A Treasure Chest of Hidden History: Fun Facts and Serious Episodes That You May Have Missed in Your American History Class

By Rusty Glover

As a high school history teacher for the past 25 years, I have collected and read hundreds of books pertaining to my subjects taught. On the completion of each book, I would carefully take notes on the most interesting events, quotes, or interpretations that I felt would enhance instruction for my students. After filling numerous notepads of information on over 800 books, I contemplated a project of sharing my most interesting findings. The result of this twenty plus year project is this book.

This book is divided into 16 chapters based on the various topics presented. Some chapters contain a small amount of entries such as Nicknames, Espionage, or Labor while chapters on the Presidents or quotes will fill over thirty pages. The first chapter puts emphasis on the role my home state of Alabama has played on the national scene.
One chapter is entitled Miscellaneous Odds and Ends due to the subject matter not fitting into any other classification.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491814239

Rusty Glover

Rusty Glover is a recently retired U.S. History teacher at Mary G. Montgomery High School in Semmes, Alabama where he lives with his wife Connie and daughters Katie and Kellie. He is a graduate of Faulkner State Community College with a B.S., M.ed, and MA in History from the University of South Alabama. He currently serves in the Alabama State Senate.

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2013 by Rusty Glover. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/11/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1422-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1423-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013916285

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1   Alabama In American History

Chapter 2   Civil Rights

Chapter 3   Congress

Chapter 4   Economics

Chapter 5   Espionage

Chapter 6   Foreign Policy

Chapter 7   Historical Connections

Chapter 8   Irony of History

Chapter 9   Labor

Chapter 10   Law

Chapter 11   Military and Warfare

Chapter 12   Nicknames

Chapter 13   Presidents and Elections

Chapter 14   Quotes

Chapter 15   Women

Chapter 16   Conclusion—Miscellaneous Odds and Ends

Bibliography

Introduction

As a high school history teacher for the past 25 years, I have collected and read hundreds of books pertaining to my subjects taught. On the completion of each book, I would carefully take notes on the most interesting events, quotes, or interpretations that I felt would enhance instruction for my students. After filling numerous notepads of information on over 800 books, I contemplated a project of sharing my most interesting findings. The result of this twenty plus year project is this book.

Purpose of Book

I believe that my entries compiled from 624 sources will generate interest in the various topics presented. The entries are brief and may spark the curiosity of the reader to further pursue the topic. Examples may be the faith presented in the quotes of the Founding Fathers or rarely exposed irony surrounding certain events. Information is out there in the wonderful world of books if only curiosity could be sparked and the reader motivated to uncover forgotten history.

Textbooks are sometimes unable to explain motivation or even cause and effect due to the abundance of material that must be covered. This book will fill a void on an assortment of topics rarely if ever featured in the textbooks.

I believe that the targeted audience is varied. History teachers, political junkies, and those seeking knowledge in our country’s history will enjoy reading material that is serious and sometimes comical.

Chapter Themes

This book is divided into 16 chapters based on the various topics presented. Some chapters contain a small amount of entries such as Nicknames, Espionage, or Labor while chapters on the Presidents or quotes will fill over thirty pages. The first chapter puts emphasis on the role my home state of Alabama has played on the national scene.

One chapter is entitled Miscellaneous—Odds and Ends due to the subject matter not fitting into any other classification.

Style

The style of this book is unique. Each entry is immediately followed by the cited source. I use this style for two reasons. First, I want to honor the authors and books that I use as a source by putting the information in a viewable place. Second, by reading through entries that are connected only in a broad sense, I want the reader to be able to digest the material before moving to the next entry. Most books today have the sources at the end of the book to avoid distractions to the narrative work. I want these brief distractions as a method of separating each entry.

Rusty Glover—July, 2013

Chapter 1

Alabama In American History

The results of the 1964 Presidential Election are always viewed as devastating for the GOP. It was an overwhelming disaster as Lyndon Johnson’s landslide was complimented with coattails that further reduced the Republican minority in the House of Representatives. But in Alabama, as well as some other southern states that went for Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, it was a different story. The state’s entire House delegation of eight to ten members remained Democrat from the end of Reconstruction to the Goldwater Landslide of ’64. The coattails of Goldwater ushered in five newly elected Republican House members.

Regnery, Alfred S. Upstream: The Ascendance of American Conservatism. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2008. p. 103.

****

The world’s first completely electrical street car was running the streets of Montgomery in 1886.

Salmond, John A. The Conscience of a Lawyer: Clifford J. Durr and American Civil Liberties, 1899-1975. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1990. p 5.

****

Following Reconstruction and into the 1920s, many African Americans looked to improved social status and economic opportunity by migrating to northern cities. One political leader who left Alabama at an early age was Oscar De Priest who became the first black member of the House of Representatives since the end of Reconstruction. He served from 1929 to 1935 representing a district in Chicago.

Remini, Robert V. The House: The History of the House of Representatives. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006. p. 304.

****

Coleman Young, who became the first black mayor of Detroit in 1974, spent his early childhood in Selma and Tuscaloosa.

Chestnut, J.L., Jr. and Julia Cass Black in Selma: The Uncommon Life of J.L. Chestnut, Jr. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990. p. 362.

****

Much of what we read in textbooks about President Warren G. Harding concerns the Teapot Dome scandal. Rarely is mention of Harding’s then controversial Birmingham speech promoting civil rights. His plan to place African Americans in charge of a hospital in Tuskegee led to a huge Ku Klux Klan demonstration in 1923.

Hayman, John Bitter Harvest: Richmond Flowers and the Civil Rights Revolution. Montgomery: Black Belt Press, 1996. p. 61.

****

In 1916, U.S. Senator John Bankhead (D-AL) sponsored the National Highway bill which led to the creation of the first U.S. Highway system.

Kimbrell, Fuller You Won’t Believe It, But It’s True. Tuscaloosa: Fuller Kimbrell, 2006. pp. 75-76.

****

Tallulah Bankhead created somewhat of disturbance during Truman’s inauguration parade in 1949. When South Carolina Governor and Dixiecrat candidate Strom Thurmond’s car approached the reviewing stand, Tallulah let out a burst of boos.

Goldman, Eric F. Rendezvous With Destiny: A History of Modern American Reform. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1956. p. 328.

****

When the Mississippi Territory was divided in 1817, the capital of the Alabama portion was located in the Washington County town of St. Stephens. It was a vibrant capital with all of the buildings and establishments expected in an early nineteenth century town except there was no church. The story passed on for generations is that famed Methodist evangelist Lorenzo Dow was physically thrown out of town and tossed into the Tombigbee River for condemning the sinful activities of the residents. At his departure, he was said to have placed a curse on the town which would leave it desolate in a few years. The town was completely deserted within a few decades.

Rogers, William Warren, Robert David Ward, Leah Rawls Atkins, and Wayne Flynt Alabama: The History of a Deep South State. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1994. p. 63.

****

In 1860, there was a brief movement among those opposed to secession from north Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee to secede from their own states and form a new state of Nickajack.

Rogers, Alabama, p. 183.

****

Students of American history will recall the Chicago Haymarket Affair where radicals had gathered to protest and police officers were killed by a bomb explosion set off by a group of anarchists. But little is known about the individuals who were charged, imprisoned, and executed. One such individual was Albert Parsons of Alabama. From his involvement in the Confederate Army at age thirteen to his hanging, Parsons lived a very interesting life.

Ginger, Ray Altgeld’s America: The Lincoln Ideal Versus Changing Realities. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1958. pp. 37-38, 51, 58-59.

****

In April of 1825, Marquis de Lafayette (Revolutionary War hero) visited Mobile and declared that Mobile had the fairest women in America.

Delaney, Caldwell The Story of Mobile. Mobile: The Haunted Book Shop, 1981. p. 70.

****

Dr. Josiah Nott, who founded a medical college in Mobile, published his theory connecting the mosquito with yellow fever more than fifty years before Dr. Walter Reed teamed up with another Mobilian, William Gorgas, to conquer the devastating disease.

Gorgas later became one of only a few Americans to ever be knighted by the King of England.

Delaney, The Story of Mobile, p. 102, 104.

****

Many histories on American foreign policy include President Woodrow Wilson’s Mobile Speech which he declared that the United States would not seek an additional foot of property in Central and South America, but rarely is mentioned that he also first declared that the U.S. would not recognize the Mexican regime of Huerta in that same speech.

DeSantis, Vincent P. The Shaping of Modern America: 1877-1916. Arlington Heights, IL: Forum Press, 1977. p. 241.

****

We all hear politicians claim to be representative of the common man during the campaign season. After her 1966 election to Governor of Alabama, Lurleen Wallace was still collecting S&H Green Stamps for the purchase of a new vacuum cleaner.

Frederick, Jeff Stand Up For Alabama: Governor George Wallace. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2007. p. 182.

****

Based on the ideas of Henry George, E.B. Gaston of Des Moines, established the Fairhope Single Tax Colony on the Eastern Shore of Baldwin County in Alabama in 1894.

Faulkner, Jimmy Byways of Baldwin: Its People, History, Scenic Attractions and Growth From 1936. Montgomery: NewSouth, Inc. 2007. p. 232.

****

Oscar Underwood D-AL., as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was co-sponsor of the Tariff of 1913 which included the permanent income tax.

Johnson, Evans C. Oscar Underwood: A Political Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980. pp. 157-158, 203-204.

****

In 1858, Benton County, Alabama, named after Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, was renamed Calhoun County after South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun. Benton was considered a moderate on the slave issue during the previous generation and Calhoun was a staunch defender of the institution.

Flynt, Wayne Poor But Proud: Alabama’s Poor Whites. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1989. p. 14.

****

White residents in rural Ashville, Alabama became alarmed when it was revealed that the Nation of Islam had purchased a vast amount of farmland in late 1969.

Evanzz, Karl The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad. New York: Pantheon Books, 1999. pp. 354-355.

****

The Great Textile Strike of 1934 began in Alabama. This was considered the largest American labor strike in history. In Alabama alone, 23,000 mill workers participated.

Flynt, Poor But Proud, p. 111.

****

In 1880, the city of Birmingham contained only 3,086 residents. As the steel industry became dominant in the area, the 1900 census revealed that the city jumped to 38,415.

Woodward, C. Van Origins of the New South, 1877-1913. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1951. p. 136.

****

President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution in 1914 sponsored by Congressman Thomas Heflin (uncle of later Senator Howell Heflin) designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

Sullivan, Mark Our Times (vol. v): Over Here, 1914-1918. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933. p. 587.

****

A landmark Supreme Court decision was handed down in 1964 that involved Montgomery Police Commissioner L.B. Sullivan. The commissioner had filed a libel suit against the New York Times for printing an advertisement placed by four ministers involved in the civil rights movement. The court ruled in The New York Times v. Sullivan that newspapers would be free to print potentially libel material about public officials as long as it was not printed with actual malice.

Gray, Fred Bus Ride To Justice: Changing the System By the System, The Life and Works of Fred D. Gray. Montgomery: The Black Belt Press, 1995. pp. 161, 170.

****

Although the plan was later abandoned, General Grant developed a Mobile Plan he hoped to utilize in 1863. The plan called for 35,000 troops to enter Mobile from New Orleans and then embark on a campaign through Alabama capturing Montgomery and Selma.

Catton, Bruce Grant Takes Command, 1863-1865. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1968. pp. 93-94.

****

During the Presidential campaign season of 1964, Governor George Wallace was active on the speaking circuits. Following the taping of CBS’s Face the Nation, Dan Rather approached Wallace and said, Governor, if you ever have an instance where CBS has distorted news about you in any way, I want you to call me collect and let me know—and I will see that it is corrected. Wallace replied, Dan, I can’t do that; it would bankrupt CBS.

Lesher, Stephan George Wallace: American Populist. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994. p. 309.

****

On the eve of the election of 1860, Democrat Steven Douglas made his final campaign appearance. He gave a two hour speech to a crowd of around five thousand Mobilians prior to retiring to the Battle House Hotel. He spent election night before the telegraph wire at the Mobile Register office with editor John Forsyth.

Burnett, Lonnie A. The Pen Makes a Good Sword: John Forsyth of the Mobile Register. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2006. p. 115.

****

The Mobile bread riot of 1863 was one of the most interesting home front wartime events. Because of food shortages, hundreds of women with axes, hammers, and brooms marched on the city demanding food or blood from downtown merchants. There was some indication that Jewish businesses were specifically targeted. Thousands of spectators viewed the seen, most in amusement. The Alabama Seventeenth Regiment was called in to put down the riot.

Bergeron, Arthur W. Jr. Confederate Mobile. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991. pp. 101-102.

****

Following the disastrous defeat in New Orleans in 1814, many of the remaining British troops sailed to Dauphin Island and remained there for over a week. While on the island, they slaughtered and consumed every animal.

Remini, Robert V. The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America’s First Military Victory. New York: Viking, 1999. pp. 182-183.

****

On July 4, 1861, citizens of Winston County, Alabama organized to secede from both Alabama and the Confederacy thus forming the Free State of Winston within the United States.

Wiggins, Sarah Woolfolk The Scalawag in Alabama Politics, 1865-1881. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1977. pp. 6-7.

****

In 1869, a commission including members from both Alabama and Florida agreed on a major annexation plan. Alabama was to take over all of North West Florida. The idea was later abandoned following the Alabama Legislature’s failure to ratify the plan.

Going, Allen Johnston Bourbon Democracy in Alabama, 1874-1890. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1951, 1992. p. 120.

****

All Episcopal churches in Mobile were forced to close by order of the federal authorities following Bishop Richard Wilmer’s refusal to ask for prayer for Lincoln after the assassination. They remained closed for months.

Doyle, Don H. New Men, New Cities, New South: Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston, Mobile, 1860-1920. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1990. p. 62.

****

Conservative Richard Viguerie and Alabama native and future head of the Southern Poverty Law Center Morris Dees revolutionized the art of direct mail political fundraising. Viguerie utilized a list of Barry Goldwater supporters from the 1964 race and Dees used membership lists from the Americans for Democratic Action and the ACLU.

Dees, Morris with Steve Fiffer A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1991. pp. 136-137.

****

During his first term as Alabama Governor, Jim Folsom (1946-1950) held a press conference to announce that he was travelling to California that evening to pick up Honey Bear Warren (daughter of then Governor Earl Warren) and bring her back to Alabama for marriage. Without discussing the plan with Honey Bear, he took off in a National Guard plane and headed west. After a brief stop in Las Vegas for fuel and whiskey, he continued his journey. As the plane approached Sacramento, the pilot was warned of obstructions on the runway and asked to try another airport. Each attempt to land at several different locations was met with same warning. Apparently Governor Warren was tipped off that the intoxicated Governor was en route and instructed the air traffic control operators to refuse permission to land. Folsom then gave up and flew home.

Kennedy, Robert F. Jr. Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr.: A Biography. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1978. pp. 152-153.

Chapter 2

Civil Rights

On June 23, 1964, a Clarksdale, Mississippi civil rights leader was arrested for reckless and drunk driving. He was also a pastor who practiced total abstention from alcohol.

McAdams, Doug Freedom Summer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. P. 257.

****

When the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) delegates to the Democratic National Convention attempted to gain their proper credentials during the summer of 1964, they met resistance. It was later revealed that Walter Reuther and LBJ used threats and arm twisting to persuade the reluctant credential committee to produce the compromise which was totally unacceptable to the MFDP delegates.

McAdams, Freedom Summer, pp. 119-120.

****

The MFDP rejected the compromise of two delegate seats at large instead of full delegate status. They were told if they refused the compromise, Senator Hubert Humphrey (a civil rights advocate) would not receive the vice presidential nomination.

Neary, John Julian Bond: Black Rebel. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1971. p. 72.

****

Much like the MFDP in 1964, but very rarely mentioned, is the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) which sent black delegates from South Carolina to the Democratic conventions of 1944 and 1948. Both were unsuccessful in gaining seats by the credentials committee.

Frederickson, Kari The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001. pp. 45-46, 111-112.

****

Few textbooks but several books on the civil rights movement and social history give the glaring statistics of the disproportion between the education spending between white and black schools. Here is a sample of statistics from 1918 in Alabama: $2.45 per year allotted for black students and $19.90 for white students. Black teachers received on average $152.00 annually compared to $363.00 for white teachers.

Thomas, Mary Martha The New Woman in Alabama. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1992. p. 80.

****

More striking are statistics of the education expenditures for Wilcox County Alabama. From the late 1800s to the 1920s, expenditures for black schools were from ten to twelve times less than white schools when the amount of black students outnumber white students 4 to 1.

Bond, Horace Mann Negro Education in Alabama: A Study in Cotton and Steel. New York: Octagon Books, 1969. p. 162.

****

Although the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 launched a successful leader and movement, little is written about the significance of the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott of 1953. It was the first organized successful resistance to the segregation