Blog 4

Freedom Ride into the Future

In 1961 the Freedom Riders began there long journey toward the end of segregation. The freedom ride was about those who tried to creatively challenged segregation in the American South. Many Southern American whites were thought to be afraid of change at the time. Some even thought that integration would bring an end to the civilized world. This was a world in which whites held most positions of stature and where Blacks were seen as and often referred to as lesser beings. Blacks commonly help labor and service positions.  Integration was not welcomed in the Deep South. The Congress of Racial Equality (Core) hoped to help with the struggle of integration in the Southern America. In his struggle for recognition of the Core organization, James Farmer, hoped that the freedom riders would provide publicity, credibility and elevation for Core. Many within the organization thought the freedom ride was a bad idea and that it might even hurt or set back the struggle for equality.

Slavery was not something left far in the distant past for Blacks in America.  After the passengers of the freedom ride were terrorized and seriously beaten in Alabama, word quickly spread throughout the world about what was happening in America. The rest of the world expressed shock that such acts were permitted in a nation so civilized and powerful and cast shame at America.  Although they were present, Whites were not initially included in the news reports as accompanying blacks on this crusade. The Supreme Court, the National Guard and even President Kennedy could not force southern states to comply with the laws of the Nation.  The civil war was also still fresh in the minds of many, and after fighting in another great war, many Whites were looking for other ways to direct their anger and hostility. Though more often misguided than not, lynching’s were still carried out, although not quite as commonly as had once been the case, nor as blatantly at this time in United States. However, the threat still existed and some would say that the mobs faced by the Freedom Riders were no less uncivilized.

New policies went into effect on November 1, 1961, six years after the ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. After the new ICC rule took effect, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they pleased on interstate buses and trains; white’s only and colored signs were removed from the terminals. Racially segregated drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms serving interstate customers were consolidated and the lunch counters began serving all customers, regardless of race, albeit with some trepidation.

The widespread violence motivated by the Freedom Rides sent shock waves through American society. People worried that the Rides were evoking widespread social disorder and racial divergence, an opinion supported and strengthened in many communities by the press. The press in white communities condemned the direct action approach that CORE was taking, while some of the national press negatively portrayed the Riders as provoking unrest.

At the same time, the Freedom Rides established great credibility with blacks and whites throughout the United States and inspired many persons to engage in direct action for civil rights. Possibly most significantly, the actions of the Freedom Riders from the North, who faced danger on behalf of southern blacks, impressed and inspired the many blacks living in rural areas throughout the South. They formed the backbone of the wider civil rights movement, who engaged in voter registration and other activities. Southern blacks generally organized around their churches, the center of their communities and a base of moral strength.

The Freedom Riders helped inspire participation in other subsequent civil rights campaigns, including voter registration throughout the South, freedom schools, and the black power movement. At the time, most blacks in southern states had been unable to register to vote, due to constitutions, laws and practices that had effectively disfranchised most of them since the turn of the twentieth century. For instance, white administrators supervised reading comprehension and literacy tests that highly educated blacks could not pass.

It is important to remember that from 1882-1968, 4,743 lynching’s occurred in the United States.  Of these people that were lynched 3,446 were black.  The blacks lynched accounted for 72.7% of the people lynched.  These numbers seem large, but it is known that not all of the lynchings were ever recorded.  Out of the 4,743 people lynched only 1,297 white people were lynched.  That is only 27.3%.  Many of the whites lynched were lynched for helping the black or being anti lynching and some even for domestic crimes. (Chesnutt Digital Archive, 1999) There is very little record of other lynching’s which occurred within the United States (U.S.) during this time period, although others did occur.

The lynching of persons of Mexican origin or descent has been largely overlooked by historians of American mob violence. This essay offers the first attempt to construct a systematic set of data on the subject. The authors contend that between 1848 and 1928, mobs lynched at least 597 Mexicans. Traditional interpretations of western violence cannot account for this phenomenon. The actual causes of mob violence against Mexicans were several-fold: race and the legacy of Anglo American expansion, economic competition, and diplomatic tensions between Mexico and the United States. Throughout this era, Mexicans formulated numerous means of resistance against Anglo mobs. These included armed self-defense, public protest, the establishment of mutual defense organizations, and appeals for aid to the Mexican government. (William D. Carrigan, Clive Webb, 2003)

The threat of the U.S. entering another war lingered as the conflict/war in Vietnam seemed to heighten. Tensions were high in the U.S. as the entire country seemed to be protesting and or struggling for the recognition and acknowledgement of their own personal causes. The 1960’s were a time of instability for a nation that seemed to be at war with itself. Many seemed to lose hope on November 22, 1963 after the assassination of then President John F. Kennedy.

1964 was the year the Beatles came to America, Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali, and three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. It was the year when Berkeley students rose up in protest, African Americans fought back against injustice in Harlem, and Barry Goldwater’s conservative revolution took over the Republican Party. In myriad ways, 1964 was the year when Americans faced choices: between the liberalism of Lyndon Johnson or Barry Goldwater’s grassroots conservatism, between support or opposition to the civil rights movement, between an embrace of the emerging counterculture or a defense of traditional values. (PBS)

From roughly 1964 to 1974, Cal captured the imagination of the United States in a way that happens once a lifetime, if that. Though we, for convenience's sake, group "the 60s" together, it was really two separate ideas and spirits manifesting themselves, related only in time and place.

The first of these sorts of protests, that of 1964, is now known as the "Free Speech Movement." University of California President Clark Kerr long insisted that the University wouldn't interfere with student's lives off campus, but, by the same token, that students must keep their political activities off campus. In the fall term of '64, the administration asks students to stop their political activities on the "Bancroft Strip," in front of Sproul Plaza. Some students defy it and then, on September 30th, organize a 10-hour sit-in in Sproul Hall. A few days later, however, a bigger and more significant demonstration takes place after non-student Jack Weinberg is arrested for distributing political literature on campus. Mario Savio emerges as the student leader when he jumps on top of the police car, in Sproul Plaza, in which Weinberg is sitting (and the students sitting around the car won't let drive away). 

This moment is the most perfect microcosm of the Free Speech movement. After Savio jumped on the police car, the students, almost 10,000 of them, sitting around the car, passed around a collection to pay for the repair of the police car. These Cal students, in other words, wanted to prove above everything that they are good Americans, and fighting for these liberties only as part of their duty as citizens.

Vietnam quickly became a reality for Americans. As the fighting between the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese continued, the U.S. continued to send additional advisers to South Vietnam. When the North Vietnamese fired directly upon two U.S. ships in international waters on August 2 and 4, 1964 (known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident), Congress responded with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This resolution gave the President the authority to escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam. President Lyndon Johnson used that authority to order the first U.S. ground troops to Vietnam in March 1965.

President Johnson's goal for U.S. involvement in Vietnam was not for the U.S. to win the war, but for U.S. troops to bolster South Vietnam's defenses until South Vietnam could take over. By entering the Vietnam War without a goal to win, Johnson set the stage for future public and troop disappointment when the U.S. found themselves in a stalemate with the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong.

From 1965 to 1969, the U.S. was involved in a limited war in Vietnam. Although there were aerial bombings of the North, President Johnson wanted the fighting to be limited to South Vietnam. By limiting the fighting parameters, the U.S. forces would not conduct a serious ground assault into the North to attack the communists directly nor would there be any strong effort to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Viet Cong's supply path that ran through Laos and Cambodia). (Jennifer Rosenberg)

U.S. troops fought a jungle war, mostly against the well-supplied Viet Cong. The Viet Cong would attack in ambushes, set up booby traps, and escape through a complex network of underground tunnels. For U.S. forces, even just finding their enemy proved difficult. Since Viet Cong hid in the dense brush, U.S. forces would drop Agent Orange or napalm bombs which cleared an area by causing the leaves to drop off or to burn away. In every village, U.S. troops had difficulty determining which, if any, villagers were the enemy since even women and children could build booby traps or help house and feed the Viet Cong. U.S. soldiers commonly became frustrated with the fighting conditions in Vietnam. Many suffered from low morale, became angry, and some used drugs.

The Free Speech Movement had changed character. No longer were young, idealistic citizens fighting for their rights, but the demonstrations turned into parties. It was fun, it was cool, it was now the time of Haight-Ashbury and the hippies and drugs and rock-and-roll. Idealism -- how it all began -- was quickly forgotten when the first cast of characters were graduated. The student protests still had political purposes, of course -- and powerful ones, at that -- but the movement became increasingly radicalized.

We see the first glimpse of this new character in 1965 with the so-called "Filthy Speech Movement," when nine people shouted some dirty words, nearly toppling University's administration. But then, the Vietnam War came to Cal's attention. With the Vietnam War demonstrations, the character of the protests had changed, just one manifestation of the new spirit of these later protests. The nonviolent, peaceful spirit of student activism of 1964 had given way to violent and confrontational politics. The students were now looking for riots. Marches into Oakland ended in riots. (The Bancroft Library)

From here, the demonstrations only get more violent. In 1967, the police have to use, extensively, Chemical Mace to control the crowds which, though increasing in size, include fewer and fewer Cal students and more outsiders attracted to Berkeley looking for a good time. Campus buildings begin to get firebombed over ROTC crisis and soon the Free Huey movement (fighting for Huey P. Newton, arrested for shooting a police officer) begins. By 1969, students are demonstrating -- and still being arrested by the hundreds -- demanding the creation of a "Third World College." 

On January 30, 1968, the North Vietnamese surprised both the U.S. forces and the South Vietnamese by orchestrating a coordinated assault with the Viet Cong to attack about a hundred South Vietnamese cities and towns. Although the U.S. forces and the South Vietnamese army were able to repel the assault known as the Tet Offensive, this attack proved to Americans that the enemy was stronger and better organized than they had been led to believe. The Tet Offensive was a turning point in the war because President Johnson, faced now with an unhappy American public and bad news from his military leaders in Vietnam, decided to no longer escalate the war.

In 1969, Richard Nixon became the new U.S. President and he had his own plan to end U.S. involvement in Vietnam. President Nixon outlined a plan called Vietnamization, which was a process to remove U.S. troops from Vietnam while handing back the fighting to the South Vietnamese. The withdrawal of U.S. troops began in July 1969. To bring a faster end to hostilities, President Nixon also expanded the war into other countries, such as Laos and Cambodia -- a move that created thousands of protests, especially on college campuses, back in America. To work toward peace, new peace talks began in Paris on January 25, 1969.

When the U.S. had withdrawn most of its troops from Vietnam, the North Vietnamese staged another massive assault, called the Easter Offensive (also called the Spring Offensive), on March 30, 1972. North Vietnamese troops crossed over the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at the 17th parallel and invaded South Vietnam. The remaining U.S. forces and the South Vietnamese army fought back. (Jennifer Rosenberg)

After the U.S. had withdrawn all its troops, the fighting continued in Vietnam. In early 1975, North Vietnam made another big push south which toppled the South Vietnamese government. South Vietnam officially surrendered to communist North Vietnam on April 30, 1975. On July 2, 1976, Vietnam was reunited as a communist country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. 

Vietnam War: By Jennifer Rosenberg

The Lynching of Persons of Mexican Origin or Descent in the United States, 1848 to 1928

William D. Carrigan, Clive Webb

John Lewis, Walking with the Wind, A Memoir of the Movement (1998).

Raymond Arsenault, Full Version: Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Raymond Arsenault, Abridged Version: 'Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice' (Oxford University Press, 2011)

http://www.harvard-magazine.com/nd96/right.lynch.html 

http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~wgrant/1890's/lynching/lynchiing.html 

http://www.abc.net.au/compass/series/1997/lynching.htm 

http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/CalHistory/60s.html

http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/1964/player/

The Power of Wall Street

The history of New York City began with the formation of the consolidated city of the five boroughs in 1898. New transportation links, most notably the New York City Subway, first opened 1904, helped bind the new city together. The municipal consolidation would also precipitate greater physical connections between the boroughs. The building of the New York City Subway, as the separate Inter-borough Rapid Transit Company and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation systems, and the later Independent Subway System, and the opening of the first IRT line in 1905 marked the beginning of what became a force for further population spread and development. The Williamsburg Bridge, built in 1903, and the Manhattan Bridge, built in 1909 further connected Manhattan to the rapidly expanding bedroom community in Brooklyn. The world-famous Grand Central Terminal opened as the world's largest train station on February 1, 1913, replacing an earlier terminal on the site. It was preceded by Pennsylvania Station, several blocks to the west.

Increased European immigration was thought to have brought social upheaval. Later, in the 1920s, the city saw the influx of African Americans as part of the Great Migration from the American South, and the Harlem Renaissance.

The Roaring Twenties were years of glamour and wealth, highlighted by a construction boom with skyscrapers dueling in the skyline. New York's financial sector came to dominate the national, and indeed the world economy.

On September 16, 1920, radicals in the city perpetrated the Wall Street bombing, a terrorist attack outside the headquarters of the House of Morgan, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds. The bombing, timed for the busy lunch hour, was unusual for targeting larger numbers of ordinary people. It was the most deadly act of politically motivated terror on American soil until the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, and took place in the context of the 1919 discovery of two series of deadly mail-bombs. 

Officials blamed anarchist and communist elements, fueling the ongoing Palmer raids. Shortly before the bomb went off, a warning note was placed in a mailbox at the corner of Cedar Street and Broadway. The warning read "Remember we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you. American Anarchists Fighters." After twenty years investigating the matter the FBI rendered the file inactive in 1940 without ever finding the perpetrators.

Wall in the 1920’s New York City was basically dominated by just a small group of wealthy men. Men like William C Durant, a titan of industry, who established GM in the 1920s. Industry and modernization for the masses had taken hold. Electricity and Consumer credit had been established by 1929.  Buy now pay later became a regular practice throughout.

In Chicago, Al Capone eliminated his competition in the bootleg liquor business on Valentine’s Day in 1929.

                   

Prior to March 4^th 1929 (Hoover’s Inauguration Day) Calvin Coolidge had run his administration on the belief that business was the basis of America’s prosperity that government should not hinder. Hoover said “Given the chance to go forward with the policies of the last 8 years, we will soon, with the help of god, be in site of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.”

Charles Mitchell, President of National City Bank, Virtually invented the idea of mass marketing stocks and bonds to the general public.

Gradually the general public became aware of those striking it rich in the stock market. These sudden riches, reminiscent of the Western Gold Rush, attracted the masses. Wealthy investors came to be viewed and treated as celebrities. Jessie Livermore, whose fortune was estimated at over $100 million, lived solely by playing the stock market in a time when stoplights were hand operated by policemen in boxes or booths. These officers would make sure that all of the lights were green when they knew it was time for him to head in to work. Talk about celebrity.

Watching the ticker tape became a national pastime. This was how investors would keep track of their stocks. Even comic characters were investing in a make believe world. The entire country seemed to be under the spell of the stock market. Evangeline Lilly, a psychic, began making predictions regarding gains in stocks.

The Market had entered popular culture. The media saw this new craze beginning to take hold, as everyone wanted to acquire the success of the wealthy men of Wall street, which so many idolized and, like a parasitic machine, began the promotion of books that claimed to have the answers on how to make a fortune on the Stock Market. This marketing strategy produced large sums of money for publishing houses.

In these times the Market was not controlled. Buying on margin became common practice. You only needed ten percent down. 

MJ Meehan, a  formed a pool and developed a plan which drove the price of RCA stock up almost 50%, making what today would be the equivalent of $100 million in just over a week’s work.

Practically all of the financial journals were on the take. Highly regarded papers like The New York Times would accept bribes to create fantastic press on a particular stock. These stock titans would invest on the ground floor raising the price of the stock and when others saw this (The little guy) they were eager to jump on the bandwagon, trusting the choices of these men with celebrity status. Once the stock price was driven high enough, these men would pull out with a huge profit and the stock would collapse, leaving the average guy at a loss.

The city suffered during the Great Depression, which saw the election and repeated reelection of reformer Fiorello La Guardia, who ended the long dominance of Tammany Hall. La Guardia's success in getting new deal relief funds helped convert the city to a stronghold of the New Deal Coalition.

The Great Depression, which was to affect the rest of the world, began with the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The Depression was both a time of unemployment and poverty, and a period of increased government involvement in the economy.

            With the economic decline, criticism of Mayor Walker grew, from Cardinal Patrick Joseph Hayes and then from New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, who broke with Walker and Tammany. Mayor Walker came under increasing pressure in the midst of FDR's 1932 Presidential campaign, and resigned to relocate to Europe fleeing potential criminal charges.

When FDR was elected, the Hooverville shacks named after his predecessor dotted city parks, but the city would benefit from the New Deal and the Works Progress Administration, which among other things financed much public art locally. The recently completed Empire State Building would be known as the "Empty State Building" for many years because it could not attract sufficient tenants in the bleak business climate.

In 1933, Republican reformer Fiorello La Guardia was elected mayor. La Guardia, sometimes considered New York's greatest mayor, was of both Italian and Jewish descent and acted as an exuberant populist with a multi-ethnic sensibility. La Guardia's term also saw the rise of the long-careered planner Robert Moses, bridges, parks and parkways coordinator, and great proponent of automobile-centered modernism, whose legacy of massive construction projects is controversial today. The last large expansion of the subway system and municipal ownership of the previously privately owned subway companies gave the system its final shape.

New York, long a great American city with many immigrants, became a culturally international city with the brain drain of intellectual, musical and artistic European refugees that started in the late 1930s. 

The 1939 New York World's Fair, marking the 150th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration in Federal Hall, was a high point of technological optimism, meant to mark the end of the Depression. After the start of World War II, though, the theme was changed from "Building the World of Tomorrow" to "For Peace and Freedom", and a shadow affected the proceedings.

The economy of New York City was affected by the military conflict; shipping was hurt by the U-boats, many windows were blacked out for fear of German bombing that never materialized due to failure of the Amerika Bomber project, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard again increased its production of warships.

World War II, also called Second World War, conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939–45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan, and the Allies,France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China. The war was in many respects a continuation, after an uneasy 20-year hiatus, of the disputes left unsettled by World War I. The 40,000,000–50,000,000 deaths incurred in World War II make it the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in history.

War produced an outpouring of propaganda from public service announcements to comic books, to cartoons and movies like Casablanca. Superman cartoons like Japoteurs were produced by Famous Studios and released by Paramount Pictures during the early 1940s. Public service announcements were meant to instill fear, patriotism and to inspire a better America.  

For the duration of the war, the Port of New York handled 25% of the nation's trade. Much of this passed through the Brooklyn Army Terminal and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. By the war's end, the Navy Yard was the world's largest shipyard with 75,000 workers. At the end of the war, the city was pre-eminent in the world, the only major world city unscathed by the war.

The road to war between Japan and the United States began in the 1930s when differences over China drove the two nations apart. In 1931 Japan conquered Manchuria, which until then had been part of China. In 1937 Japan began a long and ultimately unsuccessful campaign to conquer the rest of China. In 1940, the Japanese government allied their country with Nazi Germany in the Axis Alliance, and, in the following year, occupied all of Indochina.

The United States, which had important political and economic interests in East Asia, was alarmed by these Japanese moves. The U.S. increased military and financial aid to China, embarked on a program of strengthening its military power in the Pacific, and cut off the shipment of oil and other raw materials to Japan. Because Japan was poor in natural resources, its government viewed these steps, especially the embargo on oil as a threat to the nation's survival. Japan's leaders responded by resolving to seize the resource-rich territories of Southeast Asia, even though that move would certainly result in war with the United States.

The problem with the plan was the danger posed by the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, devised a plan to immobilize the U.S. fleet at the outset of the war with a surprise attack.

The key elements in Yamamoto's plans were meticulous preparation, the achievement of surprise, and the use of aircraft carriers and naval aviation on an unprecedented scale. In the spring of 1941, Japanese carrier pilots began training in the special tactics called for by the Pearl Harbor attack plan.

At 6:00 a.m. on 7 December, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. Even as they winged south, some elements of U.S. forces on Oahu realized there was something different about this Sunday morning.

In the hours before dawn, U.S. Navy vessels spotted an unidentified submarine periscope near the entrance to Pearl Harbor. It was attacked and reported sunk by the destroyer USS Ward (DD-139) and a patrol plane. At 7:00 a.m., an alert operator of an Army radar station at Opana spotted the approaching first wave of the attack force. The officers to whom those reports were relayed did not consider them significant enough to take action. The report of the submarine sinking was handled routinely, and the radar sighting was passed off as an approaching group of American planes due to arrive that morning.

The Japanese aircrews achieved complete surprise when they hit American ships and military installations on Oahu shortly before 8:00 a.m. They attacked military airfields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The Navy air bases at Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, the Marine airfield at Ewa and the Army Air Corps fields at Bellows, Wheeler and Hickam were all bombed and strafed as other elements of the attacking force began their assaults on the ships moored in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of the simultaneous attacks was to destroy the American planes before they could rise to intercept the Japanese.

When the attack ended shortly before 10:00 a.m., less than two hours after it began, the American forces has paid a fearful price. Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged. Aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged, the majority hit before they had a chance to take off. American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, most of them killed by improperly fused anti-aircraft shells landing in Honolulu. There were 1,178 military and civilian wounded.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order which permitted the military to circumvent the constitutional safeguards of American citizens in the name of national defense. The order set into motion the exclusion from certain areas, and the evacuation and mass incarceration of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living on the west coast, many of whom were U.S. citizens or legal permanent resident aliens.

These Japanese Americans, half of whom were children, were incarcerated for up to four years, without due process of law, in bleak remote camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. Families were sometimes split up within the ten facilities which President Roosevelt himself referred to as “concentration camps.”

Following a firebombing campaign that destroyed many Japanese cities the  Allies  prepared for a costly invasion of Japan. The war in Europe ended when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8, 1945, but the Pacific War continued. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945, threatening "prompt and utter destruction".

By August 1945, the Allied Manhattan Project had successfully tested an atomic device and had produced weapons based on two alternate designs. The 509th Composite Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces was equipped with Silverplate Boeing B-29 Super-fortress that could deliver them from Tinian in the Mariana Islands. A uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki on August 9. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizeable garrison.

A gigantic mushroom cloud rises above Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, after a U.S. aircraft dropped an atomic bomb on the city, immediately killing more than 70,000 people. (U.S. Air Force photograph)

            The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in August 1945. The two bombings were the first and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in wartime.

On August 15, just days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war, Japan announced its surrender to the Allies. On September 2, it signed the instrument of surrender, ending World War II. The bombings' role in Japan's surrender and their ethical justification are still debated.

Resources-

http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html?PHPSESSID=032e01e0d9275e2e1d447e604074cc9c

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0806.html

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_samuels

http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/his1005spring2011/2011/03/13/bread-lines-during-the-great-depression/

http://www.pbs.org/superheroes

James Bronson Reynolds, ed. (1911), Civic Bibliography for Greater New York, New York: Russell Sage Foundation

"New York". Collier's Encyclopedia 6. New York: P.F. Collier & Son. 1921.

Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, Oxford University Press, 1998

Jackson, Kenneth and Sam Roberts, eds. The Almanac of New York City (2008)

World War II Internment Camps from the Handbook of Texas Online

"Campaign For Justice: Redress Now For Japanese American Internees!". A website with information about the lesser known internment of Japanese Latin Americans

A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution Online exhibition from the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

National Park Service; Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal_Coalition

www.pbs.org

US History 2

TRIANGLE FIRE

Children, teens and women were the majority of those employed at the Triangle factory. Most came from immigrant families. Many worked at the Triangle factory making money to support their whole families, not money for fun. Working in a more modern factory environment, this was not like your average sweat shop. For a mere $2 a day, before being docked pay for thread and needles, these women were not paid much for the long hours demanded of them.

The bosses’ offices were on the top floor. They were the shirt waist kings. Changes in fashion hurt the industry that was known for the shirt waist. Many competitors made high production a must. Material costs and strikes for shorter hours and unions made it harder to compete in the industry.

On October 4^th, 1909, some factory workers went on strike. The women’s movement had begun, yet a battle for control in economic value made speed a must in production. The bosses demanded perfection due to the expense paid for modern equipment. Workers were charged for errors. Inspections were conducted on exit for all employees. All exits were locked other than the one where inspections were performed.

Many bosses saw this as a direct assault on them personally. Having been immigrants themselves, they seemed to have forgotten their roots. Often industrialists saw themselves as benevolent and providing a wage for the poor and giving them a chance at an honest life/living.

Money and success stood in the way of putting the brakes on industrialization and economic growth. Private investigators, replacement workers, prostitutes and muscle were hired to battle the Triangle workers in an attempt to prevent them from forming unions and to get them to back down, as it seemed that many from other mills and factories were closely observing the evolution of the situation.

Equality and fairness were goals of the strikers. The Cooper union hall held a meeting that was filled with hundreds of disgruntled workers. There was a proposal to form an industry wide strike. Capitalists and union leaders tried to talk workers out of taking action. Women were beaten by hired muscle for striking. These women believed they were going to make history.

On the day of the organized strike, most of the female workforce sat and waited for a signal to strike. When the time came, all walked out in unison. It was then the largest single work strike in New York City’s history at the time. Within 48 hours 70 of the smallest shops gave in to the demands of their workers. They became union only shops.

Bosses of the largest companies organized a manufacturers association to put a stop to the strikes. Judges fined the women and police looked away as they were being beaten by prostitutes and hired muscle. The cities bureaucracy (A system of government in which most of the important decisions is made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.) was against labor unions.

Suddenly a Wealthy, White Socialite took up the cause for these women. Society ladies took on the cause. These women were known as the mink brigade. This strengthened the women’s movement and made it harder for the manufacturers to publically strike out against these striking worker women. However when strikers turned down offers from manufacturers, it was seen and promoted as fanatical behavior which could create a social upheaval. Many prominent society women dropped their backing for the cause. They wanted no part of a socialist cause.

Most shops finally gave into workers, but Triangle workers, while making some headway, didn’t get their factory’s worst conditions altered.

On Saturday, March 25^th, 1911, while many of the workers were looking forward to having the next day off, (Sunday was seen as a day off rest, reflection and prayer.) the fire took hold after someone carelessly dropped a cigarette. Many workers were trapped by locked doors and a failing fire escape; A fire escape which failed killing more than 20 who fell to their deaths. Many victims burned to death, while dozens of others jumped or fell to their deaths. This horror was witnessed by thousands of local spectators. Some remembered the strike of the prior year and the pleas of the women to fix safety and hazardous conditions. 145 people died; nearly all of them women. Half were teenagers.

The business owners were acquitted of manslaughter charges and took their insurance money and faded into obscurity. Many were shocked by this outcome.

On April 5^th, 1911, 400,000 people from all walks of life gathered along the streets of New York City to pay tribute to the many unidentified victims of the triangle fire; victims who had previously been forgotten cogs of the city’s inner workings. Many of the victims during this, the Gilded Age, were from poor and struggling families whom had found work in the Triangle factory. New Yorkers raised money to help with the struggles of victims’ families and to help with burial expenses. This disaster had helped to broaden an understanding for the struggles of these laborers and also resulted in an increased intermingling of classes.

This atrocity opened up the doors for enraged citizens to compel government to act and the New York State legislature formed a factory safety commission. There had been no sort of government intervention or labor legislation to help provide rights or safety for workers prior to the Triangle fire.  The resulting cries and extremely public death toll brought about many new laws and gave teeth to child labor laws and also set standards for hours and minimum wages.

I found the documentary Triangle Fire to be both a compelling and insightful look into the struggles and wars amongst and by the different classes and those governing, as well as being a valid historical account regarding the times and their driving forces. 

The Prisoner’s Handbook

In 1922, 997 New Yorkers died of poisoning.

Prior to the murder of a fairly affluent white couple (The Jacksons) in New York City, (NYC) coroners had been assigned the position of determining cause of death and corpse removal. A coroner, in these often corrupt internal government bureaucracies, would be appointed by a city official, usually the mayor, and could be a man of any profession and not that of a qualified medical examiner. These men could often be paid to determine cause of death, and might accept kick backs from funeral homes which they at times promoted in sinister ways. This was a system fueled by wealth and class which often catered to the highest bidder.

Civic groups, newspaper editors and city officials formed an alliance to do away with many of the duties which were that of a coroner and to promote those of a medical examiner. Their goal was to promote a position which would use the latest technology and a trained medical staff to determine causation of death. This was already becoming common practice in Europe at the time. Wealth and influence are and were often controlling forces when it came to deciding such matters of implementation.

            In 1918, with the bitter opposition of the Mayor, (John Francis Hylan) Dr. Charles Norris began his probationary position of three months, in the pathological department, as Chief Medical Examiner at Bellevue hospital. Referred to as a purist, Norris believed in the promotion of a legitimate and legal medical system within the government. He had created quite an enemy in the mayor at the time through his forced appointment and honorable practice. The mayor was not someone who liked to be pressed or told no.

Hylan's most famous words against "the interests" was the following speech, made in 1922, while he was the sitting Mayor of New York City (1917–25)

“The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation. To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller–Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually runs the United States government for their own selfish purposes.”

“They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make cats paws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organizations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business.”

“These international bankers and Rockefeller–Standard Oil interests control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country. They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government. It operates under cover of a self-created screen [and] seizes our executive officers, legislative bodies, schools, courts, newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.” This all stated by a man who had won his seat through the backing of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

The Jackson couples mysterious deaths led to the emergence of forensic science being viewed as a valid tool in determining cause of death and to a new era in criminal investigation. Alexander Gettler, the right hand of Norris, built the first toxicology lab of its kind in the country.

In this era chemicals were being limited in warfare, (WWI) but not in everyday civilian life. Prior to the development of such complex chemical tests, deaths were often determined at face value. One example of this was that of the Standard Oil workers in New Jersey, many of whom were working in factories which produced Ethyl Gasoline. (Leaded gasoline) Several workers at Standard oil started to exhibit strange behaviors and eventually succumbed to untimely deaths. Many of these deaths were noted as due to acts of insanity or injury brought on by seemingly unstable individuals.

Standard Oil (S.O.) and General Motors (G.M.) were in control of much of the industrialization that had taken hold throughout the country and in result held much influence with governing officials. Much of the oil and auto industry went unregulated for many years. Although many deaths occurred by those working in close proximity to leaded gasoline, the practice of creating this product was not put to a stop. After a temporary ban on the product, S.O. and G.M., with the help of then President Calvin Coolidge, who appointed a panel of experts, which only included Industry scientists, who deemed some regulation was necessary, but that there was no danger present to the general public.

Ethyl Gasoline would later be phased out starting in the US in the mid-1970s because of its neurotoxicity and its damaging effect on catalytic converters which were introduced in the 1970s to meet tightening emissions regulations.

It seems rather apparent after watching this rather historically detailed and informative PBS special, The Poisoner’s Handbook, that much like today, Money, Power and Influence were the controlling factors in Industry and Government during this Gilded Age. Those who were rich and influential could remain this way through association, thus shaping the standards by which future industrialization and government would operate and progress. 

Science also took a foothold during this age. The study of pathology and it's contributions in this era also influenced past and future industrialization and regulation.  

Google Books-

http://books.google.com/books?id=O2HqmJtFkDIC&pg=PT19&lpg=PT19&dq=red+mike+hylan&source=bl&ots=G21x1kYmqU&sig=iPv4bpu9SjrfjLQTLv3uT9DW25g&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6egHU_T5L-PayAGV6YDYBA&ved=0CE4Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=red%20mike%20hylan&f=false

Articles-

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Gettler

New-York Historical Society https://www.nyhistory.org/

www.nytimes.com

http://www.pbs.org/