August 6, 1965: President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places.
In 1999, the General Assembly endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth (Lisbon, 8-12 August 1998) that 12 August be declared International Youth Day.
International Youth Day is observed annually on August 12th. It is meant as an opportunity for governments and others to draw attention to youth issues worldwide. During IYD, concerts, workshops, cultural events, and meetings involving national and local government officials and youth organizations take place around the world. International Youth Day (IYD) gives an opportunity to celebrate and mainstream young peoples’ voices, actions and initiatives, as well as their meaningful, universal and equitable engagement.
Passed by Congress on June 4, 1919 and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment prohibited any U.S. citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. Immediately, it granted 26 million women (half of the population at the time) the right to vote.
Celebrated every year on 19 August, World Humanitarian Day is directed towards honoring humanitarian efforts worldwide and propagating the idea of supporting people in crisis. On this day, OCHA advocates on behalf of the entire humanitarian community.
World Humanitarian Day 2021 – Global Challenge for Climate Action
The climate emergency is wreaking havoc across the world at a scale that people on the front lines and in the humanitarian community cannot manage. Time is already running out for the world’s most vulnerable people — those who have contributed least to the global climate emergency yet are hit the hardest — and millions of others that are already losing their homes, their livelihoods, and their lives.
With most climate campaigns focused on slowing climate change and securing the planet’s future, World Humanitarian Day 2021, will highlight the immediate consequences of the climate emergency for the world’s most vulnerable people and ensure that their voices are heard, and their needs top the agenda at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November.
Therefore, everyone is invited to join #TheHumanRace, which is the global challenge for climate action in solidarity with people who need it the most; and to put the needs of climate-vulnerable people front and centre at the UN climate summit (COP26).
Stand in solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable people by using these hashtags in your social media activities #TheHumanRace #WorldHumanitarianDay
Learn more at Humanitarian Day
August 23 is UNESCO’S International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This day pays tribute to all those who fought for freedom, and, in their name, to continue teaching about their story and the values therein. Today is meant to inspire us in the fight against all forms of servitude, racism, prejudice, racial discrimination and social injustice that are a legacy of slavery.
Learn more about this day on the UNESCO website.
In 1943, Alejandro Bernal, a native Californian, and his family moved to a house on Ash Avenue in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Fullerton. Bernal’s neighbors in this predominantly white community feared that the presence of Mexicans in their neighborhood would lower their property values.
Failing to prevent them from moving in, the white residents filed an injunction against the family, requesting their removal from the house. They relied on a clause written into the deeds of lots for sale in Fullerton neighborhoods that supported residential segregation in housing covenants. The Bernals refused to vacate their new home, and sought redress in court.
On August 24, 1943, Judge Albert A. Ross of the OC Superior Court rendered a decision in the case of Doss et al v. Bernal et al, ensuring the Bernals’ right to keep their home. In reaching his decision, Judge Ross confirmed his constitutional objection to racially restrictive covenants against Mexicans as violative of the 14th Amendment. These same legal arguments would serve as persuasive precedent in overturning racial covenants on a national level, and formed the basis for overturning the educational segregation of California’s Mexican students in Mendez v. Westminster
Women’s Equality Day is celebrated in the United States on August 26 to commemorate the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. It was first celebrated in 1973 and is proclaimed each year by the United States President.
August 26th is the anniversary of national woman suffrage. Across the seventy-two years between the first major women’s rights conference at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, thousands of people participated in marches through cities like New York and Washington DC, wrote editorials and pamphlets, gave speeches all over the nation, lobbied political organizations, and held demonstrations with the goal of achieving voting rights for women.
Women also picketed the White House with questions like, “Mr. President, what are you going to do about woman’s suffrage?” “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” This was the first time in history that a group of people picketed the White House.
Learn more at: Women’s Equality Day
