United States History Commons^™

Moderate Resistance In "A Call For Unity": A Historical Perspective On Martin Luther King Jr.’S Prison Epistle, Noah D. Moore

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

In April of 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a defense of non-violent direct action that students across the country read today. His "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" stands as the pinnacle of civil rights literature, but most people do not realize that it was more than a rhetorical device used to support his cause. Dr. King's letter was in fact a response to different letter, published in the Birmingham News by eight prominent, white clergymen on April 13, 1963. Their letter, "A Call for Unity," urged blacks to end the civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham. They …

100 Years Ago: The Death Of Quentin Roosevelt, Keith J. Muchowski

Publications and Research

This blog post focuses on the life and military career of Quentin Roosevelt. Lieutenant Roosevelt died in an aviation firefight in France on July 14, 2018, Bastille Day. He left behind his fiancee Flora Payne Whitney, an heir to the Whitney and Vanderbilt fortunes.

Morgan, William Montrose, 1842-1926 (Sc 3231), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3231. Letter, 2 February 1862, of William Montrose Morgan to his parents and sisters, of Wisconsin. From Camp Wood, Kentucky, he writes of the rainy and snowy weather; the number of soldiers sick in company regiments; he describes his regiment and his brigade commander as being the best in the division. He comments about the regiment being on guard duty and held in reserve to protect a bridge and ferry on Green River. He further reports that there are 20,000 men in his regiment under General Negley; …

Counter Institution: Activist Estates Of The Lower East Side [Bibliography], Nandini Bagchee

New York State City & Regional

In the midst of current debates about the accessibility of public spaces, resurfacing as a result of highly visible demonstrations and occupations, this book illuminates an overlooked domain of civic participation: the office, workshop, or building where activist groups meet to organize and plan acts of political dissent and collective participation. Author Nandini Bagchee examines three re-purposed buildings on the Lower East Side that have been used by activists to launch actions over the past forty years. The Peace Pentagon was the headquarters of the anti-war movement, El Bohio was a metaphoric “hut” that envisioned the Puerto Rican Community as …

Ratliff, Charles, 1854-1940 (Sc 3236), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3236. Letter, 30 July 1889, of Charles Ratliff, Princeton, Kentucky, on his letterhead as a dealer in building material, hardware, saddlery, roofing, etc., advising of the sale of his quarry property and assuring the recipient that the new owners will promptly supply stone.

Bridges, Robert Alton, 1911-1997 (Sc 3238), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3238. Letter, June 1952, of Robert Alton Bridges to his young son while the boy is away from home. He supplies family news, urges his son to keep a diary of his travel, and hopes that he will learn to swim.

Kibbee, Amos Watson, 1828-1915 (Sc 3230), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3230. Letter, 26 January 1862, of Amos Watson Kibbee to his cousin, Hattie Tuttle, of Painesville, Ohio. From Camp Barker in Cairo, Illinois, he writes about camp life and rumors of possible cavalry soldiers being discharged and his experiences of late-night scouting duties. He also describes being in an advance guard with other soldiers, taking the town of Blandville, Kentucky, and arresting suspicious civilians. He writes about guarding a prisoner of war, and his change of religious views. Includes an Illinois Union envelope.

Myers, Lloyd (Sc 3237), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3237. Letter, 16 January 1889, of Lloyd Myers, clerk of the Duncan Hotel, Henderson, Kentucky, on hotel letterhead. He asks for a quote on materials to construct columns, an ornamented pediment, and window hardware for a two-story building and includes a rough design sketch of a storefront.

A Mutual Charge: The Shared Mission Of Herbert Hoover And Harry S. Truman To Alleviate Global Hunger In A Postwar World, Brian Douglas Reese

Dissertations and Theses

Famine and destitution stemming from the Second World War had spread across the European continent and parts of Asia by mid-1945. Recognizing the need for recovery and survival in those regions, President Harry S. Truman at the recommendation of several Cabinet members, summoned ex-President Herbert Hoover for advice on how the United States should proceed in offering aid beyond the earlier efforts of the United Nations Rehabilitation and Relief Administration and other relief sources. After an absence from the White House and official government participation for many years, Hoover readily provided crucial advice on addressing famine relief in Europe and …

A Select List Of Books In Mexican-American History (2018 Update), John R. Chavez

History Faculty Publications

This list of secondary sources includes surveys and monographs, but few collections or biographies; while some works may overlap disciplines, their content is historical on the whole and focused significantly on ethnic Mexicans in the United States.

Witherspoon, Alexander Maclaren, 1894-1964 (Sc 3235), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3235. Letter, 14 August 1931, written by Alex Witherspoon to Carl D. Herdman, Bowling Green, Kentucky, regarding Witherspoon’s gift to Herdman of The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade, found in an Edinburgh, Scotland bookshop, and recommendations for other reading. Includes photocopies of the book’s title page, Witherspoon’s inscription, and comments pasted into the book, presumably by Herdman. Also includes data about Witherspoon, a graduate of Bowling Green’s Ogden College and Yale University.

100 Years: The Death Of John Purroy Mitchel – New York City’S Boy Mayor, Keith J. Muchowski

Publications and Research

The blog post focuses on the life and times of John Purroy Mitchel, the mayor of New York City during the First World War. Mitchel was active in the Preparedness Movement and eventually killed in a military training exercise in July 1918, six months after leaving office.

Anarchism On The Willamette: The Firebrand Newspaper And The Origins Of A Culturally American Anarchist Movement, 1895-1898, Alecia Jay Giombolini

Dissertations and Theses

The Firebrand was an anarchist communist newspaper that was printed in Portland, Oregon from January 1895 to September 1897. The newspaper was a central catalyst behind the formation of the culturally American anarchist movement, a movement whose vital role in shaping radicalism in the United States during the Progressive Era has largely been ignored by historians. The central argument of this thesis is that the Firebrand publishers' experiences in Gilded Age Portland shaped the content and the format of the newspaper and led to the development of a new, uniquely American expression of anarchism.

Anarchism was developed in response to …

H-Diplo Article Review 780 On “Nuclear Weapons, Coercive Diplomacy And The Vietnam War.”, Luke A. Nichter

Presidential Studies Faculty Articles and Research

A review of The Journal of Cold War Studies's Forum on Nuclear Weapons, Coercive Diplomacy, and the Vietnam War: Perspectives on Nixon’s Nuclear Specter by Robert Jervis and Mark Lawrence.

Yates, Otis Webster, 1888-1981 (Sc 3234), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3234. Letter, 30 November 1922, to “Levy” from O. W. Yates, Dean of Bethel College, Russellville, Kentucky. He describes his work teaching the Bible and Greek to ministerial students, his pastorate, and his house and family, and asks about seeing Levy when he visits North Carolina at Christmas.

A Temperate And Wholesome Beverage: The Defense Of The American Beer Industry, 1880-1920, Lyndsay Danielle Smith

Dissertations and Theses

For decades prior to National Prohibition, the "liquor question" received attention from various temperance, prohibition, and liquor interest groups. Between 1880 and 1920, these groups gained public interest in their own way. The liquor interests defended their industries against politicians, religious leaders, and social reformers, but ultimately failed. While current historical scholarship links the different liquor industries together, the beer industry constantly worked to distinguish itself from other alcoholic beverages.

To counter threats from anti-alcohol groups, beer industry advocates presented their drink as a wholesome, pure, socially and culturally rich, and economically significant beverage that stood apart from other alcoholic …

Mcleod, Ann Sara (Prosser), 1910-2003 (Mss 642), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 642. Two diaries and a chronology kept by Ann Sara (Prosser) McLeod, of Jackson, Mississippi. McLeod discusses daily happening, social events, club news, and comments about emotional and physical health issues. Occasionally she mentions things happening at a national level, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the funeral of John F. Kennedy.

2018-2019 Ursinus College Course Catalogue, Office Of The Registrar

Ursinus College Catalogues, 1869-Present

A digital copy of the 2018-2019 Ursinus College Catalog. It contains details of the curriculum, departmental requirements and courses of instruction as well as core requirements such as the Common Intellectual Experience (CIE) and Independent Learning Experience (ILE). Academic policies, special opportunities and scholarships, off-campus programs and graduation requirements are also outlined.

Maurice Halperin: From Sooner Subversive To Soviet Spy, Landry Brewer

Faculty Articles & Research

Maurice Halperin was a University of Oklahoma (OU) professor in the late 1930s and early 1940s when the state’s governor and legislature began actively pursuing Communists in higher education. After Halperin fell under suspicion, he left the university for a job with the federal government’s wartime intelligence agency. Still under a cloud of suspicion, Halperin eventually fled the country, never to return. Shortly after the Cold War ended, evidence emerged verifying the allegations made by his accusers that, during the 1930s, Maurice Halperin was a covert Oklahoma Communist who later betrayed his country by committing espionage for the Soviet Union.

The Octofoil, July/August/September 2018, Ninth Infantry Division Association

The Octofoil

The Octofoil is the offical publication of the Ninth Infantry Division Association, Inc., an organization formed by the officers and men of the 9th Infantry Division in order to perpetuate the memory of fallen comrades, preserve the esprit de corps of the Division, promote peace and serve as an information bureau about the 9th Infantry Division. The Association is made up of 9th Infantry veterans from WWII and Vietnam, spouses, widows and lineal descendants.

Amjambo Africa! (July 2018), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Profile: Angela Okafor........ Page 10

Know Your Rights ................Page 12

Families Separated at the Southern Border...............Page 12

Traces Volume 46, Number 2, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Traces, the Southern Central Kentucky, Barren County Genealogical Newsletter

Traces, the South Central Kentucky Genealogical Society's quarterly newsletter, was first published in 1973. The Society changed its name in 2016 to the Barren County Historical Society. The publication features compiled genealogies, articles on local history, single-family studies and unpublished source materials related to this area.

South Union Messenger (Spring 2018), Kentucky Library Research Collections

South Union Messenger

No abstract provided.

2018-07-16 Oral History With Myrtle Ross, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Myrtle Jackson Ross was born in 1929 in Austin County, Texas, where her father worked as a cotton-picker. When she was about eight years-old, Ross’s family moved to Houston, settling on Mason Street in the city’s Fourth Ward. There, her father worked at a hospital and her mother worked as a homemaker. Ross graduated from the Gregory School on Victor Street before attending Booker T. Washington High School on West Dallas Street.

Ross was in high school when she began visiting Houston’s Colored Carnegie Library, which was situated directly behind Booker T. Washington High School. For Ross, the library served …

[Review Of] Karolyn Smardz Frost And Veta Smith Tucker, Eds., A Fluid Frontier: Slavery, Resistance, And The Underground Railroad In The Detroit River Borderland. Detroit, Mi: Wayne State University Press, 2016. Pp. 286. $34.99 (Paper)., Vanessa Holden

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Tolerance As A Way To Remember, Natalie Figueroa

Voces Novae

This project examines the topic of Holocaust memorialization with a specific focus on the Simon Wiesenthal Center and their Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance. It posits that the mission and design of the museum were shaped by two major factors, first, the values of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal for whom the Center was named, and second, racial and ethnic tensions within the City of Los Angeles during the late 1980s and early 1990s, which culminated in the Los Angeles riots in 1992 following the acquittal of four white police officers in the 1991 beating of Rodney King. The museum opened …

Threads Of The Zoot Suit Riots: How The Initial Explanations For The Riots Hold Up Today, Antonio Franco

Voces Novae

This paper is about the 1943 Los Angeles Zoot suit Riots. These riots lasted for five days and were fought between the city’s young Mexican-American population and U.S. servicemen who were in the city. The name comes from a popular style that many young Mexican-Americans in L.A. wore at the time called the zoot suit. The Zoot Suit Riots was one of the most important moments in Chicano history. Throughout the riots as well as sometime afterward, many who were in the city at the time tried to discern its origins. The local newspapers, the Los Angeles Police Department, Mexican-Americans, …

Fighting A War Without Rifles: Deconstructing The Image Of The Unflappable Medic, Robert Del Toro

Voces Novae

“Fighting a War Without Rifles: Deconstructing the Image of the Unflappable Medic” focuses on comparing the official romanticized image of the medic in World War II and the soldiers’ reality. During the Second World War, the US Army in Europe faced high casualty rates, and the soldiers of the Medical Department were tasked with treating the wounded. The medic was the first echelon of care that the wounded would receive, as well as the most important. After the War, the medics were portrayed in a romanticized light. Official literature presented them as highly competent soldiers; infantry men saw them as …

The Warner Brothers Prove Their Patriotism, Lara Jacobson

Voces Novae

Warner Bros. Pictures did not become the widely successful company they are today by sitting back and letting “the world go to pot.” The Brothers patriotic beginnings in America earned them a reputation as trailblazers in the motion picture industry. Their Polish and Jewish family heritage initially motivated the four brothers to take a stand when they released Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) as a direct result of Hitler’s growing reign in Europe. Many of the Brothers’ early movies focused on injustice, prejudice, and violation of basic human rights; the era of World War II would be no different. …

Stormy Present: Conservatism And The Problem Of Slavery In Northern Politics, 1846-1865, Michael Green

History Faculty Research

Historians have been fighting about the causes and effects of the Civil War since they were using quill pens, and they figure to keep doing so until long after the laptop computer on which this is written has become an antique. Now Adam I. P. Smith, a scholar of mid-19th-century America and especially its political culture, has joined the battle to argue that one of the dominant impulses and attitudes associated with the years leading up and including the American Civil War was conservatism. As the conflicting interpretations of the era suggest, that may be the case, but the reforms …