Dignity Days: Inspirations of the Month

From work-in-progress Dignity Days: A Calendar of Inspiring People and Events 

From Around the World and Throughout the Year

Entries have been selected for your use in talks and personal messages.

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January

1          U.S. Emancipation Proclamation ending legally-sanctioned slavery in the Confederate states, delivered by President Abraham Lincoln, 1863, well before the conclusion of the Civil War.

2          William Haines birthday, 1900, openly gay Hollywood actor harassed for his lifelong commitment to his partner. Haines refused Louis B. Mayer’s demand that he (like many others) enter into a sham heterosexual union, called a lavender marriage. Instead, he gave up his acting career for his partner and the two of them opened a very successful interior design business. They enjoyed 47 years together.

3          Anna May Wong birthday, 1905, first Chinese American Hollywood film star who broke race and gender barriers. Like other non-white actors, she faced discrimination – not allowed to play the lead or any romantic role, cast as mysterious or devious women. In March 1924, she created the short-lived production company, Anna May Wong Productions, to make her own films about her culture.

4          Louis Braille birthday, 1809, 12 year old French inventor of the Braille system for the visually impaired (perfected when he was 15), based on “night writing” a more complex system of 12 dots introduced to him by former soldier, Charles Barbier.

6          U.S.  Four Freedoms Day, commemorates the 1941 speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as Europe was being overrun by Hitler’s forces and once again plunged into atrocity and war, proclaiming a world founded on the following four freedoms: freedom of speech, of worship, freedom from want and from fear.

7          Zora Neale Hurston birthday, 1891, U.S. folklorist of Caribbean cultures and author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Contributor to the 1920s Harlem Renaissance.

9          Mamie Tape, birthdate unknown, an 8-year old Chinese-American student who won, on this date in 1885, the first landmark decision upholding equal education. Barred from attending her local school because she was not white, Mamie’s middle-class parents sued the school principal and the San Francisco Board of Education and won in state courts. Later that year, San Francisco avoided the spirit of the decision by establishing separate schools for children of Asian ancestry. The inequality of “separate but equal” would be successfully challenged in Brown v Topeka, Kansas Board of Education 70 years later.

14        Albert Schweitzer birthday, 1875, physician, theologian, medical missionary in Gabon, Africa, musician, recipient of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy called “Reverence for Life.”

15        Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. birthday, 1929, peace, justice and brotherhood activist who based his nonviolent resistance doctrine on the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi.

c 14     (date varies) Adults (Coming of Age) Day, Seijin no Hi, in Japan, originally on the 15th, now on the second Monday, centuries old tradition (from the 1600s) revitalized in 1946 and made a national holiday in 1948, to boost the morale of youth after World War II and the devastation of the nuclear bombs ignited over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, youth at age 20 dress in their finest and first adult clothing, parade in the streets and go to the temple.

c 17     (date varies) World Religion Day, third Sunday, established in 1949 by the U.S. Baha’i National Spiritual Assembly to promote interfaith understanding.

18        A.A. Milne birthday, 1882, pacifist, the creator of Winnie the Pooh, mentored by visionary writer H. G. Wells.

21        Ernest Holmes birthday, 1887, founder of the Science of Mind philosophy. Dr. Holmes distilled spiritual ideas from the world’s wisdom traditions and saw the commonality of what we might call the human legacy of spirituality – Oneness.

24        Global Belly Laugh Day, just as it sounds, get more info at www.bellylaughday.com.

29        Thomas Paine birthday, 1737, United States Founding Father, a radical and revolutionary essayist and pamphleteer best known for the essay Common Sense which paved the way for the Declaration of Independence.

30        Fred Korematsu, birthday, 1919, national civil rights hero. In 1942, at the age of 23, he refused to go to the government’s incarceration camps for Japanese Americans. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the government’s order, he appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled against him, arguing that the incarceration was justified due to military necessity. In 1983, Prof. Peter Irons, a legal historian, together with researcher Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, discovered key documents that government intelligence agencies had hidden from the Supreme Court in 1944. The documents consistently showed that Japanese Americans had committed no acts of treason to justify mass incarceration. With this new evidence, a pro-bono legal team that included the Asian Law Caucus re-opened Korematsu’s 40-year-old case on the basis of government misconduct. On November 10, 1983, Korematsu’s conviction was overturned in a federal court in San Francisco, a pivotal moment in civil rights history. He remained an activist throughout his life. In 1998, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2010, the state of California proclaimed January 30 Fred Korematsu Day, the first commemorative day in the U.S. named after an Asian American.

31        Jackie Robinson birthday, 1919, known as Jack to his family and friends, “color barrier”-breaking second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers; the only one of hundreds of talented African American men allowed to join the all-white Major Leagues. His first day playing for the Dodgers is celebrated as Jackie Robinson Day (April 15). Robinson is renowned for his extraordinary self-disciplined patience in agreeing to Dodgers’ general manager Branch Rickey’s “Noble Experiment” which required Robinson to refuse to reply to any and all of the many racial slurs and goadings he endured. Much earlier, on July 6, 1944, Robinson had prefigured Rosa Parks’ action by refusing to move to the back of a bus, one of several men and women to do so through the years. Still in the U.S. Army at the time, Robinson refused to move to the back of a supposedly desegregated Army bus when told to do so, was brought before a court marshal and unanimously acquitted. He worked for African American dignity and freedom throughout his life and in the early 1960s famously debated Malcolm X several times.

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February

1          U.S.  National Freedom Day, honors President Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 signing of a resolution proposing the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which later abolished slavery throughout the United States when it was ratified on December 18 of that year. Unfortunately, the clause “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted” led to African Americans, men in particular, being convicted of spurious criminal charges throughout the former Confederate states in order to benefit from their forced labor.

1          Langston Hughes birthday, 1902, poet extraordinaire of the Harlem Renaissance, originator of the art form known as jazz poetry.

2          Imbolc, ancient Wiccan, Celtic, Gaelic, and Nordic New Milk observance, the celebration of new life in goat, sheep and cow dairy herds.

3          Elizabeth Blackwell birthday, 1821, first woman in the U.S. to receive a medical degree.

4          Mawlid of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings upon him), observance of his birth in 570 CE. Note: the honorific phrase after the prophet’s name is the customary Muslim practice.

5          Roger Williams Day, 1631, commemorates the day he set foot in North America, founder of Rhode Island colony and of the American Baptist Church, and writer of the colony’s charter which first declared (in 1661) the importance of the separation of church and state. In 1633, he argued that the English royal charter that established Plymouth colony was illegal because the land had been appropriated and not purchased from the Native inhabitants. An anthropologist before the term existed, Williams wrote for English speakers a dictionary of the Narragansett Indian language and insisted that all colonists negotiate for and purchase any sought-after land.

7          First Selma, Alabama civil rights march, 1965. First of three attempts to march from Selma to the capitol, Montgomery. On the 9th Dr. King led a second, symbolic attempt ending with prayer on the bridge, and on the 21st marchers finally began the four-day march to Montgomery.

c 7       (date varies) Lantern Festival, China and other parts of Asia, for over 2000 years on the last day of Chinese New Year festivities, creation and display of imaginative paper lanterns.

8          Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher birthday, 1924, civil rights activist, one of several prospective graduate students who challenged racial segregation at the University of Oklahoma in 1948, the first successful challenge to the Plessy vs Ferguson separate but equal ruling.

c 10     (date varies) Maha Shivarati, Hindu festival honoring the god Shiva and his wedding to the goddess Parvati, date varies by which tradition is followed. A day for renewed dedication to meditation and yoga, and for beloveds to honor each other. People from different countries, cultures and regions mingle at important temples throughout the Hindu world.

12        National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) established in 1909, on the 100th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, in response to the Springfield, IL riots of whites against the local black population. Responding to the national crisis of lynchings and the systematic imposition of legal near-slavery in the former Confederate States called ‘Jim Crow’ after a popular minstrel show character, 53 white and 7 black progressives called for “the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States and elimination of race prejudice through democratic processes.” [Quote edited from the NAACP website.]

12        Charles Darwin birthday, 1809, considered the father of evolutionary theory (though Alfred Russel Wallace independently conceived the idea at the same time), an idea that greatly expanded human consciousness and infused the principle of change into all of the sciences. His curiosity drove him to perceive life as dynamic, challenging the prevailing dogma that claimed all life forms remained as they had been created, as written in the Book of Genesis. His courage drove him to record his observations and insights even as fear drove him to prohibit the publication of his works until after his death.

12        U.S. National Freedom to Marry Day, established in 1999 by the Llambda Legal Defense Fund, supports the right of same-sex couples to marry.

14        Frederick Douglass self-chosen birthday, 1817 or 1818, U.S. orator, statesman, writer and abolitionist whose autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, made personal the world and yearnings for freedom of the enslaved, as did other such narratives of the time.

15        John Trudell birthday, 1946, Santee Sioux poet and American Indian Movement activist, ran Radio Free Alcatraz when A.I.M. occupied Alcatraz Island in 1969. He began writing his searing poetry after the 1979 deaths of his wife, children and mother-in-law in a suspicious house fire.

15        Galileo Galilei birthday, 1564, courageous champion of scientific truth, such as that the Earth is not the center of the universe; called the father of observational astronomy, of physics and of modern science. When he circulated a document excitedly describing the craters on the Moon he had seen through a primitive telescope, his persecution by the Roman Catholic Church began. Reaction to his harassment by the Inquisition catalyzed the expansion of human consciousness.

19        Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt beginning the 1942 incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans in remote, poorly equipped military-controlled camps in the western US. Allowed to take only what they could carry, most never recovered their lives or property after their release at the end of the war.

19        Nicolaus Copernicus, birthday, 1473, Renaissance mathematician and astronomer whose research led him to declare the heliocentric model of our solar system, that the planets (including Earth) revolve around the sun. This contradicted the Roman Catholic Church teaching that God made the sun and everything else revolve around the Earth. 

23        W.E.B. DuBois birthday, 1868, U.S. sociologist, historian, author, newspaper and journal editor, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, co-founder of the Niagara Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He edited the NAACP magazine The Crisis for 24 years and authored the pivotal book The Souls of Black Folk. [Note: his last name is pronounced Du Boyce.]

27        Marian Anderson birthday, 1897, one of the greatest contraltos of her time, her career in the U.S. was obstructed by racism. She toured Europe and South America throughout the 1930s and appeared before the monarchs of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and England. Most famous for her riveting performance in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939, after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to sing in Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Hall. On January 7, 1955, she became the first African American singer to perform as a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

27        N. Scott Momaday birthday, 1934. Kiowa novelist, film writer and essayist. House Made of Dawn won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is considered the first work of the Native American Renaissance. Awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2007. His Kiowa name is Tsoai-talee which means Rock-Tree Boy, a reference to what is commonly known as Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.

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March

1          U.S. Peace Corps established by President John F. Kennedy, 1961, to provide social and economic development assistance to nations around the world.

1          Yellowstone National Park established, the first U.S. national park.

2          Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) birthday, 1904, celebrated author of children’s books who wrote with whimsy, wild imagination and from a deep well of conscience. His favorite of his own works was The Lorax, a simple tale with a profound environmental message.

2          Susanna Madora (Dora) Salter birthday, 1860. Quaker, Women’s Christian Temperance Union member and first woman elected as mayor in the U.S., in Argonia, Kansas. Kansas granted women the right to vote in municipal elections in their towns of residence in 1887. Local anti-temperance, anti-suffrage men placed her name on the ballot without her knowledge, hoping to split the opposition vote but this backfired. With help from the Republican Party, she won by a two-thirds majority, served for one year and then retired from political office.

4          Miriam Makeba birthday, 1932, nicknamed Mama Africa, Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist. In the 1960s she was the first artist from Africa to popularize African music in the U.S. and around the world.

5          Crispus Attucks Day, commemorates the 1770 death of the African American/Wampanoag Nation seaman, laborer, revolutionary activist who was first person killed in the Boston Massacre, an early expression of growing discontent within the American colonies.

8          International Women’s Day, celebrated in many parts of the world, commemorates the first U.S. labor revolt, in 1857, by women in the textile industry in Lowell, MA.

c 8       (date varies) Holi, Hindu festival of colors to usher in springtime, featuring dance, music, general hilarity and the flinging and smearing of vibrant colored powders and water all over celebrants.

c 8-20  (date varies) Purim, lively Jewish celebration of deliverance from Persia as told in the Book of Esther, commemorated with drama, dance, gifts of food and drink.

10        Harriet Tubman Day, proclaimed by the US Congress in 1990, commemorates the death in 1913 (birth date unknown) of the spy, scout and leader of the Underground Railroad, who personally rescued more than 300 men, women and children enslaved in the American South, including her parents. Tubman is credited as the only woman to have led a US military action, a Union forces (including black troops) attack on the Combahee River in South Carolina in which nearly 800 enslaved people were freed.

10        Lillian D. Wald birthday, 1867, New York nurse, social worker, peace and human rights activist, founder of the Henry Street Settlement, an early, secular public health center, founder of Visiting Nurse services and founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She coined the term public health nurse.

14        Albert Einstein birthday, 1879. His formula, e=mc2, and theories of special and general relativity are still expanding human consciousness.

16        Black Press Day, commemorates the 1827 founding of the first African-American paper, Freedom’s Journal, in New York City.

c 20     (date varies) Nowruz, Persian/Zorastrian New Year on the spring equinox.

21        Henry Ossian Flipper birthday, 1856, formerly enslaved, the first African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, earning a commission as a second lieutenant in the US Army.

21        Elimination of Racial Intolerance Day, United Nations commemoration of the 1960 Sharpeville, South Africa killings and in memory of injustice everywhere.

22        Arab League Day, celebrates the founding of the Arab League in 1945 to strengthen relations between the member-states, the coordination of their policies in order to achieve co-operation between them and to safeguard their cultures, independence and sovereignty.

27        World Theater Day, established in 1961 to promote global understanding and peace through theater arts.

28        Wong Kim Ark, 1898, granted U.S. citizenship on this date in the landmark case establishing that the first clause of the fourteenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution overrode the Chinese Exclusion Act, “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.” He languished aboard one ship after another off the port of San Francisco for the entire duration of his court case.

31        Cesar Chavez Day, birthday, 1927, celebrates, through promotion of community action, the life of this civil and human rights activist and labor organizer.

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April

1          April Fool’s Day, first mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1392), this is a day for hoaxes and playing jokes, a springtime tradition in many countries, perhaps longest in Persia where it has been celebrated since at least 536 BCE. Since medieval times, in courts of nobility, the jester or fool has been the only person allowed to speak the unvarnished truth; also recalls the Holy Fool tradition in Christianity, Sufi and Hindu cultures.

4          Dorothea Dix birthday, 1802, earliest advocate of compassionate treatment of the mentally ill, lobbied to create the first U.S. asylums.

4          Maya Angelou birthday, 1928, prolific, multi-talented writer, speaker, poet, vocal conscience of humanity, speaker for dignity, advocate of freedom.

5          Booker T. Washington birthday, 1856, the leading speaker for African Americans between 1895 and 1915. Later Civil Rights activists would grow impatient with his sole focus on uplifting Black Americans through their own hard work, education and entrepreneurial activity. But, in the lethal years of Jim Crow, Ku Klux Klan power and hundreds of lynchings, Washington’s adept uses of separatism and non-resistance as ways to strengthen from within foreshadow Gandhi’s and King’s later doctrines.

c 7       (date varies) Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Such a solemn commemoration can remind us that the human journey toward full acceptance of our unity as one human family remains incomplete and that fear still animates many. Genocide on this scale serves forever as the benchmark of organized human savagery. The phrase “Never again” endures as a powerful reminder to continue the work of teaching the pre-eminence of love, dignity and forgiveness.

9          Irene Amos Morgan birthday, 1917, civil rights activist who won her 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case against the Commonwealth of Virginia that declared racial segregation of interstate transport to be unconstitutional, nearly a decade before the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

9          Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., through the intervention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1939. The marble sculpture of Lincoln behind Ms. Anderson created a powerful visual statement of essential human dignity, elevating the significance of the performance.

20        Day of Silence, youth-organized day of solidarity with LGBTQ+ youth. Visit Llambda Legal or www.dayofsilence.org for more information.

20        Ridvan starts, 12 day Baha’i festival, the holiest period of the year commemorating the declaration by Baha’u’llah of the start of his mission, which occurred in Baghdad’s Garden of Ridvan.

21        John Muir birthday, 1838, poet of preservation, voice of sacred wilderness. Like all people, he was not perfect. The Sierra Club he founded has acknowledged his racist attitudes toward Indigenous Americans and Black people.

22        Earth Day, established in 1970 as the first teach-in about the environment, spearheaded by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Teach-ins originated in several movements opposing racism and the Viet Nam War and is the model upon which the Occupy Movement was built.

24        Armenian Day of Remembrance, commemorates the eight years (1915-1923) of systematic Turkish genocide against the indigenous Armenian population, nearly obliterating the population of 2 million.  Like Holocaust Remembrance Day, such a solemn commemoration can remind us that the human journey toward full acceptance of our Divine nature remains incomplete and that fear still animates many to acts of violence. This is a powerful reminder to continue the work of teaching the pre-eminence of love, dignity and forgiveness.

c 27     (date varies) Arbor Day, The U.S. national observance is held on the last Friday in April; local observed dates occur at different times in relation to the best tree-planting seasons.

29        International Dance Day, established in 1982 by a UNESCO partner to bring people together through the universal language of dance.

30        International Jazz Day, established in 2011 by UNESCO. Education programs and an annual global concert unite artists and audiences around the world.

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May

1          International Labor Day, established in 1891 to commemorate the tragic violence of the 1886 Haymarket demonstration in Chicago, a national holiday in 80 countries and honored in many others. In the U.S. and Canada the date was moved to the first Monday in September in order to avoid association with the Haymarket bloodshed and weaken citizens’ awareness of decades of pro-labor work accomplished by communists.

1          Lei Day, Hawai’i, established in 1929, celebrates each island’s special flower as tangible representations of aloha, the breath of love.

2          Theodor Herzl birthday, 1860, founder of the modern Zionist movement that led to the establishment of the State of Israel, emblematic of all peoples’ desire for sanctuary.

3          World Press Freedom Day, a UNESCO celebration of the importance of a free press.

c 6       Vesak (Buddha Day), commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha, and his indestructible message of peace through spiritual/psychological freedom.

9          Elizabeth (Lizzie) Magie birthday, 1866, originator of the board game Monopoly. After reading the work of progressive economist Henry George, she invented The Landlord’s Game to teach people about economic inequality.

9          Kermit the Frog television debut, 1955, on the Washington, DC program ”Sam and Friends.” Kermit went on to appear in the early 1960s humor program “That Was the Week That Was,” “Sesame Street,” “The Muppet Show” and several movies. He is most famous for his rendering of the song “It’s Not Easy Being Green” which he often sang in gentle solidarity with those struggling for racial justice. Kermit even did a TED talk, “The Creative Act of Listening to a Talking Frog,” in which he discusses creativity, optimism, beginner’s mind and the creative luminaries Sir Ken Robinson and Ken Wilber.

10        Yick Wo, on this date in 1886, won, with the help of the whole Chinese community of San Francisco, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that set precedent for equal protection under law. His laundry business had been denied an operating license purely on racial grounds though the law itself was non-discriminatory. The court found that unequal enforcement is as unacceptable as unequal law, violating the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

10        Cecelia Payne birthday, 1900, discovered that stars are mainly hydrogen and helium, and can be classified by their temperatures. She brought us the idea that hydrogen is both the simplest and the most abundant element in the universe.

12        Florence Nightingale birthday, 1820, pioneering British nurse and statistician whose efforts, organizational skills and insights saved thousands of lives during the Crimean War and whose writings transformed medical care thereafter. The “Lady with the Lamp.”

c 12     World Fair Trade Day, second Saturday in May. Supporting fair trade relations and economic freedom for people of color and women worldwide.

15        Diane Judith Nash birthday, 1938, American civil rights activist based in Nashville, Tennessee, a leader and strategist of the Civil Rights Movement for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She was also crucial to the success of the Freedom Rides sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality.

15        L. Frank Baum birthday, 1856, creator of the land of Oz. Like all people, he was not perfect. In 2020, the press acknowledged his racist attitudes toward Indigenous Americans, Asians and Black people.

15        International Conscientious Objector Day. Commemorating those who insist upon the right not to kill.

15        International Day of Families, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993.

25        Africa Day, commemorates the 1963 founding of the Organization of African Unity, promoting freedom from colonialism and appreciation of African cooperation.

25        Ralph Waldo Emerson birthday, 1803. Essayist, speaker and leader of American Transcendentalism who taught self-reliance through awareness of our individual soul’s essential connection to the souls of all others and to the Over-Soul, his term for Spirit or Universal Intelligence. Following one’s own life journey requires distinguishing between the guidance of the soul and the shallower urgings of the ego. Like all people, he was not perfect. In 2020, the press acknowledged his racist attitudes toward Indigenous Americans and Black people. Unfortunately, his status as America’s most often read philosopher spread his racist ideas far and wide.

27        Amelia Bloomer birthday, 1818, U.S. women’s rights and temperance activist who started a newspaper, The Lily. She is best remembered for her championing of looser, freer clothing for women; ‘bloomers’ (loose pants worn under somewhat shorter skirts and loose-waist tops) in the era of pinch-waist whalebone corsets and floor length skirts, freeing the movement and internal organs of those who dared wear them.

27        Julia Ward Howe birthday, 1819, author of the 1870 Mother’s Day Proclamation calling for a women’s campaign for peace. Best known for writing the poem “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The Proclamation was taken up by Ann Jarvis (see September 30) in her efforts to promote social welfare and later her daughter Anna. Eventually the peace and justice focus was lost and the day became simply a way to honor mothers.

27        Rachel Carson birthday, 1907, marine biologist and conservationist who warned the world of the dangers of pesticides such as DDT in the ground-breaking book Silent Spring and wrote movingly about the world’s oceans in The Sea Around Us and other works.

28        Jim Thorpe birthday, 1888, member of the Sauk and Fox Nation, first American Indian Olympic Gold Medal winner, (pentathlon and triathlon, 1912). Talented in many sports, Thorpe was stripped of his medals in 1013 for having played semi-pro baseball, his only source of income at the time. His medals were restored in 1983.

30        U.S. Memorial Day, originally observed on various dates North and South as Decoration Day, to honor the military dead of the Civil War, established on May 30, 1868 by the Grand Army of the Republic, the organization for Union Civil War veterans. The first known observance took place May 1, 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina, organized by freed African Americans people. The former Charleston Race Course still held the dead Union soldiers who had been prisoners of war there. Freedmen established the Martyrs of the Race Course burial ground, moved the bodies and lanscaped the area. Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen, gathered on May 1 to commemorate the dead. Involved were 3,000 schoolchildren newly enrolled in freedmen's schools, mutual aid societies, Union troops, black ministers and white Northern missionaries.

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June

3          Broken Doll Day, Japan, children bring broken dolls to Buddhist temples for funeral rites and burial.

10        Alcoholics Anonymous established, starting a massive, global self-help movement teaching personal responsibilty and surrender to inner wisdom.

10        Sessue Hayakawa birthday, 1889, first Japanese American actor in Hollywood, rivaling  Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and John Barrymore in popularity during the silent era. He set up his own production company, Haworth Pictures, and made films about immigrants longing to assimilate.

11        King Kamehameha Day, honoring King Kamehameha I who unified the Hawaiian Islands in 1810 and established Ke Kanawai Mamalahoe, "the Law of the Splintered Paddle."  This law protects civilians in times of war.

11        Jeannette Rankin birthday, 1880, pacifist, social reformer and first woman in the U.S. Congress (1917-1919), voted to oppose U.S. entry into WWI. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives again in 1940 and was the only member to vote against declaring war on Japan in 1941.

12        Anne (Annelies) Frank birthday, 1929.  Perhaps the best known victim of the Holocaust, (at age 15 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp), her life continues to teach the indestructable truth of the beauty of the human soul because of the efforts of her father, Otto, to have her diary published internationally (Diary of a Young Girl, 1947). Her story and bubbly humanity flourish in many languages through plays, movies and books.

14        Harriet Beecher Stowe birthday, 1811, U.S. abolitionist and creator of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an international bestseller that catalyzed the abolition of slavery movement in the US.

15        Josiah Henson birthday, 1789, born enslaved in Maryland, he remained honorable in his dealings with the dishonorable men who ruled his life, became overseer, several times traveled through the free state of Ohio on his owner’s business but refued to break his word by escaping. He became a minister, endured multiple broken bones and whippings and eventually escaped to Canada with his wife and four children. He is one of the men who inspired the character of Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

15        Indian Citizenship Day, proclaimed in 1924 by President Calvin Coolidge, gave Indigenous Americans the right to vote but also represents the culminating success of the brutal assimilation processes inflicted upon them, many by well-meaning people, designed to eradicate their cultures.

16        Soweto Day, commemoration and declaration of solidarity with the people of Soweto after the 1976 protests by high school students and violence inflicted upon them.

17        James Weldon Johnson birthday, 1871, American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, and early civil rights activist, NAACP leader and creator of the poem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” which became known as the Black National Anthem in the U.S. after his brother set it to music in 1900.

19        Juneteenth, the oldest commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S., recalls the date in 1865 when the victorious Union general in Galveston, TX announced both the end of the war (signed two and a half months before on April 4) and the Emancipation Proclamation (signed two and a half years before on January 1, 1863).

c 21     National Day of Prayer to Protect Native American Sacred Places, commemorated on the Solstice each year since 2003.

24        Inti Raymi, Peruvian Winter Solstice, Festival of the Sun God, since the days of the Inca Empire a ceremony of thanksgiving and spiritual preparation for the coming year, re-enactments occur in Cusco each year.

27        Helen Keller birthday, 1880, author, social innovator and political activist, the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Art degree.

c 28     Gay Pride Day, honors the 1969 resistance of the patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City, fed up with routine police harassment and violation of their Constitutional right to freedom of assembly. The resistance sparked several days of riots and catalyzed national gay pride organizing and demonstrations. Celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people everywhere.

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July

1          Thomas A. Dorsey birthday, 1899. Father of gospel music, poured out his grief in the magnificent and heart-breaking Take My Hand, Precious Lord in 1932 after the death of his wife Nettie and two-day-old son.

4          Elizabeth Peratrovich, birthday, 1911. Tlingit Nation Alaska Native rights activist who worked tirelessly for the passage of Alaska’s 1945 Anti-Discrimination Act, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States. Elizabeth Peratrovich Day is February 16 in Alaska.

11        Niagara Movement founded in 1905 by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and other Black intellectuals, to counter the conciliatory stance of Booker T. Washington. The group met on the Canadian side of the Niagara River because no hotel on the American side would allow them accomodations. Forerunner to the creation in 1909 of the NAACP.

12        Henry David Thoreau birthday, 1817. Young friend of Emerson, fellow Transcendentalist, nature writer, abolitionist, champion of individual liberty, he sought and found the truth of humanity in nature’s wisdom.

14        Woody Guthrie birthday, 1912, known as the Dust Bowl Troubador for his many songs about that agricultural and economic disaster in U.S. history, the beloved folk and protest song writer/ performer remains a major influence on all American folk (and many other) musicians. He died very young, at age 55, from complications of Huntington’s disease. His best known song is “This Land Is Your Land.”

14        Bastille Day, La Fete Nationale, France, commemorates the 1789 liberation of those languishing in the infamous Bastille prison which sparked the French Revolution.

16        Elizabeth Jennings, date of her 1854 resistance to racism on a New York City streetcar (birthdate unknown). Segregated streetcars were illegal in the city but practiced by the privately run streetcar companies, enforced at the discretion of the driver. On that Sunday, late to play the organ at church, Elizabeth stepped aboard a white-designated car as she had many times before and was assaulted by the driver, first verbally and then physically. Her family successfully sued the company. Local lawyer Chester A. Arthur (later U.S. president) won the case. Elizabeth went on to found the first free kindergarten for African American in the U.S.

18        Nelson Mandela birthday, 1918. Hero of indigenous South Africans’ daring choice of freedom in the face of apartheid.

19        Seneca Falls (NY) Convention, 1848, first U.S. gathering of women’s rights activists, both female and male, many of whom were also abolitionists who understood the similarities in the oppresssion of both groups.

21        National Women’s Hall of Fame dedicated, 1969, in Seneca Falls, New York.

24        Amelia Earhart birthday, 1897, aviation pioneer, first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for her solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

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August

?          (dates unknown) Compton's Cafeteria resistance, 1966, San Francisco. Three years before the Stonewall Inn confrontation in New York City members of the Tenderloin district LGBTQ community, targeted and abused for years by the San Francisco Police Department and often arrested for violating the city's anti–cross-dressing ordinance as well as for the sex work they were often forced into by employment discrimination, fought back. The historic marker at the site reads, “One August evening in 1966, transgender women and gay men banded together to fight back against oppression after a police officer harassed one of them at Gene Compton's Cafeteria. This confrontation was the first known full-scale riot for Transgender and Gay rights in the U.S. history. It galvanized the community, prompting new public policies and social services that improved the lives of local transgender people.”

1          Jerry Garcia birthday, 1942, founding member of the Grateful Dead, visionaries of an improvisational style of music to free the heart, mind and body all at once. Their pioneering “jam band” techniques have bloomed into an entire culture with hundreds of bands performing this musical freedom around the world.

c 1       (date varies) Emancipation Day, 1833, establishment of the Slavery Abolition Act ending legally-sanctioned slavery in the British Empire.

c 1       (date varies) Guru Purnima, Hindu and Buddhist celebration honoring spiritual teachers, including the Buddha and the extraordinary sage Vyasa, editor of many sacred works.

1          Lammas, Lughnasadh, ancient Celtic first fruits of harvest celebration.

6          Hiroshima Day, site of the first use of a nuclear bomb in war, a city now dedicated to peace, site of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park which includes a statue of 12 year old Sadako Sasaki, who died in 1955 from radiation-induced leukemia before she finished making the 1,000 origami paper cranes which legend said would grant her a wish. The origami cranes have become a world-wide symbol for peace between nations.

9          Nagasaki Day, second and site of the last use of a nuclear bomb in war so far.

10        Janmashtami, Hindu celebration of the birth of Sri Krishna whose image is commonly displayed as an infant in a cradle or swing.

12        Katharine Lee Bates birthday, 1859, U.S. poet, pioneering women’s educator, professor of English at Wellesley College, author of the poem “America the Beautiful,” later set to music as a beloved unofficial national anthem, loving life partner for 30 years to Welleseley College professor of economics Katharine Coman; their union was called a Boston Marriage.

c 14     (date varies) Bud Billiken Day, Chicago, based on a fictional youth created in1929 by Robert S. Abbott, founder of the African American newspaper Chicago Defender, designed to encourage, support and inspire the diversity of youth in Chicago, includes the oldest African American established parade, the second largest parade in the U.S.

18        Amelia Boynton birthday, 1911, African American and Cherokee civil rights activist educated at Tuskegee Institute, Tennessee State University, Virginia State University and Temple University. For three decades, she and her husband Samuel worked to better the lives of Alabama’s sharecroppers. They established the first voter registration drive in 1933 and Amelia continued this dangerous work after Samuel died in 1963. In 1964, she ran for a Congressional seat from Alabama and lost. In 1965, her Selma residence was home base for Dr. King and others planning the march to Montgomery. On March 7, “Bloody Sunday,” the marchers’ first attempt to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Boynton and others were severely beaten by attacking state and local police. She was guest of honor in the Oval Office at the signing of the U.S. Voting Rights Act in August 1965. In 1990, she was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Medal of Freedom and in March 2015, at age 103, held President Barak Obama’s hand as they crossed the Pettus Bridge on the 50th anniversary of the attack on the marchers.

26        Women’s Equality Day, established in 1971, commemorates the day in U.S. history when women’s right to vote became law.

28        “I Have a Dream” speech by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

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September

2          Queen Liliuokalani birthday, 1838, last Hawaiian monarch to govern the islands (1891–93). Opposed to the forced concessions that treaties were granting to U.S. commercial interests, she attempted to restore the traditional monarchy. Rebels rose up to support her and were jailed; she formally abdicated in 1895 in order to win pardons for her supporters. She was a talented composer of songs such as the well-known “Aloha Oe.”

 6          Jane Addams birthday, 1860, pioneering social worker, human rights and peace activist, established the settlement house called Hull House in Chicago, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. Hull House provided kindergarten and day care facilities for the children of working mothers; an employment bureau; an art gallery; libraries; English and citizenship classes; as well as theater, music and art classes. As the complex expanded to include thirteen buildings, Hull House supported a Labor Museum, the Jane Club for single working girls, meeting places for trade union groups, and a wide array of cultural events.

 9          Leo Tolstoy birthday, 1828, spiritually driven pacifist, early advocate of nonviolent resistance, author of War and Peace; he deeply impacted Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

 c 9       (date varies) Grandparents Day, U.S., first Sunday after Labor Day, established 1979.

 12        Jesse Owens birthday, 1913. In 1935 he broke three World Records during one track meet. In 1936 his stellar performance on and off the field at the Berlin Olympiad embarrassed Adolph Hitler and elegantly challenged Nazi hate-mongering.

 14        Margaret Sanger birthday, 1879, nurse, feminist, pioneering birth control advocate and sex educator, established the first birth control clinic in the U.S., founder of the organization which would become Planned Parenthood. Her eugenicist beliefs attracted racial and religious bigots and proto-Nazis to her cause as well as the many women simply interested in women’s freedom.

 c 17     (date varies) Constitution Day, U.S., the nearest weekday to Sept. 17, celebrates the establishment of the U.S Constitution in 1787.

 21        International Peace Day, established in 1981 by the United Nations to promote global cessation of violence by providing individuals and groups with opportunities to create practical acts of peace.

 29        Date of George W. McLaurin’s successful 1950 challenge to the Plessy vs Ferguson “separate but equal” ruling. Having a master’s degree from the University of Kansas, in 1948 this teacher at the all-black Langston University sought a doctorate at the University of Oklahoma and was refused. After he and several other prospective students succeeded in their legal challenges, he was permitted to attend but, like the other students, was segregated into separate areas of the library, cafeteria, football stadium and restrooms. In classrooms, he was forced to sit in the hallway or in a separate room. His 1887 birthdate is unknown. (See also February 8, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher.)

29        Lech Walesa birthday, 1943, 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner, trade union official and leader of Poland’s Solidarity movement, which successfully challenged Soviet political rule, first democratically elected president of Poland (1990) despite having received little formal education in his youth. A traditional Roman Catholic, he openly opposed birth control and gay rights, illustrating that each of us is a complex mix of freedoms and biases.

c 29     (date varies) Moon Festival, China, ancient mid-autumn full moon festival, a time to hold reunions, read poetry and eat moon cakes.

30        Ann Jarvis birthday, 1832, social activist and community organizer, founder of Mothers’ Day Work Clubs to improve education and public health, and mother of Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother’s Day.

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October

1          International Music Day, initiated by master violinist Yehudi Menuhin in 1975 through the International Music Council of UNESCO to promote musical diversity, access to culture for all and to unite organizations in some 150 countries worldwide in building peace and understanding among peoples of all cultures and heritages.

2          Gandhi birthday, 1869. Out of the many powerful religious traditions whose wisdom he absorbed (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Jainism, Sikhism, Christianity), cooked by his personal passions as lawyer and man of social conscience, Mohandas K. Gandhi earned the honorific, Mahatma (maha atman or great soul), from his actions as much as his words. He embodied satyagraha, (truth force), non-violent social/political non-cooperation with abusive power based on the moral authority of the sufferers. He led dozens of dignified acts of non-cooperation throughout South Africa and then India, suspending one protest when it turned violent. He fasted and suffered arrest; he taught satyagraha by example and in words both written and spoken.

3          Bhagat Singh Thind birthday, 1892, in the Sikh state of Punjab. Inspired by the writings of Emerson, Whitman, and Thoreau and barred from higher education under the racist British colonial system, he moved to America in 1913 at the age of 20. Dr. Thind earned a PhD in 1916, sought U.S. citizenship in 1917, and, during World War I, served as the first Sikh in the U.S. Army. U.S. Citizenship was granted on Dec. 9, 1918, rescinded on Dec. 13. After petitioning for citizenship several times, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his petition in 1923, stating that he was Caucasian but not white by U.S. statutory definition, based on the conflicted “race” science of the time. This decision led to a cascade of de-naturalizations of citizens from the Indian subcontinent, who all lost citizenship and property (homes and businesses), and led to at least one suicide. Until his death in 1967, Dr. Thind spoke extensively throughout the United States, wrote several works of spiritual philosophy, and served as an ordained minister. In 1935, the U.S. Congress passed a law allowing U.S. citizenship for Veteran Aliens of the U.S. Armed Services. Dr. Thind’s citizenship was finally established in 1936.  

4          Saint Francis of Assisi Feast Day, patron saint of animals and nature. He patterned his life on that of Jesus of Nazareth as taught in the New Testament – compassion, mercy and charity. Many communities of different faiths offer animal/pet blessings in his honor.

5          Autherine Juanita Lucy birthday, 1929, American activist who, in 1956, was the first African-American student to attend the University of Alabama (for three days), seeking her master’s degree in education. She was expelled “for her safety.” In April of 1988, her expulsion was overturned and in the spring of 1992, she earned her master’s degree in elementary education from that university.

7          Moses (Fleet) Fleetwood Walker birthday, 1857, first African American to play on a Major League baseball team, the Toledo (OH) Blue Stockings when in 1883 the team moved up from the minors.

9          John Lennon birthday, 1940, a man whose journey of self-awareness happened in the public eye – from misogynist to women’s rights ally, from defensive street punk to thoughtful peace activist. All we are saying is give peace a chance.

11        National Coming Out Day, encouraging fearful LGBTQ+ people to come out into the light of freedom.

c 12     (date varies) Indigenous Peoples Day, celebrates the resilience of Indigenous peoples in the former colonies of the Americas in the face of 500+ years of often brutal domination, beginning with the arrival of Columbus.

16        World Food Day, a United Nations day of awareness celebrating the founding, in 1945, of the Food and Agriculture Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger, encourage food security and teach sustainable, healthy diets worldwide.

16         Oscar Wilde birthday, 1854, Irish playwright, essayist, novelist, poet, catalyst for gender and sexual equality. Wilde’s health, emotional life and brilliant career were undermined from his 1895 London conviction and two year of imprisonment at hard labor for homosexuality.   

21        Bruce Lipton birthday, 1944, founder of the new field of epigenetics, courageous developmental cell biologist whose research challenged the scientific dogma of DNA determinism, the belief that DNA is an unchanging (except through random mutation), rigid template that dictates a being’s biology. Shunned by the biology establishment when his graduate research showed results that contradicted that DNA dogma, Dr. Lipton is now the celebrated author of The Biology of Belief and other works that explore bridges between science and spirituality. Epigenetics has become an important branch of biology, examining the ways in which the environment, including our thoughts, can alter DNA and make changes in the body.

24        United Nations Day, celebrates the establishment of the U.N. Charter.

25        Larry Itliong birthday, 1913, originator of the 1965 Delano, CA grape strike and boycott, president of the Filipino group AWOC (Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee). Filipino farm workers often earned less than 75 cents for an 8-hour day and, prior to 1936, were barred from owning property, marrying, or starting families. The AWOC called for the boycott before Cesar Chavez’ United Farm Workers were ready. Dolores Huerta, also an AWOC member, persuaded Chavez’ group to join in.

31        Samhain, (pronounced Sow-en), ancient Gaelic harvest festival acknowledging the coming death of the year and the sacrifices of plants and animals that the harvest represents.

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November

1          Alfred Wegener birthday, 1880, German meteorologist and geophysicist. His research in Greenland and interest in ancient climates led him to propose, in 1912, what is now called the theory of plate tectonics, fundamental to geology today. He was ridiculed for this idea despite others’ observations of strong, unexplained similarities in geology and biology on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. 

4          Will Rogers birthday, 1879, American cowboy, humorist and political commentator.

4          United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) founded in 1945.

7          Marie Curie birthday, 1867, Polish/French scientist, discoverer of two elements, polonium and radium, first woman to win a Nobel Prize, first person to win two, the only winner to date in multiple sciences, Physics in 1903, Chemistry in 1911. She coined the term radioactivity. 

9-10     Kristallnacht, Night of Broken Glass, 1938, first violent, state-sanctioned, anti-Jewish terrorist attacks in Germany, Austria and German-occupied areas. Heaviest destruction was in Berlin and in Vienna. Synagogues, hospitals, homes and businesses were destroyed. In the first arrests of Jews just for being Jewish, 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps. Commemorates the utter failure of what was thought of as “civilization” to curb or heal deep-seated fears and their consequences. Engendered the first pervasive sense of cultural humility in the Western world, after centuries of global arrogance, disrespect for the dignity of other peoples, colonialism, enslavement, and wealth/resource extraction.

12        Baha'u'llah birthday, 1817, Baha’i founder.

c 13     (date varies) Diwali, central holiday of the multiday Hindu Festival of Lights. People keep small clay oil lamps lighted through the nights to signify the triumph of good over evil and clean their houses to make the goddess Lakshmi feel welcome. Firecrackers drive away evil spirits.

15        Al Hijra (Migration Journey), commemorates the 622 CE flight of Muhammad and his followers form Mecca to Medina. He had angered many in Mecca by preaching a new relationship with God and with other people. He proclaimed One God, denying the old gods specific to each tribe, and condemned the continuing retributions and warfare spawned by those beliefs, teaching instead surrender to God’s mercy, compassion, and peace. In Medina his following grew, especially among the poor and enslaved (freed if they became Muslims). Both Muslim women and men voted to create the Ummah (Constitution) of Medina, declaring themselves a city of peace, justice and respect for other religions and cultures.

16        W.C. Handy birthday, 1873, father of the blues, African American music which has always sustained and continues to sustain those who suffer from poverty in any form – spiritual, material, relational or emotional; music which crosses barriers, first between black and white people in the U.S. and then throughout the world.

17        Samuel Leamon Younge Jr. birthday, 1944, first African American college student murdered for supporting the Civil Right Movement, shot at age 21, in 1965, for trying to use an Alabama “whites only” restroom. The Navy veteran was an active member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a leader of the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League. Three days after his death, SNCC became the first civil rights organization in the United States to oppose the Vietnam War.

18        Wilma Mankiller birthday, 1945, Cherokee activist for Indigenous and women’s rights, social worker and first woman to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

20        Universal Children’s Day, marks the day on which the United Nations Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989; a day of awareness of the needs and contributions of children world-wide.

20        Benoit Mandelbrot, birthday, 1924, master of many academic disciplines, discoverer of fractal geometry and coiner of the term. Fractal geometry allows a new vision in mathematics beyond the static Euclidian shapes (circles, triangle, rectangles) that so well support and fashion our human-made world. Instead, fractals mimic the ways in which nature operates, repetition of simple elements compounding to greater complexity. Because it is the first mathematics that can accurately measure most of the natural world, fractal geometry has been called the “Thumbprint of God.”  

25        Helen Gahagan Douglas birthday, 1900, accomplished singer and actress who gave up performing to pursue political life as a New Deal Democrat in the House of Representatives. A vocal opponent to the excesses of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and similar bullying maneuvers in the Senate, she lost the 1950 U.S. Senate race through a vicious smear campaign of fake news orchestrated by Richard Nixon. On the program “Hollywood Fights Back,” she said HUAC, “opens the floodgates to intolerance and persecution…”

26        Sojourner Truth Day, commemorates the death of the great abolitionist and women’s rights orator, born in 1797, date unknown.

26        Mary Walker, M.D. birthday, 1832. Civil War surgeon, first female Army surgeon, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, prisoner of war, only woman to receive the Medal of Honor. She was assaulted many times and arrested once for refusing to wear conventional women’s clothing.

28        Hawai’i Independence Day (La Ku’oko’a), 1843, the true day of sovereignty for the independent nation, declared by treaty with France, the Unite Kingdom and the U.S. a half century before co-optation by the United States through “gunboat diplomacy” in favor of U.S. economic interests.

30        Mark Twain birthday, 1835, great American author and social commentator, author of The War Prayer, published 13 years after his death, a story/poem in which a messenger comes to folks praying for God’s help with victory in war to remind them that they are simultaneously asking for the suffering and destruction of those on the other side of the conflict.

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December

1          Rosa Parks Day, 1955, commemorating the date that she refused to move to the back of the bus, sparking the Montgomery (AL) bus boycott, an early part of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Actually, this was the second time she had been assaulted for refusing to move to the segregated section of a public bus, but the first time she was arrested for it. Other women had also been ousted from buses in the months leading up to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1          World AIDS Day, established in 1988 by the World Health Organization, to promote awareness.

3          International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a United Nations sponsored day of awareness.

8          John Lennon Day, commemorates the day he was murdered in New York City, dedicated to the advancement of peace. Petition created online in 2005 seeks to make this a global day of awareness of his work for peace.

8          Bodhi Day, a Buddhist celebration of the enlightenment of the Buddha.

10        International Human Rights Day, United Nations commemoration of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

10        Wyoming Day, celebrates the passage of women’s voting rights in that state in 1869, fifty-one years before the nation as a whole.

10        Gallaudet Day, celebrates the birth in 1787 of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, minister and pioneering educator of the deaf for whom Gallaudet University is named.

15        Bill of Rights Day, commemorates the passage of the U.S. Bill of Rights in 1791, with Virginia being the tenth and final state needed to ratify. Limited as these rights were in scope since they did not apply to people of color or women, the formal establishment of these rights continues to push forward both the aspiration toward and the actuality of fredom in human life.

16        Jimmie Lee Jackson birthday, 1938, African American veteran, civil rights activist and church deacon in Marion, Alabama, his brutal beating, shooting and murder by a state trooper in February, 1965 during a peaceful voting rights demonstration sparked the Selma to Montgomery march in March of that year.

18        International Migrants Day, commemorates the adoption in 2000 by the United Nations of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers.

18        Steven Biko birthday, 1946, Bantu South African anti-apartheid activist who emphasized uplifting black consciousness as a powerful agent of change (Black Consciousness Movement), hero of young people and catalyst of the youth revolt, tortured and killed by Port Elizabeth police in 1977. His death brought worldwide attention to the suffering and brutality in that nation.

c 22     (date varies) Yule, Winter Festival honored by Indigenous northern European cultures such as the Norse, Gaelic and Celtic.

25        Clara Barton birthday, 1821, founder and first president of the American Red Cross, she was called the “Angel of the Battlefield” for her service as a nurse in the Civil War. Barton was also the first woman appointed as a full clerk of the U.S. Patent Office (and at the same salary as the men).

26 - January 1 Kwanzaa, African American holiday period introduced in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga to honor the great cultural values of African peoples throughout the African diaspora.

27        Louis Pasteur birthday, 1822, French chemist and microbiologist whose researches into bacterial contamination saved countless human and animal lives, creator of the pasteurization process used in wine, milk and beer. He successfully urged surgeons to wash their hands between patients.