LAD #37: Brown vs. Board of Education

            The 1950's in America were a time of terrible discrimination against blacks, this discrimination even ranged to schools. Even though white schools were supposed to be equal in quality to black schools, this was not the case. Black children schools were in a very bad shape from the buildings to the books. For third grader Linda Brown even getting to school was a major problem. Her black school was a mile away and a very dangerous walk. Her father tried to get her enrolled to the closer white school but he was turned down. The NAACP found this problem as a good opportunity to protest and challenge the terrible discrimination between black and white schools. The NAACP were defeated in Kansas, which is where Brown's school was located but then the case was moved up to the Supreme Court in 1951. In the Supreme Court this case was combined with other similar cases. "The Court had to make its decision based not on whether or not the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment had desegregated schools in mind when they wrote the amendment in 1868, but based on whether or not desegregated schools deprived black children of equal protection of the law when the case was decided, in 1954". In the end the court's unanimous decision was that the idea of separate but equal that came from Plessy vs. Ferguson was unconstitutional. Although this only applied to public schools not other public places. This was a large step towards gaining equality in the school systems, even though there were still not many regulations on discrimination.

LAD #36: Truman Doctrine

        For the sake of Democracy Truman appealed to the United States congress to try and do something to save Democracy and hold of Communism. He asked to support Turkey and Greece and secure them as Democratic nations by getting them out of political arrest. The most important thing to the United States at this time was that no other nations would become communist. The Truman Doctrine was seen as one of the first American aims to contain communism and not allow it to spread any further into other nations. It was America's duty to help other countries that are fighting for the same things as America and help them in any way possible. Truman wanted to support these nations both economically and militarily. Greece had been badly damaged due to the war and Turkey was struggling as well so they were easy targets for communist countries to take over. This document was an important start to the containment of communism that would be prevalent in the Cold War.

LAD #35: FDR's Executive Order #9066

       
        Due to the horrific bombing on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese the President and the people of America became very wary of the Japanese and were cautious when dealing with them. This cautiousness was directed mainly towards the Japanese Americans living in America. They were seen as a threat just because they were Japanese and thought to be spies even if they had nothing to do with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  The paranoia and fear that the bombing of Pearl Harbor brought onto America caused the executive order #9066 to be put into action. This action allowed for military areas to be set up that would hold Japanese families, keeping them in one specific place away from other Americans. These relocation camps held nearly 120,000 Japanese people and cut them off from the rest of America even if they were innocent. This order also effected some other groups like those of German ancestry, but was still mainly centered on the internment of the Japanese. This order exhibited the great paranoia that was caused in America by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Though he did order possible traitors to America to be relocated into these camps FDR also called for proper supplies, transportation and for the soldiers to properly respect the detainees.

LAD #34: FDR's Declaration of War

    

    December 47th 1941 was the disastrous day were the Japanese attacked the naval base in Hawaii called Pearl Harbor. This attack killed many people ranging from nurses to soldiers and was the final straw for President Roosevelt. 188 air crafts were destroyed, as well as 3 light cruisers 3 destroyers and 3 small vessels. 2,335 women and men in the military were killed, along with 68 civilians and 1,000 men of the USS Arizona. Roosevelt addressed this event in his Declaration of war speech. He assured the people that this horrific event would not go unnoticed and all measures would be taken to ensure the American people's safety. He also addresses the fact that Japan had also attacked many other countries before the United States and were continually acting hostile to many other countries. FDR encouraged the American people to take a stand against these vicious attacks and the way to do this was for him to declare war and fight Japan. He wanted victory over Japan and he wanted to show Japan and other countries that the Untied States would not take this violence towards their country without fighting back.

LAD #33: FDR's First Inaugural Address

Wilson was first the governor of New York and came into office after President Hoover into a very bad economic downfall. Roosevelt tried many ways to assure the people of America that he was going to fix the economic situation and reassured them of this with his fireside chats on the radio and his assuring words such as "The only thing to fear is fear itself". Roosevelt knew that he had high expectations and he tried to take them head on for the good of his people. at the time taxes were very high, credit backfired, there was high unemployment because so many industries had to close down and the currency was unstable. Roosevelt's belief was that with a strong government and having the American people staying strong he would be able to fix the bad shape that America was in. He had a plan that would employ millions and hopefully instill hope in the American people. A steady stream of workers along with the strong government would in his mind, allow the country to bounce back from the economic crisis it was facing. he believed that the hard times that America was going through would provide for a good learning experience and help the country stay out of depression and prevent it in the future. He also promised that new plans are being developed which would eventually help America in getting back on their feet and hopefully return to their original state and stay out of another economic downfall.

LAD #32: Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact

  

    
    This treaty was signed between the United States and France, the United Kingdom, Italy Poland, Japan and multiple other countries on August 27, 1928. The point of this treaty was to denounce war as a foreign policy which would hopefully fuel and stimulate different aspects of the country’s economy and politics and help the world and its inhabitants. With the end of the Great War most countries were in very bad shape especially their economies. So after the Great War ended the countries negotiated to find a way to become war free and have peace between nations. Originally this document was only between the United States and France. The Kellogg Briand Peace Pact was named after the United States’ Secretary of State and France’s foreign minister, Frank Kellogg and Arstide Briand. When the larger countries began joining in on the treaty this caused some smaller countries to join in as well.  Spain, Afghanistan, Siam, Turkey and more joined. These countries joined after the Kellogg Briand Peace Pact was signed.  The treaty became ratified and since the United States was in charge it was up to them to enforce the treaty and make sure the other countries were following it.

LAD #31 - Wilson's 14 Points

Following the end of the Great War many of the world’s leaders met to discuss peace and reparations. Although, each leader’s opinion differed from the other. Though most nations wanted Germany to suffer greatly with demilitarization and large fees to pay for practically causing the war, Wilson did not want to punish Germany. Instead he proposed the fourteen points that he believed would hopefully prevent another world war. These points included things such as no more secret alliances, freedom of the seas, no economic barriers, reduction of arms, self-government in colonies, evacuation of Russian territory, evacuation and restoration of Belgium, evacuation and restoration of French territories, readjustment of Italy's borders, Austria-Hungary accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development, Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated and restored, the Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty and Polish independence. Although Wilson had all of these ideas in mind and proposed them all the only point that was realized and acted upon was the idea of creating a League of Nations to solve disputes between countries and hopefully keep the peace. Parts of the League of Nations have actually been a template for creating sections of the United Nations which is our source of peace keeping today.

LAD #30: Schenk vs. United States

Schenck was against the drafts that were created in America for young soldiers to enter into the war. He was so against it he sent out circulars to the draftees which urged the draftees that the draft was a terrible thing and they should not back down to intimidation. Although he believed in peaceful ways to repeal the Conscription Act such as protesting. Although, he was arrested for trying to cause insubordination and causing a conspiracy against the Espionage Act. The problem with this case has to do with the first amendment of free speech and if it applied to this particular situation if it put the actions of the government at risk. The case turned out to be in favor of the United States "The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent." Holmes says that the circumstances are presenting a clear danger to the war efforts which is why Schenck is being denied the freedom of speech. The doctrine could have protected him if he was not protesting the draft during a time of war when the draft was necessary to obtain more fighting men. 

LAD #29: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

       Child labor in America was a rising problem during these times due to the fact that most of America was in poverty so families needed everyone to work. The conditions were so poor that children had 10-12 hours a day of work and unsanitary, dangerous conditions they would become injured and even killed because of these factors. The Keating-Owen act limited the log number of hours they had to work and goods made by children could not be sold over state borders. Over two million young boys and girls ranging from young children to teens were working in mines and factories along with other various jobs. The census that found these results sparked a movement towards reforming child labor. Muckrakers such as Lewis Hine were hired to further expose the terrible conditions with photographs and articles. Writers such as Charles Dickens wrote stories, such as Oliver that also exposed child labor. The Keating-Owens act was proposed in 1906 and the act "banned the sale of products from any factory, shop, or cannery that employed children under the age of 14, from any mine that employed children under the age of 16, and from any facility that had children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than 8 hours during the day." This act was passed by Woodrow Wilson although it was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court case Hammer vs. Dagenhart. Eventually the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was created and is still in effect today.

LAD # 28: Wilson’s First Inaugural

     Woodrow Wilson was a Democratic candidate; he won his election in 1912 against Taft and Roosevelt who was running as a third party candidate. As Wilson addresses in his debate there has gradually been a change in American government that is now beginning to favor the Democratic Party. He believes this is a good thing because America needs a change in its political point of view. An important point to his inaugural address are the many aspects of the united states that he points out, things he believes are good about the U.S. and things that he believes need to be changed. With the great individuals in American history and the good structure of its government comes some unfortunate bad aspects. These include the unstable state of the economy which was brought on by its economic expansion. Also the fact that the American people have had to suffer because of the poor state America has been in the past. He also expresses that there is a way to change and prevent this suffering, by having the government and the nation’s people try their best to protect and fix the nation for the good of its future. These issues include an alteration to foreign tariffs, the industrial and banking systems and also the agricultural system. Some important things he believes in is the conservation of forests and other natural resources and that citizen’s should be protected by their government and not denied their rights. This includes passing important laws that are concerned with food and drug safety and sanitary laws.

LAD # 27: Clayton Anti-Trust Act

     In the late nineteenth century big business was posing quite a problem for the poor working class of America and there was a problem with the laissez faire government letting big business practically take control of America. Due to the power of industry many trusts and monopolies were created which hurt small businesses and allowed the big business owners to gain even more power. At first the government was in favor of industry because it brought success to America. Although eventually legislations were later passed such as the Sherman Anti-Trust act and the ICC but they were not enforced and sometimes were actually used against the workers. When Teddy Roosevelt became president things actually started changing for the benefit of the workers. Roosevelt even became known as a trust-buster because of his strong policies that were directed at stopping trusts from forming. The Clayton Anti-Trust Act passed in 1914 stated that no corporation could own the stock of another, and fixing prices on goods and transportation was illegal. This act also could not be used against workers.

LAD #26: MLK's "I Have a Dream" Speech

          “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Martin Luther King Junior was known for his great speeches that he would present and his “I Have a Dream” speech is probably the best and definitely the most famous speech that he had ever given. This speech was meant to call together all people, of every color to end the mistreatment of blacks that had been occurring without stop for centuries in America. Even with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation blacks have not been able to practice their rights to the fullest and America has not been a nation of equality. He states that inalienable human rights come with being an American and that a person of a different color other than white qualifies to this just as much as any white would. His speech was meant to push people to stand up to injustices such as this and push themselves towards achieving equality for themselves. Although he also stresses that they should stand up for themselves as civilly, respectfully and be as sophisticated about the matter as they can. King believed that violence is never the answer to such a delicate situation as fighting for equality for blacks in America. Though, he also believes that people should never stop fighting for their rights especially if they are being unfairly treated by discrimination. King truly believed that this dream of wiping out discrimination was still possible. It is not unreasonable if the people who are behind the cause never waver in their determination and dedication to reach true equality. “No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”