On this date in 1995, Mississippi became the last state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States which abolished slavery. The amendment was ratified nationally by the necessary three-fourths of the states 129 years earlier on December 6, 1865.

In a federal court in San Diego, California on this date in 2001 white supremacist, Alexander James Curtis, 25, of Lemon Grove, California, pleaded Guilty to threatening and intimidating various minority community leaders, including: U.S. Representative Bob Filner; La Mesa, California Mayor Art Madrid; and San Diego Anti-Defamation League Director Morris Casuto from 1997 to 1999. Curtis specifically pleaded Guilty to three felony counts of a conspiracy to violate civil rights for leaving threatening messages at or near the victims' homes and offices, including Nazi swastikas, snake skins, an inactive hand grenade, and slogans advocating violence against racial minorities according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. On June 11, 2001, Curtis was sentenced to three years in federal prison and he was released from prison on June 20, 2003.

Joseph Eli Bearden, 21, and William David Brown, Jr. 20, were arrested on this date in 2007 for the stabbing death of Ryan Keith Skipper, a gay man who was robbed, killed, and dumped on a dirt road in Wahneta, Florida. Brown is alleged to have told someone that Mr. Skipper was killed because he was gay and had made sexual advances toward Brown and Bearden. On February 27, 2009, Bearden, 23, was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder, plus forty years for theft of a motor vehicle, accessory after the fact with a weapon, tampering with evidence and dealing in stolen property. On November 3, 2009, a jury convicted William Brown, Jr., of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon for killing and robbing Mr. Skipper, after having pleaded guilty in late October, 2009, to charges of arson and tampering with evidence. On December 1, 2009, Brown was sentenced to two life terms in prison.

In Mantua Township, New Jersey (Gloucester County) on this date in 2008, a two-foot by three-foot cross made of tree branches was discovered placed on the lawn of two black families living in a duplex on Fairview Drive. Police said someone tried to light the cross and they also said they are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

In Jefferson, Georgia, on this date in 2009 someone broke into the home of an African-American man, Patrick Forrest, 31, painted graffiti of swastikas, the words "white power" and other hateful remarks, and burned the Hamilton Drive home down. The Georgia state Insurance Office is office is offering a $10,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to the arrest of the arsonist(s). Anyone with information about this burglary-arson should call 1-800-282-5804.