Civil Rights

 

When the Civil War came to an end congress passed legislation on a number of civil rights issues aimed at protecting those who had been slaves. However, even though this legislation had been passed there were still a great number of racist whites who opposed the legislation. Black Codes were laws that were passed in a number of southern states that effectively limited the civil rights of African-Americans. The codes were used to restrict the integration of blacks and whites and to control labour and activities of African-Americans. The Black Codes legislation effectively eliminated African-American’s civil rights in the South. Blacks had to sit in segregated areas in public places such as restaurants and were forced to use separate bathrooms. They were also underpaid in their employment and there was little if any chance of integration. The need for skilled works in the North between World War I and II led many blacks to migrate to cities in the North. Over a million African-Americans migrated to cities in the North during this period. For some the experience opened their eyes to the injustices they had suffered in the South.Over a million blacks fought for America during World War II but most were forced to serve in segregated units. Civil rights activists took this opportunity to voice their concerns as to how the government fought for freedom in countries abroad while limiting the rights of its own black citizens. A. Philip Randolph, a prominent civil rights activist decided that the time was right in 1941 to organise a march on Washington as a protest. President Roosevelt realised this could disrupt the war effort and decided to desegregate military manufacturing factories and created the Fair Employment Practices Committee. The result of Roosevelt’s actions were that around a quarter of a million blacks were able obtain higher level jobs within industries manufacturing for the war.The seamstress Rosa Parks effectively spurred the civil rights movement in 1955. Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. After the arrest Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out at rally in Alabama on the topic of segregation. This also led to a boycotting of city transportation for almost a year. The issue came to the Supreme Court that stated that the segregation of buses was unconstitutional. King formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that was dedicated to non violent protest.Civil rights demonstrators were greeted with violence on a massive scale in 1963. Incidents such as the Birmingham Protest where nearly a thousand children were arrested during a peaceful protest shocked the nation. Police had been televised using firehoses, electric cattle prods and tear gas on peaceful protesters during numerous civil rights demonstrations that year. President Kennedy had requested a civil rights bill that would end racial discrimination and the time had come for the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a non violent demonstration in support of Kennedy’s civil rights bill. Ultimately around 250,000 blacks and whites made the journey to the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 to hear civil rights speaches including King’s famous “I have a dream” speech. Kennedy was assassinated only months after the march but President Lyndon Johnson pushed through the Civil Rights Act 1964 despite much opposition. Discrimination and segregation were outlawed in the act.By the mid 1960s southern blacks were still unable to use their right to vote and King travelled to Alabama in order to lead a peaceful protest against these restrictions. Thousands of blacks arrived to exercise their right to vote but police used violence against them that resulted in the deaths of several civil rights activists. Lyndon Johnson and America were shocked by the violence and a bill was finally passed that protected the voting rights and safeguarded black voters.There are many other key figures that make up the movement such as Malcolm X and The Black Panthers. Their combined actions helped pave the way for an equal society where people can live together without fear of discrimination based on colour, race, religion and gender.


Reconstruction Era

 

Reconstruction was a period in U.S. history during and after the American Civil War in which attempts were made to solve the political, social, and economic problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 Confederate states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war. As early as 1862, Pres. Abraham Lincoln had appointed provisional military governors for Louisiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The following year, initial steps were taken to reestablish governments in newly occupied states in which at least 10 percent of the voting population had taken the prescribed oath of allegiance. Aware that the presidential plan omitted any provision for social or economic reconstruction, the Radical Republicans in Congress resented such a lenient political arrangement under solely executive jurisdiction. As a result, the stricter Wade-Davis Bill was passed in 1864 but pocket vetoed by the President. After Lincoln's assassination (April 1865), Pres. Andrew Johnson further alienated Congress by continuing Lincoln's moderate policies. The Fourteenth Amendment, defining national citizenship so as to include blacks, passed Congress in June 1866 and was ratified, despite rejection by most Southern states (July 28, 1868). In response to Johnson's intemperate outbursts against the opposition as well as to several reactionary developments in the South (e.g., race riots and passage of the repugnant black codes severely restricting rights of blacks), the North gave a smashing victory to the Radical Republicans in the 1866 congressional election. That victory launched the era of congressional Reconstruction (usually called Radical Reconstruction), which lasted 10 years starting with the Reconstruction Acts of 1867. Under that legislation, the 10 remaining Southern states (Tennessee had been readmitted to the Union in 1866) were divided into five military districts; and, under supervision of the U.S. Army, all were readmitted between 1868 and 1870. Each state had to accept the Fourteenth or, if readmitted after its passage, the Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment, intended to ensure civil rights of the freedmen. The newly created state governments were generally Republican in character and were governed by political coalitions of blacks, carpetbaggers (Northerners who had gone into the South), and scalawags (Southerners who collaborated with the blacks and carpetbaggers). The Republican governments of the former Confederate states were seen by most Southern whites as artificial creations imposed from without, and the conservative element in the region remained hostile to them. Southerners particularly resented the activities. 

World War II

 

World War 2, also known as the Second World War, was a war fought from 1939 to 1945 in Europe and, during much of the 1930s and 1940s, in Asia. The war in Europe began in earnest on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, and concluded on September 2, 1945, with the official surrender of the last Axis nation, Japan. However, in Asia the war began earlier with Japanese interventions in China, and in Europe, the war ended earlier with the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. The conflict spilled over into Africa, included a handful of incidents in the Americas, and a series of major naval battles. It was the largest armed conflict in history, spanning the entire world and involving more countries than any other war, as well as introducing powerful new weapons, culminating in the first use of nuclear weapons. However, despite the name, not all countries of the world were involved; some through neutrality (such as the Eire - though Eire supplied some important secret information to the Allies; D-Day's date was decided on the basis of incoming Atlantic weather information supplied from Ireland - Sweden, and Switzerland), others through strategic insignificance (Mexico). The war ravaged civilians more severely than any previous conflict and served as a backdrop for genocidal killings by Nazi Germany as well as several other mass slaughters of civilians which, although not technically genocide, were significant. These included the massacre of millions of Chinese and Korean nationals by Japan, internal mass killings in the Soviet Union, and the bombing of civilian targets in German and Japanese cities by the Allies. In total, World War II produced about 50 million deaths, more than any other war to date. 

David Graham Phillips

 

Phillips was born in Madison, Indiana. After graduating from high school, Phillips entered Asbury College (now DePauw University) -- following which he received a degree from Princeton University in 1887.After completing his education, Phillips worked as a newspaper reporter in Cincinnati, Ohio, before moving on to New York City where he was employed as a reporter for The Sun from 1890 to 1893, then columnist and editor with the New York World until 1902. In his spare time, he wrote a novel, The Great God Success, that was published in 1901. The royalty income enabled him to work as a freelance journalist while continuing to write fiction. Writing articles for various prominent magazines, he began to develop a reputation as a competent investigative journalist. Phillips' novels often commented on social issues of the day and frequently chronicled events based on his real-life journalistic experiences. He was considered a Progressive and a muckraker .Phillips wrote an article in Cosmopolitan in March 1906, called "The Treason of the Senate", exposing campaign contributors being rewarded by certain members of the U. S. Senate. The story launched a scathing attack on Rhode Island senator Nelson W. Aldrich, and brought Phillips a great deal of national exposure. This and other similar articles helped lead to the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, initiating popular instead of state-legislature election of U. S. senators.David Graham Philips is known for producing one of the most important investigations exposing details of the corruption by big businesses of the Senate, in particular, by the Standard Oil Company. He was among a few other writers during that time that helped prompt President Theodore Roosevelt to use the term “Muckrakers”.The article inspired journalist Charles Edward Russell to insist to his boss William Randolph Hearst, who had just recently purchased the Cosmopolitan magazine, that he push his journalists to explore the Senate corruption as well. Philips was offered the position to explore more information about the corruption and bring it into the public’s eye. Philips’ brother Harrison and Gustavus Myers were hired as research assistants for Philips. Hearst commented to his readers about Philips starting a series that would reveal the Senate corruption so much, that most Senators would resign. This held true for some of the Senators, such as New York Senators Chauncey M. Depew and Thomas Collier Platt. Philips exposed Depew as receiving more than $50,000 from several companies. He also helped educate the public on how the senators were selected and that it was held in the hands of a few bosses in a tight circle, helping increase the corruption level. As a result of these articles, only four of the twenty-one senators that Philips wrote about were still in office. Philips also had some of the greatest success as a muckraker, because he helped change the U.S. Constitution, with the passage of the 17th Amendment, creating popular election for senators.His talent for writing was not the only thing that helped him stand out in the newsroom. Philips was known to dress in a white suit with a large chrysanthemum in his lapel.