government, who unsuccessfully attempted to persuade them to return home. The rebels entered London and, joined by many local townsfolk, attacked the prisons, destroyed the Savoy Palace, set fire to law books and buildings in the Temple, and killed anyone associated with the royal government. The following day, Richard met the rebels at Mile End and agreed to most of their demands, including the abolition of serfdom.

A few days later, however, the King’s forces met with and promptly assassinated Tyler. Eventually, the mayor of London gathered an effective militia to put down the rebels, and King Richard II (then 14 yrs old) rescinded all of his promises. The revolt had already spread across southern England, however, and it took the nobles until November to finally put it down. By the end, nearly 1500 rebels were tracked down and executed.

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On this day in … 1814, Mikhail Bakunin was born in Pryamukhino, Russian Empire (modern day Russia.) He was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, social anarchist, and collectivist anarchist traditions. Bakunin’s prestige as a revolutionary also made him one of the most famous ideologues in Europe, gaining substantial influence among radicals throughout Russia and Europe.

Although born into nobility on an estate with 500 serfs, Bakunin rejected his aristocratic privileges. He was drawn to the ideals of the French Revolution and the philosophy of Hegel while living a bohemian lifestyle. He participated in the 1848 Revolutions throughout Europe, solidifying his place outside the European elite and squarely within the working class. He spent time in prison and on the run from political enemies, but always pushed for revolutionary action throughout the rest of his life. He became the foremost philosopher of Russian anarchism, with his ideas still influencing revolutionaries today.

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On this day in … 1830, anarchist, feminist, communard, and educator Louise Michel was born in Vroncourt-la-Côte, France. Michel was a teacher and prominent figure during the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she began to embrace anarchism, and upon her return to France she emerged as an important French anarchist, and went on speaking tours across Europe. At home she was an active rioter and protestor with the working class, taking part in bread riots and unemployment demonstrations. The journalist Brian Doherty has called her the “French grande dame of anarchy.” Her use of a black flag at a demonstration in Paris in March 1883 was the earliest known instance of what would become known as the anarchy black flag. In an 1896 article, entitled “Why I am an Anarchist”, Michel argued that “Anarchy will not begin the eternal miseries anew. Humanity in its fight of despair will cling to it in order to emerge from the abyss.” She died in 1905 of pneumonia and 100,000 people attended her funeral.

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During May 28-29, 1851, The Ohio Women’s Convention met in Akron, Ohio. The convention was led by Frances Dana Barker Gage, who had previously presided over a similar event in McConnelsville. The convention was not well received locally and several men, including local ministers, heckled speakers at it. During the convention, one of the speakers was the abolitionist and preacher, Sojourner Truth, who gave what became one of the most notable speeches in American women’s history. Without a title at the time, the speech later became known under the title of “Ain’t I a Woman?”. Truth was the only black woman in attendance at the conference and many of the other women present did not want her to speak. Truth delivered the speech from the steps of the Old Stone Church, on the second day of the convention. It was published by journalist Marius Robinson in The Anti-Slavery Bugle on June 21, 1851.

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On this day in … 1972, the Dalit Panthers were founded. (Dalit refers to the lowest caste in Hindu culture - sometimes called “the untouchables.”) The Dalit Panthers was a social organisation that sought to combat caste discrimination. It was led by a group of Mahar writers and poets, including Raja Dhale, Namdeo Dhasal, and J. V. Pawar in some time between the second and the third semester of 1972.[a] It was founded as a response to the growing discontent among the Dalit youth during the 25th Independence Day celebrations. Inspired by the Black Panther movement in the United States, poet-writers J V Pawar and Namdeo Dhasal founded the Dalit Panthers, urging a boycott of the Independence Day revelry, terming it a ‘Black Independence Day’. The movement’s heyday lasted from the 1970s through the 1980s, and it was later joined by many Dalit-Buddhist activists.

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On this day (or possibly May 22,) in .. 1887, Jim Thorpe was born near Prague, Oklahoma. His birth name was Wa-Tho-Huk (“Bright Path”) and he was a citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation.

He won Olympic gold medals and played professional football, baseball, and basketball. Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon). He was also an integral part of early pro football, serving as the NFL’s first president. In addition he was named to the leagues’s 50th anniversary team as a fullback and defensive back. He played a few games in major league baseball, as well, and barnstormed. He was on several all-American Indian football and baseball teams throughout his career, and barnstormed as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of Native Americans, for a time.

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On this day in … “1802, the Battle of Matouba took place in Guadeloupe between rebel enslaved people and French colonial troops (content note: suicide).

Slavery in the colony had been abolished a few years prior, but it was reintroduced by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802.

In response to this, enslaved people in Guadeloupe rose up in revolt, led by a biracial free man and former French military officer, Louis Delgrès. Though the rebels initially made gains, eventually they were overwhelmed by the superior force of the French army.

The enslaved people made their last stand in the Battle of Matouba, and holed themselves up in Fort Saint-Charles. Realising they would be defeated, the rebels decided to kill themselves and try to take as many French troops with them as possible. Delgrès distributed barrels of gunpowder amongst his troops, then set them on fire while men, women and children shouted “Live free or die!” Around 500 rebels were killed in the blast, along with up to 400 French troops.” — @workingclasshistory

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On this day in … 1831, Eliza Ann Gardner was born a free woman in New York City. She was an African-American abolitionist, religious leader, and women’s movement activist who lived in Boston, Massachusetts. She founded the missionary society of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ), was a strong advocate for women’s equality within the church, and was a founder of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs.

Her childhood home served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Due to her parent’s involvement with the Railroad, the Gardners met many abolitionists like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Charles Sumner, Lewis Hayden, and John Brown. She was also a relative of W. E. B. Du Bois.

She was always smart, like her parents, but being a black woman, educational opportunities were virtually nonexistent so she trained as a dressmaker. She was involved in the formation of the National Association of Colored Women, and was featured as an honored guest at their biennial convention in New York in 1908. Alongside other black Bostonians, she opposed segregated schools, supported fugitives, and advocated for abolition of enslavement. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, she often gave speeches against racial discrimination, comparing the current fight for equality with the abolition movement she had been involved in.

Yesterday I spotlighted Julia Ward Howe, a white feminist and abolitionist with “problematic” views on other races. It’s nice to juxtapose that with a woman of color that doesn’t come with baggage. She stood up for herself and others while creating real community for black women in white America during the difficult days after the Civil War.

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On this day in … 1431, while being held prisoner by the Catholic Church in the jointly held Anglo-French territory of Rouen, Normandy, Jeane d’Arc was found to have gone back to her heretical ways, wearing men’s clothes and claiming to hear voices again. After her original trial she promised not to and was now labeled an unrepentant heretic. In her defense she claimed that her guards originally forced her to wear them and that she relented because of the various mistreatments she was experiencing at the hands of the English. She was raped repeatedly, at least once by an English noble; she objected to having to live alongside male guards; and they weren’t allowing her to attend mass, as promised. She plainly stated to the courts that if she was moved to a decent prison and her other needs were met she would adhere to their demands. They refused and she was turned over to the English army instead of the local bailiff of Rouen, who immediately executed her by burning. After her death, her remains were thrown into the Seine River.

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On this day … in 1892, the Sierra Club was founded in San Fransisco. It was modeled after the Appalachian Mountain Club and was created to help protect and conserve the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Journalist Robert Underwood Johnson had worked with John Muir on the successful campaign to create a large Yosemite National Park surrounding the much smaller state park which had been created in 1864. This campaign succeeded in 1890. As early as 1889, Johnson had encouraged Muir to form an “association” to help protect the Sierra Nevada, and preliminary meetings were held to plan the group. Others involved in the early planning included artist William Keith, Willis Linn Jepson, Warren Olney, Willard Drake Johnson, Joseph LeConte and David Starr Jordan.

In May 1892, the young botany professor, Willis Linn Jepson from the University of California, Berkeley helped Muir and attorney Warren Olney launch the new organization. The charter members of the Sierra Club elected Muir president, an office he held until his death in 1914.

The first goals of the club included establishing Glacier and Mount Rainier national parks, convincing the California legislature to give Yosemite Valley to the U.S. federal government, and preserving coastal redwood forests of California.

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