Check out This Date in History for March 3, in MainStream’s daily look at significant progressive, intersectional historical events.
1842: Massachusetts passes the nation’s first-ever child labor law, limiting the working hours of kids under the age of 12 to 10 hours a day. Connecticut would follow later that year, limiting labor of kids under the age of 14 to 10 hours, and many other states would limit child labor over the next 18 years.
Above, Shoshone National Forest; University of Iowa alumnus Caitlin Clark; the first-ever cover of TIME Magazine; and a screenshot of the Rodney King beating.
1859: The largest slave auction in history takes place in Savannah, Ga., when 436 people are sold by Pierce Mease Butler to pay off his gambling debts. The move breaks up many families who will be reunited when the Civil War ends . Journalist journalist Q. K. Philander Doesticks (Mortimer Thomson) wrote that many of those sold remember the day as “the weeping time.”
1865: Almost 4 million people freed from slavery receive food, clothing, education, help finding work and more from the Freedmen’s Bureau, a government agency that existed for seven years to help Black Southerners adjust to the Emancipation Proclamation. Confronted with anti-Black legislation and KKK violence, Congress eventually dissolves the Bureau.
1871: The U.S. stops recognizing the independence of Native American nations with the Indian Appropriations Act. The Act ends the U.S. signing treaties with Native American nations and limits their autonomy, leaving most decisions with the federal government.
1873: Americans are banned from mailing information related to contraceptives or abortion under the Comstock Act, which declares that information to be “obscene.” The act is amended in the early 1920s through the activism of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger and remains intact, though rarely enforced, today.
1879: Belva Ann Lockwood is the first woman to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court, after the Court refused her presence three years earlier. One of the first American women to go to law school, Lockwood successfully lobbied congress to remove legal restrictions on women holding many jobs. Lockwood is also the first woman running for president to appear on presidential ballots, running in 1884 and 1888 with the Equal Rights Party.
Above, Caitlin Clark surpassed Pete Maravitch on March 3, 2024, to become the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer. She ended her career with 3,951 total points.
1891: Shoshone National Forest, the first national forest in the modern world, is established in Wyoming. It is larger than the state of Vermont. Yellowstone National Park is in the west of the national forest, and a reservation for Shoshone and Arapahoe natives is in the east.
1913: The first major parade in support of women’s rights to vote takes place, when the Woman Suffrage Procession happens in Washington, D.C., Though all 48 states were represented, the parade encountered opposition from a crowd of 500,000.
1923: Time magazine is first published. The magazine is designed to be read by busy people in an hour, and cover news by focusing on individual people. Founded by college friends Briton Hadden and Henry Luce, it’s still one of the most popular weekly news magazines with a circulation of just over 1 million.
1952: The U.S. Supreme Court rules communists can’t be teachers in Adler v. Board of Education. The Court upheld a New York law that banned members of “subversive groups” from teaching, a decision which is overturned 15 years later.
1991: Four LADP officers beat Rodney King after a car chase. King is hospitalized with broken bones, skull fractures and permanent brain damage. A bystander filmed the incident and sent the footage to a news station. The officers are charged with excessive force, but none are convicted, which sparks riots in 1992 that lead to 63 deaths and over 12,000 arrests. King later receives $3.8 million for his injuries.
2024: University of Iowa alumnus Caitlin Clark sets the all-time scoring record for the NCAA. Her worldwide star appeal will grow as she moves into the professional WNBA, where she’ll trigger efforts to lessen disparities between pay received by men’s players compared to female players, and in broadcasting of the two leagues’ games.
Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Christine Hawes contributed to this report.
