Ridgefield Allies

Today in “Hidden” History is a daily listing of important but little-known events illustrating the range of innovators, contributors, or incidents excluded from formal history lessons or common knowledge. Hidden history is intended not as an exhaustive review, but merely as an illustration of how popular narratives "hide" many matters of fundamental importance. Bookmark this page and check daily to quickly expand your knowledge. Suggest entries for Today in “Hidden” History by clicking the Contact Us link. Entries for February 03:

Date	Type	Event
1943		At 12:55 am, the United States troop transport the USAT Dorchester is hit by a torpedo by German U-boat U-233. The troop carrier lists badly and begins to sink rapidly as scores of troops were pitched into the seas. Sailing immediately behind the Dorchester, twelve men from the US Coast Guard cutter Comanche volunteer to rescue men from the frigid waters, including Steward’s Mate First Class Charles Walter David, Jr, one of the lowest-ranking men on the ship. They dive into the waters, putting ropes around men’s waists because most were suffering from hypothermia, and could not grab a rescue line. David rescues ninety-three of the two hundred and twenty-seven survivors, including ranking officer Lt. Robert Anderson. David died of pneumonia on March 29, 1943, fifty-four days after the ordeal, at the age of twenty-six. He was posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for Heroism in 1943. This award was followed by the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and the WWII Victory Medal. He was honored with a certificate for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1963. The Immortal Chaplains Foundation awarded David with their prestigious Prize for Humanity in 1999, and in 2010, the USCGC Charles David Jr. was named as the seventh new Sentinel Class Cutter in his honor.
1948		Rosa Lee Ingram, a Black woman, and two of her children, Wallace, 17, and Sammie Lee, 14, were convicted by an all-white jury in a one-day trial in Ellaville, Georgia and sentenced to death by electric chair for killing an armed white man in self-defense as he violently assaulted them, even though the local Sheriff admitted the sons acted in defense of their mother. The judge subsequently reduced their sentences to life in prison. Ms. Ingram and her sons were sent to the state penitentiary and were each forced to serve more than a decade in prison for daring to defend themselves against a violent, armed assault by a white man. The Ingrams were not released on parole until 1959. Learn more.
1956		Autherine Lucy briefly integrates the University of Alabama. Lucy’s enrollment follows a two-year legal battle she and the NAACP waged to force the University of Alabama to admit Black students. On February 6, Lucy’s 4th day of attendance, a mob of hundreds descend on the university to halt Autherine Lucy’s enrollment. The mob, armed with rocks, eggs, and bricks, scream racist epithets at Lucy and threaten her life, and Lucy is hit in the back with an egg as she was ushered, under police escort, into an auditorium (where she was forced to remain for hours for her own safety). The University of Alabama Board of Trustees suspend Lucy that evening, and later expell her “for her protection and for the protection of other students and staff members.” Her attorneys challenge of the expulsion is unsuccessful. In April 1988, Lucy’s expulsion was overturned, and in spring 1992, she earned a master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Alabama. Learn more.
1964		The New York City school boycott, known as Freedom Day, takes place in New York City. It is the largest civil rights demonstration of the 1960s and involves nearly half a million Black and Puerto Rican students in a mass boycott and demonstration protesting segregation in the New York City public school system. Students and teachers stayed out of public schools to highlight the deplorable conditions, and demonstrators held rallies demanding integration. Learn more.