In 1890, two competing organizations working to gain the right to vote …
In 1890, two competing organizations working to gain the right to vote for women joined forces to form the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). NAWSA campaigned diligently for the vote in a variety of ways, but did not achieve success until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. This prolonged struggle entangled female activists in other important political and moral issues that divided the nation along racial, ethnic, and class lines, and debates over the vote for women often took a divisive tone. Some white women suffrage leaders were willing to use class, ethnic, and racial arguments to bolster the case for granting white women the vote. In 1894 (a year of extraordinary class conflict that included the national Pullman and coal strikes), Carrie Chapman Catt addressed an Iowa suffrage gathering and maintained that women's suffrage was necessary to counter "the ignorant foreign vote" in American cities and protect the life and property of native-born Americans.
Labor leader Sidney Hillman emerged as a powerful national figure during the …
Labor leader Sidney Hillman emerged as a powerful national figure during the Great Depression, in part because of his role as a leader of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), but even more because of his ties to President Franklin Roosevelt and other New Dealers. In 1944 Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey charged that the CIO and Hillman's Political Action Committee (PAC) dominated Roosevelt. Part of the evidence for this (unfounded) charge was the rumor--given some credibility by its publication in the New York Times --that Roosevelt had told party leaders to "Clear it with Sidney" before selecting a vice-presidential candidate in 1944. Particularly rabid on the subject were the newspapers owned by the anti-New Dealer William Randolph Hearst. Hearst's New York Journal-American even sponsored a "Sidney Limerick Contest." These winning entries gave a flavor of the sharp antagonism and prejudices that the nation's most politically influential labor leader aroused.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965--called "the most successful civil rights law …
The Voting Rights Act of 1965--called "the most successful civil rights law in the nation's history" by Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights--was enacted in order to force Southern states and localities to allow all citizens of voting age to vote in public elections. Although the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, guaranteed citizens the right to vote regardless of race, discriminatory requirements, such as literacy tests, disenfranchised many African Americans in the South. In 1965, following the murder of a voting rights activist by an Alabama sheriff's deputy and the subsequent attack by state troopers on a massive protest march in Selma, President Lyndon B. Johnson pressed Congress to pass a voting rights bill with "teeth". The Act, signed into law on August 6, applied to states or counties where fewer than half of the citizens of voting age were registered in 1964--Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, and numerous counties in North Carolina. For these areas, the law banned literacy tests, appointed Federal examiners to oversee election procedures, and, according to the Act's controversial Section 5, required approval by the U.S. Attorney General of future changes to election laws. In 1969, a Senate subcommittee held hearings to discuss extending the Act. In the following statement, Vernon E. Jordan strongly argued against a House bill, advocated by the Nixon Administration, that proposed to extend coverage to the entire country and replace Section 5 with an oversight mechanism more amenable to the white South. Ultimately, on June 22, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon signed into law a bill that extended the Act's provisions, including Section 5, for five additional years, and in addition, lowered the voting age throughout the country to 18.
The San Francisco Building Trades Council (BTC), organized in 1898, actively participated …
The San Francisco Building Trades Council (BTC), organized in 1898, actively participated in the anti-Asian agitation that characterized California politics, particularly labor politics, in the late-19th century. The BTC, like the national American Federation of Labor (AFL), argued that the very presence of Chinese (and, after 1900, Japanese and Korean immigrants as well) dragged down the living standards of white workers. The following excerpt is from a 1902 AFL pamphlet entitled Some Reasons for Chinese Exclusion: Meat vs. Rice, which called for a second extension of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Despite the pamphlet's disclaimer that it was not prejudiced, arguments were riddled with racist statements about the employment history and "Social Habits" of "John Chinaman." The selections from the pamphlet reprinted here reflected the abiding beliefs of many white workers, especially skilled workers who belonged to the San Francisco BTC.
If you'd visited Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park 100 years ago, …
If you'd visited Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park 100 years ago, you probably would have encountered the alpine chipmunk, Tamias alpinus. Today, however, park visitors will have to hike up a nearby mountain to see one of these critters. That's because this species is sensitive to temperature and over the last hundred years of global climate change, Yosemite has warmed by about 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit. As the temperature increased, the chipmunks retreated to higher and higher elevations where it was cooler. Today, they occupy a fraction of their original range. If climate change continues, they could be squeezed right off the tops of their mountains and out of existence.
Environmentalists passionately opposed to a giant pipeline that would transport crude oil …
Environmentalists passionately opposed to a giant pipeline that would transport crude oil from the tar sands of Canada to the Gulf coast are going head-to-head with proponents of the project. Students explore the controversy surrounding the Keystone XL pipeline and the strategic questions it raises for environmentalists.
Climate Change and Water - Perspectives from the Forest Service is a …
Climate Change and Water - Perspectives from the Forest Service is a summary of a forthcoming report by the Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture which will detail the likely impacts of climate change on the Nation's forested watersheds and highlight the importance of managing forests to provide clean, abundant water.
EARTH’S CLIMATE CHANGES. It always has and always will. However, an extensive …
EARTH’S CLIMATE CHANGES. It always has and always will. However, an extensive and growing body of scientific evidence indicates that human activities—including the burning of fossil fuel (coal, oil, and natural gas) for energy, clearing of forested lands for agriculture, and raising livestock—are now the primary force driving change in the Earth’s climate system. This report describes how the climate of northern New Hampshire has changed over the past century and how the future climate of the region will be affected by a warmer planet due to human activities.
EARTH’S CLIMATE CHANGES. It always has and always will. However, an extensive …
EARTH’S CLIMATE CHANGES. It always has and always will. However, an extensive and growing body of scientific evidence indicates that human activities—including the burning of fossil fuel (coal, oil, and natural gas) for energy, clearing of forested lands for agriculture, and raising livestock—are now the primary force driving change in the Earth’s climate system. This report describes how the climate of southern New Hampshire has changed over the past century and how the future climate of the region will be affected by a warmer planet due to human activities.
Students close read biographies of the accused and the accusers and primary …
Students close read biographies of the accused and the accusers and primary source transcripts of the Salem Witch Trials to accompany their reading of The Crucible. By examining the historical documents as well as literature, students grapple with the question of how mass hysteria occurs and what makes historical events worthy of dramatic interpretation. Students read and act out key scenes in the play as they research the historical figures. A final project asks students to come up with an idea for dramatizing a past event and to describe, in writing, why the event would make good drama and how it could be dramatized. A separate blog post entitled "Arthur Miller's The Crucible: Witch Hunting for the Common Core" provides further resources for teachers. http://edsitement.neh.gov/blog/2014/10/28/arthur-millers-crucible-witch-hunting-common-core
Students will read an article online about the first four presidents. The …
Students will read an article online about the first four presidents. The online article provides scaffolds for vocabulary and reading. Students can use the online quiz to check for understanding. Students will then perform a close reading of the article following six text dependent questions. The lesson describes the activities along with the language to use for each of the questions.
Collaborative Statistics was written by Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean, faculty members …
Collaborative Statistics was written by Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean, faculty members at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. The textbook was developed over several years and has been used in regular and honors-level classroom settings and in distance learning classes. This textbook is intended for introductory statistics courses being taken by students at two– and four–year colleges who are majoring in fields other than math or engineering. Intermediate algebra is the only prerequisite. The book focuses on applications of statistical knowledge rather than the theory behind it. This custom textbook collection has been modified by R. Bloom for her classes at De Anza College; the homework content for the custom collection is now contained in a separate homework collection.
After fighting World War I, ostensibly to defend democracy and the right …
After fighting World War I, ostensibly to defend democracy and the right of self-determination, thousands of African-American soldiers returned home to face intensified discrimination, segregation, and racial violence. Drawing on this frustration, Marcus Garvey attracted thousands of disillusioned black working-class and lower middle-class followers to his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The UNIA, committed to notions of racial purity and separatism, insisted that salvation for African Americans meant building an autonomous, black-led nation in Africa. The Black Star Line, an all-black shipping company chartered by the UNIA, was the movement's boldest and most important project, and many African Americans bought shares of stock in the company. For all its grandeur and promise, however, the Black Star Line was soon beset by financial and legal problems, largely resulting from Garvey's mismanagement. The company folded only a few years after its founding. The company's collapse was detailed in an essay by black intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois, who cast doubt on Garvey's trustworthiness and suspicion on UNIA's overall program.
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