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This Day in History

May 17, 2004
First Gay Marriage in U.S.

Last week President Barack Obama came out in favor of gay marriage so it is important to note that only eight years ago this week the first same-sex marriage in the United States took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

May 18, 1896
Ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson

In 1896 the Supreme Court struck a major blow against integration, ruling that the Louisiana law that provided “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” on railroad cars was constitutional. The ruling provided that long as equal accommodations were provided, segregation was not discrimination. The case was eventually used to justify segregating all public facilities, including railroad cars, restaurants, hospitals, and schools. Not until 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was Plessy v. Ferguson struck down.

 

Election Day: An American Holiday, An American History

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The Romance of the Rails and the Pleasure of Remembering

On Saturday, May 22, a miscellaneous group of about thirty people gathered at the Mount Pleasant Public Library in Pleasantville, New York to hear author Joseph Schiavone talk about his book, More of ‘The Old Put,’ his second book about the Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad.

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