The preamble to a later exclusion law, passed in 1849, explained legislators’ beliefs that “it would be highly dangerous to allow free Negroes and mulattoes to reside in the Territory, or to intermix with Indians, instilling ... feelings of hostility toward the white race.”

That December, the law was amended to substitute forced labor for whipping. It specified that African Americans who stayed within Oregon would be hired at public auction and that the “hirer” would be responsible for removing the “hiree” out of the territory after the prescribed period of forced service was rendered. This law was enforced even though slavery and involuntary servitude were illegal in Oregon Country.

#History

On this day Jun 26, 1844

Oregon Territory Bans Free Black People

On June 26, 1844, the legislative committee of the territory then known as “Oregon Country” passed the first of a series of “Black exclusion” laws. The law dictated that free African Americans were prohibited from moving into Oregon Country and those who violated the ban could be whipped “not less than twenty nor more than thirty-nine stripes."

#Biography

Babe Didrikson Zaharias
American athlete

Born
June 26, 1911
Port Arthur, Texas
(Birthday)
Died
September 27, 1956 (aged 45)
Galveston, Texas

#History

Opening of CN Tower
CN Tower, which opened to the public this day in 1976, was—at 1,815 feet (553 metres)—the world's tallest freestanding structure until being surpassed in 2007 by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

National HIV Testing Day
National Ice Cream Cake Day
National Onion Day
National Orange Blossom Day
National Sunglasses Day
National Women’s Fly Fishing Day
National Work From Home Day
PTSD Awareness Day
Tajikistan Unity Day
Watermelon Seed Spitting Week

27 THURSDAY #Holidays

Attwari
Day of National Unity (Tajikistan)
Day of Turkmen Workers of Culture and Art
Decide to be Married Day
Djibouti Independence Day
Helen Keller Day
Micro Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Day
National Bingo Day
National Bomb Pop Day
National Handshake Day

National Day of Joy
National Parchment Day
National Report Trade Agreement Act Fraud Day
National Sarah Day
Reserves Day
Somalia Independence Day
United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
World Refrigeration Day

26 WEDNESDAY #Holidays

Azerbaijan Armed Forces Day
Flag Day of Romania
Forgiveness Day
International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
Madagascar Independence Day
National Barcode Day
National Beautician Day
National Canoe Day
National Chocolate Pudding Day

#Biography

Antoni Gaudí
Spanish architect

Born
June 25, 1852
Reus, Spain
(Born on this day)
Died
June 10, 1926 (aged 73)
Barcelona, Spain

#History

Korean War begun
On this day in 1950, North Korea unleashed an attack southward across the 38th parallel, after which the UN Security Council (minus the Soviet delegate) passed a resolution calling on UN members to assist South Korea.

The decision unleashed a surge in voter suppression measures—including strict voter ID laws, cutting voting times, restricting registration, and purging voter rolls—that are undermining voter participation by people of color today.

“The sad irony of today’s decision lies in its utter failure to grasp why the VRA has proven effective,” wrote Justice Ginsburg. “The Court appears to believe that the VRA's success in eliminating the specific devices extant in 1965 means that preclearance is no longer needed. With that belief, and the argument derived from it, history repeats itself.”

The decision drastically reduced the VRA’s power to combat “second-generation barriers” to voting, like racial gerrymandering, which minimize the impact of minority votes.

Yet voting discrimination—and the need for the Voting Rights Act—continues in the present day, the dissenters pointed out. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted in dissent that covered jurisdictions continue to propose voting law changes that are rejected under the VRA, “auguring that barriers to minority voting would quickly resurface were the preclearance remedy eliminated.”

However, in Shelby County v. Holder, Alabama officials argued that preclearance was no longer constitutional or necessary, and the Supreme Court agreed. Chief Justice Roberts reasoned for the majority that “things have changed dramatically” since 1965—voting tests are illegal, racial disparities in voter turnout and registration have diminished, and people of color hold elected office “in record numbers.”

In this way, the Act directly confronted and addressed a century of racist voting policies. Section 4 of the Act required jurisdictions with the worst records of discrimination to obtain “preclearance” from the federal government before changing voting laws.

After decades of organized civil rights activism, the Voting Rights Act (VRA) finally became law on August 6, 1965. It outlawed discriminatory barriers to voting like poll taxes and literacy tests and also imposed strict oversight upon states and districts with histories of voter discrimination. The new law quickly proved extremely effective; Black registration rates soon rose throughout the South, and Black officials were elected at the highest rates since Reconstruction.

Despite adoption in 1870 of the Fifteenth Amendment barring racial discrimination in voting, Southern states and others used poll taxes, literacy tests, and violence to deny Black Americans the right to vote for another century. Unchecked and systematic voter suppression targeted African American communities in the South for generations.

#History

On this day Jun 25, 2013

Supreme Court Invalidates Key Provision of Voting Rights Act at Southern States’ Request

On June 25, 2013, in a 5-4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and effectively gutted one of the nation’s most important and successful civil rights laws.