NewsInHistory Blog

Racial hatred was horribly on display in Selma, Alabama, when police attacked a peaceful march of African American demonstrators on March 7, 1965. The violent encounter injured dozens of protesters, 17 seriously enough to require hospitalization, earning the infamous day the nickname “Bloody Sunday.” The marchers were protesting both the police slaying of civil rights demonstrator Jimmie Lee Jackson on February 18, as well as the hostile conditions in Selma and the surrounding area that intimidated African Americans to prevent them from voting. read more...

When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its infamous Dred Scott Decision on March 6, 1857, declaring that Blacks cannot be citizens of the United States and have no protections under the U.S. Constitution, the Court hoped to put the slavery controversy to rest. How wrong it was! The slavery issue only became more divisive, and instead of threatening to tear the nation apart it actually did just that four years later, when the Civil War began. read more...

In one of the most controversial decisions in the nation’s judicial history, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Dred Scott v. Sandford decision on March 6, 1857, ruling that Blacks could not be citizens in the United States and were not protected by the U.S. Constitution. The Court also ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in federal territories. For good measure, the Court stated that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional. read more...

After a 13-day siege of the fierce Texians (American settlers in Texas) defending the Alamo, Mexican troops under General Santa Anna quietly prepared for a final assault at midnight, March 5. In the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, over 2,000 Mexican troops stormed the crumbling adobe mission where approximately 200 defenders awaited the attack, willing to give their lives for the cause of freedom and Texas independence. read more...

A political drama unfolded in the U.S. Congress when, for the first time in American history, the Senate convened in a Court of Impeachment, on March 5, 1868, to try President Andrew Johnson. What the fight really concerned was Johnson’s policies of reconciliation towards the South (he was a former senator from Tennessee) versus the harsher demands made by the “Radical Republicans” who controlled Congress and wanted the Confederate states punished for their rebellion during the Civil War. read more...

Has any president faced a more difficult task than Abraham Lincoln when he rose March 4, 1861, to deliver his inaugural address? Seven slave states had already seceded from the Union, formed their own country, adopted a constitution, elected a president, and—on the very day of Lincoln’s inauguration—hoisted their newly-adopted Confederate flag over their capital in Montgomery, Alabama. Eight more slave states seemed poised on the brink of secession. What words could Lincoln possibly summon to heal this division and avert a civil war? read more...

It’s nice to see that humor was alive and well in Clarksville, Texas, on March 4, 1848, when the townsfolk picked up their local paper the Northern Standard and read this interesting comment:

“Overcome evil with good,” as the preacher said when he knocked a rascal down with the Bible.

Jeannette Pickering Rankin, a suffragist and pacifist, earned the distinction of becoming the first female member of Congress when she was elected to represent Montana in the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 7, 1916. She had worked hard in the successful campaign that granted women the right to vote in Montana in 1914. However, throughout her first term as a U.S. representative most women in the country could not vote (the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote nationwide was not ratified until 1920). read more...