LAD#37: Brown v. Board of Education

Summarize.
In the 1950's, the idea of separate but (supposedly) equal was still very prominent in the school system. In Topeka, Kansas, a little black girl in third grade had to walk over a mile to the black school every day when a white school was only a short distance away from her home. Her father, Oliver Brown, attempted to enroll her in the white school, but the principal of the school refused, so he went to the area's NAACP head and asked for help. McKinley Burnett was eager to take this chance to challenged segregated schools, and went to court against the Topeka Board of Education. They argued that black schools were often inferior to white schools and thus were not equal, while the Board argued it just prepared black children for the segregation they would face in adulthood.

This case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was combined with other cases challenging school segregation in other states. In 1952 the Court first heard the case but failed to reach a decision, but in 1953 they heard it again and decided that though the school may or may not be technically equal, the inferiority it gave to black students made it unequal, and thus struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine set by Plessy v Ferguson, at least in schools.

LAD#36: Truman Doctrine

Summarize.

Truman opens by addressing the Congress with his belief that the national security is threatened, and one part of this also concerns Greece and Turkey. The Greek government had sent an appeal to the US for economic assistance. Though peaceful, they had been ravaged by WWII and for a time a militant minority took power, but now they find themselves barely able to sustain themselves and require help to reconstruct. They are also currently being threatened by communist terrorists which they cannot fight against. Truman believes the United States must be the one to supply the assistance Greece so clearly needs. The United Nations would not be able to supply the immediate action needed, and no other democratic country is willing or able. Though it has made mistakes, Truman insists that no government is perfect but we should supervise the usage of any assistance we give to them. Truman also believes Turkey needs support in order to modernize themselves, support they have asked for but that only the US could give them.

Truman believes that a primary foreign policy of the United States is to create a world free of coercion, which is what WWII had been fought and the United Nations formed for. However, he states, many nations had recently had totalitarian regimes forced upon them. He believes the United States must be the one to assist free people in making their own choices, not having a choice forced upon them. Should Greece be taken over by an armed minority, Turkey would surely fall tot he same fate, and soon after the entirety of the middle east, and it would be disastrous not only for them but for the world.

On that note, Truman asks Congress to take immediate and resolute action to assist Greece and Turkey, and investment that would surely be more than worth it by saving free people from totalitarian rule.

LAD#35: FDR's Executive Order No. 9066

Summarize.

Justified by the need to take every possible defensive action during a state of war and by his authority as commander in chief, FDR authorizes the Secretary of War and his designated commanders to restrain certain people as they see fit in military controlled areas. FDR also authorizes them to take whatever action necessary to accomplish this, including the use of federal troops, and directs all of the executive department to assist the Secretary of War in this endeavor. 

LAD#34: FDR's Declaration of War

Summarize.

FDR first speaks of the previous day, December 7th, 1941, the "date which will live in infamy", when the United States was attacked by Japan. Previously, Japan and the United States had been in good relation, working for continued peace, but while doing so the Japanese were secretly planning this attack that destroyed a good portion of America's naval forces and took many American lives. Meanwhile, Japan also was launching a massive attack in the Pacific.

FDR then asks that the United States do what is right in defending themselves, and through absolute victory, never again be threatened by such hostilities. He ends the speech by asking Congress to declare war on Japan.

LAD#33: Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address

Summarize.

FDR opens by stating that he will do just as the people expect from him by speaking very frankly about the times, as he is not afraid of these problems, nor should the people be. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". He then points out that these problems are thankfully only material, within the economy, the greatest of which is that unemployment has skyrocketed. However, he points out these problems did not come from lack of substance, but rather lack of competence from those who controlled it in the form of credit.

FDR then says that action needs to be taken. First, by finding jobs for people. Secondly, by redistributing the economy to raise the value of agricultural endeavors and lowering government taxes. And lastly, by setting up a system so that an economic depression of this magnitude can never happen again; namely by supervising banking and creditors and ending speculation of money. He promises to immediately put into effect this plan of action.

He then encourages something of isolationism while the nation puts itself back together economically, and encourages the American people to turn to and help each other in order to recover. He then also describes that the greatness of the Constitution comes from its flexibility, and he admits that he may need to use that flexibility in order to take action swiftly and effectively. He ends by asking God to protect the American people and help guide him as the country's leader during these times.

LAD#32: Kellogg Briand Peace Pact of 1928

Summarize.

Treaty between the United States and other world powers (including Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Ireland, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, and the Czech Republic) denouncing war as a foreign policy, in support of the welfare of mankind. Instead, national policies toward one another should be conducted through peaceful negotiation. Representatives for each country included Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg as the representative for the United States, and Aristide Briand as the representative for France, among others.

Article I states that each country within the treaty shall condemn war as a means to solve international problems or as any sort of foreign policy. Article II states that each country withing the treaty shall only use peaceful means to solve problems. Article III describes the ratification process of the treaty.

LAD#31: Wilson's Fourteen Points

Summarize.

Delivered by President Wilson to Congress on January 8th, 1918, the speech begins by answering the European powers and assuring the country that the Great War was being fought for moral reasons and as the war to end all wars, to create a world fit and safe to live in. Wilson then gives his fourteen points, or the United States' idea of how to create world peace. Briefly;

1: Public diplomacy and negotiations.

2: Absolute freedom of the seas.

3: Removal of economic barriers and creation of equality in trade.

4: Reductions by all nations of their armies to the lowest point consistent with public safety.

5: Adjustment of colonial claims to the interests of both the inhabitants of the colonies and the colonial powers.

6: Russian independence and evacuation of it's territory by other powers.

7: Evacuation and restoration of Belgium as independent.

8: Evacuation of France and the return of the Alsace-Lorraine territory to France.

9: Readjustment of Italian borders.

10: Independence of multiple nationalities in Austria-Hungary.

11: Evacuation of the Balkan states and allowance for them to be independent along lines of established nationality.

12: Protection of minority states in Turkey and free passage through the Dardanelles by all nations.

13: Independence for Poland, including free access to the sea.

14: A "League of Nations" should be formed to allow security for large and small powers alike.

Wilson concludes his speech by encouraging that all powers must act as one to allow safety and peace throughout the world. He also urges not to harshly punish Germany, but to allow it to remain among the world powers. 

LAD#30: Schenck vs United States

Summarize.

During WW1, Schenck mailed to draftees a circular suggesting the draft was a monstrous wrong motivated by the capitalist system, and urged the draftees not to submit to intimidation but instead advised peaceful action against it. Schenck was charged with conspiracy by attempting to cause insubordination in the military and obstructing recruitment.

The case decided unanimously that Schenck was not protected by the first amendment in this situation, because it was during wartime and every interpretation of an act depends on the circumstances. In this circumstance, judge Holmes said that free speech was only protected so far as it did not present a "clear and present danger".

LAD#27: Clayton Anti-Trust Act

Summarize.
The Act finally did what the Sherman Antitrust Act could and did not. The Act outlaws price discrimination that lessens competition or tends to create a monopoly, sales if it may lessen competition, mergers and acquisitions that may lessen competition. It also prevents any person from being the director of more than one competing corporation that would violate the act by merging.

Section 7 of the Act defines a holding company as one whose primary purpose is to hold stocks of other companies and outlaws it. It also requires a company to notify the government should it be thinking about a merger or acquisition of another company.

The difference between the Clayton and the Sherman antitrust acts is that the Clayton act made sure that it could not be used against union activities. Section 6 exempts labor unions and agricultural organizations from the provisions in the act.

LAD#26: Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream"

Summarize.
King references Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation, the first step towards a freedom for blacks that still had not been achieved completely one hundred years later, due to segregation and discrimination. He then speaks of the Declaration of Independence as a promissory note that all men were equal and guaranteed their unalienable rights, a check that African Americans had been unable to cash. He then encourages a sense of urgency, that the time for gradual change has passed, that at this point it would be fatal to overlook it any longer. He states that there will "be neither rest nor tranquility... until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights".

However, he goes on to say that in their urgency, the black people must not succumb to bitterness or violence in their search from equality. The must treat white men as brothers, and maintain a sense of discipline and dignity. But they must not rest until segregation and discrimination are completely demolished, and they have achieved their rightful status as equals with whites, no matter what hardships they have faced or will continue to face.

King then goes on to describe his dream, one deeply rooted in the American dream; that America will one day truly follow it's own belief of all men being created equal, that one day blacks and whites will be brothers, that freedom and justice will come especially to the state of Mississippi, that his children will not be judged by their color but by their character. He dreams that one day black and white children in Alabama will be able to join hands, that the plain will become level for all Americans. He once again urges faith, that though there will be struggle and despair, some day freedom and justice will come out of it all, and freedom will ring across the United States and benefit all, white and black alike.

LAD#25: The Dawes Act

Summarize.
The purpose of the Dawes Act was to provide land allotments to individual Indians and to extend the protection of the law of the United States to them, among other things. On the first purpose, they laid out grounds that reservation land deemed useful agriculturally to be divided into sections, and each head of the family to receive a quarter section, each single person or orphan an eighth section, and each child a sixteenth section. If there was not enough land to do this, it would be divided by availability. In section two of the act, it is described that the Indians shall make their own choice as to where there section lies, and in case of argument the section will be split and both sides allowed to look for additional land according to their allotment. Section five gives the right for the government to negotiate with an Indian tribe for purchase of any land allotted, and this purchase must be approved by Congress and only used for specific settlement ideals. Section seven details the extension of the protection by the laws to the lands and their inhabitants, and that no other law may be passed to deny them this. It also declares that any Indian born on American soil is considered an American citizen will full rights.

However, this act did not apply to the Five Civilized Tribes (Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, Chicasaw and Seminole), the Osage, the Miami, the Peoria, the Sac and Fox, or the Seneca in New York.

LAD#24: William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" Speech

Summarize.
Bryan first discusses what brought him to this speech; the fight between those who want a gold standard and those who believe in a silver-to-gold ratio of 16 to 1. He then goes on to speak of businessmen, and how even the lowliest worker is just as much of a businessman as his employer. He says that the job of the representatives in Congress was to represent all these people, especially the workers, as they are the majority. And he believes that bimetallism as opposed to the gold standard is the way to create fairness between the people. He defends it by giving multiple examples, and then refutes counterarguments. He does this by describing how the cities, who are in favor of a gold standard, were destroyed, if the farms were left alone they would recover. But if the farms, who would benefit from bimetallism, were destroyed, the cities will crumble. He also says that just because other countries are on the gold standard doesn't make them right. Finally, he describes how he will fight anyone supporting the gold standard, because as he is a representative of the people, he will protect what would be best for them.

LAD#23: Populist Party Platform

Summarize.
In the 1890's, the populist party, emerging from the farmers alliances of a few decades before, was a formidable third party against the republicans and the democrats. Their main idea was an opposition to industrialism, believing it was the downfall of American society.

In the preamble to their platform, the populists state that they believe they are in the midst of a nation falling apart due to the corruption and greed of a few. These few are becoming the demise of the entire population, and the republican and democratic parties are doing nothing to stop it, even though they are the only ones who in this condition would be able to. The populist party wants to give the power back to the people, and fix the problems within the economy.

In their platform, the populist party believes that labor unions should be a permanent institution, that wealth belongs to those who create it not those on top, and that the government should take control of managing the railroads. Involving the economy, the populists believe silver and gold should remain valued 16 to 1, that more money should be printed, that there should be a graduated income tax, that the government funds should be limited, and that the government should create safe banks for the people's money. They also believe that land should belong in the hands of the people, not owned by corporations in excess or by aliens.

They also demand a free and fair ballot. They condemn opening the borders to just anyone, the standing mercenary army, and any aid to any private corporation for any reason. They also resolve that they will bow to the will of the people.

LAD#22: McKinley's War Message

Summarize.
In 1895, the Cubans revolted against their Spanish rulers, starting a war that the United States would stay neutral to for three years until it gave Madrid and ultimatum that the fighting stop or else. Though the Spanish said they would cease fighting, war spirit flared up in the US and they joined on the side of Cuba.

McKinley first speaks of the affect the war has had on the American people in their attempt to stay neutral. It has hurt trade and investments. He then goes on to say that as the war is going now, it would have to end in either the exhaustion or destruction of one side or the other, which could take immeasurable time. Thus he proposes that the United States intervene either as a mediator or an active ally of one side or the other, and rules out the mediator rule as attempts have been made at it in vain. Then he justifies acting as an active ally as stopping the bloodshed, protecting Americans and their interests in Cuba, and responding to a potential threat to the United States.

McKinley then uses the destruction of the battleship Maine as an example of how bad the situation has become in Cuba. Spain wants what it can never truly have now that Cuba has shown such determination in rebellion, but they will continue a senseless war unless the United States stops it, says McKinley, and he asks Congress' approval of an alliance with Cuba. He hopes that the ultimatum given to Spain succeeds in their giving up the fight, but if not, it is just another justification for entering the war.