In America, the formation of some of the very poorest parts of the cities or “ghettos” as they are sometimes called are inexorably tied to the formation of the freeways, the enforcement of restrictive covenants and simultaneously, the creation of the suburbs and the forced importance of automobiles. One could not have happened without the others, and combined together, they changed our society inconceivably. To explain the interplay of these forces fully, background information is needed.

At the end of World War II, there was housing shortages in many large cities, like Los Angeles. The United States government stepped in to succor alleviate this shortage of housing. The government basically instituted a number of policies that led directly to the formation and development of the American suburbs. To use Los Angeles as an example, the housing shortage was caused partly by all the soldiers returning from World War II, African Americans migrating from the South to cities like Los Angeles, combined with the fact that not many houses were built beginning at the originate of the Depression and continuing through World War II. This range of sixteen years with only very few homes built contributed greatly to a shortage in the housing market. So, beginning in the 1940s and continuing through the 1960s, private land developers built 23 million new homes nationwide, with the majority of these being built in major cities like Los Angeles (Jalbert 4). Private developers built the suburbs, which were defined as residential areas at the edges of cities, to offer alternatives to urban lifestyle and living and to shorten commutes for those people who worked outside the major cities. The government made policies that offered low cost financing to millions of people. One such program was called The Veteran’s Mortgage Guarantee program. With a very small amount of money down and low monthly payments, big numbers of people were able to catch houses in the suburbs. However, this money was only available to white people. These government policies supported the development of the suburbs since government policies helped to finance all these houses in the suburbs, and they weren’t very expensive, millions of people moved to the suburbs in force. This phenomenon, which would later be called “white flight,” which in turn, led to a decline in Los Angeles and other major cities as the urban population decreased. When the people left, many businesses went with them. When the businesses left, less job opportunities were available to the people still in the cities. This, in turn, led to more unemployment and more poverty and ultimately, crime and other more “urban” problems. Also in place, were restrictive covenants. Restrictive covenants were limits for homeowners. In many cases, they were agreements made between property owners dictating who could buy homes and who could not buy them. These covenants were used to keep minorities out of many areas. So, even if minorities could afford homes in the suburbs, they were kept out by the exercise of restrictive covenants. According to the web residence Progressive LA, “These racist campaigns were allotment of a growing trouble to undermine the progressive gains made since the 1930s (Progressive LA). While urban areas declined rapidly, suburban areas began to thrive economically. Businesses began to relocate to the suburbs because of increasing labor forces and cheaper land, among other factors.

While many organizations were providing low-cost financing for houses in the suburbs, such as the Home Owners Loan Corporation and the Federal Housing Administration, and Veteran’s Mortgage Guarantee Program, “the FHA refused to guarantee suburban loans to poor people, nonwhites, Jews and other ‘inharmonious’ racial and ethnic groups” because the value of homes in the neighborhood, according to the FHA, would drop in value (Chudacoff, 270). People of color were not able to get these loans, hence, they were unable to move to the suburbs. This process is known as “redlining.” To sum up redlining, the FHA and other organizations would not provide loans to racially mixed communities because they were risky investments. this means that as blacks or other minorities moved in, whites either moved out right away and were paid well for their properties or stayed while the neighborhood became racially mixed and property value decreased. In the end, if they finally sold, they would lose money on their house. Another process feeble to “persuade” minorities to congregate in the same area was called blockbusting. This occurred when real estate agents told white people that a neighborhood was going to “tip” or become racially mixed. Whites would sell their homes cheaply, and these agents sold them back to blacks at huge profits. Again, these processes segregated neighborhoods. In other words, the government itself supported discriminatory practices by distributing money into white communities and not into those of color. Communities quickly became even more racially segregated because people of color were unable to move and whites did move. When the whites left, their money went with them. So, the jobs weren’t there. According to Sclove,

“Gradually, a black and Hispanic middle-class did emerge. Its members too fled along the interstate to the suburbs, further draining economic and cultural resources from the inner city. this contributed to the emergence of a original social phenomenon: today’s desperately deprived, urban underclass” (Sclove).

Entire neighborhoods and communities first became segregated racially, and later, economically, creating the dire urban problems of today. Jalbert sums this whole argument up so well with “Suburbanization was a decidedly white experience enforced by blatant racism, unequal access to economic opportunity, and restrictive housing covenants” (Jalbert). This summarization would be hard to argue against. Housing laws clearly favored whites.

A very general scenario tracing two families from the 1940s to today would be as follows. The white family would find a loan and proceed out of the mixed city into a new, all-white suburb. That family would purchase a house. that house would appreciate in value each year in order to actually rep wealth for this family. Every time they made improvements, such as adding a room or garage or painting a bedroom, or simply remodeling, their house would indulge in in value. Their children would be able to go to decent schools because of where their house is located. The higher property tax base makes the schools good. Their children could pursue a post-secondary education because even if the family didn’t have the money in the bank for this to happen, they could take out a loan with their house as collateral or a mortgage on their house. And now for the second scenario…

The dim family would be stuck in what was once a mixed city. In addition to the original, established, African American community, there would be a substantial influx of African Americans from the South, as well as persons of Mexican, Caribbean, and Latin American origin. The members of the black family would have to compete against these unique people for jobs. In the 1950s or so, the government would decide to beget a highway or originate a project of urban renewal in their neighborhood and rupture their house. They would lose any money they invested in their home. They may then be put into public housing if they had no money to buy another house or rent an over-priced apartment. they now exist in high rise buildings gridlocked by elevated highways that cut them off from others and from “living spaces that promote social interaction and daily commerce, social control, and neighborliness” (Venkatesh 9). They have no house to mortgage to send their kids on to school. Their kids would have a hard time anyway because property taxes cannot raise enough to maintain the schools or provide a quality education. for members of the human race, this is a pretty dismal picture. .

“It’s a construction plan of epic proportions. They’re calling it [portentous pause] a freeway! Eight lanes of shimmering cement running from here to Pasadena! I see a place where people regain on and off the freeway, off and on, off and on, all day and night…I see a street of gas stations, inexpensive motels, restaurants that support rapidly prepared food, tire salons, automobile dealerships, and wonderful, amazing billboards as far as they eye can see. My god, it’ll be beautiful!” No, this is not the work of an economic theorist or a predictor of the future. This is a scene from the movie Roger Rabbit where Judge Doom sells off the streetcar system to create this society. Does it sound familiar? This leads to the idea of the freeway. What the viewer of the movie knows is that this is exactly what happened.

Roman”";”> So, where do the freeways come into this portray and what role did they play? Simultaneously, as all of these things were happening, freeways were being built. These freeways made proceed very efficient back and forth to and from the suburbs. This made people rely on the automobile rather than public transportation because public transportation did not go to the suburbs. As Marshall Berman says in All That Is Solid Melts Into Air,

Roman”";”>”The motive forces in this reconstruction were the multibillion-dollar Federal Highway Program and the vast suburban housing initiatives of the Federal Housing Administration. This new order integrated the whole nation into a unified flow whose lifeblood was the automobile. It conceived of cities principally as obstructions to the inch of traffic, and as junkyards of the substandard housing and decaying neighborhoods from which Americans should be given every chance to hasten. Thousands of urban neighborhoods were obliterated…(Berman 288).

The development of these freeways was also supported by the government. Freeways were developed from the 1940s through the 1960s through government policies, such as a 50/50 matching program by the Bureau of Public Roads. Freeways connected the suburban areas that were spatially isolated from the rest of Los Angeles. Because of these freeways, life in suburbia became even more appealing because now suburbanites could travel from their homes to the city in a short time. Now, even more people who worked in the inner cities moved to the suburbs because depart was so much more efficient. From this reading so far, it sounds as though freeways were godsends to the American public. However, as much as they did help the people of suburban communities, they were equally destructive to the communities of the inner cities.

When the freeways were built through inner city neighborhoods, people of color were paid, although not well for their houses in order to compose the freeways. However, many people of color did not own their houses so they were simply relocated. Many of these dislocated people were forced into housing projects, and these failed widely all over the country. Urban housing was essentially destroyed while suburban housing was on the rise, AND subsidized by the government. Black ghettos were created. Freeways were linked to housing discrimination and apartheid in America. Fotsch contends that “the freeway is part of dominant narratives which idea African-American and Latino residents of the central city as largely responsible for the conditions of poverty and violence amidst which they live” (47). Fotsch also calls the freeway “a symbol of isolation and isolatability” (52). Professor Mohl from The University of Alabama at Birmingham said, “Highways cut apart cities, destroying wide swaths of homes and workplaces, disrupting and uprooting communities and forcing many into public housing” in The Interstates and the Cities: Highways, Housing, and the Freeway Revolt, (Mohl 1) He continues to say that, “in retrospect it now seems apparent that public officials and policy makers, especially at the state and local levels used expressway construction to slay low income and especially Black neighborhoods in an effort to reshape the physical and racial landscapes of the postwar American city (Mohl 1). In Toll Roads and Free Roads, a report by McDonald and Associates, the authors made a strong case that highway planning should take station within the context of an ongoing program of slum clearance and urban development (Wallace). Because land acquisition in these slum areas and highway construction and urban development would result in the “elimination of monstrous and unsanitary districts when land values are constantly depreciating (Wallace).

the scrape also becomes that suburban residents still came into the city to work, but they no longer paid taxes, which further drained resources. Suburbanites essentially paid nothing for the maintenance in the city. The income tax base that kept the city afloat is gone, so the streets are dirtier and fewer services are provided there. Consequently, people don’t want to live there. It is all a broad circle.

With the creation of the freeways, the importance of cars themselves came to be. People now needed cars to commute to work.

“It is widely assumed that Americans’ infatuation with cars led to the construction of America’s superhighways. But actually when Congress passed the Interstate Highway Act in 1956, car sales were slack, and there was no popular clamor for building a new road system. At the time only about half of American families owned an automobile; everyone else depended on public transportation. Congress was responding to aggressive lobbying by auto makers and road builders, plus realtors who saw profits in developing suburban subdivisions” (Sclove 2).

So, the construction of the freeways was first, which brought about the importance of the automobile. Many people thrived with this push, and others did not.

This Interstate Highway Act of 1956 changed many things dramatically. “The Act’s key provisions included support for bringing highways directly into city centers and earmarking gasoline tax revenues for highway construction. As the interstate highways were built, city and suburban development adapted to the quickening proliferation of autos. Soon more Americans found themselves forced to buy a car in order to be able to shop or hold a job. The Highway Trust Fund, by assuring the rapid atrophy of competing public transit systems, bolstered this trend. (Sclove ).

Public transportation was hurt dramatically by the freeway and interstate highway. This highway system of 42,500 roads linked together cities across America while cutting the cities themselves up into tiny, isolated sections. Thus, the car became the symbol for Americans of freedom and modern life. This American reliance on the car didn’t just change something; the car changed everything.

“Their popularity led to the reconstruction of the cityscape, widened streets, parking lots, gas stations, and, in the post-war era as automobiles became a mass-market consumable, the dismantling of urban trolley systems such as those that once operated in Los Angeles and the Bay Area ((Jalbert).

The car changed the very landscape of America. the once-vital urban areas are barren; and people walk aimlessly at the strip malls in the suburbs. Everyone with a car is on the road while public transportation gets sparser and less funding. This harmed inner city residents even more as they are the ones who rely on public transportation.

To sum this up thus far, these freeways divided neighborhoods, mostly communities of color. Suburbs mainly consisted of white people, and inner cities consisted mostly of people of color. Whites were typically able to resist the building of freeways in their communities while people of color were not. The suburbs were already racially separated by organizations like the Federal Housing Administration, but now freeways became physical borders between whiteness and color. These freeways essentially served as barriers between the rich and the poor, the white and the nonwhite. Ronald Greene calls this “the racing and placing of populations” (Greene 39). Many, many acres of the inner cities were bulldozed for the creation of these freeways. “Huge expressway interchanges, cloverleafs, and access ramps created enormous areas of dead and useless space in the central cities” (Mohl 12).

In addition to creating ghettoes, the freeways and automobiles created environmental problems galore, such as air and noise pollution. Again, race and wealth played a big role on the communities who were hit with these things. The Soho Street school, for example is built in Boyle Heights where a tri-level freeway exchange has been build. “The school has no auditorium or cafeteria, so students meet and eat outside. Walls of portable classrooms vibrate when trucks go by and do little to keep out the noise. When Margarita Sanchez, a nurse and mother of two children in the school, began walking her children to school, she felt like she was ’suffocating from the pollution and noise of the diesel trucks traveling to the nearby freeway onramps” (Prussel 1). The community did get together to glean a sound wall from Caltrans, but was denied. They did get the regulatory committee to install an air quality monitor. Initial reports from the Air Resources Board showed that 16 of the 22 days tested, the air at Soho St. School violated the dwelling standard for particulate air (Prussel 1). Freeways greatly impact air quality, and the further away from a freeway a neighborhood is, the better the air quality.

Much land in inner cities was also bulldozed for urban renewal projects. In other words, low income housing was removed to make arrangement for new development, and those in charge gave little thought to the people who were displaced. Many of these urban renewal sites were vacant for years. According to Wendell Cox in “The Role of Urban Planning in the Decline of American Central Cities, “Some lots cleared in the 1960s in Los Angeles Bunker Hill redevelopment project were detached undeveloped 40 years later” (Cox 9). Urban renewal policies have decimated many poor and working class neighborhoods. These taken along with freeway construction and displacement have made the modern ghetto. Experience suggests it helps poor people to live with the working and middle classes, rather than be segregated into ghettoes. ). People tend to own that those in poverty don’t need the playgrounds or any of the other recreational state because people in poverty don’t indulge in their neighborhood. (Modem). Such neighborhood integration provides positive role models (people whose lives are getting better, whose lives are active, and who work for a living.

Also, inherent in this plan for freeways and other urban renewal projects is that lawmakers made these changes, such as urban planning initiatives and construction of freeways in areas where they would not meet political resistance. This means that more projects were developed in low income areas than anywhere else. “The areas that urban planners deemed to be slums or derelict development, however, were home to the residents who lived there, the small businesses that served them. The strength of many such communities was either not perceived by the planners or not of interest to them. They leveled communities often occupied by African Americans who had recently arrived from the rural South” (Cox 9). Urban renewal is nothing less than an attack on the poor. Many poverty-stricken neighborhoods are seen as blight” for the city to be rid of. Because the poor do not have the necessary political connections, they are rarely able to successfully fight such land-grabs. The result is that neighborhoods — of many years existence, with their own intricate civil societies and social networks among people — are destroyed for the private profit of the wealthy. In place of the living neighborhoods, the freeways or empty parking lots or even upscale housing is built.

California Hwy 105 (Caltran 105) is an example of many of the principles previously discussed. In an interview with Joyce Perkins, Executive Director of LANI (Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative), she discussed California Highway 105, and the fact that originally it was supposed to go through Beverly Hills, but “it kept getting moved further and further south until it reached a spot called Berkeley Square” (Perkins). it seems no coincidence that Beverly hills is wealthy and Berkeley Square is not or that Los Angeles inner city residents have already been chopped into pieces by the Harbor, Long Beach, Santa Monica, or Century Freeways. Joyce Perkins added, “that it was easy enough to make through this area because this African American community did not have enough power or voice to keep the project from occurring there. In other neighborhoods, such as Beverly hills, people, mostly white, had much more power and had voice and strong stakeholder participation so they were able to keep this project from occurring in their status” (Perkins).

Picture of Hwy 105 from dot.ca.gov

A case to document the above principles is Boyle Heights community and surrounding areas like the Chavez Ravine. Boyle Heights used to be kind of an immigrant center. before the 1950s and 60s, it had a great Japanese population, who left to be interned for World War II and never returned. it also had a large Jewish population who moved to the suburbs. it this point it became largely populated by Mexicans. It was one of the few places open to them due to restrictive covenants. “Restrictive racial covenants typically excluded the Spanish-speaking from desirable suburbs. the new barrios were established in sections of town that other more affluent groups refused to inhabit” (Bustamante and Castillo 127). Things like freeway construction and urban renewal began to happen in this area and because it was abominable, the community did not have the resources to fight the proposals. “Thirty-five years of intense freeway construction eliminated 2,900 homes, displaced 10,000 people and left noise and air pollution in its wake. Schools are crowded. Housing is scarce, and most of the housing that does exist is owned by absentee landlords. Unemployment is higher than in most other areas of the city. There is a sense that the community has little or no political power and is largely ignored by city government (Sahagun 1). According to Sahagun as well, after WWII, the rail lines took ¼ of Boyle Heights western and southern parts. The freeway system including San Bernadino, Santa Ana, the Golden State, Santa Monica and Pomona took another 12% of the land available in Boyle heights. (Sahagun) Four major highways were built through here-two in the 1940s and two in the 1960s. Boyle Heights has suffered greatly. The community is separated into four smaller areas, which has resulted in inadequate services to these neighborhoods.

Acuna goes as far as to say that “Two of the most spectacular instances of spatial violation against Mexicans and other poor people in the central city was the displacement of barrios in Chavez Ravine to the north for the construction of Dodger Stadium and the vivisection of Boyle heights and the greater Eastside barrios to get up for the plan the East L.A. freeway interchange and several highways that radiated from it” (Acuna). According to Hines, Chavez Ravine was located on a “315-acre parcel of hilly, wooded, and picturesque ‘rural’ land very near the center of downtown Los Angeles” (Hines 123). At first this area was supposed to become a place for a public housing project, and then it was to house the stadium.

As shown, the intermingling of the concepts of segregation, hurry, and poverty with the concepts of freeway construction, urban renewal programs, and the rise of the automobile is almost as twisted as the cloverleaf freeway. It is impossible to understand how just one of these factors plays out because each one is so intertwined with the next one. It is distinct that freeway construction and urban renewal played and continues to play a vast role in the racial separation of our nation. This in turn, ties into so many other areas. Many minorities are where they are because of racist policies of the federal government, giving low interest loans to one race but not to another or dismissing the importance of low-income communities in favor of fast-access freeways. Because minorities are racially segregated, they go to the worst schools and get the worst education, which increases their chances of continuing to be racially segregated.

the political ramifications of these government-sponsored loans for highways and housing are huge. They contributed to the descend of the mom and pop businesses and the rise of huge conglomerations or malls of the suburbs. Money was taken out of once-thriving urban areas and redistributed in the suburbs. This led to less control of neighborhood economic forces (if there was such things as neighborhoods), since companies were larger and based somewhere else. If more people had been involved in the process of the creation of our road system, the road system may be smaller today. America may have invested more in its system of public transport, like Europe did. America may be less dependent on foreign goods with more unified neighborhoods and a closer sense of community without the problems associated with urban sprawl. America may be less isolated, both in the cities and the suburbs. While the cities are noisy and uncertain, and in the ghettoes, many people isolate themselves, the suburbs are also isolated. People stopped sitting on the front porch in the evening. Suburbs without sidewalks greatly lessened the chance that someone might stroll by on a leisurely inch. Suburban housewives found themselves alienated from the rest of the world.

Eric Avila so forcefully sums up the entire problem in Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight. “But as racial privilege sustained by redlining, blockbusting, restrictive covenants, and municipal incorporation, as well as by outright violence, federally sponsored suburbanization removed an expanding category of “white” Americans from what deteriorated into inner-city reservations of racialized poverty. The collusion of public policy and private practices enforced a spatial distinction between “black” cities and “white” suburbs and gave shape to what the Kerner Commission, a presidential commission appointed to assess the causes of the 1965 Watts Riots in Los Angeles, identified as ‘two species, one black, one white-separate and unequal” (Avila 5). Now Joyce Perkins does tell us that times are a-changin’. LAX now wants to expand, but there are neighborhood councils and focus groups providing people with a voice in their believe neighborhoods. We must do more not to allow this forced segregation to occur again, and to fix the problems that have already been made. It seems that factual urban renewal would involve creating affordable housing for the people of these neighborhoods. It might also provide access to quality education and quality jobs. These jobs could net at least a living wage so that people did have some choice as to where they lived. Employers and government could respect the rights of these people. It is time that the people of these communities or any communities are listened to. Progress is great, but it also creates many other problems. How much money a neighborhood has should not matter in the health and happiness of America’s people. yes, suitable urban renewal would involve a renewal in the diagram these places are seen and perceived ass well as the discriminatory history.

Works Cited

Acuna, Rodolfo. Anything But Mexican. Verso: New York, 1995.

Avila, Eric, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight, Scare and Fantasy in suburban

Los Angeles. American Crossroads 13. Accessed on April 2, 2007 at

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9982/9982.ch01.html

Berman, Marshall, All That Is Melts Into Air, Recent York: Penguin Books, 1988.

Bustamonte, Rios and Castillo, Pedro, An Illustrated History of Mexican Los Angeles

1781-1985. LA: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Publications, 1986.

Chudacoff, Howard. “The Politics of Growth in the Era of Suburbanization, 1945-1974,

in Chudacoff and Smith, The Evolution of American Urban Society, pp. 263-296.

Cox, Wendell, Demographia: The Role of Urban Planning in the Decline of American

Central Cities, Accessed March 29, 2007 at http://demographia.com/db-xplannerscities.pdf

Fotsch, Paul Mason, “The Building of a Superhighway Future at the New York World’s

Beautiful,” Cultural Critique, 48 (Spring 2001), 65-9.

Greene, Ronald Walter, Malthusian Worlds: U.S. Leadership and the Governing of the

Population Crisis, 1939.

Hines, Thomas S., “housing, baseball, and creeping socialism: the battle of Chavez ravine, Los Angeles 1949-1959, Journal of Urban History, Fable Publications, vol. 8. no. 2, February 1982.

Jalbert, Matthew, “Burbs, Blockbusting, and Blacks: Morphosis of the Postwar

American City, “Radical Urban Theory, Accessed March 29, 2007, at

Perkins, Joyce, Personal Interview. April 1, 2007.

Sclove, Richard, “The Ghost in the Modem,” The Washington Post, Sunday, May 29,

1994.

Torre, de la, Emmanuel, Racial Violence in LA, Accessed March 26, 2007 at

http://www.studentretentioncenter.ucla.edu/sfiles/Racial_Violence_LA.htm

Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi, American Projects, Cambridge: Harvard University Press,

2000.

Access to Catholic School Justice Teaching housing and urban renewal Accessed March

29, 2007, at http://justpeace.org/structures/housing.htm

Prussel, Deborah and Tepperman, Jean. September-October 2001.

Sahagun, Louis, “Boyle Heights Problems, Pride and Promise” Accessed April 1, 2007,

at http://www.latinosandmedia.org/jawards/works/LAT83_011.html

Timeline of Notable Events of the Interstate Highway System in California. Accessed April 1, 2007, at http://www.dot.ca.gov/interstate/timeline.htm

Wallace, Henry A. to Roosevelt, Franklin D, February 13, 1939, Copy of Bureau of Public Records, RG 30, Classified Central Files 4107, National Archives II, College Park, MD.

http://www.childproofing.org/cslzstories.html

Venkatesh, American Project

What do cabbage patch dolls, your own self and your favorite bottle of beer have in well-liked? Hmm…if you said “They all have a born-on date!” then your own self would also be correct! If you were born on June 19th of any year then follow along as we look at who shares your birthday as well as historical events and other facts specific to your contain personal born on date!

General information about June 19th birthdays:

If you were born on June 19th of any standard year then you were born on the 170th day of the calendar year. If you happen to have been born during a leap year then you were born on the 171st day of that calendar year. If you are a U.S. citizen and your June 19th birthday occurred in 1993 or any year earlier, then you are legally able to obtain a valid state drivers license once you have met all educational requirements to do so. Any person born on June 19th of 1991 or any year earlier is legally able to lift cigarettes or smoke in public and any person born on June 19th of 1988 or any year earlier is legally able to purchase or consume alcoholic beverages while living or traveling in the U.S. If your birthday falls on June 19th of 1959 or any year earlier, then it means you have been conquering and exploring this world for a half a century or longer and are now allowed to start asking in the U.S. about senior discounts at a multitude of commercial businesses, events and services! Different companies set the eligibility age higher if their policy calls for it but age 50 is the lowest beginning age of eligibility in the U.S. A great region to check out senior discount deals at is listed below.

http://www.seniordiscounts.com/

Astrological data for June 19th birthdays:

In accordance with Western Astrology, those born on June 19th are born under Gemini, the sign of the Twins which is of Air Element, of Mutable Quality and ruled planetarily by Mercury. Gemini folks are often described as very clever, dual-minded and highly independent though they do enjoy social stimulation. Most Gemini souls love to talk and all the newest technology that goes along with doing so and can transport all the information from various explorations that their intense minds treasure to follow, discuss and research. Known for changing their minds at the drop in of a notion, Gemini personalities can be both exciting and frustrating to interact with, but never at all dull! If you wish to gain a greater understanding of Western Astrology (or Chinese Astrology dependent upon your birth year) visit this informative link courtesy of Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_sign

Find your Gemini glyph at the bottom of the page when you are done to check out your Gemini specific traits. Famous fellow Geminis include Clint Eastwood, Dean Martin, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Prince Rainier III, former First Lady Barbara Bush, President John F. Kennedy, former King of Greece Constantine II and Donald Trump. If you are interested in current daily/weekly forecasts for the Gemini sign stop by the link below for each day of your astrological year!

http://www.bridgettwalther.com/daily.asp? sign=Gemini

Birthstone/Birth Flower specifics for June 19th birthdays:

The birthstone most commonly associated with your June 19th birthday is the pearl. Pearls are the only organic birthstone as they are formed in oysters and mollusks but are known to be quite numerous in varieties and types. Good health is often the associated meaning of the June 19th birthstone of the pearl. Alexandrite is a lesser common but associated birthstone as well for those born on June 19th of any year.

The beautiful rose belongs to those born on this date as their birth flower. Each various color was often ascribed a hidden meaning/message from the Victorian Era on, meant to be communicated from the sender to the lucky receiver of a bouquet of these most popular flower. It is a universally accepted symbol of natural beauty especially in its red varieties signaling love between two people-if you would like to know more about either your June 19th birthstones or birth flower the following link shares quite a bit of usable information to search through.

http://www.birthstones.org.uk/index.htm

Important historical events which have occurred on June 19th:

987 – Louis IV, crowned king of France
1269 – King Louis IX of Frances decrees all Jews must wear a badge of shame
1464 – French King Louis XI forms postal service
1502 – Emperor Maximilian I & England sign treaty of Antwerp
1770 – General Church of New Jerusalem established
1770 – Emanuel Swedenborg reports the completion of the Second Coming of Christ in his work True Christian Religion.
1778 – Washington’s troops finally leave Valley Forge
1829 – Sir Robert Peel found London Metropolitan Police (Bobbies)
1848 – Elizabeth Stanton & Lucretia Mott open 1st women’s rights convention
1850 – Swedish/Norwegian crown prince Charles weds Dutch princess Wilhelmina
1862 – Slavery outlawed in US territories
1863 – Battle at Middleburg Virginia (100+ casualties)
1864 – CSS “Alabama” sunk by USS “Kearsarge” off Cherbourg, France
1867 – Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro.
1875 – Formal opening of US Marine Hospital at Presidio
1875 – The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins.
1893 – Lizzie Bordon acquitted
1910 – Father’s Day celebrated for 1st time (Spokane, Wash)
1917 – After WW I King George V ordered members of British royal family to dispense with German titles & surnames, they take the name Windsor
1926 – DeFord Bailey is 1st black to perform on Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry
1931 – 1st photoelectric cell installed commercially West Haven Ct
1932 – 1st concert given in SF’s Stern Grove
1936 – Joe McCarthy is named to manage AL All-Stars, rather than high-strung Mickey Cochrane, who is very close to a nervous breakdown
1940 – “Brenda Starr,” 1st cartoon strip by a woman, appears in Chicago
1941 – Cheerios Cereal invents an O-shaped cereal
1944 – 300 Japanese aircrafts shot down
1948 – Panama & Costa Rica recognize Israel
1948 – USSR blocks access road to West Berlin
1955 – Mickey Mantle hits career HR # 100
1956 – Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin end partnership after 16 films
1960 – Loretta Lynn records “Honky Tonk Girl”
1961 – US Supreme Court struck down a provision in Md’s constitution requiring situation office holders to believe in God
1963 – Charter members of Canadian Football Hall of Fame chosen
1963 – Greek govt of Pipinolis forms
1963 – Valentina Tereshkova 1st woman in space returns to Earth
1965 – Algerian coup under colonel Houari Boumedienne, pres Ben Bella fired
1967 – Muhammad Ali is convicted for refusing induction in US Army
1967 – Paul McCartney admits on TV that he took LSD
1972 – Hurricane Agnes, kills 118 in NY & Florida
1973 – “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” stage production opens in London
1973 – Pete Rose & Willie Davis both get career hit # 2,000
1976 – King Charles XVI Gustaf of Sweden marries Dutchess Silvia Sommerlath
1976 – US Viking 1 goes into Martian orbit after 10-month flight from Earth
1977 – Pope Paul VI makes 19th-cen bishop John Neumann 1st US male saint
1977 – Red Sox set 3 game record of 16 HRs, all against Yanks
1978 – “Best Little Whorehouse…” opens at 46th St NYC for 1577 perfs
1978 – Garfield, created by Jim Davis, 1st appears as a comic strip
1979 – In NY 36,211 show up to witness return of Billy Martin as Yank mgr
1981 – Boeing commercial Chinook 2-rotor helicopter is certified
1981 – European Space Agency’s Ariane carries 2 satellites into orbit
1981 – India’s APPLE satellite, 1st to be stabilized on 3 axes, launched
1982 – The body of God’s Banker, Roberto Calvi is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
1983 – Jan Stephenson wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open
1987 – Geffen records sign their 1st artist (Donna Summer)
1987 – Supreme Court rules school teaching evolution need not relate creation
1987 – Ben & Jerry Ice Cream & Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia inform current Ice Cream flavor, Cherry Garcia
1988 – Danny Spitz, heavy metal artist (Anthrax), weds Valerie
1988 – World’s Largest Sausage completed at 13 1/8 miles long
1988 – 32 divers finish cycling underwater on a standard tricycle to complete 116.66 mi in 75 hrs 20 mins
1990 – Gary Carter catches his 1,862nd career game breaks Al Lopez’s NL mark
1992 – Evander Holyfield beats Larry Holmes in 12 for heavywgt boxing title
1994 – 94th US Golf Open: Ernie Els shoots a 279 at Oakmont CC in Oakmont Pa
1994 – Ernesto Samper elected president of Colombia
2000 – Los Angeles Lakers beat Indiana Pacers 4-2 in NBA finals MVP: Shaquille O’Neal, L.A.
2000 – Tiger Woods wins golf’s US Open by 15 shots, a record for all majors, with a US Begin to-par describe score of -12
2005 – Michael Schumacher wins controversial Formula 1 United States Grand Prix where only 6 of 20 cars complete the run amongst ridicule
2006 – Prime ministers of several northern European nations participate in a ceremonial “laying of the first stone” at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway.

Famous passings on June 19th:

1312 – Piers Gaveston, earl of Cornwall, beheaded
1584 – François, Duke of Anjou (b. 1555)
1730 – Jean-Baptiste Loeillet, composer, dies at 49
1747 – Alessandro Marcello, composer, dies at 77
1747 – Nadir, shah of Persia (1736-47), murdered
1786 – Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary general (b. 1742)
1794 – Richard H Lee, US farmer (signed Decl of Independence), dies at 62
1805 – Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, French painter (b. 1724)
1915 – Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev, Russian composer (Oresteia), dies at 58
1921 – Ramon Lopez Velarde, Mexican poet (La Sangre Devota), dies at 33
1922 – Johannes C Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer, dies at 71
1936 – John Sharpe, cricketer (1-eyed speedy bowler for England 1891-92), dies
1937 – James M Barrie, Scottish writer (Dear Brutus/Peter Pan), dies
1944 – Han Yong-woon, Zen teacher, dies in Seoul County, Korea at 65
1949 – Syed Zafarul Hasan, Prominent Muslim philosopher (b. 1885)
1951 – Angelos Sikelianos, Greek poet (b. 1884)
1952 – Heinrich Schlusnus, German baritone (b. 1888)
1953 – Ethel Rosenberg, executed at Express Sing, in 5 tries
1953 – Julius Rosenberg, NYC, 1st US civilian executed for espionage at 37
1965 – James B Collip, Canadian bio-chemist (insulin), dies at 72
1966 – Ed Wynn, comedian (Ed Wynn Exhibit), dies at 79
1968 – James Joseph Sweeney, American Catholic prelate (b. 1898)
1973 – Roger Delgado, actor (Adv’s of Sir Francis Drake, Dr Who), dies at 55
1975 – Sam Giancana, American gangster (b. 1908)
1977 – Ali Shariati, Iranian sociologist (b. 1933)
1979 – Paul Popenoe, American eugenicist (b. 1888)
1982 – John Cheever, US writer (Wapshot Chronicle, Pulitzer), dies at 70
1984 – Lee Krasner Pollock, US painter, dies at 75
1986 – Len Bias, 1st pick of Celtics, suffers fatal cocaine-induced seizure
1988 – Gladys Spellman, American. Congresswoman (b. 1918)
1991 – Jean Arthur [Gladys Greene], US actress (Shane), dies
1992 – Kitty McKane Godfree, Tennis champ (Wimbledon 1924, 26), dies at 96
1995 – Peter Townsend, RAF officer (b. 1914)
2007 – El Fary, Spanish singer (b. 1937)
2007 – Terry Hoeppner, American football coach (b. 1947)
2008 – Barun Sengupta, Bengali journalist (b. 1934)
2008 – Bennie Swain, American basketball player (b. 1930)

Famous Births on June 19th:

1301 – Prince Morikuni, Japanese shogun (d. 1333)
1507 – Annibale Caro, Italian poet (d. 1566)
1566 – James I Stuart, king of Scotland (James VI)/England (1567/1603-25)
1595 – Wladyslaw IV Vasa, king of Poland (1632-48)
1608 – Thomas Fuller, England, literary (History of the Holy War)
1623 – Blaise Pascal, mathematician/physicist/religious writer (Pascal)
1764 – John Barrow, England, founded Royal Geographical Society
1764 – Jose Gervasio Artigas, general/father of Uruguay
1771 – Joseph Gergonne, French mathematician (d. 1859)
1783 – Thomas Sully, US portrait painter (Queen Victoria)
1815 – John William Glover, composer
1816 – William Henry Webb, American industrialist (d. 1899)
1834 – Edgar H G Degas, French painter (ballerina)
1846 – Antonio Abetti, Italian astronomer (d. 1928)
1877 – Charles Coburn, Macon Ga, actor (Acad-1943, Gentlemen Retract Blondes)
1878 – James M Kilroe, priest of St Mary Star of the Sea, in the Bronx
1880 – Johann Sigurjonsson, Icelandic writer (Dr Rung)
1884 – Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, French Dadaist artist and writer (d. 1974)
1896 – Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, divorcee
1897 – Moe Howard, [Moses Horowitz], Bkln NY, comedian (3 Stooges)
1898 – Paul Muller-Zurich, composer
1898 – James Joseph Sweeney, American Catholic prelate (d. 1968)
1902 – Guy Lombardo, London Ontario Canada, orch leader (Auld Lang Syne)
1903 – Walter Hammond, cricketer (one of the greatest of English batsman)
1903 – [Henry] Lou[is] Gehrig, “Iron Horse”, 1st baseman (NY Yankees)
1903 – Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941)
1914 – Anthony Bloom, Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church (d. 2003)
1918 – Evelle Jansen Younger, prosecutor (Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan)
1919 – Louis Jourdan, Marseilles France, actor (Gigi, Can-Can, Madame Bovary)
1921 – Herman Berserik, Dutch painter/graphic artist
1921 – Rosalyn Yalow, famed award winning medical physicist
1922 – Aage Neals Bohr, Denmark, physicist/study atomic nucleus (Nobel 1975)
1925 – Charlie Drake, British comic (Plank, Rhubarb Rhubarb, Splish Splash)
1928 – Barry Took, English comedy writer (d. 2002)
1930 – Bryan Kneale, British sculptor
1930 – Gena Rowlands, American actress
1932 – Marisa Pavan, Cagliari Italy, actress (Solomon & Sheba, Rose Tattoo)
1932 – Pier Angeli, Italy (Sodom & Gomorrah, Vintage, Battle of the Bulge)
1935 – Tommy Devito, Montclair NJ, rock vocalist (Four Seasons-Sherry)
1940 – Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney, drag racer (1st woman Top Fuel champ)
1941 – Marlene Warfield, Queens NY, actress (Victoria-Maude)
1942 – Elaine “Spanky” McFarlane, rocker (Spanky & Our Gang-Lazy Day)
1942 – Neil Chalmers, director (National History Museum, London)
1945 – Tim Hovey, LA Calif, actor (Queen Bee, Toy Tiger, Man Afraid)
1945 – Tobias Wolff, US writer (This Boy’s Life)
1947 – Phylicia Ayers-Allen Rashad, Houston, actress (Clair-Bill Cosby)
1947 – Salman Rushdie, Pak, novelist (Midnight’s Children, Satanic Verses)
1949 – [Mary] Kathleen Turner, Springfield Mo, actress (Romancing The Stone)
1951 – Ann Wilson, San Diego Calif, rock vocalist (Heart-What About Care For)
1953 – Larry Dunn, [Dunhill], US keyboardist (Earth Wind & Fire)
1954 – Michael O’Brien, British MP
1957 – Anna Lindh, Swedish politician (d. 2003)
1959 – Mark DeBarge, Grand Rapids Mich, rock vocalist (DeBarge-Who’s Johnny)
1960 – Heike Walpot, German, cosmonaut
1960 – Simon Wright, heavy metal drummer (AC/DC)
1960 – Luke Morley, British guitarist
1962 – Ken Tohill, jockey
1962 – Paula Julie Abdul, Van Nuys Calif, singer/choreographer (Straight Up)
1963 – Rory Underwood, English rugby union footballer
1964 – Brian Vander Ark, American musician
1965 – Karen Davies, Wrexham N Wales, golfer (1991 PING-Cellular One-6th)
1965 – Sadie Frost, English actress
1966 – Joichi Ito, Japanese entrepreneur
1967 – Bjørn Dæhlie, Norwegian skier
1967 – Mia Sara, American actress
1969 – Lara Spencer, American TV personality
1969 – Thomas Breitling, American entrepreneur
1970 – Chris Gray, NFL guard (Miami Dolphins, Chicago Bears)
1970 – Rahul Gandhi, Indian politician
1970 – Brian Welch, American guitarist
1972 – Poppy Montgomery, Australian actress
1972 – Robin Tunney, American actress
1973 – Yasuhiko Yabuta, Japanese baseball player
1975 – Brandon Mitchell, defensive end (New England Patriots)
1975 – Hugh Dancy, English actor
1976 – Darnell Autry, running back (Chicago Bears)
1978 – Garfield the Cat, animated character “Big fat hairy deal”
1978 – Zoe Saldana, American actress
1979 – John Ford, American software engineer
1982 – Alexander Frolov, Russian hockey player
1985 – John Decyk, American martial artist
1995 – Blake Woodruff, American actor

Holidays/Observances for June 19th:

Catholics around the globe celebrate annually in June during the month long observance honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus. June 19th also is individually the Roman Catholic feast day of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius, Milan, Italy, Christian Martyrs. June 19th is also the annual celebration in Trinidad and Tobago known as Labour Day and in the U.S this date is declared “Juneteenth” otherwise known as Abolition Day or Emancipation Day when slavery became illegal by law in the United States of America.

Hope this survey at what makes your birthday of June 19th special and historically unique has been informative-perhaps even that cabbage patch doll stored in a box in your attic from two decades(or three) ago would enjoy checking their “born on” date out too! Feel free to click on any of the resource links for additional specifics and extra info about any of the categories we looked into above that are relative to your June 19th celebration of birth. Oh…and by the way-have a happy birthday!

Sources:

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://www.catholic.org/saints/f_day/jun.php

http://www.history.com/

http://www.timeanddate.com/

http://www.historyorb.com/today/

There is a war going on in Alabama. It’s bitter and it’s dirty. It is pitting the lame duck Governor Riley against the Attorney General, Troy King. It has a Task Force headed by a lame duck District Attorney who took over the job when his predecessor was found to be a gambler! Middle of the night heavily armed raids with no warrants have been foiled by speedily acting attorneys. As the old song says – I tell ya folks – we got trouble right here in River City with a capital G and that rhymes with B and that stands for Bingo. You search for venues across the state have opened which have slot machines that are really fancy bingo machines because bingo is legal and slots are not. Except of course if you are on an Indian reservation – then it’s ok even if the reservation is in Alabama.

Any day in most Alabama newspapers you can read about this serious conflict and the millions of dollars being spent and the thousands of jobs being lost in rural counties desperate for new opportunities to financially survive. Television ads accuse the governor of accepting money from gambling interests in Mississippi to keep casino gambling out of Alabama. The new head of the Task force – Mr. Tyson – admits having accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations from gaming interests to his campaigns in the past.

On Friday February 12, 2010 the Mobile Press Register ran an article stating that on Tuesday a bill marketed as the Sweet Home Alabama plan, which has been written by negotiating with gaming executives, legislators, county commissioners, and city council members, would be introduced so that on November 2 the voters of the state could decide to rewrite the constitution to allow electronic bingo casinos called ‘points of destination’ at 10 locations statewide. Each location could have as many as 1000 gambling machines. Electronic bingo machines would be banned everywhere else in the state.

The same day the news paper also reported that the leader of the Legislative Black Caucus Rep. John Rogers has asked the attorney general to intervene and stop the shutdown of electronic bingo casinos around the space. If he refuses the group will ask for a U.S. Department of Justice Department investigation into what Rogers calls the ‘harassment and threats’ of casino owners and their employees by Gov. Bob Riley and his Task Force on Illegal Gambling. The attorney general is holding a conference on Wednesday and it is expected that he will address this request. The Mobile Press Register reported on February 14, 2010 that King has already cautioned the governor that he could be ‘unnecessarily subjecting the state treasury to millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars in liability’. Governor Riley and Mr. King have been at odds on this subject and the governor chose to not include the Attorney General on the Task force which originally was created in December 2008.

The machines look and play just like regular slot machines and money is paid out based on rapid computerized games of bingo. Victoryland in Montgomery and County Crossing in Dothan have already closed to prevent confiscation of their machines by those conducting raids. Greenetrack in Greene County remains originate with warnings from Mr. Tyson that they will raid without warrants and shut them down if they do not voluntarily close their casino operations. The sheriff of Greene County Ison Thomas has even threatened to authorize the deputizing of citizens for the purpose of stopping the raids.

So far there has not been any bloodshed. But if the leaders of this state continue in the direction they are going it won’t be long.

Aruban officials announced Tuesday that a jaw bone found earlier this month on an Aruban beach was indeed human, but it was not the jaw bone of missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. According to CNN, results from DNA tests conducted at the Netherlands Forensics Institute in The Hague revealed that the bone was not consistent with dental records supplied by Natalee Holloway's parents.

The Aruban Public Prosecutor's office said in a public statement that the results of the forensics tests “excludes the possibility that the bone material found in Aruba is that of Natalee Holloway.”

The jaw bone had been discovered by an American tourist couple walking the beach near the Phoenix Hotel, which is located on the western side of Aruba. They turned the find, which appeared to be part of a jaw bone with a molar tranquil attached, over to the resort hotel. Aruban authorities took control of the bone when they were contacted by employees of the Phoenix Hotel, later ascertained that the bone was human, then sent the material to the Netherlands for further testing in the hope that it would back in resolving the Holloway mystery.

Holloway disappeared in the early morning hours of May 30, 2005. She was vacationing with classmates on a senior trip and was last seen exiting an Oranjestad nightclub with three young men. One of those men, Joran Van Der Sloot, has been arrested twice in connection to Natalee Holloway's disappearance but released due to lack of evidence. He was also taped in 2008 by a Dutch reporter confessing to being present when the teenager died, but Aruban judges refused to net the tape as evidence. Most recently, he was in contact with Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, earlier this year and offered to disclose where the young woman's body was located in exchange for money.

After wiring Van Der Sloot the money, investigators, working on information provided by Van Der Sloot, were unable to locate a body or any remains of the missing teen. Joran Van Der Sloot was later indicted on extortion charges.

But the money gained from his dealings with Holloway's mother and her associates was obsolete to travel to South America, where the now-23-year-old Van Der Sloot was subsequently charged with the suspected murder of a 21-year-old business student from the University of Lima.

According to Peruvian authorities, Van Der Sloot allegedly befriended Stephany Florex Ramirez at a Lima casino after she won money, took her back to his hotel room, then later killed and robbed her. He is currently awaiting trial for the murder, to which he has both confessed and recanted, but has said on several occasions that he wants to talk with Aruban authorities about the Natalee Holloway case.

Although it is unfortunate that Holloway's parents, family, and friends must continue to search for the missing young woman with no way of knowing if she truly has died or is impartial one of the world's many missing, it is also unfortunate that the jaw bone was not identified, which could only mean that another young woman has somehow died and at least a part of her skeleton has been separated from her remains. It also constitutes another mystery Aruban authorities, with their limited manpower and resources, will be taxed with solving.

******

Source:

Rich Phillips, Susan Candiotti, Jean Casarez, Rupa Mikilineni, “Officials: Jawbone not Holloway's,” CNN.com

“There’s one too many letters in BCS“-Keith Jackson, formerly the voice of college football.

Now, the President-Elect, “that one”, Barack Obama is talking about an 8 team playoff to decide college football’s National Champion. In public.

Whoa, Nellie, there, Hoss! Gonna talk ’bout lightnin’ strikin’ the outhouse, Katie bar tha’ door, tha bloom is off’n the rose, gonna tell ya’ ’bout Barack Obama’s interview with Steve Kroft on 60 minutes!

I can hear the “Mammoth Cigars” of college football now, the poobahs who decide who goes to what bowl and bend over backwards to keep college football from joining the 21st century and having a playoff like every other sport. “Who does this guy think he is? Marriage laws? Don’t ask, don’t utter. Sociialized medicine, oh well. But you just keep yer paws off college football!”. “Bear didn’t have no playoffs. Amos Alonzo Stagg didn’t have no playoffs, we don’t need no stinkin’ playoffs!”

Yeah, and the economy is “fundamentally sound”. In the 60 minutes interview of Nov. 16, President-Elect Barack Obama uttered the taboo “P” word at the end of the session in response to a question from CBS’ Steve Kroft. You know, the word that dares not be spoken in the annals of college football. Playoffs? To quote frail New Orleans and Indy coach Jim Mora: “Playoffs? ” “Are you kiddin’ me? ” “Playoffs? “

So Barack Obama said IT. Earlier Obama had said essentially the same thing to Chris Berman the night before the election. And the man still won, although Barack Obama didn’t carry most of the more football-crazed parts of the nation. So that’s why Obama didn’t carry the south?

Seriously, I don’t know how much weight Obama’s idea will carry with the college football world, but it’s nice to see the man’s off to a good start as far as common sense solutions, even though I’m determined this topic is scheme down on his list of priorities. One question I have, though. Does Obama have to give equal time to a voice of opposition, say Joe, “the plumber”?

I can hear Joe Wurzelbacher now. “We don’t need a college football playoff. A playoff would be socialism, and would mean death to Israel. Besides, who would consume tickets to the 49th annual TY-D Bowl in beautiful downtown Mobile if we had a spread-the-wealth-college football playoff system? ” What will happen to the award that goes to the MVP of the Ty-D Bowl game, you know, the Golden Plunger? “

College football fans, there is the very exact possibility of 7 or 8 teams finishing the season with a lone loss or, in the cases of Boise State and Utah, undefeated. Alas, only two teams can play in the BCS National championship game.

If OU defeats Texas Tech in Norman, OK saturday, a very real possibility, then later, OU beats Oklahoma State, Texas Tech closes the regular season with a win over Baylor, and Texas defeats Texas A&M, Texas, OU and Texas Tech would all be 11-1. That would leave a three-way tie for first station in the Big 12 South with all three 7-1 in conference. Texas would hold a tiebreaker over OU in a two way tie, but in a three-way, Texas Tech defeated Texas, and if this scenario holds suitable, OU would have beaten Tech. All three would be 4-1 within the division and 3-0 vs. the Big 12 North. I believe the three-way tiebreaker is whichever is highest in the BCS standings.

Then you have Boise State and Utah. Boise State is an odds on favorite to finish at 12-0. Utah’s only hurdle to finish 12-0 is BYU. If BYU wins that game, BYU is 11-1. Teams like Boise Spot can’t play with the “big boys” you say? Has the Fiesta Bowl of only 2 years ago been erased from the record books? You know, the one where BSU won the game over OU with the statue of liberty play in overtime after a hook and lateral on about 4th and 15?

This objective in: the BCS standings are the result of some sort of hodge-podge of polls, computer rankings and throwing darts at a dartboard, seemingly. Polls are just Idea, people! In every other sport, there is a clear-cut definition of who gets in the championship game, The only station for opinion is in how the teams are seeded. Concept should have NO PART in determining the champion. College football’s antiquated, beauty contest of a system to decide who plays in the championship game is a disservice and a travesty to what is otherwise a great game.

Then, at #4 in the polls, the white-hot Florida Gators could (and probably will) execute 12-1 with wins over The Citadel, Florida Status and Alabama in the SEC championship game. If USC defeats Notre Dame and UCLA, the Trojans would be 11-1. But wait, USC lost to Oregon Position and the Beavers lost to Penn Space 45-13. With a pick up over Michigan state, Penn State would be 11-1. You can downgrade the Pac-10 and Big 10 if you want, but if a team defeats everyone on their schedule or goes 11 or 12-1 they deserve a shot at the Trophy. Period.

Let’s take a look at some of the lame arguments against a college football playoff:

1. The players would be out of class too distinguished. I’ve got to throw down the BS card on that one. College football players miss class a fraction of the amount of classes missed by college basketball players. I don’t see anyone trying to go with some hokum, poll-driven way of doing away with the Final 4. And 65 teams are affected by the NCAA Tourney. Only 8 teams, or 16 tops, would be in a college football playoff out of 119. Cut out a regular season non-conference game vs Sam Houston State and plan the playoffs for the time students are out of school anyway. All the other football playing divisions of the NCAA make it happen, you can’t make the argument that D1A (or whatever they call it now) cannot.

2. It would be too many games for the poor players. The same people who parrot this line scream like banshees at talk of giving players a monthly stipend to live on as they cannot hold jobs in season. Besides, again, all the other teams in the other divisions of NCAA football play 14-15 games when they go all the way to the finals. Most teams wouldn’t be affected, anyway.

3. What about the precious Weedwhacker Bowl and all the other Bowls? What about them? If NCAA basketball can have the NIT for teams not in the NCAA Tournament, why can’t the NCAA have Bowls for teams not in a playoff? Any Bowl outside the BCS championship has nothing to do with the national championship, anyway.

4. It would render the regular season meaningless? What!? If you don’t accumulate your conference, you don’t go to the playoffs, so the regular season games within the conference would mean just as remarkable as now to the national championship.

5. Where would the money come from? A few years ago, Nike offered the NCAA $100 million to stage a playoff. The old farts running the Bowls and the cigar-chompers in the smoke-filled room shot down the proposal. The stakes would be higher now.

6. But the BCS is better than the customary way, where #1 and #2 didn’t always play against each other. Yeah, and a prostate exam is better than getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick. I don’t know anyone who looked forward to their annual prostate exam. The PSA came along, where they stick your finger, instead of sticking a finger in neverland. Big improvement, just as a college football playoff would be a big improvement over the BCS Mess.

7. The “water cooler” argument. You know, the absurd, outlandish crap about how arguing over polls and bowls around various water coolers in workplaces keeps college football a hot topic in conversation. Do the college football poobahs honestly think hard core college football fans wouldn’t argue about who was seeded what and sent where versus who in a college football playoff? You betcha they would, as Sarah Palin might chirp in her clipped Fargo accent. A playoff would increase the popularity of college football even more.

I like the Bowls as great as the next guy. I have attended Bowl games in Dallas, Shreveport and Orlando. There is no reason to do away with Bowls unprejudiced because 8 teams play in a college football playoff.

Here is an example for a college football playoff template:

Take the conference champions of the ACC, Tremendous East, SEC, Big 12, Ample 10, and Pac 10. Have a selection committee, as college basketball does, to select 2 at-large teams, either champions of other conferences, independents or teams like the two in the Big 12 this year who are not crowned conference champs.

If you want, the WAC and the Mountain West could be included for 10 teams with the top 2 getting a bye the first week. Add 2 at-large teams for 12 teams, maybe. Here’s how 2008 could look:

#1 Seed Texas 12-1 BYE, #2 Florida 12-1 BYE, #3 Oklahoma, 11-1 BYE, #4 Alabama, 12-1 Bye

#5 USC, 11-1-#12 Utah 11-1

#6 Texas Tech, 11-1 – #11 Boise State, 12-0

#7 Penn State- 11-1- #10 BYU, 11-1

#8 Missouri, 10-3- Miami 10-3

The 8-9 winner would get Texas, the 7-10 vs. Florida, the 6-11 vs OU and the 5-12 vs. Alabama

A disclaimer, the records and seedings are hypothetical based on the records I believe the teams will carry out with based on looking at each teams’ schedule.

You see, it really wouldn’t be hard to come up with a college football playoff system. Because of the polls and bowls not wanting to be rendered meaningless is why we have this BCS farce. “Oh, but the Bowls have been good for college football“. Yes, they have. But the leather helmet was respectable for college football at one time. Then, something better came along. College football playoffs, a great idea whose time has come. Actually, the time has long passed, but there’s nothing we can do about that now. Maybe I should say, major college football playoffs, since the lower divisions of the NCAA have had playoffs for years. Let’s bring major college football into the 20th century before the 21st century has passed!

Statehood:

Mississippi joined the Union on December 10, 1817 as the 20th Space and is composed of lowlands, large bays, the Potomac Ridge, the Fall Line Hills, the Mississippi Sound, a coastline bulky of islands, Woodall Mountain, the highest elevation point in the State at 806 feet tall, the Mississippi River Delta, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, many catfish aquaculture farms where most of the farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States are produced, and the Mississippi Delta, between the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers, that contains some of the world’s most fertile soil.

Name:

Heavily forested, especially with pine, elm, cottonwood, oak, pecan, hickory, tupelo, and sweetgum trees, outside of the Mississippi Delta’s northwestern section of the State, and containing the Ojibwe Indian name “misi-ziibi,” meaning the “Great River,” Mississippi is bordered by Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Native Americans:

Along with the Prehistoric Mississippian Mound Builder Culture other Native American Indian tribes that resided in Mississippi included the Biloxi, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, the Houma, the Natchez, the Ofo, the Quapaw, the Tunica, the Acolapissa, the Chakchiuma, the Koroa, the Mosopelea, the Opelousa, the Pascagoula, the Yowani, the Alabama, the Coushatta, the Caddo, the Apalachee, the Cherokee, the Creek, the Guale, the Hopewell, the Muskhogean, the Hitchiti, the Kansa, the Mobile, the Osage, the Pawnee, the Seminole, the Yamasee, and the Ojibwa.

History:

Originally inhabited by Prehistoric Mississippian Culture Mound Builders, whose earthen works remain throughout the Mississippi Valley, the Magnolia State was first encountered by the Hernando de Soto Expedition of 1540, followed by the French in April of 1699, who created the first European settlements at Fort Maurepas, Ocean Springs, and Fort Rosalie, or Natchez, which became the major town of their New Louisiana Territory.

Under French and Spanish Colonial governments the Territory that became Mississippi developed a Class of Free People of Color that included European men, enslaved women, and their multiracial children, who formed a third Class between European and enslaved Africans, and ceded the Territory to England under the 1763 Treaty of Paris following the French and Indian War.

Becoming part of the United States after the Revolutionary War, and organized on April 7, 1798, the Mississippi Territory, taken from parts of Georgia and South Carolina, became the 20th State of the Union on December 10, 1817.

Beginning in the 1850s cotton became the king crop grown in the State’s Delta and Black Belt areas, and plantation owners became extremely wealthy owning many slaves, numbering about 436,631, or fifty-five percent of Mississippi’s total population in 1860, with most of them living along rivers that supported the plantations, leaving approximately ninety percent of the Delta as undeveloped frontier.

One of the founding members of the Confederate States of America, and the second to secede from the Union, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi typified the Jim Crow racial segregation laws of the early 20th Century, although at that time approximately two-thirds of all Mississippi farmers were ex-slaves and African-Americans, who eventually lost their lands and became Sharecroppers. Mississippi also experienced two Great Migrations of Blacks to Northern cities and the West Coast in search of a better blueprint of life than the State offered.

Mississippi was an activity center during the Civil Rights Movement with Freedom Schools, the Mississippi Position Sovereignty Commission, White Citizen Councils, and KKK attacks that earned Mississippi the dubious distinction of being a Reactionary State in the 1960s, and in 1995 symbolically ratified the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, that had been Nationally adopted on December 6, 1865 abolishing slavery, and prohibiting involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime, and was the first Reconstruction Amendment following the Civil War.

Mississippi suffered extensive destruction by Hurricane Camille on August 17, 1969, and was further devastated by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, that destroyed ninety miles of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site:

Located in Lee County, six miles west of Baldwyn, Brice Cross Roads, the only National Battlefield in the National Park System, and a National Register of Historic Places Site, commemorates the June 10, 1864 Confederate Army’s victory over Union forces attempting to capture Tupelo during the Civil War, that secured supply lines between Chattanooga and Nashville, Tennessee, and temporarily kept the North out of Alabama and Mississippi.

Gulf Islands National Seashore:

Including barrier islands such as Petit Bois Island, Horn Island, East Ship Island, West Ship Island, coastal mainlands, bayous, salt marshes, southern magnolia forests, live oak forests, popular sandy beaches, Fort Pickens, Fort Barranca, Fort McRee, Advanced Redoubt, the Santa Rosa Peninsula, the Navel Live Oaks Native American archaeological situation, nature trails, and abundant wildlife, the Gulf Islands National Seashore contains a one hundred and fifty mile long stretch of Mississippi and Florida.

Vicksburg National Military Park and Cemetary:

Including reconstructed forts, twenty miles of historic trenches, 1325 historical markers, two antebellum homes, the USS Cairo gunboat, the first American ship sunk by a torpedo, the Grant’s Canal site, and the Illinois State Memorial, with forty-seven steps, one for each day the town was under seige, the Vicksburg National Military Park and Cemetary preserves the May 18 to July 4, 1863 seige, battle, and surrender of the city that gave the United States control of the Mississippi River, and was considered the turning point of the Civil War. The December 26 to 29, 1862 Battle of Chickasaw Bayou and Walnut Hills, the January 9 to 11, 1863 Battle of Arkansas Post, the April 29, 1863 Battle of Grand Gulf, the April 29 to May 1, 1863 Battle of Synder’s Bluff, the May 1, 1863 Battle of Port Gibson, the May 12, 1863 Battle of Raymond, the May 14, 1863 Battle of Jackson Crossroads, the May 16, 1863 Battle of Champion Hill, and the May 17, 1863 Battle of Big Black River Bridge were all instrumental in Vicksburg’s eventual fall to Union forces.

Tupelo National Battlefield:

The Tupelo National Battlefield commemorates the July 14 and 15, 1864 Union victory in the Battle of Old Town Creek, the last major Civil War skirmish faught in Mississippi, that opened a route for General Sherman to march to Atlanta.

Natchez National Historical Park:

The Natchez National Historical Park contains the 1716 French-built Fort Rosalie, where the town of Natchez began, a Prehistoric Indian settlement known as the Grand Village of the Natchez, the William Johnson House, and the Melrose Mansion, a National Register of Historic Places region equipped with pre-Civil War furnishings.

Natchez Trace Parkway:

The Natchez Trace Parkway, a 444-mile long two lane road featuring panaramic scenery of the original route of migratory American Bison along the low hills and ridges between Mississippi and the Cumberland Plateau, contains the Meriwether Lewis National Monument, the 1780-built Mount Locust Inn, one of the oldest structures in the State, the Mississippi Craft Center, the Rocky Springs Ghost Town, Cypress Swamp, the Ackia Battleground National Monument, Chickasaw Village, the Tupelo National Battlefield, and the Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site.

Natchez Tag National Scenic Trail:

The Natchez Stamp National Scenic Trail was an former Choctaw and Chickasaw indian footpath, worn by various American explorers, that includes the Rocky Springs Trail reach Port Gibson, the Ridgeland Trail north of Jackson, the Leipers Fork Trail south of Nashville, and the Tupelo Slither.

National Forests:

National Forests in Mississippi include the Bienville National Forest, in the central part of the State, that contains approximately 178,542 acres, and the Bienville Wildlife Management Set, the Tombigbee National Forest, in north central Mississippi, that possesses about 66,000 acres, and is divided into the Coffeeville, Houston, and Ackerman units, the Homochitto National Forest, Mississippi’s first National Forest, and the heaviest producer of lumber in the South, that contains about seventy-five percent of all the oil wells found on National Forest property in the Set, the Delta National Forest in the Lower Mississippi Valley, that contains more than 60,000 acres and the Sunflower Wildlife Management Spot, the Holly Springs National Forest, with its 156,661 acres in north central Mississippi, and the home of the Puskus, Chewalla, and Choctaw Lake Recreational Areas, and the more than 500,000-acre De Soto National Forest in Southeastern Mississippi overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.

State Parks:

Mississippi’s twenty-six State Parks are known as the Buccaneer State Park in Waveland that was closed by Hurricane Katrina, the Wall Doxey State Park at Holly Springs, the Clark Creek National Area west of Woodville, the Trace Spot Park near Hamlet, where famed Frontiersman Davy Crockett once lived, the Clarkes Space Park north of Quitman, the Tishomingo State Park in the Appalachian foothills north of Tupelo, the Shepard State Park west of Pascagoula, the George P. Cossar State Park east of Oakland on Enid Lake, the Roosevelt State Park approach Morton, the Percy Quin State Park south of McComb, the Golden Memorial Station Park east of Walnut Grove, the Stout Gulf Military Region Park northwest of Port Gibson and the Ghost Town of Grand Gulf, a Mississippi Landmark found on the National Register of Historic Places, the Paul B. Johnson State Park on Geiger Lake, the Natchez State Park near Stanton, the Great River Road State Park in Rosedale with unmatched scenic views of the Mississippi River, the Leroy Percy Station Park at Hollandale, the Legion State Park and Historic District in Louisville, the Holmes County State Park at Durant, the LeFleur’s Bluff Site Park near Jackson, where the State’s Capitol city began, the Lake Lowndes State Park at Columbus, the Hugh White Situation Park in Grenada, the Lake Lincoln State Park in Wesson, the J.P. Coleman State Park approach Pickwick Lake, and the John W. Kyle Set Park in Sardis.

Lakes:

Mississippi’s largest lakes include Arkabutla Lake on the Coldwater River in the northern part of the State, built after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 to help alleviate damages caused by the continual overflowing headwaters of the Yazoo River, and featured in the motion characterize O Brother Where Art Thou, Grenada Lake, on the Yalobusha River, Mississippi’s largest lake, and home of the Hugh White State Park, the Ross Barnett Reservoir, on the Pearl River, the State’s largest drinking water resource, Sardis Lake on the Little Tallahatchie River that is popular with University of Mississippi students, Marathon Lake, Shongelo Lake, Choctaw Lake, Lake Ferguson, Geiger Lake, Lake Lowndes, Lake Lincoln, Pickwick Lake, Gainesville Lake, Martin Lake, Lake Tom Bailey, and Enid Lake.

Rivers:

Major rivers found in the Area of Mississippi include the Yazoo River containing at least twenty-nine sunken ships from the Civil War, the Tombigbee River, the Mississippi River, the Leaf River, the Strong River, the Homochitto River, the Bouie River, the Sucamoochee River, the Pascagoula River, the Eseatawpa River, the Dog River, the Noxubee River, the Chickasawhay River, the Elephantine River, the Buttahatchee River, the Tchoutacabouffa River, the Biloxi River, the Jourdan River, the Pearl River, the Yockanookany River, the Tangipahoa River, the Tickfaw River, the Amite River, the Great Black River, the Big Sunflower River, the Tallahatchie River, the Little Tallahatchie River, the Yalobusha River, the Shuna River, the Hatchie River, The Tuscumbia River, the Tennessee River, the Coldwater River, the Yazoo River, the Okatoma River, Mississippi’s only white water rapids area, and the Wolf River.

Delta Blues:

One of the earliest forms of Blues music originated in the Mississippi Delta, an area famous for its abstract poverty, and features the harmonica, cigar box guitar, slide guitar, and guitar as its dominent instruments, with vocal styles ranging from soulful to passionate to fiery to introspective. The Delta Blues style of music was first recorded in the late 1920s, although it definately existed long before that, when narrate companies realized the potential of the African-American music market for one person singing and playing recordings. Defined by its instrumentation, rhythm, “bottleneck” slide, and vastly different harmonic structure, some of the most renowned early Delta Blues musicians included such Performers as Ishman Bracey, Tommy Johnson, Garfield Akers, Enormous Joe Williams, Son House, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Willie Brown, Bukka White, Lead Belly, Muddy Waters, Skip James, Elmore James, Memphis Minnie, Bertha Lee, Geeshie Wiley, and perhaps the most influencial woman to ever perform the Blues, Janis Joplin, primarily known for her version of such songs as “Piece Of My Heart,” and her biggest Hit the Kris Kristofferson Smash “Me And Bobby McGee,” and who’s life the motion picture The Rose, featuring Bette Midler, loosely portrayed.

Attractions:

Common Mississippi Attractions include the Old Capitol Museum, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Museum, the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, the Residence Capitol Complex, the City of Jackson Public Fire Education Center and Fire Museum, the Jackson Zoological Park, the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center, the Mississippi War Memorial Building, the Russell C. Davis Planetarium, the Presidential Library of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his post-Civil War Beauvoir residence, the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier, the Biloxi Lighthouse, the world’s only lighthouse in the middle of a four lane highway, the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum, the Civil War-era Longwood Plantation, a National Historic Landmark site, the Rosalie Mansion and Gardens home of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Natchez Museum of African-American History and Culture, the Natchez National Historical Park, the Natchez National Cemetary, the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, the Vicksburg National Military Park, the Vicksburg Battlefield Museum, the Vicksburg National Cemetary, the Blues and Legends Hall of Fame, the Gulf Islands National Seashore, the Mississippi Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Elvis Presley Birthplace and Museum, the Tupelo Automobile Museum, the Natchez Mark Parkway, the Tupelo National Battlefield, the Corinth Civil War Contraband Camp, the Crossroads Historical Museum, the Delta Blues Museum, the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum, the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, the Windsor Ruins Historic Natchez Cemetary, the Mississippi Delta, the Birthplace of Kermit the Frog Exhibit, the Brice’s Crossroads National Battlefield, the Oprah Winfrey Birthplace, the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, the Jim Henson Museum, the Biedenharn Candy Company Museum where coca-cola was first bottled in 1894, the Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, and the Mississippi Delta riverboats.

Jackson:

Named for Andrew Jackson, and possessing the wellknown slogan of “Jackson, Mississippi: City With Soul,” the capital of the State of Mississippi was ranked Number Three on Forbes Magazine’s list of Best Bang For Your Buck Cities in the United States.

Originally part of the Choctaw Nation Jackson was acquired by the US under the September 27, 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, and was known as Parkville on the Natchez Trace, then as LeFleur’s Bluff.

The October 18, 1820 Treaty of Doak’s Stand opened the area around Jackson to non-American settlers, and the city began growing before the Civil War due to railroads linking Jackson to major towns of the time located along the Mississippi River.

The city of Jackson fell twice to Union forces during the Civil War, first on May 13, 1863 during the Battle of Jackson, and again on July 4, 1863 during the Siege of Jackson. Abandoned by the Confederate Army, and burned by Union forces, Jackson earned the name “Chimneyville” because only the chimneys of houses survived the fires set by the Union forces.

From 1961 to 1963 Jackson was a hotbed of activities surrounding the Civil Rights Movement including the arrests of more than three hundred Freedom Riders on May 24, 1961, the arrests of Black Tougaloo College students for reading books in the “Whites Only” library, making the town a dwelling on the Civil Rights Trail, Sit-Ins by the Freedom Movement, and the June 6, 1966 James Meredith March for Civil Rights legislation, earning the city one year of martial law, the only US city to endure that distinction in the Twentieth Century.

The International Headquarters of the Phi Theta Kappa Two-Year Colleges Honor Society is located in Jackson.

Jackson was popularized in American Country Music by the Johnny Cash song “Jackson,” and is famous as the home of Gospel Music, Rhythm and Blues, and The Blues.

Major industries that have been found in Jackson include railroads, manufacturing, natural gas, aviation, medicine including the first successful cadaveric lung transplant operation, music, electrical equipment, processed foods, fabricated metals, casinos, and agriculture products such as soybeans, poultry, cotton, and livestock.

Major Corporations that have been located in Jackson include the Trustmark Banking and Financial Services Corporation, EastGroup Properties Incorporated, Cal-Maine Foods Incorporated, Parkway Properties Incorporated, the Canadian National Railway, the Kansas City Southern Railway, and Amtrak’s City of New Orleans passenger trains.

Popular Jackson area Attractions include the Smith-Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, the Celtic Heritage Society of Mississippi, the Jackson Zoological Park, the Municipal Art Gallery, the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Malaco Records Recording Studios, the Gold Coast, the USA International Ballet Competition, CelticFest Mississippi, the Capital Complex, the Russell C. Davis Planetarium, the Oaks House Museum, the Eudora Welty House and Space Historical Museum, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, the Medgar Evers Home Museum, The City of Jackson Fire Museum, the Mississippi Blues Trail, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, the Mississippi History Museum, and the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.

Gulfport:

Incorporated July 28, 1898 the co-County Seat of Harrison County was severely damaged on August 29, 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.

Section of the Gulf Islands National Seashore Gulfport is the home of the “World’s Largest Fishing Rodeo,” historic antebellum homes, barrier islands, and famous beaches.

Major industries that have been located in Gulfport include shipping, fishing, lumber, casino gambling, retail merchandising, hospitality, and healthcare.

Popular Gulfport residence Attractions include the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center and Children’s Museum, the Fun Time USA Amusement Park, Ship Island, the St. James Fall Festival, the Fire in the Sky Freedom Fest, the Christmas Festival of Lights, the Gulf Islands Waterpark, the Gulfport Centennial Museum, the CEC Seabees Memorial Museum, Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library, the Oktoberfests, the Scottish Games & Celtic Festival, the Winter Classics Horseshows, the Gulfhaven Gardens, the Biloxi Lighthouse, and the Historic Waveland City Hall.

Hattiesburg:

Founded in 1882 the Forrest County Seat began as a mosey and railroad center and became known as “The Hub City” as a result of a 1912 local newspaper contest and because of its location.

Hattiesburg was first settled by pine timberland workers from Georgia and the Carolinas attracted to the area by the 1897 lumber insist.

Hattiesburg can be found on the Bouie and Leaf River junction, and is the home of Camp Shelby, the largest National Guard Training Contaminated east of the Mississippi River.

Heavily involved in the Cold War Nuclear Arms Race, Hattiesburg was the site of Nuclear Test Salmon and Nuclear Test Sterling, from the Project Dribble Program’s Vela Uniform and Project Vela, when two nuclear devices were exploded in the nearby salt domes of Lumberton in the 1960s.

The Civil Rights Movement of Palmers Crossing’s African-American community, after Clyde Kennard, a Korean War weak who applied to attend Mississippi Southern College, an all-White school, was framed for a crime he did not commit and served seven years in Parchman Prison, the oldest and only maximum security prison for men in the State of Mississippi, the Freedom Summer of 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and heavy KKK attacks on Blacks, all made Hattiesburg an activities center for Civil Rights during the 1960s.

Parchman Prison was where Elvis Presley’s Father, Vernon Presley, served a three year sentence for Forgery, and a famous picture of Elvis and his parents at the prison quiet exists.

Ranked by CNN as a Top 25 Growing Business City major industries that have been found in Hattiesburg include railroads, drag, food processing, filing supplies, plumbing manufacturing, electric home appliances, coffee, and paper-based consumer products.

Major Corporations that have been located in Hattiesburg include the Southern Railway System, the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad, the Illinois Central Railroad, Amtrak, the Norfolk Southern Railway, the Canadian National Railway, the Kansas City Southern Railway, the Kohler Engine Company, the Northeast Coca-Cola Bottling Company, the International Filing Company, Mr. Coffee, Sunbeam Products Incorporated, and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation.

Popular Hattiesburg location Attractions include the Hattiesburg Zoo, the African-American Military History Museum, the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum, the All-American Rose Garden, the Hattiesburg Area Historical Society Museum, The de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection, the Pep’s Point Water Park, the Hattiesburg Arts Council Gallery, and the Historic Hattiesburg Driving Tour.

Biloxi:

With a three hundred year old history Biloxi lays on the Mississippi Sound with its barrier islands scattered into the Gulf of Mexico.

The first settlement of French Louisiana, Biloxi was founded as Fort Maurepas in 1699, and became the capital city of the Territory from 1720 to 1723, but was ceded to England by the Treaty of Paris after the Seven Years War ended.

England and Spain ruled Biloxi from 1763 to 1798, and in 1811 the United States gained control of the city as part of the Territory of Mississippi.

Biloxi has been a Summer Resort since before the Civil War began and a casino town since the 1940s.

On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina destroyed about ninety percent of the buildings along the Biloxi waft including the floating casinos, libraries, and churches in the place.

Major industries that have been found in Bilox include the military, tourism, railroads, food preservation, casinos, cotton, commercial fishing, and seafood.

Major Casinos that have been located in Biloxi, on the “Terrible Man’s Riviera,” include the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, the Grand Biloxi Hotel, Casino and Spa, the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino, the Casino Magic, the President Casino Broadwater Resort, the Isle of Capri Casino Hotel, the Boomtown Casino, the Treasure Bay Casino and Hotel, the IP Casino Resort and Spa, the Palace Casino Resort, and the Bacaran Bay Resort.

Popular Biloxi area Attractions include Ship Island, the Beauvoir, the post-Civil War home and library of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the Biloxi Tour Train, the Biloxi Island Lighthouse, the Mardi Gras Museum, the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum, the 1836-built Grass Lawn Milner Home Showcase on the Mississippi Sound, the Crusin’ the Coast Car Parade, the J.L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium, the Biloxi Historical Walking Tour, the Biloxi Shrimp Festival and Blessing of the Fleet, and the Ohr/O’Keefe Museum of Art.

Greenville:

Known as the heart and soul of the Mississippi Delta, and found in Washington County, on the eastern bank of the Ferguson River, Greenville was the birthplace of Muppet creator Jim Henson.

Greenville contains a famous courthouse, several historical plantations, churches, buildings, and cemetaries, Cotton Row, and Old Highway 61, the route the Blues traveled from the Delta to the Industrial North.

The renowned bearhunter and ex-slave Holt Collier trapped a bear for President Theodore Roosevelt to shoot while on a hunting trip in Greenville, and when Roosevelt could not shoot it, the Teddy Bear was born.

Resulting from the first village fading away after the American Revolutionary War, and the second hamlet being destroyed in the May 1863 Battle of Vicksburg, Greenville is the third city in Mississippi to enjoy that name.

In August 1877 Yellow Fever ravaged Greenville, and in 1890 the city suffered its first major flooding by the Mississippi River, then was destroyed again by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, but grew into the largest river port on the Mississippi River.

Major industries that have been found in Greenville include cotton, shipping, agriculture, education, newspapers, lumber, and casino gambling.

Major Corporations that have been located in Greenville include the Delta Democrat Times Newspaper, the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company, the Harlow’s Casino Resort and Hotel, the Lighthouse Point Casino, the Bayou Caddy’s Jubilee Casino, and more.

Popular Greenville area Attractions include the Nelson Street Chitlin’ Circuit Blues Clubs, the Winterville Mounds Historic Status from the Mississippian Indian culture, the Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge, the 1857 Belmont Plantation, one of the very few Antebellum homes not burned by Union forces during the Civil War, the Cottonlandia Factory Museum, the Belzoni Historical Museum, the Stale Number One Fire Museum, and the Mississippi Delta.

Series:

The United States Series I am writing here on associatedcontent.com provides an indepth look at all fifty States that form up this Great Country of ours and their five largest cities.

The current list of Articles for the United States Series I have published to date includes:

So This Is Sweet Home Alabama
Alaska – The Land of the Midnight Sun
Arizona – The Valley of the Sun
Arkansas – People of the South Wind
California – The Golden Gate, Earthquakes and Grizzly Bears
Colorful Colorado – The Rocky Mountains, Skiing, and High Technology
Connecticut – The Land of Steady Habits
Delaware – The Small Wonder
Florida – The Snowbirds R Us State
Georgia – Goobers, Peaches, and Buzzards
Hawaii – Luaus, Pineapples, and Beaches
Idaho – The Gem of the Mountains and Potatoes State
Illinois – Mining, Factories, and Labor Unions
Indiana – Land of Steel and Ducks
Iowa – The Ethanol and Food Capital of the World
Bleeding Kansas America’s Flattest State
Kentucky – The Land of Tomorrow
Louisiana – The Child of the Mississippi
Maine – Lobsters, Lighthouses, and Black Bears
Maryland – The “Oh Say Can You See” State
Massachusetts – The Cradle of Liberty
Michigan – The Automotive State
Minnesota – The Bread and Butter State

Comments from readers are always welcome so let me know what you think about these Articles.

Sources:

This Article was compiled from several websites that provide much more information about Mississippi including:

visitjackson.com, gulfport.ms.us, discoverourtown.com, gulfcoast.org, and visitgreenville.org

The first step in the adoption process is the adoption home study. An adoption home sight is performed by a licensed social worker. The goal of the home study is to determine whether the applicant is fit to parent, if the home space is adequate, and what type of child would do best with the family. The home study process I am describing is for a foster care adoption in the state of Alabama. Each state has it’s own policies but this should give you a general idea of the process.

Step 1: Classes

To adopt from the foster care system most states require that you take classes. In Alabama these classes are called Group Preparation and Selection (GPS). The topics range from recognizing grief to disciplining a child who comes from an abusive or neglectful home. These classes help to prepare you for adoption and help limit the number of adoption disruptions. We found the classes to be very good.

Step 2: Paperwork

This task was actually the most daunting for my husband and me. There is a ton of paperwork required to adopt. Some of these include financial forms, medical forms, fingerprints, a short autobiographical essay, floor plan of your home, references, child abuse and neglect clearance form, child desired manufacture, criminal background check, and more. You also have to provide proof of vaccinations for your pets, proof of insurance, marriage license, etc. It is a lot to catch together but you can do it!

Step 3: Home Visits

The final part of the process is when the social worker actually comes to your home. The worker will tour your home and check for safety. Each state has different standards but our worker checked for a fire extinguisher, smoke alarms, a locked medicine cabinet, and things of that nature. You will be given a list of the requirements during your classes. The worker will also describe your home in huge detail. Your file will note all the wall colors, where furniture is arranged, and even where the windows are. The people reading your home gape want to feel like they are walking through your home.

The worker will also interview you at this time. Generally, at least 3 visits are required. Our worker interviewed us together the first 2 visits and then separately on the last visit. She asked questions about our relationship, how emotions were expressed in the homes we grew up in, and our parenting philosophy. She also helped us determine what child would be best suited for our family.

Step 4: Waiting

Step 4 is definitely the hardest. After the home study is completed the social worker sends it in to the state office for approval. It can take several weeks to get an answer. Once the letter comes in the mail however, all the frustration of the previous months is forgotten. I hope this helps you have a better plan of the home study process. You can do it!

Crime is a disease that infects our lives with hardship and heartache. Throughout the ages man has developed laws to keep society healthy and criminal sanctions to satisfy the breaking of those laws. Criminal sanctions serve one or a combination of four different purposes: rehabilitation, retribution, incapacitation, and deterrence. Arguably, all four contribute to maintaining public order – the ultimate goal in a society founded on a “social contract” ideology.

In the last thirty years, prison has become a pet project for us in the United States. The number of prisoners in state and Federal penitentiaries had hovered around 200,000 since the 1940’s. Then between 1975 and 1980, it rose to 300,000, and between 1980 and 1995 it began an astonishing ascent that brought the total behind bars to a solid million.[1] As of 1997, 645 out of every 100,000 United States citizens lived in prison – a national incarceration rate second only to the Russian Federation.[2] With such an extraordinary number of persons in our prison system, one might expect that it is a very effective means of maintaining public order; else we wouldn’t use it so extensively. With that thought as our mini-thesis let us examine the evidence and compare prison against the four purposes of criminal sanctions.

Does prison rehabilitate? To measure a criminal’s rehabilitation, we must note whether or not he or she returns to crime after leaving prison. This is referred to as the rate of recidivism. Researchers from the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati and the Center for Criminal Justice Studies at the University of New Brunswick analyzed fifty studies dating from 1958 involving 336,052 offenders.[3] Their analysis produced 325 correlations between recidivism and (a) length of time in prison and recidivism or (b) serving a prison sentence vs. receiving a community-based sanction. The results showed that under both conditions, prison produced cramped increases in recidivism. Secondly there was some tendency for lower risk offenders to be more negatively affected by the prison experience. The essential conclusions they reached were:

1. Prisons should not be used with the expectation of reducing criminal behavior.

2. On the basis of the prove results, excessive use of incarceration has titanic cost implications.

3. In order to determine who is being adversely affected by prison, it is incumbent upon prison officials to implement repeated, comprehensive assessments of offenders’ attitudes, values, and behaviors while incarcerated.

4. The primary justification of prison should be to incapacitate offenders (particularly, those of a chronic, higher risk nature) for reasonable periods and to dependable retribution.

Research in Germany also indicates that youthful offenders sent to prison had higher rates of recidivism than those given alternative sanctions. Studies conducted by the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony explored individual and regional disparities in sentencing and sought to choose the effects of sentencing practices on offending patterns and career criminality. Results showed that the number of offenders per 100,000 inhabitants increased by seven percent in regions where imprisonment was the sentencing norm and decreased by 13 percent in regions that opted for alternative sentencing.[4]

Perhaps prison performs better in relation to the other three purposes of criminal sanctions. It is true that prison temporarily incapacitates inmates from adversely affecting society… or is it? The crimes of rape, robbery, assault, drug dealing and drug use are committed often enough even within prison walls. Are not the victims of these crimes peaceful members of our society, most of whom will someday return to the “outside” and we will expect to become productive members of society once again? And what of those prisoners serving lengthy sentences for property crimes? In essence we are locking up these individuals because we are enraged by some monetary loss they caused, but we only relate a miniature when we have to shell out $50,000 per year to keep them in prison.[5] It doesn’t seem that prison helps maintain public order through incapacitation to any enormous degree, especially with non-violent offenders.

What about retribution? Prison as punishment seems fitting since we are taking away the majority of an individual’s freedom. The spot here lies not in is prison punishment enough, but is it too much. In 1991 more than $20 billion was spent across the United States to build, maintain and operate prison systems. Nonetheless, despite that large-scale investment, as of October 1992, forty-two states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, operated under court orders because of overcrowding and other conditions so poor as to be deemed unconstitutional by examining judicial panels.[6] Overcrowding is in fact one of the largest problems with the prison system in the United States today.

Lastly, is prison an effective means of deterrence? In other words, does the threat of being sent to prison keep people from committing crime? Generally the answer is, no. Two reasons exist to explain this response. First, the high rate of recidivism indicates that the threat of getting caught and going wait on to prison isn’t considerable of a deterrent to criminals. Interviews with juveniles in Germany found that the strongest deterrents to crime for most youths were fear of being caught by the police and the negative reactions of parents and society. Interestingly, fear of punishment was not mentioned by these youths as a factor militating against criminal behavior.[7] Second, the “funnel effect” that permeates our criminal justice system makes prison seem distant and irrelevant as a factor for would-be criminals to consider. By the funnel execute I refer to the fact that millions of crimes are committed annually and only a percentage of them are reported or discovered. Of that percentage, an even smaller number are prosecuted. The trend continues with the numbers getting smaller and smaller through the trial and sentencing process until the actual threat of prison becomes ineffective as a deterrent to crime.

Perhaps I have been overly significant of the prison system. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the system as it stands doesn’t deliver all that it promises, and certainly much less than we expect of it. Why then do we continue to rely so heavily on prisons in the United States to prefer care of our crime problem? The number one reason is public opinion. So long as the average citizen believes that prisons are effective, or so long as they keep the criminals out of their neighborhood, we will continue to pour billions of dollars into locking people away. It’s the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. Perhaps also, people are simply frustrated with or unaware of any alternative forms of criminal sanctions. Fortunately, studies have shown that once we lift the veil of ignorance from a person’s eyes, they are receptive to change.

Remember the case of juvenile delinquency in Germany? Once Munich’s judiciary was informed that more liberal attitudes resulted in lower rates of recidivism, the judges subsequently engaged a psychologist to contemplate and analyze their on-the-job attitudes, behavior and demeanor. As a result, some judges modified their behavior, while others switched from criminal to civil law. Subsequent widespread dissemination and publication of these research results effected change in Germany’s sentencing policies and practices. A close collaboration among community groups, social workers, police, prosecutors, churches, academia, and the judiciary produced alternative programs – often financed through fines imposed on offenders – that emphasized a holistic approach to corrections and productive social worker/client relationships.[8]

Studies have shown a similar willingness to change here in the United States. The New York-based Public Agenda Foundation under contract with the Edna McConnel Clark Foundation conducted public-opinion surveys in Alabama in 1998 and in Delaware in 1990. In a report of their studies, John Doble, the organization’s director of research, said, “Once people have had a chance to learn about prison overcrowding and sentencing alternatives, they become much more supportive of the exhaust of alternatives.” Mediate their findings.

“In both states, citizen focus groups were organized to discuss sentences for hypothetical offenders. Twenty-three different types of cases in all were on the table, ranging from joyriding to rape, and the participants were first given the choice of two standard sanctions: prison or probation. Prison was the overwhelming selection among participants.

“Then each group was shown a video explaining other potential options short of prison, including a stricter regimen of probation, community service work, electronic monitoring and boot camp. Participants were asked to resentence the twenty-three cases. Those in the Delaware group sent four to prison – compared to seventeen in the first round – while those in Alabama, who had earlier chosen prison in eighteen of the cases, now selected jail for only five, the worst offenders.

“In a recount of the Alabama results, Doble said alternative sanctions were popular among the survey participants for three reasons: They were seen as having a better chance of contributing to offender rehabilitation, they were viewed as giving judges flexibility to tailor sentences more appropriately, and they were considered to be potentially less expensive than prison.”[9]

If prisons are not the sole answer to solving our crime problem, and people are willing to look at other ideas, what options are out there for us to reflect? History gives us many helpful case studies. Let us examine three: Colonial America, Eighteenth Century Mexico, and the Israelites in Biblical times. Each space is novel in its circumstances, and holds much for us to learn.

The early American colonies tried to modify the often-harsh system in England, from which they had escaped, into a system more aware of individual rights while maintaining a gross tolerance for criminal activity.

“English and Colonial punishments were all public. The spectacles of retribution were intended as dramatic examples of the consequences of crime. Penalties ranged from hanging to admonition.

“The lightest possible punishment was admonition, and New England magistrates used it frequently. They might admonish a first offender who was otherwise of good reputation. They also used admonition when evidence against a person was not clear though there was a strong suspicion of guilt. They clearly regarded admonition as a formal penalty.

“The most common punishment was a fair payable in money or tobacco. Persons paid fines as all or a allotment of their punishment for a wide range of transgressions…The fine was commonly paid into the public treasury, but a portion of it might be assigned to a specific purpose.

“By a variety of means short of corporal punishment, courts forced public displays of guilt. They required penance, either in court or some other public place. Drunks wore the letter ‘D,’ adulterers the letter ‘A.’ Others stood in front of the church draped in white sheets. Two fornicators stood an hour in the marketplace with ‘a paper in great letters, on their hats.’ Some who avoided the gallows because of lack of evidence or lack of explicit law wore a rope noose around their necks…All punishments were ignominious, but some were designed to fit a special misdemeanor, especially slanderous gossip. A person with a loose tongue might find it clamped in a cleft stick. Gossips sometimes had their mouths shut with water, were immersed from a ducking stool, or dragged through the water late a canoe.

“Some forms of confinement also made possible a public display of the miscreant. Most towns had a set of stocks which served as a place of temporary confinement after arrest as well as a place of confinement later. Alongside the stocks there might be a pillory, which in addition to being a place of confinement, also was the scene of the most frequent mutilation, usually a perjurer losing one or both ears. Others were sentenced to lie for a time “neck and heels.”[10]

Punishments in Colonial America gravitated away from incarceration primarily because prisons were expensive to build and maintain. Even after recognizing a need for one a colony might go years before actually building one.[11] Since life imprisonment wasn’t truly feasible (or recommended), felony convictions often resulted in the death penalty, a sentence to serve in the military, or banishment. Lesser crimes merited fines, lashings, or even indentured servitude.[12]

By statute a convicted burglar or robber in Connecticut and Massachusetts was branded on the forehead with the letter “B” for a first offense, branded and whipped for a second, and executed as incorrigible for a third conviction.[13] The New England colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut regarded those who lived in their communities as having made a free choice to do so and were thus obligated to obey the rules. Freemen held rights that could be forfeited if they violated their obligation. In Connecticut, a person fined or whipped “for any scandalous offence” lost his correct to vote or to serve on juries.[14]

Many of the punishments inflicted in America during the Seventeenth Century would fall into a category we consider “cruel and modern.” Yet, the demand remains as to how we should categorize prisons along the same continuum. Should prisons be banned as unconstitutional? Perhaps the question should be; if lengthy imprisonment is not cruel and unique, why should we exclude corporal punishment using the same criteria?

Maybe early America doesn’t hold the secret to our crime quandary. Perhaps we need to look elsewhere for our answers. Consider Eighteenth Century Mexico.

“Punishment varied in accordance with the crime and race of the offender. Generally, only the most heinous acts merited the death penalty. Notorious incidents of banditry or robbery with excessive violence often resulted in a public hanging; yet, a relatively small number actually received capital punishment. During Santa Maria’s term as believe (1782-1808), only 246 individuals faced the gallows compared to 10,244 condemned to [prison] terms and another 30,979 released after simple punishment. At the other end of the scale, petty criminals might be held several months in the tribunal’s prison before being released without further punishment or sentenced to labor in the capital’s public works. Those who fell in between the two extremes usually received presidio sentences of one to ten years. Such criminals might also be sentenced to corresponding terms of service on board His Majesty’s ships or in a military unit.

“Indians, however, did not receive sentences involving military service and only occasionally were they sentenced to ship duty. In addition, the Indian, as well as the various mixed castes and even Spaniards, could be sold to private employers as convict labor. The price in 1717 of such workers ranged from 39 pesos a year to 182 pesos for ten. The so-called roes de collara, however, were more prevalent in preceding centuries. Nevertheless, obraje sentences appear to have been imposed, although in reduced numbers, into the nineteenth century.”[15]

In the eighteenth century prison confinement emerged as the most important formal punishment for all groups in Mexico. Occasionally, the tribunal would even dispatch hostile Indians, captured on the northern frontier during one of the constant Indian wars, to overseas prisons.[16]

“Of the three racial categories – Spaniards, mestizos, and mulattoes – subject to overseas sentences, 78 percent received such punishment. An overseas [prison] sentence might also include a prohibition against the convict returning to New Spain without special permission after serving his term. ON occasion the sentence required criminals born in Spain be returned to that country on completion of their confinement.

“The offender’s age and physical condition received due consideration when sentence was passed, as did the length of time spent in custody before conviction. Young men in good health stood a better chance of ship or military service, while the aged or ill would be sentenced with a recommendation that they be employed in some capacity in keeping with their condition, perhaps in the hospital or infirmary and occasionally service within the acordada prison itself.” [17]

Prison seems to have played an important role throughout history and throughout the world. But what insights can we gain from a society devoid of even the possibility to build and use prisons? What kind of punishments would they use instead? The Israelites found themselves in just such a situation during their exodus to the “promised land.”

Death was a standard punishment for various crimes ranging from cancel to cursing your mother or father.[18] The major theme from which the Israelites derived their law and punishments was, “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”[19] This understood, they had no real need for prisons since it wasn’t a common crime to imprison another. Unfortunately, the solution isn’t as simple as punishing every criminal with the same crime that they committed. Besides being cruel and unusual in many circumstances, because of the unique nature of some crimes, it simply would not be possible.

Prisons have been used in different ways, or not at all, in most societies and at different times throughout history. Indeed, prison plays an important role in our criminal justice system today. Perhaps, however, we’ve grown to rely too much on these walls of stone and steel during the last three decades. Alternatives to prison are available and should be considered on a case-by-case basis. The secret is having many options available and being able to choose from among them according to the individual and the situation, rather than minimum mandatory sentencing or a “three strikes and you’re out” law.

Alternatives to prison include: fines, mediation, community service, electronic monitoring, intensive supervision, probation, house arrest, day reporting, drug rehabilitation centers, chemical treatment, sex offender treatment programs, residential restitution, boot camps, exile/banishment, corporal punishment, humiliation, and corporal punishment.

Consider an unique probation program in Argentina allows some people accused of minor crimes to avoid trial and possible conviction. Through the Criminal Probation Institute, defendants can avoid the courtroom by doing community service like painting classrooms or working with elderly people, as well as taking a course in human rights. Anyone accused of a crime that would carry a prison term of no more than three years can request probation. However, an institution or nongovernmental organization where they will design the service must back them.[20]

Or perhaps we can ogle to Europe where legislators in Italy have suggested legislation to provide chemical castration or lifetime confinement in medical institutions for sex offenders as an alternative to prison.[21] Noting the high rate of recidivism for sex offenders, maybe they have a great idea. Or maybe we should honest export our problems like China who has permanently banned certain political dissidents from the country,[22] or the Tlingit Indian Tribe in Alaska that banished two teen-age muggers to an otherwise uninhabited island for eighteen months.[23] Surprisingly, in some parts of the United States you can receive exile as a criminal sanction. At least two states, Georgia and Kentucky, calm use banishment as a criminal sanction today.[24]

No single program can replace prisons, nor will prison alone ever solve our crime problem. We must make a concerted effort to constantly recognize out and leer original and extinct alternatives to prison and learn to apply them to the crimes and criminals they can best affect. As a public, we need to be more open and accepting of trial programs and not disregard them because they don’t have a 100 percent success rate. Think about it, if we didn’t use a certain antibiotic simply because it couldn’t cure 100 percent of all bacterial infections, we wouldn’t use any antibiotics, and a lot more of us would be casualties of a curable disease. Crime too is a curable disease. We just have to treat it with the upright antibiotic.

Bibliography

[1] Anderson, David C., Sensible Justice: Alternatives to Prison. The New Press, Unique York, 1998, p. 10.

[2] R. Walmsley, World Prison Population List, Research Findings, No. 88, 1999.

[3] Gendreau, P. Goggin, C., & Cullen, F. T., “The Effects of Prison Sentences on Recidivism.” Ottawa: Solicitor General Canada, 1999.

[4] Justice Department, “Alternative Sanctions in Germany: An Overview of Germany’s Sentencing Practices.” National Institute of Justice Research Preview, Feb. 1996.

[5] Richard J. Koehler, and Charles Lindner, “Alternative Incarceration: An Inevitable Response to Institutional Overcrowding.” Federal Probation, Sept. 1992, pp. 12-18.

[6] Lee Seglem, “Beyond Bricks and Bars.” State Legislatures, Oct. 1992, pp. 14+.

[7] Justice Department, “Alternative Sanctions in Germany: An Overview of Germany’s Sentencing Practices.” National Institute of Justice Research Preview, Feb. 1996.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Lee Seglem, “Beyond Bricks and Bars.” Region Legislatures, Oct. 1992, pp. 14+.

[10] Chapin, Bradley, Criminal Justice in Colonial America, 1606-1660, The University of Georgia Press, Athens, 1983, pp. 50-52.

[11] Problems with prisons: R.I. Rec., 1:213, 391-92; Providence Record Commission, Early Records of the Town of Providence, 2:130-31; Conn. Col. Rec., 1:47; Mass. Col. Rec., 2:230; Ply. Rec., 1:75, 115, 142, 2:23, 11:35.

[12] Chapin, Bradley, Criminal Justice in Colonial America, 1606-1660, The University of Georgia Press, Athens, 1983, pp. 52-55.

[13]Conn. Col. Rec., 1:513-14; L&L, 4-5.

[14] Ibid., 1:138, 389.

[15] MacLachlan, Colin M., Criminal Justice in Eighteenth Century Mexico: A Study of the Tribunal of the Acordada. University of California Press, London, 1974. pp. 79-80.

[16] Archer, Christon I., “The Deportation of Barbarian Indians from the Internal Provinces of New Spain, 1789-1810,” The Americas, XXIX (Jan. 1973), 376-385.

[17] MacLachlan, Colin M., Criminal Justice in Eighteenth Century Mexico: A Study of the Tribunal of the Acordada. University of California Press, London, 1974. pp. 80-81.

[18] Ibid., Exodus 21:14-17.

[19]The Holy Bible, King James Version. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Salt Lake City, 1983, Exodus 21:24-25.

[20] Pablo Waisberg, “Probation Program Keeps People out of Jail.” Latinamerica Press, Apr. 23, 2002.

[21] “Italy Murders Prompt Castration Call.” CNN.com, Europe, Aug. 22, 2000.

[22] Barbara Slavin, “Exiling Dissidents is a Winning Game for China.” USA Today, Apr. 21, 1998.

[23] Reprinted from the Associated Press, “Tribe Banishes Teen-age Muggers.” Gainesville Sun, Sept. 4, 1994, p. 5a.

[24] Russ Bynum, “Banishment is a Substitute for Prison.” Associated Press, Nov. 3, 2001.

The US Census Bureau is hiring temporary field workers in every state and territory of the United States. Every ten years the U.S. Census Bureau is responsible for conducting a nationwide headcount of all residents. The 2010 Census offers part-time jobs for almost anyone. Retirees, college student, stay-at-home moms and dads, and job seekers can perform money working in their own neighborhood.

Census Takers (also called Enumerators) will work during the Spring of 2009 and Spring and Summer of 2010. These temporary jobs will pay from $11 to $19 per hour based on the job location, plus mileage reimbursement. Jobs are from 20 to 40 hours per week and paychecks are received on a weekly basis. Four hours of paid training must be completed before working in the field.

How to Apply for Census Jobs
You can apply for Census jobs by contacting your local Census Bureau office. Call 1-866-861-2010 or visit the official website to find your local office.

Census Taker Job Qualifications
A valid driver’s license and authorized use of a vehicle is required for Census field work, but this requirement may be waived for those in cities who can complete the job using public transportation. All Census Takers must be 18 years old, have a valid Social Security Number, be able to pass a short basic skills test, and be able to pass a criminal conviction background check. Applicants should be fluent in English and bilingual applicants are preferred in some areas.

Census Taker Jobs Spring 2009
Address Canvassing
The Census Bureau will begin the hiring process in February 2009. Census Takers will travel from door to door (usually in their own neighborhood) to be sure all government address information is up-to-date. Correct data must be entered into a handheld computer. The hours are flexible but must be completed during daylight hours.

Census Taker Jobs Spring and Summer 2010
Interviewing Operations
During February and March of 2010, every household should receive a Census questionnaire. Census takers will visit those who failed to return the questionnaire to the Census Bureau. Home visits and interviews will be conducted from April to July. Interviewers must be able to work evening and weekend hours.

Census Crew Leaders and Assistant Crew Leaders
These positions are available during both the 2009 and 2010 field work seasons. Crew Leaders and their Assistants are responsible for scheduling and coordinating all Census Takers in their assigned area. They must be available to answer questions and address issues that Census Takers may encounter while working. All applications for Census Takers will also be considered for Crew Leader and Assistant Crew Leader positions.

The U.S. Census Bureau has jobs available in these U.S. States and Territories:
Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Unusual Hampshire, Novel Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Northern Mariana Islands, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, US Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming

1st Hundred Days- In the 1930’s, this time renewed confidence in individuals by having a regulatory structure meaning the government agencies are watching the economy. Laid a foundation. Psychological stimulus created jobs, programs, social safety net. Built things serene in use today. Many acts passed at this time. Repeals prohibition. Expand scope of federal government and jolt economy. At this time Roosevelt said “the only thing we have to fear is alarm itself.”

13th amendment- In 1865, this amendment abolishes slavery and frees the slaves of America. Obviously the blacks were the most affected by the unique freedom, but whites also had to accept the new freedom of the blacks. The amendment affected all of the US and is incredibly considerable because slavery was no longer legal and supported by the government.

14th amendment- In 1866, the amendment was passed and gave blacks the right of citizenship in America. This affected the blacks because they are finally citizens and whites must understand this new change and deal with it. This is distinguished because it is one of the most important provisions in the Constitution for defining and enforcing civil rights.

14 Points – In the 1910’s, the 14 aspects of Wilson’s modern plan to keep another WW1 from happening. Some points include freedom of the seas, a worldwide start door policy, and the most primary was the establishment of the League of Nations. This was designed as a device for countries to mediate one another.

15th amendment- The amendment prohibits states from denying the fair to vote on grounds of race or color. Blacks are affected because they now have a voice in what the government does and whites must cope with the changes in the Constitution. Final ratification in 1870, the Constitution becomes colorblind for the first time in history while women are considerably upset for the lack of notice concerning sex.

17TH PARALLEL – a 1950’s conference in Geneva decided to split the country of Vietnam at the 17th parallel.

18th Amendment- In the 1920’s, the amendment went into affect and prohibited the gain and sale of alcohol in America. Many Americans supported the law in the beginning, but there were not enough police to stop the drinking habits of so many Americans. People who wanted to drink found a way through brewing their own beer or finding alcohol at speakeasies and bootleggers. Organized crime added alcohol to its portfolio, and by this time most agreed the Prohibition was doing as much to befriend law-breaking as abstinence.

19th amendment- In 1920, the amendment gave women the right to vote. All of the US is involved and women are happy while men must deal with the large amount of new voters. 144 years after the founding of the nation, this amendment is a major political achievement.

19th Amendment- Extending the vote to women happened in the 1920’s. Many believed that the enfranchisement of women would enhance the quality of both public and private life without insisting they were the equals of men in all respects. Although giving women the right to vote did not cleanse politics of corruption and voter participation rates continued to decline, the 19th amendment became a major political and civil rights achievement.

38th Parallel-(1950’s) Practically wiped out South Korea after swarming the
parallel. Soviet Union takes North and US takes South. North Korea- Soviet Sphere- Kim II Sung- Chose a Korean communist to lead. 2) South Korea- US Sphere- Syngman Rhee- Old and had not been in Korea for very long. Despite being split along an arbitrary line, Korea remained a single society, divided by political factions and religious differences as much as by geography.

Advertising Industry – In the 1890’s, advertising became a major American industry. Advertisements were distributed by catalogs, booklets, posters, cigarette cards, and magazines. This is significant because magazines with advertising pioneered impressionism and realism, developed the short anecdote, and revolutionized newspaper journalism.

“All Still on the Western Front- In the 1930’s, a movie based on a book. Anti-war novel and movie. A soldier in German army in WW1 was shot six times. Best-selling novel. First major war film of the sound era. Portrayed conflicts as selfish power game who duped the common people into participating.

American Federation of Labor (AFL) – A loosely affiliated association of unions organized by trade or craft. The AFL was mostly skilled workers distinct to get better conditions, higher wages, shorter hours, and safety. Although the union was growing greatly in the early 1900’s, they had little success due to the petite representation of the industrial workforce and the racist policies.

Andrew Carnegie – Necessary in the 1890’s. owned U.S. catch. Biggest manufacturer of steel at the time. Started out as assistant to a railroad tycoon. Controlled every aspect of his business.

Appeasement (Munich Compromise)- In the 1930’s, French and British leaders agreed to Germany’s seizure of the Sudetenland in return for Hitler’s promise to seek no more territory. This is important because the compromise gave hope to future peace in Europe; however Hitler broke the peace by annexing the rest of Czechoslovakia the next year.

BARRY GOLDWATER – 1950’s and 1960’s, a man who said what he wanted. Fierce critic of liberalism. Was born in Arizona in 1909 when it was not yet a state. Felt government should stay out of states business. Said there were too many regulations on business. Very remarkable an anti-communist. Said if we act tough they will back down. Runs against LBJ and loses.

BAY OF PIGS - considered the worst fiasco of the Kennedy presidency. In the 1960’s U.S. backed forces made up of mainly Cuban exile landed at the Bahia de Cochinas (Bay of Pigs). There aim was to oust the anti-American leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro. Forces loyal to Castro captured the invaders. Kennedy at first denied U.S. involvement and did not provide the air support that was initially promised to the invaders.

BERLIN WALL - 1980’s, the wall that separated east and West Germany. At the raze of the cold war the Germans tore it down. During Kennedy’s presidency there were negotiations for the soviets to get West Berlin. Kennedy refused and they started to build a fence that lead to the wall.

Birth of a Nation (1915 film) – A film made it 1915 inviting Americans going through Civil War Reconstruction. The first genuine full-length feature ever that glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and amplifies interpretations that shapes historical understanding for Americans.

Black Codes- In 1865, the Black codes where enforced in southern states of the US. The codes involve blacks, racist whites, and the state governments who enforced the laws. The black codes limited the rights of African Americans which is significant because the equality of men is apparently not established at this time.

“Black Tuesday”- Stock Market Crash of the 1920’s- occurred and depression happened one year later. Called Dark Tuesday. Periodic decline of about a week. People panicked and sold shares. Dusky Thursday- something is evidently wrong on this day, 6 million shares sold on a day. Many people killed themselves on October 24th and after. Closed the exchange on noon on October 24th. At this time, no one wanted to buy. 16 million shares, 4 billion dollars wiped out on Tuesday. Prices dropped 50%. Only 3% of Americans owned stock- eventually the crash affected all Americans. More people buying on credit- can not pay back the loans after crash. Things driving consumption have vanished.

Booker T. Washington – In 1895, Washington is one of the most powerful black leaders of the time. He believed segregation to be a temporary accommodation between the races in return for white support of black efforts for education, social uplift, and economic progress. He built a secondary school and industrial training institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. Although many blacks did not like his ideas, Washington desired improvement through self-help and uplift.

Boxer Rebellion- Began in 1898 and caught fire in 1899 and 1900. A Chinese organization known as the Boxers wanted to rid China of all foreign influences. Many Europeans and Chinese were killed. This rebellion is important because after the US helped stop the rebels, countries were more willing to accept the inaugurate door policies the US wanted.

BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION – a set of court cases that decided that segregation in the schools violated the rights of blacks because it did not provide equality. This occurred in 1950’s.

“Bullmoose” Party- In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt and supporters withdrew from the Republican Party to form the new Progressive Party where Roosevelt was nominated for President. The new party affected all of the US, because Roosevelt revealed his Novel Nationalism that called on the government to control the powerful corporations for the common people of America.

Cattle /longhorn Industry - In 1866, cowboys hit the trail with longhorns to sell for a lot of money in the north. Farmers, ranchers, cowboys, northerners, and most of the US were involved somehow. Texas and Kansas played a large role in the industry. This is essential because explosion of railroads made the industry possible and the cowboy became image of American popular culture.

Centennial Exposition of 1876- The Philadelphia beautiful became a defining moment for middle class Americans as they famous the 100th anniversary of their country with a tremendous economic fair. The celebration was important because inventions and growth were displayed which proved how far the American industry and technology had become. Graham Bell’s telephone and Christopher Sholes’ typewriter were displayed to the public for the first time.

Chinese (communist) Revolution-(1940s) Jiang, supported by the United
States, steadily lost ground to the communist forces of Mao Zedong, who
promised land reform and commanded wide serve among China’s peasantry. Mao’s armies forced Jiang onto the island of Taiwan and it became anticommunist. It represents a powerful symbol of the Cold War.

Chosin Reservoir-(1950s) MacArthur is arrogant. He did not think Chinese would pick up interested. Chinese surrounded and slaughtered the US at Chosin Reservoir.

CIVIL ACTS RIGHT (1964) - Passed under LBJ it strengthened federal remedies against job discrimination and in public places, and barred discrimination based on sex.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) - In the 1930’s, conservation in park services. Set up camps. Education to help farmers. Most importantly, the program put more than 2 million single young men to work planting trees, halting erosion, and improving the environment in other ways.

Civil Service Reform/Pendleton Act - Government and civil service reformers are involved and it is during the Grant Administration in the 1880’s. This stops civil appointments and can not appoint unqualified people. Garfield is assassinated, political power is lowered, and civil service exams are still given today.

Compromise of 1877 – in the 1876 election Hayes wins the electoral and not the popular vote. To develop up for this they decide to pull union troops from the south thus ending the reconstruction period. This is critical because the south is under a looser watch to adhere to the new laws after the Civil War.

Congressional Reconstruction - This is important because under congressional reconstruction the 14th and 15th amendment was passed, the southern states were divided into military districts, Andrew Johnson was impeached, and the move towards reconstruction of the country went faster. This reconstruction happened from 1865-1877.

Containment-(1940s) George Kennan, the US diplomat in Moscow defines the strategies to be venerable against Soviet Union. Containment became the catchphrase for global, anticommunist, national security policy.

Court Packing Plan- In the 1930’s, Roosevelt asked Congress to give him the power to appoint one new Supreme Court justice for every court judge who was older than age 70 and who had served for at least 10 years. His fake reason was that the judges were too obsolete to handle the abundance of cases, but the real reason was to prevent the conservative justices and securing a pro-New Deal majority in the courts. Roosevelt’s reputation suffered from the proposal because many sensed he was trying to bag too great power, plus the fiasco was unnecessary because many judges either retired or supported his ideas within a few years.

Crazy Horse – Indian chief who takes over after Red Cloud. Wanted war unlike his predecessor. Led the Sioux along with Sitting Bull against Custer at the battle of Little Bighorn.

CREEP – stands for Committee to Re-elect the President. Considered to be a very fitting name for Nixon’s group. Associated with a lot of the scandal with Watergate. Took illegal funds during the campaign to get Nixon re-elected in the 1970’s. The head of CREEP, John Mitchell, was associated directly with the Watergate scandal.

“Cross of Gold” Speech – speech by Bryan in the 1896 democratic convention. Compares himself to Jesus being crucified on gold cross. Wants no more gold standard. Brings together populists and democrats.

CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL – giant church created by Robert Schuller. Completed in 1980.

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS – started in the 1960’s when the Soviet Union started sending sophisticated weapons to Castro. Spy-planes discovered launching silos and Kennedy told the Soviet Union that he didn’t want nuclear war heads so close to American soil. Decided not to attack Cuba in fear of war. Instead Cuba was quarantined. Secret negotiations took place between U.S. and Soviet Union. On October 28, 1962 an agreement was decide upon and the missiles in Cuba were dismantled.

Dollar Diplomacy- In the 1910’s, foreign policy by Taft that was directed towards opportunities for corporate investment overseas was known as Dollar Diplomacy. The dollar diplomacy worked in the Caribbean where no major powers existed. Taft’s lack of balance of power and leadership in foreign affairs increased hostility in Central and South China. This is important because the dollar diplomacy hurt the United States’ Open Door policy.

Dust Bowl- In the 1930’s, heart of the dust bowls are in the Midwest. Dust storms on a regular basis which forced many off farms. Shaded Blizzards- dust storms of dust and dirt. Ruins irrigation ditches. The storms blackened the sky, suffocated cattle, and dumped thousands of soil on homes and streets. The government created the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in order to help the plains farmers with their difficulties.

Edmond Richardson - Late 1890’s and early 1900’s, he bought cheap land and needed free labor. State pays him 18, 000 to house prisoners. He lies about prisoner reports. This is important because it is like a new system of slavery since labor is needed badly at this time.

Edward Bellamy- A writer who wrote a book called Looking Backward in 1887 that takes place in 2000 and contrasts the America of 1887. His book showed his view of Nationalism where there is no class conflict because everyone works for equal pay. The book is important because it started a group called Christian Socialists who affected Protestant denominations and helped towards the rise of the Progressive era.

Edward Lansdale-(1950s) One of America’s most influential spies during the Cold War. He did a lot of oversees strategical work in Vietnam and stale his strategy of “psy-ops,” or psychological operations against an uprising led by a communist oriented peasant army called the Huks.

Eleanor Roosevelt- Primarily in the 1930’s, Eleanor was dedicated to nursing FDR benefit to health, and displayed a talent for political organization and public speaking. She was an activist first lady who got enthusiastic with different groups of Americans to learn about their condition and how the New Deal could help them. She spoke out frequently against racial injustice. She was considered the eyes and ears of the president, because of how great she helped FDR. She is important for her numerous amounts of volunteer work through the American Red Nasty and Navy Hospitals, and of course her activism in the civil rights of women and minorities.

Eugene V. Debbs – The speech made by Debs in 1912 scared some progressives. Progressives wanted to improve working and living conditions for the masses but not cede political control to them. Thanks to Debs the different socialist groups co-existing in one political party.

European Alliance System – a complex set of alliances that made it to where when one country were to go to war many others would have to near to back it up. Has been in place for over a century before WWI. The reason so many countries were involved in the war.

Filipino War- the Filipino War is significant because there was four years of fighting with 4200 US soldiers dead and a cost of 160 million. MacArthur gained close relations with island’s economic elite while Taft became the colony’s first “governor general” with the intention of preparing the Philippines for independence. The time period was between early 1900’s to 1913. This is indispensable because this is another example of the US becoming a world power.

Freedman’s Bureau – In the 1860’s, started after the civil war to help freed slaves. Started up schools, housing and other important things for the blacks. Even set up a healthcare system for the blacks. Started by Oliver Otis Howard and staffed by Northern liberals, facilitators, no making up rules by southerners. Getting word out to 31 million slaves that they are free. Find jobs and schools for blacks.

GENEVA ACCORDS – Took plot in the 1950’s. America refused to tag them. Split Indochina into 3 unusual nations: Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. They also split Vietnam into the north and south until elections could unify the country.

GEORGE WALLACE – 1960’s, becomes nationally famous. Runs for president 4 times. Was literally in the heart of poverty during the astronomical depression so he has a great deal of sympathy for the working class. Was originally a very strict democrat but then Truman came along and he started to think twice. Runs for governor of Alabama a bunch of times. First time he ran for Gov. he lots on basis that he was not strong enough against integration and race. Next time he runs and uses segregation. Bobby Kennedy comes to talk to him and he says he will stand at the school doors so that segregation will not go through. He actually does and the National Guard comes in. he eventually gives up.

Gifford Pinchot- A specialist in forestry management and Roosevelt’s halt friend, he led the drive for scientific management of natural resources in 1905. Pinchot was fired by Taft for going public with a scandal involving Ballinger. Pinchot created the National Forest Service and implemented a new strategy involving livestock ranchers paying user fees for lands.

GLOBALIZATION – 1980’s-present, the spread of culture, people, trade or products to other parts of the world.

Haymarket Square – In Chicago during the 1870’s, a brawl and bombing between the police and strikers. Many people died and 8 people were convicted for conspiracy to murder. This is important because books were made after the incident that kept the idea of equalitarian social order alive.

GREAT BBQ – In the 1960’s journalists are summoned to a busy intersection in Vietnam. Leaflets are passed out by local monks. Before the journalists have time to read what’s going to happen, a monk sets himself on fire in protest. He doesn’t recede or scream, just burns to death.

GREAT SOCIETY – 1960’s, this was an belief of LBJ’s. It was his idea that he could improve the living conditions and the over all lifestyle of Americans. There were many different programs instated as well as an emphasis on ones that helped others that were already enacted. It did become controversial though because of the fact that the government took control of a lot of things they did not have control of before.

GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION – In the 1960’s two ships outside of Vietnam were gathering intelligence when they were attacked. Johnson felt that something needed to be done and went to congress to get permission to take action. Congress authorized that Johnson could take all necessary measure to repel armed attack.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act- In the 1930’s, the act raised tariffs to the highest level ever in the US. Average tax was 59%. Figured then more likely to buy US goods. Rest of countries and their economies were affected. Destroyed trade with other countries.

Heart of Darkness (real and fictional) - Fictional book based on historical reality. The book was based on the cost of countries taking over other territories. The book was important because it influenced Americans at the time.

Henry Frick – Important in the 1890’s. Carnegie’s second hand man. Left in charge when Carnegie goes to Scotland. Cuts workers pay and refuses to accept union. Workers revolt against him. Calls in the Pinkertons and eventually state guard to settle everything down.

Henry Morton Stanley- A journalist and explorer who worked to open up Africa to European colonization. “The Great White Hunter.” He was the first white person to travel the Congo and chart the river along with its surroundings. Most of his work was done in the 1870’s or 1880’s.

HO CHI MINH - 1950’s, the communist leader of North Vietnam. Supported by the Soviet Union and scared the U.S. because we thought he would prefer over the South. America feared he would win the election and create a chain reaction of communism.

Hollywood 10-(1940s) HUAC opened hearings to expose alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood. Known as “the Hollywood Ten,” this group claimed that the First Amendment shielded their political activities from HUAC’s scrutiny.

Homestead, PA – In the 1890’s, a town built by Carnegie to house all of his employees. Nice town outside factory that had everything a normal suburb would. Kept nice for a while then went down the drain.

HOOVER, J. EDGAR – 1920’s-1970’s, president when the great depression hits. He I very indecisive about what to do when the depression hits. Underplays what is actually happening. Said that this will be over in 60 days. Agrees to the Smoot-Hawley tariff, raises tariffs to highest in American history.

HUAC-(1940s) House Un-American Committee. They opened hearings to expose alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood. Committee members seized on the refusal of 10 screenwriters, producers, and directors who had been or still were members of the Communist Party to testify.

Huey Long- In the 1930’s, Long was a former Louisiana governor and an accomplished orator who attacked the New Deal. He proposed breaking up the fortunes of America and distributing the wealth to provide each American family a $5,000 estate. His views inspired many to join different Share the Wealth programs, but Long was assassinated before he could further his political career.

Hull House- In 1889, the Hull House was made into the first US settlement house by Jane Addams and other progressive activists. The Hull House started the settlement house movement which spreads the progressive ideas of the time.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson- In the 1860’s, Johnson was officially impeached for violation of the Tenure of Office Act for removing Stanton but the trusty reason was Johnson’s stubborn defiance of Congress on Reconstruction. This occurred in Washington D.C and the case took awhile and finally fell short of the 2/3 majority from the Senate to be removed from office. This is considerable because it shows the determination of the House and Senate to move through Reconstruction smoothly and efficiently.

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)- Founded by western miners in 1905 and led by William “Big Bill” Haywood, the IWW hoped to get all workers into one union instead of only focusing on the craft organization like the AFL. The union organized the poorest of workers, and although it rarely exceeded 20, 000, no other union provoked as powerful fear and violence. The union is important because the “Ludlow massacre” proved that American workers would do whatever it takes including risking their lives to improve the conditions of the workplace.

IRAN-CONTRA – during the mid 1980’s the Nicaraguan government was taken over by a communist group. Before this it had been one that was friendly with the U.S. After this the United States decided to bring over contras (Nicaraguans who were against the new communist gov.) and train them through the CIA. When the contras went encourage the new gov. already had a fresh army ready and the contras lost. After this congress prohibited funding to the contras. In Iran CIA agents had been taken hostage and the Reagan administration decided to sell arms to Iran in exchange from the hostages. With this money they were not supposed to have they sent it to pronounce the contras. A journalist in Lebanon found out about this and it reached wait on to the U.S. where the public learned about it. Reagan said he could not engage giving the orders or of having any knowledge of this.

ISAAC WOODARD – (1940’s) A soldier during WWII who fought honorably in the Pacific. In Feb. 1946 he comes befriend to the states. On a bus home to S. Carolina, gets in fight with the bus driver. At a terminate the driver call the police who come to get him while he is off the bus. Beat him to the point where when he goes to court the judge sends him straight to the hospital. In very bad shape, blinded in one eye I think. NAACP recruits help to defend him in trial. Sheriff who beats him goes to court but is acquitted of all charges against him.

JACKIE ROBINSON – became the first baseman for the Brooklyn dodgers in the 1940’s after segregation in baseball finally ended. Pressure mounted after this and months after Robinson joined many other African Americans were signed to other teams. Named rookie of the year in 1947 and National leagues MVP in 1949.

Jane Addams- She is the lady who establishes the nation’s first settlement house in Chicago in 1889 called the Hull House. Jane Addams and her workers helped the terrible, handicapped, and the delinquent while playing a role in the progressive movement.

Jim Crow Laws – In the 1890’s, hampers ability of blacks to endure hardships. Segregated people. Brought about much racial violence in the south. Laws used to hamper the blacks ability to fade and decide.

John Hay- Will US follow book Heart of Darkness or do otherwise? Great US policy maker. Secretary to Lincoln. Believed in open door trade policy. Fears long term effects after seeing strikes. In August 1898, Hay was named Secretary of Site and helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris. His contributions included the adoption of an open door policy in China and the preparations for the Panama Canal. He is also renowned for his comment describing the Spanish American War as a “radiant little war.”

Joseph McCarthy-(1950s) Senator from Wisconsin. Believed he was the reply to the communist problem. Democrats are not tough enough. His politics plus personality make him popular. Sent tail gunning stories of him in the army back home to the US. Was a judge. McCarthy in Wheeling, WV (Feb. 1950) -Began talk about communism and blamed the government. Never actually identified a communist. Keys to McCarthy’s Success- Opposition to elitism throughout the US. Goes after Dean and Truman. Partially because of McCarthy, Republicans win in 1952. Army- McCarthy Hearings (1954) -Investigate Communism in the Army. McCarthy’s Downfall- Left the Senate and died in 1957.

KENT STATE – 1970’s, A protest was held here by the students against the Vietnam War. The guard shows up to make sure the protest does not get out of control. During the protest students start throwing things at the guards. One guard gets upset and starts shooting into the crow. The rest of the guard does the same. 4 students are killed in the incident.

Kim II Sung-(1950s) He was the communist leader of the North Korean Soviet Sphere. Kim moved troops across the 38th parallel June 25,1950, to attempt unification with S. Korea.

Knights of Labor- The main labor organization in the 1880’s was the Knights of Labor founded in Philadelphia. Gave many unskilled and semiskilled workers union representation for the first time. This is vital because the organization became a large and potent national federation of unions, winning and losing several strikes. Haymarket contributes to the descend of the Knights of Labor.

Ku Klux Klan- A secret group whose main goal was to destroy the Republican Party by terrorizing its voters and even murdering the leaders. The Klan was established in 1866 in Tennessee but had effects on the whole nation and had multiple movements. The majority of the Klansmen were white Democrats. This is primary because members tried to achieve control over the population and troops had to be sent to control the riots of the Klan.

League of Nations – One of the 14 points addressed by Wilson. Was a group of many countries who would come together to regulate one another in an attempt to keep peace.

LEVITTOWN – located in Long Island, New York. Welcomed its first residents in the 1940’s. Builders were bragging that a house was built every 15 minutes. By 1950 there were more than 40,000 residents and 10,000 homes.

Little Bighorn – Fight between Custer and Sioux led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in the 1870’s in Montana Territory. Terrain was awkward and could not see the ditches all around. Indians ambush Custer and kill him. Last stand for the Indians. Greatest defeat of Americans by Indians.

LITTLE ROCK, AR – In the 1950’s Eisenhower was forced to spend the stout force of his office to desegregate Central High School in little rock. The state governor, Orval Faubus, tried to blocks the black students from entering and used the AR state guard. Ike put AR guard under national control and augments it with U.S. army. Black students are then allowed in.

MADELINE ALBRIGHT – 1990’s, first women to relieve as secretary of state. Born in Czechoslovakia, she moved first to Great Britain and then to Colorado. Married and raised 3 children. Later she began graduate notice at Columbia University. Listed divorce and Ronald Reagan as the lows in her life. Served as a UN ambassador during Clinton’s administration as well as secretary of state.

Manhattan Project- (1940s) Creating the Atomic Bomb- Einstein tells Roosevelt to create a bomb because Germany was racing ahead of the United States in fission. Manhattan project begins, top secret. Product of WWII. J. Robert Oppenheimer was involved.

Marcus Garvey – In the early 1920’s, Garvey called on sunless to give up their hopes for integration and to set about forging a separate black nation. Garvey called for dusky separatism and self-sufficiency known as Black Nationalism. He founded the (UNIA), newspaper Negro World, Shadowy Star Line, and spread his ideas to the country. He was disliked by some for supporting the Ku Klux Klan, and he went to jail for mail fraud.

Margaret Mead- A distinguished anthropologist who decided to study the Samoa people as well as many other people of the South Pacific throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s. Her book called the Coming of Age in Somoa praised the people, for their different lifestyle and lack of sexual anxiety unlike the Americans. She made several expeditions and realized that culture is the most important for determining the role of each individual. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, her arguments about human experience propelled a sexual revolution and rebirth of feminism.

Marshall Plan-(1940s) George Marshall. Under his plan, funds provided by the United States would enable governments in Western Europe to work together to design and carry out a broad program of postwar and economic reconstruction.

Merchants of Death- In the 1930’s, it was the name of people blamed by Nye for the cause of WW1. The Nye committee endorsed claims that the nation went to war to preserve profits of American bankers and munitions makers. In the mid 1930’s, public polls suggested that most Americans opposed involvement of foreign conflicts and being manipulated by the “merchants of death.”

Mr. X-(1940s) George Kennan’s character that first mentioned the term containment in the journal Foreign Affairs. Containment linked all leftist insurgencies, wherever they occurred, to a totalitarian movement controlled from Moscow that directly threatened, by its ideas or military might, the United States.

Muckrakers- A term coined by Theodore Roosevelt to describe newspaper reporters who wrote scandalous stories for monetary reward. Investigated journalism started in the 1870’s and was dominant in the first decade of the 20th century in the US. Muckrakers wanted people to recognize the political, economic, and social affairs and to form people take action.

National Security Act-(1940s) Created several recent bureaucracies. It began the process that transformed the old Navy and War departments into a new Department of Defense. It also instituted the National Security Council in the executive branch and established the Air Force as a separate service equal to the Army and Navy. Created CIA also.

NATO-(1950s) US, Canada, and 10 European countries formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Members pledged that an attack against one of its members was an attack against all of them. There was some controversy about being entangled with foreign problems.

NGO DINH DIEM -1950’s, the United States supported leader of S. Vietnam. He has many powerful friends in the United States. Was educated in the U.S. and was a catholic which was not like the rest of his country. A resistance against him comes up and the U.S. gives its aid to do what is needed. He is then executed by his occupy military in the 60’s.

NSC-68-(1950s) Top secret policy paper officially identified as National Security Council document 68. It provided a intention for both rhetoric and the substance of future Cold War foreign policy. It endorsed the more vigorous employ of covert action, economic pressure, propaganda campaigns, and massive military buildup.

Oliver Otis Howard – He is important in the 1860’s because he starts the freedman’s bureau which helps ex-slaves determine down more easily. Was a general in the civil war called the “Christian General.” Founded Howard University.

“Open Door Policy”- John Hay, Secretary of Location, designed the concept of the “Open Door.” The “Open Door” proposed allowing equal trade access for all nations. Hay designed the concept during the late 1890’s. The Open Door initially targeted China, where the United States hoped to loosen European trade restrictions. The Launch Door was designed to alleviate the US trade surpluses widely blamed for the economic negate and bust cycles during the leisurely 19th century. These cycles fueled labor unrest and agrarian radicalism, such as Populism.

Operation OVERLORD-(1940s) Ultra tricks Axes about Normandy, takeover of Berlin, what to do with Jews, and Germany’s surrender. Directed by Eisenhower, it began on D-day, June 6, 1944. During the months preceding D-day, probably the largest invasion force in history had been assembled in England.

ORANGE COUNTY, CA – Before WWII it was mostly farmland. After the war though it became a military outpost. Many businesses started to open up around here and it became a wealthy suburb. This is where Schuller got started and where the Crystal Cathedral is today.

Panama Canal- The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 was signed which granted the US a 10 mile wide canal zone in Panama for 10 million down and 250, 000 thousand dollars annually. If Panama objected to the treaty, the US might withdraw troops from Panama leaving the country at the mercy of Columbia. Everyone from doctors, engineers, construction workers, laborers from the West Indies, the President, Panama, and Colombia were involved. The canal dramatically reduced travel time, enhanced international prestige of the US, and made the US more obvious to preserve order in Central America and the Caribbean.

People’s Party/ Populist Party- Agricultural depression in wheat and cotton states produced the third-party Populist movement in the 1890’s who met in Omaha, Nebraska. People involved included angry farmers and supporters of free silver in America. The party was notable for representation of farmers and everyday laborers but was swallowed by the Democratic Party in 1896 through William Jennings Bryan’s presidential run.

PERSIAN GULF WAR – in the 1990’s Hussein invaded Kuwait, a major supplier of oil. Bush immediately moved 230,000 troops to Kuwait to protect them and went to the United Nations. There he got permission to use force to keep Kuwait’s gov. if Iraq was not gone by Jan. 15 of 1991. An air attack started that helped to decimate Iraq and later Colin Powell sent in a ground force. This had lasted only 6 weeks, but took a great toll on the structures of both Kuwait and Iraq and 25,000-100,000 deaths on the Iraqi side. Bush decided to pull out before ousting Hussein because he was not given permission from the United Nations.

PHILADELPHIA, MS – this is the place that Reagan announces that he will race for president. Does this because it is where 3 northern civil rights activists are killed. Gives a speech about states rights to tap into the South’s belief against the government’s involvement in the civil rights movement.

Pig Law - In the late 1890’s, a law started to try and bring in more convicts into the jails because at this time convict leasing had come about. The more people in the jails the more free help that the farmers would salvage so they liked this law. Stated that stealing of anything with a value of 10$ or more was expansive larceny.

Pinkertons- Private detective agency, military police force, which specializes in antiunion activities. The pinkertons were archaic in the Homestead Strike near Pittsburgh concerning the Carnegie Steel Company. Several Pinkertons were killed but the brute force used against the strikers lowered the hope of factory workers around the country.

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) - brought about segregation. Plessy was a white lawyer (7/8 white) hired by the blacks to defend them. Buys ticket on a express, find out he is fragment black, kick him off the train. He won’t leave. Court finds segregation as natural. This is important because the government claimed that segregation was allowed as long as everything was equal.

PLUMBERS – (1970’s) Group started by Nixon to seek out leeks in the white house. Included petty criminals and ex-CIA agents. Funding came from CREEP.

Political Machines – Politicians began building political organizations called machines in the early 1900’s to guarantee their success in municipal elections. Machines provided poor neighborhoods with new roads and systems and helped immigrants find jobs. Such payments towards government officials were known as “grafts.” Reformers hated the machines for cheating on elections and encouraging vice, but immigrants liked them for the new opportunities they provided. One example of this is President John F. Kennedy’s family.

Potsdam-(1940s) Truman casually mentions atomic bomb to Stalin. On 16 July 1945, the “Big Three” leaders met at Potsdam, Germany, near Berlin. In this, the last of the World War II heads of state conferences, President Truman, Soviet Premier Stalin and British Prime Ministers Churchill and Atlee discussed post-war arrangements in Europe, frequently without agreement. Future moves in the war against Japan were also covered.

Presidential Reconstruction - Under this reconstruction, President Andrew Johnson refused to cooperate with Congress to pass new laws and inaugurate the transformation of the country. In the early 1860’s, Johnson intended to exclude upper-class whites and blacks from the reconstruction process and the murky codes came into effect under Johnson. This is vital because it slowed the process and showed the country that Johnson was the unfavorable man to be leading the country at this time.

Pullman Strike- A boycott involving the Pullman workers in Chicago in the 1890’s. 1/3 of the workers are laid off and the workers do not get what they want which is a symbol of the struggle between workers and employees.

Pusan Perimeter- (1950s) Where South Korea was pushed by North, all the method down to the tip of Korea. It was the farthest the North advanced. The UN, led by MacArthur, then stood up and pushed the North way back, but they went too close to China and were driven back across the 38th parallel.

RICHARD RUSSEL – Georgia’s senator when LBJ becomes pres. Days after LBJ is in office he brings him in to talk about his views on segregation. Says he must accumulate out of LBJ’s blueprint. Russell threatens that LBJ will lose the south if he does this. This all has to deal with the passing of the Civil Rights Act of the 1960’s.

Robert La Follette – A founder of the Progressive movement, “Fighting Bob” would not compromise to certain principles. In the 1890’s, he even made a weekly magazine in order to spread the ideas of Progressivism. He ran for president under the populist party but lost.

ROBERT SCHULLER – 1950’s, started out as a young Christian minister who gave his sermons in the parking lot of a drive-in theatre. Through time he became a very popular minister and amounted great deal of wealth. Eventually he creates the crystal cathedral which is one of the biggest churches in the world.

“Roosevelt Corollary”- In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt issued a “corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine which gave the US the right to keep European powers from meddling in hemispheric affairs and that the US has the right to intervene in domestic affairs of nations in the Western Hemisphere. Mainly America, Europe, and countries close to America are affected by this. This is important because it established the US dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

Samuel Gompers- Helped Find and the President of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886 which was a loosely affiliated association of unions organized by trade or craft. The AFL was mostly skilled workers obvious to get better conditions, higher wages, shorter hours, and safety. Samuel Gompers helped lead a growing union at the time work for better conditions throughout the workplace in America.

Sharecropping – In the 1860’s, a system started after slavery so that farmers would still have someone to work the land. Gave portions of land to peoples to farm and in return these people gave them a part of their crop. Not a great system, many felt it was not much different from slavery. Interest rates from loans would be so high that most farmers would be in constant debt.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act- This act of 1890 made every contract, trust, or conspiracy involving trade or commerce in the US to be illegal. The act involved people in the oil, steel, tobacco, sugar, transportation, or any other monopoly corporations and of course the government. The government lost almost all of the cases brought before federal courts including the US v. E.C. Knight Company. The act attempted to control the monopolies but it was so broad that the Sherman Act was almost a tiring, letter at the time.

Sioux Indians – The hanging of 38 Sioux in 1862 was the largest mass execution the country has ever witnessed. Fought against Custard in the battle of Little Bighorn under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and defeated him and all of his men. The Ghost Dance performed by the Indians provoked the US into confrontation leading to the massacre at Wounded Knee. Wounded Knee symbolized the death of 19th century Plains Indian culture. The Sioux were eventually confined to only the Dakota Territory.

“Social Darwinism”- This theory evolved in the US and scientists and supporters were keen. The belief of racially inherited traits and Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest.” A philosophy that relates the history of humans to that of animals. Began in the late 19th century when economic depressions created intolerance and suspicion of other races.

Social Security Act- In the 1930’s, unemployment insurance, workers comp, money for elderly. It required states to set up welfare funds from which money would be disbursed to the elderly poor, the unemployed, unmarried mothers with dependent children, and the disabled. This is distinguished because it provided a sturdy foundation on which future presidents and congresses would erect the American welfare state.

Socialist Party – started by groups of farmers in the farmers’ alliance who were fighting for better conditions for themselves. Eventually they began to work together and became the socialist party. Wanted the bimetallic system that conventional to be in place. Think it will help with debt. In the 1906 election they choose Bryan who throws support unhurried republicans and the parties join. Ends socialist party.

Southern Industries, slow 19th cent. – consisted mostly of agricultural farming and little bit of industrialization. Pretty powerful the opposite of the North at the same time period. Farmers, ranchers, and all southerners are involved and it shows the completely different way of life the Southerners maintained.

Spanish American War- In 1898, two things triggered the start of this war. The first was a letter stolen from Depuy de Lome calling McKinley mature, and the second was the explosion of the USS Maine. The war was over in a matter of months due to our naval superiority and American victory was complete in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. The Rough Riders and the Negro Cavalries played a large portion in the battles surrounding Santiago. The Treaty of Paris sold the Philippines to the US for 20 million and Spain also ceded Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the US.

Spanish Civil War- During the 1920 and early 1930’s, the Spanish Civil War caused a debate over foreign policy. Many conservative groups in America liked General Franco as a strong anticommunist whose fascist government would succor religion and social stability in Spain, while the political left like the cause of republican Spain and hated the fascist repression coming over Europe. Americans began separating into isolationist and interventionist camps due to the differing views of how to avoid a wider war. Roosevelt then called for international cooperation to “quarantine” aggressor nations.

STAGFLATION – A term coined to record the puzzling unprecedented convergence of economic stagnation and price inflation during Nixon’s presidency.

“Strange Alliance of WWII- In the 1940’s, first an Asian War. US entering war put US in strange alliance. US, Gargantuan Britain, and Soviet Union. Stalin regarded as unequal partner and there is a sense of distrust. Soviet Union is communist. Only included Stalin when they needed him.

STRATEGIC DEFENSE INITIATIVE (SDI) – 1980’s, view was to acquire a region based defense program. Some said that it would not work. Idea was to use satellites to shoot nuclear missiles out of the sky. The thing about it was that it had to be 100% accurate tot actually be useful.

SUEZ CRISIS – In the 1950’s, Nasser took over the corrupt government of Egypt and helped out the economy of it and accepted aid from the United States. He then purchased weapons from communist countries making America distrustful.

Syngman Rhee-(1950s) He was the leader of the South Korean US sphere. Rhee called on the US to accumulate military backup, and assistance was rushed there to eliminate disloyal South Korean civilians as well as to repel the invading North Koreans.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) - In the 1930’s rapids made it hard to fly up the river. Dam area to make hydroelectric power and provide electricity to rural south. Finally have power lines. Rural Electrification and Ecological Maintenance. This is important because the program made more than 20 dams, reduced the cost of electricity, constructed waterways to bypass non-navigable stretches of river, reduced the dangers of flooding, and taught farmers how to prevent soil erosion and use fertilizers.

TET OFFENSIVE – (1960’s). Tet is the Vietnamese New Year. America lets down its guard as a sign of respect for the holiday. The north sees the chance and launches a huge offensive against us. We slay many Vietnamese but the public saw this as another big blow against us.

Theodore Roosevelt- Rough Riders- only 20th century president to appear on Mt. Rushmore. Redefined the role of the office. Expanded powers of president. Entered presidency through back door. September of 1901, Mckinley is killed. Extremely activist (TR). Big stance against trusts (monopoly). Declares war on trust. Went up against Northern Securities (R.R. monopoly). Launches suit against power of trust. Roosevelt wins against W.S. IN general, he only wanted to break up certain trusts. Wanted to control these businesses, wanted government interested to fetch power. Region up food and drug administration. Largely helped residence up National parks service. Created national Forest run by Richard Pinchot. Roosevelt thought of Taft as good choice.

Rough Riders were Ivy League and aristocrats who played an active role in three battles in Santiago during the Spanish American War (1898). Rough Riders were vital in Kettle Hill alongside the Negro Cavalries.

TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - In the 1940’s, Truman’s committee’s report entitled “To Secure These Rights”, called for federal legislation against lynching, antidiscrimination initiatives in employment, housing, public facilities, and the desegregation of the military. This idea led to the support of Truman from many African Americans.

Treaty of Versailles – The Big Four met including Wilson, Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau of France, and Prime Minister Victorio Orlando of Italy. Belgian sovereignty was restored, Poland’s status as a nation was affirmed, and the new nations of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were created. Germany was stripped of almost their entire navy and air force, and claimed guilt for the war with the signing on June 28, 1919. This is important because it ended the first world war and established the League of nations as a first step to a new world order.

Trench Warfare - frail in World War 1 in the 1910’s. Miles of trenches were dug for the soldiers to stay in. on paper they were a great idea but in practice they ended up making the war much longer and harder. People get sick in them and the conditions were horrible. This is important because it is a new style of war that proved devastating to the lives of millions.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire- Max Blonch and Harris owned the factory in Current York City. The disaster involves children, women, immigrants, and American workers in general. 1911 fire. Close quarters and fabric everywhere, doors are locked from outside, Fire escapes are very poor and collapsed. This is critical because it leads to the government and everyone needing to deal with the problems in the workforce.

Triple Alliance - includes Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Italy for a short time. Mostly the central European nations who had previous alliances, and the bad guys of WWI.

Triple Entente - the good guys in the war including Britain, France, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Italy starting in 1915, US starting in 1917.

“Trust Buster” - a person who goes around in an attempt to get rid of the trusts that are present in the U.S. In 1902, Teddy Roosevelt became the nation’s first trust buster. He believed the government should regulate the industrial giants and punish those that customary their power improperly. Roosevelt and Taft both are celebrated for the trusts they broke up, Taft busted more. This is distinguished because the presidents expand their powers and confirm that monopolies are not welcome in the US.

United Nations- In the 1940’s, the new United Nations (UN) fulfilled Woodrow Wilson’s vision of an international body to deter aggressor nations. The new organization would have 5 permanent members consisting of the US, Great Britian, the Soviet Union, France, and China, and six rotating members. The group had different councils but more importantly drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Eleanor guided the declaration which set forth “inalienable” human rights and freedoms as cornerstones of international law. This is important because it replaced the failed attempt of the League of Nations and tried to seek international peace.

USS Maine- Involves the American and Spanish. An American battleship in Havana harbor in 1898 and the USS Maine destruction led to war with Spain.

VIETNAMIZATION - 1960’s and 1970’s, the policy by Nixon and Kissinger to slowly start pulling troops from Vietnam. At the same time they increased the attacks from air with bombing in hope to come to a diplomatic solution to it. Along with this the invasion of Cambodia secretly came about. This new onslaught into Cambodia raised more state both because we didn’t want to get deeper into the war and it was kept a secret for a long time.

V. I. Lenin - In the 1910’s, Lenin starts the idea of communism in Finland but decides to bring it back to Russia. Wants to end the war and help the poor which is fair what the people want. Brings communism to Russia.

VOTING RIGHTS ACT (1965) – Passed under LBJ it mandated federal oversight of local elections in the South, and promised to strengthen the ongoing peril to end racial discrimination in political life.

WALTER WHITE - (During the Cold War era). Child of murky parents but looks very much like a white man. Went into southern towns to interview people about lynching that had unbiased gone on. Kept a good record of many of the lynching. While in Georgia he was almost caught and was warned to leave. Gets out of town honest in time. Brings his findings to the president to review.

WATERGATE - In the 1970’s 5 men were found going through the democratic rooms of the Watergate hotel. One was a part of Nixon’s reelection committee. They had cash and surveillance equipment on them. The senate votes to investigate this when enough evidence comes about. Many of the players in the scandal are asked by Nixon to resign their positions. At first they say no. then they have to. Alexander Butterfield, Nixon’s secretary, let’s slip that Nixon records all of his conversations. They eventually get the tapes and shows Nixon as a poor guy. Nixon resigns before he is impeached.

William Randolph Hearst- Owner of the Unique York Journal accused of “yellow journalism.” In 1898, a letter from Depuy de Lome calling McKinley weak was published in Hearst’s journal. This is important because this is one of the two situations that led the US to war with Spain.

William McKinley- President from 1897-1901. He became the leading Republican tariff expert, and during his presidency enacted a very high tariff. Not prosperity, but foreign policy, dominated McKinley’s Administration. His presidency is essential because in the 100-day war, the United States destroyed the Spanish fleet outside Santiago harbor in Cuba, seized Manila in the Philippines, and occupied Puerto Rico. He was assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt took over.

William H. Taft- Sympathetic toward the Filipinos, he improved the economy, built roads and schools, and gave the people at least some participation in government. Largest president, more cautious, broke up more trusts than T. R. Taft goes after Pinchot, TR supporters get mad. Pinchot is fired. In 1912, when the Republicans re-nominated Taft, Roosevelt bolted the party to lead the Progressives, thus guaranteeing the election of Woodrow Wilson. His policies were considered to be dollar diplomacy considering he worked towards expanding opportunities for corporate investment overseas.

Works Progress Administration (WPA) – In the 1930’s artistic and intellectual works. Pump money into economy by hiring people for jobs that will assist the US. 300 million dollars for programs for artists. Concerts and pictures paid for by the government. Artists, Theaters, and Musicians- theatres with unemployed actors. WPA Histories of Slavery- history from slave themselves.

World Fair/ Columbian Exhibition – The Chicago World Glorious had 30 million admissions in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America. The first part was the White City which represented the middle class ideal for the future of America and inventions were displayed. The second part was the Midway Plaisance where displays, cabarets, and exotic dancers were displayed. This is necessary because it showed the American middle-class desires and the Pledge of Allegiance by Bellamy was introduced at the fair.

Yalta-(1940s) Big Three ((US); Churchill (GB); Stalin (USSR)) meet to resolve the shape of Europe after WWII. Russia needs protection on western front. Soviet Union will not ask for money from Germany after the war. Roosevelt died 2 months later.Zephyr Wright - 1960’s, LBJ’s cook, driver and did other things for him. He was a black ma with a college degree. Felt that he should not have to pee on the side of the road because a bathroom was segregated.