Free Speech Struggles – San Diego, Then & Now

 

Last September, some friends and I on the Education Committee of DSA San Diego made this video about the history of the 1912 San Diego Free Speech Fight.

To see a timeline and an extensive bibliography click here.

Petition Demands Andrew Jackson Name Be Removed from the New Susan A. Davis Post Office

 

Petition Demands Andrew Jackson Name Be Removed from the New Susan A. Davis Post Office Branch in Rolando Neighborhood of San Diego

July 8, 2023 / 1 Comment

By Donald H. Harrison

San Diego Jewish World

...

In June 2020, Anderson started the successful campaign to rename the Post Office’s Andrew Jackson Station, gathering 1464 signatures on a petition to do so. At that time, he had no particular preference for whom the post office branch should be named instead of Jackson; he just wanted Jackson’s name removed. Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) subsequently introduced successful legislation to rename it in honor of Davis, who as her predecessor, served 20 years in the House of Representatives.  Davis and Jacobs are both members of the San Diego Jewish community.

Andrew Jackson Station Post Office has been officially renamed as the Susan A. Davis post office (Photo: Shor M. Masori)

In the new petition, Anderson calls for “removing the signage referring to, honoring and glorifying Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, enslaver of souls, author of the Indian Removal Act and perpetrator of genocide.”

The petition, also seeking the updating of the U.S. Postal Service website to reflect the name change, is addressed to U.S. Postmaster Louis Dejoy; Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego); California’s two Democratic U.S. senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, and to President Joe Biden.

Anderson asserts that leaving the Andrew Jackson name on the building “is an unambiguous violation of federal Public Law 117-134 (which renamed it for former Congresswoman Davis).  There is no need to enact a new public law,” he stated in the petition.  “Tear it down now.”

More...

Ceremony Renames Andrew Jackson Post Office for Susan A. Davis

 

Rolando post office renamed for longtime San Diego lawmaker Susan Davis

BY DEBORAH SULLIVAN BRENNAN

JULY 6, 2023 6:12 PM PT

The Rolando facility was formerly named after the seventh president, Andrew Jackson, who owned slaves and forced thousands of Native Americans off their lands on deadly marches. Jacobs said the renaming was prompted by residents’ desire to shift the focus to a local leader who had improved San Diego.

Erik Anderson, the San Diego man who started the petition to remove Jackson’s name from Rolando’s post office, said he was motivated by protests against the murder of George Floyd in 2020, adding that renaming efforts aren’t about erasing history but revisiting who communities choose to memorialize.

More: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-07-06/rolando-post-office-susan-davis

Ceremony Renames Andrew Jackson Post Office for Susan A. Davis

July 7, 2023

The unveiled plaque read “This Building Is Named in Honor of Susan A. Davis by an Act of Congress, Public Law 117-314, December 27, 2022.”  However, a legend will remain for the foreseeable future in large letters atop the Post Office Building stating: “United States Post Office, Andrew Jackson Station, San Diego, California 92115.” No congressional appropriation has been made to replace the lettering, and according to Davis, such an appropriation is problematic because such legislation would have to incorporate not only this post office branch but other renamed post office branches throughout the nation.

During the ceremony, Congresswoman Jacobs said she received a petition from the Rolando neighborhood, organized by resident Erik Anderson, on her second day in office, January 7, 2021, asking that the post office branch be renamed in Davis’s honor. “I am so thankful to have active, engaged constituents who care about the symbols of our community and what we are teaching the next generation and making San Diego a welcoming home for everyone,” she commented, without specifically mentioning the community’s dissatisfaction with having a post office named for the 7th President of the United States.

More: https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2023/07/07/ceremony-renames-andrew-jackson-post-office-for-susan-a-davis/

Petition circulates to have Andrew Jackson Post Office in San Diego renamed

This is way better than getting a letter to the editor published!

Read the story online at CBS8.com. 

Check out my petition to rename the Andrew Jackson Post Office in Rolando, San Diego!

UPDATE: 6/23/2020

Dave Summers from NBC 7 showed up at my door so I couldn't turn him away.

I don't look my best but I tried.  As of about noon today, the petition has just under 500 signatures.

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More UPDATES below:

On June 24th, 2020, I managed to get on KUSI-TV:

In March 2021, I was contacted by Charles T. Clark, a columnist at the San Diego Union-Tribune who did half an Op-Ed about the petition to rename my post office. Read the column here.

On November 18, 2022, my Congressmember Sara Jacobs introduced bill H.R. 9308 to change the name of the  Andrew Jackson Post Office to the Susan A. Davis Post Office.

On November 29, 2022, the bill H.R. 9308 passed the House by a majority voice vote, "...the ayes have it."

On December 19, 2022, the bill to rename my post office passed the Senate.

According to ABC News, POTUS signed the bill to rename my post office into law on December 27, 2022. It is now a violation of federal law to refer to it as the Andrew Jackson Post Office in any official document.

* * * 

In March 2023, I was invited to participate in the campaign to rename Clay Park and Henry Elementary across the street from the Post Office Formerly named after Andrew Jackson. Please sign the petition here. 

Thus sayeth the King of Funny Faces.

I.Toasted.Omar

I might have just had the best day of my life today. At least so far. I just did a "scene" on Zoom with Thuliso Dingwall who played Kenard on The Wire. Spoiler alert. His instagram is @i.shot.omar.

I was supposed to toast Omar but as I was writing I realized I couldn't do it without roasting Thuliso and Tristan/MackWilds just a little bit. I was a little anxious in my head about insulting someone I don't know with no warning, so I messaged Thuliso about it beforehand. He had been coming into the zoom quite a bit for the past five weeks and he's so nice, so the answer was "Of course lol."

Then I felt anxious in my head for asking a stupid question, and then I thought if I asked him to play a little part in the toast by insulting me or threatening me back and it happened today.

I saw that the whole thing was recorded somewhere. I don't know if and when I'll be able to get the full video of it, but if I do, I'll be posting it everywhere.

I am the King of Funny Faces. If you come at me, you best not miss.

Sarah Rapelje

Before last month, I thought my oldest known ancestor was Stephanus Terhune, a sheriff who worked for King George during the American Revolution and went on trial after the Colonists won the war.

Read more. 

That was until I found out that he was a fifth-generation descendent of Hans Hansen Bergen and, apparently, Sarah Rapelje, the first European Christian female born in the colony of New Amsterdam in what is now New York.

Her family founded Brooklyn and Queens and she is the 9th great-grandmother of Humphrey Bogart.

See a resemblance?

You might not see that much of a resemblance because Bogart is a descendent of her youngest son, whom she had with her second husband after my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather died. Yeah, so that was a pretty interesting thing I found out today. 

Oh yeah, one more thing, Sarah and I share a birthday 350 years apart.

UPDATE: found this:

Nationally Televised Public Humiliation

January 11, 1987 - Philadelphia, PA


To my father's childhood friend, Geraldine Laybourne: thanks anyway for the tickets. It was the thought that counts.