AMERIKA KULTURA I CIVILIZACIJA

United States (Geography)

United States (Geography), study of the land, physical features, and climate of the United States of America, and the interaction between these natural features and the plants, animals, and people that live in the country. The United States of America is a federal republic on the continent of North America. It has an area of 9,629,047 sq km (3,717,796 sq mi) and is the third largest country in the world after Russia and Canada. The estimated U.S. population for the year 2003 is 290,342,550, third in the world behind China and India. The United States consists of 48 contiguous states and the noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii. In addition, the United States includes a number of outlying/remote areas, such as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States, which are located on the Caribbean Sea, and the islands of American Samoa and Guam, located in the Pacific Ocean. The national capital is Washington, D.C., located along the banks of the Potomac River between the states of Maryland and Virginia. The 50 U.S. states vary widely in size and population. The largest states in area are Alaska at 1,593,438 sq km (615,230 sq mi), followed by Texas, and California. The smallest state is Rhode Island, with an area of 3,188 sq km (1,231 sq mi). The state with the largest population is California (35,116,033, 2002 estimate), followed by Texas, and New York. Only 498,703 people (2002 estimate) live on the plateaus and rugged mountains of Wyoming, the least populous state. Each state is subdivided into counties, with the exception of Louisiana, where comparable political units are called parishes. Within these counties and parishes, there are communities that range in size from small villages to towns to cities. Extensive areas of urban sprawl exist in larger metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; and New York City.

Reasons for immigration

1607-1830

Political Freedom Religious Tolerance Economic Opportunity - People want a better life - better job - more money Political Refugees fear for their lives Some want free atmosphere Forced Immigration (Slavery) Family Reunification o There are two types of motivation for immigration Push(need to leave in order to survive) Pull (attracted to new way of life)

1830-1890
The reason for immigration in the period from 1830-1890 is quite clear. Land remained plentiful, and fairly cheap. Jobs were abundant, and labor was scarce and relatively dear. A decline in the birthrate as well as an increase in industry and urbanization reinforced this situation. The United States, in the 19th Century, remained a strong magnet to immigrants, with offers of jobs and land for farms. Glowing reports from earlier arrivals who made good reinforced the notion that in America, the streets were, "paved with gold," as well as offerings of religious and political freedom. A German immigrant to Missouri wrote home about: "[The] abundance of overbearing soldiers, haughty clergymen, and inquisitive tax collectors..."

1890-1924

Jews came for religious freedom Italians and Asians came for Work Russians came to escape persecution America had jobs America had religious freedom America was hyped up in many countries as "Land of Opportunity"

1968-Present
The main reason why everybody wants to go to US is because if they would go somewhere like France of Japan although they would get higher wages, there is a much greater chance of getting harassed, arrested or deported in those countries as opposed to US.

Who were/are the immigrants to the U.S.?

1607-1830
Scotch-Irish had been working on farms that they did not own. when they could no longer afford to rend their homes, they had no alternative but to seek new homes. The poorest faced the prospect of starvation if they did not get away. Africans were brought involuntarily, as slaves. they made up the lowest social class. All ages were brought here, men and women. They were forced to come here and work on plantations as slaves. Scotch Irish were Catholics and Presbyterians.

1830-1890

Nationality

Primarily Irish and British immigrated to America during this time period. Circumstances Irish: The Irish immigrated to America for several reasons, one of which was the potato famine that killed over a million. Along with this, they resented the British rule of their country, and the British landlords. This included the British Protestantism and British taxes. With this there was the onset of prolonged depression and social hardship. Ireland was so ravaged by economic collapse, that in rural areas, the average age of death was 19. By the 1830's Irish immigration was growing quickly, and in 1945 with the potato famine, the number of immigrants sky rocketed. British: The reasons the British came to America are not nearly as detailed as the reasons for the Irish coming here. The British came to simply look for better opportunities of work. Social Classes Irish:Most Irish had been tennant farmers before they came to the United States. They had little taste for farm work and little money to buy land in America anyway. British: The British were mostly professionals, independent farmers, and skilled workers. Age Irish: Teenager to Young Adult British: Most immigrants from Britain were fairly young, although not quite as young as their Irish counterparts. Religion Irish: Roman Catholic British: Protestant

1890-1924

Italians

Voluntary White Catholics and Roman Catholics Russian Jews o Voluntary o White o Jewish Greeks o Voluntary o White o Eastern Orthodox Slavs o Voluntary o White o Christian Eastern European Jews o Voluntary o White o Jewish Armenians o Voluntary o White o Christian
o o o

1968-Present

Many middle-upper class Cubans found Castro's plans threatening to their way of life In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power o He announced the restructuring of Cuban society o Between 1959 and 1962, 200,000 anti-Castro Cubans immigrated to the United States

Peaks/waves of immigration
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The century following 1820 can be divided into 3 great periods of immigration, or "waves." These three have immigrants coming from primarily three different regions. (there is more detail below): 1820-1860, Great Britain, Ireland, and Western Germany. 1860-1890, The above countries continued to provide, as well as Scandinavian Nations. 1890-1910, The majority was Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Russia, up until World War 1. From 1905 until 1914, an average of more than a million aliens yearly entered the U.S. With the outbreak of World War 1, the number declined sharply. In 1921 the number again rose, but only for a short time until changing conditions in Europe as well as new U.S. Laws governing Immigration were established.

1607-1830
The slaves trade thrived through the 18th century. Africa thus made a substantial addition to the American population. There were about 500,000 African Americans here by the time of the American Revolution. The great majority were slaves. The unique quality of this migration had planted the seeds of difficulty that would permanently mark the nation.

1830-1890

In the decade preceding the election of Lincoln, 2,598,214 immigrants came to U.S. mainly from Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany with few from Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands After the panic of 1857 and out break of the Civil War, immigration declined, but after collapse of Confederacy, immigration assumed a huge volume again Not until the 1840's did wave after wave of immigration was deposited on American shores from practically every country of Europe This is where Irish immigration began its wave, especially after the potato crop failure This "Era of Mass Immigration" was initially from northern and western Europe The 1830's was a surge of German immigrants In 1848, with the discovery of Gold, there was a spur of Chinese and Latin American immigrants to the west coast In the 1870's large number of Scandinavians, Chinese, and Canadians immigrated to the U.S. 1840's and 1850's - 1.5 million immigrants 1840's - 1880's (Germans) - 4 million immigrants Total number of immigrants in this wave is about 7.5 million

1890-1924

In 1907 Japanese immigration was limited Chinese immigration was stopped in 1892 & 1902

1968-Present

Cuban immigration picked up sharply during the 1950's as a result of increasing political turmoil in Cuba Many of the first Cubans to flee Castro's dictatorship in the early 1960's were from wealthy families and were well educated o The U.S., granted asylum to these people and offered federal help to qualified applicants in finding homes and in making job contacts o Most later Cuban immigrants were relatives of the first group or were poor people looking for work A major influx of Cuban immigrants was the arrival in 1980 of the Marielitos o The Marielitos were about 125,000 people that the Cuban government wanted out of Cuba o They included many unskilled workers, criminals, and mentally ill people o These people were put aboard boats at the Cuban port of Mariel, and sent to Miami o The U.S. government allowed these people to enter, not knowing that some of them were criminals o Some were placed in U.S. prisons o Many of them were rehabilitated and released o Few were returned to Cuba

Detail:
During the first period (from 1820 to 1860), most immigrants arrived from Great Britain, Ireland and western Germany. During the second period (from 1860 to 1890) The above three nations continued to supply immigrants. Also, the Scandinavian nations became a large minority. Thereafter, the proportion of immigrants from the northern and western nations dropped, and the southern and eastern nations began providing more immigrants. This third wave, (1890-1910), included a majority of immigrants from nations such as: Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Russia. These nations constituted more than half of the immigrants during that wave. Until World War 1, Immigration had generally increased in volume annually. From 1905 until World War 1, An average of more than 1,000,000 immigrants a year came to the United States. With the outbreak of World War 1, those numbers decreased sharply. From 1915 to 1918, the average yearly immigrants was barely making 250,000, in 1918 the number showed a small rise, but it soon fell in response to a changing situation in Europe, as well as new legislation that was placing a cap on immigration.

Methods of transportation and ports of arrival

7

1607-1830
The African Americans came over on ships where they were wedged into holds so tightly they could barely move at all. Vessels of one to two hundred tons often carried four to five hundred African Americans, as well as the crew and the provisions. They were cooped up weeks, lived in meager ration, and were deprived of fresh air. This caused many deaths among the unhappy captives.

1830-1890
Most immigrants arrived through the port of New York by ship. The ships would leave the passengers at wharves, to fend for themselves. Some of the new problems that they faced were posed by con-men, thieves, and thugs. After 1855, they began to use the Castle Garden immigrant receiving center. Later moved to Ellis Island, it was located at the southern tip of Manhattan. See Also: Process of entering the US (1830-1890)

1890-1924

Asians on boats arrived at Angel Island in San Francisco or Seattle Europeans arrived in Ellis Island in New York

1968-Present
Mostly Asian Americans travelled in overcrowded boats but some came on planes

Process of entering the U.S.

1607-1830

When the ships from Philadelphia came to unload their cargoes, the Scotch-Irish would sell themselves, for the cost for their passage, to a captain. Once they reached the New World, the captain would auction off their services. The Scotch-Irish would work a term of years to redeem themselves from their purchases.

1830-1890
Prior to 1855, ships carrying passengers to the United States simply left them at the wharf, stranded to be attacked by thugs and criminals, and made prey by con men. The public feared the diseases that the new immigrants brought with them, and immigrants were ousted by society in general. After 1855, however, Castle Garden, on the southern tip of Manhattan, became an immigrant receiving center. This center enabled the U.S. Government to keep better track of its immigrants. Clerks would record the names, nationalities, and destinations of immigrants. Physicians would give routine checkups and physicals to ensure that the immigrants were healthy. Later, the receiving center was moved to Ellis Island. See Also: Methods of Transportation and Ports of Arrival (1830-1890)

1890-1924

Went through Ellis or Angel Island Had to be tested for diseases and physically fit Had to have documents from other country Had to be mentally fit Had to be ready for life in the U.S.

1968-Present
In October 1962, commercial air-flights from Cuba to the U.S. were suspended Nonetheless, 50,000 Cubans entered the United States between late 1962 and 1965 Many of these people sailed secretly from Cuba in small boats Some of them were apprehended by the Cuban navy In 1965, the U.S. and Cuban governments agreed to set up an airlift between Cuba and Miami o It brought 250,000 Cubans into the U.S. between 1966-1973 Until 1994, the United States welcomed Cuban immigrants as victims of an oppressive regime In 1994, thousand of Cubans set out for southern Florida on small boats and rafts to escape poverty in Cuba o Soon after the influx began, President Clinton announced the United States would not accept any more refugees This policy was designed to avoid the cost of settling large numbers of refugees in Florida Many Cubans were stopped by U.S. ships and taken to the U.S. naval base in Guatanamo Bay on Cuba's coast
o o

Destination/places where they settled

1607-1830
9

Most Scotch Irish remained frontier farmers, touch, resolute, and independent, but some were able to rise in the world. Small groups found homes in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but most of the Scotch-Irish went to Pennsylvania. Once they were free of their services, they headed for the frontier. They settled in the interior and moved down into Virginia and Carolinas. Now and again, after 1619, a cargo of African Americans appeared for sale in Virginia or its neighboring colonies. However, until 1660 the numbers were small. After 1660, the fate of the African Americans began to take a plunge. Fairly soon after, the trade in African Americans boomed. The appearance of the plantation system in South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland toward the end of the seventeenth century created a demand for service labor.

1830-1890
The ports where they arrived. They were too poor to move inland, and by 1850 the Irish made up more than half the population of Boston and New York City.

1890-1924
o o

Most immigrants settled near the port of entry (Ex: New York, Seattle) If diseased they were quarantined Settled in large cities Only 2 Percent went South Earned about $5-$10 a month in 90 hour work weeks

1968-Present

Nearly 2/3 of all Cuban Americans live in Florida More Cubans live in Miami than any other U.S. city

Like all the other cultures Chinese Americans settled in all parts of the country. However most of them settled in China Town and other similar places in the big towns. The reason for that was their lack of English or just felt more comfortable to be around their own people. One more thing that attracted the Chinese to Chinese dominating areas was the opportunity to get a job.

10

Treatment/reception by other Americans

1607-1830
In the case of slaves, they were accepted as people strictly used for the advantage of the people in America. They were definitely not treated as equals and they were not even treated like humans.

1830-1890
The Irish, in their large numbers, were looked upon as a drain on society. They were not liked, because it was generally thought that they took too many jobs away from the public who was there already. Many help wanted ads included the phrase "Irish need not apply."

1890-1924
Polish - Were treated with little respect and formed their own communities Italian - Italians were treated with some respect but not much and formed their own communities. Most came here to see family Jews - Were treated with little respect and formed their own communities Asian - Were treated with no respect but formed their own communities

1968-Present
The US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has to maintain it's image so it started to put people in jail. This causes problems because then these people can't pay off their debt to the smugglers. The smugglers in turn hire people to beat up the illegal and demand the money and when they can't pay at all the virtually make them their slaves. This situation is razing people who are willing to work for virtually anything. This in one way benefits the US because it makes the produce cheaper for the consumer but on the other hand it takes away the jobs from an average American who is not willing to work for such low fees. Everybody that came here wanted to assimilate as fast as they could and become Americans and when the saw someone who was different racial tensions occurred. It was hard for Asians to "assimilate" so therefore they were discriminated against in many areas. In the begging when the Chinese were just coming in they were working in the gold industries and were getting about a third less then the white men. Now since there is a great demand for jobs they are sometimes being paid as little as 900 per month with eleven hour working day in a sweat shop with horrible conditions and no weekends. One more reason for racial tensions is because Chinese would work harder for less and therefore the more Chinese come the more American businesses would be lost.

Opportunities for and success of immigrants

1607-1830

Employment o In the case of African Americans, employment was plentiful, but it came in the form of slavery o Most Scotch Irish became frontier farmers o Some were able to rise in the world, such as in politics Living conditions o Living conditions varied depending upon the slave owner o The slaves were not free and unless the slave owner was "kind", living conditions were not what you would call magnificent Education o In the case of slaves, the only real education was that of life on the plantation. It was incredibly rare when a slave learned to read because the slave owners knew that it would be easy to keep in charge of the slave if they became educated and the slaves did not Social Mobility o As far as advancing socially, this was nearly impossible because the slaves were not free Political Representation o There was not much political representation for the slaves, but there were some politicians that tried to set the slaves free o Some /scorch Irish immigrants were able to become politicians, however I do not know whether they stuck up for their heritage.

*Most of the above statements changed after the Civil War

1830-1890

After the Civil War immigration agents went to Europe to enlist recruits for the American Industrial army In 1864 they legalized contracts by which immigrants pledged the wages of their labor for a term not to exceed twelve months to repay expenses of their journey to the U.S. In 1868 the law was repealed but the American Emigrant Company still imported laborers upon orders from employers until 1865 when Congress made it unlawful Immediately upon arrival, the immigrants fell under the watchful eyes of politicians as potential voters Some immigrant stocks were even called "voting cattle" to be herded to the polls by bosses and ward helpers

Immigrant vote did not seriously affect the outcome of elections except for public excitement over questions that directly concerned the interests of the immigrants or injured their priced Homestead Act of 1862 gave every man 160-acre farm

1890-1924

Employment o Dry Cleaners o News Stands o Grocery Stores o Machine Shops o Garment factory Living conditions o Apartments in city o Houses in the slums o Poor living conditions Education o Children got education after coming to America o Parents and elders got no education Social Mobility o The Polish, Italians, and the Jews had more of a social mobility then the Asians because racism and the way they look o Jews had some problems because of their religion Political Representation o The Italians had the most political representation of all the groups They had Ferillo LaGuardia, mayor of N.Y. o The Poles and Jews had small political representation o The Asians had little or no representation

1968-Present
Legal immigrants have the same opportunities as normal Americans providing that they know English, but if they don't they have to work in the Chinese community and it is harder because there is a great demand for jobs and there are no unions so the person could be easily replaced if the boss doesn't like him. But on the other side there are many successful Chinese Americans who have exactly the same opportunities as the "Americans" and our school is a living proof of that.

Assimilation? If so, to what degree?

1607-1830
Many African-Americans in America had ancestors who were brought to America unwillingly as slaves ever since the early 1600's or earlier. At first, they were treated the same way as indentured servants from Europe, but soon, clear differences in their treatments arose. A 1662 Virginia law assumed Africans would remain servants for life, and a 1667 act declared that "Baptism does not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom." By 1740, the slavery system in colonial America was fully developed. A Virginia law in that year declared slaves to be "chattel personal in the hands of their owners and possessors... for all intents, construction, and purpose whatsoever." So really, African-Americans had no choice but to assimilate into American culture as slaves. They did not have the choice to go back, and generations later, when they did have the chance, most of them were so firmly rooted in the American society that they would have not the desire to. The Scottish-Irish had a great advantage over most immigrants because they could already speak English. Therefore, communication between the two cultures was very fluent.

1830-1890
America, always having been a land of immigrants, had always given the immigrants a less then nice welcome. However, when the Irish Catholics came to America in their great numbers, this aroused antagonistic feelings in the Protestants, from not only religious competition, but also the competition for jobs. There was even a political party formed unofficially against Immigrants and Catholics in the mid-1800's. However, as time passed and the civil war took more of the political attention, the immigrants slowly assimilated into the normal population of America.

1968-Present
It was hard for Asians to "assimilate" so therefore they were discriminated against in many areas. In the begging when the Chinese were just coming in they were working in the gold industries and were getting about a third less then the white men. Now since there is a great demand for jobs they are sometimes being paid as little as 900 per month with eleven hour working day in a sweat shop with horrible conditions and no weekends. But for Chinese people even that is much better then the old world considering that there are about fifty million unemployed people according to Chinas' statistics. Chinese immigrants are not different then any other community. Some of them assimilate, learn English and follow the American customs and some even forget their own to become more Americanized. But some also keep all their tradition and speak Chinese with their family members so they wouldn't forget it.

What did/do immigrants find distinctive about America?

1607-1830

Political Freedom Religious tolerance Economic Opportunity

1830-1890

Young men were not forced to serve long years in the army Democratic government meant equality and participation for more people

1890-1924

Immigrants like the U.S. because they could become successful no matter who their parents were They also found a place where they could do whatever they wanted in the ideas of religion and politics

1968-Present
According to Chinese government there are about fifty million unemployed people in China. China is becoming more capitalist but in that process the old Communist leaders are getting all the money. Since the introduction of privatization Chinese people have had a hard time utilizing it because just to get a license they have to bribe many officials and overcome many obstacles. Because of this they come to US looking for a better place, a better opportunity. Most of these people are illegal immigrants because there are such limiting quotas in place. So the people would rather waste a significant part of their life just working to pay off the smuggler who got them to US then live in their old country.

Legal vs. illegal immigrants

1607-1830
As yet, no law was yet formed to decide who were the legal or illegal immigrants. Therefore, everyone who came to the United States was considered just an immigrant.

1830-1890

Illegal immigrants were not an issue at this time

1890-1924

There were very few illegal immigrants during the early 1900's as Mexicans and Canadians were not counted as immigrants Most of the immigrants that came to America at that time came through legally

1968-Present
Most of the Chinese immigrants in the US are illegal. The reason for this is because China doesn't let too many people leave and the US also placed it's quotas on the amount of people that are allowed to come in. The Chinese government doesn't care about the immigration, be it legal or illegal because the more people leave the less unemployed the country has. The life of illegal immigrants is very hard. They have to pay the smugglers to get out of the country then work in dirty sweatshops and watch out for the authorities who could place them in jail or deport them.

Laws restricting immigration

America must be kept American
President Coolidge

signing immigration quota law in 1924

1607-1830
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the control over the admission of newcomers was mainly in the hands of the individual colonies. These were dictated by the desire to attract settlers to virgin territories or by the need to keep out unwanted social burdens (dependent stranger). As a result, in Virginia, laws encouraged newcomers by giving the "head-right" of 50 acres to each arrival if he/she paid for their own passage or to the master who paid for them. On the other hand, strict vagrancy laws in other colonies excluded those who could not support themselves and who might become public charges. There was also an effort to keep out convicts and other undesirables whom the mother country might which to send to the provinces. After America's independence, all such restraints on immigration disappeared. The federal government simply regulated the conditions for naturalization. In 1790, a law made citizenship available to aliens after two years of residence. Then, in 1798, a more rigid law extended the time required to 14 years. Finally, in 1802, the interval was kept to 5 years, where it remained. The government left the rest up to the individual states, who mostly wanted to attract settlers and immigrants. These states had liberal land laws and also sent out commissions in Europe to make their resources known to possible immigrants. In fact, in 1819, a law was made designed to protect immigrants from dishonest shipmasters. It included minimum conditions of safety and sanitation. Although this law was difficult to carry out, still, as you can see, there were really no efforts to keep out immigrants in the 1600-1800's and in general, the presence of newcomers was accepted as yet another facet to America's diversity.

1830-1890
Propaganda was spread in favor of laws restricting immigration as a means of protecting the American wage earned In 1875 was the first restriction of immigration of prostitutes and felons In 1882 the government reacted to the anti-immigrant feelings, such as anti-Chinese riot and the U.S. enacted further restrictions barring the insane, the retarded, and people likely to need public care and the Chinese Exclusion Act suspending Chinese laborers for ten years

1890-1924
In 1892 an act passed by Congress provided for the examination of immigrants and the excluding of convicts, polygamists, prostitutes, people suffering from diseases, and people liable to public charges in 1917 a law was passed that enlarged the list of people who can be legally excluded

It imposed a literary test and created the Asiatic Barred Zone to keep Asians out of this country o It was updated in 1918 In 1921, Congress passed a quota which severely affected the Asian Russia, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands in the Pacific and Atlantic In 1924, the law was expanded to let in northern and western Europeans and exclude almost everyone else
o

1968-Present
There are pending bills that will dramatically restrict legal immigration for years to come. For example, there are several bills that would slash legal immigration to the United States all the way down to 20,000 or less. Under some of these pending proposals, parents, adult children, and brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens could no longer immigrate at all, spouses and children of lawful permanent residents would be limited to 10,000 visas per year and Refugees would be barred in all but extraordinary circumstances.

Ellis Island
Overview:
Ellis Island is a small island in Upper New York Bay, although in New Jersey waters, it is under the political jurisdiction of New York. It was a major immigration station for the United States from 1892 to 1943 and an immigrant detention station until 1954. Since 1965, it has been part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

Early History:
The island was named for Samuel Ellis, who owned the island in the 1770s. It was purchased by the federal government from New York State in 1808 and was used as a fort. After the creation of the Immigration Bureau (1891), the immigration station was moved from Castle Garden (at Battery Park, Manhattan) to Ellis Island.

Processing:
At Ellis, immigrants were examined and either admitted or deported; at the height of its activity, the Ellis Island station could process 1 million people a year.

Tourism:
The Great Hall, where immigrants were processed, was renovated as part of part of the 1986 Statue of Liberty centennial celebration. The entire Main Building, which includes the Great Hall, has been restored; the Ellis Island Immigration Museum there opened to the public in 1990.

African Americans
I INTRODUCTION
Recent black immigrants from Africa and the islands of the Caribbean are sometimes classified as African Americans. However, these groups, especially first- and secondgeneration immigrants, often have cultural practices, histories, and languages that are distinct from those of African Americans born in the United States. For example, Caribbean natives may speak French, British English, or Spanish as their first language. Emigrants from Africa may speak a European language other than English or any of a number of African languages as their first language. Caribbean and African immigrants often have little knowledge or experience of the distinctive history of race relations in the United States. Thus, Caribbean and African immigrants may or may not choose to identify with the African American community. According to 2000 U.S. census, some 34.7 million African Americans live in the United States, making up 12.3 percent of the total population. 2000 census shows that 54.8 percent African Americans lived in the South. In that year, 17.6 percent of African Americans lived in the Northeast and 18.7 percent in the Midwest, while only 8.9 percent lived in the Western states. Almost 88 percent of African Americans lived in metropolitan areas in 2000. With over 2 million African American residents, New York City had the largest black urban population in the United States in 2000. Washington, D.C., had the highest proportion of black residents of any U.S. city in 2000, with African Americans making up almost 60 percent of the population.

II THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

African American history is intertwined with that of blacks in Latin America and the Caribbean). Like other blacks in the western hemisphere, the overwhelming majority of African Americans were brought to North America as slaves between the 1700s and the early 1800s (see Slavery in the United States). As slaves, they were considered the property of their owners and had no rights. African slaves could be found in all 13 of the British colonies, as well as the Spanish colony of Florida and the French colony of Louisiana. After the American Revolution (1775-1783), changing economic conditions resulted in the decline of slavery in the North. However, the spread of cotton cultivation encouraged the growth of slavery in the South. By 1860, 4 million slaves accounted for one-third of the total population of the southern states. About 500,000 free blacks lived throughout the United States, slightly more than half residing in the southern states. In the North, many free blacks became abolitionists, activists dedicated to ending slavery and bringing about black equality. In 1863, during the American Civil War (1861-1865), U.S. president Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in the southern states at war with the North. The 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1865, outlawed slavery in the United States. In 1868 the 14th amendment

granted full U.S. citizenship to African Americans. The 15th amendment, ratified in 1870, extended the right to vote to black males. In the South, such rights were enforced only by the presence of Union troops, who occupied the region during the period known as Reconstruction. When Union troops withdrew from the South in 1877, white Southerners quickly reversed these advances. Racist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, used terrorism to keep blacks from voting, holding office, and enforcing labor contracts. Whites also began establishing a thorough system of segregation in the United States. Laws limiting blacks access to transportation, schools, restaurants, and other public facilities, sprang up throughout the South. Although legal systems of segregation were not established in the North or West, informal segregation was enforced in both of these regions. Blacks responded to these setbacks by forming the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910. The NAACP mounted legal challenges to segregation and lobbied legislatures on behalf of black Americans. African Americans also created an independent community and institutional life. They established schools, banks, newspapers, and small businesses to serve the needs of their community. Between 1910 and 1950, in the largest internal migration in U.S. history, over 5 million African Americans moved from southern plantations to northern cities in hopes of finding better jobs and greater equality. In the 1920s the concentration of blacks in urban areas led to the cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, which used art, music, and literature to demonstrate the creative abilities of African Americans. A new generation of African American political leaders, such as black nationalist Marcus Garvey and union organizer A. Philip Randolph, also found support among urban African Americans. In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. This decision led to the dismantling of legal segregation in all areas of southern life, from schools to restaurants to public restrooms. Energized by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights movement in the United States gained new momentum in the mid-1950s. Civil rights groups organized nonviolent protests, such as marches and sit-ins, to rally the black community. Many Southern whites attempted to hold onto segregation through continued violence. By the mid-1960s some African Americans began to question the effectiveness of nonviolent protest. More militant black leaders, such as Malcolm X of the Nation of Islam and Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panther Party, called for blacks to defend themselves, using violence if necessary. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, the Black Power movement urged African Americans to look to Africa for inspiration and emphasized African American solidarity rather than integration. Responding to pressure from the civil rights movement, the U.S. government sought to open up political and economic opportunities for black Americans. The 1965 Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and labor

unions. The 1965 Voting Rights Act, which brought equality to black voters throughout the South, was the capstone to more than a decade of major civil rights legislation.

III CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

Politically and economically, blacks have made substantial strides in the post-civil rights era. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who ran for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, brought unprecedented support and leverage to blacks in politics. In 1989, Virginia became the first state in U.S. history to elect a black governor, Douglas Wilder. In 1992 Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. There were 8,936 black officeholders in the United States in 2000, showing a net increase of 7,467 since 1970. In 2001 there were 484 mayors and 38 members of Congress. The Congressional Black Caucus serves as a political bloc in Congress for issues relating to African Americans. The appointment of blacks to high federal officesincluding Colin Powell (chairman of the U.S. Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1989-1993), Ron Brown (Secretary of Commerce, 1993-1996), and Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomasalso demonstrates the increasing power of blacks in the political arena. Economically, blacks have also benefited from the advances made during the civil rights era. The racial disparity in poverty rates has narrowed slightly. The black middle class has grown substantially. In 2000, some 47 percent of African Americans owned their homes. However, African Americans are still underrepresented in government and employment. In 1999, median income of African American household was $27,910 compared to $44,366 of non-Hispanic whites. Approximately one-fourth of the African American population lives in poverty, a rate three times that of white Americans. In 2000, 19.1 percent of black population lived below poverty level as compared to 6.9 percent of white population. The unemployment gap between blacks and whites has grown. In 2000, the unemployment rate among African Americans was almost twice the rate for whites. The income gap between black and white families also continues to widen. Employed blacks earn only 77 percent of the wages of whites in comparable jobs, down from 82 percent in 1975. In 2000, Only 16.6 percent of 25 years and older blacks earned bachelors or higher degrees in contrast to 28.1 percent of whites. Although rates of births to unwed mothers among both blacks and whites have risen since the 1950s, the rate of such births among African Americans is three times the rate of whites. Black Americans have shorter life expectancies than the national average. Blacks suffer disproportionately from heart disease, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), hypertension, stroke, and diabetes. Blacks lack of access to quality health care contributes to these problems. Black experiences with and attitudes towards the criminal justice system differ markedly from whites. Although rates of violent crime are dropping among blacks, more than one million African American men are currently in jail or prison. Homicide

remains the leading cause of death among black men between the ages of 15 and 34. African Americans distrust the criminal justice system much more than whites do. In 1991 the beating of an unarmed black motorist, Rodney King, by four Los Angeles police officers was captured on videotape. An all-white jury later acquitted the police officers, sparking riots in Los Angeles and protests around the country.

IV CULTURE
African American culture is both part of and distinct from American culture. From their earliest presence in North America, Africans and African Americans have contributed literature, art, agricultural skills, foods, clothing styles, music, and language to American culture.

C Religion
The vast majority of African Americans practice some form of Protestantism. Protestantisms relatively loose hierarchical structure, particularly in the Baptist and Methodist denominations, has allowed African Americans to create and maintain separate churches. Separate churches enabled blacks to take up positions of leadership denied to them in mainstream America. In addition to their religious role, African American churches traditionally provide political leadership and serve social welfare functions. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first nationwide black church in the United States, was founded by Protestant minister Richard Allen in Philadelphia in 1816. The largest African American religious denomination is the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., founded in 1895. A significant number of African Americans are Black Muslims. The most prominent Black Muslim group is the Nation of Islam, a religious organization founded by W. D. Fard and Elijiah Poole in 1935. Poole, who changed his name to Elijiah Muhammad, soon emerged as the leader of the Nation of Islam. Elijiah Muhammad established temples in Detroit, Chicago, and other northern cities. Today, Louis Farrakhan leads the Nation of Islam. A small number of African American Muslims worship independently of the Nation of Islam, as part of the mainstream Islamic tradition.

D Holidays
In 1926 African American scholar Carter Godwin Woodson organized the first Negro History week, to focus attention on previously neglected aspects of the black experience in the United States. Woodson chose February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, as well as the anniversary of the founding of the NAACP. Renamed Black History Week in 1972, the observance was extended to become Black History Month in 1976. During February, lectures, exhibitions, banquets, cultural events, and television and radio programming celebrate the achievements of African Americans. Since 1978 the U.S. Postal Service has participated in Black History Month by issuing commemorative stamps honoring notable African Americans.

In 1983 the U.S. Congress established a national holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The holiday is observed annually on the third Monday in January, a day that falls on or near Kings birthday of January 15. Like Black History Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day emphasizes educational observances, such as lectures and exhibits about Kings life and philosophy.

V AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTS A Music

African American music has influenced musical tastes around the world. Africans introduced Americans to musical rhythms and instruments quite different from the musical traditions of Europeans or Native Americans. In some cases, African musical traditions have blended into American culture with little notice. The banjo, now associated primarily with the bluegrass music popular among white Southerners, was originally an instrument used in African religious ceremonies. Southern slaves adapted the instrument to suit secular (nonreligious) musical styles in the 18th and 19th centuries. African Americans blended African musical forms with European Christian hymns to create distinctive religious songs known as spirituals. In the early 20th century, the tradition of slave spirituals developed into gospel music, a religious song form which incorporated melodies and rhythms from popular music. Black church choirs around the country continue to sing both gospel and spirituals. African Americans have also created many secular musical styles. Ragtime music developed among blacks in the urban areas of the North and South after the American Civil War. Another musical style with roots in the African American experience, known as the blues, emerged in the early 1900s. The blues feature vocalists who craft their songstypically reflections on personal events or emotionsto fit their own distinctive styles. Both ragtime and the blues contributed to the development of jazz, considered by many to be the most original and complex of American musical forms. Whereas jazz largely eclipsed ragtime, the blues have continued to exist alongside jazz. Jazz musicians often improvise solos based on a theme or melody. Such innovative performers as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Ornette Coleman adapted jazz to a wide variety of styles. In the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans pioneered new forms of popular music such as rhythm-and-blues and rock and roll (see Rock Music). In the 1960s the Motown Record Company popularized many African American musical groups, including Diana Ross and The Supremes, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. The Motown sound emphasized vocal harmonies and lyrics that addressed topics ranging from love to political protest.

In the 1980s and 1990s, rap emerged as the newest form of black musical expression. Combining social commentary with rhythmic lyrics, heavy bass beats, and remixed or original melodies, rap is one of the most controversial of black musical forms. Performers such as Tupac Shakur, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, and Sister Souljah often describe the lives of poor blacks in stark terms, including experiences with racism and police brutality. So-called gangster rappers, who openly express distrust of the criminal justice system and often celebrate criminal activity, are especially controversial. Black interpretations of classical music have generally found greater acclaim abroad than in the United States. William Grant Still, the foremost African American classical composer of the 20th century, wrote orchestral and solo works from the 1920s through the 1970s. In 1955 Marian Anderson became the first black singer to join New York Citys Metropolitan Opera. Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, Jessye Norman, and Kathleen Battle subsequently rose to acclaim as opera performers. Pianist Andr Watts and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis have also achieved critical acclaim as interpreters of the European classical music tradition.

VI LITERATURE A Early Writers

Poems, short stories, autobiographies, novels and plays written by African Americans provide a unique window into the black experience. Most slaves were denied the opportunity to learn to read. The achievement of literacy, and especially the publication of poetry and autobiographies, demonstrated to many people that blacks had the ability to create works of literary merit and achieve the same accomplishments as whites. Lucy Terry, an African-born Rhode Island slave who obtained her freedom in 1756, composed the first known poem by an African American. Terrys poem, known as Bars Fight, which recounts a battle between Native Americans and whites that took place in 1746, was preserved in oral form until its publication in 1855. In 1773 African American poet Phillis Wheatley published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first African American work of literature to be widely distributed. Wheatley and other early African American writers focused on expressing Christian sentiments rather than proving the equality of blacks or ending slavery. However, beginning in the late 18th century, African American authors increasingly used their poetry, fiction, and autobiographical works to attack slavery and inequality. In the 1840s former slave Frederick Douglass became a leading writer and abolitionist, campaigning tirelessly for the end of slavery and inequality in the United States. Douglass, who escaped slavery in Maryland in 1838, wrote three autobiographies: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892). Many other black writers told their own stories of enslavement and escape in books and in speeches, including William Wells Brown, William and Ellen Craft, Harriet Jacobs, and Sojourner Truth.

While the autobiography was the most popular form of African American literature during the 19th century, African Americans also described their lives in poetry and fiction. Poet George Moses Horton, a Virginia slave, wrote of his desire for freedom in The Hope of Liberty (1829). William Wells Brown's Clotel; or, The President's Daughter (1853) was the first novel written by an African American author. Published in Britain in 1854, Clotel is a fictional account of slave children allegedly fathered by U.S. president Thomas Jefferson. The first novel published in the United States by an African American author and the first novel written by a black woman, Harriet Wilson's Our Nig (1859) detailed the difficulties faced by Northern free blacks. Free black writer Frances Ellen Watkins Harper published several volumes of poetry and four novels, as well as many stories, essays, and letters that balanced her desire for artistic expression with her commitment to abolition and womens rights. Independent black theater flourished in northern cities for a brief period in the 1820s. The first play by a black writer was Henry Browns The Drama of King Shotaway (1823), based on a slave insurrection on the island of Saint Vincent in the West Indies. The script of the play has since been lost. By the 1830s white officials had shut down black theaters, claiming they caused disorderly conduct. After the Civil War, black writers continued to publish autobiographies, fiction, and poetry that reflected and interpreted the experiences of African Americans. Charles Chesnutt became the first black writer of fiction to receive widespread support from the mainstream white publishing industry. Between 1899 and 1905, Chesnutt published two collections of short stories and three novels, and became the most influential black writer in the United States. Up From Slavery (1901), by educator Booker T. Washington, continued the tradition of black autobiography. Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote many of his poems in African American dialect.

D The Black Arts Movement and Beyond

The Black Arts movement of the 1960s produced writers even more stark in their depiction of urban realities and black political anger than their forerunners in the urban realism school. These writers, such as poet Nikki Giovanni and playwright Amiri Baraka, brought confrontational directness and the language of black America to their works. Their works breathed new energy and urgency into the poetry and drama of the era. Since the 1960s, black writers have continued to explore the black experience, increasingly gaining national and international recognition. Works such as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) by Maya Angelou and Brothers and Keepers (1984) by John Edgar Wideman have continued the tradition of black autobiography. August Wilson has explored the central conflicts facing blacks in each decade of the 20th century in an ongoing cycle of ten plays, which have won great acclaim and earned two Pulitzer Prizes. From 1993 to 1995, Rita Dove served as poet laureate of the United States, the first black woman to fill that position. Novelist Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993.

VIII THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY

The first full-length film directed by an African American filmmaker was Oscar Micheauxs 1919 film The Homesteader, based on his novel of the same name. After Micheauxs last film in 1939, very few black directors were able to finance full-length feature films. In the 1970s African American directors produced a number of urban crime dramas known as blaxploitation films, including Gordon Parks's Shaft (1971) and Melvin Van Peebles's Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song (1971). In the 1980s, a new generation of black filmmakers, independent of major Hollywood studios, began making films with unprecedented critical and commercial success. Director Spike Lee has been the most commercially successful. Lees films, such as Do The Right Thing (1989) and Malcolm X (1992), explore the complex issues facing black America and rigorously examine race relations in the United States. Other young black filmmakers include John Singleton, Leslie Harris, and Julie Dash. For most of the 20th century, mainstream American motion pictures usually offered black actors only stereotypical roles, often as servants to whites. The first Academy Award presented to a black actor went to Hattie McDaniel for her role as Mammy, a faithful slave to Vivien Leighs Scarlett OHara in the 1939 film Gone With the Wind. Sidney Poitier was the first African American actor to become a major star in mainstream American motion pictures. Poitiers films often dealt with politically charged subjects, such as racism and crime. He won an Academy Award for his performance as a drifter in Lilies of the Field (1963). Other black actors gradually gained starring television series roles. Since the 1960s, Bill Cosby has broken down barriers and stereotypes in films and several television series. Actors such as Laurence Fishburne, Whoopi Goldberg, Cicely Tyson, and Morgan Freeman, have received great acclaim in a variety of roles. Despite such recent successes, black actors and actresses are still less frequently employed than their white counterparts.

IX SPORTS
When professional sports became established in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African Americans were excluded. They responded by forming independent black sports teams or by traveling to countries such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba to play in professional leagues. African American baseball players participated in the Negro Leagues. Originally the Negro Leagues were a loose affiliation of teams. In 1920 star player and team owner Rube Foster founded the National Negro League, which included such powerful teams as the Kansas City Monarchs and the Indianapolis ABCs. In 1933 another National Negro League was formed, which included the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays. Both leagues attracted star players, such as Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and Satchel Paige. African Americans also played with barnstorming clubs, or traveling teams, such as the Indianapolis Clowns.

Barnstorming clubs crossed the United States playing wherever opponents, black or white, amateur or professional, could be found. Traveling basketball teams, such as the Harlem Globetrotters, formed in 1929, also toured the country. Although African Americans faced discrimination in team sports, the most violent reactions to African American participation in sports took place in boxing. After the controversial black boxer Jack Johnson defeated white boxer Jim Jeffries for the world heavyweight title in 1910, whites rioted and lynched black men throughout the country. Between 1919 and the 1930s, whites refused to fight blacks for the heavyweight title. Only in 1937 was black boxer Joe Louis officially recognized as world heavyweight champion. Beginning in the late 1940s, professional sports leagues slowly began to integrate. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier of major league baseball in 1947 when he became the starting second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. While players such as Satchel Paige, Larry Doby, and Roy Campenella also joined the major leagues, it was not until 1958 that every team included at least one African American player. Integration in other sports followed. Founded in 1948, the National Basketball Association (NBA) began integrating in 1949, when the New York Knicks signed Nat Sweetwater Clifton. Althea Gibson integrated tennis when she became the first African American player in the United States Lawn Association (USLTA) in 1950. Arthur Ashe became the first African American to win a USLTA title in 1963. Both Ashe and Gibson later went on to win titles at Wimbledon, the first African Americans to do so. Integration provided greater opportunities to individual black players, but black teams, such as the Harlem Globetrotters and Negro League teams, were excluded from the new system. As talented athletes joined the ranks of the NBA and major league baseball, the quality of play and fan support waned in the segregated leagues. The Harlem Globetrotters became a traveling entertainment act, while the Negro League teams simply disappeared. African Americans have excelled in almost every professional sport. Many people think baseball player Willie Mays and basketball player Michael Jordan are the best players in the history of their sports. Boxer Muhammad Ali made good on his claim to be the Greatest by winning the world heavyweight championship three different times in the 1960s and 1970s. In football, Cleveland Browns fullback Jim Brown held the National Football Leagues career rushing record from 1966 until 1984, when Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton replaced him in the record books. African American athletes continue to break new ground. In 1997 Tiger Woods, at age 21, became the first African American golfer to win the prestigious Masters golf tournament. His achievement sparked unprecedented interest in golf among blacks, particularly black youths.

Ku Klux Klan
I INTRODUCTION Ku Klux Klan, secret terrorist organization that originated in the southern states during the period of Reconstruction following the American Civil War and was reactivated on a wider geographic basis in the 20th century. The original Klan was organized in Pulaski, Tennessee, during the winter of 1865 to 1866, by six former Confederate army officers who gave their society a name adapted from the Greek word kuklos (circle). Although the Ku Klux Klan began as a prankish social organization, its activities soon were directed against the Republican Reconstruction governments and their leaders, both black and white, which came into power in the southern states in 1867. II ORIGINAL TARGETS AND TACTICS

The Klansmen regarded the Reconstruction governments as hostile and oppressive. They also generally believed in the innate inferiority of blacks and therefore mistrusted and resented the rise of former slaves to a status of civil equality and often to positions of political power. Thus, the Klan became an illegal organization committed to destroying the Reconstruction governments from the Carolinas to Arkansas. Attired in robes or sheets and wearing masks topped with pointed hoods, the Klansmen terrorized public officials in efforts to drive them from office and blacks in general to prevent them from voting, holding office, and otherwise exercising their newly acquired political rights. When such tactics failed to produce the desired effect, their victims might be flogged, mutilated, or murdered. These activities were justified by the Klan as necessary measures in defense of white supremacy and the inviolability of white womanhood. A secret convention of Klansmen, held in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1867, adopted a declaration of principles expressing loyalty to the United States Constitution and its government and declaring the determination of the Klan to protect the weak, the innocent and the defenseless ...; to relieve the injured and oppressed; [and] to succor the suffering .... The convention designated the Klan as an Invisible Empire and provided for a supreme official, called Grand Wizard of the Empire, who wielded virtually autocratic power and who was assisted by ten Genii. Other principal officials of the Klan were the Grand Dragon of the Realm, who was assisted by eight Hydras; the Grand Titan of the Dominion, assisted by six Furies; and the Grand Cyclops of the Den, assisted by two Nighthawks. From 1868 to 1870, while federal occupation troops were being withdrawn from the southern states and radical regimes replaced with Democratic administrations, the Klan was increasingly dominated by the rougher elements in the population. The local organizations, called klaverns, became so uncontrollable and violent that the Grand Wizard, former Confederate general Nathan B. Forrest, officially disbanded the Klan in 1869. Klaverns, however, continued to operate on their own. In 1871, Congress passed the Force Bill to implement the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the rights of all citizens. In the same year President Ulysses S. Grant

issued a proclamation calling on members of illegal organizations to disarm and disband; thereafter hundreds of Klansmen were arrested. The remaining klaverns gradually faded as the political and social subordination of blacks was reestablished. III INVISIBLE EMPIRE, KNIGHTS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN

The name, rituals, and some of the attitudes of the original Klan were adopted by a new fraternal organization incorporated in Georgia in 1915. The official name of the new society, which was organized by a former preacher, Colonel William Simmons, was Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Membership was open to nativeborn, white, Protestant males, 16 years of age or older; blacks, Roman Catholics, and Jews were excluded and were increasingly made targets of defamation and persecution by the Klan. Until 1920 the society exercised little influence. Then, in the period of economic dislocation and political and social unrest that followed World War I, the Klan expanded rapidly in urban areas and became active in many states, notably Colorado, Oregon, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Although the Klan everywhere fiercely preached white supremacy, it focused its attack on what it considered to be alien outsiders, particularly the Roman Catholic church, which it believed was threatening traditional American ways and values. All non-Protestants, aliens, liberals, trade unionists, and striking workers were denounced as subversives. It was customary for the Klansmen to burn crosses on hillsides and near the homes of those they wished to frighten. Masked Klansmen also marched through the streets of many communities, carrying placards threatening various persons with summary punishment and warning others to leave town. Many persons were kidnapped, flogged, and mutilated by the Klan; a number were killed. Few prosecutions of Klansmen resulted, and in some communities they were abetted by local officials. Journalistic disclosures of crimes committed by the Klan and of corruption and immorality in its leadership led to a congressional investigation in 1921, and for a time the Klan changed its tactics. After 1921 it experienced a rapid growth of membership and became politically influential throughout the nation. One estimate of its membership, made in 1924, when the Klan was at the peak of its strength, was as high as 3 million. In that year a resolution denouncing the Klan, introduced at the national convention of the Democratic Party, precipitated a bitter controversy and was defeated. In the mid-1920s, inept and exploitive leadership, internal conflict, and alleged Klan immorality and violence badly damaged the Klans reputation, and political opposition increased. By 1929 it had been reduced to several thousand members. During the economic depression of the 1930s the Ku Klux Klan remained active on a small scale, particularly against trade union organizers in the South. It also threatened blacks with punishment if they tried to exercise their right to vote. In 1940 the Klan joined with the German American Bund, an organization financed in part by the government of Nazi Germany, in holding a large rally at Camp Nordland, New Jersey.

After the entry of the United States into World War II, the Klan curtailed its activities. In 1944 it disbanded formally when it was unable to pay back taxes owed to the federal government. Revival of Klan activities after the war led to widespread public sentiment for the suppression of the organization. It suffered a setback in its national stronghold, Georgia, when that state revoked the Klan charter in 1947. With the death of its strongest postwar leader, the obstetrician Samuel Green, of Atlanta, Georgia, Klan unity broke down into numerous, independent, competing units, which often did not last long enough to be placed on the list of subversive organizations issued by the U.S. attorney general. IV RECENT ACTIVITY

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling, on May 17, 1954, that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, stirred the Klan into new attempts at recruitment and violence but did not bring internal unity or greatly increased membership, power, or respectability in the South. Most opponents of desegregation chose other leaders, such as the White Citizens Council, while the Klan chiefly attracted the fringe elements of society and remained more of a status than a resistance movement. As the civil rights movement gained force in the late 1950s and as resistance to integration began to diminish throughout the South, the Klan continued to offer hardcore opposition to civil rights programs and was believed to be involved in many incidents of racial violence, intimidation, and reprisal, particularly bombings. After the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 it experienced a marked increase in membership, reaching an estimated 40,000 in 1965. By the mid-1970s, the Klan had gained somewhat in respectability. Acknowledged Klan leaders ran for public office in the South, amassing sizable numbers of votes. Approximately 15 separate organizations existed, including the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, and the National Klan. A resurgence of Klan violence occurred in the late 1970s, and in 1980 a Klan office was opened in Toronto, Canada. The total membership was estimated at about 5000 at the end of the 1980s. A former grand wizard of the Klan, David Duke was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1989 and ran unsuccessfully in the states gubernatorial election in 1991.

Martin Luther King Biography

Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had been graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955 In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family. In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement. On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT Montgomerys black community had long-standing grievances about the mistreatment of blacks on city buses. Many white bus drivers treated blacks rudely, often cursing them and humiliating them by enforcing the citys segregation laws, which forced black riders to sit in the back of buses and give up their seats to white passengers on crowded buses. By the early 1950s Montgomerys blacks had discussed boycotting the buses in an effort to gain better treatmentbut not necessarily to end segregation. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a leading member of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was ordered by a bus driver to give up her seat to a white passenger. When she refused, she was arrested and taken to jail. Local leaders of the NAACP, especially Edgar D. Nixon, recognized that the arrest of the popular and highly respected Parks was the event that could rally local blacks to a bus protest. Nixon also believed that a citywide protest should be led by someone who could unify the community. Unlike Nixon and other leaders in Montgomerys black community, the recently arrived King had no enemies. Furthermore, Nixon saw Kings publicspeaking gifts as great assets in the battle for black civil rights in Montgomery. King was soon chosen as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the organization that directed the bus boycott. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted for more than a year, demonstrating a new spirit of protest among Southern blacks. Kings serious demeanor and consistent appeal to Christian brotherhood and American idealism made a positive impression on whites outside the South. Incidents of violence against black protesters, including the bombing of Kings home, focused media attention on Montgomery. In February 1956 an attorney for the MIA filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking an injunction against Montgomerys segregated seating practices. The federal court ruled in favor of the MIA, ordering the citys buses to be desegregated, but the city government appealed the ruling to the United States Supreme Court. By the time the Supreme Court upheld the lower court decision in November 1956, King was a national figure. His memoir of the bus boycott, Stride Toward Freedom (1958), provided a thoughtful account of that experience and further extended Kings national influence.

CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERSHIP In 1957 King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization of black churches and ministers that aimed to challenge racial segregation. As SCLCs president, King became the organizations dominant personality and its primary intellectual influence. He was responsible for much of the organizations fund-raising, which he frequently conducted in conjunction with preaching engagements in Northern churches. SCLC sought to complement the NAACPs legal efforts to dismantle segregation through the courts, with King and other SCLC leaders encouraging the use of nonviolent direct action to protest discrimination. These activities included marches, demonstrations, and boycotts. The violent responses that direct action provoked from some whites eventually forced the federal government to confront the issues of injustice and racism in the South. King made strategic alliances with Northern whites that later bolstered his success at influencing public opinion in the United States. Through Bayard Rustin, a black civil rights and peace activist, King forged connections to older radical activists, many of them Jewish, who provided money and advice about strategy. Kings closest adviser at times was Stanley Levison, a Jewish activist and former member of the American Communist Party. King also developed strong ties to leading white Protestant ministers in the North, with whom he shared theological and moral views. In 1959 King visited India and worked out more clearly his understanding of Gandhi's principle of nonviolent persuasion, called satyagraha, which King had determined to use as his main instrument of social protest. The next year he gave up his pastorate in Montgomery to become copastor (with his father) of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. SCLC PROTEST CAMPAIGNS In the early 1960s King led SCLC in a series of protest campaigns that gained national attention. The first was in 1961 in Albany, Georgia, where SCLC joined local demonstrations against segregated restaurants, hotels, transit, and housing. SCLC increased the size of the demonstrations in an effort to create so much dissent and disorder that local white officials would be forced to end segregation to restore normal business relations. The strategy did not work in Albany. During months of protests, Albanys police chief jailed hundreds of demonstrators without visible police violence. Eventually the protesters energy, and the money to bail out protesters, ran out. The strategy did work, however, in Birmingham, Alabama, when SCLC joined a local protest during the spring of 1963. The protest was led by SCLC member Fred Shuttlesworth, one of the ministers who had worked with King in 1957 in organizing SCLC. Shuttlesworth believed that the Birmingham police commissioner, Eugene Bull Connor, would meet protesters with violence. In May 1963 King and his

SCLC staff escalated antisegregation marches in Birmingham by encouraging teenagers and school children to join. Hundreds of singing children filled the streets of downtown Birmingham, angering Connor, who sent police officers with attack dogs and firefighters with high-pressure water hoses against the marchers. Scenes of young protesters being attacked by dogs and pinned against buildings by torrents of water from fire hoses were shown in newspapers and on televisions around the world. During the demonstrations, King was arrested and sent to jail. He wrote a letter from his jail cell to local clergymen who had criticized him for creating disorder in the city. His Letter from Birmingham Jail, which argued that individuals had the moral right and responsibility to disobey unjust laws, was widely read at the time and added to Kings standing as a moral leader. National reaction to the Birmingham violence built support for the struggle for black civil rights. The demonstrations forced white leaders to negotiate an end to some forms of segregation in Birmingham. Even more important, the protests encouraged many Americans to support national legislation against segregation. I HAVE A DREAM King and other black leaders organized the 1963 March on Washington, a massive protest in Washington, D.C., for jobs and civil rights. On August 28, 1963, King delivered a stirring address to an audience of more than 200,000 civil rights supporters. His I Have a Dream speech expressed the hopes of the civil rights movement in oratory as moving as any in American history: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. The speech and the march built on the Birmingham demonstrations to create the political momentum that resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited segregation in public accommodations, as well as discrimination in education and employment. As a result of Kings effectiveness as a leader of the American civil rights movement and his highly visible moral stance he was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize for peace. SELMA MARCHES In 1965 SCLC joined a voting-rights protest march that was planned to go from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery, more than 80 km (50 mi) away. The goal of the march was to draw national attention to the struggle for black voting rights in the state. Police beat and tear-gassed the marchers just outside of Selma, and televised scenes of the violence, on a day that came to be known as Bloody Sunday, resulted in an outpouring of support to continue the march. SCLC petitioned for and received a federal court order barring police from interfering with a renewed march to Montgomery. Two weeks after Bloody Sunday, more than 3,000 people, including a

core of 300 marchers who would make the entire trip, set out toward Montgomery. They arrived in Montgomery five days later, where King addressed a rally of more than 20,000 people in front of the capitol building. The march created support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which President Lyndon Johnson signed into law in August. The act suspended (and amendments to the act later banned) the use of literacy tests and other voter qualification tests that often had been used to prevent blacks from registering to vote. After the Selma protests, King had fewer dramatic successes in his struggle for black civil rights. Many white Americans who had supported his work believed that the job was done. In many ways, the nations appetite for civil rights progress had been filled. King also lost support among white Americans when he joined the growing number of antiwar activists in 1965 and began to criticize publicly American foreign policy in Vietnam. Kings outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War (1959-1975) also angered President Johnson. On the other hand, some of Kings white supporters agreed with his criticisms of United States involvement in Vietnam so strongly that they shifted their activism from civil rights to the antiwar movement. BLACK POWER By the mid-1960s Kings role as the unchallenged leader of the civil rights movement was questioned by many younger blacks. Activists such as Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) argued that Kings nonviolent protest strategies and appeals to moral idealism were useless in the face of sustained violence by whites. Some also rejected the leadership of ministers. In addition, many SNCC organizers resented King, feeling that often they had put in the hard work of planning and organizing protests, only to have the charismatic King arrive later and receive much of the credit. In 1966 the Black Power movement, advocated most forcefully by Carmichael, captured the nations attention and suggested that Kings influence among blacks was waning. Black Power advocates looked more to the beliefs of the recently assassinated black Muslim leader, Malcolm X, whose insistence on black self-reliance and the right of blacks to defend themselves against violent attacks had been embraced by many African Americans. With internal divisions beginning to divide the civil rights movement, King shifted his focus to racial injustice in the North. Realizing that the economic difficulties of blacks in Northern cities had largely been ignored, SCLC broadened its civil rights agenda by focusing on issues related to black poverty. King established a headquarters in a Chicago apartment in 1966, using that as a base to organize protests against housing and employment discrimination in the city. Black Baptist ministers who disagreed with many of SCLCs tactics, especially the confrontational act of sending black protesters into all-white neighborhoods, publicly opposed Kings efforts. The protests did not lead to significant gains and were often met with violent counterdemonstrations by whites, including neo-Nazis and members of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret terrorist organization that was opposed to integration.

Throughout 1966 and 1967 King increasingly turned the focus of his civil rights activism throughout the country to economic issues. He began to argue for redistribution of the nations economic wealth to overcome entrenched black poverty. In 1967 he began planning a Poor Peoples Campaign to pressure national lawmakers to address the issue of economic justice. ASSASSINATION This emphasis on economic rights took King to Memphis, Tennessee, to support striking black garbage workers in the spring of 1968. He was assassinated in Memphis by a sniper on April 4. News of the assassination resulted in an outpouring of shock and anger throughout the nation and the world, prompting riots in more than 100 United States cities in the days following Kings death. In 1969 James Earl Ray, an escaped white convict, pleaded guilty to the murder of King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Ray later recanted his confession. Although over the years many investigators have suspected that Ray did not act alone, no accomplices have ever been identified. In 1999 a jury in a Memphis civil trial brought by Kings family found that a widespread conspiracy not involving Ray led to Kings assassination. However, most investigators continued to believe that Ray was the killer.After Kings death, historians researching his life and career discovered that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) often tapped Kings phone line and reported on his private life to the president and other government officials. The FBIs reason for invading his privacy was that King associated with Communists and other radicals.After his death, King came to represent black courage and achievement, high moral leadership, and the ability of Americans to address and overcome racial divisions. Recollections of his criticisms of U.S. foreign policy and poverty faded, and his soaring rhetoric calling for racial justice and an integrated society became almost as familiar to subsequent generations of Americans as the Declaration of Independence.Kings historical importance was memorialized at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, a research institute in Atlanta where his tomb is located. The King Center is located at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, which includes Kings birthplace and the Ebenezer Church. Perhaps the most important memorial is the national holiday in Kings honor, designated by the Congress of the United States in 1983 and observed on the third Monday in January, a day that falls on or near Kings birthday of January 15.

Greensboro Four
On Feb. 1, 1960 four black freshmen at North Carolina A&T State University, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond, took seats at the segregated lunch counter of F. W. Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C. They were refused service and sat peacefully until the store closed. They returned the next day, along with about 25 other students, and their requests were again denied. The Greensboro Four inspired similar sit-ins across the state and by the end of February, such protests were taking place across the South. Finally in July, Woolworth's integrated all of its stores. The four have become icons of the civil rights movement.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X, 192565, militant black leader in the United States, also known as ElHajj Malik El-Shabazz, b. Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb. He was introduced to the Black Muslims while serving a prison term and became a Muslim minister upon his release in 1952. He quickly became very prominent in the movement with a following perhaps equaling that of its leader, Elijah Muhammad. In 1963, Malcolm was suspended by Elijah after a speech in which Malcolm suggested that President Kennedy's assassination was a matter of the chickens coming home to roost. He then formed a rival organization of his own, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. In 1964, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, he announced his conversion to orthodox Islam and his new belief that there could be brotherhood between black and white. In his Organization of Afro-American Unity, formed after his return, the tone was still that of militant black nationalism but no longer of separation. In Feb., 1965, he was shot and killed in a public auditorium in New York City. His assassins were vaguely identified as Black Muslims, but this is a matter of controversy.

Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks

activist Born: 1913Rosa Parks, an activist with the Montgomery, Alabama, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), made history in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger. She was arrested, and the Montgomery black community launched a bus boycott that would be one of the pivotal events in the civil-rights movement.Died: 2005

Parks, Rosa Lee

Parks, Rosa Lee, 19132005, American civil-rights activist, b. Tuskegee, Ala., as Rosa Louise McCauley. A seamstress and long-time member of the Montgomery, Ala., chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), her Dec. 1, 1955, arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a municipal bus to a white man sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. This successful protest, which lasted just over a year, marked the emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence as a civil-rights leader and provided the model for future nonviolent movement actions. Fired from her job and unable to find work, Parks moved in 1957 to Detroit, where she remained active in the civil-rights movement and worked (196588) as an aide to Congressman John Conyers. She was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress's highest honor, in 1999.

The Reconstruction Period

The Black Codes (1865-77) Reconstruction was a period in U.S. history during and after the American Civil War in which attempts were made to solve the political, social, and economic problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 Confederate states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war. As early as 1862, Pres. Abraham Lincoln had appointed provisional military governors for Louisiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The following year, initial steps were taken to reestablish governments in newly occupied states in which at least 10 percent of the voting population had taken the prescribed oath of allegiance. Aware that the presidential plan omitted any provision for social or economic reconstruction, the Radical Republicans in Congress resented such a lenient political arrangement under solely executive jurisdiction. As a result, the stricter Wade-Davis Bill was passed in 1864 but pocket vetoed by the President. After Lincoln's assassination (April 1865), Pres. Andrew Johnson further alienated Congress by continuing Lincoln's moderate policies. The Fourteenth Amendment, defining national citizenship so as to include blacks, passed Congress in June 1866 and was ratified, despite rejection by most Southern states (July 28, 1868). In response to Johnson's intemperate outbursts against the opposition as well as to several reactionary developments in the South (e.g., race riots and passage of the repugnant black codes severely restricting rights of blacks), the North gave a smashing victory to the Radical Republicans in the 1866 congressional election. That victory launched the era of congressional Reconstruction (usually called Radical Reconstruction), which lasted 10 years starting with the Reconstruction Acts of 1867. Under that legislation, the 10 remaining Southern states (Tennessee had been readmitted to the Union in 1866) were divided into five military districts; and, under supervision of the U.S. Army, all were readmitted between 1868 and 1870. Each state had to accept the Fourteenth or, if readmitted after its passage, the Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment, intended to ensure civil rights of the freedmen. The newly created state governments were generally Republican in character and were governed by political coalitions of blacks, carpetbaggers (Northerners who had gone into the South), and scalawags (Southerners who collaborated with the blacks and carpetbaggers). The Republican governments of the former Confederate states were seen by most Southern whites as artificial creations imposed from without, and the conservative element in the region remained hostile to them.

THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD (1865- 1877)

Following the Civil War, the two biggest tasks facing the United States was firstly, how to deal with the wounds of the war and readmit the southern states to the Union and secondly, how to help the newly freed blacks enjoy their freedom. These two issues became the focus of attention during the period 1865-1877. For this reason, the period is referred to as the Reconstruction period. President Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction was a moderate one. Lincoln did not see the South as conquered peoples but rather as citizens of the Unites States who were misled by bad leadership. His attitude toward the South is evident in the last paragraph of his second inaugural address" Based on the belief expressed above, the Lincoln Plan demanded the seceding states to do two things before they would be readmitted to the Union. 1. Ten percent of the voters in each state must expressed their loyalty to the United States. 2. These states must accept the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery. Unfortunately, Lincoln was not able to see his plan come through as in April, 1865, he was assassinated. The task of Reconstruction was taken up by his Vice-President, Andrew Johnson. THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD (1865- 1877) Andrew Johnson carried out Lincoln's Reconstruction Plans with minor changes. In addition to Lincoln's demands, Johnson wanted to deny a few Confederate leaders the right to vote while giving all other white men such right. Note that Johnson did not wish to extend the franchise to the newly freed blacks. Instead, he advised the governor of Mississippi to allow African-American men to vote only if they could pass some kind of literacy test. The Radical Republicans' Plan During and after the Civil war, the Radical Republicans became extremely powerful in Congress. They opposed the reconstruction plans of both Lincoln and Johnson as being too lenient. They wanted to deal more harshly with the South. They clashed frequently with the President Johnson over policies. The Radical Republicans made a number of demands: 1. They wanted to ban all former Confederate leaders from ever holding office again. 2. They wanted to to take lands from the former slave owners and give it to the newly freed slaves. 3. They wanted African-Americans to be granted full citizenship and the right to vote. Despite conflicts with President Johnson, the Radical Republicans were able to pass three important amendments to the Constitution which were of great benefits to African Americans.

The Thirteenth Amendment (1865)- This Amendment declared that slavery was illegal anywhere in the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) - This Amendment made all persons born in the US citizens of the United States as well as the states in which they live. Thus, African Americans now became citizens of the US. This Amendment, in effect, abolished the Dred Scott ruling which said that Blacks were not citizens of the United states. (see the Dred Scott case.) The Fifteen Amendment (1870) - This Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote. The continuing conflict over reconstruction policies eventually led to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. SEGREGATION IN THE SOUTH JIM CROW LAWS Following the Civil War and the end of slavery, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed to help African Americans enjoy their freedoms. However, Southern whites would have none of this and found ways to prevent Blacks from enjoying the benefits of these Amendments. Segregation, or the separation of the races, became the new way of life. After so many years of slavery during which blacks were seen as inferior, whites could not bear the thought of seeing a black person having the same rights as a white person. Throughout the South, state after state, passed a series of laws came to be known as Jim Crow laws, to keep blacks in their place. For the newly freed slaves, these "Black Codes" meant slavery all over again, but with a different name. The idea that the white and black races should be kept apart was forcefully argued by the editor of the Richmond Times: "It is necessary that this principle be applied in every relation of Southern life. God Almighty drew the color line and it cannot be obliterated. The negro must stay on his side and the white man must stay on his side, and the sooner both races recognize this fact and accept it, the better it will be for both." Segregation touched every aspect of life in the South as is evident in the sampling of laws below from several states. Whether in prison, in life or death, Jim crow became a way of life for African Americans. So terrible was the situation that Thaddeus Stevens, a Radical Republican, requested upon his death he be buried in an African cemetery. The following inscription is found on his tombstone: "I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude; but finding other cemeteries limited as to race, by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, equality of man before the Creator." SEGREGATION IN THE SOUTH

A SAMPLING OF JIM CROW LAWS IN SOUTHERN STATES 1. Nurses : No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which Negro men are placed. (Alabama 2. Buses : All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races. (Alabama) 3. Railroads :The conductor of each passenger train is authorized and required to assign each passenger to the car or the division of the car, when it is divided by a partition, designated for the race to which such passenger belongs. (Alabama) 4. Restaurants : It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city, at which white and colored people are served in the same room, unless such white and colored persons are effectually separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment. (Alabama) 5. Restaurants : All persons licensed to conduct a restaurant, shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room or serve the two races anywhere under the same license. Georgia 6. Toilet Facilities, Male : Every employer of white or Negro males shall provide for such white or Negro males reasonably accessible and separate toilet facilities. (Alabama) 7. Intermarriage :The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu shall be null and void. (Arizona) 8. Cohabitation : Any Negro man and white woman, or any white man and Negro woman, who are not married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve (12) months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred ($500.00) dollars. (Florida) 9. Education: The schools for white children and the schools for Negro children shall be conducted separately. (Florida) 10. Textbooks Books: Textbooks shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them. North Carolina 11. Libraries :The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals. North Carolina 12. Mental Hospitals :The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white persons be together. (Georgia) 13. Barbers :No colored barber shall serve as a barber [to] white women or girls. (Georgia)

14. Burial :The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons. Georgia 15. The Blind: The board of trustees shall...maintain a separate building...on separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race. Louisiana 16. Hospital Entrances :There shall be maintained by the governing authorities of every hospital maintained by the state for treatment of white and colored patients separate entrances for white and colored patients and visitors, and such entrances shall be used by the race only for which they are prepared. Mississippi 17. Prisons : The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from the negro convicts. Mississippi 18. Lunch Counters : No persons, firms, or corporations, who or which furnish meals to passengers at station restaurants or station eating houses, in times limited by common carriers of said passengers, shall furnish said meals to white and colored passengers in the same room, or at the same table, or at the same counter. South Carolina 19. Theaters :Every person...operating...any public hall, theatre, opera house, motion picture show or any place of public entertainment or public assemblage which is attended by both white and colored persons, shall separate the white race and the colored race and shall set apart and designate...certain seats therein to be occupied by white persons and a portion thereof , or certain seats therein, to be occupied by colored persons. Virginia

DISENFRANCHISING AFRICAN AMERICANS The Fifteen Amendment (1870) gave the franchise (the right to vote) to African Americans. However, Southern whites devised all kinds of schemes to prevent Blacks from exercising this right. These include poll tax, literacy tests, grandfather clauses and the use of terror by the Ku Klux Klan. Poll Tax: Southern states imposed a poll tax on citizens before they were allowed to vote. Obviously, this was very discriminatory to African Americans. The 24th Amendment eventually abolished the poll tax as a requirement for voting in Federal elections. Literacy tests: During slavery, blacks were never taught to read and write. Yet, in order to exercise their right to vote they had to prove they could read and write by passing a literacy list. Some of these tests were extremely difficult and usually involving reading and "interpreting" sections of the Federal or state constitution. Obviously, this was just another technique to disenfranchise African Americans. Grandfather clause: Poll tax and literacy tests had unintended effects on some white voters. There were many white voters who could not afford to pay poll tax and who could neither read nor write. To allow them to vote, southern states added a "grandfather clause" to their constitutions. According to this clause, any one who was qualified to vote before 1867, or whose father or grandfather was qualified to vote at the time, could now vote without

having to pay a poll tax or pass a literacy test. Again, only whites would benefit such a clause. SEGREGATION IN THE SOUTH PLESSY V FERGUSON (1896) Louisiana, like several other Southern states, passed various Jim Crow laws after the Civil war to prevent African Americans from enjoying their freedoms. Public transportation was segregated: blacks had to sit in the rear of the bus or railroad car. Homer Plessy sued the East Louisiana Railroad for preventing him from riding in a car set aside for whites only. Plessy was seven-eights whites and one- eight black, but was still considered black under Louisiana laws. He argued that his Fourteenth Amendment right which granted him equal protection as a citizen was violated. Supreme Court's Decision The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the railroad company. The court said Plessy's Fourteenth Amendment right was not violated because the railroad company had provided separate and equal facilities for both black and white passengers. As a result of this ruling, the new doctrine of "separate but equal" came into being. Under this doctrine, public and private facilities could be separated as long as such facilities were equal in nature. By providing the constitutional basis for segregation, the Supreme Court gave southern states the legal basis on which to keep African Americans in an inferior position. The problem, of course, with the "separate but equal" doctrine, was that the facilities were indeed separate, but were never equal. For example, black schools never had facilities equal to those of white schools.

AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR

The revolutionary war in America was fought between the early 13 British colonies against Britain from 1775 1783, and when the war ended, the 13 colonies gained their freedom and became The United States of America. The original 13 areas which were controlled by Britain are now the eastern US. They joined together to fight the American Revolution and became the first 13 states. The colonies were, from north to south, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The war broke out in 1775. The American Revolutionary Army led by George Washington won after 8 years of fighting. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the war. In 1776 when the War had already began, representatives of the North American colonists wrote The Declaration of Independence setting forth the reasons for declaring their independence from Great Britain. The Revolutionary war was a first American step on the road of greatness. When thirteen colonies became The United States of America the development of the great political and military force began and nothing could stop it. In my opinion the Revolutionary war was the only useful war, a war fought for the only reason why wars should be fought, in order to defend their honor and freedom and not because of power or oppression.

1.2.

Events leading up to the revolution

Britain and the thirteen colonies had a different view on the society and civilization. On one side the Americans were tired of the British oppression and on the other in 1763. The British started passing all kinds of acts and the Americans felt that their rights and freedom had been seriously violated. That caused a situation which could only be resolved with force. Due to newly born American view of their future, Britain decided to keep an eye on the thirteen colonies and passed several acts which prevented the Americans to do anything for themselves. Although relationships between the colonies and Britain have been good for years, things began to get worse in 1763 when Britain prohibited the American pioneers from settling and trading in lands west of the Appalachians, because those lands had been reserved for the Indians. In the following years the British Parliament passed several Acts to tax American goods or goods imported to America like the Sugar Act (1764.) which also included wine, coffee, silk and cloth, the Stamp Act (1765.) which presented the hardest hit on the merchants, lawyers, the press and innkeepers because it made them buy special stamps which they had to put on everything from legal documents to newspapers and liquor licenses, which were imposed on the Americans by the government of George Greenville. The act that caused the worst reactions from the Americans was the Tea Act from 1773. It was in Boston, the most important city in the thirteen British colonies, that ideas for independence were raised and the American Revolution born. The colonists main quarrel with Britain lay in taxation. The Stamp Act of 1765 and the later Townshend Act, which placed duties on imports, inflamed colonists because they had no vote. Charles Townshend was British Chancellor of Exchequer who wanted the Americans to help relieve taxation in Britain. His plan was to reduce the expenses of the empire by cutting the size of the British forces in the colonies and by posting them in regions far from the frontier where their maintenance was less expensive. The Townshend act proposed a series of new duties upon the colonies, taxes upon tea, lead, paint, paper, glass. No taxation without representation became a common cry. The so called Sons of liberty( a group of merchants and tradesmen which protested against Britain by burning pictures of George Greenville, blocking the trade of the stamps, destroying houses of the British representatives and making their lives

miserable as often as they could), led by Samuel Adams, demanded and managed to revoke the Stamp Act. However, attempts to enforce the Townshend Acts led to the Boston Massacre, a tragedy which signaled increasingly poor relations between Britain and colonies. At the time of the Townshend Acts, British troops were sent to Boston to protect customs commissioners. Bostonians often sneered at the soldiers and threw stones. On March 5th, 1770 the things got out of hand. The British army started shooting into the crowd of rebels and five Americans got killed.

1.2.1. Tea act and The Boston Tea Party 1773.

In 1773, Britain's East India Company had large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England and it was on the verge of bankruptcy. In an effort to save it, the government passed the Tea Act of 1773, which gave the company the right to export its merchandise directly to the colonies without paying any of the regular taxes that were imposed on the colonial merchants, who had traditionally served as the middlemen in such transactions. With these privileges, the company monopolized the colonial tea trade. The act caused a lot of raised eyebrows among Americans. First, it angered influential colonial merchants, who feared being replaced and bankrupted by a powerful monopoly. The East India Company's decision to grant franchises to certain American merchants for the sale of their tea created further resentments among those excluded from the trade. More important, however, the Tea Act revived American passions about the issue of taxation without representation. The law provided no new tax on tea. Britain assumed that most colonists would welcome the new law because it would reduce the price of tea to consumers by removing the middlemen. But the colonists responded by boycotting tea. The boycott mobilized large segments of the population. Particularly important to the movement were the activities of colonial women, who were primary consumers of tea and now became the leaders of the effort to the boycott. Various colonies made plans to prevent the East India Company from landing its cargoes in colonial ports. In ports other than Boston, agents of the company were "persuaded" to resign, and new shipments of tea were either returned to England or warehoused. In Boston, the agents refused to resign and, with the support of the royal governor, preparations were made to land incoming cargoes regardless of opposition. After failing to turn back the three ships in the harbor, local patriots led by Samuel Adams staged a spectacular drama. On the evening of December 16, 1773, three companies of fifty men each, camouflaged as Mohawk Indians, passed through a crowd of spectators, went aboard the three ships, broke open 342 tea chests, and threw them into the harbor. As the news of the Boston "tea party" spread, other seaports followed the example and staged similar acts of resistance of their own. When the Bostonians refused to pay for the property they had destroyed, George III and Lord North decided on a policy of force, to be applied only against Massachusetts, the so called Coercive Acts. In these four acts of 1774, Parliament closed the port of Boston, drastically reduced the powers of selfgovernment in the colony, permitted royal officers to be tried in other colonies or in England when accused of crimes, and provided for the quartering of troops in the colonists' barns and empty houses. The acts sparked new resistance up and down the coast.

1.3.

Eight years of fightng

The British had a big army in Boston whose purpose was to prevent the rebels from stirring up more problems. The key figures of American Revolution were John Hanckock and Samuel Adams. They were the ones who the British wanted to arrest in Lexington on April 18 1775, and then march on to Concord to seize the colonial arms. To warn of the arrival of British troops, a sexton called Robert Newman hung two lanterns in the tower of the Old North Church in Boston and, so legend has it, Paul Revere overtook his midnight ride,he road out in the middle of the night to warn colonial militia of the approaching British. At midnight on the 19th of April the British column, consisting of 650-900 troops left Boston, crossed the Charles River, followed closely by the alarm rider Paul Revere. As the British marched towards Concord, the entire countryside had been alerted to their presence, and rebel militia was deployed to meet them. At dawn the British parties under the command of Major Pitcairn, arrived at Lexington Green and there found a group of armed Militia. Pitcairn ordered the militia, led by John Parker, to be surrounded and disarmed. In response Parker ordered his men to disperse. Then a shot rang out. No one really knows who fired first, but the British, hearing the shot, fired upon the small group of militia, killing 8, and wounding 10 more. The militia then retreated into the woods to avoid the British fire. The British column then advanced to Concord, and encountered a group of armed militia at Concord North Bridge. This time when shots rang out the Americans were more prepared, and fired back in "The Shot Heard Round the World.", and the American Revolution began. The short battle at the bridge was a defeat, and the British were defeated, and abandoned the bridge, retreating to Concord center. Knowing that he was in a dangerous situation, Smith decided to return to Boston as soon as possible. In his retreat the real battle began. Militia from all surrounding towns had marched toward Concord, and the retreating column ran into this army. The Americans did not fight as the British did. Instead of forming an offensive line the provincials used small squad and company tactics to border the column and inflicted heavy damage. After that the British started to retreat towards Lexington, where Lord Percy was waiting to lead the retreat to Boston. Under Lord Percy's command the British retreating column maintained control, even under heavy fire, and the retreat to Boston was a success. The British suffered badly, nearly 20 percent casualties, but more importantly, this action led to the siege of Boston and the start of the Revolutionary War. After retreating from Lexington in April, 1775, the British Army occupied Boston for several months. In order to strengthen their position they decided to seize nearby Dorchester Heights and Charlestown peninsulas which offered a great view of the seaport and harbor, and were important to preserving the security of Boston. The Americans found out about the British plan, and decided to get to the Charlestown peninsula first, strengthen it, and present sufficient threat to cause the British to leave Boston. On 16 June, 1775, under the leadership of Colonels Putnam and Prescott, the Patriots went to the Charlestown Peninsula to establish defensive positions on Breed's Hill. The next morning, the British were astonished to see the rebel defenses on the hill and set out to reclaim the peninsula. General Howe was the commander of the British main assault force and led two costly and ineffective charges against the Patriot's defenses without inflicting significant casualties on his opponents. In their third attempt, the British were finally able to breach the American defenses and the Patriots were forced to retreat back to the mainland. This battle, though victorious, turned out to be costly for the British. Of the 2400 British soldiers in Howe's command there were 1054 casualties. The American casualties were 441. The battle served as a proof to the American people that the British are not invincible and it

became a symbol of national pride. After the Battle of Bunker Hill the British remained in Boston, surrounded by an ever growing number of Continental soldiers. Finally, after the Americans who were now commanded by General Washington occupied Dorchester Heights, the British were forced to withdraw from Boston. In the following years several battles took place. Some were won by the Americans and some by the British, but what was more important the American moral was high and they believed more and more in breaking from Britain. After the battles of Trenton in 1776, Princeton, Germantown and Bennington in 1777,there came the turning point of the American Revolutionary War , the battles of Saratoga in 1777. Saratoga was the British try to end the American Rebellion, but instead Americans confirmed their superiority and unnoficially won the war. First battle of Saratoga started on September 13th 1777, and although the Americans were forced to retreat to Bemis Heights, in the second battle of Saratoga which occurred in Bemis Heights on October 7th 1777 Americans forced the British army to retreat to Saratoga and to surrender on October 17th 1777. In Saratoga one quarter of Bitish army surrender and althuogh there were more battles to be fought, American independence was assured. After Battles of Saratoga the American army settled into winter quarters at Valley Forge where the American troops trained and were tought how to become proffesional soldiers. Although the Americans practically assured their independence, there were a few battles to be fought. After the British seige of Charleston from 17791780, with a victory in battles of Yorktown in 1781 the Americans effectively ended the war. On September 3, 1783, a peace treaty in Paris was formally signed between Great Britain and the United States. This treaty officially ended the Revolutionary War and there was nothing more stopping the United States on their journey to greatness.

1.4.

Declaration of independence

The Declaration of independence is the most important of all American historical documents, it is the document in which the thirteen colonies declared that they were independent of Britain and stated the principles of the new government. The document was drafted by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, but actually written by Thomas Jefferson and it received the approval of the Continental Congress on 4 July 1776. which also passed the Articles of Confederation. 4 July Independence Day has been the chief American patriotic holiday ever since. One of its most famous sentences from the Declaration of Independence is this: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Not all the men who helped write or voted for the Declaration signed it (Robert R. Livingston, for example, did not). All the signatures except six (Wythe, R. H. Lee, Wolcott, Gerry, McKean, and Thornton) were attached on Aug. 2, 1776. The first is that of John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress. The remaining 55 are those of Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris,

Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.

The American Civil War

A civil war fought between the northern and southern states of America from 186165. In the 19th century, an increasing number of people mostly from the industrial northern states, called abolitionists, wanted to make slavery illegal, but the more agricultural southern states wanted the right for each state to decide whether to keep slavery or not. Southern states also wanted individual states to have more power than the US federal government and many became secessionists, believing that southern states should secede from the Union (= become independent from the US). In 1860, Abraham Lincoln became President and although he was against slavery, he said that he would not end it. The southern states did not believe this and eleven states left the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, often called the Confederacy, with Jefferson Davis as its President and its capital in Richmond, Virginia. On 12 April 1861 the Confederate Army attacked Fort Sumter, which was in the Confederate state of South Carolina but still occupied by the Union Army, and the Civil War began. Over the next four years, the Union army tried to take control of the South. After the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, President Lincoln made the famous Gettysburg Address about democracy. The same year he issued the Emancipation Proclamation which made slavery illegal, but only in the Confederacy. Slaves played an important part in the war, giving information to Union soldiers and also serving in the Union army. In the South especially, people suffered greatly during the war and had little to eat. On 9 April 1865, when the South could fight no more, General Robert E Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. After the war, many Southerners still had very bad feelings towards the North and did not want to end slavery. On 14 April 1865, an actor who supported the South, John Wilkes Booth, shot and killed President Lincoln at Fords Theatre in Washington. Many southern cities had been destroyed during the war and the economy ruined, and there followed a long, difficult period of Reconstruction. Compare English Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg

A major battle (13 July 1863) during the American Civil War which helped the US to win the war. More soldiers died than in any other battle in US history. It was fought in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, between the southern forces under General Robert E Lee and the US soldiers led by General George Mead. Over 40 000 men on both sides were killed or wounded, and the battle ended as a major victory for the North.

The Gettysburg Address

A short but very famous speech by US President Abraham Lincoln on 19 November 1863 during the Civil War. He was at the military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four months after the Battle of Gettysburg. The speech consisted of only ten sentences, and Lincoln thought it was a flat failure and would soon be forgotten. He said that the US was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

The Emancipation Proclamation

The statement made by President Abraham Lincoln on 1 January 1863 that all slaves in the Confederate States were forever free. It had no actual power to make them free, but people talk about Lincoln freeing the slaves because of this proclamation (= announcement). It helped the North in the American Civil War as well, by allowing black people to serve in the army and navy, and by changing the war into a fight against slavery, which caused many people in England and France to give their support to the North. The Proclamation led in 1865 to the Thirteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, which officially ended slavery in all parts of the US.

Robert E Lee (Robert Edward Lee 180770)

The leader of the armies of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. He was respected for his honor and kindness. General Lee won many battles against the larger Union armies, including the second battle of Bull Run and Chancellors Ville. He lost at Gettysburg, however, and soon afterwards surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. Before the Civil War, Lee led US forces to arrest John Brown at Harpers Ferry. President Lincoln2 asked him to lead the US armies, but Lee was loyal to his state of Virginia and joined the South. After the war, he became President of Washington College, later named Washington and Lee College.

Ulysses S Grant (Ulysses Simpson Grant 182285)

The general who commanded the US Army during the Civil War and later became the 18th President of the US (186977). His greatest Civil War victory was at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and he accepted the surrender of Robert E Lee at Appomattox Court House. Grant was a Republican. He was not a successful president because he failed to stop the illegal actions of friends he appointed. His two volumes of Personal Memoirs (18856) are among the best military books ever written.

Abraham Lincoln (180965)

The 16th US President (18615). He is regarded by many people as Americas greatest president, because he served during the American Civil War, preserved the Union and freed the slaves. He is also often referred to as Honest Abe. He was a lawyer who was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1846 and then elected President as a Republican(1). Lincoln led the Union in the Civil War and in 1864 appointed Ulysses S Grant to lead the Union armies. He announced his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 to free the slaves in the South. Lincoln was shot and killed by the actor John Wilkes Booth.

MEXICAN AMERICAN WAR 1846

Mexican - American war was fought between the US and Mexico. It began after Texas became a state in 1845 and there was a dispute about where the border between Texas and Mexico should be. When the Mexicans refused to meet with a US emissary who was sent to negotiate a settlement of outstanding issues, President Polk ordered American forces to go close to the Mexican border in disputed territory. The Mexicans attacked and the war was on. The first two battles of the Mexican American War took place at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma on May 8th and 9th. The Mexican forces were forced to withdraw in both battles. In a series of battles American forces captured New Mexico territory. American forces were then split, some heading for California and some to Mexico. American forces seized California from Mexican forces using a combination, of deception, destiny and brute force. President Polk ordered the American navy to seize the port cities in case of war, which they did when war broke out. Finally a small force under General Kearny was sent to California. That force was critical in gaining final control from the Mexicans. The American army undertook its first successful amphibious landing, when under the command of General Winfield Scott, a force of 12,000 landed 3 miles southeast of the city of Vera Cruz. The Mexicans were soon forced to surrender. After his victory at Vera Cruz Scott advanced with his army towards Mexico City. Mexico City was defended by a series of fortresses that guarded the road to the city. American forces succeeded in approaching the first of the forces by secrecy. One by one the American forces managed to capture each of the fortresses and finally Mexico City was in American hands. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war, and the US paid Mexico $15 million for land that is now in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Many people in the northern states worried that the victory would increase the number of the states with slaves, and this worry was one of the causes of the Civil War.

SPANISH AMERICAN WAR 1898

Spanish-American war was fought between the US and Spain in 1898. The US had promised to recognize the right of Cubans to be independent from Spain. When in 1898 the US warship Maine exploded on the night of February 15th in Havana harbor and sank with 260 deaths, the US blamed Spain and both nations soon declared war. Even before war broke out Assistant Naval secretary Teddy Roosevelt had sent Admiral Dewey commander of US naval forces in the western to be prepared if war came with Spain to proceed to Manila and defeat the Spanish fleet there. Dewey acted aggressively, entering Manila Bay at night, providing the Spanish very little time to prepare for battle. Soon the entire Spanish fleet sunk. Once war had been declared the Americans public was worried about the Spanish attacking American cities. The American fleet's first task was to locate Spansh fleet which was found in Santiago Cuba, and the American fleet blockaded them in port. The Spanish fleet was not a match for the American fleet so they remained in the harbor. The decision was made to land the American troops at Daiquiri up the coast from Santiago. Among those coming ashore at Daiquiri was Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders (the popular name for the First Regiment of US Cavalry Volunteers which were led by Colonel Leonard Wood and Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt). Roosevelt had resigned his position as Assistant Naval Secretary to join the army. The Americans force the next day marched to Siboney, opposed only by periodic harassing fire by the Spanish. General Wheeler commanding American forces continued his advance towards Las Gausimas, where

he ran into a retreating force of Spanish. The Spanish retreated after a fight in which the Rough Riders won. The road towards Santiago was now open although difficult and narrow. At the end of the trail the Spanish were dug in on the crest of San Juan Ridge and in the village of El Caney. Unfortunately when the American forces advanced on El Caney on July 1 the actual assault did not develop as planned. Instead of taking an hour to overcome the Spanish defenses it took four assaults and all day. In the meantime the main part of the army had become ready to attack San Juan Hill. They made their way out of the jungle and into a meadow where they were attacked but after receiving some help they easily won. Then almost spontaneously the American rose to their feet and began charging the hill. Teddy Roosevelt rode his horse leading the men to the top of the hill and soon the Hill was in American hands. Once the Americans had captured San Juan Hill the seizing of Santiago was inevitable. The end came suddenly when the Spanish decided to break their fleet out of the harbor, but the American fleet was far superior to the Spanish ships and soon all Spanish ships were sunk. At that point the Spanish had no choice but to surrender Santiago. After Dewey's victory at Manila Bay, he did not have the ability to capture the city. He requested troops from the United States. While he waited he helped arm the Philippine guerillas which forced the Spanish to withdraw to Manila. By the time American troops arrived the Filipino guerillas were ready to capture the city and had declared their independence. When the Americans arrived they asked the Filipinos to allow them to take their place and capture the city. They agreed, and the Spanish surrendered to the Americans after a brief fight to satisfy their honor. The Treaty of Paris ended Spanish rule in Cuba, giving the US Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. After this victory, the US came to be recognized by other countries as a world power.

WORLD WAR I (191418)

World War I was fought from 1914 until 1918 between the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey) and the Allies (Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the US). During the first years of the war the president of the United States Woodrow Wilson tried to keep the US out of World War I. When the Germans sank a British passenger ship called Lusitania causing 1198 deaths, out of which 198 were Americans, Wilson demanded for Germany to take the responsibility for the torpedoing of Lusitania and to stop using submarines. In the beginning of the April, 1917, Wilson asked the Congress to declare war saying that the world must be made safe for democracy and on April 6th, 1917 The United States of America joined the Allies. The American forces played an important role in the bloody operations. In their first significant battle, the American Second Division stopped the Germans at the Chateau-Thierry and in June 1918 they forced the enemy out of Belleau woods. In the second battle on the river Marne the American forces helped in stopping the German forces on their way to Paris. In the great counteroffensive, in the battles on MenseArgone in September and October, the American forces, under the leadership of General Pershing, made the enemy retreat all the way back to their border. On November 7th 1918 the German army requested a treaty and Germany capitulated on November 11th, 1918. On January 8th, 1918 President Wilson presented to Congress his Fourteen Points, the 14 aims of the US at the end of World War I. They included a reduction

in military weapons, freedom of the seas, free international trade and several land agreements, such as establishing an independent Poland. The Fourteen Points were used in preparing the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 between the Allies and Germany officially ended World War I and established the League of Nations. According to the agreement, Germany was severely punished. It was forced to pay large amounts of money for damage done during the war, tight restrictions were placed on the number of armed forces it was allowed to have, and it lost possession of large areas of territory. This helped to cause poverty and disorder in Germany, and many people believe that the Treaty of Versailles created the circumstances which led to the Nazis coming to power and therefore to World War II.

WORLD WAR II (193945)

World War II was fought between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) and the Allies (Britain and the countries in the British Empire, France, and later the USSR and the US). Many other countries were also involved both directly and indirectly.The war started when Germany, under Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, invaded and took control of other countries and the Allies wanted to prevent German power growing in this way. Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939 when German troops entered Poland, and soon Winston Churchill, became the British prime minister. In 1940 Germany attacked Britain but was not successful, mainly because of the British victory in the Battle of Britain which was a very important battle in World War II, because the British prevented the Germans from controlling the skies over Britain and the English Channel, and so stopped the German army from invading Britain. Regarding to that battle in his famous speech, Winston Churchill said that never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. His radio speeches during World War II gave the British people a strong determination to win the war, especially at times of great crisis. Example of Churchills phrases still often quoted today is I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. In 1941 Germany invaded Russia and Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, an action which brought the US into the war. The attack killed 2 403 people, injured 1 178 and destroyed 19 ships and 188 planes. The phrase Remember Pearl Harbor came to be used to encourage Americans to support the war. In 1942 Japan increased its control over several countries in Asia but was checked by US forces in the Pacific. In the same year, at the Battle of El Alamein, Allied forces began to defeat Germany and Italy in northern Africa. In 1943 the Allies took Italy and Russian forces began to advance on Germany from the east. In 1944 the Allies invaded northern Europe with the Normandy landings and began to defeat Germany in Europe. The Normandy landings happened on June 6th 1944. The Allies landed in Normandy, northern France. They were led by General Eisenhower, and defeated the German forces defending the beaches. The secret name of the landings was Overlord. The war ended in 1945 when the Allies took control of Germany, Hitler killed himself, and Japan was defeated as a result of the atom bombs being dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Germany and Japan surrendered separately in 1945. Over 50 million people were killed in the war, more than 20 million of them were Russians. World War II is also remembered for the very large number of Jewish and other people killed in German concentration camps and the harsh treatment of prisoners of war captured by the Japanese.

Vietnam War

conflict in Southeast Asia, primarily fought in South Vietnam between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces aided by North Vietnam. The war began soon after the Geneva Conference provisionally divided (1954) Vietnam at 17 N lat. into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). It escalated from a Vietnamese civil war into a limited international conflict in which the United States was deeply involved, and did not end, despite peace agreements in 1973, until North Vietnam's successful offensive in 1975 resulted in South Vietnam's collapse and the unification of Vietnam by the North.

Causes and Early Years

In part, the war was a legacy of France's colonial rule, which ended in 1954 with the French army's catastrophic defeat at Dienbienphu and the acceptance of the Geneva Conference agreements (see Vietnam). Elections scheduled for 1956 in South Vietnam for the reunification of Vietnam were canceled by President Ngo Dinh Diem. His action was denounced by Ho Chi Minh, since the Communists had expected to benefit from them. After 1956, Diem's government faced increasingly serious opposition from the Viet Cong, insurgents aided by North Vietnam. The Viet Cong became masters of the guerrilla tactics of North Vietnam's Vo Nguyen Giap. Diem's army received U.S. advice and aid, but was unable to suppress the guerrillas, who established a political organization, the National Liberation Front (NLF) in 1960.

U.S. Involvement
In 1961, South Vietnam signed a military and economic aid treaty with the United States leading to the arrival (1961) of U.S. support troops and the formation (1962) of the U.S. Military Assistance Command. Mounting dissatisfaction with the ineffectiveness and corruption of Diem's government culminated (Nov., 1963) in a military coup engineered by Duong Van Minh; Diem was executed. No one was able to establish control in South Vietnam until June, 1965, when Nguyen Cao Ky became premier, but U.S. military aid to South Vietnam increased, especially after the U.S. Senate passed the Tonkin Gulf resolution (Aug. 7, 1964) at the request of President Lyndon B. Johnson. In early 1965, the United States began air raids on North Vietnam and on Communistcontrolled areas in the South; by 1966 there were 190,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam. North Vietnam, meanwhile, was receiving armaments and technical assistance from the Soviet Union and other Communist countries. Despite massive U.S. military aid, heavy bombing, the growing U.S. troop commitment (which reached nearly 550,000 in 1969), and some political stability in South Vietnam after the election (1967) of Nguyen Van Thieu as president, the United States and South Vietnam were unable to defeat the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. Optimistic U.S. military reports were discredited in Feb., 1968, by the costly and devastating Tet offensive of the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong, involving attacks on more than 100 towns and cities and a month-long battle for Hue in South Vietnam.

U.S. Withdrawal

Serious negotiations to end the war began after U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's decision not to seek reelection in 1968. Contacts between North Vietnam and the United States in Paris in 1968 were expanded in 1969 to include South Vietnam and the NLF. The United States, under the leadership of President Richard M. Nixon, altered its tactics to combine U.S. troop withdrawals with intensified bombing and the invasion of Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia (1970). The length of the war, the high number of U.S. casualties, and the exposure of U.S. involvement in war crimes such as the massacre at My Lai (see My Lai incident) helped to turn many in the United States against the war. Politically, the movement was led by Senators James William Fulbright, Robert F. Kennedy, Eugene J. McCarthy, and George S. McGovern; there were also huge public demonstrations in Washington, D.C., as well as in many other cities in the United States and on college campuses. Even as the war continued, peace talks in Paris progressed, with Henry Kissinger as U.S. negotiator. A break in negotiations followed by U.S. saturation bombing of North Vietnam did not derail the talks, and a peace agreement was reached, signed on Jan. 27, 1973, by the United States, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the NLF's provisional revolutionary government. The accord provided for the end of hostilities, the withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops (several Southeast Asia Treaty Organization countries had sent token forces), the return of prisoners of war, and the formation of a four-nation international control commission to ensure peace.

End of the War

Fighting between South Vietnamese and Communists continued despite the peace agreement until North Vietnam launched an offensive in early 1975. South Vietnam's requests for aid were denied by the U.S. Congress, and after Thieu abandoned the northern half of the country to the advancing Communists, a panic ensued. South Vietnamese resistance collapsed, and North Vietnamese troops marched into Saigon Apr. 30, 1975. Vietnam was formally reunified in July, 1976, and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. U.S. casualties in Vietnam during the era of direct U.S. involvement (196172) were more than 50,000 dead; South Vietnamese dead were estimated at more than 400,000, and Viet Cong and North Vietnamese at over 900,000.

Constitution of the United States

I INTRODUCTION

Constitution of the United States, system of fundamental laws of the United States of America. The Constitution was drawn up by 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 and ratified by the states in 1788. The Constitution defines distinct powers for the Congress of the United States, the president, and the federal courts. This division of authority is known as a system of checks and balances, and it ensures that none of the branches of government can dominate the others. The Constitution also establishes and limits the authority of the federal government over the states and spells out freedoms and liberties for U.S. citizens. II FORCES THAT SHAPED THE CONSTITUTION

In 1774 the Parliament of Great Britain capped a series of abuses against the American colonies by imposing a tax on tea imports to the colonies. The colonies quickly agreed to convene a Continental Congress, which in 1776 appointed two committeesone to draft the Declaration of Independence and the other to prepare a form of confederation among the colonies. In 1778 this second committee produced the Articles of Confederation. They took effect in 1781 when Maryland, the last holdout state, ratified them. The Articles of Confederation established a league of friendship among the states, but not a political union. Each state remained separate and sovereign (under self-rule). The central government consisted of a one-chamber Congress, in which each state had a single vote. Congress had few powers, lacking even the authority to impose taxes. Any congressional action required the approval of 9 of the 13 states. The government had no president and no central court. As a result, Congress in the 1780s could not deal with serious national problems, such as the repayment of about $40 million in domestic debt and $12 million in foreign debts incurred during the American Revolution (1775-1783). States also incurred about $25 million in debt during the war. Small creditors, including soldiers who had lent money to the revolutionary cause, were starved for cash because the states were slow to repay. Many of these creditors were forced to sell their repayment notes to speculators at greatly reduced values, and the states feared mob violence. A depression in the mid-1780s threatened farmers in many states with foreclosures of their properties and jail. In May 1786, delegates from each state were called to a trade convention in Annapolis, Maryland, to find common ground on waterway navigation rights and other issues. Only fives states sent delegates, and they decided to postpone any action. Before adjourning, the delegates in attendance asked their state legislatures to call a national convention to meet in Philadelphia the following May to investigate important [government] defects of a nature so serious as to render the situation of the United States delicate and critical. Later in 1786 and in 1787, poor farmers led by Daniel Shays stormed several courthouses and tried to seize a federal arsenal. Local militias suppressed the uprising, known as Shays Rebellion, but it sent tremors through the 13 states. Some

legislatures began to enact laws relieving debtors of their debts, which angered many wealthy creditors. States with good seaports took advantage of merchants in other states by imposing large import and export taxes. These and other problems required national solutions that neither the states nor the Confederation Congress had the political will to confront. The continuing crisis and the threat of further rebellions spurred the states to call a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. VI OVERVIEW

The Constitution spells out in six articles (sections) the powers of the federal government and the states. Later amendments expanded some of these powers and limited others. The Constitution prevents tyrannical abuses of authority through the separation of powers: Each branch of government has its own responsibilities and cannot take action in areas assigned to the other branches. Congress enacts laws, leaving enforcement of the laws to the executive branch and interpretation of them to the judicial branch. The Constitution does not include the term separation of powers. The first three articles establish the separation mechanism and mark out areas of responsibility for each branch of government. Article I vests (places) the legislative power of the federal government in Congress. Only Congress can enact general laws applicable to all the people, such as outlawing counterfeiting or promoting a national environmental policy. Article II vests the executive power in the president, including the authority to appoint federal officials and to prosecute federal crimes. Congress cannot decide whether a particular person should be brought to trial for violating the law. Only the executive branch has that authority. Article III vests the federal judicial power, including the power to conduct trials, in the Supreme Court and in other federal courts that Congress creates. Neither Congress nor the president or executive branch officials can declare a person guilty. Only a judge or jury can make these decisions. No member of Congress may serve simultaneously as a member of the executive branch. This separation differs strikingly from the British practice, in which the prime minister and other executive officials are also members of Parliament. The Constitution divides governmental powers in other ways, both within the federal government and between the federal government and the states. Article I splits the legislative power by creating a bicameral (two-chamber) legislaturethe House of Representatives and the Senate. This article also details the specific powers that Congress can exercise, including imposing taxes, maintaining a military, and setting import duties. Congress cannot exercise powers not enumerated (listed) in the Constitution. Article I, however, grants Congress the right to make laws that it deems necessary and proper to carry out the enumerated powers. This implied power gives Congress wide leeway in lawmaking.

The Constitution leaves other powers to the states to exercise at their discretion, with two exceptions. First, Article VI says the Constitution is the supreme law, so the states cannot make laws that conflict with federal laws. Second, the Constitution guarantees to the people certain civil liberties (the right to be free of government interference) and civil rights (the right to be treated as a free and equal member of the country). These liberties and rights are spelled out primarily in the Bill of Rights and in the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th amendments. Civil liberties include such cherished American freedoms as the freedom of speech, press, and religion, and the right to a fair trial. Civil rights include the right to vote and to be treated equally regardless of race or ethnic origins. By dividing and limiting various governmental powers, the Constitution creates a system of checks and balances. If one branch threatens to become too powerful, other branches may act to block or thwart it. For example, if the president steps beyond his or her powers, Congress can refuse to provide funds, or the courts can rule the presidents actions unconstitutional. VII THE INFLUENCE OF THE CONSTITUTION

The Constitution plays a role in virtually every aspect of life in the United States. Its very existence gives rise to constitutionalismthe expectation that government will abide by the rule of law and that heated political issues will be fought at the ballot box and in the courts, not on the streets. Even though this expectation has not always been metthe most searing exception being the Civil Warthe United States is remarkable for its open political system that, over time, has dramatically expanded rights and freedom for increasing numbers of people. A Defining the Role of the Federal Government

Although the Constitution created a new federal government, it took a courageous, brilliant, and farseeing Supreme Court chief justice to help realize the framers vision. In a series of striking opinions, Chief Justice John Marshall, who sat on the Supreme Court from 1801 until his death in 1835, forcefully built a body of law that gave constitutional strength to the new government. The defining moment came in 1803 when Marshall announced the doctrine of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison. It is for the courts, Marshall wrote in his decision, not other branches of government, to say what the Constitution means. By asserting the primacy of the judicial branch over the other branches of government, Marshalls decision made the Supreme Court the authoritative interpreter of the Constitution. In this single decision, the Supreme Court won the right to strike down any law enacted by Congress or the states that conflicts with the Constitution. The Marbury case made the Supreme Court the main arbiter (decision-maker) in struggles over state and federal power. Marshall used this power in 1819, in McCulloch v. Maryland, to give vast authority to Congress and the federal

government. The case arose when Congress created a national bank, the Bank of the United States. Some states objected and tried to tax the bank out of existence. The Supreme Court decided that even though the Constitution did not explicitly give Congress the power to create a bank, Congress could do so under the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution. The clause empowers Congress to take whatever actions it deems appropriate to achieve its legitimate goals, such as regulating the economy. In the nearly two centuries since the Marshall courts broad interpretation of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the federal government has expanded into nearly every aspect of U.S. social and economic life. The Supreme Court cannot force other branches of government to obey its decisions. In 1832 the court ruled in Worcester v. Georgia in favor of the Cherokees in a treaty dispute with the United States. Upon hearing of the decision, President Andrew Jackson is said to have retorted: John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it. Jackson ignored the courts decision, and Georgia stripped the Cherokee of their land. In the next century and a half, federal and state governments sometimes ignored judicial decisions. Some Southern states evaded the Courts 1954 desegregation ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka for years. Arkansas, for example, refused to abide by the Courts decision until 1957, when President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce it. But the principle of judicial review has historically been so widely respected that eventually the Courts declaration of constitutional principles has prevailed. B Regulating Business and Commerce

Congress has no broader power than that which it exercises under the Commerce Clause. Under the Articles of Confederation, uncontrolled economic competition between the states stifled the countrys economy. Conflicts over navigation rights and the practice of taxing goods from other states helped spur the states to call the Constitutional Convention. The framers sought to avoid such problems by assigning to Congress the power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce. In 1824 in Gibbons v. Ogden, Chief Justice Marshall gave the Commerce Clause a sweeping definition, establishing Congresss commerce power as a broad tool for national policy making. Commerce is more than just buying and selling, he said, and the authority to regulate commerce includes the right to control nearly all areas of the national economy. This power grew throughout the 19th century, especially after the Civil War (1861-1865) as manufacturing and industry grew in importance in the American economy. The commerce power gave Congress the authority to create regulatory agencies that set railroad rates and conditions, regulated the quality of foods and drugs, and subjected more and more of the economy to governmental oversight. In the late 19th century the Supreme Court narrowed the reach of the Commerce Clause, pointing to the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution, which reserves power to the states that is not delegated to the federal government. Activities such as manufacturing, the Court said, are not part of interstate commerce because they are local activities, and therefore only the states may regulate them. The Court struck

down several congressional attempts to regulate labor practices, wages, and industrial conditions. But in the late 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, the Supreme Court began to rethink these limitations. By 1940, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt had appointed several new justices, the Court proclaimed a new doctrine: Anything that affects interstate commerce falls within Congresss commerce power. Since then, Congress has had a free hand to regulate industrial and economic activities in countless ways. Major civil rights laws outlawing discrimination, for example, were enacted under the commerce power. In the 1990s the Supreme Court revived some of the earlier doctrines, putting brakes on Congresss exercise of the commerce power for the first time in 60 years. In 1995 in United States v. Lopez, the Court struck down a federal law outlawing guns in schools across the country because there was no showing of an effect on commerce. Congress does not have a general power to police evils, the Court said. This power is for the states to exercise. The Supreme Court has also given new life to the Tenth Amendment, but not as broadly as in the early 20th century. In 1997 in Printz v. United States and Mack v. United States the court struck down a federal gun control law that required state officials to conduct a background check on gun buyers. The Court invalidated the background checks because under the Tenth Amendment, Congress may not direct state officials to take particular actions, even if those actions relate to commerce. C Protecting Personal Rights C1 Equality The original, unamended text of the Constitution does not guard against unequal treatment of individuals, except in one minor way. The Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV forbids states from favoring their own citizens against nonresidents within their borders. Nothing in the Constitution, however, barred the states from discriminating against people because of their race or gender. Formal legal equality became a constitutional principle only upon ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865 and the 14th Amendment in 1868. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, and it is the only constitutional provision that applies directly to all U.S. citizens rather than simply to the government. The 14th Amendment imposed limitations on state power for the first time since the Constitution itself was ratified. One part, the Equal Protection Clause, prohibits a state from denying to any person within its borders the equal protection of the laws. This clause was intended to bar Southern states from discriminating against former slaves. Courts enforced the Equal Protection Clause sparingly for nearly a century. During this period the Supreme Court struck down only a few laws on the grounds that they were racially discriminatory. In 1880, for example, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a West Virginia law denying blacks the right to serve on juries. But in 1883 in the Civil Rights Cases the Supreme Court held that the Equal Protection Clause applies only to activities carried out by the states themselves, not by private citizens. This decision

permitted racial segregation in private facilities such as hospitals, restaurants, and hotels. In 1896, in the notorious case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that a state could officially segregate blacks and whites as long as the black facilities were equal. This separate-but-equal doctrine lasted until 1954 when the Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education that schools racially segregated by government decree can never be equal. In Bolling v. Sharpe that same year, which involved segregated schools in the District of Columbia, the Court ruled that the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment binds the federal government under the same equal protection rule. Since 1954 the Equal Protection Clause has figured in dozens of landmark Supreme Court cases and in thousands of lower-court cases around the country. In 1967, for example, the Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that the State of Virginia could not make it a criminal offense for black and white individuals to marry. By 1970 the Court had made it clear that racial discrimination of any sort is unconstitutional. The Court then began applying the Equal Protection Clause to laws and policies that treated men and women unequally. But not all were struck down. In 1981, for instance, the Court ruled in Rostker v. Goldberg that the federal government could require men, but not women, to register for the military draft. On the whole, however, the Equal Protection Clause bars gender-based discrimination in nearly all other areas of U.S. society. The clause has also been used to void laws that discriminated against foreigners residing in the United States and against children born to parents who were not married. Two fiercely debated issues are as yet unresolved. First, the Court has not equated sexual orientation with protected classes such as race or ethnic origin. As a consequence, the Court has so far not declared any general constitutional right of homosexuals to be free from discrimination. Second, the Court has said that race may be taken into account when necessary to remedy past constitutional violations, so that an affirmative-action program designed to increase the number of minorities working for a municipal police or fire department is constitutional if those departments had discriminated in the past. But in a series of cases in the 1990s, the Court has suggested that affirmative-action programs that set aside a certain number of places or dollars for members of minorities, without regard to past discrimination, are unlikely to withstand constitutional scrutiny. C2 The Right to Privacy

The Constitution does not include an explicit guarantee of a right to privacy. No article or amendment gives United States citizens the right to act however they please in their homes or elsewhere. Indeed, the word privacy never appears in the Constitution. However, the Supreme Court has developed a doctrine known as substantive due process that extends constitutional protections over some types of personal behavior. This doctrine serves as the basis for the constitutional right to privacy.

The due process clauses in the 5th and 14th amendments bar the federal government and the states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. At first, the Court applied due process only to procedures. This meant, for example, that a state could take away an individuals property as long as it offered the person a fair hearing to block the action. In the late 19th century the Court began using the due process clauses to protect certain substantive rightsbasic rights that go beyond rules to include actual results. Substantive rights include, for example, a citizens right not just to a fair hearing before the government takes that citizens property (procedural due process), but also the right to fair compensation based on the propertys value. Over time the doctrine of substantive due process grew to include many protections now taken for granted by U.S. citizens. In 1923, for example, the Court ruled in Meyer v. Nebraska that the state could not ban the teaching of foreign languages in schools. In this and other decisions, the Court said, in effect, that parents have a broad but limited right to raise their children as they see fit. This ideathat the Constitution protects peoples right to live their lives as they desiredid not excite much comment until 1965. That year the Supreme Court in Griswold v. Connecticut struck down a state law prohibiting married couples from using contraceptives. There was no rational reason for such a law, the Court said, and it too drastically interfered with the basic intimacy of the marriage bond. Most states had laws similar to Connecticuts, but few if any actually enforced them; so the Courts ruling as a practical matter reflected prevailing values. But Griswold paved the way for a far more controversial case. In 1973 the Court held in Roe v. Wade that the states cannot bar a woman from having an abortion because of the constitutional right to privacy. Because it went against the deep convictions of many people, Roe ignited a firestorm of political controversy that has continued ever since. Although the court has heard many abortion cases in the years since Roe and has changed the rules somewhat, it has declined to back away from the central point: A woman has a constitutional right to control her body. C3 Free Speech

Under the First Amendment, all United States citizens have the right to speak their minds and publish their thoughts. Originally the First Amendment was aimed at preventing only Congress from interfering with freedom of speech and freedom of the press. But in 1925 the Supreme Court ruled in Gitlow v. New York that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment incorporated the First Amendment, extending free speech protections to the states. When governments interfere with speech, they usually do so by either censoring it beforehand or by punishing it afterward. The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment is nearly absolute in protecting against a prior restraint. When President Richard M. Nixon went to court to stop the New York Times and the Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers in 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in New York Times v. United States that neither the president nor the courts could constitutionally do so. Whether the government may punish someone after speaking depends on what

is said. In general, it is unconstitutional to punish someone for the content of a speech or publication. Since the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, however, courts have excluded certain types of speech from First Amendment protection. Political dissentspeech that criticizes the government or calls for its removalhas sparked some of the fiercest debates over constitutional rights. In 1798 Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which prohibited speeches and publications criticizing the government. Although these laws were surely unconstitutional, no case challenging their constitutionality ever reached the Supreme Court, and they expired in 1801. In 1919, following World War I (1914-1918), the Court was confronted with a number of espionage cases that tested these rights for the first time. At first the Court seemed to suggest that Congress could constitutionally outlaw any type of speech that might, even if remotely, interfere with the war effort. It was in one of these cases, Schenck v. United States (1919), that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. first announced the famous clear and present danger test. Holmes said that subversive speech could be banned if the words were of such a nature and used in such a way that they posed a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evil that Congress has a right to prevent. But a majority of justices later disagreed with him, and for half a century the Supreme Court frequently upheld convictions of people who advocated unlawful conduct without much chance that it would ever happen. In 1969 the Court essentially adopted Holmess test in Brandenburg v. Ohio. In that case the Court ruled that the government cannot forbid people from advocating the use of violence or illegal conduct unless they are advocating others to take imminent lawless action and unless their advocacy is likely to incite or produce such action. For example, a person urging a mob to storm a jail in order to lynch a prisoner may be prosecuted. But the First Amendment protects a person who merely advocates the use of violence if there is little likelihood that violence will actually occur. Freedom of speech is not limited to political ideas, but encompasses a wide array of expressions. In recent years, the Court has provided First Amendment protection to commercial advertisements, many types of sexually explicit pictures, most defamatory statements, and hate-mongering proclamations. Freedom of speech also extends beyond newspaper articles and street corner speeches to many other forms of expression. The right also covers public demonstrations, books, billboards, movies, and computer communication. In 1997, the Supreme Court held in Reno v. ACLU that Congress cannot ban indecent speech on the Internet. C4 Religious Rights

In the famous words of Thomas Jefferson, the Constitution erects a wall of separation between church and state. The First Amendments Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause serve as the principle bulwarks against government intrusion in religious life.

Under the Establishment Clause, neither the federal government nor the states can enact laws that would establish or create a religion. In the 17th century, most American colonies supported official religions with public revenues, and laws required residents to attend church services. The framers of the Constitution drafted the Establishment Clause to ensure that there would be no official national religion. In 1940 the court ruled in Cantwell v. Connecticut that the religion clauses bind the states just as the press and speech clauses do. The application of the Establishment Clause usually turns on whether and to what degree the government may provide support for religious activities. The court has prohibited officially sponsored school prayer, although children in public schools may pray on their own. The Courts decisions in other areas have been less consistent. The Court has permitted displays of religious symbols, such as a Christmas scene, in public areas such as parks and municipal buildings in some instances and not in others. Similarly, it has approved government expenditures that benefit religious schools in some cases and not in others. The outcome of each case turns on the specific facts involved. More difficult questions arise when the government outlaws an activity that incidentally affects a religious practice. In Employment Division v. Smith (1990) the Court ruled that Oregon could prohibit the use of peyote, a hallucinogen, even though it is used in some Native American religious ceremonies. The Court reasoned that because the law was general in scope and had the secular (nonreligious) purpose of outlawing dangerous drugs, the law did not violate the Constitution merely because it also resulted in the banning of a particular religious practice. On the other hand, a law is not necessarily general and neutral just because the government says so. In 1993 the Court unanimously struck down a Hialeah, Florida, municipal ordinance that banned animal sacrifice. Although the ban seemed neutral, the court ruled in Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah that the law unfairly targeted the Santera religion. The legal interpretation of the separation of church and state raises perplexing legal issues because the Free Exercise Clause sometimes conflicts with the Establishment Clause. If the government taxes church property, for example, does the tax violate the churchs right to free exercise of its religion? If, on the other hand, the state exempts churches from property taxes, does the exemption constitute an unconstitutional establishment of religion. In 1971 the Supreme Court upheld property tax exemptions for religious groups in Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York, but the tension between the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses still defies simple resolution by the Supreme Court. C5 Rights of the Accused

The Bill of Rights provides specific procedural protections for people accused of committing crimes. These include the right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, the right against double jeopardy (the right not to be tried twice for the same crime), the right to fair procedures during trial, and the right against self-incrimination

(the right not to have to testify against yourself at a criminal trial). The Bill of Rights also guarantees the right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the charges, to cross-examine witnesses, to compel witnesses for the defense to come to court, and to have the assistance of lawyers. The Supreme Court has also used the Bill of Rights as the basis for other protections. From the Fourth Amendments ban on unreasonable searches, for example, the Court developed the so-called exclusionary rule, which excludes evidence from a trial if it was seized unconstitutionally. For most of U.S. history, these rights generated little comment because they applied only in federal prosecutions. Since most crimes were tried in state courts, a criminal defendant gained these procedural protections only if provided for in state constitutions. But beginning in the 1960s, the Supreme Court ushered in a criminallaw revolution by applying these provisions in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth amendments directly to the states. In 1961, for example, the Court ruled in Mapp v. Ohio that evidence illegally seized by local police may not be introduced in state criminal trials. In the 1963 case Gideon v. Wainwright the Court said that if a person being charged with a felony cannot afford a lawyer the state must provide one free of charge. In 1966 in the famous case of Miranda v. Arizona, the Court held that the police must advise arrested suspects of their basic constitutional rights: the right to remain silent and the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If the police fail to give a suspect Miranda warnings, any confession must be excluded from evidence. At the same time, the Supreme Court greatly expanded habeas corpusthe right to challenge state criminal convictions by going to federal court to contest the constitutionality of the procedures used. Until the late 1980s prisoners were permitted to file not just one but multiple habeas corpus appeals, inundating the courts with prisoner petitions. These and many other rulings initiated a national debate about whether the Supreme Court has ruled too strongly in favor of defendants rights, making the job of lawenforcement officials too difficult. In recent years more conservative justices have declared many exceptions to the liberal rulings of the 1960s. In particular, the court has drastically reduced the availability of habeas corpus appeals. But despite the Courts changing philosophy, the core of the most important protections remains in place. C6 Other Civil Liberties

The Constitution protects many other civil liberties besides the freedom of speech and religion, the right of privacy, and the rights of the accused. Notable among these other liberties are freedom of assembly, freedom of association, the right not to associate, freedom of belief, and the right to petition the governmentall protected by the First Amendment. Protected as parts of due process are the rights to marry, to have children, and to raise them in accordance with parental beliefs. X THE CONSTITUTION TODAY

The Constitution has endured for more than 200 years, and it continues to shape the countrys most pressing social and political controversies. Some constitutional issues, such as the appropriate balance of authority between the state and federal governments, remain as unsettled as they were when the Constitution was adopted in 1788. Some issues, seemingly settled, are still being testedfor example, the debate over abortion continues. So, too, is the debate over whether the states may curb a proliferation of hate speech that vilifies minority groups. The courts must also adapt and interpret the Constitution to confront issues never anticipated by the framers, such as privacy rights on the Internet. Sometimes political problems develop that seem impossible to tackle without constitutional change. One such issue, growing since the 1980s, is campaign finance reform. Candidates for president, Congress, and many state offices raise huge sums of money to run for office. The fund-raising practices often cause concern that these leaders will be beholden to special interests when they take office. In 1976 the Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo that some limits on campaign spending violated the First Amendment and cannot be enforced. In the subsequent two decades political candidates used these exceptions to get around spending caps, all but eliminating any real limit on campaign spending. Stopping these campaign-financing abuses seems to require limits, but the Courts decision bars such restrictions. The issue remains a continuing source of controversy. When presidents appoint new members to the Supreme Court, the change in composition of the Court sometimes leads to dramatic turns in constitutional interpretation. One area of interpretation that seems to be changing is the Courts approach to federalism. For more than a century, the Court consistently maintained the supremacy of the federal government over the states. But in U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (1995), a case involving state efforts to limit the terms of members of Congress, four dissenting justices declared in effect that sovereignty rests with the states. Under this reasoning, the federal governments authority is limited to the powers explicitly granted in the Constitution. The states assume powers assigned to them as well as any powers not mentioned in the Constitution, except those explicitly prohibited. The Court majority rejected this view, but it is entirely possible that the debate that has opened up may ultimately lead to a new definition of federalism, with results that no one today can safely predict.

President of the United States

INTRODUCTION President of the United States, chief executive officer of the federal government, leader of the executive branch, and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The president has the power to

make treaties with other nations, with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate. The president also appoints, with Senate consent, diplomatic representatives, Supreme Court judges, and many other officials. The president and vice president are the only government officials in the United States elected by and representing the entire nation. Although the president shares power with Congress and the judiciary, he or she is the most powerful and important officeholder in the country. The president has no vote in Congress but is the single largest source of legislative proposals that become law. As the principal foreign policy maker, the president of the United States has become the world's most important leader in international affairs. TERM OF OFFICE AND QUALIFICATIONS The Constitution of the United States specifies a four-year presidential term. It originally said nothing about how many terms a president could serve. But the precedent established by George Washington limited his successors to two terms. Succession by a vice president after a president's death provided the opportunity to serve more than eight years without strictly violating the two-term rule. No president tried to serve more than eight years in office until Republican Theodore Roosevelt. After filling out three-and-a-half years of the term of President William McKinley following McKinleys assassination in 1901 and then serving four years in his own right (19051909), Roosevelt ran unsuccessfully in 1912 for another four years. The need for steady leadership during World War II (1939-1945) made it possible for Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt to break the tradition by winning four successive elections between 1932 and 1944. In a reaction against Franklin Roosevelts extended presidency, in 1951 Congress and state legislatures approved the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which limits a president to two elected terms. The amendment also prohibits a person from running for election a second time if he or she has already served more than two years of a term to which someone else had been elected. Presidential Qualifications and Salary The Constitution requires presidents to be natural-born citizens of the United States who are at least 35 years of age and have resided in the United States for 14 years. As a tacit statement of Americas commitment to democracy and equal opportunity, the Constitution gave any free white male citizen of the country the opportunity to become president. All males gained the right to become president in 1870 when the 15th Amendment to the Constitution gave African Americans the right to vote. Women were excluded from running for the office until 1920, when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave them the right to vote. The Constitution specifies that presidents receive compensation (salary and benefits) for their work, and Congress sets the specific amount. The salary of presidents cannot be increased or diminished during their term of office. Nor can the president receive additional payments from the federal government or any of the states while in office. The Constitution also disallows presidents and other federal officials from receiving any title of nobility, gift, payment, or official position from a king, prince, or foreign state. All gifts to a president from foreign governments belong to the people of the United States rather than the president.

Congress establishes presidential salaries. Originally, the president earned $25,000, and this was doubled to $50,000 in 1873. In 1907 Congress added an annual $25,000 stipend for expenses connected with the office. The president's salary increased to $75,000 in 1909 and went up again to $100,000 in 1949. At that time the expense allowance also increased to $90,000. In 1969 the salary advanced to $200,000, with $100,000 budgeted for travel and another $50,000 for expenses. In 2000 the salary increased to $390,000 plus $50,000 for expenses. Because the presidents official duties incur far more expenses than the expense budget can cover, agencies of the federal government often assume responsibility for presidential events. The Department of Defense, for example, pays the cost of having a military band perform at White House social functions and ceremonies. For most of Americas history, retired presidents did not receive a pension. In 1958 Congress passed the Former Presidents Act, which gave retired presidents a pension of $25,000 per year, an office, and a staff. Congress has increased the pension several times. Former presidents now receive a pension that is based on the annual salary of a cabinet secretary, which was $161,200 in 2001. Former presidents have historically been given a generous allowance for office and staff. Beginning with Democrat Bill Clinton, presidents (or their surviving widows or widowers) will receive funds for an office and staff for four and one-half years after they leave office. ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY The power of the presidency makes it the most sought-after position in American politics. The keen competition for the post and high cost of waging an effective campaign limits the pool of candidates to a select few. The Constitution originally provided for the election of the president and vice president by the electoral college. Members of the electoral college, who are called electors, represent their states by casting votes for two candidates, with the person receiving the greatest number of votes becoming president and the second-place finisher, vice president. A tie vote in the 1800 election between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr led to the enactment in 1804 of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, which provides that the electoral college use separate ballots, one for president and one for vice president. By the mid-19th century the votes of the electoral college had only symbolic importance. Electors from each state simply followed the will of the voting majority by giving their votes to the candidate receiving the most popular votes. However, in the electoral college system, it is possible for candidates to win a majority of electoral votes, and therefore the presidency, without winning the nationwide popular vote. This scenario has occurred three times in United States history: in 1876, when Rutherford B. Hayes beat Samuel Tilden; in 1888, when Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland; and in 2000, when George W. Bush prevailed over Al Gore. Another president who lost the popular vote was John Quincy Adams, who was elected in 1824 by the House of Representatives after no candidate received a majority in the electoral college. The president and vice president are the only public officials in the United States chosen in a nationwide election, which takes place every four years. There are three major steps in a presidential candidates journey toward the White House: primary elections, the party convention, and the campaign for the general election between party nominees. After winning election the president takes an oath of office on Inauguration Day. The long and expensive process from primary elections through the general election weeds out most potential candidates.

Primary Elections Political parties choose their presidential nominees through primary elections and party caucuses (meetings). In these state contests the major political partiesthe Democrats and Republicans select delegates to attend their party conventions. Primary voters and caucus participants choose delegates who will support their favored candidate at the convention. The party conventions, held in the summer before the November general election, formally nominate the winner of the primaries and caucuses. Would-be candidates crisscross the states that hold the earliest primaries, especially New Hampshire, which holds the countrys first primary, usually in mid-February. Most contenders also wage campaigns to win Iowas party caucuses, which are usually held in February as well. These states are widely regarded as indicators of a candidates chances in the overall primary process and in the general election. As a result, voters in the states with early primaries receive lavish attention from the primary contenders and the news media. In most states, only a partys registered voters can vote in the party primary. Some states, however, have open primaries, which allow voters to wait until Election Day to choose the party primary that they want to vote in. The expense and physical strain of campaigning across the dispersed primary states winnows the field of candidates. Many drop out due to lack of finances or after poor showings in the early contests. Party Conventions Party conventions have historically been tense, dramatic events as candidates struggled to organize enough delegate support to win the nomination. At the 1924 Democratic Convention, for example, delegates voted more than 100 times before settling on a candidate. Because more states adopted the primary system in the second half of the 20th century, most recent Democratic and Republican conventions created little suspense over the selection of a candidate. Because the outcome is often known in advance, the nominating conventions are usually symbolic affairs, serving to publicize the partys candidates and rally voter support in the months before the election. Regardless of whether the partys choice is evident in advance, party conventions follow a carefully scripted routine. Parties begin their conventions by writing a party platform that outlines their political program for the country. Drafting the platform and winning the conventions support of this document marks an important milestone because it shows that the party has reached agreement between its competing factions. After the platform has been approved by the convention, party leaders and invited guests make speeches to the convention delegates. During the speeches and party ceremonies, the potential candidates and their assistants roam through the convention to assess the strength of their support and to try to sway a majority of delegates to vote for their nomination. If a candidate has been particularly effective in the primary elections before the convention, he or she is likely to win the party nomination on the first or second convention vote. If the leading contender fails to win a majority of delegate votes and begins to lose votes on subsequent ballots, another contender may emerge as a compromise candidate. As soon as the candidate wins the conventions nomination and gives his or her acceptance speech, the candidate and party leaders try to repair the divisions that tend to emerge during the convention. If the winning candidate has not already named his vice-presidential running mate, the choice is announced at the convention. The candidate must try to establish an image as a national leader who

has experience in foreign and domestic affairs, and who is capable of attracting voter support in critical states. Equally important, the candidate must raise millions of dollars to pay for campaign costs, including funds for travel and an extensive network of campaign headquarters, but especially to pay for television advertisements. Election Campaign The campaign for the presidency traditionally begins in early September and ends on Election Day the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Candidates often complain about the length of the campaign period, which can require grueling 20-hour days of speechmaking and traveling. The candidates rely on party organizers to ensure support from loyal party followers, but it is equally important for candidates to raise issues that appeal to undecided voters and those in opposing parties. Most campaigns rely on national radio and television appearances and on press coverage to spread their candidates message to the nation. Since the 1960 election, nationally televised debates between presidential candidates have affected the outcome of most elections. Paid television advertisements have become increasingly important, sending campaign costs soaring. In 1996 the presidential campaigns of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican Robert Dole spent a combined total of over $230 million, nearly half on television advertisements. In addition, the Republican and Democratic parties spent a combined total of over $30 million on advertisements backing their candidates. Even as they spread campaign themes through national television and radio campaigns, the candidates also make hundreds of speeches in cities and towns across the country to appeal to specific groups of voters. Candidates make special attempts to curry favor in states with a large number of electoral votes, such as California, New York, and Texas. Because the candidate who wins the greatest number of popular votes in a state receives the entire electoral vote of that state, campaign strategists try to craft a plan to win in key populous states and to avoid wasting campaign resources on small or politically doubtful states. Election Day and Inauguration The nation usually knows who has won by the evening of Election Day or early the following morning. The formal balloting of the electoral college, however, does not take place until the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December, when the electors meet in each state. These results are transmitted to the secretary of the Senate and are counted publicly before a joint session of Congress on January 6. Under the original provisions of the Constitution, the president and vice president were inaugurated on March 4 of the year following their election. In 1933 the 20th Amendment went into effect, moving the inauguration date up to January 20. At the inaugural ceremony, the new president recites an oath: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Who Becomes President Although the Constitution specifies few qualifications for the presidency, as a practical matter the office is closed to most Americans. Today, a candidate who hopes to win the White House must have tens of millions of dollars and substantial political muscle if he or she hopes to make it through

the arduous ordeal of presidential elections. The election process has changed through the course of American history, but the challenge has always been difficult, narrowing the field of viable candidates to a select few. The strongest contenders are usually former vice presidents, prominent senators, and governors of populous states, such as New York and California. Other strong candidates have come from the military, served as governors of small states, or otherwise distinguished themselves in remarkable ways. Nearly all serious candidates have enjoyed the backing of a major political party, although third-party candidates have made significant showings in a few elections. Ross Perot, for example, won 19 percent of the vote on the Reform Party ticket in the 1992 race, one of the strongest third-party showings in the 20th century. All successful presidential candidates have been men, and all but Democrat John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, were Protestant. An African American has never received a major party nomination, although Jesse Jacksons relatively strong candidacies in 1984 and 1988 helped shape the debates in the Democratic primaries. No woman has ever made a bid for the White House. Geraldine Ferraro was the only woman who has run on a national ticket, winning the Democratic vice-presidential nomination in 1984. PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION Presidents can be removed from office only through death, resignation, an inability to discharge the powers and duties of their office, or by congressional impeachment and conviction on charges of treason, bribery, or other serious crimes. To impeach a president, the Constitution requires a majority of the House of Representatives to vote to send articles of impeachment (written charges) against a president to the Senate. The Senate must conduct a trial of the president. After the trial, a two-thirds majority vote of the Senate is required to convict and remove a president from office. Congress rarely undertakes impeachment proceedings against presidents. Both presidential impeachment trials in American historyagainst Andrew Johnson in 1867 and against Bill Clinton in 1999resulted in votes to acquit by the Senate. Only one president has resigned, Richard Nixon in 1974, when the House Judiciary Committee prepared articles of impeachment for his crimes and misdemeanors in the Watergate scandal. Eight presidents have died in office: William Henry Harrison (1841), Zachary Taylor (1850), Abraham Lincoln (assassinated 1865), James A. Garfield (assassinated 1881), William McKinley (assassinated 1901), Warren G. Harding (1923), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945), and John F. Kennedy (assassinated 1963). The order of succession upon the demise, removal, resignation, or incapacity of a president has been changed four times in the country's history. Under the Constitution, the vice president is the undisputed successor to the president. But should both the president and vice president be unable to govern, Congress mandated in 1792 that the president pro tempore (temporary president) of the Senate or the Speaker of the House, in that order, succeed to the presidency, but only for the purpose of ordering a new election. In 1886 Congress changed the succession rules so that if both the presidency and vice presidency were vacant, the secretary of state and then other Cabinet members in their order of seniority would become president. In 1947 Congress again changed the order of succession and this order remains in effect today: the Speaker of the House, followed by the Senate's president pro tem, the secretary of state, and then other members of the Cabinet assume the presidency if there is no president or vice president. In 1967 the 25th Amendment to the Constitution

described the conditions under which the vice president could temporarily replace an incapacitated president. RESPONSIBILITIES AND POWERS In the more than two centuries since the presidency was established, the responsibilities and powers of the office have grown to a point where they almost exceed the capacity of any one individual to manage them. The fact that so few presidents have been elected to two termsonly 15 out of 41 menand that only 12 have served two full terms shows how difficult the job can be. The Constitution requires the president to discharge the duties of the office and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. The president is also responsible for the execution of the laws of the United States. In domestic affairs, this means anything from implementing economic, social, and regulatory measures passed by Congress to acting as commander in chief to quell disorder or suppress insurrection. Presidents shape the country's judicial affairs by appointing federal judges. They influence the countrys domestic, economic, political, and social life by proposing legislation, calling Congress into special session, and vetoing laws passed by Congress that they consider destructive to the national well-being. As commander in chief of the military, the president is also empowered to repel foreign invasion and to fight wars overseas. In times of overwhelming public danger, the president can declare martial law, when the courts are not open or cannot function freely. The Constitution also gives the president the power to grant pardons and reprieves in criminal cases. This power does not require congressional approval, but it cannot be used in cases of impeachment. In addition to these formal duties, the president is the country's chief educator who sets standards of taste and culture, using the White House, in Theodore Roosevelt's words, as a bully pulpit to assert moral authority. Presidents are also the leaders of their political party, and they try to advance its agenda. Legislative and Judicial Responsibilities The president proposes much of the legislation that Congress approves. The presidents power to veto (reject) legislation also serves as a strong influence on the legislative process. Because it takes a two-thirds vote of both the House and the Senate to override a presidential veto, Congress often modifies pending legislation to suit the presidents preferences. Aside from the role in proposing and vetoing laws, the president exercises important legislative authority by issuing executive orders that have the force of law. The president also supervises the implementation of laws by directing administrative agencies, such as the Department of Justice and the Department of Agriculture. The president appoints federal judges, subject to the approval of the Senate. In addition, the president assumes important judicial and law enforcement powers through executive agencies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) gathers evidence against perpetrators of federal crimes and the Justice Department seeks indictments and convictions in the courts against wrongdoers. Agencies such as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) act as quasi-judicial bodies by holding hearings, issuing regulations, and adjudicating disputes.

Economic Authority The president exerts substantial influence on the economic life of the nation through budgetary and taxing proposals. The presidents decisions to increase and reduce budgets and to cut or raise taxes in conjunction with Congress affect the entire country, from the largest corporations to the individual taxpayer. Presidential decisions early in the country's history to contribute federal funds to road and canal projects helped boost the nations economic development, and federal spending continues to drive growth in many areas. The president's ability to shape tariffs on imports affects the thousands of businesses that buy and sell goods to other countries. A president's power to regulate industries through the enforcement of safety requirements and environmental regulations affects nearly every workplace in America. The executive branch employs millions of workers, including clerks, investigators, lawyers, and others, and their pay rates help set a standard of living for millions of other citizens. The president is the chief diplomat of the United States. The Constitution gives the president the power to negotiate treaties and appoint diplomatic representatives with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president also has the power to negotiate executive agreements with foreign countries that have the force and effect of law but do not require congressional approval. The president has the discretion to give official recognition to foreign governments. Democrat Woodrow Wilson, for example, refused to recognize the government of Mexico in 1913 because it had come to power through violence. Military Leadership As commander in chief of the armed forces, the president has the power to formulate and direct military strategy and actions in times of war and peace. As the country's principal military commander, the president is responsible for the nation's security and the safety of its citizens. Although the Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war, historically the president has had nearly total freedom to send troops into combat. In the second half of the 19th century, many presidents sent U.S. forces into Latin American countries to defend American business interests. Harry Truman made a much more substantial commitment of American soldiers in 1950 when he decided to fight the Korean War (1950-1953). A series of presidentsDwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixonwaged war in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war from Congress. Since the establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1947, nearly every president has used executive power to order the agency to conduct covert military operations abroad.

Appointive Powers Subject to confirmation by a majority of the Senate, the president appoints the members of the Cabinet, the heads of independent federal agencies, and a large number of the administrative personnel of the federal executive departments and agencies. The president also appoints federal judges, including the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States; many federal employees; and the diplomatic representatives of the United States. The president also commissions, subject to congressional confirmation, all officers of the armed forces.

The appointive powers of presidents include the freedom to spend substantial sums of money to facilitate their administration of the government and the exercise of their constitutional powers. Franklin Roosevelt, for example, authorized the Manhattan Projecta massive federal project to build an atomic bomb during World War II. Since the end of World War II, presidents have used their budgetary authority to support the CIAs secret projects. THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH Administrative Organization The president leads the executive branch of the federal government, although he or she delegates much of this authority. The executive branch consists of fourteen departments: agriculture, commerce, defense, education, energy, health and human services, housing and urban development, interior, justice, labor, state, transportation, treasury, and veterans affairs. The president also directs numerous independent agencies. These include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Export-Import Bank, Farm Credit Administration, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Election Commission, Federal Maritime Commission, Federal Reserve System, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) , General Services Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities, National Labor Relations Board, National Science Foundation, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Small Business Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority, United States Information Agency, and the Postal Service. Executive Supervision The president formally supervises more than 4,000 employees of the executive branch but delegates nearly all of this authority to staff members. The presidents executive office consists of several divisions, including the White House Office, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Council of Economic Advisers, and the National Security Council. Through the personnel of the White House Office, often called the White House staff, the president maintains communication with Congress, heads of the executive departments and agencies, and the media. The president relies on the OMB to help prepare the federal budget and to supervise federal spending. Similarly, the president turns to his Council of Economic Advisers to research and write an annual economic report for submission to Congress, and to help assess the state of the economy and recommend economic policies. Party Responsibilities Presidents lead their political party. A popular president often uses this power to campaign for the partys congressional candidates. The presidents vote-winning ability enables the candidates to use this leverage to demand support for their own legislative programs. In addition, popular presidents can sometimes use their national support to win control of Congress for their party. A president whose party has majority control of both houses of Congress stands in a much stronger position to make legislative gains than a president contending with a hostile Congress dominated by the opposition party.

THE LIFE OF THE PRESIDENT A president's life is unlike anything experienced by any other American. Even before radio and television made a president's every move the object of media attention, presidents have always been under close public scrutiny. They have faced fierce partisan attacks by opposing politicians and journalists exercising the American traditions of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Thomas Jefferson may have best caught what it means to be president when he described the office as a splendid misery. Life in the White House The White House is the president's office, but it is also the presidents home. Presidents live in the White House with their spouse and children and entertain guests there, formally and informally. John and Abigail Adams became the first residents of the presidential mansion in 1800. The building had no furniture, and the lack of stairways or firewood made life even more uncomfortable. Although the residence became a more congenial place to live during the next 14 years, it wasn't until 1817 that the mansion took on its modern form, after repairs following fires set by the British in the War of 1812 (1812-1815). The white paint used to hide the marks of these fires fixed the name of the structure in the popular mind as the White House. Over the years, the White House has been filled with children and relatives of the first family (the presidents family). Lavish weddings, refurbishing projects, and official ceremonies keep the White House in the minds of Americans. The daughter of James Monroe, the countrys fifth president, was married at the White House in 1820, the first presidential child to be married in the mansion. The Monroes also redecorated the White House with elegant French furniture, setting a standard for all future presidents and their spouses to emulate. In 1886 Grover Cleveland wedded Frances Folsom, the first marriage of a president in the White House. During the terms of Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy, the White House was substantially renovated, but always with an eye to preserving its history. In the early 1960s Jacqueline Kennedy, the wife of John F. Kennedy, restored the mansion to its early 19th-century elegance. When the work was completed in 1962, 46 million Americans tuned in to watch her conduct a televised tour of the remodeled White House. First Family Most presidents have tried to shield their families from the barrage of public curiosity that diminishes their privacy, but with limited success. Many presidents, realizing how important their symbolic role is, tried to convert public interest in the first family's private life into a political asset. Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president, and First Lady Julia Dent Grant opened their lives to the new national magazines. The Grant children, particularly 14-year-old daughter Ellen, popularly known as Nellie, commanded popular attention. Nellie's marriage at the mansion in 1874 was the social event of the season. Edith Carow Roosevelt, wife of President Theodore Roosevelt, institutionalized the role of the first lady and the first family. She hired her own specialized staff, which put out regular news releases on the first family's dinner parties, family meals, children's activities, and familial closeness. Franklin Roosevelt also gained appreciably from the activities of Eleanor Roosevelt, whose compassion for the disadvantaged in the midst of the economic hard times of the Great Depression made her one of the most influential first ladies in the country's history. No first family

in modern times received more public attention than the Kennedys. Jacqueline Kennedy's elegance as a hostess and John Kennedy's handsome appearance and attractive style almost made the Kennedys, including their two children, Caroline and John, Jr., into a royal family. After her husbands assassination in 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy consciously contributed to the image of royalty through an interview with the journalist Theodore White, who described the Kennedy household and administration as Camelot. Security and the Secret Service The Secret Service protects the president, vice president, and their families. Dozens of uniformed Secret Service officers and plainclothes special agents guard the president and the presidents family at the White House. In addition, a large contingent of special agents organize security when the president travels. Other Secret Service agents monitor the presidents mail and investigate threats to the presidents life. Presidents did not have Secret Service protection until the 20th century. The need for professional bodyguards for the president was demonstrated by the ease with which assassins were able to kill Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881, and William McKinley in 1901. But even with a Secret Service devoted to guarding presidents, assassins were able to stage attacks on Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. In 1968 Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin. George Wallace, a Democratic presidential candidate in 1972, suffered an attack that left him paralyzed. The only 20th-century president to be killed by an assassin was John F. Kennedy, which suggests that the Secret Service is an effective force. Nevertheless, the challenge of assuring a president's safety is as great as ever, especially in an era when presidents travel so widely and are exposed to great numbers of people on an almost daily basis.

HISTORY OF PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP More than three dozen presidents have led the United States, but most historians rate only a few as especially noteworthy. Most of the countrys notable presidents earned their place in history by leading the country through major crises or wars. Others are best known for the scandals that clouded their administrations. A few, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt, stand as legends in American history because of their pivotal roles in shaping the countrys political foundations.

George Washington

As the first president, George Washington understood that his every action would set a precedent for future administrations and that his mistakes could doom the young United States. Since the Constitution describes the role of the president in just five paragraphs, Washington knew that the success of the presidency would depend in large measure on how he defined the role for his successors. He described his dilemma as entering upon an unexplored field, enveloped on every side with clouds and darkness. Washington succeeded in setting a dignified yet unpretentious tone for the presidency. In an effort to establish the importance of the office without making it aloof from the people, Washington rejected John Adams's suggestion that the president be called, His Highness, the President of the United States, and Protector of Their Liberties. Instead Washington settled for the term, Mr. President, which he felt struck a proper balance between the authority of the president and the democratic character of the country. At a more substantive level, Washington saw the need to establish the primacy of the federal government over the states. In 1794, for example, Washington dispatched troops to western Pennsylvania to put down a rebellion against a federal whiskey tax, demonstrating the supremacy of federal law and the authority of the president. Washington also tried to assert the authority of the presidency over Congress. When making treaties with foreign countries, for example, he established the rule that presidents seek the advice and consent of the Senate not before or during negotiations, but only after a treaty had been made.

Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jeffersons election in 1800 marked the first time that an incumbent party lost the White House. The election was marked by bitter conflict between the major political parties of the day, the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists. Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, won the presidency based on the strength of his party, but he sought to minimize the countrys partisan conflicts. Jefferson declared in his first inaugural address in 1801, We are all republicanswe are all federalists, meaning that party attachment was secondary to national identity.At the same time, however, Jefferson used the presidency to champion a legislative agenda that reflected the Democratic-Republican view of the national interest. Through his domination of his party's congressional caucus, which then controlled the principal legislative committees in Congress, Jefferson won passage of economic measures that decentralized power and favored the agricultural and rural areas over industrial and urban interests. Jeffersons successful legislative initiative established the principle that the president could be both party leader and the countrys chief executive. Jeffersons most dramatic action was the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which added more than 2,100,000 sq km (more than 800,000 sq mi) of land to the United States. Jefferson had no constitutional authority to buy the territory from France, but he saw landholding and farming as essential to the countrys future. Jefferson called the purchase an act beyond the Constitution, but Congress eventually appropriated funds and approved the land deal. Jefferson's vision of a larger, more prosperous country, joined with his political pragmatism to produce an act of exceptional presidential leadership. The bold decision to push forward with the Louisiana Purchase demonstrated that presidential power went beyond the narrowly worded passages in the Constitution, and that the authority of the office depends in part on the person in power.

Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jacksons term as president from 1829 to 1837 reshaped American political life. He successfully pushed for a more democratic political process, and he asserted the supremacy of the federal government over the states. With Jackson's administration, national political parties took control of the selection of presidential candidates, marking the end of congressional control of the process. Jackson stood at the head of the new Democratic Party, and his election ushered in the era of modern political parties. As president, Jackson generated widespread popular support by fighting the Bank of the United States, an institution identified with privileged interests. Jackson spoke for aspiring businessmen, farmers, and urban workers, rather than the well-to-do. His veto blocking the recharter of the bank in 1832 struck a chord with these constituencies and helped assure his reelection later in the year. He called the bank a privileged monopoly and pledged his opposition to the prostitution of our government to the advancement of the few at the expense of the many. Jackson also asserted the authority of the federal government and the president over the states. South Carolina claimed that states could nullify federal laws at their own discretion and refused to collect a federally mandated tariff. Fearing for the integrity of the country, Jackson fought South Carolinas stance, forcing the state to compromise on the tariff and to dispense with the nullification doctrine. Another landmark in Jacksons administration came in 1832 when the president defied an explicit order of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote a majority opinion barring Georgia from removing the Cherokee Indians from the state. Jackson supported Georgias effort to remove the Indians and reportedly said, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it. Jackson secured congressional funding for the massive removal program, which forced 18,000 to 20,000 Native Americans to move west, taking the lives of about 4000 along the way. His defiance of the Supreme Courts ruling on the issue showed that the Constitutions formal separation of powers would not in itself rein in a determined president.

Abraham Lincoln
Some historians rank Abraham Lincoln as the country's greatest president. Lincoln's term of office from 1861 to 1865 rested on his conviction that he needed to stop the South from seceding and to preserve republican government, as the last best hope of mankind. Southern states seceded from the United States in 1860 and 1861, leading to the Civil War (1861-1865), the greatest crisis in the nation's history. Lincoln reacted by exerting his presidential authority to the fullest measure. Without congressional sanction, he increased the armed forces beyond the limits established by law, and spent millions of dollars for which no congressional appropriations had been made. Lincoln also emancipated the slaves in the rebellious Southern states and issued presidential decrees to begin Reconstructionthe process of rebuilding the souths tattered political and economic system. Most disturbing to some of his critics, he suspended the right of habeas corpusthe right against arbitrary

imprisonment. Lincoln justified many of his actions as a legitimate exercise of his powers as commander in chief of the armed forces, and declared that he was motivated by the necessity of preserving the Constitution. He said: I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the nation. Lincoln's prescription for presidential effectiveness was to avoid inflexible positions. As he told Congress in an annual message, The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. His Emancipation Proclamation of September 1862, which declared slaves in rebel areas to be free, was a case in point. He saw no constitutional or legal justification, except as a military measure, for the proclamation. But that was enough for him. Lincolns presidency marked one of the most aggressive presidential seizures of power in American history, but his actions also illustrated the importance of strong leadership in times of national crisis. Early 20th Century For 35 years after Lincoln, assertive congressional leaders took prominence over the presidency. When Republican Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency in 1901, he was determined to use the power and prominence of the office as a bully pulpit to achieve his domestic and foreign policy objectives. Through swift action and bold statements, Roosevelt restored the presidency to its former stature. He interpreted the Constitution loosely, to do many things not previously done by the president and the heads of departments. I did not usurp power, he said, but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power. In domestic affairs, Roosevelt championed the Progressive Movement, which aimed at breaking up concentrations of economic and political power that undermined democracy and equality of opportunity. Roosevelts commitment to racial equality led him to invite American educator Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House in October 1901, the first time an African American had dined at the executive mansion. Southern newspapers lambasted Roosevelt, suggesting that the invitation would lead other African Americans to expect social equality. Washingtons visit to the White House cost Roosevelt political support in the South, but he still maneuvered an impressive legislative agenda through Congress. Roosevelt pressed Congress to regulate railroads, the food and drug industries, and to increase environmental protections. The success of his domestic program, which he termed a Square Deal, made him the most popular president between Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. In foreign affairs, Roosevelt argued that it was best to Speak softly and carry a big stick. He advocated a diplomatic policy, in other words, that remained open to compromise, but that was ultimately backed by military force. He bolstered the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy, and used the threat of force to zealously defend American interests in Alaska, Asia, and Latin America. Determined to create a canal joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in Latin America, Roosevelt supported a revolution in Colombia in 1903 to obtain the necessary land. Colombia ceded the territory to Panama, and Roosevelt immediately directed construction of the Panama Canal, which became United States property. Roosevelt asserted American dominance in global affairs through many other initiatives, including his successful mediation of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.

After Roosevelt, Democrat Woodrow Wilson was the next president to make a major mark on the office. Winning election in 1912, Wilson continued to expand presidential power and influence in the United States and abroad. Wilson said before assuming the presidency, The President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can. His capacity will set the limit. Wilson had considerable capacity. His domestic policy agenda, which he called the New Freedom, included progressive reforms that greatly expanded the role of the federal government. Many of the reforms remained in place generations later. He created the Federal Reserve System to govern banks, for example, and the system still follows principles established during his presidency. Wilson advocated regulations to ensure that one company or group of companies did not monopolize an entire industry, resulting in the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission in 1914. Following the end of World War I (1914-1918), Wilson led the effort to avoid new wars through the League of Nations. Although the league ultimately failed, in his efforts to build support for the organization Wilson elaborated a vision of international consultation and negotiation that remains a global ideal.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt steered the nation out of the Great Depression and through World War II, and he held the presidency longer than anyone in history. Roosevelts New Deal, a wide-ranging program of social welfare policies, made an indelible mark on American society and earned him a place as one of the 20th centurys most influential presidents. Roosevelt came to office in 1933, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in the country's history. Like Abraham Lincoln, he felt compelled to fashion new means of dealing with unprecedented events. As part of the New Deal, Roosevelt pushed for legislation to create scores of new agencies to confront the economic crisis: the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Rural Electrification Administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Labor Relations Board. Roosevelt also prodded Congress to create the Social Security Administration to provide old-age pensions, and he pushed for an unemployment insurance system to support the millions of people without jobs. Under Roosevelts leadership, the government built a network of agencies and programs to ensure that the poor, unemployed, and aged could live with dignity and self-respect. Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity, Roosevelt said in 1936, than the constant omission of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. Most Americans loved Roosevelt, voting him to an unprecedented four terms as president. Much of his success rested on his charismatic leadershiphis ability to give people hope and renewed confidence in the American system of government. Roosevelt spoke directly to the public through frequent radio addresses. These fireside chats brought his warm, reassuring personality into millions of homes and made him an anchor in national life through the Depression and World War II. After he died in 1945, someone told his wife, I miss the way your husband used to talk to me about my government. Roosevelts leadership in foreign affairs was just as important to the nation. Remembering Woodrow Wilson's failure to sustain public backing for involvement in the League of Nations, Roosevelt took care to build domestic support for his diplomatic initiatives. This approach accounts for his success in leading the country into World War II. His attention to the worries and fears of Americans also helped him maintain support for his military strategy during the war, and then for abandoning

American isolationism in favor of involvement in the United Nations and a larger role in global affairs. Mass Media Shapes the Presidency Before radio and television became commonplace, most Americans never heard a president's voice or had more than a photograph to judge his appearance. Since the 1930s, however, when Franklin Roosevelt began using the radio to reach millions of Americans, the mass media, especially television, has shaped presidential power and public understanding of government. Since the 1950s, television has influenced the outcome of presidential elections and served as a powerful resource for presidents to mobilize public opinion. President Dwight Eisenhower discovered the pitfalls of this powerful medium in 1960 when he spoke at a press conference after the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics (USSR) shot down a CIA U-2 spy plane in Soviet airspace. The State Department initially denied that the plane was on a spy mission. But when Soviet officials captured the pilot, his downed aircraft, and surveillance cameras, the State Department was forced to acknowledge that the plane was on a spy mission approved by Eisenhower. Eisenhower then went on television to explain the deception to a disillusioned public. Eisenhower also sent CIA operatives to topple the governments of Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954. The success of Eisenhowers secret CIA missions established the spy agency as one of the most tempting foreign policy tools available to future presidents.

John F. Kennedy
Democrat John F. Kennedys demeanor in televised debates helped him win a razor-thin victory over Republican Richard Nixon in the 1960 election. People who heard the first Kennedy-Nixon debate on the radio thought that Nixon had won. But the much larger television audience gave Kennedy the edge. Kennedy appeared more at ease and more assured than Nixon, and his confident manner made him seem more presidential. Kennedys showing in the debate and his subsequent election victory signaled the growing importance of style over substance, or at least that voters were paying more attention to how candidates looked than to what they said. Kennedy served 1000 days in the White House, ending with his shocking assassination in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963. Kennedys intelligence and youthful charm had breathed new hope into the country. Many Americans felt inspired by his promises of a government that would emphasize racial equality and economic opportunity at home and democracy abroad. Much of his domestic agenda remained unfulfilled at the time of his death. A host of initiatives, including federal aid to education, Medicare (health insurance for the elderly), a major tax cut to fuel economic expansion, a war on poverty, and, most of all, civil rights, were issues on their way to being enacted in a likely Kennedy second term. These measures were finally enacted following Democrat Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory over Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964, but there seems little doubt that had he lived, Kennedy would have gotten them through Congress. Kennedy's leadership in foreign affairs proved more decisive. Leading the country at the height of the Cold War, he promised to pay any price and meet any challenge to assure United States national security and freedom around the globe. Although he initially stumbled in the Bay of Pigs fiasco, when a CIA-sponsored invasion of Cuba to topple Fidel Castro's regime failed, he soon showed himself to be an effective foreign policy leader. Kennedy demonstrated his diplomatic skill

during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, during which the United States and the USSR nearly went to nuclear war over the placement of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Through resolute negotiation and a limited display of force, Kennedy persuaded Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to abort plans to use Cuba as a missile base. Kennedys subsequent agreement to a nuclear test ban treaty with Moscow opened the way to improved relations and a lessening of tensions with America's most formidable Communist adversary. Kennedys most significant foreign policy blunder came in his 1961 decision to send thousands of U.S. soldiers to Vietnam, sending the country along a path toward military defeat overseas and political turmoil at home. Lyndon Johnson, the Great Society, and Vietnam Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency in 1963, as the country and the world reeled in horror at Kennedys assassination. He resolved to complete Kennedys legislative agenda, and his success in this mission made him perhaps the greatest presidential legislator in the country's history. Johnson termed his program the Great Society, and his achievements in civil rights, voting rights, easing poverty, and other measures between 1964 and 1969 rivaled and eclipsed Franklin Roosevelts New Deal. Johnsons Great Society agenda included initiatives that touched the lives of all Americans, such as Medicare and Medicaid, federal aid to education, immigration reform, environmental and consumer protections, the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation (DOT). The Great Society also created the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, food stamps, Head Start, and Model Cities, and implemented many other reforms. Subsequent presidents and congresses challenged many of Johnson's Great Society programs. But most remained in place, serving as a safety net for disadvantaged Americans, and as federal commitments to housing, education, and other programs cherished by middle-class Americans. Johnson's stumbling leadership in foreign relations, especially in Vietnam, overshadowed his effective leadership in domestic affairs. Inheriting commitments from the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations to Vietnam, Johnson felt compelled to continue American involvement in Indochina. Communist forces gained the upper hand in 1964 and 1965, raising the prospect of the collapse of the friendly government in Saigon. Johnson decided to expand U.S. commitments in the Vietnam War (1959-1975). In August 1964, after North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf, Johnson won passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution from Congress, which gave him sweeping authority to commit U.S. forces to defend South Vietnam. In 1965 he launched a systematic bombing campaign against North Vietnam in February, and in July he began expanding the ground war. By the time he left office, the United States had more than 500,000 troops in Vietnam. Despite all this firepower and the sacrifice of more than 30,000 American lives, by 1968 the war was stalemated and Johnson, now a highly unpopular president, announced that he would not run again for president.

Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal

Republican Richard Nixon took advantage of popular discontent with the Vietnam stalemate to defeat Democrat Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 campaign. Declaring that he had a secret plan to end the conflict, Nixon beat Humphrey by seven-tenths of 1 percent, winning 43.4 percent of the popular vote. George Wallace, a conservative third-party candidate exploiting anger over domestic turmoil, won 14 percent.

Nixon's first term is a study in pragmatic political leadership. Coming to office with a reputation as a staunch conservative, Nixon catered to public eagerness for environmental protection by creating the Environmental Protection Agency. Despite his conservative credentials, Nixon showed no reluctance to use the government to interfere in the economy in 1971 when he imposed wage and price controls to stem inflation (rising prices). Nixon showed himself equally flexible on proposals for national health insurance and welfare reform, portraying himself as a political moderate willing to push for an expanded role for government in addressing major domestic problems. To stem Americas persistent racial turmoil, Nixon ordered government agencies to institute affirmative action policies, under which minorities would receive special consideration in hiring. In foreign affairs he proved to be even more pragmatic, putting aside a reputation for unbending anticommunism to establish relations with China in 1972 and promote dtente (lessening of tensions) with the Soviet Union. Although the Vietnam War continued until 1975, Nixon negotiated a settlement that withdrew U.S. troops in 1973, bringing an end to American involvement in the unpopular war. Only Nixon's political habits tripped him up. A politician with a reputation for cutting corners, Nixon and his advisers could not resist reelection plans in 1972 that broke the law. Nixon and his staff planned a burglary of the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. A scandal, which quickly became known as Watergate, erupted when the burglars were caught and linked to the White House. The revelations of the burglary, joined with subsequent secret efforts to cover up the crime, led to investigations of the White House in 1973 and 1974. The discovery of a Nixon taping system, which had recorded conversations demonstrating Nixon's role in the scandal, forced his resignation from office in August 1974, making him the first president ever to resign. A talented political leader with strong ideas of Americas role overseas, Nixon was destroyed by character flaws that left the presidency in its weakest position since Andrew Johnson had been impeached. Although the Supreme Court and Congress proved effective checks on Nixons abuses of power, the Watergate scandal cast doubt on the integrity of the presidency and shook public confidence in government.

Ronald Reagan and George Bush

Republican Gerald Ford and Democrat Jimmy Carter, Nixon's immediate successors, failed to reestablish presidential authority. For the remainder of the 1970s Congress eclipsed the presidency as the focus of national politics. Ford, under a cloud because of his decision to pardon Nixon, lost the election of 1976 to Carter after only two years and three months in office. Republican Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980, after Carter failed to free Americans held hostage in Iran and to solve a shortage of gasoline and other energy sources. Reagan restored the influence of the presidency to what it had essentially been in the 1950s and early 1960s. He also rejuvenated the Republican Party, which had been under a cloud since the Watergate scandal.

A charming, fatherly personality with clear ideas about what he wanted to do as president, Reagan reestablished a measure of public trust and confidence in the White House. At the start of his term the worst recession since the Great Depression called into question Reagans policy of lower taxes and higher defense spending. The tax cuts favored wealthy Americans, and Reagan hoped the benefits would trickle down to the middle class and the poor. The initial failure of these policies led a majority of Americans to say that they did not want Reagan to run for a second term. When the economy began to boom in 1984, however, Reagan won a landslide victory over Walter Mondale, Carter's vice president, who had declared himself in favor of a tax increase to reduce annual deficits of over $100 billion. The deficits continued to mount under Reagan, but the expansion of the U.S. economy contributed to his popularity and reputation for effectiveness. Reagan made strong use of television. His background as an actor gave him unusual poise before television cameras, and his speechwriters had a knack for choosing memorable phrases. In 1985, for example, he warned that he would veto any tax increase, daring Congress to submit such legislation: Go ahead, make my day! Reagan borrowed the line from trigger-happy movie detective Dirty Harry, and the tough talk spoke to many Americans fed up with taxes. Reagans ability to convey his political views in clear, catchy terms led some to nickname him The Great Communicator. In addition to the strength of the economy in the mid-1980s and Reagans strong speaking skills, his popularity as president rested on developments in the Cold War. He began his first term by describing the Soviet Union as an evil empire. He vowed to defy the USSR, and he initially shunned the idea of holding summit talks with Soviet leaders as most Cold War-era presidents had. When Mikhail Gorbachev became the top Soviet leader in 1985, however, and introduced radical policy changes that departed from traditional Soviet economic and political ideas, Reagan agreed to meet with him. Holding four summit conferences from 1985 to 1988, Reagan and Gorbachev presided over dramatic changes in Soviet-American relations, including unprecedented arms control agreements. By the time Reagan left office in 1989, it was clear that Communism was a dying system in the Soviet Union and that the United States had prevailed in the Cold War. Reagans continuing popularity at the end of his term made it easy for his vice president, George Bush, to win the 1988 election. Bushs one term was notable for the search for a new grand design in foreign policy to replace traditional Cold War assumptions. His successful leadership in the Persian Gulf War against Iraq in 1991 briefly sent his public approval ratings soaring to 88 percent. But a recession swelled the ranks of the unemployed in 1992, and Bush seemed unable to solve the domestic economic crisis. Democrat Bill Clinton promised to take swift action to improve the economy, and he won a narrow victory against Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot.

Bill Clinton
Democrat Bill Clinton failed to achieve his major domestic and foreign policy initiatives in his first term as president. Congressional leaders torpedoed Clintons far-reaching proposal for national health-care reform, undermining his public support. The collapse of his health-care program also led to Republican majorities in both houses of Congress in 1994, marking the first time since 1946 that the Republicans controlled the House of Representatives. During the next two years Clinton attacked conservative congressional proposals that alienated a majority of Americans and reestablished himself as an acceptable, if not highly popular, president.

In 1996, with the economy booming and the Republican Party nominating 72-year-old Robert Dole for president, the much younger Clinton became the first Democrat to win reelection to the White House since Franklin Roosevelt. Clintons reelection made him only the fifth president, after Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan, to achieve that distinction in the 20th century. Growing personal income and continuing business growth in 1997 and into 1998 increased government tax receipts, making it possible in 1998 for Clinton to propose the first balanced federal budget since 1969. Despite financial and economic problems besetting Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, and Brazil, the U.S. economy was strong, with unemployment levels of less than 5 percent and inflation at less than 2 percent. The U.S. stock market continued to boom, reaching unprecedented highs.In January 1998 independent counsel Kenneth Starr began investigating allegations that Clinton had lied under oath to conceal a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In a September 1998 report to Congress, Starr charged Clinton with obstruction of justice, lying under oath (perjury) witness tampering, and abuse of power. The House of Representatives voted on four articles of impeachment against Clinton in December 1998. The House approved two articles that accused Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice. Despite the scandal, the public continued to support Clinton and the Democratic Party. In 1998 congressional elections, Democratic candidates made surprising gains in the House of Representatives and maintained equal numbers in the Senate. It was the first time since 1934 that an incumbent presidents party had made gains in a midterm election. Following a monthlong trial, the Senate rejected both articles of impeachment in February 1999. Both Senate votes fell considerably short of the two-thirds majority required for a conviction.

M George W. Bush
The 2000 presidential election between Clintons vice president, Al Gore, and Texas governor George W. Bush, a Republican and the son of former president George Bush, was one of the closest and most disputed elections in United States history. The morning after Election Day dawned with Floridas results too close to call, leaving both candidates short of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. After a mandatory machine recount showed Bush winning the state by mere hundreds of votes out of some 6 million cast, Gore requested hand recounts of ballots in four heavily Democratic counties. A five-week legal battle ensued, during which state and federal courts considered a misleading ballot design, challenges to the manual recounts underway, and other election irregularities. On December 12 the Supreme Court of the United States effectively sealed Bushs victory by ruling against further manual recounts ( see Disputed Presidential Election of 2000). Bush became the first presidential candidate since Benjamin Harrison in 1888 to win the electoral voteand thus the presidencybut lose the popular vote. Gore won the popular vote by more than 500,000 votes out of more than 105 million cast. Bush also was the first son of a president to win the White House since John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, became president in 1825. Bushs victory marked the first time in nearly 50 years that Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. In the first months of his administration, Bush advocated a $1.6-trillion tax cut over ten years to return some of the federal surplus to taxpayers and stimulate a slowing economy. He largely achieved this goal in mid-2001, when Congress passed a $1.35trillion tax cut. Around this same time, however, Bush suffered a setback when Senator James Jeffords of Vermont, a Republican, announced he would become an independent. Jeffordss decision shifted the balance of power in the Senate to the Democrats.

Just eight months into his presidency, Bush and the nation faced a terrible new challenge. On September 11, 2001, terrorists crashed hijacked commercial jetliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, in New York City, and the Pentagon, outside Washington, D.C. ( see September 11 Attacks). The coordinated terrorist strike destroyed the World Trade Center and killed more than 3,000 people. United States authorities soon identified the al-Qaeda terrorist network of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden as the group responsible for the attack. Bush declared that destroying al-Qaeda and preventing future terrorist attacks would be the top priorities of his administration. In the following months, a U.S.-led coalition force launched a military offensive in Afghanistan, where bin Laden and al-Qaeda were based. Congress also passed, and Bush signed, antiterrorism legislation that significantly expanded the federal governments surveillance powers.A strong showing by Republicans in the 2002 midterm electionsfueled in part by Bushs high approval ratingsenabled them to recapture control of the Senate. Combined with an enlarged Republican majority in the House, the achievement was expected to allow Bush to more easily enact his legislative agenda and secure approval of his judicial appointees. In 2002 the Bush administration turned its attention to Iraq, claiming that the country supported terrorist organizations and that it illegally possessed weapons of mass destruction. Although Iraq agreed to the return of United Nations (UN) weapons inspectors, U.S. authorities charged that Iraq was not cooperating fully and was hiding banned weapons. In March 2003, despite opposition from some members of the UN Security Council, a U.S.-led military coalition invaded Iraq with the goals of destroying the countrys banned weapons and deposing Iraqs authoritarian president, Saddam Hussein. By mid-April the Bush administration declared that Husseins regime was no longer in control of the country.

CHECKS AND BALANCES - IMPEACHMENT The House of Representatives . . . shall have the sole power of impeachment. . . . The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. United States Constitution, Article 1 Impeachment means bringing charges of wrong doing against the President or other government officials . According to this passage from the Constitution both houses of Congress have specific duties in the impeachment process. The House of Representatives impeaches the President i.e. formally charged the President for wrongdoing. The Senate then becomes a court and tries the President. If the Senate finds the President guilt, he will be removed from office.

Only two Presidents have been impeached so far in our nation's history - Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. President Richard Nixon resigned from office in 1974 before the House could impeach him. However, no President has ever been removed from office though this process. In the case of Johnson and Clinton, the senate failed to convict either men. In 1865 Andrew Johnson became President of the United States following the assassination of President Lincoln. President Johnson soon ran into problems with Congress over policies to reconstruct the South following the Civil war. To limit the power of the President, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, a law that prevented the President from firing a member of his cabinet without approval of the Senate. But according to the Construction, the President must seek "the advise and consent of the senate" only when he is hiring such officials. President Johnson saw the new law as a deliberate attempt by Congress to limit his power. He then defied the law by firing his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, without consulting with Congress. Congress immediately accused the President of breaking the law and the House of Representatives impeached Johnson. Fortunately for Johnson, his presidency was saved by only one vote - the Senate fell short of removing the President from office by a single vote.

Beat Generation
I INTRODUCTION
Beat Generation, group of American writers of the 1950s whose writing expressed profound dissatisfaction with contemporary American society and endorsed an alternative set of values. The term sometimes is used to refer to those who embraced the ideas of these writers. The Beat Generation's best-known figures were writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who met as students at Columbia University in the 1940s, and San Francisco-based poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ferlinghettis City Lights Bookstore, in the North Beach section of San Francisco, became a center of Beat culture and remained an enduring symbol of alternative literature into the 1990s. Another center of Beat activity was New York Citys East Village, where Ginsberg made his home.

The term Beat Generation was first used by Kerouac in the late 1940s. The word beat had various connotations for the writers, including despair over the beaten state of the individual in mass society and belief in the beatitude, or blessedness, of the natural world and in the restorative powers of the beat of jazz music and poetry. Beat writing generally called for a renunciation of material goods and acquisitiveness in favor of a rediscovery of the erotic, artistic, and spiritual self through the use of drugs, casual sex, music, and the mysticism of Zen Buddhism. The term beatnik was coined in the late 1950s to refer, often disparagingly, to people who embraced the ideas and attitudes of the Beat writers.

II ORIGINS AND SOURCES

The society the Beat writers rebelled against was one of economic affluence and social conformity following World War II (1939-1945). Cultural historians point out that acquisition of consumer goods, which had been scarce during wartime, became a central feature of postwar life, driven by the mass media, advertising, and generous loan terms. At the same time television presented an idealization of suburban family life. The Cold War, which pitted the United States and its allies against the Soviet Union and its satellites, allowed for denunciation and even persecution of social dissidents and nonconformists as threats to national security. It was in this climate that a group of writers came forward to declare their alienation from what they saw as the creed of suburban conformity in favor of what Allen Ginsberg called "the lost America of love." The Beat writers found inspiration in a variety of sources, including the work of 19th-century American poet Walt Whitman and the improvisational melodies and rhythms of jazz, especially the bebop style of the 1940s. They looked to Whitmans Leaves of Grass (1855) for both form and content. In that work, Whitman abandoned traditional European verse meters and invented new American rhythms, and he declared the divinity of the individual self. In jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Dexter Gordon, the Beat writers found artists who had broken away from mainstream art forms with original, spontaneous expressions that challenged their audiences emotionally and intellectually. Their music, improvisational by design, was not easily absorbed and packaged by the entertainment industry. The Beats hoped to do as much for American literature. Furthermore, many Beat writers, particularly Ginsberg, Kerouac, and poet Gary Snyder, discovered Asian literature while exploring the ideas of Zen Buddhism. Although most of them did not practice Buddhism in any strict sense, they borrowed certain Asian literary forms, including the haiku, a Japanese verse form. They also alluded to satori, the experience of sudden enlightenment, and other aspects of Buddhism in their writing.

III BEAT WRITERS AND THEIR WORKS

The first book generally characterized as a Beat Generation work was Go (1952), a novel by John Clellon Holmes about a group of young, disenchanted writers in New York City who closely resembled the Beats. The first discussion of the Beat Generation in a national forum was an article entitled This is the Beat Generation, also written by Holmes, which was featured in the Sunday magazine section of the New York Times in November 1952. But it was not until 1956, when the publication of Ginsbergs epic poem Howl provoked an obscenity trial, that the Beat Generation achieved broad national recognition.

A poem in three sections, Howl is written in free verse, unrhymed lines with no fixed meter. Verging at times on stream of consciousness, the poem appears to follow Ginsbergs unedited train of thought, its sequence dictated by free association rather than logic. In the poem, Ginsberg likens the sacrifices Americans make in their cultlike worship of material goods to the worship of the pagan deity Moloch, which demanded ritual sacrifice of children. Soon after the publication of Howl, government authorities declared the book obscene and seized it, but in the trial that followed, a judge found the book to have literary merit and ordered its release. Ginsbergs other important works include the poems Kaddish (1954), A Supermarket in California (1955), and America (1956). Perhaps the best-known Beat novel is Kerouacs semiautobiographical On the Road (1957). The book celebrates direct sensory experience, freedom from conventional responsibilities, and the emotional intensity of a life of hitchhiking, casual sex, and recreational drug use. At the novels end, however, the narrator retreats from these excesses, hoping to find the stability necessary for writing. The road stood for an emotional journey as well as for the actual roads the writer traveled. Kerouac went on to write more than a dozen novels and collections of short stories. His other important Beat works include the novel The Dharma Bums (1958) and the collection of poetry Mexico City Blues (1959). Ferlinghetti, as founder of City Lights Books, an independent press in San Francisco, was responsible for the publication of much Beat poetry, including Howl, in his Pocket Poets Series. The best-known collection of Ferlinghettis own poetry, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), is characterized by frank language, vivid imagery, and humor. Other writers associated with the Beat Generation include William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Diana DiPrima, and Paul Bowles.

IV IMPACT
The Beats were greeted at first with contempt from establishment intellectuals and with mockery from the mass media. On the Road, completed by Kerouac in 1951, went unpublished until 1957, suffering dozens of rejections from major New York publishing houses. When the novel did appear, a New York Times book review called it barbaric. Leading scholars described the lifestyle associated with the Beats as deviant. The stereotype that emerged in the mass media was a spaced-out beatnik, dressed in black, pounding on bongo drums and muttering gibberish as poetry. Student protest movements of the 1960s heralded a new generation that soon replaced the Beats and their issues. Though tied to the Beats in their rejection of the establishment and enjoyment of marijuana, the youth movement of the 1960s generally favored rock music over jazz and film over literature. The mass media lost interest in the Beats as a new bohemian figure emerged: the hippie.

However, by calling attention to alternative values, ideas, and literary modes, the Beats influenced several writers of the 1960s, including poets Robert Creeley and Ed Dorn, and novelists Ken Kesey and Richard Brautigan. In time a younger generation of intellectuals created a new respect for Beat writing, which eventually found inclusion in college and university curricula. Allen Ginsberg, who was awarded a National Book Award for poetry in 1974, relished his celebrity and became an antiestablishment media hero. Gary Snyder was awarded the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Jack Kerouac, however, became severely depressed and died of alcoholism at age 47.