The "Great Migration" of African Americans to the north in the early 1900's was the result of years of enslavement. The migration introduced new eager American citizens to the north during a time when new faces were foreign faces. For African Americans, the lure of freedom from Jim Crow laws, a higher and fairer wage for labor, and a fresh start to life was reasons enough to move to "the promised...
In 1917 the United States Congress passed the Espionage Act while involved in World War I. This act made it illegal for someone to obtain, distribute, or possess information relating to the national defense of the United States, her dependents, or those under her control or jurisdiction. The act also made it illegal to aid, conspire, or share any information or documents relating to national defense....
The Mercy General Hospital and Clinic was started in 1917 by Dr. David C. Northcross and his wife Dr. D.L. Northcross. The couple came to Detroit from Montgomery, Alabama where Dr. David Northcross had been conducting a hospital and drug store for eleven years. Mr. Northcross felt the need to service the Black community due to a lack of hospital service for many of the Southern Blacks who migrated...
The United States did its best to stay neutral during the onset of the First World War. President Woodrow Wilson famously insisted that, "America was too proud to fight" in the European conflict. During this time, President Wilson pursued a non-intervention policy and tried to help mediate peace for all sides. He realized that the German government, in particular, was not interested in ending the...
At the start of the year 1918, women in Chatham, New York were beginning to feel the pressures of World War I in their homes. On January 2, 1918, the Chatham Courier featured “Hints for Housekeepers,” an article that called for women to start using “fireless cookers” to make their meals. These cookers could either be bought or made with instructions provided by the government. According...
On July 12, 1918, the Bronxville Review published an article entitled, “Why Westchester County Must Be Guarded.” It claimed that Westchester County had a problem with the presence of “enemy aliens” during the First World War. An “enemy alien” was a person living in America who was a citizen of a foreign country at war with the United States. The article described efforts to ensure the...
What difference could 20 years of advertising make? Well, for Coca-Cola, it made the world of difference. In the hot summer of May, 1886, John Pemberton created the beginnings of what would be the most revolutionary and world-renown product as of yet.
This time, the Gilded Age, was the rise of advertising. Everyone and their brother had an idea for a concoction or medicine which cured, supposedly,...
As he exited the courtroom, “a girl pushed a bunch of flowers into [Eugene] Debs’ outstretched hands. Then she fell, half fainting, into his arms. Debs stooped down and kissed her.” This report from the New York Times portrays Debs as surrounded by a remarkable sense of bravado, a man who came to be known henceforth as “Democracies Prisoner.” On September 12, 1918 in Cleveland Ohio for...
On April 6 1917, the United States entered World War I (WWI) and declared war on Germany. In the beginning of WWI the United States could only muster up around 100,000 troops who were ready to fight. In order to strengthen our armed forces, President Wilson adopted the conscription act which boosted our armed forces to over 2 million soldiers. With the help of the United States the allied forces...
Ms. Lucy Dickinson, writing for the Birmingham News in October 1918, sent out an urgent plea to the city for a foster mother. An infant had been brought to the Children's Hospital by neighbors who had been caring for him. The baby's parents were victims of the epidemic “Spanish” influenza and were being treated at the local infirmary. Dickinson explained that the two "big-hearted fellows”...