03.18.06
Posted in UIS at 4:24 am by Stephanie
Things of interest from Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel.
- “lace curtain irish”
When those who moved up the ladder of success more rapidly began moving into larger frame houses and taking on fancy airs, they were dubbed “Lace Curtain.” They, in turn, referred to there less fortunate brethren as “Shanty” or “Pig in the Parlor Irish.” From The Cleveland Memory Project - Irish Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland - Chapter 3 - Continued Expansion: Lace Curtain and Shanty Irish
- “tinned bully beef” - canned corned beef usually served in the trenches during World War I
- Memorial Day Massacre
- Bob La Follette, Jr.
- Bernard Baruch
- John L. Lewis
- E.D. Nixon
upon hearing A. Phillip Randolph, founding president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, speak about rights for the Negro Porters,
“… it was like a light. Before that time, I figure that a Negro would be kicked around and accept what the white man did. I never knew the Negro had a right to enjoy freedom like everyone else.” (Terkel, p. 119)
- William Lyon Phelps
- Gordon Baxter
Look, my family came from the Old Country, and my grandfather sold pots and pans off his back, and I’ve moved out to the suburbs, and if my grandfather could do it, what the hell’s the matter with these niggers? (Terkel, p. 127)
Editor’s Note: displays a not uncommon attitude toward those less fortunate with little understanding of events that may keep a person from gaining financial and social status
- Mott Foundation
- C. Aubrey Smith
- Alfred P. Sloan
- Helen Hokinson
- Rural Rehabilitation
- Samuel Insull
- NRA - National Recovery Administration
- Christopher Lasch
A crisis in capitalist society doesn’t necessarily produce revolutionary changes or even a sense of alternatives, unless people have an awareness of some other kind of social order in which disasters of this kind wouldn’t happen.
- Father Charles Coughlin
- Oxford Pledge (from Center for Socialist History)
Other links can be found at Logs of the Written Word
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03.15.06
Posted in UIS at 10:03 pm by Stephanie
A Difference in Ideologies – Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois Seek the Answer to Race Equality in Their Time (6 page paper)
Washington’s main critics, DuBois among them felt that Washington was not preaching a path to equality but, rather, a path of “go along to get along.” Of compromising on complete freedom from prejudice in order to keep the peace. Washington believed taking the path of least resistance would lead to the eventual full freedom and recognition of blacks by both the white South and North.
*****
DuBois spent his life fighting for civil and political rights for all black people around the globe.
In a nutshell, these quotes offer a simple view of the differences between Washington and DuBois. Both were right and both were wrong, their influence reverberates through society still. (DuBois was a founding member of the NAACP)
Sources
Specific to this paper:
Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915
Race Matters - Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others by W.E.B. DuBois
A Biographical Sketch of W.E.B. DuBois by Gerald C. Hynes
Review of Mark Perry, Lift up Thy Voice: The Grimke Family’s Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders
African-American Perspectives – Biography – Kelly Miller
Cornel West
W.E.B. DuBois:
W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center
Wikipedia:
W.E.B. DuBois
Project Gutenberg:
W.E.B. DuBois
FBI File on W.E.B. DuBois (pdf)
WikiSource:
W.E.B. DuBois (online works by or about DuBois)
W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research @ Harvard
Basic Searches
Google:
W.E.B. DuBois
Google Books:
W.E.B. DuBois
Links for Booker T. Washington can be found in
this Breathing History post.
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Posted in UIS at 9:27 pm by Stephanie
Compare and contrast the problems of blacks in Philadelphia based on W.E.B. DuBois’ section on the 7th ward (in Chapter 5 of The Philadephia Negro: A Social Study) and immigrants in New York City based on Katy Claghorn’s “The Changing Character of Immigration” in World’s Work Vol. 1.
The only thing I can find about World’s Work is that it was a magazine published by Doubleday. Walter Hines Page was the founder and editor of the magazine from 1900-1913.
DuBois mentions “the riots of the ’30’s” in the excerpt assigned. A classmate helpfully found this tidbit:
From 1834 to 1849 five major riots against blacks occurred in Philadelphia. Emma Jones Lapsansky identifies the rioters as working-class whites frustrated by social immobility, who–although not in direct competition with blacks (who were largely excluded from factory work)–resented and targeted “respectable” blacks and their property, churches, and meeting halls and forced them to concentrate around Lombard and Sixth streets. From a review of African Americans in Pennsylvania: Shifting Historical Perspectives in the 1998 issue of Labor History.
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03.10.06
Posted in UIS at 1:28 am by Stephanie
Based on the sources provided as well as the dictionary definition1and the entry from Wikipedia2, I define progressivism as anything in the political process that promotes better conditions for society.
These are 2 quotes that I found most informative and inspiring:
- “Progressivism is an umbrella label for a wide range of economic, political, social, and moral reforms. These included efforts to outlaw the sale of alcohol; regulate child labor and sweatshops; scientifically manage natural resources; insure pure and wholesome water and milk; Americanize immigrants or restrict immigration altogether; and bust or regulate trusts. Drawing support from the urban, college-educated middle class, Progressive reformers sought to eliminate corruption in government, regulate business practices, address health hazards, improve working conditions, and give the public more direct control over government through direct primaries to nominate candidates for public office, direct election of Senators, the initiative, referendum, and recall, and women’s suffrage.”3
- “This country belongs to the people who inhabit it. Its resources, its business, its institutions and its laws should be utilized, maintained or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest.”4
Sources:
1“the political orientation of those who favor progress toward better conditions in government and society” in
dictionary.com
2 “Progressivism is a political philosophy whose adherents promote public policies that they believe would lead to positive social change.” (”Progressivism” in Wikipedia
3“Learn About the Progressive Era” in Digital History
4“Platform of the Progressive Party” in American Experience - The Presidents - Theodore Roosevelt
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Posted in UIS at 12:11 pm by Stephanie
A quick dump of links for The Classic Slave Narratives edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The assignment was to read The History of Mary Prince and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
The History of Mary Prince
Wikipedia:
Frederick Douglass
Wikiquote:
Frederick Douglass
Google:
Frederick Douglass
Mary Prince
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Slavery
Google Books:
Frederick Douglass
Mary Prince
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Slavery
More links and information about the book: Logs of the Written Word
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