Today in history

February 27

1927
Birth of consumer activist Ralph Nader.

1939
The Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes. Such strikes had become a very effective strategy employed by workers to organize unions. For example, the 1937 Flint sit-down strike of autoworkers at General Motors forced GM to recognize and negotiate with the United Auto Workers as the union representing its members.

Flint sit down strikers, 1937

1967
Wharlest Jackson, the treasurer of the NAACP chapter in Natchez, Miss., was one of many blacks who received threatening Klan notices at his job. After Jackson was promoted to a position previously reserved for whites, a bomb was planted in his car. It exploded minutes after he left work one day, killing him instantly.

1973
Hundreds of Oglala Sioux and members of the American Indian Movement(AIM) occupied the village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Angered over a long history of violated treaties, mistreatment and discrimination, and in response to a campaign of harassment and violence by tribal and FBI officials, they chose the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children. The occupation lasted until May.

AIM leader Russell Means on Wounded Knee