“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Evening Journal.
July 3, 1964, the Evening Journal
Negroes act quickly to test civil rights law
Negroes putting the new civil rights bill signed by President Johnson to test today scored initial gains in troubled areas but some southern leaders refused to accept it as law.
Immediately after Johnson signed the historic legislation at a White House ceremony last night, the campaign to implement its sweeping directives was put into motion.
Today doors which had been off-limits to Negroes were open. Others were shut by the owners to one and all.
In Albany, Ga., for instance, the scene of racial violence in recent years, seven restaurants that catered to whites only admitted Negroes for the first time last night.
Negroes also found no resistance in entering restaurants in another troubled southern city, Savannah, Ga.
In Jacksonville, Fla., where whites and Negroes have battled, a white waitress in the serving line of Morrison’s cafeteria greeted Negroes Robert Ingram and Prince McIntosh with the dignity which Johnson asked to be show to all races.
“May I help you?” the white woman asked politely.
In Charlottesville, Va., the door to a restaurant operated by Buddy Glover was closed for the first time in 27 years.
“I quit,” Glover said. “It’s going to be a financial loss, but dollars and cents can’t take the place of principles.”
Gov. George Wallace of Alabama challenged the constitutionality of the new law which permits Negroes access to public eating places and overnight accommodations previously denied them….
Almost 60 years later:Lisa Blunt Rochester, Delaware’s sole congresswoman, will run to fill Carper’s Senate seat
July 4, 1890, The Morning News
Idaho becomes newest state, too early for some
In signing the bill admitting Idaho to the sisterhood of states July 3, President Harrison has disappointed a number of people in that state who had hoped that the new state should take up her position in line on the Fourth of July.
The reason for his action was an interesting one. The President, it seems, found that the law ordained that a new star should be placed upon the American flag for each new state on the Fourth of July succeeding its admission to the Union.
The President left it to Mr. Dubois, the delegate from Idaho, to decide whether to have the bill signed at once and get the star this year, or leave the star over until July 4, 1891. Mr. Dubois chose the star now, and as a result, the bill has been signed and 43 stars are now due upon the flag July 4.
The bill admitting Wyoming to statehood has not yet reached the President for his signature.
July 5, 1973, The Morning News
General Assembly to reconvene amid budget battle
DOVER – The General Assembly is scheduled to meet again today, but there is some doubt whether the problem of the $26 million projected deficit for June 30, 1974 will be solved.
If some sort of solution is not reached, it appears that welfare checks along with the checks of some 800 hourly state employees could be delayed. The checks are dated July 7 but are supposed to be in the mail today….
Stories vary as to who is to blame for the failure of the legislature to send a budget – balanced by appropriate tax measures – to Gov. Sherman Tribbitt Tuesday night. The House came in briefly during the afternoon, only to recess for caucuses. The Senate did not convene until 6:30 p.m., and closed its session in anger 10 minutes later.
House Republican leaders began the day nearly where they closed it after the 22-hour marathon session that ended early Sunday….
Speaker John Kirk Jr., R-Delaware City, said negotiations with the administration broke down over two joint resolutions. One would bring the General Assembly back in October to consider a gross receipts tax and other revenue measures. The other would hold up all revenue refunds – such as personal income taxes – until legislators provide new revenues to cover them. The latter resolution is perhaps the more important because it would allow the General Assembly to pass only enough taxes for fiscal year 1974, which began Sunday, to cover the state operating budget.
There are 21 Republicans and 20 Democrats in the House….
Catch up on history:Climbers top Mt. Everest, Johnstown flood: The News Journal archives, week of May 28
July 8, 1981, The Morning News
First woman nominated for Supreme Court
The reaction Tuesday to President Reagan’s first Supreme Court nominee was an ironic one: he was condemned by conservatives who supported him all the way to the Oval Office, and praised by liberals and feminists who have found so little to like about him there.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, head of Moral Majority, declared that the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor was a “disaster.” The National Right to Life Committee, an anti-abortion group, pledged an all-out fight against her confirmation because of “her consistent support for legal abortion.”
But Eleanor Smeal, president of the National Organization for Women, called the nomination “a major victory for women’s rights.”
Meanwhile, prospects appeared good for a quick and relatively painless confirmation by the Senate. Among the first to jump aboard Mrs. O’Connor’s bandwagon following Reagan’s announcement Tuesday were Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Morris K. Udall, D-Ariz., two of the most outspoken liberals in Congress….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
