Today in history

February 12

1909
NAACP founded

1947
An estimated 400-500 veterans and conscientious objectors from World Wars I and II burned their draft cards during two demonstrations, in front of the White House in Washington DC and at the Labor Temple in New York City, in protest of a proposed universal conscription law. This was the first peacetime draft card burning.

1980
The International Olympic Committee rejected a U.S. proposal to postpone or cancel the 1980 Summer Games or move the site from Moscow as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

1993
About 5,000 demonstrators marched on Atlanta’s State Capitol to protest the Confederate symbol on the Georgia state flag. The flag was adopted in 1956 by racist elements as a reaction to the Supreme Court decision of Brown V Board of Education which aimed at the racial integration of public schools. Several newspapers opposed the flag as well as 18 local patriotic organizations including the United Daughters of the Confederacy, stating the flag “would cause strife.”
In 2001 the Georgia state flag was changed to one without the confederate flag.