One bad speech cannot destroy a great legacy, but it certainly can damage a reputation. Abolitionists recoiled when Senator Daniel Webster delivered his infamous “Plea for Harmony and Peace” speech before the U.S. Senate on March 7, 1850. Webster was convinced that unless the Compromise of 1850 was passed, the issue of slavery would tear the Union apart. Trying to placate the South, his speech insisted that the U.S. read more...
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Hollywood is notorious for simplifying and glorifying stories about outlaws (think of the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Paul Newman and Robert Redford), and the movie Bonnie and Clyde is part of that tradition. This 1967 film, starring the handsome duo of Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, portrayed Bonnie and Clyde as reckless and daring, madly in love with a devil-may-care approach to life and crime. The reality is far less glamorous. read more...
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The “Harlem Renaissance” was a period of African American creativity in art, music and literature that flourished in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood during the 1920s and 1930s. One of the leading thinkers and authors of that period was Langston Hughes, a prolific writer of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, children’s stories, essays, and lyrics for operas and musicals. When he died of complications arising from prostate cancer on May 22, 1967, at the age of 65, Hughes left behind a great body of lasting work that still carries influence today. read more...
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The “Roaring ’20s” was a fast-paced, dizzying time of excitement and possibilities. Peace and prosperity had returned after the devastation of WWI, and new inventions and machinery were pushing frontiers and expanding former boundaries. A bold young pilot named Charles Lindbergh epitomized the spirit of the times, and he dazzled the world when he landed his plane in Paris after completing history’s first solo trans-Atlantic flight. read more...
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Amelia Earhart, the pioneering female pilot, achieved enduring fame with the many aviation records she set during the 1920s and ’30s. Early in her career she achieved an impressive first when she became the first woman to receive a pilot’s license from the distinguished National Aeronautic Association, on May 16, 1923. In 1928 she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane when she flew as part of the crew (her duty was to keep the flight log) with Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon. read more...
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Immigration reform is an intractable problem facing Congress and the Obama Administration today, just as it has confronted Congresses and Administrations ever since the Page Act was passed in 1875—the first legislation in U.S. history designed to restrict immigration. On May 19, 1921, Congress took a far-reaching, brand new approach to immigration reform when it passed the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921—which President Harding promptly signed. The core of this new legislation was a quota system to limit the number of European immigrants allowed per country—a system that governed U.S. read more...
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In post-Reconstruction America, especially in the Deep South, laws designed to separate the white and black races were common. This separation received legal sanction from the highest court in the land on May 18, 1896, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its Plessy v. Ferguson decision that racial segregation was constitutional. The Court’s decision paved the way for a legion of “Jim Crow” laws in the South that legally separated blacks from white services and facilities. read more...
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In addition to the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, America almost had a third war with Great Britain—this one during the 1840s when the two powers competed for control of the Oregon Country. This huge area, stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, from California to Alaska, was highly prized for its fertile land and abundant resources, including timber and furs. read more...
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After the Civil War began with the Confederacy firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the North responded enthusiastically to President Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to serve for 90 days. The Union mobilized for the war effort, supplying men, arms and equipment, forming a Northern army to suppress the Southern rebellion. Then the monumental task began of converting these raw recruits into an organized, effective fighting force. read more...
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It was the epitome of the “landmark” ruling—a U.S. Supreme Court decision so profound that it forever changed life in America. On May 17, 1954, the Court announced its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This unanimous Supreme Court ruling overturned the established “separate but equal” doctrine, opening up the path to integration and giving the Civil Rights Movement a solid legal foundation. read more...
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I understand that when writing a blog, it’s necessary to show a picture and say a few words about yourself, so that people don’t think a nameless, faceless committee or advisory board is running the show. Here I am, a real person. My name is Tony Pettinato, and I live in Deerfield, Mass. I did my undergraduate studies in English at Oberlin College, my graduate work in Journalism at UC Berkeley, and have been a reporter for six newspapers. For the past fourteen years I have worked at NewsBank, six of those as a managing editor for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set project – NewsBank’s acclaimed effort that digitized and indexed twelve million pages of primary source documents – that gratified my lifelong interest in American history. And that led me to editing this history blog!
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