History 17B
Summary Paper
World War II was America's most important twentieth-century war and was also known to be one of the greatest military conflicts in history. Many people viewed World War II as the “Good War”, which was a war against fascism and for democracy. After World War I which ended in 1918, Germany had to give up land and was banned from having any armed forces, which was caused from the Treaty of Versailles. Germany surrendered many material goods like cannons, machine guns, planes, trench mortars, and even railroads after World War I. Germany felt a huge war guilt and was embarrassed with the defeat if the war. The start of the second world war was influenced with the rise of Adolf Hitler.
When World War II began on September 1, 1939, our government, movies, music, publishing, and fashion contributed lots of support for the war.
The Treaty of Versailles caused Germany to surrender many things which caused them be in a poor economic state. Since Germany was in a horrible state, Adolf Hitler rose to become a Führer to the people of Germany do to his spectacular public speeches. Hitler promised to make his country better and quickly began to arm Germany again and to seize land from other countries, thus breaking the
Treaty of Versailles. He also had a hated for Jews and used them a scapegoat. Hitler was a huge fascist.
“Fascism an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.”
(Webster). It opposed the capitalist views of other nations like the United States. His goal was to take over all of Europe to turn in into a fascist nation.
On September 3rd, 1939, the Prime Minister of Britain, Chamberlain, declared war on Germany when German forces stormed the Polish frontier. It involved many of the world's countries like Italy and Japan. These countries became aggressive because they felt that they were being treated badly in the years after World War I ended. Italy was upset with the Versailles Treaty because they believed that were going to get more land from the treaty than what they actually received. Mussolini then came to power and vowed to return Italy to the golden days of the Roman Empire. Italy wanted more land to

control and the power that came with it. Japan was desperate for resources due to the very few that they had, this contributed to Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. They were unhappy with some of the agreements made at the Washington Naval Conference. They were upset with the Five-Power Naval
Limitation Treaty that allowed Japan to have three warships for the every five warships Great Britain and the United States had.
There was huge manufacturing of the good war. The government meets Hollywood which painted the war to be a “good war”. War agencies wanted to maintain peace and to keep it direct. The production for war machines increased heavily. The war production board was created to regulate the production and to allocate materials and fuel during the war. War production was essential to supply troops with the resources necessary to defeat the Axis Powers, this created jobs for more people. With manufacturing the good war, there was a need to maintain public support. This caused taxes to rise, which encouraged people to buy bonds. The Office of War Information was a United States government agency created to consolidate existing government information services and deliver propaganda. Propaganda was used to increase war support and commitment to an allied victory,
Roosevelt believed this. It was used as a driving force that kept the battles striving and each nation united for a common cause. This led America see the war as a good thing to have.
Along with the war came pop culture, like music, movies, comics, and fashion. There was a huge influence of music during the war, since most Americans had and listened to radios. Many songs expressed the emotions of the war showing the longings that loved ones felt for each other when they were separated and to lift the spirits of the citizens. One popular band was the International
Sweethearts of Rhythm, they were the first integrated all woman's band in the United States. Jazz was the most popular form of music during the war, there were audiences for country music, swing, and rhythm and blues. Movies presented a good image of the war, which mainly sported war themes.
Movies were extremely popular that ninety million Americans went to the movies every week during the war. One popular movie is Action in the North Atlantic (1943) which is about Joe Rossi and Steve

Jarvis who are charged with getting a supply vessel to Russian allies as part of a sea convoy. Comics and posters created an image to American's that the war was good which also kept Americans to continue the support for the war. Popular comics at this time were the Flash, Wonder Woman, Captain
America, Bugs Bunny and many more. Fashion changed during the war, there were clothing rations because the materials were needed for the war, so there were limited the types of materials available for making and obtaining clothes. Clothing was kept plain and the colors were solemn. All of these images created a view that the war war good.
With the military aspects of the war there were atomic bombs used. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Three days later another bomb was dropped on
Nagasaki. The bombs killed men, women, children, military personnel and civilians. Although the city produced military items and housed soldiers, it was not selected as a "purely military target" as
President Truman had promised. Wartime causalities were at an all time high, fifty-seven nations fought in the war which included 90 million men, 15 million of those were soldiers who died. Out of the 90 million men were 12.5 million Americans. 800,000 Americans were wounded and 322,000 died during this war.
With the influence of America seeing the war as a “good” one, this kept the motivation of everyone to stay involved in the war in any type of way. World War 2 ended with the surrender of the
Axis powers. On May 8th 1945, the Allies accepted Germany's surrender, about a week after Adolf
Hitler had committed suicide. VE Day is know as the Victory in Europe, which celebrates the end of the Second World War.

African-American Civil Rights
The civil rights of African Americans were limited by state laws and discrimination for nearly
100 years after the civil war. Even though the Thirteenth Amendment put an end to slavery in the
United States, many African Americans started to figure out what “freedom” meant. Whites believed that African Americans were happy with their economic and social conditions. Obviously this was wrong, whites looked down on blacks based from the color of their skin. In the 1950s, segregation was legal. Some civil right are the right to vote, freedom of speech, even the right to equal treatment.
African Americans faced a lot of discrimination and segregation at this time. On July 26th, 1948,
Truman signed an executive order that established desegregation in the military, and stopped discrimination in the government. During this movement African Americans faced many events like school desegregation, little rock, the Montgomery bus boycott, civil rights bills, and even race riots.
After Truman signed an executive order that established desegregation in the military and stopped discrimination in the government, this influenced desegregation in the schools. This led to the
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling in 1945. The Supreme Court was friendly on this case believing that desegregation in the schools was meant to change the attitudes and socialization of children, like separate but equal. With this ruling, many white parents were upset as they still believed that their white children should not be with other African-American students. There was a struggle for integrated schools because it was both encouraged and constrained. There was a massive resistance with this ruling, the event was known as Little Rock in 1957. This was when an Arkansas governor blocked the admission of nine African-African students to Little Rock's Central High School and it gained world-wide attention. The safety for blacks students were at risk at it came to a point that they needed to be escorted by the military.
Another event that affected African-American civil rights was the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
This boycott started in December 1955 by a black woman Rosa Parks who simply started a revolution

just by sitting down. She was just a tired seamstress on her way home and sat at the front of the bus. In
Montgomery, Alabama, the seats that are usually towards the front were given to white people. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and she was arrested. About 50,000 African Americans supported this boycott and the bus system dropped by sixty percent. This lasted for more than a year.
Martin Luther King Jr. a Baptist minister in Montgomery, was one of the leaders who organized this boycott which began a chain reaction of other boycotts throughout the south. King fought for black equality. People who supported this boycott organized carpools, taxis, and even walked to protest the bus segregation laws. In 1956, the bus boycott finally ended as the Supreme Court voted to end segregated busing and now will be based on a first come first serve basis.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were two African Americans who influenced the civil rights movement heavily. They were both respected ministers and established leaders. They both had the same goal, they wanted to end exploitation, racism and discrimination. The both of them were deeply influenced by their fathers, which affected their religion and actions towards others. Malcolm X came from a black underclass family and taught the teachings of Islam. MLK was raised in a middle class family and went to college.
There was a Civil Rights Bill passed in 1957, which Lyndon Johnson organized that aimed to ensure that all blacks would have voting rights. Voting was an important weapon. This created a new division with the federal justice department that monitored civil rights abuses, as well as a joint report to be done by both major political parties on the issues of race relations. There was another civil right bill that was passed in 1960. This established an inspection of registration polls and penalties to anyone who would obstruct another persons attempt to register to vote. With this second bill that was passed strengthened the bill that was passed in 1957. Many race riots rose and broke out across the nation.
From 1964 to 1968, this was American worst domestic violence since World War II. One known race riot at this time was the Watts riot that involved two white policemen who scuffle with a black motorist.

With this riot it caused 1000 people injured, thirty-four dead, and $40 million worth of damages. There was another riot in Detroit in 1967. it broke out on 12th street, which was in the heart of Detroit's
African American inner city. The worst riot of them all was in 1968, after the assassination of MLK in
April. African Americans were outraged because King was a beloved leader in the civil rights movement who was a major advocate for nonviolence.
The civil right movement shifted into a new phase. This movement had an enormous and broad impact on domestic legislation. During this movement African Americans faced many events like school desegregation, little rock, the Montgomery bus boycott, civil rights bills, and even race riots.
With these events, it has impacted this movement dramatically with the focus of equal race rights especially to African-Americans.