Milestones: March 6, 2024

March 6, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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MONROE SIGNS MISSOURI COMPROMISE — PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE ON MARCH 6, 1820, SIGNED THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE, also known as the Compromise Bill of 1820, into law. The bill’s aim was to equalize the number of states permitting slavery with free states, and it enabled Missouri to be admitted as a slave-holding state while Maine joined the Union as a free state. Part of the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase that sat north of the 36-degrees-30-minutes latitude would not be allowed slavery. When the Missouri Compromise was passed, it ushered in the Era of Good Feelings and led to Monroe’s easy re-election.

However, the issue of states’ rights, particularly with regard to slavery, had caused a deep fissure, and within four decades, the nation would divide along territorial, economic and ideological lines, leading to the Civil War.

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SCOTUS VOIDS MISSOURI COMPROMISE — EXACTLY 37 YEARS AFTER THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE BECAME LAW, THE SUPREME COURT DECLARED IT UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Arguably the most famous Supreme Court decision of the 19th century, the Dred Scott decision of March 6, 1857, declared and echoed Southern slaveholders’ viewpoint that slaves were property and not citizens, and that Congress did not have the power to restrict slavery in US territories. The case centered on an enslaved man named Dred Scott, who had previously petitioned for and won his freedom based on his residence in a free state and territory. In declaring the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially overturned the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling.

It would take the South’s losing a bloodshed-filled Civil War to end slavery; Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation officially ended slavery in 1862, but it did not end the fighting.

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TEXAS REVOLUTION — THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMO, IN WHICH MEXICAN FORCES RECAPTURED THE FORT AT SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, ON MARCH 6, 1836, ended the Texas Revolution on a bloody note. Barely two weeks earlier, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered a siege of the Alamo Mission, which rebel Texas forces had occupied since December. Killed in the Battle of the Alamo were a frontiersman named Davy Crockett and about 200 Texan (non-Spanish) defenders. However, the commander of the Texan forces was Sam Houston; and he had been building an army which adopted the battle cry “Remember the Alamo!” as they prepared to avenge their fellow Texans’ defeat. When Texas and Mexico fought again that April, Texas was victorious and won its independence from Mexico.

The Battle of the Alamo was immortalized on screen and TV series. A 1960s movie titled “The Alamo,” starred John Wayne as Davy Crockett.

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NEWS PIONEER — TOUGH-AS-NAILS JOURNALIST HELEN THOMAS WAS NAMED UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL’S WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF ON MARCH 6, 1974, and then-President Richard Nixon, who would wind up resigning just five months later, congratulated her on becoming the first woman to serve in this prestigious role. During her 57-year career at UPI, Helen Thomas also became the first woman to gain membership to the (previously all-male) Gridiron Club in Washington, DC. She became a fixture in the White House press room, unabashedly asking difficult questions of officials, as well as press secretaries. One colleague in the White House Press Corps once said of Ms. Thomas, “She has great respect for the office of the presidency. But she is not intimidated by the person who temporarily inhabits the office.”

Ms. Thomas was forced to retire in 2010 in the wake of controversial comments she made regarding Israel and Palestine, showing her to be on the Palestinian side.

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COMIC ARTIST FROM BROOKLYN — BROOKLYN-BORN WILL EISNER, BORN ON MARCH 6, 1917, became one of the most legendary comic book/graphic artists. During his eight-decade career, Eisner created the Spirit comic book, established a company for educational comic books and taught graphic narrative techniques to students. He also created the first graphic novel, “A Contract with God” (1978).

The Eisner Awards, established in his honor in 1988, recognized other talented luminaries in the graphic arts field. He lived to see the award being established and died on Jan. 3, 2005.

See previous milestones, here.