LAD/Blog #37: Brown v. Board of Education

Educational segregation in Topeka, Kansas forced a black girl, Linda Brown, to walk an undeserved extra distance to school every day solely because of her race. She, alongside the NAACP, filed a suit against the state of Kansas on the grounds that the learning of black schoolchildren was inhibited by segregation and had to end. The court ruled against Linda Brown, but the NAACP wouldn't take such a verdict and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court with the argument that there was no such thing as "separate but equal," and that segregation violated the rights of black people to due process and protection under the law. Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court ruled in favor of Linda Brown, overturning the old precedent of "separate but equal" set forth by Plessy vs. Ferguson, and finally, in 1954, officially outlawed segregation of the school systems.

LAD/Blog #36: The Truman Doctrine

President Truman introduced the Truman Doctrine on March 12, 1947 stating that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet Sphere. Historians frequently consider to be the start of the Cold War, given that it was the start of the containment policy which was meant to stop the expansion of Soviet influenced. President Truman informed Congress that the Doctrine was "the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Truman said that these "totalitarian regimes" coerced "free peoples," representing a threat to international peace and the national security of the United States and democracy. If Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid that they were in urgent need of, especially with Greece embroiled in a civil war, though both countries were aided equally to keep tensions at bay, they would inevitably fall to communism. This could not be tolerated by Truman, and with the implementation of the Truman Doctrine, containment began in full swing.

LAD/Blog #35: FDR's Executive Order #9066

Tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan were interned in camps at the behest of President Roosevelt by his Executive Order #9066. This order gave the military the power to ban any citizen from the fifty to sixty milewide coastal area  from Washington state to California and extending inland into southern Arizona. The order also authorized transporting these citizens to assembly centers set up and governed by the military in California, Arizona, Washington state, and Oregon. The same executive order as well as other wartime orders and restrictions were also applied to smaller numbers of residents of the United States who were of Italian or German descent. For example, 3200 of Italian background were arrested and more than 300 of them were interned. About 11000 German residents, including some naturalized citizens, were arrested and more than 5000 were interned. While such groups suffered violations of their civil liberties, the measures applied to Japanese Americans were worse by far, uprooting entire communities and targeting citizens as well as resident aliens all because of a pervading wartime paranoia.

LAD/Blog #34: FDR's Declaration of War

Following the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, "a date which will live in infamy," President Roosevelt declared war upon Japan and explains the harrowing event prompting the decision to Congress. He discussed the suspicious actions of the Japanese, as well as locations other than Pearl Harbor which Japanese launched hostilities against, as well as the fact that many American lives and ships had been lost. Following that, he extended a plea for a declaration of war, from Congress as well as God, deeming it the only logical next step for the country.

LAD/Blog #33: FDR's First Inaugural Address

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, upon taking the helm of the presidency, was charged with the enormous task of hoisting the United States out of the Great Depression. In his first inaugural address, Roosevelt delievered an optimistic message that America was indeed capable of rising up and overcoming the hardships that had befallen it, stating that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Roosevelt emphasized that America had to bounce back, while maintaining its integrity as a country. In addition to his optimism, Roosevelt also detailed ideas of his such as employing the unemployed which would eventually evolve into the New Deal. He believed that the government would be able to bring about the recovery of the United States.

LAD/Blog #32: Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact

The Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, a 1928 international agreement named after United States Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand, called for the states that signed not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them." Those that failed to abide by this promise "should be denied the benefits furnished by this treaty." It was signed by Germany, France, and the United States on August 27, 1928, and by most other nations soon after. Sponsored by France and the U.S., the Pact renounced the use of violent resolution and called for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

LAD/Blog #31: President Wilson's 14 Points

 
On January 8th, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress regarding his plan for the future and for Europe. First, he established that the United States had entered the Great War in order to help other nations and to restore the world to peace and harmony. He went on to introduce his 14 Point Plan. The plan presented guidelines on what Wilson perceived necessary to correct the world's major issues. Wilson wanted an end to all fighting in the world, asking for a general disarmament of all countries as well as trade rights and free waterways. The major goal of the plan was to set up an international peace keeping organization which was called called the League of Nations. Despite its positive nature, the League was largely unsuccessful due to the absence of the United States. The 14 points were the first step in establishing America as a world peacekeeper, laying the foundation for the United Nations. Overall, the plan was too idealistic and its goals were too lofty to be held to entirely, resulting in its failure.