Texas Citizen Bee - People

James Madison

Born VA, VA legislature, VA Statue for Religious Freedom, 1787 Constitutional Convention leader, VA Plan, checks and balances states and federal, Father of the Constitution, Federalist Papers in support of ratification, proposed 17 amendments, 10 approved, Bill of Rights, House 1789, Bank of the US, Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party, VA and KT Resolutions, Jefferson's Secretary of State, President 1809, War of 1812, Mr. Madison's War

Thomas Jefferson

Born VA, VA legislature, influenced by Locke, natural rights theory, religious freedom, education, and property rights, drafted Declaration, authored VA Statute, minister to France, included bill of rights, 1st Secretary of State, rival Treasury Hamilton, political parties formed, Adams' Vice President, disagreed policies, VA and KT Resolutions, purchased LA, foreign and domestic troubles, founded University of VA

Patrick Henry

Born VA, failed at farming and storekeeping, opposed the Stamp Act, radical leaders against British tyranny, Gentlemen may cry peace, 1st governor of Virginia, expanded government support of teachers but defeated, Anti-Federalist critic, debates with James Madison, Bill of Rights not enough, turned down offer Secretary of State and Chief Justice

George Mason

Born VA, supply officer French and Indian War, supported independence, VA Constitution, VA Dec of Rights, John Locke influence, natural rights theory, Articles inadequate, opposed Constitution, bill of rights needed, end to slave importation, rejected, enemies Madison Washington, Anti-Federalist, Objections to this Constitution of Government, Bill of Rights based on Mason's VA Declaration of Rights, Grandfather of the Bill of Rights

King George III

Born 6/4/1738, heir to the throne 1751, succeeded 1760, conflicts involving kingdom, British Parliament required military protection payment, grievances against king, Treaty of Paris, 1784 retired, nervous breakdown, declared insane 1810

Jonathan Trumbull Sr

Born CT, theology, the only governor supporting American cause, recruited troops, raised supplies for the cause, remained in power after independence

Richard Henry Lee

Born VA, wealthy family, VA legislature at 25, outspoken opponent of slavery, owned slaves, condemned the Stamp and Townshend Acts, organized committees, contacted Samuel Adams, Lee Resolution, signed Articles, 1st Confederation Congress president, Northwest Ordinance, Anti-Federalist, Letters from a Federal Farmer, limited federal power, bill of rights

Alexander Hamilton

Born West Indies, illegitimate son, NY's Patriot movement, lieutenant colonel, desired stronger central government, nationalist views, strong executive branch, president served for life rejected, The Federalist Papers, the vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty, Secretary of the Treasury, a national bank, opposed by Thomas Jefferson, defense lawyer in People v. Croswell (1803), truth could be used as a defense for libel, freedom of the press, death in a duel with Aaron Burr, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), national bank constitutional

Benjamin Rush

Born near Philadelphia, 1st professor of chemistry, good reputation, treating the poor, yellow fever epidemics, Adams patients, innovative techniques, ineffective bloodletting, suggested Common Sense title, signed Declaration, Surgeon General, social reform, supported smallpox new vaccination, 1st abolitionist society, public education for all, Treasurer of the US Mint, reconciled Adams and Jefferson, I know of no character living or dead who has done more real good for his country

William Blackstone

English Jurist, 1st Vinerian professor, Solicitor General, Commentaries on the Laws of England, source of references for Supreme Court, Constitution interpretation

John Locke

English philosopher, Oxford scholar, Second Treatise of Civil Government, influence on the Founders, A Letter Concerning Toleration, new relationship between civil government and religion, no atheists and Catholics toleration, ideas formed 1st Amendment, religious belief clause

Thomas Hobbes

English philosopher, modern political philosophy founder, Leviathan, influenced Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Locke, natural state of humanity is war, compact needed for protection, advocated strong monarch, rejected freedom of religion and power separation

Baron Charles de Montesquieu

French nobleman, The Spirit of the Laws 1748, government power separation, inspired Madison, echoed in Federalist 47, division of power in Articles I, II, and III, Federalist 51, defend the checks and balances, most quoted political philosopher at 1787 Constitutional Convention

Marquis de Lafayette

French officer, helped Revolution against England, major general, highest rank of French nobility, friendship with George Washington, secured support, obtain troops and supplies from France, 1st foreigner granted honorary US citizenship

Franklin D. Roosevelt

a. Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in New York and, after attending prestigious schools, he followed the example of his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, and entered politics. He was elected to the state senate in 1910 and later appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson. In the summer of 1921 Roosevelt was stricken with polio. He persevered through physical therapy but never fully regained the use of his legs. Seven years later he was elected governor of New York, and in 1932 was elected President of the United States. b. When he took office the country was in the depths of the Great Depression. Thirteen million people were out of work and almost all banks had closed. In his First Inaugural Address he likened the crisis to a foreign invasion, and asserted that the Constitution's separation of powers and system of checks and balances would have to be temporarily suspended in order to see the country through. He proposed what he called the New Deal: expansive federal programs, funded by citizens paying taxes. He sent a record number of bills to Congress attempting to bring relief to farmers and the unemployed. In 1935 he proposed the Social Security Act. Controls were enacted on utilities and businesses, and the government moved towards regulating the economy. The repeal of Prohibition also brought in more tax revenue for the federal government. c. After his decisive reelection victory in 1936, Roosevelt became frustrated with the Supreme Court which had been overturning some New Deal legislation as unconstitutional expansions of Congress' powers. In what has come to be called his "Court-packing scheme," he proposed that Congress increase the size of the Supreme Court to a maximum of fifteen members. This proposal failed, but two justices changed their voting, and the court began upholding New Deal laws. d. Roosevelt faced issues of national interest and foreign policy. He attempted to keep the country out of World War II, favoring a "Good Neighbor" policy of neutrality. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt believed he had to act; Congress declared war on Japan the next day, and on Germany and Italy three days later. Roosevelt served as Commander in Chief of the military making the defeat of Nazi Germany the first priority. Fearing Japanese saboteurs, he signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the forced internment of Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast. This action was upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States (1944). e. In all, President Roosevelt was elected to four terms as President. Until that time, US presidents had followed the example of President George Washington who had limited his service to two terms. In 1951, the 22nd Amendment was passed limiting US Presidents to two terms.

Anne Hutchinson

against religious theocracy, defended religious liberty, MA 1634, Bible study, criticized colony ministers' teachings, 82 erroneous opinions, banished to RI, 1st Amendment, religion clause

John Paul Jones

Born Scotland, Bonhomme Richard, defeated British warship Serapis, inspired Americans, I have not yet begun to fight, slogan for US Navy, Father of US Navy

John Witherspoon

Born Scotland, Princeton University, Presbyterian minister, Moral Philosophy in leadership, student James Madison, drafted Articles, NJ delegate at Constitutional Convention, advocated ratification

Sandra Day O'Connor

141. Sandra Day O'Connor was born in El Paso, Texas, where she spent much of her childhood on a cattle ranch. She was educated at private schools and enrolled in Stanford Law School in 1950. After graduating third out of 102 students in her class in 1952, O'Connor was unable to find work in a private practice - the only firm that offered her a position wanted her to work as a legal secretary. a. After working as assistant state attorney general of Arizona, she served in the state senate, becoming the first female majority leader in the country. She went on to serve as a Superior Court judge and on the Arizona Court of Appeals. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated O'Connor to the US Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed her nomination unanimously and O'Connor became the first female Supreme Court Justice in US history. b. On the Court, she was often the swing vote. She developed a test for identifying Establishment Clause violations, called the Endorsement Test. She voted to limit federal power under the Commerce Clause in United States v. Lopez (1995) and United States v. Morrison (2000). These landmark federalism decisions marked the first time the Court limited federal commerce power since the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt. c. Justice O'Connor announced she would step down from the Court in 2005, and retired when her replacement was sworn in the next January. She has since spoken out on the importance of separation of powers and checks and balances in our system of government.

John Jay

Born NYC, a lawyer, Address to the People of Great Britain, colonists same rights as British, moderate approach to Britain, did not sign Declaration, NY constitution draft, State Chief Justice, elected President of the Assembly, Treaty of Paris, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, favored stronger central, The Federalist Papers, SC Chief Justice 1789, Jay's Treaty avoiding war with Britain, elected NY governor, emancipation bill, abolition of slavery

Crispus Attucks

African American former slave, unarmed civilian killed by British soldiers in Boston Massacre, leader of the heroic upheaval, led to American Revolution, Day inaugurated 1858, Monument, Silver Dollar, cause of freedom

John Hancock

Born MA, outsized signature on Declaration, Boston Sons of Liberty, a wealthy merchant, opposed to British, Boston Tea Party, Minutemen fired, Continental Congress, Continental Army rejected, MA state constitution 1780, signed Articles, against central government, supported Constitution

Charles Carroll

Born MD, Europe education, revolutionary spirit, Continental Congress, signed Declaration, Board of War, only Catholic in Senate, last surviving signer of the Declaration

John Dickinson

Born MD, moved to DE, DE and PA assemblies, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767-1768), The Liberty Song, Declaration of the Causes of Taking Up Arms, objected strong wording, drafted Articles, Dickinson College, Annapolis Convention, Letters of Fabius, Penman of the Revolution

Bernardo de Gálvez

Born Spain, ancient Spanish nobility, Governor LA Territory, sided with Americans, bought Spanish weapons and vital supplies, Galveston named honor

Gouverneur Morris

Born NY, right arm was crippled, Patriot cause, NY new constitution, signed the Articles of Confederation, lost left leg in carriage accident, Assistant US Superintendent of Finance, responsible for the final language of the Constitution, We the people, ambassador to France, remained after bloody Reign of Terror, call for secession of NY and New England

John Peter Muhlenberg

Born PA, Lutheran minister, follower of Patrick Henry, Ecclesiastes, To everything there is a season, Valley Forge, PA state government, US Congress, Lutheran layman

Benjamin Franklin

Born Boston, social commentaries, Silence Dogood, PA Gazette, Poor Richard's Almanack, Join or Die political cartoon, Albany Plan of Union, commissioner to France, Treaty of Paris, slaves as citizens but rejected, PA Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery

William Penn

Born England, Anglican family, Quaker, founded Pennsylvania 1681, land given by King, consent of the governed, ensured rights, freedom of assembly and religion, all Christians, moderate law, power separation, founded Philadelphia, bought Indian land, good relationship, Liberty Bell, the greatest law-giver the world has produced

Robert Morris

Born England, came to MD, successful shipping and banking firm, leading merchants, initially opposed independence, against Lee Resolution, signed Declaration and Articles, Congress' Finance Committee, obtained war supplies past British Navy, Financier of the American Revolution, $1 million Battle of Yorktown alone, supported revising the Articles, turned down offer Secretary of the Treasury

Thomas Paine

Born England, little formal education, Common Sense, encouraged colonial independence, The American Crisis, improved morale among the troops, defended American Revolution and natural rights theory, The Rights of Man, seditious libel, fled to France, sentenced to death, King's execution opposition, The Age of Reason, unwelcome in US, body remains lost

Thomas Hooker

Born England, ultra-conservative period, preacher, clashed with Church of England, lived in MA, founded Connecticut, church in Hartford, Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639, equality for all mankind, the father of American democracy

Samuel Adams

Born MA, 2nd cousin John Adams, organized Sons of Liberty, resisted the Stamp Act and Townshend Duties, The Rights of the Colonists, Boston Tea Party, signed the Declaration, rejected central government, supported Bill of Rights

John Adams

Born MA, 2nd cousin Samuel Adams, James Otis's courtroom, natural rights, defended the British soldiers in Boston Massacre, Facts are stubborn things, advocate of independence, seconded Lee Resolution, signed the Treaty of Paris, bill of rights, 1st Vice, 2nd President, avoid French war, Alien and Sedition Acts, Judiciary Act of 1801

Mercy Otis Warren

Born MA, James Otis sister, early supporter of independence, published satirical plays, exchanged letters, natural rights theory, gender equality, opposed Constitution ratification, Observations on the New Constitution ... by a Columbian Patriot, Bill of Rights, Anti-Federalist paper, co-authored Letters from a Federal Farmer, equality in education, poetry, History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, The Conscience of the American Revolution

Abigail Adams

Born MA, Quincy family, married John Adams, son John Quincy Adams, ran the farm, exchanged letters, requested Continental Congress, remember the ladies, tyrant men, Alien and Sedition Acts

James Otis

Born MA, brother of Mercy Otis Warren, Vice Admiralty Court general, troubled by British writs, 5 hour speech, the freedom of one's house, natural rights theory, right to private property was inalienable, 4th Amendment, Patriot leader, The Rights of the Colonists Asserted and Proved, criticized British taxation without representation, beaten in coffee house, brain and skull damaged, lightning struck

George Washington

Father of his Country, born VA, commander of VA militia, VA colonial legislature, and Continental Congress, Commander-in-Chief of Continental Army, Articles were inadequate, unanimously elected 1st President, two terms, discouraged political parties, out of foreign wars, Farewell Address, cherish Constitution

James Armistead

General Washington's weapons, African American slave, double-agent, runaway slave, infiltrated British defenses, gained secrets, Marquis de Lafayette's letter of recommendation, freedom in 1787

John Peter Zenger

German immigrant, published New York Weekly Journal, criticism NY governor, arrested for seditious libel, 3 judges appointed, Andrew Hamilton took case, acquitted later, importance of protections, jury trials, due process, prohibitions on excessive bail

Wentworth Cheswell

NH African American grandson, freedom and justice, influential town leader, Dummer Academy, Committee of Safety, public welfare, served under Colonel Langdon, active public life

Haym Salomon

Polish-born Jewish immigrant, NY Sons of Liberty, American espionage ring, a financial broker in Philadelphia, financier of the American Revolution, died penniless

Alexis de Tocqueville

a. Alexis de Tocqueville was a French historian and political scientist. As French foreign minister, he traveled to the United States in 1831. It was the experiences during this visit that led him to write to his most famous work, Democracy in America. In this book, he details his observations of society and culture in the United States. He predicted that democratic institutions like those of the United States would eventually replace the aristocratic governments in Europe. b. Tocqueville criticized individualism and believed that associations among people would lead to the greatest happiness for society. He emphasized responsibilities of citizenship and the value of compromise. Further, he analyzed the American attempt to foster equality among citizens through the promotion of liberty, while contrasting that approach to more socialistic systems that attempt to foster equality through government control.

Aaron Burr

a. Aaron Burr was born in New Jersey, the son of a Presbyterian cleric and grandson of theologian Jonathan Edwards. After studying theology for two years he turned to the practice of law. During the American Revolution, he served in the Continental Army. After moving to New York, he got involved in New York politics, helped organize the new Democratic-Republican Party (later called the Jeffersonian Republican Party and still later the Democratic Party we know today), and for a while held elected political office. In 1800, the Democratic-Republican Party chose Thomas Jefferson as its candidate for President and Aaron Burr as its candidate for Vice President. At that time, electors did not cast separate votes for President and Vice President. All of the Democratic-Republican electors cast one electoral vote for Jefferson and one electoral vote for Burr. As a result, Jefferson and Burr tied in the electoral vote. The House of Representatives controlled by the Federalist Party now had to choose the new President. Voting by state with each state having one vote, the House eventually chose Jefferson largely because Alexander Hamilton, the new leader of the Federalists, threw his support to Jefferson. Jefferson won the presidency and Burr became Vice President. To minimize the danger of another deadlock, Congress passed the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution in 1803; the states ratified the amendment in 1804. This amendment required each elector to cast one vote for President and one vote for Vice President. Burr never forgave Hamilton for costing him the presidency, and his animosity for Hamilton grew when, in 1804, Burr ran for governor of New York and lost. Burr blamed his loss on Hamilton's political maneuvering. In July of 1804 he challenged Hamilton to a duel. Burr's shot mortally wounded his rival. Burr was charged with murder but was never brought to trial. b. After the duel Burr went south to New Orleans. At the time, the Spanish were conspiring for control of the Mississippi valley. Burr allegedly made plans with James Wilkinson, the governor of the Louisiana Territory, to support a rebellion. He was arrested and charged with treason - he was accused of attempting to establish an independent republic in the Southwest. Chief Justice John Marshall presided over his Virginia trial. Burr was acquitted in the first application of the Constitution's provisions for the crime of treason.

Abraham Lincoln

a. Abraham Lincoln taught himself the law by reading Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives and in 1846 was elected to US Congress. He served one term in the US House of Representatives before returning to his law practice. b. Lincoln's concerns about the Kansas-Nebraska Act lured him back into politics. Lincoln challenged its sponsor, Stephen Douglas, in the 1858 race for the Senate. Lincoln lost the election but his performance in debates with Douglas gained him national attention. In 1860 he was elected President of the United States. Upon his election, seven southern states seceded from the Union, and others followed suit. In his First Inaugural Address, he argued that secession was not proper under the Constitution. He cited the Articles of Confederation as creating a "perpetual Union," furthered by the Preamble's goal of a "more perfect Union." c. After the fighting began, Lincoln called for the suspension of writs of habeas corpus. This meant rebel fighters could be arrested and held without trial. The case of ex parte Milligan addressed the constitutionality of the suspension of habeas corpus. d. As the war continued, Lincoln consulted with Frederick Douglass about conditions faced by Army soldiers. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 announcing that slaves in rebelling states were free and that the Union Army would enforce their freedom. Later that year Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, invoking the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and its promise of equality. At his Second Inaugural Address in March of 1865, the war was coming to an end. Lincoln urged his countrymen to "bind up the nation's wounds" and called the war God's punishment to a country that tolerated the evil of slavery. When the Confederate capital of Richmond was captured, Lincoln made the symbolic gesture of sitting at Jefferson Davis' desk. e. Five days after General Robert E. Lee's surrender in April of 1865, Lincoln was assassinated. His Vice President Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency. Later that year, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery throughout the nation.

Alice Paul

a. Alice Paul was born in New Jersey to a Quaker family. She became interested in women's suffrage while a graduate student in England. She became interested in women's suffrage while a graduate student in England. b. She came back to the United States in 1910 and turned her attention to winning the vote for women in America. She earned her PhD in economics, concentrating on the status of women in Pennsylvania. She wished to build on the efforts of earlier suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Paul organized a large parade to coincide with the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. She published leaflets and held daily pickets in front of the White House. She burned copies of Wilson's speeches, calling them "meaningless words" about democracy. In 1917 she and many others were arrested for peacefully marching. While in jail, she began a hunger strike and was force-fed by prison authorities. c. Paul's actions alienated some, including National American Woman Suffrage Association President Carrie Chapman Catt, who believed the women's suffragists were becoming too militant. On the other hand, those who were arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights to speak, publish, peaceably assemble, and petition won the public's sympathy. Wilson ordered them released from prison. He also soon lent his support to women's suffrage. Congress approved the Nineteenth Amendment within a year and it was ratified by the states in 1920. Paul continued her campaign for women's rights, leading a successful campaign to add gender as a protected category to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. d. The work of Paul and other women's suffragists illustrate the civic values of perseverance, courage, initiative, industry, and civic skills including volunteering.

Alvin York

a. Alvin York, born in 1887, was a Congressional Medal of Honor winner who fought in World War I. He grew up learning to shoot and developed into an expert marksman. Although he was originally a pacifist, a friend convinced him that the Bible said it was okay to serve in the military. As a soldier in World War I, he gained notoriety by his performance in the Battle of Argonne Forest where he attacked the Germans. When members of his group were unable to proceed, he went after the Germans by himself. He killed 17 through sniper fire and then 7 by pistol. He was successful in taking 132 prisoners on his own. He died in 1964.

Andrew Carnegie

a. Andrew Carnegie's rags-to-riches story is one of perseverance, initiative, and resourcefulness. Born in 1835 to a working-class Scottish family, Carnegie came to the US with his family when he was thirteen years old. In 1853 he took a job at a railroad corporation. He quickly advanced at the company. In 1889, he founded the Carnegie Steel Company. This business combined with others to create US Steel. US Steel helped meet the country's great demand for steel—used in railroads, skyscrapers, and other examples of great technological achievements. b. Concerned with the growing power of monopolies and their impact on economic rights, the federal government tried to break up the US Steel Company under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. At the time, US Steel provided two-thirds of all steel produced in the country. However, the government was unable to show any misconduct on the part of the company and the case was dismissed. c. Later in life, Andrew Carnegie dedicated his life to philanthropy, and he advocated an idea he called the Gospel of Wealth in which he encouraged the wealthy to give away their fortunes to worthy causes. He used his fortune to found the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Andrew Jackson

a. Andrew Jackson was born on the border between North and South Carolina but always considered himself to be a South Carolinian. His success as a self-taught lawyer allowed him to build a home in Tennessee and buy slaves. He was that state's first Congressman and also served in the Senate. Jackson was a general in the War of 1812, and he befriended Sam Houston. His defeat of the British at New Orleans made him a national hero. b. General Jackson also oversaw the military removal of many Indian Tribes in Georgia, Alabama, and Spanish Florida, and negotiated several treaties securing Indian land for the US. He was elected President in 1828 and two years later proposed the Indian Removal Act. As a result of the legislation, 46,000 American Indians were removed from their homes. Many died on the Trail of Tears heading west, and 25 million acres of land were opened to settlement by the US. c. Jackson saw himself as a populist—having been elected with a greater portion of the popular vote than any previous candidate—and proposed eliminating the Electoral College in his first address to Congress. Jackson frequently exercised his veto power over Congress' legislation, which resulted in a split within Jackson's political party. Those who opposed his policies included John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, who ran against him for president in 1832. Jackson was reelected in 1832 with five times more electoral votes than Clay.

Angelina Grimke

a. Angelina Grimke was born in South Carolina. She and her sister, Sarah Grimke, were Quakers and abolitionists. Grimke published an anti-slavery letter called "An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South," in William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper The Liberator. In it, she urged women to convince the men in their lives that slavery was a "crime against God and man...If you believe slavery is sinful, set them at liberty." Aware of the importance of freedom of speech and press, she wrote, "It is through the tongue, the pen, and the press, that truth is principally propagated..." She also encouraged women to circulate and sign petitions urging an end to slavery. b. Threats from South Carolina slave owners prompted Grimke and her sister to move to New York. There, the Grimke sisters became the first women to lecture on behalf of the Anti-Slavery Society. Religious leaders who disapproved of public speaking by women condemned them. During the Civil War, Grimke spoke out in support of President Abraham Lincoln. She celebrated the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Years later, she tested the Fourteenth Amendment by attempting to cast a vote. c. In later life, Grimke spoke out for women's suffrage and the Biblical equality of men and women. She and her sister opened a private school, to which Elizabeth Cady Stanton sent her children.

Glenn Curtiss

a. Born in 1878, Glenn Curtiss is known as the "Father of Naval Aviation" and the "Founder of the American Aircraft Industry." Always fascinated with machines, he first began with motorcycles. He became the fastest man in the world at the time when his motorcycle reached a speed of 136.3 mph. In 1908, Curtiss became the first person to fly a publicly viewed flight. In the next few years a legal battle with the Wright brothers began over the design of the flying machine. Even though the Wright brothers eventually won the suit, they did not push for monopoly status and the Curtiss company continued to manufacture airplanes. Curtiss' company went on to build the largest fleet of airplanes used during World War I. Curtiss later developed a seaplane that was the first to take off and land on the deck of a ship. In 1929 the Curtiss Aeroplane Company merged with the Wright Aeronautical Company to form the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. This corporation is today a leading producer of high-tech components for the aeronautical industry.

Henry David Thoreau

a. As a writer, friend, and citizen, Henry David Thoreau always tried to live a life of integrity and moderation . Born in 1817, Thoreau lived in a small bare cabin near Walden Pond in his home state of Massachusetts. In stark contrast to the Industrial Revolution going on around him, he wanted to live by Transcendentalist principles such as simplicity and economy. b. Thoreau opposed the United States' war with Mexico because he believed that the war would lead to slavery's expansion in the West. He did not want his tax money to support the war or slavery. Thoreau refused to pay the poll taxes required by Massachusetts. As a result, Thoreau was arrested in 1856. He spent the night in jail, an experience which affected him deeply. "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison," he argued. (A family member paid the tax the next day and he was released.) c. He believed he had acted responsibly as a citizen by refusing to support what he believed was an unjust war. Exercising his First Amendment freedom of the press , he articulated his philosophy in an essay called Civil Disobedience. Henry David Thoreau's words and actions have inspired generations of Americans including Martin Luther King, Jr. Thoreau was not without his critics, who argue that his ideas on civil disobedience threaten the rule of law . The way to respond to unjust laws is to work to change them, they argue, rather than to disobey them.

Barack Obama

a. Barack Obama, born in 1961 in Hawaii, was elected the 44th President of the United States in 2008. This election marked the first time in U.S. history that an African American was elected to this high office. President Obama graduated from Columbia University and received his law degree from Harvard University. He was the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, he returned to Chicago where he practiced as a civil rights attorney and served as a community organizer. He later became a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago. Entering politics, he first was elected in 1996 as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives. In 2004 he became a United States Senator from Illinois. He burst onto the national scene with a dynamic speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. This led him to enter the race for the presidency in 2008 which he subsequently won. After his inauguration in 2009, he became one of the few American presidents to be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Barry Goldwater

a. Barry Goldwater, born in 1909, served as a U.S. Senator from Arizona from 1953-1965 and 1969-1987. He was the Republican candidate for President in 1964 who was defeated by Lyndon B. Johnson in one of the biggest landslides in U. S. history. He was seen by some as an extremist candidate when he appeared to advocate nuclear warfare and ending social welfare. Many consider him to be the founder of the modern conservative movement within the Republican Party. Senator Goldwater felt that government was not the way to solve societal problems. Over time, he changed what some thought were his extremist positions, and in the 1980's he broke from the New Right within the party when they wanted to pass legislation that would have curtailed the power of the courts following controversial rulings on prayer in school and flag burning. He felt that this would have been a violation of the constitutional separation of powers. Mr. Goldwater died in 1998.

Betty Friedan

a. Betty Friedan, a writer and activist born in 1921, was instrumental in creating the National Organization for Women and is given credit for the modern women's movement. In 1963 her book The Feminine Mystique was published. It detailed the plight of women and their lack of personal fulfillment. She attributed this to the fact that women were judged on the successes of their husbands and children and not on their own merits. Later, she was a key leader in the struggle for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and after it failed she lobbied the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to support laws that prohibited sex discrimination in the workplace.

Bill Clinton

a. Bill Clinton was born in Arkansas. While a teenager he met President John F. Kennedy. He described this encounter as motivating his life-long desire to serve the public. After attending Oxford and Yale Universities, he served as Attorney General and then Governor of Arkansas before being elected President in 1992. b. President Clinton led the country through a period of peace and prosperity. With inflation and unemployment low, he proposed a balanced budget to Congress. His domestic agenda included seeking laws protecting the jobs of people who had to care for ill family members, legislation restricting certain gun sales, and strengthening environmental protection policies. Clinton was also concerned with national interest and foreign policy. He advocated international free trade, and as Commander-in-Chief of the Military, he sent forces to Bosnia and Iraq. c. Clinton was reelected in 1996 with very high approval ratings. But his indiscretions with a young white house intern led Clinton to become the second president in US history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. He was tried in the Senate and found not guilty of the charges against him. He continued to enjoy record high approval ratings during his second term.

Bill Gates

a. Bill Gates, born in 1955, became interested in computers at an early age. While in college when personal computers were being developed, he created the MS-DOS system and in 1980 sold the contract to IBM. As the personal computer market developed, Mr. Gates profited from his relationship with IBM as most computers sold carried his operating system. The Windows program, which was more user friendly than the old program, led to the rapid expansion of personal computer ownership. In addition to being a leader in the software industry with his company Microsoft, Mr. Gates has also been instrumental in philanthropic work. He and his wife, Melinda Gates, established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that provides funding for many charitable works focusing on education, world health, and investment in low income communities.

Billy Graham

a. Billy Graham, born in 1918, is a leading religious evangilist as well as a spiritual and moral advisor to many U. S. Presidents. As a prominent Christian leader, he spoke out against communism during the Cold War era, claiming that it was the ultimate fight between good and evil. Publishing giant William Randolph Hearst helped Mr. Graham's rise to fame when he ordered his editors to carry stories about Billy Graham and his crusade against communism. Mr. Graham's popularity can be attributed in part to the fact that there have been no scandals that have affected his mission. Most presidents since Dwight Eisenhower have called upon Mr. Graham during times of crisis because of his reliance on prayer and discussion as avenues that need to be considered when trying to reach peaceful resolutions to problems.

Marcus Garvey

a. Born in Jamaica, Marcus Garvey became the first African American to speak openly and publicly about African nationalism. He believed the only way African Americans were going to achieve equality was to return to Africa and build a great nation of their own. He began to work to achieve this by acquiring a ship line known as the Black Star Line. He hoped to use this line to transport African Americans to their new home. He often gave speeches on the street corners of Harlem expressing his views. Because of his beliefs, he came under investigation by the BOI (Bureau of Investigation) which later became the FBI. The BOI believed he was a dangerous radical. Later civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. used his writings and speeches in the civil rights movement. Even though both men disagreed about the way equality should be achieved, they believed that Garvey was a model of a man who attempted to instill a sense of pride and dignity in African Americans. Today, allusions to Garvey and his influence can be found in pop culture musical genres such as hip-hop, blues, jazz, and reggae.

Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr

a. Born in Massachusetts, Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr. later earned his law degree from Harvard. He began his political career as a member of the state legislature and then moved to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1893, he became a U.S. Senator where he served until his death. As a conservative Republican, he supported expansion for the United States as a way to establish the country as a world power. Forming a close alliance with Teddy Roosevelt, he endorsed the building of the Panama Canal, war with Spain in 1898, and acquisition of the Philippines as well as other territories in the Pacific. He believed for the United States to be a factor in international trade and diplomacy, it must have a strong army and navy. This would require the building of military bases to protect the merchant marines as they sailed to the Far East and points in between. He clashed often with President Wilson and later led the charge to reject the Treaty of Versailles and its League of Nations at the conclusion of WWI. Lodge feared joining the international League of Nations as it might force the U.S. into war without Congressional approval. Lodge also worked for immigration restrictions during this time as he was worried that the growing number of immigrants would not be able to become what he called, "100 % American."

General John J. Pershing

a. Born in Missouri, Pershing began his career as a school teacher. In 1882, he took a competitive exam for an appointment to West Point and won the appointment. There he made a name for himself as a person with excellent leadership qualities. His early military career included guarding the frontier against the Sioux and Apaches in the last days of the Indian wars, fighting in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and fighting in the Philippines in 1903. In 1895, he took command of a troop of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, one of the original Buffalo Soldier regiments composed of African Americans. It was then that he got his nickname, "Black Jack." In 1915, he was sent to the Mexican border to capture the revolutionary Mexican leader, Pancho Villa. With America's entry into World War I in 1917, Pershing was named Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces. Upon arriving in Europe, he demanded that his troops fight as an independent American army rather than being blended in with the British and French. His troops were instrumental in the defeat of the Germans in the critical battle of Argonne Forest.

Thomas Edison

a. Born in Ohio in 1847, Edison had little schooling, and was completely deaf in one ear from a young age. Despite these circumstances, he saw every obstacle as an opportunity. He pursued his interests with industry and passion. He loved science and mechanics and was driven to invent. By 1868, Edison had improved the telegraph and the typewriter. He made an electric vote recorder and a stock ticker. Two years later at the age of twenty-three, he had enough money to open his first "invention factory." b. He and his team of engineers and scientists prided themselves on their perseverance, thinking of every failed experiment as one that would bring them closer to success. They also cherished their economic rights, protecting their hard work by registering patents with the federal government. Within five years, he and his team had perfected the telephone and created the phonograph. Next, they became famous for the incandescent light bulb. Later, they worked on the motion picture camera, "talking" movies, a car battery, and an x-ray machine. In his lifetime, Edison registered 1,093 patents.

James Monroe

a. Born in Virginia in 1758, Monroe was the 5th President of the United States. He attended the College of William and Mary, fought in the Continental Army, was a lawyer, and a politician. Monroe joined the Anti-Federalists in Virginia and opposed ratification of the new U.S. Constitution. He was an advocate of Jefferson's policies and was elected a U.S. Senator from Virginia. Monroe helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase. During the War of 1812 he served as Secretary of War and Secretary of State under President Madison. His presidency was called the "Era of Good Feelings." He is known for the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 which provided that the Western Hemisphere should be free from future European colonization and that the U.S. should be neutral in European wars. This was the basis of American foreign policy for many years.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

a. Born in West Point, New York, Alfred Thayer Mahan went on to become one of the most important military strategists of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He fought in the American Civil War as a Union naval officer and later served in the 1880s as President of the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. Educated at the U.S. Naval Academy, he became an admiral and noted naval historian. His book, The Influence of Sea Power on History, published in 1890, detailed the important relationship between a strong navy and successful world commerce. Mahan asserted that the nation with the strongest navy would control the globe. His books were widely read in the U.S., Britain, Japan, and Germany and influenced the buildup of navies before World War I. Both Teddy Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr. were strongly influenced by Mahan's theory with regards to United States foreign policy.

Joseph McCarthy

a. Joseph McCarthy, born in 1908, was a U. S. Senator from Wisconsin from 1947 to 1957 who accused numerous individuals in the United States government of being Communists. Many of these accusations were unsupported but gained credibility because of the tensions of the Cold War. McCarthy made many of these accusations during televised Senate committee hearings. In 1954 he made accusations against members of the Army. This eventually led to the U. S. Senate officially censuring him for his behavior. In 1995, the government declassified and made public a collection of papers from the Cold War era known as the Venona Papers. These papers seem to indicate that some of the individuals whom McCarthy had accused were in fact Communists. Some individuals argue that the papers thus vindicate some of McCarthy's charges

Carrie Chapman Catt

a. Carrie Chapman Catt, was born in Iowa, studied education and law, and became a high school principal. b. Later a superintendent and then a newspaper reporter, Catt soon became a lecturer for the woman's suffrage movement. Working closely with Susan B. Anthony, Catt succeeded Anthony as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1900. She urged President Woodrow Wilson to support an amendment to the Constitution securing the right to vote for women. c. Catt found the group's efforts disorganized, and introduced a strategy to work for a suffrage amendment. The strategy was known as the "winning plan," and advocated working for reforms on both the state and federal levels. She opposed the efforts of Alice Paul to boycott Democratic candidates who refused to support women's suffrage, as well as Paul's more militant strategies. Catt's perseverance in working to ensure state reforms giving women the vote were critical to securing adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment. This amendment illustrates the constitutional principle of equality. After its passage, Catt founded the League of Women Voters and advocated child labor laws.

Cesar Chavez

a. Cesar Chavez was born in 1927 in Yuma, Arizona. His parents lost their farm in the Great Depression, and the family moved from place to place, working the fields. His father had been injured in a car accident, so after eighth grade, young Chavez took responsibility for his family and became a farm worker. b. In 1962, Chavez exercised his First Amendment freedom of assembly and founded the National Farm Workers Association, later called the United Farm Workers. This union fought for contracts, safe conditions, higher wages, and job security for union members. He led a nationwide boycott of grapes to increase support for the United Farm Workers. c. Though his critics point out that unionized farm labor resulted in great numbers of willing workers being turned away from jobs, Cesar Chavez's perseverance brought the experiences of migrant workers to national attention.

Charles A. Lindbergh

a. Charles A. Lindbergh, born in 1902, was the first pilot to complete a nonstop, solo transatlantic flight. He flew from the United States to Paris aboard his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis in 1927. Newspapers nicknamed him "Lucky Lindy" and "Lone Eagle." President Calvin Coolidge awarded him the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross. His son was kidnapped in 1932 and held for ransom only to be discovered murdered a couple of months later. To escape publicity, Lindbergh moved to Europe where he was invited by the French and German governments to visit their aircraft industries. In 1938, Hitler's German government awarded Lindberg a German Medal of Honor. Nazi critics in the U. S. accused him of being a Nazi sympathizer. In 1939 he and his family returned to the U. S. In 1944 he went to the Pacific as an advisor to the U. S. military and, as a civilian, flew several combat missions. After the war, President Eisenhower restored his military commission and appointed him a Brigadier General in the U. S. Air Force. Pan American Airways hired him as a consultant where he helped design the Boeing 747. In 1953 he published The Spirit of St. Louis, a memoir of his 1927 flight, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954. He died in 1974.

Chester Nimitz

a. Chester Nimitz was born in 1885 in Fredericksburg, Texas. As a student at Tivy High School in Kerrville, he originally wanted to join the army. When no positions were available at West Point, he decided to take the exam at Annapolis and thus began his career in the Navy. He would eventually command the Pacific Fleet during World War II. In 1945, he represented the United States when the Japanese surrendered aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. As a result of his knowledge of submarines, he became one of the leading naval authorities of his time. He would later serve as a goodwill ambassador with the United Nations before dying in 1966.

Clarence Darrow

a. Clarence Darrow was a lawyer and civil rights advocate. Most famously, he defended John T. Scopes in the "Scopes Monkey Trial" against fellow lawyer William Jennings Bryan. Scopes was a public school teacher accused of violating the Butler Act: a Tennessee law that made it illegal to teach "any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." b. Darrow believed this law violated the no establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment. He told the Tennessee court, "If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools... At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers... we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth century when bigots burn[ed] the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind." c. The most dramatic moments in the trial came on the seventh day, when Bryan volunteered to serve as a witness based on his Biblical expertise. During Darrow's examination, Bryan acknowledged that not everything in the Bible should be taken literally, and that indeed creation may have taken place over years. Though Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution, Darrow's arguments are considered a landmark defense of the First Amendment's prohibition on establishment of religion.

Daniel Webster

a. Daniel Webster was born in New Hampshire and first became an acclaimed public speaker while attending Dartmouth College. He began to practice law and later argued on behalf of Dartmouth in the Supreme Court case Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1818). b. Webster represented New Hampshire in the US House of Representatives from 1812 to 1816. He subsequently moved to Massachusetts and in 1827 was elected to the Senate. There he defended the view that states could not nullify federal laws. He famously uttered the words, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" in the Hayne-Webster Debate on the compact theory of the Union. His views were shared by Henry Clay and opposed by John C. Calhoun. He supported the Compromise of 1850 and, as Secretary of State, helped enforce the Fugitive Slave Act.

Dolores Huerta

a. Dolores Huerta, born in 1930, left her job as a teacher to become a leading civil rights activist. She had witnessed the poverty and hunger of youngsters and felt that she could do more by organizing movements that would help provide more rights for immigrant workers. She cofounded the United Farm Workers of America in 1962 along with César Chavez. Three years later she directed the national grape boycott that resulted in the California grape industry agreeing to the collective bargaining rights of workers. In 1972 she chaired the Democratic National Convention.

Douglas MacArthur

a. Douglas MacArthur was born in New Mexico where he spent much of his childhood on an Army base which was commanded by his father. He graduated first in his class at the Military Academy at West Point in 1903, beginning a life spent serving in the military. He completed various assignments before fighting courageously in World War I, becoming the most highly decorated American soldier of the war. He then returned to West Point as Superintendent. b. MacArthur soon left for the Philippines to prepare the islands for independence. But when Japan attacked the Philippines in World War II, MacArthur's troops were initially defeated. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered him to Australia. MacArthur assured his men, "I shall return." True to his word, in 1944 he liberated the Philippines. In 1945 he accepted the Japanese's surrender. For the next five years he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan, helping the country to rebuild and establish a democratic government. c. Once again General MacArthur served his country during the Korean War. During this war, MacArthur had disagreements with President Truman over the course of action to take. When he made these differences public, President Truman relieved him of his duties in Korea. As Commander-in-Chief, President Truman had the authority to take this action. This led to MacArthur's retirement from the military in 1951. He would return one final time to West Point to give his Duty, Honor, Country address in 1962.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

a. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the thirty-fourth President of the United States. He was born in Texas, but grew up in Kansas. After attending West Point, Eisenhower was stationed in Texas where he met his future wife, Mamie Doud. Eisenhower had outstanding organizational skills, graduating first in his group at Army War College. During World War II, he was commander of the Allied Forces that landed in North Africa and the Allied forces that fought in Sicily and Italy. He was the Supreme Commander of the troops that invaded France on D-Day and was promoted to General of the Army. In five years he went from being a Lieutenant Colonel to the highest ranking position in the American Army. In 1952 and again in 1956 Dwight Eisenhower was elected President of the United States and was responsible for establishing the Interstate Highway System.

Eleanor Roosevelt

a. Eleanor Roosevelt was raised by her grandmother after the death of both of her parents. She married Franklin Delano Roosevelt who later became President of the United States. As First Lady, Eleanor had her own radio program and wrote her own newspaper column. Because President Roosevelt was paralyzed with polio, she traveled around the country interacting with people and then sharing the information with her husband to help him make informed decisions. During the Great Depression, Eleanor exhibited her concern for others by supporting programs for youth employment and helping the poor in many ways. She also boldly fought for civil rights for African-Americans as well as women's rights. During World War II Eleanor Roosevelt visited American soldiers all over the world. After her husband's death in 1945, Eleanor served as a delegate to the United Nations and was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights. Additionally, she helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. President Truman said that Eleanor Roosevelt was the "First Lady of the World" because she dedicated her entire life to others. Eleanor once said, "You get more joy out of giving to others, and should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

a. Elizabeth Cady Stanton fought for the ideals of the Declaration of Independence—that all people are created equal. Stanton was born in New York State in 1815. She received a formal education, unlike most women of her time. She did well in school, impressing her teachers and classmates with her intelligence. But as a woman, she could not attend the college of her choice. Stanton was disturbed by women's lower legal status. She helped organize the first women's rights convention in the US in Seneca Falls, New York. b. At that convention, the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was read. This document, based on the Declaration of Independence and written by Stanton, declared the legal equality of men and women, and listed the legal rights women should have, including the right of suffrage (voting). Her work helped launch the women's movement which eventually won women the right to vote. Stanton knew she was fighting for something bigger than herself. She did not live to see the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton died, Susan B. Anthony wrote "Mrs. Stanton was always a courageous woman, a leader of thought and new movements."

Estee Lauder

a. Estee Lauder was born in 1908 to parents who had immigrated to the United States. Her parents owned a hardware store, and it was here that Estee began to learn how to run a business. She was strongly influenced by her uncle and mentor who was a chemist. She worked with him on his quest to create a skin cream that would help people look younger. Ms. Lauder was an American entrepreneur who built a global cosmetic company through dedication and hard work. She is credited with pioneering the marketing idea of receiving a gift with a purchase. She was noted for saying, "Beauty is an attitude. There's no secret... There are no ugly women—only women who don't care or who don't believe they are attractive." She died in 2004.

Frances Willard

a. Frances Willard, born in 1839, was an influential reformer in the early part of the 20th century. She was the founder of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, a group concerned about the destructive effects of alcohol. During this time, women would meet in churches and then march to saloons to try to get owners to close their establishments. In 1882, she was instrumental in organizing the Prohibition Party. This party advocated the passage of the 18th amendment which prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol. As a writer, she would become the first woman dean at Northwestern University and the first woman to be represented in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.

Lester Maddox

a. Lester Maddox, born in Georgia in 1915, grew up in a working class family. Experiencing poverty during his childhood, he quit high school and went into the domestic workforce during World War II. He became upset about what he saw as inefficiency and waste in the workforce. He opened his own restaurant, the Pickrick Cafeteria. As the owner of the Pickrick Cafeteria in Georgia, Maddox challenged the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by refusing to desegregate. When he lost his challenge in court, he chose to close his restaurant rather than desegregate. Media coverage of his defiance of the act provided him with publicity. Always interested in politics, Mr. Maddox ran as the Democratic candidate for governor in 1966. Once elected, many feared that his segregationist ideas might negatively influence the state. As it turned out, some of the policies of his administration benefited many African Americans. One of the most controversial events of his term was his decision not to lower the flags to half staff following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. His rationale for this was that he feared riots in his state.

Frederick Douglass

a. Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland, in 1817 or 1818. He loved to read and memorized classical speeches. In 1838, he escaped from slavery. He settled in Massachusetts where he attended abolitionist meetings. He soon began a three-year lecture series. He traveled throughout America and Europe giving speeches, exercising his rights to freedom of speech and assembly. b. Douglass also exercised his right to freedom of the press, publishing his thoughts in a weekly abolitionist newspaper, The North Star. His most important work was his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. It was incredibly popular and opened many peoples' eyes to the horrors of slavery. He spoke to President Abraham Lincoln about soldier conditions during the Civil War, and advocated passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery throughout the United States. c. Douglass also spoke and wrote in favor of an amendment to the Constitution securing voting rights and other liberties for former slaves. This call was eventually heeded with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. Douglass continued to persevere in his work for equal rights for former slaves and for women until his death. d. The work of Douglass and other abolitionists illustrate the civic values of perseverance, courage, initiative, industry, and civic skills including volunteering

George Marshall

a. George Marshall, born in 1880, graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901 and from the Army Staff College in 1908. He served as an aide-de camp to General John J. Pershing from 1919 to 1924. He later achieved the rank of Five Star General and served as Chief of Staff of the War Plans Division during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He became FDR's chief consultant during World War II. In this position he was responsible for making sure that the needs of the military were met. This required him to work with Congress and the American people to explain what was necessary on the home front to win the war. He retired from the military in 1945 but in the same year began his diplomatic career. He represented President Truman on a special mission to China in 1945-1946. In 1947 he became Truman's Secretary of State. During this time he formulated and proposed the Marshall Plan which was an economic plan to rebuild post war Europe and insure that the spread of communism would be contained. Some have called the Marshall Plan one of the most significant pieces of legislation in the modern era. Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 and died in 1959.

George Patton

a. George Patton, born in 1885, graduated from West Point in 1909 and later served as a member of General Pershing's staff in search of Pancho Villa. In 1917 he became the first member of the newly established U. S. Tank Corps, where he would win fame. In World War II he was with the allied forces during the invasion of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Patton was an often controversial figure with definite opinions on how he thought the war should proceed. He was not afraid to voice his views to his superiors. As D-Day approached, the Allies needed Hitler to believe that they were going to invade near Pas de Calais, France. The plan was to create a fictitious unit, and to make this believable, they had to have a real commander of this fake unit. General Patton was given this assignment. This did not sit well with Patton because he saw this as a demotion. His real command, which was a secret, was to command the Third Army which he would lead into battle following D-Day at the Battle of the Bulge. He ordered a 90 degree turnaround of forces to relieve American troops that were surrounded. He was killed in a car crash in 1945.

George Wallace

a. George Wallace, born in 1919, served as Governor of Alabama during the civil rights movement of the 60's and 70's. When he was elected Governor in 1962 as a Democrat, he ran on a pro-segregation, states' rights platform. In his inaugural speech, he proclaimed, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever." In June, 1963, he stood in the door of the University of Alabama to block the admission of two African American students. By the time he ran for his last term as governor in 1982, he had undergone a political turnaround - from segregationist to winning support among African Americans. During his last term, he appointed a record number of African Americans to government positions. Wallace ran unsuccessfully for President of the U. S. four times. In 1968, as a candidate of the American Independent Party, he won 46 electoral votes from five southern states and 13.5% of the nationwide popular vote. This performance by a third party candidate had an impact on Hubert H. Humphrey's defeat. Wallace remains the only third party presidential candidate since 1948 to have won electoral votes. In 1972, while campaigning in Maryland, a would-be assassin shot Wallace. He survived but was permanently paralyzed. Wallace died in 1998.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

a. Harriet Beecher Stowe used the power of her pen to open the eyes of a nation to the injustices of slavery. She was born in Connecticut in 1811. Her world was immersed in Protestant and abolitionist traditions: her father was a minister, her brother was a theologian, her husband was a clergyman. When Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, Stowe knew she had to act. At the time, women had few ways to engage in politics. She could not run for office, or even vote, but she was undeterred. b. She took initiative and found a political voice in her writings. She began to do research by interviewing former slaves and others who had personal experience with slavery. Her first novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, told of the abuse suffered by enslaved people and families in emotional, human terms. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold 10,000 copies in its first week, and was a bestseller in its time. She reached peoples' hearts and minds in a way that politicians had not been able to do. Historians believe the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin sped up the outbreak of the Civil War, as more and more people believed the nation had a duty to end slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865, ending slavery in the US forever. Harriet Beecher Stowe's writing truly changed a nation's view of justice.

Harriet Tubman

a. Harriet Tubman, an enslaved field hand who could not read, escaped to freedom in 1849. Thirty years of poverty and abuse had left her small body battered and scarred, but her spirit was unstoppable. "There was one of two things I had a right to—liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other," she later said. b. Not content with securing her own freedom, Tubman then turned to helping others escape. Although she faced death or re-enslavement if caught, Tubman became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad in the 1850's. At first, she returned south to rescue her family. Over time, she saved hundreds of slaves. She was clever and gifted at avoiding capture, so successful that she was nicknamed "Moses." Nineteen times, she made the dangerous 650-mile journey from Maryland to Canada. She was never caught, and "never lost a passenger." During the Civil War, she became a scout, spy, nurse, and cook. She recruited freedmen to the Union cause, and helped lead raids that freed hundreds more slaves. c. With unequaled courage, Tubman pursued liberty for every American, and in doing so became a legend. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865, ended slavery forever in the United States.

Harry Truman

a. Harry Truman, born in 1884, served in World War I as a captain. He later served as a U. S. Senator from Missouri from 1934 to 1944. In 1944 he was elected Vice President of the U. S. on the ticket with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He became the 33rd President in 1945 when Roosevelt died. As Vice President, he had not been informed of the development of the atomic bomb, but as President, he made the decision to use the weapon against the Japanese to bring an end to World War II. In 1947 he convinced Congress to aid countries that were being threatened by communism. This became known as the Truman Doctrine and would be followed by subsequent presidents during the Cold War. In recognition of the outstanding service of African Americans during the war, in 1948 Truman issued an executive order directing the desegregation of the armed forces. To the surprise of many, Truman was elected to his own term as President in 1948. During the remainder of his presidency, he removed the popular General Douglas MacArthur from his command position in the Korean War and tried to seize the nation's steel mills to avoid a strike that might have closed steel production, critical to the war effort. After he retired from the presidency in 1952, he returned to Missouri where he died in 1972.

Hector P. Garcia

a. Hector P. Garcia moved to Texas as a young man when his family fled the Mexican Revolution. He attended the University of Texas and earned his medical degree in Galveston, Texas. He served in the Medical Corps during World War II where he was stationed in the European theater. The discrimination against Mexican Americans that he witnessed during the war led him to found the American GI Forum. It's original focus was to increase veterans' benefits for Mexican Americans but later broadened its focus to include education, public housing, and other policy areas. For this community service and activism, Mr. Garcia was awarded the American Medal of Freedom in 1984. He was the first Mexican American to receive this honor.

Henry Clay

a. Henry Clay was born in Virginia, studied law, and began to practice law in Kentucky. He served in the Kentucky state legislature and was elected to the US House of Representatives five times, each time serving as Speaker of the House. He and John C. Calhoun worked together to pass the Tariff of 1816 to help both North and South recover after the War of 1812. b. Clay became known as the Great Compromiser. Clay was a slaveowner, but favored emancipation and the return of slaves to Africa. In 1820, the question of slavery in the Missouri Territory caused a rift in Congress. Clay brokered the Missouri Compromise, maintaining the balance between slave states and free states in the Senate. He ran for president in 1824, but the election produced no winner and was decided in the House of Representatives. Clay gave his support to John Quincy Adams, who, upon election, appointed Clay Secretary of State. This arrangement was dubbed a "corrupt bargain" by Andrew Jackson and his supporters. c. Clay would run for President and lose a total of five times. He helped create the Whig Party, which opposed the new Democratic Party under the leadership of Andrew Jackson. Clay was elected to the US Senate in 1831. Later in his career, he helped establish the Compromise of 1850.

Henry Ford

a. Henry Ford Even though he was born on a farm, Henry Ford showed more interest in mechanical things than in agricultural work. Early on, he alternated from working as an apprentice on steam engines to working on his father's farm tools to occasionally working in the fields. By 1891, he decided to become an engineer full time. Even though he was not the first to build a self-propelled vehicle with a gasoline engine, he became the most significant person in the development of the U.S. automobile industry, creating Ford Motor Company in 1903. In 1908 the Model-T was introduced as an affordable, reliable, and efficient auto for everyone. By 1918, half of the cars in the United States were Model-T's. To meet the demand, Ford installed a mass production system using standardized and interchangeable parts, a division of labor, and assembly lines. This totally revolutionized the industry and made his company the largest automobile manufacturer in the world during his lifetime. In 1918 he lost a bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Hillary Clinton

a. Hillary Clinton, born in 1947, received her law degree from Yale University where she met her future husband, Bill Clinton. With Hillary by his side, Clinton served as Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1992. As the First Lady of Arkansas, Mrs. Clinton championed health care and education issues. She continued her pursuit of health care as the First Lady of the U. S. after her husband was elected President in 1992 and then reelected to a second term in 1996. She became the first former First Lady of the U. S. to be elected to a position in U. S. government when she was elected in 2000 to serve as a U.S. Senator from New York. She was elected to a second term in 2006, and in 2008 she decided to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the U. S. She came closer than any other female in U. S. history to winning the presidential nomination of a major party but ultimately lost the party's nomination to Barack Obama. Following President Obama's election in 2008, he chose Mrs. Clinton to serve as Secretary of State. Hillary again sought and made history when she won the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 2016. She ran against Republican Donald Trump and ultimately lost the 2016 presidential election, but she crossed a major barrier by becoming the first female presidential nominee for a major party.

Hiram Rhodes Revels

a. Hiram Rhodes Revels was born a free man in 1827. An ordained minister for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he spent the years of the Civil War recruiting African Americans to fight as well as serving as a chaplain to their regiments. After the war, he moved to Mississippi where he continued to serve as a minister as well as establishing schools for the freed slaves. In 1868 he became involved in politics and served in the Mississippi State Senate where he made a name for himself. At that time the state legislatures selected the U.S. Senators, so in 1870, he was selected as the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress as a Senator. While in the Senate he actively supported amnesty for former Confederates.

Lionel Sosa

a. Lionel Sosa, grew up in San Antonio, Texas, where his father owned a laundry and the young Sosa learned the value of hard work. In the 1960's, his artistic ability gained him recognition, and he would later turn this talent into his own advertising agency. He is the founder of the largest Hispanic advertising agency in the United States. His success in organizing campaigns for Hispanic candidates would lead him to serve as the Hispanic media consultant in six Republican campaigns. He was most recently the media consultant for President George W. Bush in 2004. In 2005, he was recognized as one of the 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America by Time magazine.

Hugo Black

a. Hugo Black was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1937. He is noted for his "strict constructionist" reading of the Constitution. Strict constructionism confines the interpretation of law to the words and phrases it contains, without drawing upon other sources or inferences. Black took the position (which has never been adopted by the Supreme Court as a whole) that the Fourteenth Amendment required the incorporation of all the Bill of Rights protections to state governments. This theory is known as "total incorporation." b. Black wrote many well-known majority opinions, as well as famous dissents. His reading of the First Amendment's protection of free speech led him to argue that the government cannot ban "obscene" speech. He also held in New York Times v. United States (1971) that national security did not allow the government to prevent the publication of sensitive information. He upheld strict separation of church and state in Engel v. Vitale (1962) referencing Thomas Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists. c. His strict constructionist reading of the Constitution also informed his dissent in Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) where he asserted that wearing armbands was "conduct" and not "speech." He also dissented in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) rejecting the idea that the Constitution protected a right to privacy.

Ida B. Wells

a. Ida B. Wells exercised her rights to freedom of speech and press to bring national attention to the crime of lynching. Wells was born in Mississippi in 1862, the oldest of eight children. She put herself through college and became a teacher in Memphis, Tennessee. b. In 1892, Wells lost three close friends to a lynch mob. These gruesome killings made headlines, but no one was arrested or charged. As a journalist and a newspaper owner and editor, Wells courageously wrote about the racism that motivated such murders. The press attacked her as a "black scoundrel" for saying that lynching had nothing to do with justice or honor. A mob ransacked her office and threatened her life, but she continued her crusade. c. Wells later moved to Chicago where she published The Red Record, the first documented statistical report on lynching. She became a respected public speaker, and traveled widely, lecturing on anti-lynching activities, speaking out against segregation, and advocating for women's voting rights. She co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

James Wilson

a. James Wilson was born in Scotland and came to Pennsylvania in 1765. He joined John Dickinson's law firm before opening his own practice. He became involved in Patriot activities and published pamphlets criticizing British policies. He served in the Second Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. b. As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Wilson advocated direct election of the president. This would have constituted a radical change from the system under the Articles of Confederation (which had no national executive) and from that supported by advocates of republican government. It also put him at odds with major figures from the Founding period, such as Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, who believed that substantial power should be reserved to the individual states, and that a popularly-elected executive-among other changes-would concentrate power too heavily at the national level. Wilson is credited with the compromise that resulted in the formation of the Electoral College. Once the Constitution was sent to the states, Wilson joined with Benjamin Rush to secure ratification in Pennsylvania. c. In 1789, President George Washington appointed Wilson to the Supreme Court. His most important opinion, establishing that a citizen of one state could sue the government of another state, was overturned by the Eleventh Amendment. During his time on the Court, Wilson also served as the University of Pennsylvania's first professor of law. He lectured on the place of law in society, and cruel and unusual punishment as prohibited by the Eighth Amendment, and he urged moderation, swiftness, and certainty in punishment as a means of ensuring justice.

Jane Addams

a. Jane Addams is best known as the founder of a settlement house, called Hull House, where she provided help for poor immigrants who had come to Chicago. The idea for Hull House came after she saw a similar institution in London. Hull House provided kindergarten and day care for the children of working mothers and after school activities for older children. Later an art gallery, employment bureau, library, public kitchen, music and art classes, as well as facilities for swimming and sports activities, were added. She was also involved in numerous organizations that promoted social reform involving the rights of children, African Americans and women. Jane Addams became active in the peace movement during World War I and was the first president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Because of her outstanding work, she was the first woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

a. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His political and philosophical writings, including The Social Contract (1762), were both influential and controversial. Banned in France and Geneva for criticizing religion, The Social Contract nonetheless had an influence on governments in Europe and on the Founders. b. Rousseau held that human nature was essentially good—that man was naturally a "noble savage"—but degrades into cruelty without a system of laws. Rousseau held that in a natural state, individuals must compete with each other, but they are also increasingly interdependent on each other. This contradiction was to blame for man's degradation. By uniting under a social contract, individuals surrender their natural freedom and agree to submit to the general will of the people, who are sovereign. c. While the Founders accepted some of Rousseau's philosophy, such as supporting freedom of religion, they rejected others. Rousseau criticized private property and asserted that the general will of the people was sovereign over the individual's body and property. This argument put him knowingly in opposition to other enlightenment philosophers including John Locke, Rousseau also advocated restraints on free speech in order to protect people from bad ideas. For this and other reasons, he is considered an intellectual ancestor of socialist systems.

Phyllis Schlafly

a. Phyllis Schlafly, an attorney born in 1924, was an outspoken opponent of what she considered the radical feminist movement. She actively campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment and founded her own pro-family movement. In 1964 she published a book, A Choice not an Echo, that detailed how the Republicans could win the presidency by staying true to conservative causes. Some reviewers have said that the book was an attempt to justify a Goldwater candidacy. In the 1970's she founded the Eagle Forum and became a national leader in the conservative movement. This forum encourages groups of citizens to volunteer in the policymaking process. In 1990, she founded the Republican National Coalition for Life with the idea of advocating for a prolife plank in the Republican platform.

Jefferson Davis

a. Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky, and his family soon moved to Mississippi. His father had been an officer in the Revolutionary War. Davis attended the Military Academy at West Point, served in the Black Hawk War, and later returned to Mississippi to become a cotton planter. He allowed his slaves to grow and sell their own food, and is considered to have treated them well compared to other slave owners. b. A supporter of slavery and a strong advocate of the rights of states against federal interference, he represented Mississippi in the US Senate and House of Representatives. He supported the Fugitive Slave Act and proposed extending the line set by the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific Ocean. He also called for a reinstitution of the slave trade. As tensions grew and talk of southern secession grew, Davis gave speeches arguing against secession and appeared to oppose the idea. However, upon President Abraham Lincoln's election, he yielded to the wishes of the citizens of Mississippi and announced the state's secession in 1861. He described leaving the Union as "necessary." Davis was soon after elected president of what was called the Confederate States of America. c. Davis assigned Robert E. Lee to command the Army of Northern Virginia, and later appointed Lee Commanding General. After the Civil War, Davis was indicted for treason. While imprisoned, he sold his estate to one of his former slaves. The treason case against him was dropped after several years. He was later re-elected to the US Senate, but was unable to take office because of the Fourteenth Amendment.

John C. Calhoun

a. John C. Calhoun was born in South Carolina and after attending Yale University, began to practice law. He was elected to the state legislature and later to the US House of Representatives. He served as Vice President under President John Quincy Adams and again under President Andrew Jackson. In 1832 he resigned that office and was elected to the US Senate. b. Calhoun favored slavery and its expansion. In an 1837 Senate speech, Calhoun defended slavery as a beneficial institution. Slaves, he argued, fared better under the care of a master than poor workers did in the industrial North. Further, he expressed a view of the Union similar to the one his predecessor, Charles Hayne, had expressed in the Webster-Hayne debate. He believed that the Union was a compact between sovereign states, and that states, not the Supreme Court, could declare acts of Congress unconstitutional. He believed states should nullify federal attempts to limit slavery. c. Three weeks before his death, he spoke against many of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, which limited slavery's westward expansion. He favored the Fugitive Slave Act. His final, 42-page speech asserted that North and South were now two separate nations that should separate peacefully.

John F. Kennedy

a. John F. Kennedy, born in 1917, graduated from Harvard University in 1941. Afterwards, he served in World War II where his PT boat was sunk. Kennedy led several survivors to safety. He was elected to the U. S. Senate from Massachusetts in 1953. In 1955 he published Profiles In Courage which received the Pulitzer Prize in history. In 1960, he won the Democratic Party's nomination for President. During this campaign, he participated in the first televised presidential debates with his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon. He defeated Nixon and was inaugurated as the first Catholic President and the youngest elected President. His inaugural speech is famous for the memorable words, "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." He sponsored the creation of the U. S. Peace Corps. In 1961, a group of U. S. trained Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion in a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. Castro then let Khrushchev install Soviet missiles in Cuba capable of reaching the U. S. In what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy ordered a naval blockade and after 13 tense days the missiles were removed. Secretly, the United States also agreed to remove missiles it had placed in Turkey. Kennedy's presidency lasted around 1000 days before he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.

John James Audubon

a. John James Audubon was a member of the Hudson River School art movement. He was a naturalist specializing in painting the birds of America. As a young man, he travelled down the Ohio River to western Kentucky and set up a dry goods store. He was somewhat successful in business until hard times hit, and he was jailed for bankruptcy. He decided to continue his hobby of drawing birds as he floated down the Mississippi River. Through his observation of birds and nature, he became a conservationist. He illustrated a collection of 435 life size prints of America birds. Today the Audubon Society, founded by George Bird Grinnell, continues John James Audubon's spirit of protecting birds and their habitats. John James Audubon's illustrations and life story help to describe the spirit of young America.

John Marshall

a. John Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, serving from 1801 until his death. Born in Virginia, he served in the Virginia legislature and at the Virginia Ratifying Convention where he fought for ratification of the Constitution with James Madison. He also served in the US House of Representatives. Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court by President John Adams. b. Marshall's most important decision was Marbury v. Madison (1803) which established the doctrine of judicial review. He also decided Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), which clarified the Contracts Clause; McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), which examined implied powers of Congress under Article I, section 8 and affirmed the supremacy of the Constitution over state law; and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) which affirmed that Congress had control of interstate waterways under the Commerce Clause. He also presided over the treason trial of Aaron Burr. c. Marshall's interpretations of the Constitution, including his understanding of federalism, proved definitive and laid the groundwork for much of current constitutional theory and a strong national government

John Quincy Adams

a. John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States and the first President whose father was also President. A Harvard graduate, Adams was fluent in several languages. At 26, Adams was appointed Minister to the Netherlands and Russia. As a diplomat he helped negotiate the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. As a result the U.S. bought Florida from Spain. Prior to his presidency, he served as a U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of State, and helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. In the 1824 election, he ran against Andrew Jackson who claimed that Adams' victory represented a "corrupt bargain." He ran for reelection in the 1828 but lost to Jackson. He is the only President to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives after his presidency. In 1841, he served as counsel to the slaves on board the Amistad and argued their case before of the U.S. Supreme Court, where he defended their right to be free.

Lyndon B. Johnson

a. Lyndon Johnson was born in Texas where he worked as a teacher. He won a seat in the US House of Representatives in 1937 after campaigning on the New Deal Programs of President Franklin Roosevelt. During World War II, while serving as a US Congressman, LBJ was called to active duty and served in the military as a Navy lieutenant commander. He eventually served six terms in the House before being elected to the Senate. b. In 1960 Johnson was elected Vice President under President John F. Kennedy. When Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Johnson assumed the presidency. He urged Congress to adopt the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After being reelected in 1964, Johnson urged the nation to "build a great society." Congress approved Johnson's unprecedented series of social programs, which became known as the "Great Society." The Social Security Act was amended to include Medicare for the elderly. The Voting Rights Act addressed discrimination in voting. Welfare programs were implemented to combat poverty and crime. Despite these programs, however, crime and poverty persisted, and race riots plagued the nation. c. Johnson also exercised his power as Commander in Chief of the military during the Vietnam War. In 1964 he asked Congress for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving him expanded war power to fight communism in Vietnam. In 1968, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection due to the growing unrest in the country over the Vietnam War. In response to questions about the president's role as Commander in Chief, and the separation of powers under the Constitution during the administrations of Presidents Johnson and Richard Nixon, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution in 1973. d. In 1971, the printing of classified documents pertaining in part to Johnson's conduct during the Vietnam War were at the center of the Supreme Court case New York Times v. United States (1971).

Martin Luther King, Jr.

a. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Georgia. He became a minister in 1947 and became pastor of an Alabama Baptist church in 1954. He believed segregation to be a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and led a boycott of segregated bus lines in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, which led to their integration the next year. Calling for non-violent resistance, he organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to fight for civil rights. b. In 1963 King spoke at the March on Washington. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King electrified the crowd of 250,000 with his "I Have a Dream" speech. He referred to the Declaration of Independence and its promise of equality. c. While imprisoned for marching in April 1963, King wrote "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" which is regarded as a manifesto of the civil rights movement. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. King also led civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama. Television cameras captured police brutality on peaceful marchers exercising their rights to assemble freely. d. Throughout his life, King spoke to crowds who had assembled freely, in order to promote and expand freedom for Americans.

Matthew Lyon

a. Matthew Lyon was born in Ireland and came to Connecticut when he was fifteen. He fought in the Revolutionary War, founded the town of New Haven, and helped write the Vermont state constitution. He served in the state legislature and later in the U.S. House of Representatives. b. Throughout the 1790s he worked as a writer and printer, publishing pamphlets and a weekly newspaper, the Fair Haven Gazette. Lyon was particularly critical of the Federalists in Congress, President John Adams, and the Alien and Seditions Acts, which Lyon believed violated freedom of speech and press protected by the First Amendment. In his newspaper, he published letters from people criticizing President John Adams, and he himself wrote that President Adams was "foolish" and "selfish" and "in a continual grasp for power" for signing this law. Lyon became the first person charged under the Alien and Sedition Acts. c. At his trial, Lyon argued that the law was unconstitutional. The court disagreed and Lyon was fined and sentenced to four months in jail. While serving his sentence, he was reelected to Congress in a landslide. Public opinion turned against John Adams and the Congress responsible for the Alien and Sedition Acts. Many were turned out of office, and the new Congress allowed the Alien and Sedition Acts to expire in 1801.

Omar Bradley

a. Omar Bradley, born in 1893, graduated from West Point and just missed service in World War I. In World War II he was assigned to the European Theater where he served for a while under General George Patton. General Eisenhower later selected Bradley to command the 1st US Army during the D-Day invasion. It was under his command that Paris was liberated and the Germans were turned back at the Battle of the Bulge. He was known by the men under his command as "the soldier's general" because of his care and compassion for his men. In 1949 he became the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1950 he was promoted to five star General of the Army rank. He later served as a leader of the Veterans Administration. He died in 1981.

Oprah Winfrey

a. Oprah Winfrey, born in 1954, overcame a rough childhood to become the host of one of the highest rated television shows of its kind. She also is recognized for being one of the great philanthropists of her time. She began her rise to fame in 1984 when she was selected to host a Chicago television show. It moved into the number one spot within a month and would eventually move to a one hour format talk show. This was the predecessor of the Oprah Winfrey Show which she started in 1986. In 1988 she established a new production company, Harpo Productions. In 1993 Time magazine named her one of the "100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century." In 1996 she began her book club, and "Oprah Book Club" selections often became instant national bestsellers. In 1998 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2003 Forbes magazine listed her as the first African American woman billionaire. In 2008 she announced that she would create a new broadcasting venture, the Oprah Winfrey Network, where she plans to host a new program. She ended her popular television show in 2011.

Orval Faubus

a. Orval Faubus, born in 1910, served as the Democratic Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967, longer than any other governor in Arkansas history. He gained national attention in 1957 when he ordered the Arkansas National Guard to stop nine young African Americans from integrating Little Rock Central High School. He defended his actions by saying that he was seeking to maintain order and the status quo. Some believe that he supported segregation for political reasons. Segregationists were making a strong showing in the polls, indicating that moderates would not be successful in winning office. President Eisenhower eventually sent U. S. Army troops to Little Rock to enforce court directed integration and to protect the nine African American students. Faubus died in 1994.

Philip Bazaar

a. Philip Bazaar was a Chilean immigrant and a resident of Massachusetts. He was a member of the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. As a seaman on the USS Santiago de Cuba, he participated in the assault on Fort Fisher, a Confederate fort. He and five other seamen carried dispatches during the battle. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1865 for his bravery.

Richard Nixon

a. Richard Nixon was born in California and attended prestigious schools before becoming a successful lawyer. During World War II, he served in the military as a Navy commander. He served in the US House of Representatives and the Senate, before being elected Vice President under President Eisenhower. He ran for president in 1960, but lost to John F. Kennedy. His presidential bid in 1968 was successful. b. President Nixon advanced national interest in foreign policy, making successful trips that eased tensions with China and the USSR. He negotiated treaties to limit nuclear weapons. And he also worked to end the conflict in Vietnam. His administration tried to prevent the publication of classified documents pertaining to Vietnam War, but the Supreme Court held in New York Times v. United States (1971) that the prior restraint was unconstitutional. c. A few months after his decisive reelection victory in 1972, the "Watergate Scandal" began to plague Nixon's administration. Burglars were caught trying to place listening devices at the National Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. Their arrests lead to discoveries that administration officials had been involved in unethical activities designed to sabotage Democratic candidates, and then conspired to cover it up. Nixon denied personal knowledge or involvement, but White House tape recordings revealed he had known about and approved the cover up. The Supreme Court held that the President did not have the power to withhold the tapes from investigators upon claim of "executive privilege" in the case United States v. Nixon(1974) Facing probable impeachment, Nixon became the first and only president to resign in August 1974. d. In his later years, Nixon published books on his experiences with public service and foreign policy, gaining a reputation as an elder statesman.

Robert E. Lee

a. Robert E. Lee was born in Virginia and attended the Military Academy at West Point, later becoming the institution's Superintendent. He spent his life serving in the military. He served in the U.S.-Mexican War and on the Texas frontier. He was called back to Virginia in 1859 where he remained until the Civil War. b. Lee was personally devoted to the Constitution and privately denounced secession. However, when Virginia seceded, he turned down an offer to command the Union Army and instead took command of Virginia's forces on behalf of the Confederacy. He was later made a General and then General-In-Chief by Jefferson Davis in January 1865. By that April, however, it was clear the South would be defeated. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865 rather than lose the lives of any more soldiers. c. After the war, Lee supported President Andrew Johnson's plans for a speedy rebuilding of the Southern states. He spoke out against equal rights for former slaves, saying it would "excite unfriendly feelings between the two races."

Robert Johnson

a. Robert Johnson, born in 1946, became the founder of Black Entertainment Television, known as BET. After graduating from Princeton University with a Master's degree in Public Affairs, he went to work as a lobbyist for the cable industry. Noticing that African American television audiences were largely ignored by the industry, he used his business connections to start Black Entertainment Television (BET). This successful television network was later sold to Viacom in 2001. With this sale, Robert Johnson became the first African American billionaire. In recent years he has diversified his interests in the communication field. His holdings now include interest in professional sports teams and humanitarian efforts overseas

Roger Sherman

a. Roger Sherman was born in Massachusetts, and moved to Connecticut in 1743. He owned a cobbler shop, published a series of almanacs, and studied the law independently. b. In the 1760's Sherman became a leader in the resistance to British tyranny. Dedicated to moderation, he urged peaceful forms of protest, including boycotts and petitions. In 1774 he was elected to the Continental Congress. He served on the committee in charge of drafting the Declaration of Independence, including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston and Thomas Jefferson; it was the committee that chose Jefferson to draft the document. In 1776, Sherman helped frame the Articles of Confederation, and he later signed it. After leaving national politics to return to public service in Connecticut, Sherman returned to Congress in 1783 to approve the Treaty of Paris. c. Sherman was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he worked to guard the power of states against the national government. He argued that the legislature should be the strongest branch of government, suggesting Congress should have the power to select the President. He suggested the Connecticut Compromise, or Great Compromise, which determined the method of representation in Congress. He initially opposed adding a bill of rights to the Constitution, but eventually supported James Madison's effort to add amendments. In 1791, the 70-year old Sherman was appointed to the US Senate, where he served until he died in 1793.

Ronald Reagan

a. Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois in 1911. After working as a radio announcer and then an actor, he became active in politics. In 1966, he was elected governor of California. b. He ran for president in 1980 and won in a landslide victory. Domestically he focused on principles of limited government and cutting the size of the federal bureaucracy. Reagan also appointed the first female Supreme Court justice in American history, Sandra Day O'Connor. c. As President, he made national interest and foreign policy a priority. His goal was to end the Cold War with the Eastern Bloc countries, dominated by the communist-controlled Soviet Union. Reagan changed the United States' policy from the previous one of "containment" of the USSR to confrontation. He increased the nation's defense spending and built more nuclear weapons. He went against the advice of many of his own advisors and made a controversial speech, in which he directly challenged the Soviet leader to "tear down" the wall separating East and West Germany and allow East Germans to enjoy their natural rights and freedom. Two years later the wall did come down, and by the end of the 1980s, the Soviet regime had virtually collapsed. d. Quoting one of the earliest American colonists, Reagan called the United States and its promise of freedom a "shining city on a hill." When he died in 2004, one of his obituaries explained that his efforts brought liberty to "millions of Europeans across a continent from Poland to Bulgaria, Slovenia to Latvia."

Upton Sinclair

a. Upton Sinclair was born in Maryland in 1878. He believed unregulated capitalism was responsible for much of the poverty he saw, and so he joined the Socialist Party. He decided to write a series of articles on the Chicago meat-packing industry. The series told the fictional story of an immigrant family who found work in the stock yards. The stories first appeared in a socialist newspaper. In 1906, Sinclair combined them into a fictional novel, The Jungle. It was a world-wide best-seller. Americans were shocked and horrified at the working conditions Sinclair described. b. President Theodore Roosevelt read The Jungle and ordered inspections of the meatpacking industry. Soon after, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906) and the Meat Inspection Act (1906). Sinclair exercised his right to freedom of the press in order to bring about what he saw as a needed change.

Rosa Parks

a. Rosa Parks is best known as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement." Rosa was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. As a child, she and her family lived on her grandparents' farm. Rosa grew up in a time when African Americans were treated with disrespect just because of their race. She entered the first grade in a segregated school with over 50 children in her class and one teacher. The school went up to sixth grade and was open for only five months of the year rather than nine. In 1955 it was a law in Alabama that African Americans had to sit at the back of the bus if there were Anglo passengers needing seats. Encouraged by the NAACP, Rosa Parks agreed to make a stand against the law. One day Rosa was taking the bus home from work. She was sitting in the middle section of the bus when a white man boarded the bus. The driver told Rosa to move to the back, but she refused and was arrested. Angry African Americans began a boycott and refused to use public transportation, forcing the bus company out of business. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was the beginning of the civil rights movement which led to the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960's.

Roy Benavidez

a. Roy Benavidez, born in 1935 in Cuero, Texas, is a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient for his heroics in the Vietnam War. This native Texan was responsible for saving 8 soldiers during an intense battle in 1968. He ran through enemy fire when he realized that his close friends and members of a Special Forces team were too injured to make it to the helicopter that had carried Benavidez to the battle site. He managed to reorganize the team and signaled for the helicopters to return and rescue them. As the helicopter was set to take off, it was hit with enemy fire. Benavidez managed to regroup the men and hold off the enemy as another helicopter arrived. He was gravely injured as he battled hand to hand with a Vietnamese soldier. His injuries were so severe that he was not expected to live, and he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. His commanders did not expect him to live through the lengthy process required for a Congressional Medal of Honor. Years later, upon learning that he had survived, he was finally awarded the Medal of Honor.

Sam Houston

a. Sam Houston was born in Virginia and moved to Tennessee in his teens. His courageous service in the War of 1812 caught the attention of General Andrew Jackson, and the two men became friends. After the war he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1818. He represented Tennessee in the House of Representatives from 1823-28 and later became governor of that state. He resigned the office in 1829 and lived among the Cherokee Indians for a time, even being made a member of the Cherokee Nation. He assisted the tribe with the relocations required by the Indian Removal Act. On various trips, he met Alexis de Tocqueville who is believed to have used Houston in composite examples of Americans. b. Houston soon moved to Texas, supporting its independence from Mexico. As Commander in Chief, he led the Texas Army in the defeat of Mexican General Santa Ana, and served as the first President of the Republic of Texas. The state joined the Union in 1845, and Houston served three terms in the US Senate. There, he often clashed with John C. Calhoun. He expressed support for the Union and favored the Compromise of 1850. He opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act because he believed it would contribute to increased sectionalism and lead to war. Though Houston owned slaves and opposed abolition, his desire to preserve the Union prevailed. c. Houston left the Senate and was elected governor of Texas in 1859. When President Abraham Lincoln was elected, Texas seceded from the Union. In what many saw as a sign of integrity, Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, and was removed as governor. He died two years later.

Sam Walton

a. Sam Walton, born in 1918, attended the University of Missouri where he studied economics. Following graduation, he gained retail experience by working for JC Penney's. He went on to open a small variety store, Walton's Five and Dime, before he branched out and created today's Wal-Mart stores. He was successful in his business because he made an effort to include his employees in the company by making sure that they understood the company's goals and objectives. He led the way in developing new types of retail establishments such as membership warehouses (Sam's Club) and supercenters where he combined grocery items with variety store merchandise. Walton died in 1992.

Sanford Dole

a. Sanford Dole was born in Honolulu to missionary parents. After completing his education and receiving an honorary law degree, he returned to Hawaii as a businessman and public official when Hawaii was an independent kingdom, a republic, a protectorate and later a territory of the United States. At first, he was able to work with both the Hawaiian royalty and the immigrants who lived in the islands. Dole was named President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Hawaii after Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown. When Grover Cleveland was elected president, Cleveland attempted to restore the monarchy, and plans for the annexation of Hawaii by the United States were delayed. When annexation finally occurred in 1898, Dole led negotiations requiring the U.S. government to pay off the accumulated national debt of both the Kingdom of Hawaii and the Republic of Hawaii. He successfully demanded that public lands be held as a public trust for the residents of Hawaii. He became Hawaii's first territorial governor and then a presiding judge for the U.S. District Court for Hawaii. His cousin John founded the famous Hawaiian Pineapple Company which later became Dole Pineapple Company.

Sonia Sotomayor

a. Sonia Sotomayor, born in 1954, was appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 2009 by President Barack Obama and is the first person of Puerto Rican descent to serve on the high court. She grew up in a Bronx housing project where her mother worked hard to raise her and her brother following the death of her father. Her mother instilled the value and importance of education in Sonia at an early age. Justice Sotomayor graduated from Princeton University and got her law degree from Yale. She was appointed a U. S District Court judge by President George H.W. Bush, and later a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Bill Clinton.

Vernon Baker

a. Vernon Baker, born in 1919, served as a First Lieutenant in the infantry during World War II. His brave actions saved the lives of many in his company, and he was responsible for eliminating three enemy machine gun positions and an observation post. For his bravery, he was awarded a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, and the Distinguished Service Cross. Historians concluded that he was wrongly denied the military's top award because of his race, and in 1997, he became the only living African American veteran of World War II to receive the Medal of Honor when he was presented this award by President Bill Clinton. He is one of only seven African Americans ever to receive this award. Baker died in 2010 at the age of 90.

Stephen Douglas

a. Stephen Douglas was born in Vermont and moved to Illinois when he was 20. In the 1830s and 1840s he served in various Illinois offices and emerged as a leader of the Democratic Party. He represented Illinois in the US House of Representatives from 1843-1847 and in the US Senate from 1847 until he died in 1861. b. In Congress, he favored westward expansion, "Manifest Destiny," and the Compromise of 1850. He believed that states should enter the Union slave or free, based on how their voting population indicated, a doctrine known as "popular sovereignty." To that end, he proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. c. In 1858, he ran for reelection to the Senate against Abraham Lincoln. During the campaign the two candidates squared off in a series of debates, which became known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Lincoln lost the Senate race but his performance helped boost his national support for the presidency. When Lincoln was elected President in 1860, Douglas condemned secession and, on Lincoln's request, traveled the country speaking out in favor of preserving the Union. He died two months after shots were fired on Fort Sumter.

Susan B. Anthony

a. Susan B. Anthony was born in Massachusetts, the daughter of Quaker abolitionists. At her first women's rights convention in 1852, she declared that voting was "the right which woman needed above every other." In 1869 Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Lucy Stone founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). This organization condemned the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments as injustices to women because they failed to clearly protect women's rights. She and Stanton also published a weekly newspaper, The Revolution. b. In 1872, Anthony decided to test the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment by casting a vote. She argued that because the amendment protected the "privileges and immunities" of all citizens, that it should protect her right to vote. She was arrested, imprisoned, tried, and found guilty of voting. Anthony's trial gave her a chance to bring her message to a larger audience. c. In the 1880s, NWSA merged with another suffrage organization to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Stanton became its first president. In 1892, Anthony became its second president - a post she held for eight years. Anthony died in 1906, fourteen years before the Nineteenth Amendment would secure women's right to vote. The fight for women's suffrage was continued by others including Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt.

Susan B. Anthony

a. Susan B. Anthony was born in Massachusetts, the daughter of Quaker abolitionists. At her first women's rights convention in 1852, she declared that voting was "the right which woman needed above every other." In 1869 Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Lucy Stone founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). This organization condemned the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments as injustices to women because they failed to clearly protect women's rights. She and Stanton also published a weekly newspaper, The Revolution. b. In 1872, Anthony decided to test the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment by casting a vote. She argued that because the amendment protected the "privileges and immunities" of all citizens, that it should protect her right to vote. She was arrested, imprisoned, tried, and found guilty of voting. Anthony's trial gave her a chance to bring her message to a larger audience. c. In the 1880s, NWSA merged with another suffrage organization to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Stanton became its first president. In 1892, Anthony became its second president - a post she held for eight years. Anthony died in 1906, thirteen years before the Nineteenth Amendment would secure women's right to vote. The fight for women's suffrage was continued by others including Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt. d. The work of Anthony and other women's suffragists illustrate the civic values of perseverance, courage, initiative, industry, and civic skills including volunteering.

The Black Panthers

a. The Black Panthers (originally named the Black Panther Party for Self Defense) was a radical group in the 1960's that advocated armed self-defense and a revolutionary agenda to immediately end black oppression. The more radical approach of the Black Panthers was dramatically different from the nonviolent approach of Martin Luther King, Jr. The founder, Huey Newton, chose the panther as part of the group's name because of its powerful image. While the Black Panthers did advocate a more militant approach than did Dr. King, they also advocated self-sufficiency for African Americans including employment and decent housing. Some of their activities were designed to better their communities by providing daycare centers, medical clinics, and other services.

The Flying Tigers

a. The Flying Tigers, also known as the American Volunteer Group in China, was a group of American pilots who served during World War II. They were volunteers because the United States had not yet entered the war. The Chinese hired a US Army Air Corps Veteran, Claire Chennault, to train the pilots. It was an undisciplined group of men who answered the call for volunteers because they were seeking adventure. They would become the first Americans to fight the Japanese in World War II and would win over 300 victories. In 1991, they were finally credited with time served in the US armed forces. The pilots received the Distinguished Flying Cross, and others who supported them were awarded Bronze Stars.

The Navajo Code Talkers

a. The Navajo Code Talkers served as an elite unit during World War II in the Pacific Theatre. Prior to the formation of this group, the Japanese had been successful in breaking more than 30 American codes. An American missionary who had grown up on a Navajo reservation came up with the idea of using the Navajo language as a solution. A group of 29 Navajos was charged with the task of creating the code. They would use traditional Navajo words to describe events and then created new words that were only known to those who had been trained. They started with approximately 200 words and ended with over 600. The code was never broken and was so protected that it was not declassified until 1968. In 2001 the Navajo Code talkers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Tuskegee Airmen

a. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators to serve during World War II. Most of these men were college graduates or undergraduates and were trained at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. This highly decorated group of Americans was often fighting on two fronts - overseas against the enemy and at home against racism. At home, many African American officers were denied access to officers' clubs on base even though this violated Army regulations. One specific incident in Indiana in 1945 led to the arrest of 103 African American officers when they attempted to enter an officers' club. One important factor which led President Truman to issue Executive Order 9981 in 1948 directing the desegregation of the U. S. armed forces was the outstanding record of accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Theodore Roosevelt

a. Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt, born in New York in 1858, was serving as Vice President when President William McKinley was assassinated. With this event, Roosevelt became the youngest person ever to become President. His views on foreign affairs were summed up with the proverb he often called his motto, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Roosevelt was willing to interfere in the affairs of other nations when it benefited the United States. b. At home, Roosevelt expanded the federal government's power of eminent domain. He signed laws establishing five national parks. Explaining his fight for a "square deal" for Americans, he used authority under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to take on consolidated companies that took away consumers' choices. He worked to protect companies from extreme demands from labor unions. He urged federal lawmakers to enact legislation protecting workers, including child labor laws and a bill providing workmen's compensation for all federal employees. He proposed laws regulating the nation's food supply. In response, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, paving the way for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Roosevelt became famous for using the "bully pulpit" to advance his ideas. c. Roosevelt had his critics. While the Founders believed that powers not granted to the federal government were forbidden, Roosevelt claimed that powers not forbidden were granted. Many charged that the many regulatory agencies he proposed threatened liberty. President William Howard Taft, who succeeded Theodore Roosevelt as President in 1908, said that Roosevelt's view of "ascribing an undefined ... power to the President" was "an unsafe doctrine" that could do "injustice to private right." Some later historians have called Roosevelt an activist president, because of the way his actions increased the power of the federal government over states and individuals' lives.

Theodore Roosevelt

a. Theodore Roosevelt, born in New York in 1858, was serving as Vice President when President William McKinley was assassinated. With this event, Roosevelt became the youngest person ever to become President. His views on foreign affairs were summed up with the proverb he often called his motto, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Roosevelt was willing to interfere in the affairs of other nations when it benefited the United States. b. At home, Roosevelt expanded the federal government's power of eminent domain. He signed laws establishing five national parks. Explaining his fight for a "square deal" for Americans, he used authority under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to take on consolidated companies that took away consumers' choices. He worked to protect companies from extreme demands from labor unions. He urged federal lawmakers to enact legislation protecting workers, including child labor laws and a bill providing workmen's compensation for all federal employees. He proposed laws regulating the nation's food supply. In response, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, paving the way for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Roosevelt became famous for using the "bully pulpit" to advance his ideas. c. Roosevelt had his critics. While the Founders believed that powers not granted to the federal government were forbidden, Roosevelt claimed that powers not forbidden were granted. Many charged that the many regulatory agencies he proposed threatened liberty. President William Howard Taft, who succeeded Theodore Roosevelt as President in 1908, said that Roosevelt's view of "ascribing an undefined ... power to the President" was "an unsafe doctrine" that could do "injustice to private right." Some later historians have called Roosevelt an activist president, because of the way his actions increased the power of the federal government over states and individuals' lives.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

a. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was one of the most famous figures in American Civil War history. He was a strong-willed, naturally gifted military leader. He graduated from West Point, served in the U.S. Army, fought in the U.S.-Mexican War, and was a Confederate general in the Civil War. Perhaps best known for his courageous ability to face an opposing army like a "stone wall" without backing down, Jackson was a veteran of many Civil War battles and skirmishes. He was revered by the Confederate armies of the South, not only for his years of dedicated military service but also for his repeated displays of bravery and valor. Jackson died in May, 1863 as a result of complications from wounds received at Chancellorsville and pneumonia. When Stonewall died, Robert E. Lee said, "I have lost my right arm." Stonewall Jackson was buried at Lexington, Virginia.

Thurgood Marshall

a. Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of working-class parents and the great-grandson of a slave. Denied entry to his home state's university school of law because he was black, Marshall instead went to Howard University Law School. He graduated first in his class, and soon after became a lawyer for the NAACP, working on a litigation campaign to end segregation and racial discrimination. His first civil rights case, Murray v. Pearson (1935), successfully challenged the University of Maryland segregation policy. He said that segregation cases transcended individual rights, but rather were about "the moral commitment stated in our country's creed." In his most famous case, he argued and won the Supreme Court case that ended segregation in public schools, Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The University of Maryland later named its law library after Marshall. b. In 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court. Through his career on the bench of the highest Court, Marshall expressed his commitment to the Constitution and principles of equality, individual rights and liberty, authoring opinions in cases including Regents of California v. Bakke (1978). Sometimes known as the "Great Dissenter," he often broke from majority opinions. He believed capital punishment to be a violation of the Eighth Amendment in all circumstances, and dissented from all rulings that applied the death penalty.

Ulysses S. Grant

a. Ulysses S. Grant was born in 1822. Grant was educated at West Point Academy where he graduated in the middle of his class. He fought in the U.S.-Mexican War where he served under General Zachary Taylor. President Lincoln appointed him General of the Union Army during the Civil War, and he won the first major Union victories of the war. On April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant. Grant wrote out the terms of surrender in such a way as to prevent treason trials. He became the 18th President of the United States in 1868. As President, he presided over the government similar to the way he ran the Army. He brought part of his Army staff to the White House, and his presidency was plagued by corruption

Edmund Randolph

a. Virginian Edmund Randolph, born in 1753, is sometimes called a "Forgotten Founder" because his name is not familiar to many Americans despite his many contributions to the United States. During the Revolutionary War, he served as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington. He also served in several public offices including delegate to the Continental Congress, delegate to the Annapolis Convention, as well as the Constitutional Convention. b. At the Constitutional Convention, Randolph introduced the Virginia Plan. By the Convention's end, though, Randolph refused to sign the Constitution. He believed his integrity required him to refuse. He thought the final version had strayed too far from what he called the "republican propositions" of the Virginia Plan. He also feared that a single President would lead to tyranny. Instead he supported a three-person executive council. James Madison later persuaded Randolph to support ratification at the Virginia Ratifying Convention. The compromise was made easier for Randolph because eight states had already ratified by the time of Virginia's Convention. c. Randolph was appointed to serve as the nation's first Attorney General by President George Washington.

W.E.B. DuBois

a. W.E.B. DuBois was a leader in the struggle for civil rights for African Americans in the first years of the 20th century. In 1895, he became the first African American to receive a PH.D from Harvard. DuBois broke from Booker T. Washington's philosophy which preached that African Americans should work hard for economic gain and the respect of whites, even though it might mean they had to endure discrimination for the time being. DuBois believed Washington's philosophy would perpetuate the oppression of African Americans. In 1903, DuBois published perhaps his most famous book, The Souls of Black Folks. In 1909, he helped create the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). His later Pan-Africanism ideas were based on the belief that people of African descent from all over the world should unite to fight oppression. When he left the NAACP in 1934, he favored complete black separatism. After moving to Ghana, he became a citizen of Ghana and a member of the Communist Party. He died in Ghana on August 27, 1963, the eve of the March on Washington

Warren G. Harding

a. Warren G. Harding, born in Ohio in 1865, was elected to the U. S. Senate from Ohio in 1914. In 1920 the Republican Party nominated Harding as its candidate for President, and during the campaign he promised America a return to normalcy after the chaos of WWI. He championed the idea that "America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration..." He was elected the nation's 29th President but died in 1923 before completing his term. As a conservative Republican, he sought to decrease the role of government in the American economy and allow business to flourish without intrusive government regulations. He protected American business by increasing tariffs on imported goods. His hands off (laissez-faire) approach to governing saw a reduction in government spending and a lowering of the income tax. He also worked with Congress to reduce excessive taxes on corporations. During his administration Americans paid one-third less in taxes. Harding died before some notorious scandals involving members of his administration became public knowledge. However the Teapot Dome Scandal in which a Harding cabinet member was caught taking a bribe tarnished the Harding presidency forever.

The Wright Brothers

a. Wilbur and Orville Wright's industry and perseverance changed a nation—and the world. Many had tried but no one had been able to perfect a machine that could be controlled in flight. The Wright brothers observed birds, studied wings and engines, physics and dynamics. They conducted wind tunnel tests on more than 200 kinds of wings. They continued in their research and experiments over several years, during which time they suffered some disappointing failures. In 1900, they traveled to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a location they selected after extensive study of weather data. Its ocean breezes and soft landing sites would be perfect. On December 17, 1903, they succeeded. Their engine-powered airplane flew 120 feet, landing twelve seconds after takeoff. b. The Wright brothers knew that citizens had the ability to protect their inventions through patents. They patented their invention as a "flying machine," and almost immediately had to begin defending their work from rival inventors. Wilbur spent much of the last years of his life in this endeavor, traveling to consult with lawyers and testifying in court. He saw it as his responsibility to defend not only his own economic rights, but those of other citizens. Orville persevered in the legal battle until the case was decided in the Wrights' favor in 1914.

William Carney

a. William Carney was born a slave in Virginia. His father escaped from slavery with the help of the Underground Railroad and earned enough money to buy his family's freedom. William Carney enlisted in the all African American 54th Massachusetts regiment during the Civil War, which was led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. William Carney was quoted in The Liberator as saying "Previous to the formation of colored troops, I had a strong inclination to prepare myself for the ministry; but when the country called for all persons, I could best serve my God by serving my country and my oppressed brothers." He fought bravely at the Battle of Fort Wagner, outside Charleston, South Carolina, and earned a promotion to sergeant. He was shot four times and survived. He is the first African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

William Jennings Bryan

a. William Jennings Bryan was born in Illinois and moved to Nebraska in 1887 where he practiced law. Running on a populist platform, he was the first Democrat elected from Nebraska to the House of Representatives. He lost his bid for the Senate in 1894 and became editor of the Democratic newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald. b. Bryan became an advocate of "Free Silver" policy, delivering his "Cross of Gold" speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention. His charisma impressed many of the delegates. He ran unsuccessfully for president 3 times, taking progressive and anti-imperialist stances. He supported President Woodrow Wilson, who appointed Bryan Secretary of State. He served for 2 years but resigned in protest when Wilson led the country into World War I. c. In his later life, Bryan worked to secure prohibition and women's suffrage. He became concerned about the teaching of evolution, calling it "consummately dangerous." He argued for a literal interpretation of the Bible and in opposition to the teaching of evolution against Clarence Darrow in what became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial. He died five days after that trial ended.

Woodrow Wilson

a. Woodrow Wilson was born in Virginia. He earned law and doctoral degrees at prestigious universities before becoming a political science professor and later president of Princeton University. He served as Governor of New Jersey, and in 1912 was elected President of the United States. Alice Paul organized a women's suffrage parade for the day before his inauguration. b. A number of Progressive reforms took place during his administration, in the form of legislation and amendments to the Constitution. The Sixteenth Amendment was ratified a month before he took office; President Wilson gained Congress's approval for a graduated federal income tax. The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Amendments followed. Congress heeded Wilson's call to amend the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Finally, Wilson lent his support to women's suffrage, and in 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. c. Though he initially attempted to keep the United States out of World War I, he asked Congress to declare war on Germany in 1917. He acted as Commander in Chief of the military and two years later negotiated the Treaty of Versailles, which included his plan for the League of Nations. The Senate did not approve the treaty, however, so the League of Nations began without the United States as a member. President Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1920.