Vol. 75/No. 2      January 17, 2011

A new farm bill adopted by Congress and signed by President Reagan on December 23 will substantially lower the price the government pays farmers for their commodities over the next five years. On the same day, the president put his signature to a bill that will help the Farm Credit System tighten its squeeze on debt-burdened farmers and drive thousands more of them off the land.

And as if these two holiday packages were not enough, on New Year’s Eve the Farmers Home Administration announced that it was notifying thousands of farmers who owe the government lending agency nearly $6 billion to pay up or face foreclosure.  
 
January 16, 1961
Officials of the University of Georgia bowed Jan. 12 to a mob organized by the Ku Klux Klan and suspended Charlayne Hunter, 18, and Hamilton Holmes, 19. The two young students were the first Negroes to attend classes in the 175-year history of the school. They were suspended just one day after being enrolled under a federal court order.

The federal court order compelling school authorities to admit the two students was issued Jan. 6, a year and a half after they first filed their applications. Frantic legal maneuvering was used to bar their entry, but this failed.

Attempts were made to incite white students against Miss Hunter and Mr. Holmes but these appeared to meet with little response.  
 
January 18, 1936
SAN FRANCISCO—The year 1936 is ushered in with the west coast waterfront daily becoming more tense. A storm is brewing that will, when it breaks, make the strike of 1934 seem like a gentle breeze.

Fifty-nine steam schooners are tied up, as the men refuse to work more than six hours per day. The bosses have retaliated with a lockout. These ships ply coastwise between the northern lumber regions and San Francisco. The Seamen’s Union of San Francisco, differently than the so-called “left” as well as conservative labor leaders, is supporting the seamen of these steam schooners.

The Pennsylvania was tied up for several days as the east coast seamen refused to man her, unless they received the same rate of pay as is drawn by the sailors signing out of west coast ports.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home