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#803 Women's Movement

5/29/2017

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Activists join forces at an August 1970 women's rights march. Photo by Diana Davies/International Film Circuit. Printed in The Nation.
Preparation: #803.

Short version:


In 1848, a group of activists met in Seneca Falls, New York and issued a “Declaration of Sentiments” (external link) modeled on the Declaration of Independence. Like the original, it listed a series of grievances. These grievances noted, in part, that women had been denied the right to vote, property rights, and access to higher education.

By the 1960s much progress had been made in these areas. In 1961, not only was the right for women to vote enshrined in the Constitution, but 20 sat as members of Congress and 2 more served in the Senate. By 1963, women not only had full rights to income and property, but were protected by the first federal statute guaranteeing equal pay for equal work. Also by the 1960s, it was routine for women to continue their education through university, with some going on to earn PhDs and continue in academia as professors.


Consider that document and identify:
  • What had not changed for women by the 1960s? Which of the planks of the “Declaration of Sentiments” was still relevant in the 1960s? (Feel free to use quick online reference searches to test your hypotheses).
  • Based on your reading of Foner, what were some of the new goals of the women’s movement that might not have been fully articulated in the “Declaration of Sentiments”?

Extended version:

Read “Roe v. Wade” and “The Legacy of Roe: The Debate Continues” (both external links). After reading these passages, consider:
  • What did the Supreme Court decide was the legal basis for a constitutional “right to privacy”? Do you find this legal argument convincing? Why or why not?
  • Why might feminists have viewed this ruling as an important step toward equality for women? How did opponents of the decision see the issue differently?
  • What, in your view, is the best approach when confronted with an issue that provokes sharp division between two sides? Is compromise an appropriate response in an issue like this? Why or why not?
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#802 Malcolm X and Black Power

5/23/2017

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Preparation: #802

Historical context:
  • Civil Rights Movement marked important victories with the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Legal (de jure) segregation and discrimination was coming to an end.
  • However, this was also a time of growing frustration in black communities that struggled against de facto segregation and discrimination, that is, forms of segregation and discrimination not backed explicitly by law. Efforts like Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Chicago Freedom Movement failed in 1966, and as Foner writes, this period “witnessed political fragmentation and few significant victories” (784).
  • Large-scale uprisings in Harlem in 1964, Los Angeles in 1965, and Newark and Detroit in 1967. In Los Angeles, 50,000 people had taken part, leading to 35 deaths, 900 injuries, and $30 million worth of property damage.
  • New voices like those of Malcolm X called on black Americans to engage in a more militant form of struggle: Black Power.
  • Black Power viewed the black community in terms similar to colonized peoples in other parts of the world, and similarly sought to advance a struggle for self-determination and affirmation of cultural characteristics that had been denigrated by white culture.
  • Black Power was expressed in new militant organizations like the Black Panther Party, which engaged in armed defense against what they viewed as assaults by white police officers and also in community support services like health clinics and schools.
​
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Demonstrators push against a police car after rioting erupts in the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1965.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. during Chicago Freedom Movement, 1966.
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Malcolm X with Muhammad Ali, members of the Nation of Islam
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Black Panther Party community breakfast program.
Malcolm X (from the Gilder Lehrman Institute):
Civil rights activist Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little, but Malcolm changed his name because he felt that his last name had been imposed on his family by a slave holder. When Malcolm was young, his family suffered greatly at the hands of white supremacists. His family’s home was burned down, and his father was probably murdered in retaliation for speaking out for African American rights. However, the police called both events accidents. Malcolm joined a controversial group devoted to securing rights for African Americans, called the Nation of Islam. He became a national spokesman for the group but left it after he became disillusioned with its leadership. Malcolm started his own organization and soon became frustrated at the civil rights movement’s lack of progress. When asked what should be done to guarantee equal rights for African Americans, Malcolm X replied, “Our objective is complete freedom, justice and equality by any means necessary.”

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., compared:

​Questions for pairs/triads and then full-table discussion:
  • Which are the most powerful phrases in the speech? Identify one passage to share with the class and explain why you find it powerful.
  • Why does Malcolm X say that he is not “anti-white”?
  • Why does Malcolm X say that he does not consider himself an American?
  • What does Malcolm X mean when he says “Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless you eat some of what’s on that plate”?
  • Malcolm X says not to “go out and get violent.” Yet, he then says violence is allowable. Why?
  • Compare and contrast the views of King and Malcolm X. If you were a teenager in the 1960s, which viewpoint would you have found more convincing? Which view do you find convincing today? Explain both responses and why they are consistent or different.
  • Revisit the question from our last lesson: In what ways are King’s and Malcolm X’s ideas relevant today?
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#801 Non-violent resistance: Gandhi and King

5/18/2017

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Gandhi's portrait in King's office
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King during march from Selma to Montgomery, 1965
Preparation: #801

Today’s class will be discussion around two connected questions: “What did King learn from Gandhi? And, what about that lesson is relevant for the present?”

To facilitate this discussion we will review a timeline, key concepts, and then take up discussion roles.

Concepts:
  • Ahimsa - Sanskrit, from a “non-, without” + hiṃsā “violence.” In the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainist tradition, ahimsa refers to respect for all living things and avoidance of violence towards others.
  • Civil disobedience - The refusal to comply with certain laws considered unjust, as a peaceful form of political protest.
  • Satyagraha - Sanskrit, from satya “truth” + āgraha “obstinacy.” Satyagraha is a term created by Gandhi that translates roughly as “truth-force.” A fuller rendering would be “the force that is generated through adherence to Truth.” Gandhi's method aimed to utilize civil disobedience to convert his opponent, bringing about a “change of heart.”

Timelines:

Examine the following timelines. As you view them, consider which events are essential for addressing our key questions.
  • Mahatma Gandhi timeline (BBC)
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. timeline (BBC)

Discussion roles:

  • The Historians: You are focused on the origins of Gandhi’s strategy of nonviolence and how that strategy was adapted by King. Your goal is to match the ideals of the two leaders with the particular campaigns discussed by Kumar.
 
  • The Activists: You are interested in how the strategy of nonviolent resistance represents a type of “practical idealism” that can be applied across multiple contexts: that is, in different times and places. You are especially invested in the relevance of Gandhi and King for issues of racial justice in the United States today.
 
  • The Questioners: Your role is to spark discussion through thoughtful questions that will help the other two groups address our key questions. It will be your responsibility to keep the conversation on track and to ensure that we are conducting a balanced discussion.
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#707: The Global Cold War: America, Divided

5/12/2017

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Preparation: #707

Recall:
  • Why did President Johnson believe the United States should be involved in Vietnam?
  • Did you find his rationale convincing? Why or why not?

Key questions:
  • Why did Americans support or oppose the Vietnam War? What factors defined their views?

America, divided:
  • ​While viewing the following clips, use the paper organizer to note your reactions to (a) the arguments and evidence presented by each side as well as (b) any aesthetic or cultural observations you might have.
Pro-war SPEECHES

1960s pro-war protest (3:31)

Pro-War Music: Merle Haggard

​Merle Haggard, “Okie from Muskogee,” released 1969. (2:38)

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street
We like livin' right, and bein' free

We don't make a party out of lovin'
We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo
We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do

I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all

Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear
Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen
Football's still the roughest thing on campus
And the kids here still respect the college dean

And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee
A place where even squares can have a ball.
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all
In Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA.
Anti-war Speech: MLK

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam: A time to break silence” (4:51)

So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.

My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear.
Anti-War Music: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, “Blowing in the wind,” released 1963. (2:35)

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, 'n' how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, 'n' how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
Anti-War music: Buffalo Springfield

Buffalo Springfield, “For what it’s worth,” released 1966. (2:41)

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's s time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Significance:
  • Today, we live again in divided times. Some argue that the fabric of trust torn during the Vietnam War has not yet been healed in the United States today. What lessons can we learn from the response to the American experience in Vietnam that might be relevant to political life in contemporary America?
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#706: The Global Cold War: Korea and Vietnam

5/10/2017

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Preparation: #706

Opening discussion:
  • In what sense was the Cold War “cold”? In what sense was it a “war”?
  • How might viewing the Cold War from the perspective of Asia complement, contradict, or simply complicate a European-centered narrative?​​

Key question:
  • Our main focus will be to understand how U.S. leaders justified costly U.S. involvement in the Korean and Vietnam Wars: What did U.S. leaders hope to achieve? How does their logic become clearer within the larger Cold War context?

Korean War (1950-53):
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  • Korea divided between North and South at the 38th parallel (September 1945)
  • Well-armed Soviet-backed North invaded South in attempt to unify country (24 June 1950)
  • While Soviets boycotted the United Nations Security Council over its refusal to recognize People’s Republic of China, UN backed armed defense of South Korea (27 June 1950).
  • UN forces under command of General Douglas MacArthur rapidly advanced north from surprise landing at Inchon (15 September 1950) to Pyongyang (19 October 1950) and approached Chinese border at the Yalu River
  • Over 100,000 Chinese “volunteers” joined the war (4 November 1950), capturing Southern capital at Seoul.
  • From July 1951 until March 1953, two sides stalemated near the original border at the 38th parallel until an armistice ended the fighting in March 1953. Over 1,000,000 Koreans, 114,000 Chinese, and 54,000 Americans killed.

Source examination and discussion:
  • Examine primary source selections from June and November 1950.
  • Discuss (first with a partner and then around the table):
    • How did President Truman and General MacArthur portray the stakes for U.S. involvement in Korea? What assumptions do you think underlie these concerns?
    • How did their views begin to diverge after the Chinese intervention in 1950? Recalling our discussion of the Constitution, what should happen if there is a disagreement between the military and the president?
    • How could the United States openly go to war in the Korean War without making the Cold War “hot” or starting World War III?
    • Why was the United States content to have Syngman Rhee rule over South Korea, even if he was a military strong man?

The Vietnam War:
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  • ​France colonized Vietnam from 1862 to 1941, when Japan seized the territory during World War II.
  • After Japan was defeated, nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence in an address that began: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
  • The United States supported French efforts to restore colonial rule, an effort that collapsed in military defeat in 1954.
  • The Geneva Convention (1954) split the country into North and South, and set out plan for reunification and free elections. The United States instead backed an independent South Vietnam led by the unpopular, repressive Ngô Đình Diệm who was later assassinated in a U.S.-backed coup.
  • Under new weak South Vietnam government, support for communism grew; North Vietnam smuggled weapons into South Vietnam to support communist insurgents through a network of trails through Laos and Cambodia (the Ho Chi Minh trails).
  • In August 1964, President Johnson seized on fake attack by North Vietnamese forces to secure Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to authorize open-ended U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.

​View President Johnson speaking before Congress about Vietnam in 1967 (0:42-4:14):
Discuss as a class:
  • Why does President Johnson believe the United States should be involved in Vietnam?
  • Do any of his justifications echo those of President Truman or General MacArthur?
  • How do you think you would have reacted at the time? To which of his arguments do you think you might have been sympathetic? Critical? Why?
  • How might you view these arguments differently from the benefit of twenty-first century hindsight?
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#705: The Global Cold War: competing origin narratives

5/5/2017

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Preparation: #705

Connection to previous unit:
  • Thinking back to the Responses to the Great Depression in our last unit, explain the differences between the Soviet (communist) and American (capitalist) worlds?

Overview:
  • Soviet Union and the United States were two of the major 3 (with Britain) or 4 (with Britain and China) major allies during World War II.
  • World War II led to the sharp decline – in ways violent and peaceful – of the remaining European empires. This left the Soviet Union and the United States as the world’s two “superpowers.”
  • Both the Soviets and the Americans remained in Europe and East Asia after the war, laying the foundation for two competing “blocs.”​
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Americans (First World)
Soviets (Second World)
​NATO (1949), SEATO (1954)
​Warsaw Pact (1955)
​Marshall Plan (1948)
​Molotov Plan (1947)
  • By 1949, both sides had nuclear weapons, which held the two sides in check through M.A.D. (mutually-assured destruction). This was even more important for the Soviets than the Americans, because they never held the economic, political, or military advantage during the course of the conflict (despite impressive gains in the space race).
  • Our key question today: Who was responsible for the start of the Cold War?

Document analysis:

We will divide the class into two teams: experts on documents A/B and C/D. Each team will evaluate their documents guided by the following questions. You may use this timeline (PDF), and, when confronted with questions that extend beyond the texts themselves, might consider utilizing online tertiary resources like Wikipedia.

Team A/B
Team C/D
Document A. The Iron Curtain Speech
  • Sourcing: Who was Winston Churchill? Why would Americans trust what he has to say about the Soviet Union?
  • Close reading: What does Churchill claim that the Soviet Union wanted?
​Document C. Soviet Ambassador Telegram
  • Sourcing: Who was Nicholas Novikov? When did he write this telegram?
  • Close reading: How does Novikov describe the United States? What evidence does he use to support his description?
  • Context: What does Novikov claim the United States planned during the Second World War?
Document B. Truman Doctrine
  • Close reading: Why did Truman believe Greece needed American aid in 1947?
  • Context: What does Truman mean when he claims, “Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East”?
  • Close reading: Does Truman present American policy as offensive or defensive? What words or phrases does Truman use to present policy this way?
​Document D. Henry Wallace Letter
  • Sourcing: Who was Henry Wallace? When did he write this letter?
  • Close Reading: What is Wallace’s main argument?
  • Corroboration: How does Wallace’s description of American foreign policy compare to Truman’s and Novikov’s?
Whole class discussion:
  • Which of these documents do you believe is most trustworthy? Why?
  • What other evidence would you need to strengthen your claim?
  • Who was primarily responsible for the start of the Cold War? What evidence do you have to support your claim?
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#704 World War II: Atomic Bombs

5/2/2017

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Preparation: #704
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Huge fires that broke out a few hours after a nuclear bomb was detonated on Aug. 6, 1945, over Hiroshima, Japan, caused billowing clouds of smoke. Credit United States Army, via Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, via Associated Press and The New York Times.
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Hiroshima, Japan, in September 1945, a month after the detonation of an atomic bomb. Credit Stanley Troutman/Associated Press and The New York Times.
Context: Pacific Theater at the end of World War II
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Key question: Was President Truman justified in his decision to use nuclear weapons against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945?

Evaluate evidence

Examine Atomic Bombs: Multiple Perspectives handout. For each item, identify:
  • What is the most important information conveyed in each document? In other words, what portion might you underline if you were reading this for research?
  • What plausible conclusions could we draw from this document that might be helpful in answering our key question.

Discussion

By show of hands, split the class into three groups: (1) those who support Truman’s decision, (2) those who are skeptical of his decision, and (3) 1-2 facilitators to lead our discussion and pose questions to both sides. Each team will meet to review the evidence available from the handout and from Foner, with the facilitator(s) meeting with Mr. Hall.

With the time that remains, we will conduct a student-led discussion based on these materials. With five minutes remaining, we will ask the facilitator to recap what we have learned, with an opportunity for others to aid the debrief.
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#703 Homefront and Japanese Internment

4/7/2017

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WWII homefront overview (Google Slides)

Examine the timeline (PDF) and review the major events.
  • Based on your reading of the timeline, decide with a partner on a hypothesis for why Japanese Americans were interned during World War II.

Watch the following film on the newsreel footage produced by the U.S. government sometime in the middle of 1942. The goal of the film is to explain the reasons and strategies for interning Japanese Americans.
Questions:
  • What were some of the reasons for internment offered in the newsreel?
  • How does the newsreel portray internment? Is portrayed as positive or
  • negative?
  • Who do you think the audience was for this newsreel?
  • With your partner, reconsider your hypothesis. Has this film shifted your view on why internment occurred?

Read selections of the majority opinion in the Korematsu v. United States ruling on pages 121-23 of the Course Reader.

Consider:
  • What competing goals is the Supreme Court weighing in its decision? How does it ultimately weigh these goals to form its decision?
  • Does the logic presented here resonate with you? Why or why not?

Finally, read selections from Justice Black’s dissent on page 125-26 of the Course Reader.

Consider:
  • What competing goals is Justice Black weighing in his dissent? How does he ultimately weigh these goals to form his decision?
  • Compare the reasoning here with that presented the Supreme Court majority. Which view do you find more persuasive? Why?
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#702 World War II: ​U.S. entry into World War II and Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms"

4/5/2017

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Today's goals:
  • Examine the immediate context in the period leading up to U.S. entry into World War II.
  • Draw connections between our previous discussions of the New Deal and the “authoritarian alternatives.”
  • Understand the importance of the “Four Freedoms” address in the context of this debate.

Part I: Debating U.S. entry into World War II

Examine this selection of primary source documents (Google Doc) that highlight different dimensions of the debate on entry into World War II from the late 1930s through December 1941. In teams of 3-4, identify:
  • Which documents support which side of the debate over U.S. entry into World War II.
  • Use these to identify the key arguments for and against U.S. entry into World War II in the years before the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.​
Primary Sources (Google Doc)

Part II: The Four Freedoms

Questions for guided discussion:
  • What do you think President Roosevelt is aiming to accomplish by delivering this speech?
  • What does he ask from Congress? Why does he need to ask this of Congress?
  • What specific policy actions does he propose? Do you view these actions as consistent with the neutral status that the United States had adopted at the time?
  • Closely examine the Four Freedoms by analyzing the text of the speech together with the paintings by Norman Rockwell created in 1943 (note that the text above and below each image was not part of his original work). As we examine these Four Freedoms, consider how these are both similar and different from the Bill of Rights we examined at the beginning of the year.
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Time permitting, watch the following clip from Frank Capra's "Prelude to War," produced by the American Office of War and Information in 1942 (4:00-11:30). As you watch, follow how he incorporates the Four Freedoms into his narrative.
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#701 Comparing Jewish refugees of the 1930s with Syrian refugees today

4/3/2017

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The German liner St. Louis, carrying about 900 German Jewish refugees, was denied entrance to the Havana harbor in 1939. The ship was later denied entrance to the United States and returned to Hamburg, Germany. Associated Press via The New York Times.
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Police officers on Sept. 4 guarded a so-called reception center for migrants in Roszke, Hungary. Some migrants were tricked into boarding trains for such camps. Reuters via The New York Times.
Key questions:
  • What are similarities and differences between the refugee crises of the 1930s and today?
  • How might examining the history of refugees in the 1930s inform the choices that individuals and governments make in responding to refugees today?

Background:
  • Today’s lesson brings together two episodes: the Jewish refugee crisis of the 1930s and the existence today of more than 65 million displaced people worldwide — the highest number on record since the United Nations Refugee Agency began collecting statistics.
  • The 1930s:
    • Troubles for European Jews began with the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany in 1933.
    • The year 1938 was a moment of crisis:
      • The German annexation of Austria (in March) and the Czech Sudetenland (in September) increased the number of people affected by Nazi restrictions, while at the same time those restrictions intensified to the point that Jews, political dissidents and others were effectively removed from German public life and denied rights, employment and education.
      • In November 1938, Kristallnacht (“the night of broken glass”) pogrom targeted Jewish communities throughout the Nazi Reich.
      • Shortly after Kristallnacht, a poll in the United States found that 94 percent of Americans disapproved of Nazi treatment of Jews, but 72 percent still objected to admitting large numbers of Jews.​

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Map showing Nazi expansion to 1939.
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Jewish shops destroyed in Kristallnacht, November 1938.
Today:
  • Multiple humanitarian crises have arisen around the world, with the greatest concentration centered on the Middle East, particularly the parts of Syria and Iraq impacted by civil war and warfare with the Islamic State (ISIS).
  • Europe faces a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of people fleeing conflicts in Syria and around the Middle East and Africa arriving in Greece, Hungary, Germany and other countries each month.
  • A little more than 18,000 Syrian refugees were settled in the United States under the Obama administration, including one family here in Salisbury. The Trump administration intends to sharply reduce that figure.
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Questions for discussion:

How does Daniel Victor’s article compare responses to Jewish refugees in the 1930s with responses to Syrian refugees today? What are some of the key similarities and differences? How do ideas about race and religion shape attitudes to refugees in each example? What other factors play a role?

How does the film clip from “Defying the Nazis” connect to Mr. Victor’s article? How does it extend your thinking about the lives of refugees and the fears, hopes and challenges they have experienced? How does it add to your understanding of United States’ policies and attitudes toward refugees in the 1930s?

The historian Peter Shulman, interviewed in the article, argued that there are “enough similarities between Jewish refugees in the 1930s and Syrian refugees today to draw a ‘moral connection’ between the two situations.” Do you agree with Mr. Shulman? Why or why not? If yes, how would you describe this “moral connection?”

What dilemmas did Martha and Waitstill Sharp face in their decision to leave home and help refugees in Europe? What risks did they take? What do you think motivated them to make a choice to help refugees when that was so at odds with American public opinion and national policy?

Many who connect the refugee crisis of the 1930s to the plight of Syrian refugees today emphasize the failure of the United States and other countries to help. The Sharps’s story, in contrast, is about a small group of private citizens banding together to aid refugees. Is their history relevant to the current refugee crisis? How might a story of people who chose to help then inform decision-making about the refugee crisis today?

Samantha Power argues in favor of learning the “lessons of history.” In one New York Times article, a Human Rights Watch staff member argued, “We all say we have learned the lessons of history, but to be turning away these desperate people who are fleeing a horrific situation suggests that we haven’t learned the lessons at all.” What are the potential benefits of looking for “lessons” in history? What might be some of the challenges or drawbacks? Why is it so difficult to learn and apply the “lessons of history?”

​The two images below were placed side by side atop a newspaper column written by Nicholas Kristoff of The New York Times with the caption "Anne Frank, left. At right, Rouwaida Hanoun, a Syrian 5-year-old who was wounded during an airstrike on Aleppo last week." What do you think Kristoff was hoping to communicate by placing these two images side by side? Do you agree with the newspaper's decision to publish them together? Why or why not?
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What concerns does Donald Trump have about letting in refugees from predominantly Muslim countries today? How are these concerns like – and unlike – the concerns felt by Americans in the 1930s and 1940s about Jewish refugees seeking to enter the United States?
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