June 5, 1900: Carrie Nation's Vision

June 5, 1900: This was the day that Carrie Nation claimed to have seen a vision telling her to fight for the prohibition of alcohol.

Caroline Amelia Moore was born on November 25, 1846 in Garrard County, Kentucky. Her father was a slaveholder. Her mother was institutionalized for mental illness, and the family moved around a lot. During the American Civil War, they were living in Missouri, and Carrie nursed wounded Confederate soldiers.

In 1867, she married a doctor, Charles Gloyd. But he was an alcoholic, and she left him just before the birth of their daughter, Charlien. He died the next year. Calling herself Carrie Gloyd, she became a teacher in Missouri. In 1874, she married the Rev. David A. Nation, who was a minister, an attorney, and a journalist. He was 19 years older than she was, and had been widowed, with a daughter, Lola.

They bought a cotton plantation outside Brazoria, Texas. They moved to Brazoria, where David practiced law. In 1880, they moved to East Columbia, Texas, to operate a hotel. Then David operated a saddle shop, and then they moved to Richmond, Texas, to operate another hotel. All of these ventures failed.

They moved to Kiowa, Kansas, where Carrie began working for the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She described what happened to her on June 5, 1900, when she was 53 years old, as follows:

The next morning I was awakened by a voice which seemed to me speaking in my heart, these words, "Go to Kiowa," and my hands were lifted and thrown down and the words, "I'll stand by you." The words, "Go to Kiowa," were spoken in a murmuring, musical tone, low and soft, but "I'll stand by you," was very clear, positive and emphatic. I was impressed with a great inspiration, the interpretation was very plain, it was this: "Take something in your hands, and throw at these places in Kiowa and smash them."

• She gathered several rocks, calling them "smashers," and proceeded to Dobson's Saloon in Kiowa on June 7. Announcing "Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard's fate," she began to destroy the saloon's stock with her cache of rocks. After she similarly destroyed two other saloons in Kiowa, a tornado hit eastern Kansas, which Nation took as divine approval of her actions.

Carrie Nation continued her saloon destruction, her fame spreading through her growing arrest record. After she led a raid in Wichita, Kansas, David joked that she should use a hatchet next time for maximum damage. Nation replied, "That is the most sensible thing you have said since I married you." And yet, the couple divorced in 1901, having had no children.

Alone or accompanied by hymn-singing women, Nation would march into a bar, and sing and pray while smashing bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. Between 1900 and 1910, she was arrested at least 32 times for her "hatchetations," as she came to call them. Nation paid her jail fines from lecture-tour fees and sales of stick, pins in the shape of hatchets. The souvenirs were provided by a pharmacist from Topeka, Kansas' State capital. She also conducted women's rights marches in Topeka.

Her anti-alcohol activities became widely known, with the slogan "All Nations Welcome But Carrie" becoming a bar-room staple. She published The Smasher's Mail, a biweekly newsletter, and The Hatchet, a newspaper.

Later in life, she exploited her name by appearing in vaudeville, and traveling to Britain where she appeared in their equivalent, the music halls. A proud woman more given to sermonizing than entertaining, she found these venues uninspiring for her proselytizing. Seeking profits elsewhere, Nation sold photographs of herself, collected lecture fees, and marketed miniature souvenir hatchets. She eventually moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and founded the home known as "Hatchet Hall."

She gave her final speech on January 14, 1911, collapsing mid-way through. She fell into a coma, and was taken to Evergreen Place Hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas, where she eventually died on June 9, 1911. She was 64 years old, but seemed much older. She was buried in Belton Cemetery in Belton, Missouri, outside Kansas City. The WCTU later erected a stone inscribed "Faithful to the Cause of Prohibition, She Hath Done What She Could" and the name "Carry A. Nation."

She did not live to see the ratification of the 18th Amendment, establishing Prohibition, in 1919; or that of the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th, in 1933. But her name, without the middle initial, lived on, as a symbol of the movement against alcohol. But she also became a watchword for someone who refused to mind their own business and let people have a good time.

Carrie's daughter married and had 5 children. Charlien Gloyd McNabb lived until 1929.

There is an interesting postscript to her story: Her birthplace of Garrard County, Kentucky remains a dry County after all these years.

UPDATE: On November 7, 2023, voters in Garrard County voted to allow the sale of alcohol. I wonder if anyone went to Carrie's grave in Belton, to see if she was turning over in it.

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June 5, 1900 was a Tuesday. This was also the day that author Stephen Crane died of tuberculosis at the age of 28. I have a separate entry for that event.

The only major sports league in operation at the time was baseball's National League. There were 4 games played:

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 14-8 at the 1890-1911 version of the Polo Grounds.

* The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Chicago Orphans, 5-4 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. Since Cap Anson, also known as "Pop" retired, the Chicago team formerly known as the White Stockings and the Colts were called the Orphans because "they missed their Pop." They became the Cubs in 1903. The Brooklyn team was named the Superbas because their manager was Ned Hanlon, and there was then a famous circus troupe named Hanlon's Superbas. They became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 15-11 at the 1894-1914 version of the South End Grounds in Boston.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at National League Park (later renamed Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia.

May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education

Thurgood Marshall in front of the Supreme Court Building, 1954

May 17, 1954: In a unanimous 9-0 vote, the Supreme Court of the United States decides, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation in public schools -- from kindergarten all the way up to State universities -- is unconstitutional.

Hail the wise men:

* Earl Warren, 63, from Oakland, California, the Chief Justice, formerly his State's Governor and Attorney General, and the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President in 1948. Appointed by the current President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican.

* Hugo Black, 68, from from Ashland, Alabama, formerly a Democratic U.S. Senator from his State. His was the most surprising vote of all: He was not only a Southerner, but a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Serving on the Court from 1937 until his death in 1971, his decisions seemed to be an effort to make up for his KKK membership. Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat.

* Stanley F. Reed, 69, from Minerva, Kentucky, formerly U.S. Solicitor General under FDR, who appointed him to the Supreme Court. Another Southerner who turned his back on white supremacy.

* Felix Frankfurter, 71, born in Vienna, Austria, but grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He had previously been among the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union, and an adviser to FDR and his Administration. FDR appointed him, as well.

* William O. Douglas, 55, from Yakima, Washington, formerly Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He remains the longest-serving Justice in the Court's history, 36 years from 1939 to 1975. The current longest-serving Justice, Clarence Thomas, would have to serve until late 2027 to surpass him. Another FDR appointee.

* Robert H. Jackson, 62, from Frewsburg, Western New York, formerly U.S. Attorney General and Solicitor General, having succeeded Reed in that latter office. Another FDR appointee. He died only 5 months later, on October 9, 1954.

* Harold H. Burton, 65, from Boston, formerly U.S. Senator from Ohio and Mayor of Cleveland. FDR crossed Party lines to appoint Burton, a Republican, to the Court.

* Thomas C. Clark, 54, from Dallas, another former Attorney General under FDR. Another Southerner voting to strike down segregation. Appointed by President Harry S Truman, a Democrat.

* Sherman Minton, 64, from Georgetown, Indiana, formerly U.S. Senator from his State. Appointed by Truman.

The full name of the case was Oliver Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The named plaintiff, Oliver Brown, was a welder working for a railroad, and an assistant pastor. His daughter, Linda Carol Brown, was in the 3rd grade, and had to walk 6 blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, an all-black school, 1 mile away. Sumner Elementary School, all-white, was just 7 blocks away -- 1 block longer than the walk to the bus.

Linda Brown

(Ironically, the all-black school was named for James Monroe, a President who had been a slaveholder; while the all-white school was named for Charles Sumner, who had been the U.S. Senate's leading abolitionist.)

Thurgood Marshall argued the case for the plaintiffs, as the general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The ruling overturned the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which ruled that "separate but equal" facilities be provided in public places. In Brown v. Board, the Supreme Court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

Marshall had been hired by the NAACP's first special counsel, Charles Hamilton Houston. His strategy was to attack segregation by legally forcing the South's hand on the "separate but equal" doctrine. He orchestrated a campaign to force Southern districts to build facilities for blacks equal to those for whites, or to integrate their facilities. He focused on law schools because, at the time, mostly males attended them. He believed this would obviate the fears whites expressed that integrated schools would lead to interracial dating and marriage.

In the 1938 case of Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, Houston argued that it was unconstitutional for Missouri to exclude blacks from the State's university law school when, under the "separate but equal" provision, no comparable facility for blacks existed within the State.

In other words, he put Missouri in a corner: Either spend the money to build a separate all-black law school, or compromise your principle of bigotry and take the cheaper option of integrating the law school you already have. They chose the latter. For this reason, Houston became known, if prematurely, as "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow." Sadly, he died in 1950, only 54 years old, from a heart attack, and did not live to see Brown v. Board, or the later gains of the Civil Rights Movement. Had he lived long enough to see Marshall on the Supreme Court, he would have been 72.

Oliver Brown died of a heart attack in 1961, only 42 years old. Linda Carol Brown grew up to become a teacher and a civil rights advocate, and lived until 2018. Douglas was the last of the 9 Brown Justices to still be serving, in 1975; while Reed was the last survivor of those Justices, dying in 1980, 74 days after Douglas. Marshall lived until 1993.

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May 17, 1954 was a Monday. It was the off-season for the NFL, and the NBA and the NHL had already completed their seasons. And Monday is often a travel day in Major League Baseball. As a result, only 3 games were played that day, and none of them involved the New York teams:

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-0 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Joe Presko pitched a 7-hit shutout, outpitching Robin Roberts.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-6 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* And the Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at Briggs (later Tiger) Stadium in Detroit.