Personal Stories about the Impact of Climate Change

Personal Stories about the Impact of Climate Change

Edited by Alan Singer

Changes in the global climate exacerbate climate hazards and amplify the risk of extreme weather disasters. Increases of air and water temperatures lead to rising sea levels, supercharged storms and higher wind speeds, more intense and prolonged droughts and wildfire seasons, heavier precipitation and flooding. The number of climate-related disasters has tripled in the last 30 years. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that adapting to climate change and coping with damages will cost developing countries $140-300 billion per year by 2030.

Source: https://www.oxfam.org/en/5-natural-disasters-beg-climate-action#

An annual average of 21.5 million people were forcibly displaced each year by weather-related events – such as floods, storms, wildfires and droughts – between 2008 and 2016, according to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre. This figure reached a record 32.6 million in 2022. The International Environmental Partnership, an international thinktank, expects this number to surge. It predicts that 1.2 billion people could be displaced globally by 2050 due to climate change and natural disasters. Source: https://www.zurich.com/media/magazine/2022/there-could-be-1-2-billion-climate-refugees-by-2050-here-s-what-you-need-to-know

Yolanda del Carmen Marín, Coffee plantation worker, Sonsonate, El Salvador

Source: Rethinking Schools

 “These are hard times for people like me who work on coffee farms. I’ve worked here in Sonsonate since I was a kid. I have done pretty much every job there is to do on this farm. There are a lot of problems now — pests, low prices for coffee beans — but the big one is climate change. It used to be that the rainy season would start in May. But with climate change, who knows? The rains sometime come early, and the coffee plants flower, but then the rain will stop and so things dry up. Sometimes the rains come late or don’t come at all. That leads to a terrible harvest. Forty years ago, this farm produced 4,000 tons of coffee. This year? It will produce about 300 tons. In the last 10 years in El Salvador, 80,000 people lost their jobs in the coffee industry. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones, because I still have a job, although it pays only about $30 a week. My daughter couldn’t find any work at all, other than trying to sell food on street corners. So in order to survive, she and her family joined one of the migrant caravans traveling to the United States. What else was she supposed to do? I’m old now, so cannot make the journey north, but if I was younger, I probably would. My friend, Reyna de Jesús López, who works on the coffee farm with me, paid to send her 12-year-old son to the United States. She says that sometimes he calls her to say that he wants to come home, but she tells him, “What are you going to do here? There are no opportunities for young people.” Things here have never been easy, but climate change made them worse. The government in the United States tells Salvadoran migrants to go home. But one of the main reasons migrants can’t go home is because of climate change — caused mostly by the rich countries, like the United States, with all their greenhouse gases.”

Gail Woon, Marine biologist, Freeport, Bahamas

Source: Project Drawdown

“I’m taking action on climate change solutions because I was made homeless three times by climate change, hurricanes hitting my island. So I feel it very personally. I am working on a project to restore the mangroves to a community called Water Key, which was a bone fishing destination. So we’re engaging with the community there, all of whom were also displaced by climate change. Hurricane Dorian in 2019. It is now 2024 and no one has been able to move back yet. They’re living on the main island of Grand Bahama. They go on the weekends to try to rebuild their homes. But we’re hoping now that when we plant thousands, hundreds of thousands of mangroves in and around that area that they will still be able to be a bone fishing destination and that those mangroves will grow. At the same time, the community will be able to move back to the island.

Emilia Aguinaga, Foundation for Louisiana’s Climate Justice

Source: Project Drawdown

“When I was growing up, we didn’t talk about climate change. We talked about global warming, the ice caps and polar bears. Everything changed for me when I moved to New Orleans, just a couple of days before hurricane Katrina hit. Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes that made landfall in American history, killing over 1800 people. And it was also one of the most expensive disaster recovery efforts that we’ve had to undertake since then, things have only gotten worse. Our climate continues to get warmer and more unpredictable. We have stronger hurricanes, more wildfires, increased droughts and floods. The time to take action was really decades ago. The next best time to take action is now.”

LeMonie Hutt, Hoopa Valley Tribe, Northern California

Source: The Harvard Gazette

I’m a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California, and I live on the reservation, which is about an hour away from an actual Target or Costco, over two mountains. What’s special about the Hoopa tribe is that we’ve never stopped practicing our traditional ceremonies. I grew up in a culturally rich, matriarchal society. We have a woman’s coming-of-age ceremony to celebrate a woman’s coming into a leadership role in the community. We had a lot of women serving on the tribal council; my mom herself also served on the council. Our population is small: 2,000 people. And when I was younger, my family and other families used to rely a lot on natural resources. A lot of our food would come from the environment around us. But that slowly started to dwindle away as I got older because of climate change and the use of our waterways by big agricultural farms. Our water resources also decreased due to fires, and since our culture is so intertwined with our land and natural resources, it has become a lot harder to keep our culture. It is hard to make baskets or jewelry because natural resources are becoming scarce. For the younger generations, it has been hard to grow up without having access to those resources that can allow them to express themselves through culture and art. We see that playing out in a mental health crisis among students because of threats to their culture, which is being taken away.

Kiani Akina, Kahuku, Hawaii

Source: The Harvard Gazette

“I live on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, in a very small town called Kahuku. Our population is 2,000. We have one stoplight. We used to have a gas station; now it’s in the town over. Our sense of community identity is strong. As far as the impact of climate change in my community, I’ve seen the way beaches and landscapes have changed tremendously from when I was little to now. Native Hawaiians, and Indigenous folk everywhere, have a deep connection with the land and the water, and this is hard for other people to understand. For us, the land and water are living beings, sort of relatives that hold lots of stories that are so connected to our culture and identities. Hawaiian lives are deeply impacted by climate change and over-tourism, which is not sustainable and is also harmful to the environment. Indigenous people are forced to face the worst and most harmful impacts of climate change when we contribute the least to it.”

Ricardo Marrero-Alattar, Puerto Rico

Source: The Harvard Gazette

“I grew up in Puerto Rico. In the past five years, we faced hurricanes, earthquakes, and COVID. There is no question that the worsening climate on our planet is making it more likely for natural disasters to occur, and I want to make clear the stark difference between the impact of climate change in the Global North and the Global South. What we underestimate, in the U.S. and the Global North, is how climate change worsens natural disasters. To us in the Global North, it means a couple more hurricanes, but for the Global South, where most developing countries are located, natural disasters are not ephemeral. They become significant; their gravity multiplies exponentially. Climate change is worse for the Global South because they are less able to recover from the increased volume and gravity of the impact of natural disasters. Puerto Rico was badly hit by Hurricane Maria five years ago, and people are still suffering to this day because of it. It is because of the catastrophic system failure that took place in the wake of Maria: All systems failed and became too weak to recover, and economically, it made it hard for the island to rebuild. Once the infrastructure is weakened, as well as its ability to recover, the island becomes more vulnerable to the next natural disaster. We just had Hurricane Fiona, which was a Category 1 hurricane, and we felt the damage as if it were Maria, which was Category 5.

Alison Wisely, Knox Petrucci, Felix and Lucas, Hurricane Helene

Source: New York Times

“When the rain began to pour over Green Mountain, N.C., in late September, Alison Wisely kept a close eye on the puddles growing slowly outside her window. Hurricane Helene was churning across the American South, and Ms. Wisely, 42, and her fiancé, Knox Petrucci, 41, were hunkering at home with her two young sons. The house was hundreds of miles from any coastline. On the morning of Sept. 27, a nearby river overflowed, and catastrophe came quickly. Floodwaters rushed toward the couple and the children — Felix, 9, and Lucas, 7. In a frantic effort to escape, all four lost their lives. Their deaths represent only a small fraction of Helene’s terrible toll. The storm has killed more than 200 people, making it the deadliest tropical cyclone to strike the mainland United States since 2005.”

Emma, New South Wales, Australia

Source: Australian Climate Case

“My name is Emma. I’m sixteen years old and I live on the south coast of New South Wales. I’ve always been into nature and the environment. Growing up I used to get really upset when I saw a tree being cut down. Then we learned about climate change in year 7. I remember it being really scary – I thought the world was perfect but really it isn’t. I just thought the way we were living was fine but that was a real eye opener. Climate change is becoming part of our lives now and affecting us directly. I was here when the bushfires happened – it was New Year’s Eve and the smoke was coming from the south and the north. The smoke got thicker and thicker as the day went on. I remember looking at Gulaga and it was just glowing. Everyone was banding together in town and just waiting. Eventually we went home but we couldn’t do anything because the power was out. The next day when we woke up the sky was a dark red and the trees were black. It was surreal – I couldn’t tell what time it was. The wind kept changing direction – the Cobargo fires were coming towards us but we got lucky and the wind changed. Several times we evacuated to the golf course with all of our stuff until the threat had passed.”

Talei Elu, Seisia, Cape York, Far North Queensland, Australia

Source: Australian Climate Case

“My clan is the crocodile clan – Saibai Koedal – on my father’s side and on my mother’s side I’m Fijian. My grandfather and his family left Saibai just after the war. He wouldn’t have called it climate migration, but a key reason for them leaving was that people’s gardens were starting to get inundated with salt water, making it harder to grow crops. He had the foresight to realize that if it got worse then Saibai wouldn’t be able to support us. People say ‘oh it was the 1940s’ but the Industrial Revolution was well underway and the climate was already changing. My family has been away from Saibai for more than 70 years. It’s definitely had an impact on how we use our language and practice our culture. The young boys in Seisia often say ‘one day I’ll get to go to the homeland’ even though we’re only a few islands away. We’re witnessing climate change happening here in Seisia now. We’re seeing more extreme weather and more intense storm surges. Elders say that it’s very different now to the old days. You can see the effects on the shape of the shoreline – the beach used to have a shallow gradient but storm surges and king tides have carved the sand into a steep slope.”

Stories from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America

Source: Global Citizen

Domini J.J., India: “I can’t breathe good air. It’s really difficult to go on about my day to day life, which is why it is so hard to go about my regular chores. I work very hard to be eco-friendly, why am I paying for the mistakes made by others?”

Neha P., India: “Hey! I live in India, and for the past two years the temperatures have been so high in the summers that we can’t step out of the house for more than 10 minutes. The heat exhausts you. This year, 2022, we’re experiencing the highest temperatures ever and it’s only April.”

Vahini C., India: “It affects our health both mentally and physically. It is harder to carry out the daily household chores for my mother. Pollution is everywhere. Fresh air is on its way to becoming a luxury soon. It is important to stop this as soon as possible.”

Aung N., Myanmar: “Climate change affects our lives with huge flooding, tornadoes, storms, and wildfires destroying what we love and value!”

Mayetth P., Philippines: “Global warming is affecting every country in the world! I live in the Philippines and the intensity of typhoons has increased. Look at Typhoon Rai in 2021. I worked with many volunteers providing aid to those islands and provinces that were hit hardest by the typhoon. It will take those islands years to overcome the destruction from Rai.”

Lato K., Kenya: “As pastoralists in Kenya, we are experiencing long periods of drought and short but dangerous rain periods, which bring flooding. The drought causes starvation of our cattle and the rain drowns them.”

Chinasa I. U., Nigeria: “The climate crisis is making it difficult for my family in the rural areas to cultivate their seasonal crops without interruptions, due to both floods and droughts.”

Peter N., Nigeria: “The climate crisis is affecting my life in so many ways. From the high cost of living due to poor yield from farming caused by damage, to the land and air and water pollution, which has caused some of my friends and neighbours to be hospitalised for various respiratory cases.”

Sanusi H. M., Nigeria: “Personally, I am suffering from the climate crisis and climate change. The weather is so hot that I usually get [bouts of] heat stroke at any moment. Climate crisis is affecting not only the environment but our health too.”

Emmanuel C., South Africa: “My country has seen new levels of floods in the region of KwaZulu-Natal. It’s the biggest natural disaster that has ever hit our country. Global warming is real and we need to take serious action before it’s too late.”

Elif Ü. A., Germany: “In Germany, there were floods last year which caused many deaths. I am scared that it will get worse. People I know and me weren’t affected yet, but if we go on like this, ignoring those dangers, everyone will be in huge danger because of the climate crisis. We ARE in danger NOW.”

Ann P., Greece: “Very unpredictable sudden weather extremes causing chaos, deaths from fires, flooding, falling trees, electricity blackouts, rising prices, unemployment. Mental stress from all this. Women carry the burden as carers.”

Sabine W., Ireland: “I live in the West of Ireland and our weather patterns have changed. More rain, more storms. There is flooding at high tides. Unless there is radical improvement in climate action, a lot of our coastal areas will be reclaimed by the sea.”

Alexa., Poland: “As a woman I think about my family, women tend to worry more about safety especially for their children. When I think of the climate crisis I think of the fact that I don’t even have children yet and the climate situation is already bad. I have every right to worry and do everything I can to ensure that my kids will be able to live their lives appreciating everything I could’ve when I was young so they can have the best careless (in a good way, of course) childhood.”

Ochmanek E., Canada: “In the last eight months I have lived through a heat dome that saw the highest temperatures ever recorded in Canada, a drought that is killing our cedars (the tree of life), waters too warm for salmon to spawn, the flooding of farms that I depend on for food.”

Anvitha J., United States: “It’s affecting the weather around me, the trees and grass and all living beings around me. There’s fewer trees and fewer flowers and it snows in April and it’s boiling hot in October. It just doesn’t make sense because of climate change.”

Angela E., United States: “We just had a massive storm flood that destroyed our neighbourhood causing death, destruction, a major disaster, which most still have not recovered from seven months later and it’s not covered by insurance. It’s exceptionally windy and we are facing strong storms all the time now.”

Lisa-May R., United States: “I live on an island in the intercoastal waterway, my home is 13 feet above sea level and the level is rising. My home insurance has gone up immensely as I am in a flood zone, and the deductible for ‘named storms’, which are every storm, is too high. I stress about everything in regard to the climate crisis.”

Nicole S., United States: “I am constantly having to deal with wildfires in my vicinity during fire season. The poor air quality from the smoke gives me sore throats. I worry about my respiratory health. This year is another drought year. I’m not looking forward to living in a parched environment. I also worry about fire retardant polluting the local waterways. Our local endangered fish population is already suffering due to the low precipitation. Climate change creates complex environmental challenges that need innovative solutions.”

Melia M., United States: “I live in California so the fires get worse every year and I have to live in fear of losing my house and family.” 

Pedro G., Chile: “The area where I live has been in a severe drought for a while. The water dam is at 6% of its total capacity, the worst I have ever seen since the dam was constructed in 1998. I recently visited my sister in the South (the rainy part of the country) and found that the river that used to carry lots of water stopped flowing this summer. Our food and drinking water supply might be affected if conditions don’t improve.”

Elssy R., Honduras: “The climate change is killing my dear coral reefs and everybody should know how important they are.”

Raúl G. F., México: “The climate crisis is limiting our access to safe water and is contributing to increasing water scarcity. This does not affect everyone equally: people with less resources (economic and educational), suffer more than the rich, contributing thus to increasing the social gap between human beings.”

Damaris F., México: “The days are warmer, the nights are colder. The food is more expensive. We can see every day the impacts of the climate crisis but people don’t want to look around.”

Yazmin O., México: “Since I was a child I have lived near a very polluted river, and this gets worse during the hot weather. It’s the Lerma Santiago River in El Salto, Mexico. Among the population, there are a lot of cancer cases and stomach issues.”

Cindy C., México: “The weather is so unpredictable, the whole world is turning inhabitable. So many things have changed, the world is not how it used to be. Where I live it’s much hotter now, and there is less water. It’s difficult to live like this.”

The Wildness Society has video interviews with five Americans whose lives were impacted by climate change. Source: https://www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/5-stories-people-impacted-climate-change-and-inspired-take-action

WaterAid has a feature on people impacted by climate change around Lake Chilwa in Malawi.      https://www.wateraid.org/uk/stories/climate-stories

Underground Railroad Sites in New York’s Southern Tier

Underground Railroad Sites in New York’s Southern Tier

By Kalyn Grant for the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin

KCGrant@gannett.com

Source[1] 

The Underground Railroad was a network of churches, safe houses and community centers that led thousands of people escaping slavery to freedom. Northern states like Pennsylvania played a major role in the progression of freedom, and the trail made several stops in New York, including the Southern Tier counties along the Pennsylvania border. Here are some of the local landmarks near Binghamton that played a role in the success of the Underground Railroad, including private homes and churches across the region.

The Seymore Home in Whitney Point, New York 

This Whitney Point home was owned by George Seymore in the late 1850s and was a spot along the Underground Railroad network. During that time most people who lived in the area knew the Seymore home was being used to hide and assist escaped enslaved people. According to former Broome County historian Gerald Smith, the home was later converted into an antique shop called the Underground Antiques and eventually turned into a private residence. 

Cyrus Gates Farmstead in Maine, New York

The Cyrus Gates Farmstead was once used as a sanctuary along the Underground Railroad. On 30 acres in Maine, Cyrus Gates’ home — referred to as “Gates’ white elephant” — was built in the 1850s by a New York City architect. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. Gates was a cartographer and surveyor, as well as a vocal abolitionist. Up in the attic, the Gates home had an emergency hiding place. Tucked behind a hidden panel in the back of a cupboard, escaped slaves could crawl into a 10-by-20 foot secret room in the house’s south wing attic, crouching so as not to hit the four-foot-tall ceiling, when they needed to hide.

Park Church in Elmira, New York

Members of Park Church, originally named the First Independent Congregational Church of Elmira, were active participants in the Underground Railroad. They included John W. Jones, an escaped slave who helped over 800 travel to freedom through Elmira and Jervis Langdon, a local financier who helped Frederick Douglass escape from slavery. The church offered shelter, provided food and finances, and took legal action against slavery. They also prepared a petition to officially record their stance as an anti-slavery church and in 1871, it became Park Church. In 2006, the church was added to the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom program. 

Binghamton, New York home of Dr. Stephen D. Hand

During the mid-19th century, the home of Dr. Stephen D. Hand stood at the site of the current Binghamton City Hall. After moving to Binghamton and starting a successful medical practice, he took an active role in the Underground Railroad. Hand opened his doors to those seeking freedom. His home was near two existing African American churches — the Bethel Church and the First Colored Methodist Episcopal Church — which created a trio of spots in close proximity offering help. The home was demolished in the 1960s and Binghamton City Hall took its place. The building has a plaque to recognize the significant role the Hand home placed in the Underground Railroad. 

Trinity AME Zion Church of Binghamton 

The church, founded in 1838, is a stop on the Downtown Binghamton Freedom Trail, recognized for its role in the Underground Railroad. The historic marker at the site shares its history as originally the AME Zion Church, a site that was a place of worship and safe spot to rest and receive help while traveling. Rev. Jermain Loguen, director of the Underground Railroad in Syracuse, was also pastor at the church in the 1860s.

Tulsa Massacre was Erased from History

Tulsa Massacre was Erased from History

By Alan Singer

My partner Felicia Hirata, friends Judy and Ruben Stern, and I were discussing the movie Killers of the Flower Moon and conversation shifted to the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. Felicia, Ruben, and I are all retired New York City high school social studies teachers and we realized we had never taught about the massacre in class, and we were unsure of whether we even knew about it when we were teachers. It had effectively been erased from history.

As a high school teacher, I did introduce my students, almost all African American and Latinx, to post-World War 1 racist attacks on African Americans with the poem “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay that was first published in the July 1919 of The Liberator coupled with photographs and newspaper headlines of the 1919 Chicago race riot showing white mobs and police attacking Blacks in the street. The McKay poem is especially powerful and resonated with students because it is a call for resistance.

https://alansingerphd.medium.com/the-100th-anniversary-of-the-tulsa-race-massacre-5cee3a689f6f[1]

I now teach social studies methods at Hofstra University in suburban Long Island, New York. After our discussion of Killers of the Flower Moon and the Tulsa Massacre, I decided to review how the post-World War 1 race riots and the Tulsa massacre were covered in the textbooks I used as a high school teacher and in more recent editions used by teachers today, books my students will likely use when they become teachers, books that continue to minimize the role that race and racism played in American history.

Ruben and I both taught United States history at Franklin K. Lane High School in the 1980s using Lewis Todd and Merle Curti’s Triumph of the American Nation as our primary textbook. Chapter 27 “New Directions in American Life Changing Ways (1900-1920)” ignores race, in fact the book’s index does not include race or racism as a category (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986). After discussing World War 1, the authors skipped directly to the “Golden Twenties” where the post-war race riots were ignored. In a later chapter, “Decades in Contrast Changing ways (1920-1939),” “Black migration to the North,” “Disappointed hopes,” and “The riots of 1919” are briefly mentioned, but not what happened in Tulsa. Students learned from the book that “Frightened whites, convinced that black Americans were trying to threaten them and gain control, responded with more violence. Police forces, ill-equipped to deal with riots, usually sided with whites” (751). Perhaps even more disturbing than the omissions, is this justification offered for the white rioters.

I also used Thomas Bailey and David Kennedy, The American Pageant, 7th Edition (1983, D.C. Heath) with a college-level dual enrollment class. A section in Chapter 39, “The Politics of Boom and Bust, 1920-1932” titled “The Aftermath of War” includes a paragraph explaining that “Vicious race riots also rocked the Republic in years following the Great War . . . [I]n the immediate post-war period, blacks were brutally taught that the North was not a Promised land. A racial reign of terror descended on Chicago in the summer of 1919, leaving twenty-three blacks and fifteen whites dead. Clashes also inflamed Knoxville, Omaha, Washington, and other cities.” There was also no mention of 1921 and Tulsa massacre in this textbook. Unlike Todd and Curti, Bailey and Kennedy didn’t justify the behavior of the white rioters but by suggesting that these were somehow clashes between Blacks and whites, it takes the onus off white mobs killing African Americans and driving them out of housing and jobs.

Even Howard Zinn’s widely used A People’s History of the United States, first published in 1980 by Harper Collins and reissued most recently in 2015 by Harper Perennial, the most progressive history of the United States that I used as a reference, falls short. Zinn included the post-war strike wave but not the race riots in 1919 or the destruction of the Black community of Tulsa in 1921.

I read From Slavery to Freedom, A History of Negro Americans, 3rd edition by John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. (1969, Vintage) as an undergraduate at CCNY in a class on American Nego History during the 1968-1969 school year. Unfortunately, it did not have much influence on the American history curriculum.

In the 7th edition (published in 1994 by Knopf), Franklin and Moss have a chapter “Democracy Escapes” about conditions faced by African Americans in the United States in the post-World War 1 era after approximately 380,000 African Americans served in the army and about 200,000 were stationed in the European theater (346-360; Goldenberg, 2022). Despite welcoming parades in major American cities, The Crisis reported “This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land. It lynches . . . It disenfranchises its own citizens . . . It encourages ignorance . . .It steals from us . . . It insults us . . . We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting. Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the U.S.A., or know the reason why” (347).

Between June and December 1919, Red Summer, Franklin and Moss estimate there were twenty-five anti-Black race riots in American cities (349). The most serious riot was in Chicago where there were thirty-eight fatalities, over 500 reported injuries, and 1,000 families left homeless (350-351).  The book also briefly describes a “race war” in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June 1921 where nine whites and 21 blacks were killed.

On Long Island, New York, the most widely used United States history textbook is Holt McDougal’s The Americans by Gerald Danzer, Jorge Kor de Alva, Larry Krieger, Louis Wilson, and Nancy Woloch. The 2012 edition has two references to the post-World War I racial climate. A “Historical Spotlight” box in a chapter on “The First World War” explains that “Racial prejudice against African Americans in the North sometimes took violent forms. However, the 1917 East St. Louis riot seems to be excused because “White workers were furious over the hiring of African Americans as strikebreakers at a munitions plant.” The 1919 Chicago riot is also blamed on African Americans who “retaliated” when a Black teenager was stoned to death by “white bathers” after he swam into “water off a ‘white beach’” (600). A later chapter on the Harlem Renaissance mentions that “Northern cities in general had not welcomed the massive influx of African Americans. Tensions had escalated in the years prior to 1920, culminating in the summer of 1919, in approximately 25 urban race riots” (659). This section does not explain who was rioting and who was being attacked.

The 12th edition of The American Pageant (2002), widely used in Advanced Placement classes, added Lisabeth Cohen as a co-author. A section on “Workers in Wartime” included the “sudden appearance” of African Americans in “previously all-white areas sometimes sparked interracial violence,” equally blamed on Blacks and whites (711). A photograph of a victim of the 1919 Chicago race riot lying on the ground face down includes the caption “The policeman arrived too late to spare this victim from being pelted by stones from an angry mob” (711). From the picture, it is difficult to tell that the victim was African American and he is not identified as such in the caption, although the police standing above him are clearly white. Members of the mob and its victims are not identified, and the caption inaccurately suggests that white police were trying to protect the Black community. The 16th edition, published in 2015, notes in Chapter 32 “American Life in the Roaring Twenties, 1919-1929” that a “ new racial pride also blossomed in the northern black communities that burgeoned during and after the war,” but contained no mention of the race riots in 1919 or 1921 (749) and the chapter on “The Politics of Boom and Bust, 1920-1932” dropped the reference to “vicious race riots” in the 1983 edition.

The fourth edition of Making America (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) by Carol Berkin, Christopher Miller, Robert Cherny, and James Gormly references the East St. Louis and Tulsa riots in the index and race riots are paired with lynchings as examples of the conditions faced by returning Black veteran after World War 1. Unlike other texts, this book clearly identifies that “white mobs” were attacking African Americans in East St. Louis, Washington DC, Chicago, Omaha, Tulsa, and Detroit (694, 706, 732). It is also one of the few textbooks to list racism in the index.

America’s History 9th edition for the AP Course by James Henretta, Rebecca Edward, Eric Hunderaker and Robert Self, published by Bedford, Freeman & Worth in 2018, includes Chapter 21, “Unsettled Prosperity: From War to Depression, 1919-1932.” This chapter has a section titled “Racial Backlash.” White attacks on Black workers and communities are presented as a response to the Great Migration during World War I and competition for jobs and housing. The section references 1917 riots in East St. Louis, Illinois where white mobs “burned more than 300 black homes and murdered between 50 and 150 black men, women and children”; the Chicago race riot of 1919; the Rosewood, Florida Massacre; and the “horrific incident” in Tulsa. The Tulsa “incident” did receive significant coverage, about half of a paragraph. “Sensational, false reports of an alleged rape helped incite white mobs who resented growing black prosperity. Anger focused on the 8,000 residents of Tulsa’s prosperous Greenwood district, locally known as ‘the black Wall Street.’ The mobs – helped by National Guardsmen, who arrested African Americans who resisted – burned thirty-five blocks of Greenwood and killed several dozen people. The city’s leading paper acknowledged that ‘semi-organized bands of white men systematically applied the torch, while others shot on site men of color.’ It took a decade for black residents to rebuild Greenwood” (653-654).

The best coverage of the 1917-1921 anti-Black race riots is probably Eric Foner’s AP text Give Me Liberty (6th edition, Norton). Chapter 19 “Safe for Democracy: The United States and World War I,” has a section on “Racial Violence, North and South.” It reports on the East St. Louis and Chicago attacks by white mobs on Black workers and communities, lynchings in the South targeting returning Black war veterans, a bloody attack on striking Black sharecroppers in Arkansas, and Tulsa. Foner describes Tulsa as “The worst race riot in American history . . . when more than 300 blacks were killed and over 10,000 left homeless after a white mob, including police and National Guardsmen, burned an all-black section of the city to the ground. The Tulsa riot erupted after s group of black veterans tried to prevent the lynching of a youth who had accidently tripped and fallen on a white female elevator operator, causing rumors of rape to sweep the city” (766).

Over one hundred years after the Tulsa Massacre, the United States needs to stop pretending that racism ended with the American Civil War and take steps to address the lingering impact of slavery and systemic racism on American society. An important step would be to ensure that high school students learn about events from the past that continue to shape the present.

Tragedy on the Erie Canal: The Harrowing Saga of William and Catherine Harris

Tragedy on the Erie Canal: The harrowing saga of William and Catherine Harris

By Robert Searing | Curator of history, Onondaga Historical Association Robert.Searing@cnyhistory.org

https[1] ://www.syracuse.com/living/2025/02/tragedy-on-the-erie-canal-the-harrowing-saga-of-william-and-catherine-harris-and-their-journey-to-freedom.html

Despite widespread and prolonged opposition in many northern cities, President Millard Fillmore affixed his signature to the new Fugitive Slave Act on September 18, 1850. It unleashed a torrent of fear amongst the ever-growing populations of free Blacks and freedom seekers that at any minute slave catchers, who now possessed the ability to forcibly enlist civilians to aid in the recapture of those purported to be enslaved.

In Syracuse, already a hotbed of agitation against the odious legislation for several months, local leaders called for a mass meeting at City Hall on October 4 to further demonstrate their collective resistance. Word of the upcoming gathering reached Rev. Jermain Loguen, who was in Troy on missionary work for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He decided he must return to the city he called home since 1841 to lend his righteous voice to the proceedings.

Following the speech of his friend, Samuel Ringgold Ward, the Black publisher of The Impartial Citizen, Loguen addressed the massive crowd that spilled out of the hall out onto Montgomery and Market streets with the courage and eloquence that characterized his tireless fight against the inhumane institution he’d escaped almost 15 years prior. He declared that he would not be taken into slavery. “What is my life if I am to be a slave in Tennessee . . . I will not live a slave, and if force is employed to re-enslave me, I shall make preparations to meet the crisis as becomes a man.”

For Loguen, those preparations did not include uprooting his wife Caroline and their children and fleeing to Canada, despite the numerous admonitions of friends to do so. Protected as he was in some regard by geography and a strong network of allies, Loguen could make this bold stand. For many other freedom seekers elsewhere in the Union, particularly those in border states like Pennsylvania, the Fugitive Slave Act left them no choice but to continue running further north.

Less than three weeks after Loguen’s stirring call to action, the city of Syracuse found itself at the center of a human tragedy that illustrated perfectly the fear, anxiety, and cruelty engendered by the new legislation. On October 24, 1850, under the headline “Attempted Suicide of a Fugitive,” the readers of the Syracuse Standard, a paper friendly to the cause of abolition, first learned of the tragic ordeal of the Harris family. In response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, William and Catherine Harris and their 3-year-old daughter had fled Philadelphia days earlier in the hopes of gaining safe transport to Canada via Rochester.

Initial reports stated that Harris escaped his own enslavement in South Carolina years earlier, eventually settling in Philadelphia. According to the testimony that Catherine later gave to Syracuse Police Justice Sylvester House, the two were married in 1843 and lived a quiet and peaceful life, and a few years later the couple welcomed the birth of their daughter. Terrified that he might be captured under the auspices of the new law, William made the fateful decision to uproot his family, and they made their way to New York City. There, they procured tickets to Rochester via the Erie Canal.

The real trouble began once they reached Albany on Thursday, October 17. As Mrs. Harris relayed in her testimony, having purchased their tickets for passage to Rochester they boarded their boat. The problems started almost immediately. Captain Hartwell C. Webster refused to return the Harris’s tickets. They were stuck in the cargo hold with large quantities of clams and oysters, delicacies that had become wildly popular all along the canal route in the 25 years since its completion.

The clams and oysters belonged to a merchant named Silas Cowell, who along with one of the boat hand’s, Jeremiah Cluney, began harassing the Harris family that evening. Somehow, they became aware of William’s status as a fugitive. Compounding their predicament was the fact that Mrs. Harris was of markedly lighter skin tone, being described in the New York Tribune [2] as a “mulatto woman, of interesting appearance.”

 According to Harris’ testimony, Cluney and Cowell continued threatening to handing them over to slave catchers saying, “no n—– could pass this canal without being taken.” Preying on their fear, these men tormented William and Catherine and their three year-old-daughter for the next two days. They even attempted to extort money from William for passage, aware that the Captain had taken their tickets to Rochester. Mrs. Harris stated that Cluney and Cowell made reference to Syracuse as “the place where they said we would be taken.” After days of ceaseless torment, Catherine Harris could not take it anymore. As she stated in her testimony, she “wants to die rather than be taken by the kidnappers.”

Convinced that the slave catchers were waiting on them in Syracuse, she jumped through the moving boat’s window and into the canal with her daughter in her arms somewhere between Frankfort and Utica. Somehow, she was fished out of the nearly eight feet of water. In the commotion, her daughter slipped out of her grasp. The captain refused to stop the boat to look for her body. William went on deck to beg the captain to stop the boat, but to no avail. Cluney threatened to cut his throat if he did not go back below decks. Their daughter was assumed drowned.

Sometime around 10 p.m., on Monday, Catherine and William retreated to the cargo hold, the depths of their misery unimaginable “awaiting their doom.” In her testimony, Mrs. Harris said Cowell confronted them again saying that the crew was going to “take his head off.” William responded that he would rather do it himself. He took his shaving razor and sliced his own throat. For the next five hours, William lay bleeding next to his wife. All the while, Cluney and Cowell sat there playing cards, yelling racist epithets at him and threatening to “knock his brains out” if he so much as moved.

As the morning sun appeared in the skies outside Canastota on Tuesday, October 22, William was able to jump off the boat and began walking on the towpath towards Syracuse. Catherine recounted being able to see him alongside the boat, while Cluney, acting on the orders of the captain, threatened William with violence if he attempted to rejoin his aggrieved wife. As such, he walked wounded and bleeding alongside the boat for over 20 miles until he collapsed by the Lodi locks, near Beech Street. Catherine reported losing sight of him around this time as the boat continued on into Clinton Square. She remained on the boat as it continued west towards Rochester. There were no slave catchers waiting there. It had all been a grotesque and murderous charade.

According to the reports in the Syracuse Journal, William Harris regained consciousness and threw himself into the canal in front of a moving boat just west of the Lodi locks. The boat’s Captain, V.R. Ogden managed to rescue Harris and bring him into Clinton Square, where he was taken and treated by Dr. Hiram Hoyt, a Syracuse physician with abolitionist sympathies. Though Harris was unable to talk due to the wound on his neck, somehow, he communicated his ordeal to Hoyt, who in turn got word to Rev. John Lisle, a Black preacher in the AME Zion Church and pastor of the Second Congregational Church on Fayette and Almond streets. Rev. Lisle offered to head west towards Rochester to find Catherine, which he did at Montezuma. According to Lisle’s testimony, he encountered no resistance from Captain Webster nor the boat’s crew, a far cry from the harrowing experience of the Harrises.

Upon their return to Syracuse, Catherine provided the testimony upon which this essay is based. As a result of her damning testimony, Justice House issued arrest warrants for Webster, Cluney, and Cowell. The three men were detained in Rochester and brought to Syracuse on charges of assault and harassment. Unconvinced by their testimony, which painted William Harris as a disorderly drunk, they were found guilty, fined and jailed.

According to historian Angela Murphy, the Harrises continued their journey to freedom in Canada, though as a family of two instead of three. Their unimaginable suffering found its way into newspapers all over the union from Wisconsin to Maine, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, Virginia, and even Georgia. It helped galvanize the opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law in a way that rhetoric could not.

Here in Syracuse, the memory of the Harrises persisted, actuating more strident resistance. This resistance would come to a head less than a year later in one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience of the period, when a righteous mob freed Jerry from his jail cell just a few steps from the Clinton Street bridge where Dr. Hoyt found William Harris bleeding from a self-inflicted wound.

Attempted Suicide of a Fugitive

“On Tuesday afternoon a colored man named Wm Harris, attempted to commit suicide by cutting his throat with a razor, on the towing path, about two miles east of this city. Harris is from South Carolina, and has been residing in Philadelphia for several years past, but on the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law became alarmed for his safety, and started for Canada, accompanied by his wife and child. In New York he procured a passage ticket for Rochester, but at Albany his ticket was taken from him and destroyed by some persons who threatened to deliver him up unless he paid for his passage again. He succeeded in getting as far as Utica, when his fears were again excited by threats of being taken back to Slavery, and says he was informed by persons belonging to the boat that he would certainly be arrested at Syracuse. He became so much alarmed by these repeated threats, (Whether made in jest or earnest it is now impossible to say) that he determined to commit suicide, and advised his wife to drown herself and their child. Taking his razor he jumped on the towing path and made an attempt to destroy himself by cutting his throat, inflicting a terrible wound, and fainted from loss of blood. His wife, with the child in her arms jumped into the canal about the same time, but was taken out by the hands-on-board the boat. The child was not recovered. The wife was carried west through this city, on the boat, [3] leaving the husband upon the tow path.” Source: Syracuse Standard, October 24, 1850. 

Rev. Loguen Denounces the Fugitive Slave Law (Syracuse, NY)

“I was a slave; I knew the dangers I was exposed to. I had made up my mind as to the course I was to take. On that score I needed no counsel, nor did the colored citizens generally. They had taken their stand-they would not be taken back to slavery. If to shoot down their assailants should forfeit their lives, such result was the least of the evil. They will have their liberties or die in their defence. What is life to me if I am to be a slave in Tennessee? My neighbors! I have lived with you many years, and you know me. My home is here, and my children were born here. I am bound to Syracuse by pecuniary interests, and social and family bonds. And do you think I can be taken away from you and from my wife and children, and be a slave in Tennessee? Has the President and his Secretary sent this enactment up here, to you,

Some kind and good friends advise me to quit my country, and stay in Canada, until this tempest is passed. I doubt not the sincerity of such counsellors. But my conviction is strong, that their advice comes from lack of knowledge of themselves and the case in hand. I believe that our own bosoms are charged to the brim with qualities that will smite to the earth the villains who may interfere to enslave any man in Syracuse.

I don’t respect this law- I don’t fear it- I won’t obey it! It outlaws me, and I outlaw it, and the men who attempt to enforce it on me. I place the governmental officials on the ground that they place me. I will not live a slave, and if force is employed to re-enslave me, I shall make preparations to meet the crisis as becomes a man.” Source: The Rev. J.W. Loguen, As A Slave and As a freeman. A Narrative of Real Life (Syracuse, 1859), pp. 391-93; Aptheker 306-308

Civics – Era 11 The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)

New Jersey Council for the Social Studies

www.njcss.org

Engaging High School Students in Global Civic Education Lessons in U.S. History

The relationship between the individual and the state is present in every country, society, and civilization. Relevant questions about individual liberty, civic engagement, government authority, equality and justice, and protection are important for every demographic group in the population.  In your teaching of World History, consider the examples and questions provided below that should be familiar to students in the history of the United States with application to the experiences of others around the world.

These civic activities are designed to present civics in a global context as civic education happens in every country.  The design is flexible regarding using one of the activities, allowing students to explore multiple activities in groups, and as a lesson for a substitute teacher. The lessons are free, although a donation to the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies is greatly appreciated. www.njcss.org

Era 11 The Great Depression and World War II (1929–1945)

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The beginning of the 20th century marks the foundation of the transformation of the United States into a world power by the middle of the century. In this era industrialization, urbanization, and rapid immigration changed America from an agrarian to an urban society as people lived and worked in cities. The development of the new technologies of electricity, transportation, and communication challenged our long-held traditional policies of limited government, neutrality, and laissez-faire capitalism. The lesson of the Great Depression was that capitalism and free markets did not enable everyone to attain the American Dream. As a result, Americans looked to their government for help with the problems of unemployment, poverty, old age. Housing, and the supply of food.

Activity #1: The New Deal vs. a Five-Year Plan?

During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate was 24.9% in the United States (about 13 million people). Without income, there was very limited private consumption. President Roosevelt identified the South as the number one “problem region” of the U.S. for poverty and economic distress. In 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, a federally funded program to protect  the environment from floods, encourage economic development, and produce electric power.

In 1934, Shareholders of the Alabama Power Company sued to prevent the TVA from acquiring over half of the company’s property and equipment. The sale would allow the government agency to allocate electric power to consumers. The shareholders argued that Congress exceeded its authority.

The U.S. Supreme Court in Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, held that Congress did not abuse its power. Justice Hughes argued that the Wilson Dam, the location where the TVA was in the business of generating electricity, had been built originally in the interest of national defense because it produced materials involved in the production of munitions. The government could sell excess electricity to consumers without violating the Constitution. The majority concluded that Congress had the authority to construct the Wilson Dam. The majority also found that the disposal of the electric energy generated was lawful. 

This Supreme Court decision is also known for the reasoning of Justice Louis Brandeis regarding conflicts when one branch exceeds its power and infringes on another branch. Justice Brandeis adopted the criteria which has become known as the ‘avoidance doctrine.’ “One branch of the government cannot encroach upon the domain of another, without danger. The safety of our institutions depends in no small degree on a strict observance of this salutary rule.”

The legacy of the Tennessee Valley Authority brought electricity to the southeastern United States increasing the productivity of farming and transforming this region from poverty to sustainable economic development. Before the Tennessee Valley Authority, electric power was generated by private companies. (e.g. Westinghouse, Edison Electric Illuminating Company, Public Service Corporation, etc.) Private companies are concerned with making a profit instead of investing in public areas such as street lights or rural areas. The first buildings to have electricity around 1880 were often hotels and commercial buildings. Wabash, IN, Appleton, WI, Cleveland, OH, and lower Manhattan were some of the first towns and cities to have electric power. Some members in Congress, namely Senator George Norris, favored public utility companies as the most efficient way to bring this new invention to everyone in the United States.

The Soviet Union’s Five-Year Plan: The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine

Since the Russian Revolution of 1917, Lenin prioritized the electrification of the Soviet Union as essential for economic and industrial development.  Each of the 12 Five Year Plans included the expansion of power through the construction of dams, fossil fuels, natural gas, and since 1975, nuclear energy. The Soviet state planning committee, Gosplan, developed these plans with clearly stated production goals.

One of the problems with the energy plan of the Soviet Union is the transmission of electricity from the generating plant to other regions of the country. Russia depends on a unified power system and the complexity of its geography and use of different energy sources (fossil fuels, hydropower, natural gas, and nuclear) makes it difficult to transfer power from one source to another efficiently.  The heaviest demand for electricity is in the western or European side of the country.  However, as electricity became accessible to rural areas, agricultural production became dependent on electricity. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe is on the Dnieper River in Ukraine. It was constructed in 1985.

The Soviet Union could benefit from the computer software used in the United States, but the Five-Year Plan model is dependent on Soviet Union computers and boilers. Some of the Five-Year Plans were completed ahead of schedule, some did not meet their goals, and they also included social changes such as closing houses of worship, providing child care, and using large collective farms. The goals of most of the plans were to transform the Soviet Union into a major industrial and economic power.

The Debate Between Private and Public Electric Companies

Russia’s 12 5 year plans

The Soviet Electric Power Industry

Questions:

  1. How is a market economy different from a command economy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both models?
  2. Why did the United States and Soviet Union experience challenges or problems with electrifying their countries?
  3. Is a monopoly or market competition the most efficient economic model for providing utilities to the people in a country? (water, electric, phone, education, etc.)
  4. Is a market or command economy the most efficient model to address the expected problems from climate change in the next 25 years?
  5. Which economic model (market, command, or mixed) is the most efficient one to increase worker productivity?

Activity #2: Two Perspectives on World War II: DR’s Four Freedoms Speech and Hirohito’s Decree

On January 6, 1940, about three months after Hitler’s attack on Poland, President Franklin Roosevelt gave his Four Freedoms speech as part of his State of the Union address. This was during a time when many people in America wanted to remain neutral and isolated from the European conflict which expanded in September 1939 with Germany’s blitzkrieg attack and occupation of independent Poland.

1940 was also a presidential election year. In the mid-term election of 1938, the Republican Party became the majority in the House and Senate.  The Republican Party had several contenders for the nomination, notably Governor Thomas Dewey (NY) Senator Robert Taft (OH), and Wendell Wilkie, a businessman from Kansas. When the Republican Party convention was held in June in Philadelphia, Wendell Wilkie’s popularity had increased significantly, while the popularity of Thomas Dewey and Robert Taft was declining. 

Excerpt from the Four Freedoms Speech

“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want–which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear–which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception–the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change — in a perpetual peaceful revolution — a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions–without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.”

Historical perspectives were important in 1941, and they are important today. The United States, including President Roosevelt, presented a perspective of Japanese superiority and a destiny to rule the world. He also called America’s citizens to accept the importance of a new moral order that included the religious concept of faith in freedom under the guidance of God. This perspective of American superiority is built on a commitment to an idea and an ideal.

American vs. Japanese Civilian Perspectives

A Life Magazine article about Emperor Hirohito in 1937 stated “To Japanese he is, in all seriousness, a divine descendent of the Sun goddess, the incarnate head of the Japanese divinity idea that makes the conquest of Asia a holy destiny for the Japanese race.” For ordinary Americans, the concept of kami in Japanese culture was not comprehendible. Instead of understanding a perspective of divinity as present everywhere, they accepted Hirohito as a son of a god or goddess or someone connected with divinity.

After the bombing at Pearl Harbor tensions between the United States and Japan escalated. Through the lens of war, the Japanese emperor’s god-like status became a more serious issue because they perceived Japan’s war objectives connected with their religious beliefs.  A 1945 United States News story explains, “Shintoism has no religious content and has ethical content to the extent that it is designed to support the idea of the divine origin of the Emperor.”  A 1945 article in Life Magazine stated, “The Emperor of Japan is neither a man nor a ruler. Nor is he simply a god living in Tokyo. He is a spiritual institution in which center the energy, the loyalty and even the morality of the Japanese.” He is supreme in all temporal matters of state as well as in all spiritual matters, and he is the foundation of Japanese social and civil morality.

American and Japanese civilians had very opposite reactions following the events of December 7, 1941. For Americans, Pearl Harbor represented “A Day Which Will Live in Infamy.” For citizens of Japan, Pearl Harbor represented the success of a justified military retaliation. The American and Japanese governments both utilized nationalism to their advantage, and implemented various forms of propaganda as tools for shaping their civilians’ perspectives.  

Excerpt from Japan’s Announcement Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor

     “What an uproar! Japan’s Imperial Forces got things off to a quick start with one splendid strike then another in historic surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, where the bravado of the US Asia fleet met with sudden defeat, and off the Malaya Coast, where the main forces of the British Asia fleet were utterly annihilated. Word has it that Roosevelt and Churchill were shaken up and went pale upon hearing of the defeats. In a third strike, Hong Kong Island, England’s strategic base for its 100-year exploitation of East Asia, fell into ruin in only a matter of ten days. During this time, Churchill was sent reeling, cutting off contact with others and showing up in Washington.

     What these two headstrong countries are striving for will only lead them on a downhill path to military defeat. Our barbaric enemies are already cowering in fear in the Pacific, and the fall of Manila shall mark the day of the Philippines’ subjugation and reversion back to Greater East Asia. The enemy power of Singapore, which was—alas—boasting of its impenetrable stronghold before the Imperial Forces penetrated the jungle area of the Malay Peninsula and advanced southward like a raging tide, shall also vanish into nothingness in the midst of this glorious chapter in history.

     The military gains of the glorious Imperial Forces are truly great, and the army, navy, and air force should be given our heartfelt gratitude. We should also honor our courageous men who are ready to lay down their lives when charging enemy lines, as well as those who went out to conquer but never returned.”

Emperor Hirohito’s Decree

On January 1, 1946, four months after the surrender on September 2, 1945, Emperor Hirohito made the following statement in Japan’s newspapers.

“I stand by my people. I am ever ready to share in their joys and sorrows. The ties between me and my people have always been formed by mutual trust and affection. They do not depend upon mere legends or myths. Nor are they predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine, and that the Japanese are superior to other races and destined to rule the world.

FDR Four Freedoms Speech

FDR Annual Message to Congress, January 6, 1940

Japanese vs. American Perspectives on Pearl Harbor

Japan’s Announcement Following Pearl Harbor, December 8, 1941

President Roosevelt’s Speech Following Pearl Harbor (video:4:48)

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Radio Address on the Evening of Pearl Harbor (transcript)

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Radio Address on the Evening of Pearl Harbor (audio, 2:57)

Questions:

  1. How was the rise of dictators after World War 1 an existential threat? How did ordinary American citizens understand the conflict in Europe and Asia before and after the attack on Poland and the attack on Pearl Harbor?
  2. If you were the President of the United States in 1940, would you deliver the Four Freedoms speech or one that is similar in content and context?
  3. Do you accept President Roosevelt’s statement following Pearl Harbor that before the attack the United States was at peace with Japan? (see video clip above)
  4. Are elected leaders elevated by people and the press or are they criticized to the extent that their decisions and motives are questioned?
  5. Which government delivered the best message to its citizens based on factual evidence and an understanding of the importance of the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Activity #3: Japanese Internment Camps and Soviet Union Deportation Camps

Japanese Internment Camps

Two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 to relocate approximately 117,000 Japanese Americans living on the west coast.  At first, the order was voluntary and Japanese Americans had time to sell their property and comply in an orderly manner.

Unfortunately, many did not comply voluntarily, and the relocation became mandatory. Thousands of people lost their homes and businesses due to “failure to pay taxes.” The relocation of Japanese Americans in the United States for safety and security reasons was controversial during World War II and for the decades that followed.  The internment camps provided educational and recreational activities, adequate heat, and a process to hear complaints and address concerns.

There were 12 camps located all over the United States, with the Seabrook Farms camp in New Jersey.

President Truman rescinded the Executive Order on June 25, 1946 allowing the Japanese Americans to return to their homes. They were in relocation camps for more than four years. When they returned home, most found their belongings stolen and their homes and property sold. They also faced prejudice and discrimination for years, even though Japanese Americans were combat soldiers during the war. 

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act. The remaining survivors of the relocation camps were sent formal letters of apology and were awarded $20,000 in restitutions from the United States government.

Soviet Union Deportation Camps During World War II

On February 23, 1944, the Chechens were exiled from their ancestral lands and deported to Siberia and the northern regions of Kazakhstan. The entirety of the Chechen nation was accused of collaborating with the Fascists, even though there is no evidence to support this. The German advance into the Soviet Union never came close to Chechnya. The Chechen deportation of almost 400,000 men, women, and children is the largest Soviet deportation and occurred in a matter of days. Many Chechens had in fact fought on the front lines of the Soviet war against the German aggressor.

On September 1, 1941 the mass evacuation was announced for the approximately 440,000 Volga Germans. Ten days later they began their forced deportation to Kazakhstan and Siberia. Many were forced to work in ‘labor camps’  such as Kolyma. The Volga Germans were then stripped of their citizenship and did not regain their civil rights until after Stalin’s death. Most estimates indicate that close to 40 percent of the affected population perished.

In 1944, Joseph Stalin ordered the deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar community (roughly 200,000), falsely accusing them of collaborating with the Nazis. Reports suggest that nearly half of the deported died during the ordeal. Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Canada have all formally recognized Stalin’s brutal deportation as a crime of genocide. During this same period, the Soviet Union adopted a policy of “Russification” for the peninsula. Crimea was “Russified” and any study of the Tatar’s native language was banned, ancient Tatar names were erased, Tatar books were burned, and their mosques were destroyed. Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Soviet Russia to Soviet Ukraine.

Behind Barbed Wire: Japanese American Camps

Japanese American Internment Camps

Soviet Union Deportation of Volga Germans

Soviet Union Deportation of Chechnyas

Soviet Union Deportation of Crimean Tatars

Questions:

  1. Is it possible for a government to correct something it did that was morally or legally wrong?
  2. Do governments need to justify the actions they take during a time of war or a national crisis?
  3. Are there significant differences in the actions of the United States and the Soviet Union in the relocation or deportation of innocent people, many who were citizens?
  4. Do ordinary people have any rights during a war or crisis (i.e. Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, etc.)?
  5. How and who determines if and when a government exceeds its authority?

Activity #4: Weapons of Mass Destruction

In World War II, the Japanese were fighting for the Emperor who convinced them that it was better to die than surrender. Women and children had been taught how to kill with basic weapons. kamikaze pilots crashed their planes into American ships. A land invasion would be costly with estimates of more than one million American lives lost.

After a successful test of a nuclear bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico on July 16, 1945, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom issued the Potsdam Declaration on July 26 demanding the unconditional surrender of the Japanese government, warning of “prompt and utter destruction.” On the morning of August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The result was approximately 80,000 deaths in just the first few minutes. Thousands died later from radiation sickness. On August 9, 1945, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The result was 39,000 men, women and children were killed and 25,000 more were injured. Both cities were leveled and Japan surrendered to the United States.

After the news of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, Lieutenant General Leslie R Groves, director of the `Manhattan Project’ that had developed the atomic bomb, commented:

“The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II. There can be no doubt of that. While they brought death and destruction on a horrifying scale, they averted even greater losses – American, English, and Japanese”.

This justification that the use of the bomb saved lives, even though it killed innocent civilians, has haunted the world into our present time.  It was a view that generated controversy then and after as to the justification or otherwise of the use of such weapons on largely defenseless civilian targets, at such Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) that has haunted the world into our present times.

Following World War 2, there was an arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Although there were threats of war and conflicts in Korea, Southeast Asia, the Congo and other places, this period was called the Cold War. Other countries also developed nuclear weapons leading to concerns of a global conflict.

The world came close to a nuclear attack during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1962, nuclear weapons could be delivered by airplanes, missiles, and submarines. The Soviet Union placed nuclear warheads in Cuba and the United States had some in Turkey. These missiles could attack cities in both countries within a range of 1,200 miles. Fortunately, the Soviet Union began to withdraw its ships and missiles from Cuba and an agreement was made.

In the 1960s, the military strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) was debated, In this strategy, two opposing forces, the Soviet Union and the United States, had enough nuclear weapons to completely destroy each other. This deterrence theory assumed that neither side would initiate a nuclear attack because the resulting retaliation would lead to their own destruction.  The concept, first discussed in the 1960s during the Cold War, is based on the idea that the devastating consequences of nuclear war would outweigh any potential gains for either side. 

As a result, the United Nations initiated the process to limit the production of nuclear testing and weapons.  Since the first test ban treaty, several agreements have been ratified to control the proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons. The threat from atomic, hydrogen, neutron, and cobalt nuclear weapons is a concern to every person and every country because of the fallout from dangerous levels of radiation. There are still detectable effects of radiation in our atmosphere today from the 1945 explosion. The effects of radiation from a thermonuclear weapon (Hydrogen bomb) will likely last for hundreds of years and affect every living organism and human.

Following the Attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the world became concerned about a terrorist group having access to a smaller nuclear weapon, a dirty bomb, that might be detonated in an urban area. The effects of a dirty bomb would likely be limited to the immediate area of the explosion but the damage to property and the cleanup of radioactive elements would be significant and costly.

Nuclear Arms Race and Treaties: 1949-2021 (Council on Foreign Relations)

Timeline of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (Arms Control Association)

Devastating Effects of Nuclear Weapons

Questions:

  1. Why did an arms race between the USA and the USSR begin after 1945?
  2. How sane was the policy of MAD?
  3. What factors sustained the arms race for so long?
  4. Is a limited nuclear war a plausible scenario or would it quickly lead to an all-out war?
  5. What would life on Earth be like after a nuclear war? What geographic regions might have a chance of survival?
  6. Should the civil defense from a nuclear war or dirty bomb explosion be best coordinated by local, state, or the federal government in the United States?
  7. How would the governments of Europe or the Middle East, where there are many countries within a small geographic area respond to a nuclear war or explosion from a bomb or nuclear power plant?
  8. What is the most likely scenario for a nuclear explosion in the 21st century?

Civics Era 10 – The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929-1945)

New Jersey Council for the Social Studies

www.njcss.org

Engaging High School Students in Global Civic Education Lessons in U.S. History

The relationship between the individual and the state is present in every country, society, and civilization. Relevant questions about individual liberty, civic engagement, government authority, equality and justice, and protection are important for every demographic group in the population.  In your teaching of World History, consider the examples and questions provided below that should be familiar to students in the history of the United States with application to the experiences of others around the world.

These civic activities are designed to present civics in a global context as civic education happens in every country.  The design is flexible regarding using one of the activities, allowing students to explore multiple activities in groups, and as a lesson for a substitute teacher. The lessons are free, although a donation to the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies is greatly appreciated. www.njcss.org

Era 10 The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929–1945)  

The beginning of the 20th century marks the foundation of the transformation of the United States into a world power by the middle of the century. In this era economic prosperity and depression, the ability of our government to provide for the needs of people experiencing economic hardship, and the rise of dictators attacking innocent civilians and threatening the existence of democratic governments leading to a second world war dominate the narrative of this historical period. The development of the new technologies of electricity, transportation, and communication challenged our long-held traditional policies of limited government, neutrality, and laissez-faire capitalism.

Activity #1:   Father Charles Coughlin, BBC and ABC: Can the ruling political party use public media to advocate for its policies?

In the 1930s, Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest, had a weekly radio program with millions of listeners in the United States. In 1926 he broadcast weekly sermons but as the economy shifted into a recession and depression, his broadcast became more political and economic. They also reflected anti-Semitism with verbal attacks on prominent Jewish citizens. His broadcast following Kristallnacht on November 10, 1938 was particularly divisive. The owner of WMCA, a New York station, refused to broadcast Father Coughlin’s messages

The owner of WMCA, the New York station that carried his program, refused to broadcast Coughlin’s next radio message. The Nazi press reacted to the news with fury: “America is Not Allowed to Hear the Truth” declared one headline. “Jewish organizations camouflaged as American…have conducted such a campaign…that the radio station company has proceeded to muzzle the well-loved Father Coughlin.” A “New York Times” correspondent in Germany noted that Coughlin had become for the moment “the hero of Nazi Germany.” 

In the United States the Federal Communications Act of 1934 and subsequent additions regarding television and quiz shows mostly protects licenses, ensures equal access to all geographic areas, and provides for a rapid communications system regarding emergencies and national defense. It protects First Amendment rights regarding content, with some restrictions regarding profanity or inappropriate sexual content or images. The absence of specific content regulations allowed Orson Welles in 1938 to produce “War of the Worlds” over the radio leading to a panic by many citizens regarding their fear of an alien invasion.  The Fairness Doctrine of 1949 requires broadcasters to allow responses to personal attacks and controversial opinions. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Red Lion Broadcasting Co., Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission challenged the constitutionality of the Fairness Doctrine allowing the popularity of political radio and television talk and news programs.

Federal Communications Act of 1934

Broadcast Media Policy in the United Kingdom

The use of public media in the United Kingdom has specific statues to balance the perspectives of opinions and to prevent or limit the public broadcast media as a platform to present the views of the government, propaganda, or to advocate for a particular point of view on a controversial issue. The diversity of opinion in the United Kingdom for the BBC must respect opinions reflecting urban and rural populations, age, income, geography, culture, and political affiliations. There are also reasonable guidelines regarding the editor’s judgment to exclude a particular perspective. Facts and opinions must be defined and clearly stated.   Section 4 Impartiality: 4.3.14     BBC Editorial Policy

Questions:

  1. How is broadcast media (radio and television) substantially different than print, telegraph or telephone media?
  2. How is social media substantially different than radio and television broadcasting?
  3. Does the U.S. Constitution allow for government regulation of content?
  4. To what extent is self-regulation effective or ineffective regarding news, weather, traffic, programs, and ethical standards?
  5. Are the regulations of content justified when their protect the mental health of people and prevent false or misleading statements and prohibit explicit sexual images and content determined to be pornographic?
  6. To what extent is censorship a problem in the publication of information. Should restrictive editorial policies be considered a form of censorship?

Activity #2: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the United States and Bank Deposit Insurance in Other Countries

In the United States, deposits in most banks are protected up to $250,000 for each investor. This protection restored confidence in American banks during the Great Depression and is an important reason for a sound financial system in the United States. Investments in stocks and bonds fluctuate with market conditions.  Every bank in the United States also has deposits that are not insured. Investments in stocks, mutual funds, and corporate bonds are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The Federal Reserve Bank establishes a reserve requirement, currently 10%, for banks to maintain to ensure adequate funds for withdrawals. The Federal Reserve Bank also monitors the member banks in the Federal Reserve System. Banks are assessed on all of their deposits quarterly and a formula is used to calculate their insurance payment. The FDIC is self-insured, although backed by Congress in the event of a catastrophic collapse of the banking system.

The Banking System in Japan

In Japan, the Deposit Insurance Act was enacted in 1971. The DIA fully insures deposits that do not earn interest.  In the United States amounts in checking, savings, money market accounts, and Certificates of Deposit are insured. Deposits that earn interest in Japan are insured up to 10 million yen, or about $70,000.

The most recent crisis in Japan is the exposure of the Aozora Bank to bad loans and investments in the United States. In 2024, it posted a net loss of 28 billion Japanese yen or about $191 million in U.S. dollars. A major earthquake in Japan, effects from extreme weather, or a military conflict would likely present major risks to Japan’s banks.

Examples of countries without any defined deposit insurance are China, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, and South Africa. Perhaps one-third of the countries in the world do not protect deposits in their banks.

Failed Banks in the U.S. by Year (Forbes)

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Video: FDIC (13 minutes)

Japan’s Banking Crisis in the 1990s (Video)

Questions:

  1. There are about 6 million households in the United States without bank accounts. If you consider this a concern, what can be done to address this situation?
  2. What is the role of banks in the macroeconomy?
  3. Does the deposit insurance system in the United States provide sufficient protection?
  4. Are some banks too big to fail? If yes, then is the federal government justified in using taxpayer dollars to protect a large bank from failure or takeover?
  5. To what extent should pension investments, property and homes, investments in government bonds be protected?  Should insurance for these investments be paid for by the depositor or the bank?
  6. Is the primary purpose of federal deposit insurance to protect the banks or its depositors?

Activity #3: Governor Huey P. Long and Health Insurance in the United States and other Countries

Huey P. Long is a challenging person for historians and educators. His ‘Share the Wealth’ program, use of the media, authoritarian actions, and criticisms of voter manipulation provide for diverse perspectives. However, he improved healthcare in Louisiana by expanding the Charity Hospital System, creating the Louisiana State University Medical School, reforming institutions to care for the disabled and mentally challenged, and providing free health clinics and immunizations. As a result, many lives were saved.

As governor, Long tripled funding for public healthcare. The state’s free health clinics grew from 10 in 1926 to 31 in 1933, providing free immunizations to 67 percent of the rural population. By building bridges and paving new roads, he made it possible for the rural poor to have access to medical and dental health care and hospitals. In the long historical timeline toward universal health care insurance in the United States, Huey P. Long is a pioneer.

Before Huey Long’s reforms, patients at the Central Hospital for the Insane were locked in chairs during their ‘recreation’ time.  from Every Man a King by Huey Long; reproduced by permission.

Long by-passed the negative press by distributing his own newspaper, “The American Progress,” and he spoke directly to a national audience through radio speeches and speaking engagements. In a national radio broadcast on February 23, 1934, Huey Long unveiled his “Share Our Wealth” plan a program designed to provide a decent standard of living to all Americans by spreading the nation’s wealth among the people. Long proposed capping personal fortunes at $50 million each (roughly $600 million in today’s dollars) through a restructured, progressive federal tax code and sharing the resulting revenue with the public through government benefits and public works. In addition, he advocated for a 30 hour work week, four weeks of paid vacation for every worker, free college or vocational educational and limiting annual incomes to $1 million or about $60 million in today’s dollars. He also advocated for pensions and health care provided by businesses and the government.

Long believed that it was morally wrong for the government to allow millions of Americans to suffer in poverty when there existed a surplus of food, clothing, and shelter. By 1934, nearly half of all American families lived in poverty, earning less than $1,250 annually.  He supported a health care system for all people using government funds.  Long’s authoritarian use of power helped him achieve his goals until his assassination in 1935.

There are four basic health care models

The United States has one of the most expensive health care systems in the world. It invests in research,

However, in 2021, 8.6 percent of the U.S. population was uninsured.  The U.S. is the only country where a substantial portion of the population lacks any form of health insurance. The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest death rates for avoidable or treatable conditions, the highest maternal and infant mortality, and one of the highest suicide rates in the world. It also has the highest rate of people with multiple chronic conditions and an obesity rate nearly twice the average of other developed countries.

The current programs provided by Medicare (for people over age 65), Medicaid (for people with low incomes), and the Affordable Care Act (current program for most people) are each under attack because of the high costs associated with them and government regulation of the prices paid.

In your research and discussion consider the following models of health insurance and the programs Gov. Huey P. Long implemented in Louisiana in the 1930s.

The Beveridge Model

This model is named after William Beveridge, the social reformer who designed Britain’s National Health Service. In this system, health care is provided and financed by the government through tax payments, just like the police force or the public library.

Many, but not all, hospitals and clinics are owned by the government; some doctors are government employees, but there are also private doctors who collect their fees from the government. This system has the lowest costs per person, because the government controls what doctors can do and what they can charge. Great Britain, Spain, most Scandinavian countries, New Zealand, and Cuba are countries using this model or one that is similar.

The Bismarck Model

The Bismarck models uses an insurance system financed jointly by employers and employees through payroll deduction. Every person is covered. Doctors and hospitals are private operators. Although there are many payers to this model, costs tend to be regulated by the government. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, and some Latin American are countries that use this model.

The National Health Insurance Model

This system has elements of both Beveridge and Bismarck models. It uses private-sector providers, but payment comes from a government-run insurance program that every citizen pays into. Costs are considered low because there are no profits, no advertising, and claims are pre-approved. It is a single payer system and as a monopolist it is in a position to negotiate for the lowest prices. This system also has the ability to limit the medical services it will pay for, such as preventive care or what is considered elective procedures. Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea are countries using this model. For Americans over the age of 65, Medicare is similar to this model.

The Out-of-Pocket Model

Health insurance is mostly a benefit for industrialized countries. Of the 195 countries on planet Earth, about 40 or 25% have established health care systems. In countries using this model, the poor are neglected.  This is a problem for hundreds of millions of people who have low incomes or are living below the poverty line.

Questions:

  1. Does preventive care provide long-term savings for a country?
  2. Who has the primary responsibility for physical and mental health care in a country?
  3. Is government sponsored health care part of the vision of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution?
  4. Are there limits to what a government or business can and should provide for its populations?
  5. Local communities finance public education with taxes and the salaries of educators and graduation requirements are controlled by local Boards of Education with some supervision from the state government. Should this model be considered for health care?
  6. Which of the four models would you adopt or adapt for the United States?
  7. How can the United States best address the health care crises it faces regarding obesity, mental health, cancer, and chronic conditions. (i.e. diabetes, hypertension)
  8. Should health care models also include the costs of vision, hearing, and dental expenses?

Activity #4: Dr. Francis Townsend and Direct Payments to Citizens Living in Poverty and Income Transfer in the United Kingdom

In 2023, the offi­cial pover­ty thresh­old in the United States was $30,900 for a fam­i­ly of two adults and two chil­dren. Fam­i­lies can earn well over this amount and still find they cannot pay all of their bills.

Poverty is relative.  Someone in your class, school, community, etc. will be in the bottom 25% of income earners. An individual earning an hourly wage of $20.00 an hour who works for 35 hours a week earns $700 a week or $36,400 a year. This total is reduced by state and federal taxes and a 7.65% tax on Medicare and Social Security. Although $20 an hour is higher than the minimum wage in every state, it is not considered a living wage.

About one in sev­en (14%) of children under age 16 are in pover­ty in the United States.  This means that about 10 mil­lion kids in 2023 were liv­ing in house­holds that did not have enough resources for basic needs such as food, hous­ing and utilities.  The poverty rate in New Jersey is 10% of the population or about 950,000.  See the SPM child pover­ty rate in your state   The high­est rates of pover­ty gen­er­al­ly occur for the youngest chil­dren — under age 5 — kids in sin­gle-moth­er fam­i­lies, chil­dren of col­or and kids in immi­grant families. The numbers of children and adults living in poverty are increasing and they are a serious problem. The effects of living in poverty are the concern of your discussion as is the most effective way to reduce or eliminate it.

The effects of eco­nom­ic hard­ship dis­rupt the cog­ni­tive devel­op­ment, phys­i­cal and men­tal health, edu­ca­tion­al suc­cess of children. Researchers esti­mate the total U.S. cost of child pover­ty ranges from $500 bil­lion to $1 tril­lion per year based on lost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and increased health care expenses.

Poverty in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the poverty rate for children is 31% or double the rate in the United States. There is no single, universally accepted definition of poverty for the world.  The United States identifies an income level for family categories and the United Kingdom uses a measure of disposable income (after taxes) below 60% of the median income (income of the largest group in the population) on an annual basis.

For example, the median income in the United States is $40,000. If we used this formula, the poverty level would be $24,000 (after taxes). If we consider a 20% federal tax, 8% FICA and Medicare tax, and a 5% state tax for a person employed in New Jersey making $40,000, their disposable income would be approximately $27,000 or similar to the measure used in the United Kingdom.  If you consider the cost of rent at $2,000 a month, transportation costs at $200 a month, and food at $500 a month for a family or individual in New Jersey, these expenses are $2,700 a month or $32,400 a year. An income threshold of $30,000 a month is not practical.

The Townsend Plan

Dr. Francis Townsend, a medical doctor living in Long Beach, California, introduced a plan in 1933 to provide direct payments to people over the age of 60. The money would be raised through a national sales tax, which in some countries is labeled a Value Added Tax of VAT.

“It is estimated that the population of the age of 60 and above in the United States is somewhere between nine and twelve millions. I suggest that the national government retire all who reach that age on a monthly pension of $200 a month or more, on condition that they spend the money as they get it. This will ensure an even distribution throughout the nation of two or three billions of fresh money each month. Thereby assuring a healthy and brisk state of business, comparable to that we enjoyed during war times.

“Where is the money to come from? More taxes?” Certainly. We have nothing in this world we do not pay taxes to enjoy. But do not overlook the fact that we are already paying a large proportion of the amount required for these pensions in the form of life insurance policies, poor farms, aid societies, insane asylums and prisons. The inmates of the last two mentioned institutions would undoubtedly be greatly lessened when it once became assured that old age meant security from want and care. A sales tax sufficiently high to insure the pensions at a figure adequate to maintain the business of the country in a healthy condition would be the easiest tax in the world to collect, for all would realize that the tax was a provision for their own future, as well as the assurance of good business now.”

Dr. Townsend’s plan became popular with the people and became known as The Townsend Movement.  Although it was criticized by President Franklin Roosevelt, the Social Security Administration is similar to what Dr. Townsend proposed.  He published a newsletter, The Modern Crusader, to promote his plan. The Social Security plan is funded by a tax on incomes because the burden is shared proportionately by different income levels. 

Welfare, unemployment compensation, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are payments to United States’ citizens that are currently being discussed and evaluated. The average monthly payment is slightly less than $2,000. These are direct payments to people from the government, which also benefit local communities as the money is spent on food, housing, and basic needs, and provides a safeguard against bankruptcy and financial hardship. They may also increase the federal debt of a country in times of high unemployment or a pandemic.

Policy makers and economists must also consider public policies regarding the poor and senior citizens. The discussion questions below address the question of poverty for the young, disabled, and elderly and how to finance them.

Questions:

  1. Do governments have a responsibility to provide financial assistance or a guaranteed living wage to individuals or families with inadequate finances for basic needs?
  2. Are direct income payments a burden on a government or do they provide an efficient return on their investment over time?
  3. Is the question of how to reduce or prevent poverty a matter of taxation or a a matter relating to the priorities of the federal budget?
  4. When people with mortgages apply the cost of interest as a deduction on their income tax, should this be considered an income transfer policy of the government providing assistance to people who are able to own property or their own home?
  5. Should income transfers be made in cash or in-kind benefits such as food stamps, vouchers for health care, etc.?
  6. Should the government regulate the consumption expenses of people receiving income transfers?
  7. Should income transfers be financed by income taxes, consumption taxes, or another method?
  8. What will likely be the effects of our government ending its income transfers for Social Security, medical, and/or unemployment?  What will be the short-term and long-term effects?

Resources:

https://www.ssa.gov/history/towns5.html (The Townsend Plan)

https://www.ssa.gov/history/towns8.html (Francis Townsend’s Autobiography)

https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/townsend-dr-francis/ (Social Welfare History Project)

https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/child-poverty-statistics-causes-and-the-uks-policy-response/#heading-2 (House of Lords Library)

Civics Era 9 The Great Depression and World War II (1929–1945)

New Jersey Council for the Social Studies

www.njcss.org

Engaging High School Students in Global Civic Education Lessons in U.S. History

The relationship between the individual and the state is present in every country, society, and civilization. Relevant questions about individual liberty, civic engagement, government authority, equality and justice, and protection are important for every demographic group in the population.  In your teaching of World History, consider the examples and questions provided below that should be familiar to students in the history of the United States with application to the experiences of others around the world.

These civic activities are designed to present civics in a global context as civic education happens in every country.  The design is flexible regarding using one of the activities, allowing students to explore multiple activities in groups, and as a lesson for a substitute teacher. The lessons are free, although a donation to the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies is greatly appreciated. www.njcss.org

Era 9 The Great Depression and World War II (1929–1945)

The Great Depression brought about significant changes in the regulatory power of the federal government of the United States. The reforms of the New Deal were to stabilize the capitalistic economics system of the United States and they also imposed a mild form of welfare state capitalism that was prevalent in European countries. As a result, this era provides students with several opportunities to test their analytical skills regarding presidential power, the effectiveness of a democracy in addressing a major crisis, and the effect of the reforms of the New Deal on racial minorities, women, children and other groups.

Activity #1:  The Packing of the U.S. Supreme Court (1937) and the Supreme Court in Ghana

The Constitution does not stipulate the number of Supreme Court Justices; the number is set by Congress. There have been as few as six, but since 1869 there have been nine Justices, including one Chief Justice. All Justices are nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and hold their offices under life tenure. Justices may remain in office until they resign, pass away, or are impeached and convicted by Congress.

After winning a landslide election in 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the Judicial Procedures Reform Act which would allow the president to nominate an additional judge to the Court for every sitting judge who had served at least ten years and reached the age of 70. The initial reason that was explained by President Roosevelt was that the aging justices could not keep up with their caseload. Roosevelt changed his reasoning when this argument appeared flawed because the additional judges would likely increase deliberations and delay the time to make a decision. The new argument that the appointed justices did not reflect the will of the people at a time when the United States faced unprecedented economic problems was explained to the people in a Fireside Chat.

President Roosevelt continued to advocate for the Judicial Procedures Reform Act until the Senate voted 70-20 to send the bill back to committee in July, 1937. It was never passed.

The individual states determine the number of judges on their state supreme courts. The number varies between five and nine justices. The Supreme Court of New Jersey has seven judges.

The Supreme Court of Ghana

The Supreme Court is the highest Court in the administration of justice in Ghana.

The Court is presided over by the Chief Justice and in his absence the most senior of the Justices of the Supreme Court, as constituted shall preside. Judges who sit in the Supreme Court are referred to as Justices of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court consists of the Chief Justice and not less than nine Justices. It has exclusive original jurisdiction in all matters relating to the enforcement or interpretation of the 1992 Constitution. It also has supervisory jurisdiction over all the Courts in Ghana. It is located only at the Headquarters in Accra.

Questions:

  1. In the United States, should the final decision on legislation be made by non-elected judges on the U.S. Supreme Court?
  2.  If the United States Congress was to reform the U.S. Supreme Court, what changes would you recommend they consider?
  3. Does the Tenth Amendment best serve the interests of representative democracy by allowing the individual states to make decision on issues not specifically delegated to Congress or is popular sovereignty served through the popular vote of the election of congressional representatives and senators?
  4. Do you prefer the structure of the Supreme Court in Ghana, which establishes a minimum number of judges, to be a better plan for decision making than how the United States structures its Supreme Court?
  5. Can Ghana prevent a president from adding judges with a similar political philosophy?

National Constitution Center

Information on State Supreme Courts

The Structure and Jurisdiction of the Courts of Ghana

To Cap or Not Cap the Justices on the Supreme Court of Ghana

Activity #2: Child Labor Laws in the United States and Côte d’Ivoire

The right of parents to take advantage of the productive capacity of their children was long recognized both in the United States and abroad. The perceived value of the child can be viewed through how the legal system treated the wrongful death of a child and the damages the parents could hope to recover. Courts of that period usually found that the proper amount due was “the probable value of the services of the deceased from the time of his death to the time he would have attained his majority, less the expense of his maintenance during the same time.” The courts recognized that the parent naturally benefited from the productive labors of his child until the child reached the age of majority.

The wages the child earned served the common purpose of supporting the family. The wages of a child generally became the property of the parents and often were the key to survival for many working-class families. Rather than the wife being the secondary wage earner, as became the case in the 1970s, for many families the child performed this role in American history.

Today, states have moved to extending working hours for children, eliminate work permit requirements and lower the age for teens to handle alcohol or work in hazardous industries. At the same time, there has been a 69% increase in children employed illegally by companies since 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.” Source 

New Jersey: 34:2-21.2. Minors under 16 not to be employed; exceptions; nonresidents.

“No minor under 16 years of age shall be employed, permitted, or suffered to work in, about, or in connection with any gainful occupation at any time; provided, that minors between 14 and 16 years of age may be employed, permitted or suffered to work outside school hours and during school vacations but not in or for a factory or in any occupation otherwise prohibited by law or by order or regulation made in pursuance of law; and provided, further, that minors under 16 years of age may engage in professional employment in theatrical productions upon the obtaining of a permit therefor and may engage outside school hours and during school vacations in agricultural pursuits or in street trades and as newspaper boys as defined in this act, in accordance with the provisions of section 15 of this act.”

Except as to the employment of a minor for whom a theatrical employment permit has been issued, no minor under 16 years of age not a resident of this State shall be employed, permitted or suffered to work in any occupation or service whatsoever at any time during which the law of the state of his residence required his attendance at school, or at any time during the hours when the public schools in the district in which employment in such occupation or services may be available are in session.

NLS data show that 52 percent of 12- and 13-year-olds in its 1997 cohort had paid work experience. The work performed at these ages was found to be freelance in nature. Babysitting and yardwork accounted for more than 70 percent of the work they performed.  For 14- and 15-year-olds, the dominant form of work remains freelancing. When children do work, it is most commonly when school is out of session. Children have largely shifted to the service industries.

Child Labor in Côte d’Ivoire

Due to security issues in both Mali and Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire has an estimated 13,214 refugees (2,489 households), of which an estimated 59 percent are children. Children are also brought to Côte d’Ivoire from those countries for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor, including in begging, cocoa production, and mining. Children from Côte d’Ivoire are also subjected to human trafficking for forced labor in domestic work within the country and North Africa. Although the minimum age for a child to work is 16, this law lacks enforcement.

School is mandatory for children ages 6 to 16 in Côte d’Ivoire. Although the Law on Education provides for free education, students are often required to pay for textbooks and uniforms, which may be prohibitive to some families. A shortage of teachers, poor school infrastructure, lack of transportation systems in rural areas, and inadequate sanitation facilities have negatively impacted children’s ability to attend school.  Research also suggests that some students are physically and sexually abused at school, which may deter some students from attending school. Because of this, roughly one in four girls (25%) in Côte d’Ivoire are not able to attend primary school.

The UN Special Rapporteur, Tomoya Obokata, reported in November 2023 on the progress the government is making:

“I commend Côte d’Ivoire for its solid legal and institutional architecture on child labor and trafficking in persons. But the Government needs to do more to lift people, including in rural areas, out of poverty, promote the economic empowerment of women and ensure access to decent work, particularly for young people,” the expert said.

“Despite the efforts undertaken, I was informed that instances of child labor persist in various sectors of the economy including agriculture, domestic work, street vending and in artisanal gold mining. I am also concerned about the fate of girls who have either been trafficked from countries in the region for the purpose of sexual exploitation or who are subject to forced and early marriage in the country,” Obokata said.”

Questions:

  1. Should the state or federal government regulate child labor laws?
  2. Should the government have any authority over parental decisions regarding child labor?
  3. Should children be protected from working in unhealthy or dangerous occupations? (serving alcohol, casinos, nail salons, landscaping, etc.)

History of Child Labor in the United States (Part 1, Bureau of Labor Statistics)

History of Child Labor in the United States, (Part 2, Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Child Labor in America, 1920 (NPR)

The Unjust Cost of Child Labor (Roosevelt Institute)

Hammer v. Dagenhart (U.S. Supreme Court, 1918)

Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports in Côte d’Ivoire  (U.S. Department of Labor)

Child Labor Rises to 160 Million-First Increase in Two Decades (UNICEF)

Activity #3: The Power of Government to Control Private Enterprises in the United States and India

The U.S. government influences private business through compulsory taxes by spending the tax revenues on public functions such as parks, roads and other infrastructure, schools, law enforcement, homeland security, and scientific research, as well as welfare and social insurance programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and unemployment assistance. The federal government also issues and enforces standards ranging from environmental quality, to consumer protection, business and banking practices, nondiscrimination in employment, Internet privacy, and safety for food, drugs, manufactured products, and the places where people work.

Chinese tech giant ByteDance, in 2017, purchased the popular karaoke app Musical.ly and relaunched the service as TikTok. Since then, the app has been under the microscope of national security officials in Washington fearing possible influence by the Chinese government.

Government Regulation of Private Enterprise in India

India began its regulatory reforms in the early 1990s, reducing state involvement through the privatization of companies, by putting in place independent regulatory mechanisms to boost competition and private-sector-led growth, and to strengthen consumer protection. But the reform efforts lacked coherence and have stalled. Even though the economy grew rapidly over the past decade, the slowing-down of reforms created an image of a country where doing business is difficult.

India lacks a modern regulatory governance regime. Based on the Constitution, all levels of government can regulate, including the Central Government and 29 state governments. Regulatory barriers to competition are high and rule-making in India is complex due to the different layers of government.

India needs to further strengthen the governance of state-owned enterprises, simplify regulations, and reduce administrative burdens on firms. India should develop and implement a regulatory governance system following international good practices such as regulatory impact assessment, public consultation, and administrative simplification. The creation of national Regulatory Commissions since 2005 was a positive move, but there is lack of accountability and consistency of the overall regulatory system.

Establishing a whole-of-government approach to regulation, using international best practice tools and systems such as regulatory impact assessments and public consultation, and building effective institutions for regulatory quality management, are key. In this sense, India needs to catch up with other emerging economies such as China, Mexico and Vietnam, which have already taken important steps in that direction, in line with the OECD’s 2012 Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance.

In 2019, India passed a new Consumer Protection Act which streamlined all methods of exchanges relating to the purchase of merchandise and e-commerce. It also expanded the protections for deceptive trade practices and introduced product liability laws for the first time.

Questions:

  1. Should governments encourage or restrict startup businesses?
  2. Is it possible for governments to regulate the safety of products manufactured and sold withing their country?
  3. Are government requirements for minimum wage, social security, safety, equal opportunity in hiring, necessary or should they be optional?

Examples of Government Regulation of Business in the United States

The Role of the U.S. Government in the Economy

Consumer Protection Act of 2019 in India

Consumer Handbook in India

OCED Regulatory Reform in India

Activity #4: The Roosevelt Corollary in the Caribbean and China’s Hegemony in the South Pacific

The Roosevelt Corollary signaled an important shift in the economic and diplomatic policy of the United States in Latin America at the beginning of the 20th century. In its efforts to ensure that Latin and Central American governments repaid their debts, the United States also used its military power to protect its hegemony or interests. By doing this the Roosevelt Corollary also negatively affected our diplomatic relations with Europe and set a precedent for the foundation for the Fourteen Points after World War I.

There are different perspectives about the impact of the Roosevelt Corollary in policy regarding its history of imperialism, limitations on self-government, and the impact it had on the social order and culture in Latin and Central America.  The U.S. Constitution is silent on a president acting as the international policeman to correct wrong behaviors in another country. President Roosevelt changed the original interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine from keeping foreign powers out of the western Hemisphere to justifying America’s intervention in independent countries in Latin America.

This set a precedent for future presidents who sent American troops into Latin American countries eight times.

China’s Hegemony in the South Pacific

In the beginning of the 21st century, China expanded its naval power and influence in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Since 2016, China has constructed naval ports in an around the Spratly Islands. China’s actions impinge in the maritime entitlements and legal claims of Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam for fishing and oil exploration. The South China Sea may have billions of barrels of untapped oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.

China should consider the economic cost of its investments in these small islands as the impact of rising sea levels is likely to limit their economy and increase their debt. Will the economic costs weaken instead of strengthening China in the future?  The security of Australia, Taiwan, and Japan is a concern as military support from the United States may be limited by China’s presence in this area. The distance from the United States to Japan, Taiwan, and Australia is much further than it is for its rivals of North Korea, Russia, and China.

The novel legal argument is that under the Belt and Road Initiative, China is providing economic assistance to these small island in exchange for a ‘good neighbor’ policy with Beijing.

Questions:

  1. Does the Roosevelt Corollary set a precedent for giving the president of the United States too much authority in foreign affairs?
  2. How should situations of violations of international laws regarding financial matters and human rights be addressed in the 21st century?
  3. Is China’s policy of expanding its military and economic influence into the South China Sea a violation of the UN’s Law of the Sea?

President Theodore Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address: The Roosevelt Corollary (1904)

How Theodore Roosevelt Changed the Way America Operated in the World

Council of Foreign Relations Perspective on the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

Partial List of Banned Words by the U.S. Federal Government

PARTIAL LIST OF BANNED WORDS

Hank Bitten, NJCSS Executive Director

Abortion; accessible; accessibility; activism; anti-racism; antiracist; at risk; autism; barrier; bias; Black; clean energy; climate crisis; climate science; community; continuum; Covid-19; cultural differences; cultural heritage; DEI; disability; discrimination; disparity; diverse; diversity; equality; equity; elderly; environmental justice; ethnicity; evidence-based; female; feminism; fetus; fluoride; gay; gender; gender based; Gulf of Mexico; ideology; immigrants; implicit bias; inclusion; inequality; injustice; institutional; hate speech; Hispanic; Latinx; LGBT and LGBTQ; marginalized; marijuana; measles; mental health; minority; multicultural; Native American; obesity; opioids; oppression; peanut allergies; polarization; political; pollution; prejudice; privilege; promote; pronoun; pronouns; prostitute; race; racial identity; racism; science-based; segregation; sex; social justice; stereotypes; transgender; trauma; traumatic; unconscious bias; underprivileged; underrepresented; vaccines; victims; woman; women

Source (Pen America) Complete List is on this site

Source (Alan Singer)

Book Review: The Leadership Journey: How Four Kids Became President

Book Review by Hank Bitten, NJCSS Executive Director

The Leadership Journey: How Four Kids Became President

Doris Kearns Goodwin

I decided to read this book after listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin speak about this on television following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. After reading the first few pages, I decided to write a review of this book as it should be ‘required’ reading for every social studies teacher, student, parent, and grandparent.

One reason for encouraging teachers, pre-service teachers. students, parents, and grandparents to read this book is in the truisms that are embedded in the stories about each president. For example, in introducing Abraham Lincoln’s decision to enter politics as a Whig candidate, these few sentences should engage young minds in reflective thinking:

“On March 9, 1832, when he declared his intention to run for a seat in the Illinois state legislature just eight months after he arrived in new Salem. ‘Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition,’ Lincoln wrote in a pamphlet announcing his candidacy, as he sought to earn the respect and votes of his neighbors. ‘I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, be rendering myself worthy of their esteem.  How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young and unknown to many of you.’” (Pages 25-26)

As a teacher, I would discuss with my class, why did Lincoln join the new Whig Party and not the popular Democratic Party? Why did he announce his decision to run for the assembly in a pamphlet compared to a letter, newspaper, or verbal announcement? How does Lincoln understand public service?

As a parent or grandparent, I would discuss the political parties we have today and what they stand for. How do candidates in our community or state get elected and announce their decision to run for office? Is it possible for elected representatives to represent the interests and needs of the majority in their community or is it best for them to advance their own beliefs on the issues or vote for the position of their political party?

The reading level of The Leadership Journey: How Four Kids Became President is for middle school students. Each chapter is just a few pages and should take a middle school student about 20-30 minutes to read and comprehend. This book is a valuable resource for a student research assignment, teaching about the reliability of sources, civics, an afterschool history club such as Rho Kappa or Phi Alpha Theta, a summer reading list activity, or a Saturday Seminar roundtable discussion. The applications of this book are unlimited.

One of the hidden gems in the life of Lincoln is with his learning style, character, persistence, and ability to handle disappointments. These examples are often only a few sentences, but they are prompts to initiate discussion and empathy between students in your class. For example, “The key to Lincoln’s success as a lawyer was his ability to break down the most complex case or issue ‘into its simplest elements.’ He never lost a jury by fumbling or reading from a prepared argument, relying instead ‘on his well-trained memory. (Page 47)

Another example that I found interesting was the evolution of how President Lincoln’s views changed about the emancipation of enslaved persons by listening to others.

“On August 14, 1862, during the period in which he was preparing the proclamation, Lincoln held the first meeting of Black leaders at the White House so he could make his case for a voluntary emigration of Black Americans to a different country….Later that year, Lincoln made another case for colonization during his second annual message to Congress on December 1, 1862, during which he proposed a constitutional amendment to colonize Black Americans and provide for them better lives in ‘their long-lost fatherland,’ where they would have access to homes and schools.’”  (Pages 79-80)

“Once the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, he abandoned all efforts at colonization and trained his focus on freedom for the enslaved and keeping the Union whole.”  (Page 80)

The second president in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book is Theodore Roosevelt. There are multiple connections for students in the leadership journey of Teddy Roosevelt. These include living with a disability, coping with personal loss, understanding the issues, the importance of integrity, and the challenges and opportunities of the experiences in one’s life.

Although born into a family with wealth, as a child he faced frightening attacks of bronchial asthma. His childhood and teenage years were limited. By age 10, he had opportunities to be home schooled, enjoy summer vacations on Long Island, and travel to Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. However, participating in activities was limited because of his health.

“’But Teedie’s chronic asthma required more and more days of bed rest. Thee worried that without physical activity Teedie’s weak lungs would continue to worsen and that he would lose all physical ability, but Thee also believed that this outcome was not inevitable. His father said to him, ‘Theodore you have the mind but not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should.’” (Page 99)

The lesson of how Teddy Roosevelt voted in the New York State Assembly, especially on the bill to stop the manufacture of cigars in tenement houses is one that will likely engage students in a thoughtful discussion or debate about how elected officials represent constituents today. Roosevelt opposed all government supervision and regulations regarding limiting the hours worked, a minimum wage, or prices. Samuel Gompers invited him to visit the places where the cigars were made.

“Roosevelt was stunned by what he witnessed.: five adults and several children, all immigrants from Bohemia (part of the modern-day Czech Republic) who could barely speak English, living and working in a single room, making cigars sixteen hours a day.” (Page 113)

On February 14, 1884, Valentine’s Day, Teddy Roosevelt place a large X in his diary followed by the words “The light has gone out of my life.”  His mother, Mittie, and his wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, died. He was 25 years old and had been married for less than four years.

“His forty-nine-year-old mother, Mittie, still a youthful-looking, beautiful woman, had been suffering from what was considered to be a severe cold, but which turned out to be a deadly case of typhoid fever. Theodore was at his mother’s bedside at three a.m. when she died. Less than 12 hours later, as he held his young wife in his arms, Alice died from what was later diagnosed as acute kidney disease, its symptoms masked by her pregnancy.” (Page 117)

These are stories students relate to. They encourage discussions about loss, grief, empathy, confusion, resilience, and life. The leaders Doris Kearns Goodwin writes about are very human and their experiences in life are similar to those of many young adults. Abraham Lincoln also lost his mother and fiancé and his son, Willie, died at age 11 in the White House.

Three examples from the book that should interest middle and high school students are Teddy Roosevelt’s use of the Executive Order renaming the Executive Mansion to the White House in 1901, his daily schedule, and a bizarre episode running naked in Rock Creek Park. Source

“Roosevelt began each day in the White House by darting ‘into the breakfast room with a cheerful hail to those already there’; then he rushed to his office before the official workday started to tackle his loads of letters, dictating ‘one letter after another’ to his secretary.  From ten a.m. to noon, except on cabinet days, the second-floor reception room was crowded with senators with whom Roosevelt met for all manner of official and political business. At noon, the White House doors opened to the public, ‘an overflowing stream’ of people eager to see the most colorful president that ever lived. For an hour, Roosevelt moved speedily around the room, giving each person a dazzling smile and a warm handshake. At one p.m., Roosevelt generally excused himself from the crowd for his midday shave.  During the ‘barber’s hour,’ reporters were invited in, permitted to ask questions-or more likely listen-as Roosevelt talked animatedly about any number of subjects while the skillful barber tried not to cut the president’s famous face.” (Pages 151-152)

“Late afternoon was devoted to exercise-a horseback ride or boxing match, a raucous game of tennis or a strenuous hike along the cliffs in nearby Rock Creek Park.  Dragging visitors and friends through the wooded sections of the park, Roosevelt had one simple rule: you had to move forward ‘point to point,’ never going around any obstacle. ‘If a creek got in the way, you forded it.  If there was a river, you swam it. If there was a rock, you scaled it.’ The Frech ambassador Jean Jules Jusserland provided a celebrated account of his first jaunt with the president.  After presenting himself at the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ‘in afternoon dress and silk hat,’ he soon found himself in the countryside following Roosevelt ‘at breakneck pace’ through fields and over rocks. When they approached a broad stream, Jusserand assumed the contest had finally ended. ‘Judge of my horror when I saw the President unbutton his clothes and heard him say, ‘We had better strip, so as not to wet our things in the Creek.’ Then I too, for the honor of France, removed my apparel, except for my lavender kid gloves.’ To be without my gloves, he insisted, ‘would be embarrassing if we should meet ladies.’ (Pages 152,153)

The information on the Spanish American War in 1898, settling the coal strike in 1902, nine-week train trip around the United States in 1903, are also presented in a descriptive narrative that will interest students with events in the social studies curriculum.

Although most middle school students do not study Franklin Delano Roosevelt as part of U.S. History, this chapter will engage high school students. The importance of reading is to ignite inquiry through questions and thinking about the historical era, the individual, and American government.

Franklin was born into a wealthy family with a large estate about 90 miles north of New York City, where they also had a home on 65th Street near Fifth Avenue and Central Park.

The chapters about Roosevelt are powerful and insightful because they are filled with stories about his character. While most readers will find value and insights into his youth, college years, marriage and positions in the state legislature and federal government, the chapter on his perseverance regarding his paralysis from polio is unusually compelling. Here is an example of how FDR faced the news of his permanent disability as a 39-year-old man with a promising future:

“Told by doctors that his upper body had the greatest likelihood of recovery, Franklin endured punishing exercises to remake his chest, shoulders, neck, arms, and back.  Hour after hour he pulled himself up on a set of rings installed in ‘a trapeze-like contraption’ above his bed, slowly and painfully strengthening his muscles until his upper body came to resemble that of a champion boxer or wrestler….Day after day he would ask to be lifted from the wheelchair and set down on the library floor so that he could further exercise his back and arms by crawling around the room like a child would. He then proceeded to tackle stairs, grabbing railings on either side with his hands, hoisting up his body-step-by-step-to the top, sweat pouring from his face.’” (Page 197)

In another chapter Doris Kearns Goodwin portrays FDR’s trait of courage.  His courage was both political courage as he risked everything to hide his disability of crippled legs and physical courage.  He was fortunate to have the friendship and guidance of Louis Howe, Sam Rosenman, Frances Perkins, and his wife, Eleanor. Here is an example of how Franklin handled every situation with grace, humor, and strength: (This is six years after he was infected by the polio virus, 1928)

“That Franklin was not yet able to walk unassisted, even with braces and crutches, had been made clear months earlier when he’d ventured forth for the first time since the polio attack to meet with business colleagues at a private luncheon on Wall Street in New York City. An elevator would take him upstairs, but first he had to cross a slippery marble lobby floor to reach the elevator bank.  With his chauffer’s assistance, FDR had reached the halfway mark when a crutch slid out from under him.  He collapsed in a heap, his hat rolling off to the side. Spectators gathered round as he tried to prop himself into a seated position. ‘Nothing to worry about,’ Franklin announced to reassure the concerned onlookers, bursting into a sudden peal of laughter. He then called for help from two young men who eventually pulled him to a standing position. ‘Let’s go,’ he said to his chauffeur.  Someone put his hat on his head. Wearing a big smile, he acknowledged the crowd and made his way toward the elevator.” (Page 207) 

These two excerpts are only an introduction to what is revealed in his campaign for governor, acceptance speech in Chicago as the Democratic Party candidate for president, his inauguration speech at the Capitol, and his leadership as president. Facts and historical examples are important, but FDR’s personality traits will likely have a lasting impact on students.

Although many students are likely less familiar with the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson than the presidency of Lincoln, T.R. or F.D.R., they will identify with his character, commitment to civic engagement, and experience as a teacher. As a young child, he moved from a small cabin in a rural area to Johnson City. For various reasons, Lyndon’s activities changed, and he became interested in the activities of his father who was a member of the state legislature in Texas.

“The only thing Lyndon loved more than accompanying his father to the statehouse was traveling along with him on the campaign trail. ‘We drove in the Model T Ford from farm to farm, up and down the valley, stopping at every door. …When we got tired or hungry, we’d stop by the side of the road. He sliced the bread, smeared it with jam, and split the slices with me. I’d never seen him happier.  Families all along the way opened up their homes to us.  If it was hot outside, we were invited in for big servings of homemade ice cream.  If it was cold, we were given hot tea…sometimes I wished it could go on forever.’” (Page 259)

Lyndon’s Johnson’s role as a teacher and school principal reveals his work ethic and characteristic as a caring and dedicated public servant.

“My students were poor and they often cane to class without breakfast, hungry. And they knew, even in their youth, the pain of prejudice. Because there was no school funding for extracurricular activities, he used half his first month’s salary to buy sports equipment and then badgered the school board to include track-and-field events, baseball games, and volleyball matches in the school budget.” (Pages 265-66)

He was also the debate coach at Sam Houston High School. He coached the debate team through city, district and state tournaments.

“Johnson appeared to his students ‘a human dynamo,’ a steam engine in pants,’ driven by a work ethic and unlimited enthusiasm that proved contagious.” (Page 269)

I enjoyed reading about how he used his social capital in Washington to advance his goals. Lady Bird and Lyndon moved to Washington where he was the chief of staff to a Texas congressman. He became friends with Sam Rayburn who lived alone and invited him to dinner in his home with his wife, Lady Bird. Through this connection, Lyndon became the director of the National Youth Administration in Texas. When his congressman James Buchanan passed away unexpectedly, Johnson campaigned for his seat. Two days before the election he had emergency surgery to remove his appendix. He won, likely on a promise to bring electricity to the farmers in his area of Texas.

Johnson’s personality traits of empathy, enthusiasm, perseverance, and ‘grit’ are important for students to understand, apply to their own experiences, and engage in discussion with their peers. He lost his bid for re-election by 1,311 votes and a few years later won his election as senator by only 87 votes. As a senator, he was the youngest majority leader in the history of the Senate at age 46 and was considered as a presidential candidate for the 1956 election. Then, suddenly everything changed when he had a devasting heart attack. This event transformed his life and behavior.  A lesson about the trait of resiliency.

If a teacher elected to use the resource of this book for just one day, perhaps the most compelling pages are found on pages 317-328. His passion, legislative skill, and personal conviction are important for every student to understand. It is also important for students to understand the long struggle to pass and implement civil rights laws. In our classrooms, the lessons of Freedom Riders, marches, boycotts, and the emotional scars of segregation are too often taught passively through slide presentations and vocabulary terms. Doris Kearns Goodwin captures some of the emotion that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Everyone should read Chapter 24.

“Like a tailor stitching a custom suit, Johnson took measure of Dirksen.  A decade of working together had taught Johnson that Dirksen had no hesitation asking for ‘a laundry list’ of favors in return for his support on legislation.  But this time, Johnson offered Dirksen something far more important than perks and favors; he appealed to Dirksen’s hunger to be remembered, honored. ‘I saw your exhibit at the World’s Fair, and it said, ‘The Land of Lincoln,’ Johnson pointed out. And the man from Lincoln is going to pass this bill and I’m going to see that he gets proper credit. With a gift for flattery equal to Dirksen’s vanity, he assured the senator ‘if you come with me on this bill, two hundred years from now there’ll be only two people they’ll remember from the state of Illinois: Abraham Lincoln and Everett Dirksen!” (Page 321)

I found value in the leadership journey of these four presidents. Although my review focuses on students and teachers, adults will also enjoy reading what Doris Kearns Goodwin has written. In the closing pages, Doris Kearns Goodwin describes a dinner meeting with her “guys.’  What an opportunity to discuss the historical context of 100 years of American history, the goals of the Declaration of Independence, how each president mastered the communication platforms of newspapers, stories, radio, and television. Perhaps the most significant question is what makes a good leader and a good president? What a nice segway to understanding empathy!

Visit the resources of the Miller Center at the University of Virginia to learn about the American presidents.

Presidents and Labor Strikes

The Impact of Economic Decisions by American Presidents Series

Presidents and Labor Strikes

Hank Bitten, NJCSS Executive Director

Most decisions by American presidents and other world leaders do not have an immediate impact on the economy, especially regarding the macroeconomic issues of employment and inflation. For example, President Franklin Roosevelt’s bank holiday, President John Kennedy’s tariff on imported steel, and President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Recovery Tax Act had limited immediate effects on the economy, but their long-term effects were significant. The accomplishments or problems of a previous administration may impact on the administration that follows.

For example, President Biden faced criticism about the economy during his administration. The jobs created with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve Bank to lower inflation did not show results until years later. The drop in Real Disposable Income from the administration of President Trump is another example. Real Disposable Income is a measure of income that is adjusted for inflation. The drop between the administration of President Bident and Trump is the result of extended unemployment benefits, people working from home during the pandemic when businesses were closed, and stimulus checks from the government. The economic transition following the end of the pandemic had a significant impact on the economy.

PresidentGDP GrowthUnemployment  RateInflation RatePoverty RateReal  Disposable  Income
Johnson2.6%3.4%4.4%12.8%$17,181
Nixon2.0%5.5%10.9%12.0%$19,621
Ford2.8%7.5%5.2%11.9%$20,780
Carter4.6%7.4%11.8%13.0%$21,891
Reagan2.1%5.4%4.7%13.1%$27,080
H.W. Bush0.7%7.3%3.3%14.5%$27,990
Clinton0.3%4.2%3.7%11.3%$34,216
G.W. Bush-1.2%7.8%0.0%13.2%$37,814
Obama1.0%4.7%2.5%14.0%$42,914
Trump2.6%6.4%1.4%11.9%$48,286
Biden2.6%3.5%5.0%12.8%$46,682

This series provides a context of important decisions by America’s presidents that are connected to the expected economic decisions under the second administration of President Trump. The background information and questions provide an opportunity for small and large group discussions, structured debate, and additional investigation and research. They may be used for current events, as a substitute lesson activity or integrated into a lesson.

In the case study below, have your students investigate the economic problem, different perspectives on the proposed solution, the short- and long-term impact of the decision, and how the decision affects Americans in the 21st century.

The Economic Problem

One of the first labor strikes in the United States occurred in Paterson, New Jersey on July 3, 1835.  About 2,000 textile workers stopped working in about 20 textile mills demanding better hours. Workers, including women and children worked 13 hours a day six days a week and their wages were reduced as fines for infractions. The strike eventually led to a 12-hour day and a nine-hour day on Saturday.

In 1835 carpenters, masons, and stonecutters in Boston staged a seven-month strike in favor of a ten-hour day. The strikers demanded that employers reduce excessively long hours worked in the summer and spread them throughout the year. In Philadelphia, carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, masons, leather dressers, and blacksmiths went on strike. In Lowell, MA, women also went on strike. The history of labor complaints and strikes date back to the colony of Jamestown. Although the common law in England provided protection for peaceful demonstrations, the courts in the colonies and states often fined workers because their organization as a group was viewed as a ‘restrain of free trade’ or a violation of the right of property for employers. In 1842, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Hunt was a landmark decision that allowed peaceful demonstrations. “In March 1842, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that labor combinations were legal provided that they were organized for a legal purpose and used legal means to achieve their goals.”

The economic problem was long hours, low wages, and oppressive working conditions. The market revolution led to the demand for consumer goods. The new inventions of the cotton gin, steamboats, locomotives, and factories. The nature of work was changing and this led to profound changes in society. Employers and entrepreneurs believed this was the idea behind the pursuit of happiness in the declaration of Independence and how a republic was governed. Laborers used the press to voice their concerns which led to the organization of trade unions in Philadelphia.

President Andrew Jackson’s decision to let the charter of the Second Bank of the United States to expire had an unexpected and profound impact on ordinary people. Working conditions continued to decline and President Jackson’s decision led to an increase in paper money and inflation. Higher prices led to unemployment and longer hours for those who were employed. Illness or injury and debt led to homelessness and poverty. According to a New York City physician, the laboring poor in the 1790s lived in “little decayed wooden huts” inhabited by several families, dismal abodes set on muddy alleys and permeated by the stench from “putrefying excrement.” Source

In 1840 the federal government introduced a ten-hour workday on public works projects. In 1847 New Hampshire became the first state to adopt a ten-hour day law. It was followed by Pennsylvania in 1848. Both states’ laws, however, included a clause that allowed workers to voluntarily agree to work more than a ten-hour day. Despite the limitations of these state laws, agitation for a ten-hour day did result in a reduction in the average number of hours worked, to approximately 11 by 1850.  On May 19, 1869, President Grant issue Proclamation 182 making an 8-hour day for all federal government employees. This expanded the decision of Congress made in 1868.

After the Civil War, manufacturing and economic growth increased dramatically. There were many strikes as farmers and laborers, both skilled and unskilled, formed associations and unions. Below are examples of larger strikes that are likely part of the high school curriculum.

Haymarket Square:

During the first week of May,1886 workers in Chicago staged demonstrations and strikes demanding an eight-hour day. On May 4 a bomb exploded near Haymarket Square in Chicago.  Several police officers and protesters were wounded or killed by the blast, and 8 individuals were arrested and convicted. Source

A day to recognize the rights of workers was first proposed by Matthew Maguire from Paterson, NJ in 1882. The balance between the right to have peaceful demonstrations under the First Amendment was respected but the Haymarket Riot became violent, strikes were costly to the profits of employers, and violence and strikes were a threat to property. President Cleveland was the first president challenged by the threat of anarchy from socialists. After the Haymarket Riot, a few states, including New York and New Jersey, recognized a Labor Day holiday. This was the fourth federal holiday after Independence Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Congress considered making Labor Day a federal holiday in May, but President Cleveland feared this would become a recognition of the violence of the Haymarket Riot.  President Cleveland was the first president to involve the federal government in resolving issues between labor and business interests or capital.  Source

Newspaper Accounts of the Haymarket Riot, 1886

Questions:

  1. Under what conditions would you support workers on strike? (higher wages, better working conditions, unfair practices by an employer, benefits, job security, etc.)
  2. Are labor strikes a violation of the property rights of employers?
  3. Do workers have a right to disrupt the production of goods or services by a slowdown in the workplace, strict adherence to their contract agreement, coordinating a sick out, making public expressions or statements about their situation, etc.
  4. Do workers need to be paid in wages or can employers also pay them in other ways? (time off, goods produced, etc.)
  5. Should workers receive an annual salary increase based on their months or years of service, inflationary costs of living, or only if they produce more than in the past?
  6. How would you determine a fair wage?
  7. Do the students in your class (or a larger group) support the right to strike workers?

Activity #1

Open the three-day lesson on the 1835 strike in Paterson, NJ. (Update the CPI index from 2012 to the present)

Carnegie Company Strike:

In the months before the presidential election of 1892, President Harrison was faced with a violent strike at the Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, PA near Pittsburg. The Knights of Labor and the Amalgamated Association of Iron Workers went on strike on June 30 when their contract expired. Workers in Carnegie’s companies in the area supported the striking workers.  Henry Clay, the manager of the Homestead plant, hired private Pinkerton guards to protect the plant and keep the striking workers away. President Harrison privately sent Whitelaw Reid to mediate the conflict.

The strikers threw rocks at the guards, the crowd size was estimated to be about 5,000, and gunshots were fired. At one point amid the chaos, shots were fired. The Pinkertons surrendered and the strikers continued with verbal abuse and assaulted them with rocks as they marched them to a local Opera Hall.

On July 12, Pennsylvania Governor Robert Pattison sent 8,500 National Guardsmen to end the strike. In less than 30 minutes the Carnegie mill was under martial law, the strikers were arrested. Sixteen of the strikers were arrested for conspiracy, murder, and inciting riots. The strike ended three months later in November with the workers agreeing to lower wages, the elimination of 500 jobs, and a 12-hour day. The labor unions lost, and their membership declined.

Pullman Company Strike:

President Cleveland faced a nationwide railroad strike that began on May 11, 1894. The American Railway Union went on strike against the Pullman Company and the major railroads.  It became a turning point in U.S. labor law. The workers at Pullman protested the layoff of 2,000 workers and wage cuts that amounted to 25%-50% of their wages. The Pullman workers lived in a company town and paid rent to the Pullman Company, which was located near Chicago, Il. The rents were not reduced. The Pullman Company also had a surplus of $4 million at the time of the strike and consistently paid dividends to shareholders.

The Panic or recession of 1893 negatively affected many companies as production declined. The railroads depended on shipping farm products, which were reduced as a result of crop failures. This was the most serious economic recession in the world as investors in Europe purchased gold from U.S. banks, Americans took their savings out of banks, and companies that had speculated in the stock, bond, and commodity markets lost money/ The economic recovery after the recession ended would take several years.

On July 3, 1894, President Cleveland ordered 2,000 armed federal troops to Chicago to end the strike. The strike ended within a few weeks, union leaders were arrested and jailed on charges of conspiracy to obstruct interstate commerce. The justification of using federal troops to move the U.S. mail was based on the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. This was not the first time federal troops were used to end a strike. President Jackson used troops in 1834 to end the strike by workers building the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and in 1877 President Hayes send troops to end the violence in Baltimore during the Great Railroad strike.

Coal Strike:

In May 1902 President Teddy Roosevelt was faced with a nationwide strike by coal miners. Many homes were heated by coal and a prolonged strike in the winter could be catastrophic, deadly, and cause riots. On October 3, 1902, with winter weather approaching, President Theodore Roosevelt called a precedent-shattering meeting to negotiate a settlement. The President did not have any legal authority to settle a labor dispute, although Presidents Jackson, Hayes and Cleveland used federal troops to end labor disputes.

President Roosevelt’s administration proposed the Anthracite Coal Commission to complete a fact-finding report and negotiate a settlement.  The strike ended on October 20, 1902, and the Commission recommended in March 1903 increasing miners’ pay by ten percent (one-half of their demand) and reducing the working day from ten to nine hours.

Samuel Gompers wrote: “Several times I have been asked what in my opinion was the most important single incident in the labor movement in the United States and I have invariably replied: the strike of the anthracite miners in Pennsylvania … from then on the miners became not merely human machines to produce coal but men and citizens…. The strike was evidence of the effectiveness of trade unions ….

The victory in the anthracite coalfields breathed new life into the American labor movement.55 It strengthened moderate labor leaders and progressive businessmen who championed negotiations as a way to labor peace. It enhanced the reputation of President Theodore Roosevelt. Sometimes overlooked, however, is the change the conflict made in the role of the Federal Government in important national strikes.” Source

Paterson Silk Strike of 1913:

The silk strike began in February 1913 when twenty-five thousand striking silk workers shut down the three hundred silk mills and dye houses in Paterson, New Jersey, for almost five months. There were several textile strikes that preceded the one in Paterson. The Paterson strike was related to an increased workload and the desire for an eight-hour day. The other strikes occurred because of wages. The Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) were active in organizing the strike and produced the “Pageant of the Paterson Strike” in Madison Square Garden on June 7.  Pietro Botton opened his home to the labor leaders from New York City and on May 25, a rally of more than 20,000 people took place outside his home. These rallies continued on Sundays until the strike ended in July.

The strikers returned to work without any concessions, although the employers did not implement the plan to have one worker operating four looms instead of two.

Questions:

  1. What is a yellow dog contract, scab, collective bargaining, closed shop, and right to work protections
  2. What are the differences between skilled and unskilled laborers?
  3. How is an Association different from a labor or trade union?
  4. Who has the advantage in a strike: labor employees or employers?
  5. How do strikes affect the economy and the lives of people who are not associated with the union?
  6. Why do you think the union and workers failed to achieve their goal in the Paterson Strike of 1913?

Activity #2:

  1. Make a list of labor unions and associations in the United States.
  2. Use these sources to categorize the list of strikes by length of time, size of the unions, and frequency? List of Unions (Wikipedia)   200 Years of Labor History (NPS)

The Seattle General Strike, 1919

The Seattle General Strike of February 1919 was the first 20th-century solidarity strike in the United States to be proclaimed a “general strike.”  Seattle had 101 unions that were part of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). On the morning of February 6, 1919, over 25,000 union workers stopped working to support the 35,000 shipyard workers who were already on strike. Although wartime inflation created a need for higher wages, the goals of the striking workers were not clearly articulated. Mayor Ole threatened to declare martial law and two battalions (about 3,000) U.S. Army troops arrived. The union members had already implemented a plan to provide food deliveries, transport people to hospitals, and patrol the streets to prevent crime. Below is an image of a soup kitchen. Union members distributed 30,000 meals a day during the strike.

The strike lasted six days and was peaceful. There were minimal gains for the workers, but most returned to work. There were several outside agitators who were identified as “Reds” or communists who were arrested. The strike is generally viewed as unsuccessful.

Seattle General Strike Project

History of the General Strike (9-minute Video)

History of the General Strike (4-minute Video)

The Seattle General Strike (Roberta Gold) 

“An Account of What Happened in Seattle and Especially in the Seattle Labor Movement, During the General Strike, February 6 to 11, 1919” 

Slide show 

The Seattle General Strike 

The Boston Police Strike

The Boston Police went on strike on September 9, 1919. Police officers worked long hours, received low wages, and had inadequate working conditions. They worked thirteen-hour days and wanted an eight-hour day. They had to purchase their own uniforms which cost $200 (about two months’ salary), were required to sleep overnight in the police station several nights a month, and they had not received a salary increase in over ten years. They were paid about 25 cents an hour and earned about $1,400 a year.

U.S. Supreme Court Decisions (1905 – 1923)

The three cases below were landmark decisions in the labor movement. The Lochner decision ruled that employers could issue contracts without any restrictions such as an 8- or 10-hour day. The Adkins decision supported this and ruled it was illegal to have a minimum wage for workers. The Muller decision ruled that the hours of women could be less than those of men if their health was at risk.

Lochner v. New York (1905)

The general right to make a contract in relation to one’s business is part of the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, and this includes the right to purchase and sell labor, except as controlled by the state in the legitimate exercise of its police power.

Muller v. Oregon (1908)

The regulation of the working hours of women falls within the police power of the state, and a statute directed exclusively to such regulation does not conflict with the Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses.

Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923)

Legislation fixing hours or conditions of work may properly take into account the physical differences between men and women, but the doctrine that women of mature age require (or may be subjected to) restrictions on their liberty of contract that could not lawfully be imposed on men in similar circumstances must be rejected.

Frances Perkins was asked to serve as FDR’s Secretary of Labor. As Secretary, she would pursue: a 40-hour work week; a minimum wage; unemployment compensation; worker’s compensation; abolition of child labor; direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief; Social Security; a revitalized federal employment service; and universal health insurance. She is the longest serving labor secretary and one of only two cabinet secretaries to serve the entire length of the Roosevelt Presidency.

The Wagner Act (1935) created the National Labor Relations Board to enforce employee rights rather than to mediate disputes. It gave employees the right, under Section 7, to form and join unions, and it obligated employers to bargain collectively with unions selected by a majority of the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit. 

The U.S. Supreme Court in NLRB v. Washington Aluminum in 1962 upheld the right of employees to go on strike whether they have a union or not. However, workers and unions still needed to be careful to avoid an unlawful strike.

A strike is likely protected by law if it is in response to “unfair labor practice strikers” or “economic hardship from low wages, excessive hours, or difficult working conditions.” 

A strike may be unlawful when it supports an unfair labor practice such as requiring an employer to stop doing business with another company. Workers cannot legally strike if their contract prohibits strikes, although workers can stop working if they are subject to dangerous or unhealthy conditions.

Taft Hartley Act, 1947

After World War II, there were several major strikes and unions were unpopular because of the strikes and fear of the expansion of communism after Churchills’ Iron Curtain speech. The Taft Hartley Act amended the Wagner Act (1935). It was proposed by Rep. Fred Hartley from New Jersey and Senator Robert Taft from Ohio.  The Taft-Hartley Act made major changes to the Wagner Act. It was vetoed by President Truman and required a vote by both houses of Congress to override his veto. The Act was amended to protect employees’ rights from unfair practices by unions by making the closed shop and wildcat strikes to be illegal and prohibiting unions from charging excessive fees for membership.

Questions:

  1. What are the differences between a walkout, lockout, strike, and sit-down strike? Do the definitions or labels matter if work stops?
  2. Should certain employees be prevented from having a union to represent their interests?
  3. Should certain employees who serve the public be prevented by law from being able to strike when the public’s safety or interest is at risk? (teachers, bankers, police, sanitation, transportation workers, nurses, etc.)
  4. What is arbitration, fact-finding, and collective bargaining? What is the purpose of each?
  5. What is back pay?  Should striking workers be compensated for the days or weeks they did not work?

Activity #3

  1. Interview two or three people or groups of people regarding labor conditions they would like to have negotiated in their favor.
  2. Review the contract between teachers and the Board of Education in your district or another district. Discuss the protections in the contract that are not directly related to salary?

New York City

In January 1966, there was a 13-day transit strike in New York City. The buses and trains were shut down. In 1968, the teachers and sanitation workers went on strike. Thousands of New York City teachers went on strike in 1968 when the local school board of Ocean Hill – Brownsville, fired nineteen teachers and administrators without notice. The newly created school district, in a heavily black neighborhood, was an experiment in community control over schools—those dismissed were almost all Jewish. The strike began in September and ended on November 17. There are many important issues relevant to this strike – civil rights, integrated schools, poor performing districts, and local control vs. a central Board of Education. The strike raised the issue if public sector employees (police, fire, teachers, and private sector employees should have the right to strike over unfair business practices.

On the morning of August 5, 1981, approximately 13,000 workers of the air traffic control facilities called a strike.  President Reagan spoke from the Rose Garden at the White House telling them to return to work within 48 hours or be fired. About 2,000 returned to work and the rest were fired. The government used people from the military and retired air traffic controllers to monitor the flights and hired new air traffic controllers. This one event had a proof und effect on the labor movement as workers feared losing their jobs if they went on strike.

The 232-day baseball strike of 1994-95 was the biggest one in professional sports. Although there have been many work stoppages in professional baseball dating back to 1912, the study of this strike is important because of the challenges it presented to labor negotiators. This problem has historical origins and dates back to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. In 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that professional baseball was exempt from the anti-trust protection because it was not considered to meet the definition of trade or commerce. Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore, Inc. v. National League of Professional Baseball Clubs et al.  The case was appealed several times but not reversed. The only option for players was to strike. Source

The strike began on August 12, 1994, and the World Series was cancelled on September 14. One of the main issues was the salary cap that owners placed on the players. The cancellation of the World Series prompted some senators to propose legislation to end the anti-trust exemption given to baseball. This divided the Congress because the protection was favored by owners of smaller teams. President Clinton attempted to intervene but was not able to negotiate a settlement. As the 1995 baseball season was about to begin, baseball owners planned to hire non-union replacement players, a tactic used by the National Football League in 1987. On March 31, 1995, U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor issued an injunction, and the baseball players returned to the field.

Chronological History of Labor Strikes in the United States (NPS