What IS Going on?
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History January 19 - 25.
The United States has a long and complicated history of protesting. Right from the beginning, when we tossed tea into the Boston Harbor, through marching in the streets for women’s suffrage, Civil Rights, gay rights, whatever the Tea Party was upset about, Marches for Men, and Marches for Women, we have protested pretty much everything. We’ve protested the ability to access guns and turn them against children, protested unjust wars, and we have protested the police state when it unnecessarily kills our neighbors. There was the insurrection, a protest that the current White House has frivolously described as “peaceful.”
We are so into protests that not only do we have special one-offs, but we partake in the annual pro-life march and the daily peace protest in front of the White House. Finally, we cannot ignore the people who protest mediocre history content by unsubscribing from Okay History. However, I will never succumb.
For a few months now, Americans across the country have been taking to the streets to protest ICE agents, and tomorrow there will be an organized walkout from jobs, which sounds like the kind of protest I can get into.
But this week, we travel back to the protests surrounding the Vietnam War and the protests of the late 1960s and early 70s.
In May of 1969, protestors in Berkeley, California, marched to the People’s Park, a patch of greenery on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, to denounce war-related research being conducted there and at other nearby universities.
About 6,000 people showed up, and that freaked out the mayor of Berkeley, along with California Governor and future president, Ronald Reagan, who called in the armed National Guard, because when 6,000 unarmed protestors show up, you need to bring shotguns filled with lethal buckshot and tactical gear to match their energy.
Suffice to say, things did not go well.
When protestors and police collide, violence usually follows, and it was no different here. One person was shot in the eye and became permanently blind. James Rector was killed because he made the reckless decision to sit atop a bookstore overlooking the protest, and therefore, the police had no other choice but to shoot him.
Reagan told everyone who questioned the necessity of armed police that Guardmen had to be locked and loaded when facing off with people who most likely hadn’t bathed in weeks, while armed with guitars, because these dirtylittlefatslappers could have overrun the city.1 The Mayor of Berkley rang the familiar tune, explaining away the acts of violence. He conceded that police were probably over-aggressive with protestors, but it was because they all came back from Vietnam and treated the unwashed musicians like they “were Viet Cong.” Oh, okay.
Obie Benson, who sang bass for the musical group The Four Tops, witnessed the police brutality, but thank goodness, not from the roof of a bookstore. He was there because the group happened to be on tour in Berkeley that day. He was so upset by what he saw, he asked the question, “What’s happening here?’ So he, along with another songwriter, penned a protest song that he pitched to his bandmates, who declined, because The Four Tops didn’t feel like getting political.
Benson then brought the song to his friend, Marvin Gaye, who liked it. He added his own lyrics and changed the melody a bit, and “What’s Going On,” the first song on the album with the same title, debuted on January 20, 1971.
“What’s Going On” would be nominated for Grammys the following year, but didn’t win. However, it would go on to make music history. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it the 4th-best song of all time, out of 500. But since then, he has steadily slipped out of the top ten.
Last year, the publication ranked it 15th on its “Best Protest Songs of All Time,” which does not make sense.
Here’s my favorite part of the song:
Father, father
We don’t need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today
Okay, let’s highlight what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark their anniversary, ending in 5 or 0. Here’s what I got:
1. The United States and Iran signed an agreement to release 52 American hostages on January 19, 1981. The same Ronald Reagan who armed traumatized Vietnam veterans against peaceful protestors defeated the sitting president, Jimmy Carter, in the 1980 presidential election. The night before his inauguration, the Carter administration finally signed the deal to bring home the 52 Americans who had been held hostage for 444 days after the Islamic Revolution. To embarrass Carter after he ordered a military intervention to rescue the hostages that failed, the Iranian regime freed the Americans immediately after Reagan was sworn in. Carter learned of their freedom while being driven to Andrews Air Force Base.
2. President Kennedy held the first presidential news conference carried live on television and radio on January 25, 1961. 65 million people turned in to listen to the 35th President announce that the United States would be increasing food aid to the Congo, and that the Soviet Union would be releasing two survivors of the crew from the US RB-47 aircraft that they shot down the prior summer. He would go on to hold about 60 more press conferences on this medium, securing his place at the top of the “Yes, he was in fact a handsome man” category.
3. John Marshall was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court on January 20, 1801. Marshall was a Founding Father who served as a congressman from Virginia before briefly working as Secretary of State under President John Adams, making him the only person to have served in all three branches of the federal government. Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice and the longest-serving; he would be on the bench for another 34 years until his death in 1835. The Marshall Court established the practice of judicial review, in which the judicial system could strike down laws. The guy who succeeded him served the second-longest term and gave us this stupid decision.
I hope everyone has a nice Martin Luther King Holiday. Here are a few pieces I’ve written about MLK:
The 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington
This one is about James Meredith, but MLK wrote in support of him from jail
MLK winning an award instead of one being gifted to him as a bribe (scroll down)
The beginning of the Civil Rights Act (scroll down)
If you missed my Even More Okay essay from Friday, here it is:
I hope to be back on Friday with another essay, but I make no promises. Anonymous begins her travel schedule in earnest midweek. So it’s just the Blue Bear and me for the back end.
Before I forget, since it’s a new year, please let me know if you want something answered in my Ask Me Anything edition.
We are about a month away from turning five!
Have a great week, everyone. Thanks for supporting Okay History.
Okay,
Chris
Reagan didn’t call them dirtylittlefatslappers
The song "What's Going On?" was jointly credited to Benson, Gaye, and Alfred Cleveland, a veteran Motown songwriter (he had written "I Second That Emotion" with Smokey Robinson, who had a hit with it with the Miracles). It was a top 10 hit on both the pop and R&B charts in 1971. Gaye wrote the majority of the tracks on the album that resulted from the single's success, either alone or with others.