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Chess, Bible Clubs And The Public Schools: A Case Study Of The Board Of Education Of Westside Community Schools V. Bridget Mergens., Brent C. Myers
Chess, Bible Clubs And The Public Schools: A Case Study Of The Board Of Education Of Westside Community Schools V. Bridget Mergens., Brent C. Myers
Student Work
In January 1985 Bridget Mergens, a senior at Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska, proposed to principal James Findley that a Bible club be allowed access to school property. This action precipitated a sequence of events that propelled both Mergens and Westside to the chambers of the United States Supreme Court in 1990. When the Supreme Court decided a Bible club could have access to the school under the Equal Access Act of 1984, Mergens became a landmark case in the debate over the Establishment Clause of.the First Amendment. My case study of Board of Education of Westside Community Schools …
The Confessions Of The Madison Henderson Gang, Mark K. Reuter
The Confessions Of The Madison Henderson Gang, Mark K. Reuter
Student Work
In 1841, Adam B. Chambers, the editor of The Missouri Republican, published a pamphlet containing the texts of his interviews with four African Americans convicted of bank robbery and murder. Because these narratives cover the lives of three free men of color and one quasi-free slave, they present a view of the antebellum African American experience that has been understudied. The existing canon of African American narratives and secondary research focuses on slaves. While few studies have examined the lives of free blacks, most of those have focused on the African American elite. This project brings to light the lives …
Eliza Orzeszkowa: Polish Patriot, Positivist Writer, Social Critic And Feminist., Aneta Maria Czarnik
Eliza Orzeszkowa: Polish Patriot, Positivist Writer, Social Critic And Feminist., Aneta Maria Czarnik
Student Work
Eliza Orzeszkowa (1841-1910) became one of most popular and influential authors of the Positivist movement in Polish arts, letters, and politics during the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Poles experienced economic and social instability and foreign political repression. Orzeszkowa achieved renown as a writer of realistic fiction, as a pioneering Polish feminist, and as a vigorous advocate of political and social reform who sought to challenge all discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. Many of her publications dealt with the emancipation of women, the assimilation of Jews, and the integration of the Polish peasantry into the …
Genuine Populist: William V. Allen In The United States Senate, 1893-1901, David W. Hoelscher
Genuine Populist: William V. Allen In The United States Senate, 1893-1901, David W. Hoelscher
Student Work
This study examines the United States Senate career of Nebraska Populist William Vincent Allen (1893-1901). A relatively neglected figure in Populist historiography, Allen has been the subject o f widely divergent opinions on the part of those historians who have commented on his place in the movement. The dominant view reflected in the published literature is that Allen, who was elected with the help of Democratic votes in the Nebraska legislature, was, ideologically and politically, more of a Democrat than a Populist. On this view, Allen’s principal policy concern was promoting the cause of free silver coinage, and his primary …
To Be Almost Like White: The Case Of Soon Ja Du, Augustina Jhi-Ho Chae
To Be Almost Like White: The Case Of Soon Ja Du, Augustina Jhi-Ho Chae
Student Work
This is a case study of Korean Americans’ prejudiced attitudes toward African Americans. To discuss this attitudes, I chose to examine the case of People of the State of California v. Soon Ja Du. On the morning of March 16, 1991, Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year-old African American high school girl was shot in the back of the head by Soon Ja Du, a fifty-one-year-old Korean liquor and grocery store owner after a fight. This fight started by Soon Ja falsely accusing Latasha of shoplifting. In many ways, Soon Ja Du’s negative attitudes represent a typical Korean American’s prejudice.
Fighting Jim Crow In Post-World War Ii Omaha 1945-1956, Kathleen Mary Davis
Fighting Jim Crow In Post-World War Ii Omaha 1945-1956, Kathleen Mary Davis
Student Work
Blacks in Omaha developed new approaches to fight Jim Crow practices in the post-World War II era. As a result, substantial gains were made in the areas of public accommodations, employment, residential segregation and education. The Omaha Star, a black newspaper, was instrumental in reporting civil rights abuses to its readers, while constantly urging them to unite and fight for their rights. Civil rights organizations played a crucial role in these efforts. The NAACP chapter was established as early as 1918, but after an initial burst it was relatively ineffective until the 1950s. The local Urban League, however, which dated …
Niobrara National Scenic River, 1985-2000: Old Arguments, New Compromises, James A. Roeder
Niobrara National Scenic River, 1985-2000: Old Arguments, New Compromises, James A. Roeder
Student Work
In May 1991, President George H. Bush signed into law the Niobrara Scenic River Designation Act, which gave federal scenic-river designation to a 70-mile stretch of this northern-Nebraska river. The successful effort to protect this river was a protracted, often acrimonious battle, pitting Nebraska neighbors against each other. Interested parties found themselves on opposing sides of a seemingly insurmountable divide, either believing that this river resource should be given federal protection to preserve it unimpaired for future generations, or arguing that the local people should be allowed to determine the fate of “their” river without federal interference. The twentieth century …
The Prairie Grass Dividing: The History Of The Saunders County Farmers' Alliance, 1889-1897, John A. Sautter
The Prairie Grass Dividing: The History Of The Saunders County Farmers' Alliance, 1889-1897, John A. Sautter
Student Work
The Farmers Alliance was one of the most important agricultural organizations in late nineteenth century America. This thesis traces the history of the Alliance movement in Saunders County, Nebraska, where it was one of the strongest in the state between 1889 and 1892. In addition, it examines the emergence of third party Populist politics, as they relate to this farm organization. Saunders County, located in eastern Nebraska, developed a strong Alliance movement culture, that included cooperative ventures, an educational program and social activities. Several producer and consumer cooperative ventures were started by members after they joined the organization. In some …
The Women's Division Of The Omaha Chamber Of Commerce 1922-1976, Sharen A. Rotolo
The Women's Division Of The Omaha Chamber Of Commerce 1922-1976, Sharen A. Rotolo
Student Work
In 1922, a group of 121 business and professional women, members of the Omaha Business and Professional Women League, became the first women m embers of the Omaha Chamber o f Commerce, a civic group that had been promoting the growth o f the city since 1893. As women across the country, fresh from winning a seventy-year suffrage fight, were trying to move ahead yet in other areas, politically, professionally and legally, the women in the Omaha Chamber hoped to be treated as equals in the Chamber organization. They believed that when the Senior Chamber established a separate Women's Division, …
Albia, Iowa In The 1920s: Coal, Corn And Change, Derek S. Oden
Albia, Iowa In The 1920s: Coal, Corn And Change, Derek S. Oden
Student Work
This is the story of Albia in the 1920s. Albia, the seat of Monroe County, is located in south central Iowa. The town achieved its greatest population gain during the first decade of the twentieth century. Access to ample railroad transportation, trade with its hinterland, and manufacturing aided this expansion. Albians also enjoyed a thriving period of coal mining and agriculture. This era of prosperity ended during the early 1920s because the demand for local coal fell sharply. As a result, the population of the county began to shrink. Following the war, agriculture also entered a recession when farmers struggled …
An Analysis Of Plan Colombia As It Meets Criteria For Protracted Military Intervention, Sarah Roper
An Analysis Of Plan Colombia As It Meets Criteria For Protracted Military Intervention, Sarah Roper
Student Work
For over thirty years, the conflict in Colombia has wrecked havoc on the country's civil society, political order, military capabilities, and the stability of the entire region. Bom of drug cartels and exacerbated by police and military corruption, rebel guerrilla groups, and ineffective international policy, drug trafficking and the consequences thereof pose a critical threat to policy makers worldwide. Consequently, the Colombian and United States governments committed, in February 2000, to new legislation, entitled Plan Colombia, aimed at reducing narcotics cultivation, processing, and distribution by fifty percent by the year 2006. While the plan is ambitious, it is riddled with …
Young Emigrants On The Oregon, California, And Mormon Trails, 1841-1866, Molly Kizer
Young Emigrants On The Oregon, California, And Mormon Trails, 1841-1866, Molly Kizer
Student Work
Between 1841 and 1866, the years of heaviest traffic on the overland trails, approximately 500,000 people uprooted their families, departed their homes in the East and began the search for a new life in Oregon, California or Utah. During these three decades, eager pioneers pushed their way across half a continent and participated in one of the greatest of modem pilgrimages. The westward movement has been studied from the viewpoints of men, and, especially in recent years, from the viewpoints of women, but few historians have looked at the massive migration from the perspectives of younger emigrants. In the preface …
Themes And Issues In The Motion Picture Industry As Seen Through The Billboard, 1920-1930., Michael K. Chapman
Themes And Issues In The Motion Picture Industry As Seen Through The Billboard, 1920-1930., Michael K. Chapman
Student Work
This thesis examines a variety of themes and issues in the motion picture industry as evidenced in The Billboard (now called Billboard magazine) in the 1920s. The research details the publication's coverage of and reaction to a number of unfair trade practices, governmental censorship, and the development of sound technology in the motion picture industry in the latter half of the decade. The project contends that The Billboard was the voice of the small, independent theater owner. The thesis casts the trade publication's alliance with small business owners as a contrast to the big business, pro-consolidation climate of the period. …
The Best Of Its Kind In The West: A History Of Columbus, Nebraska, 1900-1910, Lori Brdicko
The Best Of Its Kind In The West: A History Of Columbus, Nebraska, 1900-1910, Lori Brdicko
Student Work
The first decade of the twentieth century marked Columbus, Nebraska’s transition from a frontier town to a small midwestem city. During those ten years, the population increased from 3,522 to 5,014, the labor force composition changed, and residents, goaded by Columbus Weekly Telegram editor Edgar Howard, began to think more about the appearance and sanitary condition of the town. The rapidly growing community was soon hard-pressed to provide its citizens with fuel and electrical power to operate an expanding residential and street lighting system. Promoters tried to harness the Loup River’s current to provide that power, but economic conditions did …
Altering The Nebraska Landscape: Tecumseh And Johnson County, 1854-1900, Rebecca L. Howard
Altering The Nebraska Landscape: Tecumseh And Johnson County, 1854-1900, Rebecca L. Howard
Student Work
The history of a people, be they Native Americans or pioneer settlers, can be uncovered in their landscape. The Euro-American settlers who moved onto the prairies of Nebraska and the Great Plains faced an environment unlike the wooded regions of the East. Native American traditions and land use patterns were replaced by those of the settlers. Nebraska’s Native landscape was altered under the hand of this new dominant culture. Physical alterations included the breaking of the prairie sod for farming and the construction of towns and railroads. Johnson County, Nebraska, which sits among the southeastern counties of the state, was …
Historians And John C. Calhoun: One Hundred And Fifty Years Of Historiography, John Gregory Jacobsen
Historians And John C. Calhoun: One Hundred And Fifty Years Of Historiography, John Gregory Jacobsen
Student Work
In a public career spanning forty years, South Carolinian John C. Calhoun served in a variety of offices from state legislator to United States vice president. A central antebellum figure, he presents something of an enigma. Historically, Calhoun has been identified with the South and slavery, both of which he defended vigorously. Yet his significant, if challenging, contributions to American political and constitutional thought have proven to be his most enduring legacy. In the century and a half since his death, he has been the focus of a vast number of historical works ranging from multi-volume biographies to narrowly-focused interpretive …
A Neglected Little Rebellion: The Farmers' Holiday Association In Dixon, Dakota, And Thurston Counties, Nebraska, 1932-1934, Travis Sing
Student Work
On the night of August 22, 1932, a Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha livestock train was twice detained by an unknown number of farmers on its way from Norfolk, Nebraska, to Sioux City, Iowa. The train was scheduled to arrive in Sioux City at 10:40 P.M. after leaving Norfolk at 6 P.M., but did not reach its final destination until 4 a .m . This episode became front-page news in many newspapers, including those in the metropolitan areas of Omaha and Sioux City, and was even mentioned in the New York Times. The train was halted by a group …
This Great Fraternity: Nebraska's Grand Army Of The Republic, 1867-1920, Richard Evans Keyes
This Great Fraternity: Nebraska's Grand Army Of The Republic, 1867-1920, Richard Evans Keyes
Student Work
America’s Civil War transformed the political, economic and social landscape of the nation. Nowhere did this transformation manifest itself so clearly as in the lives of the men who flocked to the Union colors. The world of combat created a landscape of death, dismemberment and disease, while destroying Victorian concepts of knightliness and romance. Veterans spent a lifetime in successfully reintegrating themselves into the nation’s mainstream, while constantly harkening back to the discipline and organizational skills learned in the war. Their efforts came to fruition with the establishment of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1866, which became the …
Harrison County, Iowa: Aspects Of Life From 1920 To 1930, Gary D. Dixon
Harrison County, Iowa: Aspects Of Life From 1920 To 1930, Gary D. Dixon
Student Work
This is an examination of Harrison County, Iowa, during the decade from 1920 to 1930. Because farming was the major source of income, agricultural conditions are a major part of this story . So too are the changes which the 1920s brought to the towns of Harrison County. The thesis will also look at the social activities and political issues of the county’s citizens, and how these disparate elements of life interacted to form a more complex picture than one might at first think likely. The 1920s was a time of profound change in the nation, and Harrison County was …
Samuel Pandolfo And The Mail Fraud Statute, Susan Marie Juza
Samuel Pandolfo And The Mail Fraud Statute, Susan Marie Juza
Student Work
Talents of flaws in a man's character may go unnoticed until forced into the public's eye by unforeseen circumstances. Samel Pandolfo, a southern-born promoter, influenced many people's lives by his charismatic personality and his business ventures. Pandolfo had a zest for life, and moved frequently through his adult career, touching many communities. His range of interests included teaching, selling insurance, building an automobile manufacturing plant, developing a health food business, and promoting a loan company. While he invested much energy and money into these ventures, they all eventually failed.
Mccook's Man On Main Street: Publisher Harry D. Strunk And The Politics Of Water Reclamation In Southwest Nebraska, 1928-1938, Charles E. Real
Mccook's Man On Main Street: Publisher Harry D. Strunk And The Politics Of Water Reclamation In Southwest Nebraska, 1928-1938, Charles E. Real
Student Work
By the time Harry D. Strunk arrived in his new home of McCook, Nebraska in 1909, he had set his sights on becoming a newspaperman. While only seventeen years-old at the time of his first job with a McCook newspaper, he had already worked as a printer's devil and itinerant printer since the age of fourteen. With his arrival in McCook and first job in that city with the established Tribune, he soon found that his future in the newspaper business lay with starting his own paper. In 1911, without benefit of a formal journalistic education, Strunk opened the Red …
The Altered Behavior Of Interest Rates In The Uk After The Founding Of The Fed In The Us In 1914, Catalin Vieru
The Altered Behavior Of Interest Rates In The Uk After The Founding Of The Fed In The Us In 1914, Catalin Vieru
Student Work
The founding of the Federal Reserve System in the US in 1914 is viewed as a major structural transformation of the US economy. Scholars consider that the 1914 structural change of the US economy greatly altered the stochastic processes generating short term interest rates. In the US case, most short-term interest rate time series analyses suggest that prior to 1914 short-term interest rate time series were stationary whereas sometime after 1914 they became non-stationary. In addition to this finding, some researchers found that the same phenomenon occurred simultaneously in more European countries. This thesis challenges the theory of simultaneous world-wide …
Covering The Red Scare: The Omaha World-Herald And Issues Related To Domestic Communism, 1945-1953, Ray Steve Bullock
Covering The Red Scare: The Omaha World-Herald And Issues Related To Domestic Communism, 1945-1953, Ray Steve Bullock
Student Work
The fear of communism in America, known popularly as the “Red Scare,” has historically been a driving force in the initiation of legislation and policies designed to limit the influence of the Communist Party in America. During the apex of the Red Scare, the years 1945 to 1953, a climate of fear descended on the nation as communist, suspected communist, New Deal liberals and other members of the political left were chastised, blacklisted and prosecuted for alleged disloyalty to the American people.
"Where Life Is Simple And Passions Moderate": A History Of Nebraska City, Nebraska, 1900-1910, Thomas L. Boeche
"Where Life Is Simple And Passions Moderate": A History Of Nebraska City, Nebraska, 1900-1910, Thomas L. Boeche
Student Work
Nebraska City vied with Omaha for leadership in early Nebraska, but by the first decade of the twentieth century was struggling to hold its own. Unlike earlier periods in its history, scant attention has been devoted to turn-of-the-century Nebraska City. To effectively document the decade 1900-1910, one must deal with a variety of historical, economic, and social issues. Perhaps the most important point to consider is the shift in population from 7,380 in 1900, to only 5,488 in 1910. After weathering the Depression of the 1890s, this small town underwent drastic economic changes during the first decade of the twentieth …
Manti, Iowa: A Frontier Settlement In The Lower Nishnabotna River Valley, 1846-1880, Nancy K. Jaeckel
Manti, Iowa: A Frontier Settlement In The Lower Nishnabotna River Valley, 1846-1880, Nancy K. Jaeckel
Student Work
Anyone living in the extreme southwestern part of Iowa today frequently experiences a feeling of not being part of the state. The area south and west of Interstates 80 and 35 is rarely mentioned except in a peripheral way to the larger story of Iowa. This project attempts to partially rectify that omission by examining a specific area popularly known as Manti, and relating the events that occurred there between 1846 and 1880. As the sesquicentennial anniversary of Iowa's statehood approaches, a renewed interest in the 1846 Mormon trek across Iowa has developed. While that story is relatively well known, …
The Firing Of Admiral Denfeld: An Early Casualty Of The Military Unification Process, David Bruce Dittmer
The Firing Of Admiral Denfeld: An Early Casualty Of The Military Unification Process, David Bruce Dittmer
Student Work
The defense establishment of the United States underwent many changes after its magnifent victory in World War II. Budget cuts and a rapid demobilization that President Truman descrived as "disintegration" shruck the Armed Forces to less that a quarter of their wartime strength in less than two year, just as the world's geopolitical landscape was hardening into the bi-polar relationship of the Cold War. Adding to the resulting confusion was Truman's successful effort to unify the three services in an overarching National Military Establishment which eventually became the Department of Defense... This thesis attempts to show that Admiral Denfeld's Congressional …
"Baby Doll" (1956): A Case Study Of Film Censorship And Its Decline During The 1950'S., Tara Ross Young
"Baby Doll" (1956): A Case Study Of Film Censorship And Its Decline During The 1950'S., Tara Ross Young
Student Work
Prior to World War II, state and municipal censor boards, the Production Code Administration, and the Catholic Legion of Decency effectively monitored and shaped the content of Hollywood's film industry so as to insure that American movies would not corrupt public morals or offend major segments of the population. After 1948, however, a series of Supreme Court decisions seriously weakened this triad, and a new breed of independent directors emerged to challenge the boundaries of censorship. One of these trailblazers was Elia Kazan. Kazan broke free from the restraints of the studio system and as an independent director he pursued …
Straining At A Gnat And Swallowing A Camel: Progressive Indian Policy Under Cato Sells, 1913-1921, William Benton Whisenhunt
Straining At A Gnat And Swallowing A Camel: Progressive Indian Policy Under Cato Sells, 1913-1921, William Benton Whisenhunt
Student Work
Cato Sells became Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1913 after a successful law career in Iowa, and a prosperous banking business in Texas. Always ambitious and hardworking, he climbed the political ladder of the Democratic Party during the late nineteenth century and received the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs as a payoff in the Woodrow Wilson administration. While commissioner from 1913 to 1921, he addressed a wide range of issues, and these, in turn, attracted a varied response from Native Americans, white reform groups, and government officials. Throughout his difficult tenure in office, Sells found himself constantly on the …
A Fortune Is Near At Hand: White Land Buyers On The Nemaha Half-Breed Tract, 1857-1860, William T. Moran
A Fortune Is Near At Hand: White Land Buyers On The Nemaha Half-Breed Tract, 1857-1860, William T. Moran
Student Work
Throughout the 19th century, the federal government promoted the assimilation of Native Americans as individuals within white society. Allotment of land in severalty, or the granting of land to individual Indians, was one means to achieve assimilation because it was believed that Indians would adopt the lifestyle of white farmers once they received land. Though the attempt generally failed, the government remailed undeterred in its efforts to achieve that end. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act which made allotment in severalty the standard policy on most reservations throughout the United States. One clear failure of allotment in severalty …
Building The Meat Packing Industry In South Omaha, 1883-1898, Gail Lorna Didonato
Building The Meat Packing Industry In South Omaha, 1883-1898, Gail Lorna Didonato
Student Work
An article by Gregory R. Zieren was brought to my attention as I was completing this study. I Dealing with recently published works on the packing industry, it critiques books that have been my constant companions over the last two years. Zieren writes, "Despite the local focus [Chicago], none of the works is parochial in its scholarly concerns, and all of them broaden our understanding of the urban and social history of one the nation's quintessential working-class districts." Chicago was the environment for the development of the modern industry and, for almost a century, was the world's leading packing center. …