us grant, intro, history, etc

Burial sites of presidents

SIX presidents are buried in New York State !

8th Martin Van Buren 21st Chester A Arthur 13th Millard Fillmore 26th Teddy Roosevelt18th US Grant 32nd F.D. Roosevelt

Questions for Ranger Don

Visiting on WedFeb 24th!

• What’s the president like in real life?

• How long have you been working for the NPS?

• Did you always think you were going to be a Park Ranger?

• What’s your favorite NPS site that you’ve worked at?

Questions for Ranger Don

Visiting on WedFeb 24th!

• What’s the president like in real life? • How long have you been working for the NPS? • Did you always think you were going to be a Park

Ranger? • What’s your favorite NPS site that you’ve worked at? • What did you major in in college?

General Grant MemorialBaggage

General Grant Memorial

Field tripThe second week of MARCH

VIDEO: http://www.biography.com/people/ulysses-s-grant-9318285

Designer: John DuncanMaterial: Granite and MarbleStyle: Neo-Classical, based on Napoleon’s Tomb in Paris, FranceClaim to Fame: Largest Mausoleum in the USA.

General Grant MemorialDesigner: John DuncanMaterial: Granite and MarbleStyle: Neo-Classical, based on Napoleon’s Tomb in Paris, FranceClaim to Fame: Largest Mausoleum in the USA.

General Grant MemorialWhat did Grant do before the civil war? How did he become a general? How is he perceived in the north vs southHow did he die?Did he ever do things as president or general that people didn’t like?Why isn’t Grant ever mentioned as a person who gave blacks equal rights?What is a funeral parade? Why is Grant’s memorial here? Did he own slaves? (his wife’s family did, and apparently he worked alongside them, and eventually granted their freedom.)Where did the drunk-Grant rumor come from? Why didn’t he do more to stop the KKK?

Why is he barely “present” in history? Why is he on the $50 bill? What were Grant’s views on women’s rights? Was he actually a national hero? How? How was Grant perceived internationally?

General Grant Memorial-Was he the kind of General that fought alongside his soldiers?Last year of the war he was commander of everything and he could have stayed in DC…but he stayed WITH the troops As a young man he’s an officer, a lieutenant in the Mexican War…at the outbreak of the civil war he’s a nobody…lived in Missouri and Illinois for a bit. Lincoln asks for volunteers, like state militia that are not regular army. Because of his history at Westpoint..he’s recommended that he advise the governor of IL…and he commands this group of Volunteers from IL. The more he wins the higher his rank. Shiloh first day is bloody and catastrophic, Sherman suggests they should surrender. Second day, they take back the field, apparently there’s more dead at this one battle than all the wars previously COMBINED. Later Gettysburg….etc.

General Grant MemorialDid Grant actually want to bring justice to African Americans or was he just following the popular views when he was president? Grant was the type to act from his own personal/political views. Also, he believed that if you could fight as a good soldier, then you should have all the same rights as an American citizen. Moreover, he had two main reasons for running for president: 1. He hated Johnson, and thought that he had been

too forgiving with the south during reconstruction. Grant wanted to “make the gains of the civil war into a real thing.”

2. He wanted to bring honor back to the presidency, and ensure the equality of all these new Americans by strictly resisting “black codes” and “anti-vagrancy” laws that kept African Americans from gaining equality in the south.

Ulysses S. Grant’s life …before the Civil War

• Born in 1822 in Ohio

• Educated at Westpoint Military Academy, graduated in the middle of his class.

• Previously worked as a tanner (his family’s business), farmer (his wife’s family’s business, and a leather store (again, his family’s business).

Ulysses S. Grant’s life …before the Civil War

• Slaves owned by his Father-in-Law in Missouri…– “White Haven, now Ulysses S. Grant NHS,

mirrored the rest of the nation during the years before the war. Grant opposed his father-in-law's ownership of slaves, but recognized his legal right to do so. In March 1859, Grant acted on his beliefs; purchasing William Jones in order to "manumit”, emancipate and set free said William from slavery forever.”

Manumit: to release from slavery, set free

General Grant….during the Civil War

• How he got involved in the war…

• Strategies he used…

• Important battles…

MAYBE LATER!!

President Grant….after the Civil War

(1869-1877)

• First president to be elected by without winning a majority of the white vote, as many freed slaves saw Grant as central to their emancipation.

• At the time, he was the youngest man to be elected president (at age 46)

• Known for restoring stability to the United States.

President Grant’sAfrican American Suffrage

• “The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from its privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that this question should be settled now, and I entertain the hope and express the desire that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article of amendment to the Constitution.”

– From Grant’s first inaugural address 1869

President Grantthe 15th Amendment

• The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African-American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

• Although ratified on in February 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests, voter ID laws, and other means, – Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African

Americans and not follow the 15th Amendment. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

What would YOU do to get the southern states to allow African-Americans the right to vote in the late 1800s?

• Kai: I would try to make a compromise…or a LAW….and ENFORCE the law!

• Joie: Not sure if it would work…but….I’d make it clear that whites and blacks (and everyone else?) had universal requirements across the country. THEN…once everyone hates the new restrictions…remove them all!

• KEN KEN: Maybe make a federal law that doesn’t diminish the State laws…but adds to them?

What would YOU do to get the southern states to allow African-Americans the right to vote in the late 1800s?

• Nawal: Set up some kinda federal voting systems…. Or federal regulations. More federal officials to make sure that these obstacles are not in place.

• Zenzi: I would form some kinda law that if you don’t follow it, you would be arrested.. And also I would confiscate lands to give to those who don’t own property.

• Nyle: I would set up a new system that integrates the different races to defy stereotypes…it’s not just a problem of voting…it’s deeper than that.

• Guzzy: FIRST THING: Reform the whole educationsystem….to remove the social stigmas of racism.


(1869-1877)

• Grant played a big role in dismantling the KKK during Reconstruction. After the newly formed Ku Klux Klan began murdering and terrorizing black Americans in the late-1860s, President Grant mobilized the Justice Department and secured thousands of indictments against their leaders.

Indictment: to be formally charged for your crimes


(1869-1877)

• Between 1870 and 1871 Congress passed the Enforcement Acts -- criminal codes that protected blacks' right to vote, hold office, serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws. If the states failed to act, the laws allowed the federal government to intervene. The target of the acts was the Ku Klux Klan, whose members were murdering many blacks and some whites because they voted, held office, or were involved with schools.

Video of Ranger Don• Michelle: BAEEEE

• Gizzzle: He’s calm and nonchalant. He seems passionate, not excited. Not throwin’ facts at people.

• Myar: He reminds me of a daffodil….(WHAT?!) like he’s meant to be at the memorial site.

• Jojo: He seems very observant about the mood of the National Mall.

• Kai: He seems passionate about what he does. Not all park rangers like their jobs…but he seems like he really respects it and loves it.

Video of Ranger Don

• Notice: Park Rangers do NOT carry weapons.

• Raphael: He seems to really care about his work with memorials and likes his job. He’s excited (sort of)

• Arvin: He has ideas related to what each site means.


(1869-1877)

• The Enforcement Act of 1870 (The Civil Rights Act of 1870) (#enforcement1) established penalties for anyone interfering with a person's right to vote (15th amendment rights) and gave federal courts the power to enforce the law. – The act also authorized the President to use the army to enforce

the act with federal marshals and to charge offenders in cases of election fraud, bribery or intimidation of voters, and conspiracies to prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional rights.

• The Civil Rights act however was ineffective at curtailing these problems, and less than a year later, in 1871, the next Enforcement Act (#enforcement2) was put into law.

President GrantThe Second Enforcement Act

1871 (#kukluxklanact)

• In APRIL of 1871, areas of South Carolina were STILL not abiding by the two enforcement acts, and President Grant oversaw passage of the so-called “Ku Klux Act,” which armed him with the power to declare martial law and suspend habeas corpus in areas deemed to be in a state of insurrection. The law got its first test later that year, when Grant sent troops into South Carolina and ran thousands of Klansmen out of the state. Thanks to his administration’s efforts, the hooded extremists were effectively cowed into submission over the next few years. They wouldn’t resurface in force until the 1910s.

Martial Law: when the military restricts ordinary laws and rights

President Grant’slast push for civil rights

The Civil Rights Act of 1875

The last biracial U.S. Congress of the 19th century passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This groundbreaking act prohibited segregation, and protected all Americans, regardless of race, in their access to public accommodations and facilities such as restaurants, theaters, trains and other public transportation, and protected the right to serve on juries.

Pbs.orgHistory.house.govGrantstomb.org

President Grant’slast push for civil

rights

• The Civil Rights Act of 1875, however, was not enforced properly, and the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1883.

• The fight for civil rights moved to the judicial realm. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that designating separate railway cars for whites and blacks was constitutional, as long as the facilities were "equal." The "separate but equal" doctrine stood until 1954, when the Supreme Court ordered school desegregation in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Pbs.orgHistory.house.govGrantstomb.org

General/President Grant’s Legacy vs “Lost

Cause”

Few major figures in American history have been so denigrated and disgraced as Grant. How did this happen? A big part of the answer can be found in the successful campaign by historians sympathetic to the Confederacy’s “Lost Cause:” this is a name commonly given to a literary and academic movement that sought to reconcile the traditional Southern white society to the defeat of the Confederate States of America in the Civil War.Common “Lost Cause” attitudes would say that the Civil War was fought over the issue of states’ rights, and not related to slavery.This ‘Lost-cause’ movement was very much led by William A. Dunning of Columbia University, who portrayed Grant as only a drunken butcher general and as an weak president who pandered to Radical Republicans. These distortions still thrive in countless history textbooks and classrooms, in movies and on television shows, as well as on popular websites.

While president, Grant believed that he was carrying out Abraham Lincoln’s plan of a prosperous reunited country, in the end going further than Lincoln had envisioned to ensure and secure black civil rights.

Frederick Douglass , a Social Activist, Writer, (and more) had called Grant “The last of the ‘radicals’” since after Grant’s presidency, conservatism swept through the the political scene of America.

General/President Grant’s Legacy vs “Lost

Cause”

William Archibald Dunning was an American historian and political scientist at Columbia University best known for his work on the Reconstruction era after the Civil War.One of his most renowned works, Reconstruction, Political and Economic (1907) details the struggles of white Southerners during Reconstruction. Dunning portrays former plantation owners as honorable citizens with the South's best interest always in mind and regards Confederate soldiers as heroes.

Choosing our groupsYour group should be made up of people you are

comfortable working with, and respectfully disagreeing with.

We have $250 to split amongst these groups. If we have 5 groups, that’s $50 per group to cover the cost of props, costumes, etc.

Choose the 4-5 people you would like to work with. Together, you’ll be assembling:

– Academic Research

– Panel Discussions (presentations and Q&A)

– Video Project

Write these names down on a sheet of paper to hand to Kozak tomorrow.If you would prefer to work alone, that’s fine, please let me know.

The traditional or Dunning School of Reconstruction was not just an interpretation of history. It was part of the edifice of the Jim Crow System.It was an explanation for and justification of taking the right to vote away from black people on the grounds that they completely abused it during Reconstruction. It was a justification for the white South resisting outside efforts in changing race relation because of the worry of having another Reconstruction.

Post-Presidency ….

Interview With Historian Eric Foner2015

”All of the alleged horrors of Reconstructionhelped to freeze the minds of the white South in resistance to any change whatsoever. And it was only after the Civil Rights revolution swept away the racist underpinnings of that old view—i.e., that black people are incapable of taking part in American democracy—that you could get a new view of Reconstruction widely accepted. For a long time it was an intellectual straightjacket for much of the white South, and historians have a lot to answer for in helping to propagate a racist system in this country.”


Interview With Historian Eric Foner2015


Joan WaughHistorian 2011

“And yet, despite all of this, Grant’s legacy today is largely forgotten. His memoirs are unread, his monuments are unvisited and in disrepair, and his reputation is synonymous with brutal warfare and overwhelming corruption in public office. In the 1950s, comedian Groucho Marx would pose a standard question to contestants on his quiz show, “Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?” The answer [these days] seems to be “Who cares?”


Why do you think so few actually visit this site?

• Jojo: I think because there’s all these myths about him that people believe…like the drunkard idea.

• Ruhith: Historians and the media have added this false idea of Grant in a negative way.

• Joie: Some folks just don’t know about him…he’s mentioned for the Civil War…but he’s not mentioned as some amazing guy.

• Myar: He doesn’t get the same recognition…because of historical slander. (libel…not slander.)

• Kenny: he’s only mentioned briefly in a Civil War sense…

• Kai: He’s dead, and people drag his name in the dirt, despite the positive things he’s done.


Why do you think so few actually visit this site?

• Tina: Back in the 1800s Grant was one of the top three presidents…but most people today only hear about stereotypes (butcher, drunk)

• Nyle: There’s not that much fascination, due to the amount of time that’s passed.

• Zenzi: He’s not spoken about as much as Washington…we just know him as a General. Not a president.

• Guzzy: Agree with ZENZI! We don’t really learn about him. Also, people just wannaforget about the Civil War Era skipping forward to the Jim Crow era.

• Jakara: It’s kind of something that you stumble upon…people aren’t all like “LETS GO TO THE TOMB!!!

ANTEBELLUM ??