Paper Example on US History: From Chaos to Union - A Progressive Journey

Introduction

The United States typifies a melting pot of cultures and diversity in all its aspects. Furthermore, it is hailed as a progressive navel democracy that boldly emerged from the era of slavery, civil rights movement, racism to a liberal democracy that upholds human rights devoid of religion, gender, or social affiliations. Reflecting on the history of the United States gives a clear picture of how chaotic, sometimes confusing, and unsafe the union was. Historical evidence shows mixed impressions of the dark side of the United States of America and its reemergence as the strongest crusader of human rights both at home and globally. At once, it may be difficult to conjure the somehow extreme aspects of the United States in the 1800s moving forward. However, through the life and times of Stephanie Clack, an African American born to a former slave family in Orlando, Florida provides a clear mirror to visualize the twists and turns that culminated in the present-day United States of America.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Character Introduction

Stephanie Clack was born to a family of former African American slaves in Orlando, Florida, in 1892. Her parents were Roman Catholics, though they were not active churchgoers, which then implies that Clack had minimal contact with the church. Her father was very critical about what he referred to as a "suppressive white man's religion." Clack's parents were peasants, and her mother took at least four menial jobs a day to get some income for their basic needs. Beleaguered by the wave of racism and discrimination, her parents had no chance to get any formal education to get decent jobs. Clack would be a victim of the same fate of not accessing education when she turned seven years old in 1899, but the segregationist schools could not take her in. The parents hated attempting to take their daughters t school for fear of reprisal. The then system was skewed to ensure that Africans in America are not afforded equal rights to education as the whites. Clack's family succumbed to the ignobility of their status.

Clack, being an African American, is the best character for this avatar. She represents a population that has been at the center of turmoil in virtually every aspect of American history. She demystifies racism and gender discrimination in the Then united states of America.

Second World War and its impacts on Clack and the America Society

The breakout of the second world war in 1939 had a critical effect on the life of Clack and her entire family as her father was conscripted into the infantry to fight abroad. Despite being among the brave African Americans at the war front, racial discrimination in compensation, and general welfare persisted. Earlier in 1917, when the US Congress passed the Selective Service Act which required the males within the age bracket of 21 and 31 years, Clack's father thought it was the right chance to assert the patriotism, boldness, and worthiness of African Americans (Ferrara, 2018). He voluntarily joined the war front leaving Clack and her mother to survive on the meager income from her daily menial jobs. The father would then join the Second World War to fight in various parts of Europe in the spirit of protecting American interest at home and abroad. At the later stages of the second world war and out of a father's inspiration, Clack too joined the US army Unit called "Six Triple Eight." This unit, which purely consisted of women, had had the mandate of sorting and clearing a two-year backlog of mail for the American missions in Europe. From February of 1945 to March 1946, Clack was involved with the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion in distributing mail in widespread warehouses in England and France (Ferrara, 2018). Clack was among the many black women who joined the unit with a sheer focus on dispelling stereotypes and representing a change in racial and gender roles in the military. However, even within the service, racism, and discrimination persisted.

The United States had adopted the policy of non-involvement throughout the entire period of the first world war. However, they joined the second world war in earnest as a reaction to the provocation by Japan. The United States got enraged by the decision of Japan's decision to attack the US military bases in the pacific. The Pearl Harbor attack in which the Japanese warplanes damaged 164 aircraft and sank 18 war-ship belonging to the United States. This attack resulted in the death of over two thousand four hundred service members on the US Pacific fleet (Piehler, 2013). On 8 December 1941, President Roosevelt, through the US Congress, declared war against Japan. As a result of the US' decision to declare war against Japan, the latter's allies, including Germany and Italy, also declared war on the United States (Piehler, 2013). This implied that America had gotten into a global war. Ideally, the second world war was a result of Germany's dissatisfaction with the terms of the Versailles treaty passed at the closure of the first world war. Germany was restricted to stop her overseas expansionist tendencies. However, in defiance, Germany invaded Poland in 1939, yet Britain and France had guaranteed Poland's borders (Piehler, 2013). Conceivably, the second world war which greatly affected the international political economy was a superiority battle among the large economies in the world to control the social, political, and economic affairs of the smaller countries in Europe and abroad.

At the center of the United States involvement were the allies, including Britain, France, and Russia. The fact that the united states had declared war against Japan, which was an enemy of the other three powers left inclined her to join the allies. The prominent people in the Second World War include Great Britain's Prime minister-Winston Churchill, Unites states president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Russia's Secretary of the Communist Party-Joseph Stalin - Stalin's title and the leader of the Free French-Charles de Gaulle (Olson, 2013).

The discourse on American involvement in the Second World War was polarizing with various factions emerging. Factions developed about the rationale for America getting involved in the second world war. The isolationists considered the war as being one of the foreign nations where America had no reason to get involved. On the other hand, the interventionists argued that the country had a justification for participating in it. Before the US involvement in the war, Isolationist organizations such as America First Committee tried to use various means of print, radio, and mass rallies to including influence public opinion against the war. Conversely, the interventionists argued that America had to participate in the conflict. They posed that the democracies of Western Europe provided a critical line of defense against Hitler's expansionism (Olson, 2013). They a that without any European power to check Nazi Germany, the United States risked being isolated and its territory and resources taken by a single powerful dictator, Hitler.

Arguably, the Second World War acted as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement after a long era of prejudice and discrimination ag African Americans. In the war, Black Americans served the country with dedication and distinction as support troops, infantrymen, medics and airmen (Olson, 2013). However, the military still experienced racial segregation. Again, as most white Americans got engaged in the war, the masses of the black community who remained at home got jobs in the manufacturing sector and got skills, became unionized, and formed part of the industrial workforce, which was not available before.

Analysis of "Bielakowski, A. (2012). African American Troops in World War II. Bloomsbury Publishing."

Bielakowski reiterates that the Second World War threatened American interests both and home and overseas; hence, Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration saw the need to actively involve even the previously disenfranchised minority races in the military. While highlighting the various combat roles that African Americans played, the author inadvertently shows that discrimination persisted in the military. African Americans participated in the 99th Pursuit Squadron and 332nd Fighter Group among other segregated military groups. The book further illustrates the irony of African American recruitment in the Second World War. He describes how the black Americans, in general, were conscripted to fight fascism and racism perpetrated by the Nazis and their allies in Europe while at the same time, the white supremacists and conservatives in America encouraged the same at home. The book extensively gives snippets of the frontline and back-office activities that the African Americans performed in the American Army during the Second World War while, at the same time, succinctly entrenched racism still subjected these black recruits to physically engaging but less technical ones.

The author indicates, "while President Franklin D Roosevelt favored the desegregation of the military, he was prevented from acting upon his wish because the Democratic Party, his power base, was considered a Southern Party" (Bielakowski, 2012). Nonetheless, he shows that regardless of the disenfranchisement, discrimination, and racism meted against the African American soldiers by the white Americans in the Second World War, they fought not only with enthusiasm but also a high sense of patriotism which benefitted them at the end. The author notes, "After the end of the war in Europe....African Americans did get an opportunity to advance in rank and had command opportunity never before envisioned" (Bielakowski, 2012 ). The author systematically uses historical evidence to show that African Americans worked actively in the second world war despite their frustrations both at home and in the army. They demonstrated their commitment to equality as well as safety within the American territory and beyond. He notes, " By February 1944, there were 23 African American clubs, but the very existence of the segregated clubs smacked of the "separate, but equal" treatment that so many Black Americans were forced to endure in the southern USA" (Bielakowski, 2012 p. 26).

The insights, ideas, and facts presented in the text aptly reinforce the circumstances in which Stephanie Clack lived. It shows how discrimination that persisted in the army could have relegated her father, subjecting them to an unstable family. This happened even though he offered his life for the sake of defending his country. It also highlights the ghost of racism that haunted African Americans even in the army. Nonetheless, racial discrimination, poverty, and lack of education forced her to seek recruitment into the women unit of the US military fighting in Europe. Clack would consent to the fact as one of the African Americans involved in the Second World War together with her father, they relentlessly worked to challenge the discriminatory codes against the blacks, but they did not attain much. However, Clack's roles in the war acted as an impetus and conviction for the attainment of civil rights for the blacks.

Historically Relevant Ethical Dilemma for Clarke in Relation to the Second World War

Clark faced the dilemma of whether to join in a domestic struggle to extricate the African Americans who were under racial discrimination. She, just like her kinsmen, had to endure segregationist laws and utter discrimination in virtually every aspect of life. The disenfranchisement from social, economic, and political structures in the united states had made her uneducated, poor, and desperate. In such a situation, it would not be easy for her to seem to support a President Roosevelt regime fighting in a foreign land. It seemed somehow insensible to engage in a mission whose interest was to stop Nazi Germany under Hitler from bei...