Braddock's Many Fights

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Dear Principal:

Too often in high school, us students are denied the right to learn about certain events in our history. History that everyone should have the right to know. Even though we block out these events because they reflect our countries negatively, by teaching them we know not to make the same mistakes and it respectfully honors those who died in the events. While teaching them may put our country in a bad light and can alter people's perceptions, this is a fact that we need to overcome. Events like the Rape of Nanking, the Ukrainian Famine, and the Armenian Genocide go completely unnoticed and, in fact, I only recently heard of them. Relatives of those who died in these events probably feel insulted that people refuse to teach or talk about them, because it is an insult to their memory. Through the good and the bad, countries should be open with their citizens and tell them the truth. In the case of Japan, they refuse to acknowledge that the Rape of Nanking even happened and it is just wrong to deny the Japanese people this information when it is the truth and part of their history. I wish that you could please consider that we change our history curriculum to include these topics no matter how sensitive they are. We can all learn lessons from events like this and they can help prevent making these mistakes again.

Sincerely,

Lauren Adhav

Cinderella Man Outline

Title: The Cinderella Man

Main Characters: James J. Braddock, Mae Braddock, Joe Gould, and Max Baer

Plot: The Cinderella Man is the story of boxer James J. Braddock and his fight not only with other boxers but the fight trying to provide for his family. It was set in the Great Depression Era during the 1930's and has themes of family, friends, poverty, and redemption. Braddock stuggles with his declining boxing career and has to earn money by working at the docks. But even this makes hardly any money at all, and it's hard work because he has a fractured hand from one of his previous fights. Braddock has a second chance when he is offered a fight against John "Corn" Griffin and wins. Braddock begins training again and battling opponents in suspenseful fights and ended up winning the World Heavyweight Championship versus Max Baer against all odds. Amazingly, this fight was held in Madison Square Garden, blocks from Hell's Kitchen right where he grew up.

Links:
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm
http://www.jamesjbraddock.com/
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml

Sacco and Vanzetti

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/

a3/Save_Sacco_and_Vanzetti.jpg

Judge Thayer:

Innocent until proven guilty has always been the case in the court, and I do not think this belief was upheld in the case of Sacco and Vanzetti. There was insufficient evidence and many unreliable eyewitnesses to convict these so called "criminals." The eyewitnesses called to the stand were never completely certain of identifying Sacco or Vanzetti at the scene of the crime, and it is important to note that the eyewitnesses seemed much more certain of their indentifications in the trial than they did at the preliminary hearing a year earlier. These people were most likely influenced by the effects of the Red Scare, not by a desire to tell the truth. The defendants Sacco and Vanzetti also felt the need to lie, because they were afraid of the consequences of being anarchists during this time period. They lied to ensure their safety as well as their friends, who were also fellow anarchists. These outside influences made this case very subjective and biased. The trials should have lasted longer for as long as they needed to, to be sure that these men were really guilty of the crimes of murder and armed robbery. This case should have been taken very seriously instead of being based entirely on fear. Because of this carelessness two men who are possibly innocent will die. The charges of murder and armed robbery are very serious, yet all along it seems as if these 7 years of trials and prosecution, the intent was always to have them killed, regardless of the lack of evidence. The prosecution's ballistics evidence of the bullet that supposedly came from Sacco's gun, was very weak. An expert noted that a scratch on the bullet was most likely made from a defect in Sacco's gun. However, this theory was never tested, and could be entirely false. If the bullet was in fact shot from his gun, a simple test to recreate this scenario would have been simple. You can put a clean bullet into the gun and fire, and if this bullet also has the same scratch, then that would've supported the fact that the bullet came from Sacco's gun. But seeing as how this simple test never happened, I am at a loss to how these men were convicted. This case was one entirely based on assumptions, and it is appalling that our legal and judicial system has stood by this and done absolutely nothing, to at least reasonably get Sacco and Vanzetti's account of the situation. We have placed this unjust prejudice upon not only Sacco and Vanzetti, but all foreigners and immigrants, and it has made them feel unsafe and fearful for their lives. No one should be living like that in America. This is a land of equal opportunity and success for all, and we have denied this to everyone except those native born to America. I am disgusted and disappointed by what has unfolded in this case and I ask you to never let something like this happen again.

Topic 7 Concept Guide

The Scopes Trial

John T. Scopes was tried in court for trying to teach evolution, breaking the state law of Tennessee. The verdict was overturned however due to a technicality: he was ordered to pay a fine of 100 dollars, but because this was ordered by the judge and not the jury. This was a great turning point in education, and if anything like this happened now, it would be a violation of the teacher's academic freedom.

Prohibition

This was a result of the 18th Amendment that banned alcohol, but ended up increasing the amount of drinking. Prohibition created modern organized crime, bootlegging, rum runners, and the speakeasy.

Flappers

These women were part of the 1920's where their hair was cut short, they bared their legs and shoulders, and they drank and smoked publicly. Flappers were a transition to the way women dress and act today.

Economic Issues (1920s)

The Great Depression occurred, leaving many homeless, jobless, and living in poverty. The stock market crashed because of the fall of stock prices and low interest rates. The effects of demobilization also caused an increase in drinking, depression, PTSD, and homelessness.

Dust Bowl

The causes of the Dust Bowl were over farming, severe drought, and mechanization. Over farming because of an increase in mechanization led to a loss of nutrition in the soil and as a result crops could not be grown. The soil became like dust because of the drought and was blown as far east as New York.

Agriculture Issues

Because of the tragedy in the Dust Bowl, there were many food shortages and starvation spread.

Immigration Policies

Post WWI immigration was limited to the United States because we came to the conclusion that the US could thrive without immigrants and the opposition to quotas would disappear. People became afraid of those who were unamerican, especially those who were foreign. Asians were banned altogether. The espionage and sedition acts allowed people to report anyone or anything suspicious.

Nativism

This was a term to describe anyone opposed to immigration. The immigration act of 1924 limited ethnic group immigration to 2%.

Significant literary works

How the Other Half Lives-Jacob Riis

Jungle-Uptown Sinclair

Unsafe at Any Speed-Ralph Nader

The Great Migration

African Americans moving from the rural south to industrial cities in the north. They suffered a great deal of discrimination from workers who already had jobs in factories.

Harlem Renaissance

Era of African American art like Jazz, Blues, theater, and literature. Writers like Langston Hughes wrote in the time period of the Harlem Renaissance and his works can still be read today.

Sacco and Vanzetti

Italian immigrants and anarchists who followed Luigi Galleani. They were later convicted of murder during an armed robbery. After a series of trials both were executed as punishment. There is controversy over their trial and whether there was enough evidence to convict them.

Labor Issues (1920s)

Demobilization efforts were trying to get returning soldiers from the war back to their jobs, but many men suffered from drinking problems, depression, and homelessness.

The Red Scare

This refers to the strong feelings of anti-communism in the United States. This period began after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and many Americans feared that the same type of revolution would happen in the U.S. This caused Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to launch the Palmer Raids, which raided left wing organizations across the country.

Schenck v. the United States

A United States Supreme Court decision that defended the Espionage Act of 1917 and concluded that a defendant did not have a First Amendment right to freedom of speech against the draft during World War I.

evolution vs. religion

The John T. Scopes trial was a turning point in American history, where the debate between science and religion was first made public. From this trial, I believe that schools should be taught evolution. I think that this theory, although still a theory, is very well known and has not been proven wrong yet. There is plenty of evidence supporting that evolution is a real possibility for how the human race was created. A skeleton named "Lucy" was found and has been linked to connecting primates and humans, as scientists believe that the species like Lucy was the first to walk upright on two feet. There have also been fossilized footprints found in the Permian Strata, preserved from the ash of a volcano. I think that teaching evolution is not as big of a problem as some of the other things that cause conflict today. If someone is religious enough, they can choose not to listen to lectures on evolution, and it won't affect them at all. Someone can choose not to make a big problem out of it, and just move on.

Reflection

From the group presentations, I learned that organized crime originated from the 18th Amendment prohibiting alcohol. Many of the gangsters involved in gangs were bootleggers or smuggled alcohol. The gangs back then are nothing like gangs nowadays. Back then gangs were run like businesses and the interest was about money. Today gangs fight each other because of territorial disputes, not really because of profit. I also learned that many gangsters got involved when they were young and that many of them were the children of immigrants. Many of the gangs joined up with each other, for example George Baby Face Nelson and John Paul Chase joined the Dillenger gang and stayed with them for a while, even traveling up to the Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin. However, some gangs were terrible enemies as one can understand from the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Al Capone and his men dressed as cops and lined up 7 men from George "Bugs" Moran's gang, in a parking garage, and were shot with machine guns even after they were dead. Organized crime was, and still is, part of our history and although there was much violence surrounding these gangs, some citizens viewed them as heroes.  

Acrostic Poem

People becoming
Rum runners
Over the border of Canada
Hard to enforce because the
IRS was put in charge
Banning the sale and manufacture of
Intoxicating liquors
The 18th Amendment
Increased amount of drinking, instead
Of reducing it, in 1932 18th Amendment was
No longer enforced

Rapid growth in industry creating transition
Of culture
And lifestyles, introducing
Harlem Renaissance and Jazz Age
Immortalized in movies and magazines, flappers did
Not conform to society, baring their arms and
Gams, and smoking and drinking publicly
The 19th Amendment passes in 1920 granting
Women political
Equality and rights
New technologies like planes and automobiles created by
The assembly line, prohibition makes alcohol
Illegal, however
Enforcement seems impossible because of the
Speakeasy, in the back of stores