Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

.
Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz


Question 1

Is Jacqueline Woodson the author of more than 30 award-winning books? Was her “Miracle Boys” adapted into a TV mini-series by Spike Lee? Did she serve 2015-2017 as the Poetry Foundation’s “Young People’s Poet Laureate”? Is she currently finishing her 2018-2019 term as the U.S. Library of Congress’ “National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature”?

Answer 1

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Question 2

Raised in South Carolina and Brooklyn, is her “Brown Girl Dreaming” a 349-page memoir of poems in which she shares how it was to grow up an African American in the 1960’s and 1970’s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights Movement?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Was Abraham Lincoln’s stated objective for fighting the American Civil War “to preserve the union” (rather than “to abolish slavery”) because he wanted desperately to keep the 6 “slave states” that did NOT join the Confederacy, from doing so?

Answer 3

Yes.

BTW, Abraham Lincoln (Illinois) of the Republicans won 180 of 303 votes in the Electoral College, despite winning only 39.8% of the popular vote.

Second place = John Breckinridge (Kentucky) of the Southern Democrats with 72 and 18.1%.
Third place = John Bell (Tennessee) of the Constitutional Union with 39 and 12.6%.
Fourth place = Stephen Douglas* (Illinois) of the Northern Democrats with 12 and 29.5%.

NB: The Northern and Southern Democrats had 47.6% of the popular vote (vs. only 39.8% for Lincoln).

* The Stephen Douglas of the famous “Lincoln - Douglas debates”

Also BTW, winning the Electoral College while losing the popular vote is fairly common even in the modern era –

1992 – Bill Clinton with 43.0% of the popular vote because Ross Perot split the conservative vote by syphoning 18.9% from George H.W. Bush.

1996 – Bill Clinton with 49.2% of the popular vote because Ross Perot split the conservative vote by syphoning 8.4% from Bob Dole.

2000 – Although the polls had virtually-unanimously predicted that George W. Bush would LOSE the ELECTORAL VOTE but WIN the POPULAR VOTE – THE REVERSE ON BOTH COUNTS HAPPENED – George W. Bush with 271 Electoral Votes (one more than needed to win) but 47.9% of the popular vote – vs. Al Gore with 266 Electoral Votes and 48.4% of the popular vote.

Question 4

Did Abraham Lincoln’s famous 9/22/1862 “Emancipation Proclamation” actually abolish slavery or was it merely AN ULTIMATUM issued pursuant to his Commander-in-Chief power (A) to declare free ONLY THE SLAVES who were AS OF 1/1/1963 “held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people of which shall be in rebellion against the United States….” and (B) to offer each of the Confederacy’s slaves freed pursuant to Part A (IF ANY) immediate employment (for those who met military standards) in the Union Army/Navy?

Answer 4

(A) Yes. (B) Yes.

Question 5

Did the actual freeing of the slaves in the 11 Confederate States have to wait until the Union Army/Navy actually freed them (NB: Abraham Lincoln was assassinated before the end of the war)?

Answer 5

Yes.

Question 6

And did the actual freeing of the slaves in the 6 “slave states” that did NOT join the Confederacy (and, accordingly, were NOT freed according to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation/Ultimatum) have to await the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which did not occur until after the end of the war?

Answer 6

Yes.

Question 7

Did post-war “Reconstruction” of the Confederacy feature so-called “carpetbaggers” (a “carpetbag” was a cheap suitcase constructed from common floor carpet) who flocked south from northern states in order to seek political office and/or business opportunities – against which Southern society was helpless from a legal viewpoint because most of its males, as felons who had committed treason, were disqualified from voting and the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution extending voting rights to women would not be passed until 1919 and ratified in 1920?

Answer 7

Yes.

Question 8

Did the American South then feature low-grade guerilla warfare against the “carpetbaggers” and freed slaves by vigilantes known as the Ku Klux Klan?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

Did America’s “worst president” (for many reasons NOT related to race relations), Woodrow Wilson (A) segregate the U.S. armed forces, (B) purge the U.S. Civil Service of African Americans (which is the historical reason for THE PRESENT-DAY CIVIL-SERVICE RULES WHICH MAKE IT so difficult to fire a U.S. Civil Servant), and (C) appoint segregationists to the U.S. Supreme Court?

Answer 9

(A) Yes.
(B) Yes.
(C) Yes.

BTW, there are other reasons why objective historians consider Woodrow Wilson the “worst president” in U.S. history –

First, Wilson secretly loaded munitions in the holds of passenger vessels IN VIOLATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL RULES OF WAR THAT PROHIBITED “NON-COMBATANTS” FROM SHIPPING ARMS TO “BELLIGERANTS” – in order to HOODWINK the American public (and BTW Teddy Roosevelt) into believing that the sinking of those ships (AND THE KILLING OF INNOCENT PASSENGERS) was a violation of those same International Rules of War by the German Navy, rather than a legitimate exercise of their rights against a so-called “Non-Combatant”!!!

[In other words, the very act of shipping munitions to a “belligerent” as Wilson was doing, was itself an “act of war” making the U.S. a “belligerent” long before Wilson HOODWINKED the U.S. Congress into “declaring war”!!!]

Second, Wilson did so in order to enter the war against the 1,000-year-old HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE!!!

[The Archduke Ferdinand, who was next in line to head the Holy Roman Empire, was assassinated by the Serbs who were not even in one of the two major alliances. However, Russia (which was allied with France and the Brits) decided to back the Serbs against the Holy Roman Empire and, as the saying goes, “The rest is history”!!!]

[BTW, Western so-called historians re-wrote history to find an excuse to call the 1,000-year-old HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE the Austro-Hungarian Empire and to blame Germany for honoring its treaty obligations to the Holy Roman Empire!!!]

[As if we would not have expected our NATO allies to back us up if it came to light that Castro had orchestrated the assassination of President Kennedy and we were going to “lean on” Castro even though he was backed by the Soviet Union!!! Which (the most plausible “conspiracy theory” of the last 66 years) may be the reason why President Trump gave in to the demands of our Intelligence Services NOT to make public their remaining files on the Kennedy Assassination, presumably for fear that American public opinion might still demand retribution against the Castros -- “most plausible ‘conspiracy theory’” because, after all, all of the other suspects (for example, Jimmy Hoffa and even President Lyndon Johnson as suggested by a contemporaneous popular Broadway play by the name of “MacBird” for Macbeth and Lady Bird Johnson) were long-since deceased.]

Third, because even a half-wit in Wilson’s place would know that he would have no control over the French in demanding reparations if they were bailed out from their disaster of backing the Russians against the Holy Roman Empire.

[The Treaty of Versailles, officially concluding World War I, imposed impossible reparations against Germany at the insistence of the French. Which the French mercilessly continued to enforce periodically for many years by continuing to invade militarily and pillage Germany’s industrial heartland (aka “The Rhineland” because it was centered on the Rhine River) -- taking back to France vehicles, railroad rolling stock, and anything of value that could be packed into them -- until, 17.5 years after the 11/11/2018 end of World War I, when Adolf Hitler called a halt on 3/7/1936 to the French pillaging by “re-occupying the Rhineland” with German troops. Which made Hitler wildly popular in Germany!!!]

Since even a half-wit should have known what the French would do (and even a half-wit should have known that he would not be able to HOODWINK the American public into fighting the French following World War I to prevent their pillaging), objective historians would conclude that Woodrow Wilson was the “Father of World War II”!!!

[Though American historians, particular those affiliated with Princeton, perpetuate the myth that Wilson was a decent president, or at least not “the worst”!!!]

Question 10

Did President Harry Truman’s famous 7/26/1948 Executive Order 9981 to integrate the U.S. Armed Forces have any immediate effect, or did it have to await the inauguration of President Eisenhower in 1953 to be enforced?

Answer 10

Actual integration of the U.S. Armed Forces had to await President Eisenhower.

Question 11

Did the U.S. Supreme Court’s famous 5/17/1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision (declaring unconstitutional segregation laws providing for dual school systems under the Court’s infamous “separate but equal” 5/18/1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson) have any immediate effect, or did it have to wait more than 3 years for President Eisenhower to be re-elected before he was willing to enforce it?

Answer 11

President Eisenhower decided to wait until after his 1956 re-election to enforce Brown v. Board.

The focal point of Southern defiance in 1957 was Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus calling out 10,000 troops of the Arkansas National Guard on 9/4/1957 to prevent 9 African American students from entering Little Rock’s Central High School.

The nation was then treated to 3 weeks of stand-off as President Eisenhower effectively kept saying to Gov. Faubus “don’t make me do it” and Gov. Faubus effectively kept replying “over my dead body”!!!

On 9/24/1957, after three weeks of stand-off, President Eisenhower finally nationalized the 10,000 Arkansas National Guard Troops and then, as their new Commanding Officer, ordered them to “stand down” while he ordered the “Screaming Eagles” of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the 9 students into Central H.S., and then to establish an impregnable perimeter defense around the school!!!

The 10,000 Arkansas National Guard Troops who had just been nationalized knew that disobeying their new Commanding Officer would result in court martial.

And the 10,000-plus “Screaming Eagles” of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, which had been created by Eisenhower in 1942 for its famous “Rendezvous With Destiny” parachuting into three different “drop zones” behind Nazi lines on “D-Day” followed by pivotal roles in other crucial battles with the Nazis, such as the Nazi counter-attack at the The Battle of the Bulge” which nearly succeeded -- were an intimidating-enough sight to “keep the peace” in what could have been a very bloody and wide-ranging rebellion.

Question 12

Was Joseph Kennedy Sr. (father of President John Kennedy and of Bobby Kennedy) who BTW made his fortune by violating the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (regarding prohibition), widely reviled as a Nazi sympathizer while serving 1938-1940 as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. on the Eve of WW-II?

Answer 12

Yes.

Question 13

When President John Kennedy served in the U.S. Senate 1953-1960, did he have one of the most “right wing” voting records in the Senate?

Answer 13

Yes.

Question 14

When Bobby Kennedy graduated from the U/Virginia Law School in 1951, did Papa Joe Kennedy get him a job with Papa Joe’s good buddy, Sen. Joe McCarthy, as Assistant Counsel 1952-1955 to McCarthy’s “Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations” which conducted the infamous anti-communist witch-hunts? Did Bobby’s service to Joe McCarthy make rare any news account for the rest of Bobby’s life that did not include the adjective “ruthless”?

Answer 14

Yes. Yes.

Question 15

Is it a credit to President Kennedy and brother Bobby as U.S. Attorney General that they “changed their spots” while occupying those offices to become very liberal (for their day) and, inter alia, to support Civil Rights?

Answer 15

Yes.

Question 16

However, did any significant Civil Rights legislation have to wait until President Johnson succeeded to the presidency following the 11/22/1963 assassination?

Answer 16

Yes.

Question 17

Did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibit discrimination in public accommodations (hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, etc.), beef up efforts to integrate public schools, and outlaw employment discrimination?

Answer 17

Yes.

Question 18

Did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 “guarantee” African Americans the right to vote in federal, state and local elections?

Answer 18

Yes.

The reason for the quotation marks around “guarantee” is that, just like President Truman’s Executive Order integrating the U.S. Armed Forces (Q&A-10) and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision integrating public schools (Q&A-11), orders/decisions/laws STILL REQUIRE ENFORCEMENT!!!

Question 19

Was passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 aided by the assassinations in June 1964 in Mississippi of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner who, under the aegis of the Congress of Racial Equality (“CORE”), had been attempting to register African Americans to vote?

Answer 19

Yes, the nation was shocked by the assassinations.

Question 20

During the Summer of 1966, was Yours Truly a member of the first U.S. Government Task Force assembled to enforce the integration of public schools under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, during the course of which he was “within 60 seconds of being assassinated” (literally) according to the North Carolina State Police?

Answer 20

Yes.

I was, according to the North Carolina State Police, within 60 seconds of being assassinated in Bertie County NC while working for the U.S. government to desegregate schools during the Summer of 1966 before my last year of law school. This was only 2 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 2 years BEFORE the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.

The details of the near assassination???

I was a member of the first U.S. Governmental Task Force formed to dismantle the dual-school systems of the 11 states of the Old Confederacy plus six more Southern States that had also established De Jure Dual School Systems

[It still breaks my heart to remember how bleak and squalid were the physical conditions of the segregated schools that African Americans were forced to attend, though we did not witness the schools in operation since this was during the summer.]

Our Task Force was divided into 17 teams, each focusing on a different state. Mine was North Carolina.

Even though we were based in Washington DC with offices in old CCC barracks on the Washington Mall (the only office space available on short notice), we spent half of each week on location in the state to which we were assigned.

Toward the end of the summer, I was in Bertie County, NC.

Our teams were always integrated. So I had a partner (I regret no longer remembering his name) and both of us were always amused at how everyone never failed to evacuate the motel swimming pool in a panic as soon as he jumped in for his laps at the end of each work day.

Our last evening in NC that week, he suggested after his laps that we should go across the highway to the Tastee Freez to get something to eat.

This Tastee Freez also functioned as a “drive in” and there immediately piled in the door after us about 15-20 mean-looking angry men who apparently had been waiting in their cars to be served.

Nonetheless, my partner suggested playing a pin-ball machine in the back corner as soon as we got our food, and the proprietor countered by giving us our change in pennies that, of course, would not fit the coin slot for the pin-ball machine.

Accordingly, we quickly came to the realization that it would be best to retreat forthwith.

I fell in behind my partner to ensure he had the best chance of escaping.

All of the mean-looking angry men began sticking out their feet trying to trip us.

When we finally reached the door, I noticed that the last person looked a bit smaller than I was, so I purposely tripped over his foot, spilling my milk shake all over his clothes and then, giving him an apologetic smile, said “I’m sorry, I tripped” and was out the door.

We ran across the highway.

Within 20 seconds of our departure, there were 3-4 state-trooper squad cars with red lights flashing.

The troopers told us that in their judgment, we were within 60 seconds of being killed (literally) at the moment we exited the Tastee Freez.

They also admitted that they weren’t particularly interested in protecting us -- that they had been summoned by the proprietor of the Tastee Freez who was afraid that his property would be destroyed.

There was no further incident during the night, presumably because the state troopers kept a close eye on the motel at the behest of its proprietor who also feared property damage.

Three footnotes.

First, my partner and I were never impolite to anyone or provoked anyone in any way except by our presence.

Second, the policy of our Task Force was always to stay in a motel at least 20 miles away from the community with whose school officials we were meeting. Accordingly, it is most likely that we were threatened by men who happened to be in their cars waiting to be served at the Tastee Freez Drive-In when we happened to enter. However, it is possible that we had been tracked the 20-or-so miles from the community on which we were focusing.

Third, it is true that if I had been assassinated in North Carolina in 1966, both the lynch mob and I did know the reason why they wanted to assassinate me = I had entered an unlabelled “white only” establishment with a U.S. government partner who was African American. ["White only" labels had been outlawed 24 months earlier for "public accommodations" such as the Tastee Freez and such as the motel across the highway by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.]

Question 21

Was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis TN on 4/4/1968?

Answer 21

Yes.

Question 22

Was Bobby Kennedy assassinated 6/6/1968 while running for the Democratic Party nomination for President, primarily on a Civil Rights platform?

Answer 22

Yes.

Question 23

Is it any wonder that our author, Jacqueline Woodson, who lived the first seven years of her life 1963-1970 in South Carolina, should have had grave doubts about whether the Civil Rights Movement would ever enjoy a modicum of success?

Answer 23

What do you think???

Question 24

BTW, did the U.S. Supreme Court re-segregate U.S. public schools in its 2007 Parents vs. Seattle Public School District No. 1 decision by approving school segregation that resulted from segregated housing patterns (the case involved voluntary busing to achieve integration).

Answer 24

Yes, in 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court put its “stamp of approval” on what Jonathan Kozol described in the last of his many books since 1967 exposing the abysmal conditions in America’s inner-city schools – his last entitled “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of APARTHEID Schooling in America” (emphasis added) (Random House 2005).

The book titles of some of Jonathan Kozol’s other indictments of American public schools???

Death at an Early Age (1967)
The Night is Dark and I Am Far From Home: Political Indictment of US Public Schools (1975)
Illiterate America (1985)
Rachel and Her Children (1988)
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (1991)
Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation (1995)
Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope (2001)