II. United States History and Culture

D. 20th Century 

1. General

 

Aaron Douglas, UNL Class of ’22: Visual Artist of the Harlem Renaissance

By Peggy Jones

This visual presentation will introduce the artist Aaron Douglas, the “Father of Black Art.” Douglas was the first Black graduate of the UNL Department of Art. His work is a celebration of Afrocentric Modernism, with which he established one of the earliest affirmative depictions of Black identity, history, and experience.

 

Adam Clayton Powell, a Living History Presentation

By Preston Love Jr.

Join a Harlem, New York, audience in 1968 to hear Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a civil rights advocate and U.S. Congressman for more than twenty-five years, give a campaign speech in which he recalls his history and the ups and downs of his life and career.

 

Harry Gold: From Student to Spy

By Thomas Kuhlman

Learn about the loyalties, motives and methods of a mild-mannered young man from the mean streets of Philadelphia who went from a quiet Midwestern Jesuit university to the New Mexico atomic laboratories as a Soviet courier, playing a central role in what J. Edgar Hoover called “the crime of the century," the Rosenberg case.

It's Only Rock & Roll
By Randall Snyder
This presentation takes a look at popular music and its interaction with social history, with topics ranging from Elvis Presley and the origins of rock to the Beatles and the Stones to punk and alternative rock forms.

Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)
By Sharif Z. Liwaru
What did Malcolm X stand for and what significance does he have to the radical politics and movements of his time? I share his life as he describes it, as a "chronology of changes", presenting a view of Malcolm's life and the changes he underwent, as well as the relevance of his social, political, and even spiritual thought. The challenge is to take Malcolm X, all of him, and present this information in an accessible manner.

Rheta Childe Dorr: The Struggle for Suffrage
By Maurine Roller
Nebraska native Rheta Childe Dorr was a dedicated disciple of Susan B. Anthony at the tender age of 12. Dorr devoted her life to the fight for women's rights. As a journalist, she compiled an impressive record of firsts. She was the first American woman to cover World War I from enemy lines in France, the first American woman to cover the Bolshevik Revolution from Moscow and the organizer of the first women's suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. Roller retells Dorr's story with Dorr's own words, wit and poignancy. In the telling, she illustrates how the issues of Dorr's day still are valid.

Voicing a Cause, Voicing a Self: Jane Addams of Hull House
By Helen M. Lewis
Throughout her long career advocating the needs of impoverished immigrants, exploited laborers, youth criminals and war victims, Jane Addams valued Hull House, her settlement house in Chicago, as the center from which she and her colleagues could assist others and improve society, while adding meaning to their own lives. She trusted social democracy to restore dignity to the marginal. Her many publications reveal a person finding identity and purpose through her causes. The presentation, done in costume, helps to explain the path chosen by this Nobel Peace Prize recipient, as well as to convey the relevance of Addams' work and ideas today.

 

Woody Guthrie: Re-envisioning 1930s America

By Kathryn N. Benzel and Mike Adams

Not only is Woody Guthrie a significant figure in the history of American folk music, but he has also become a cultural icon representing the paradoxical complexity of American identity. Guthrie's songs and writing embrace the brashness of the pioneer spirit, a compassion for the underdog, and the often-contradictory nature of American diversity. Through lecture and song this program, designed for adults and high school students, describes the American culture of the 1930s, including the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.

2. Vietnam

Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Its History and Meaning
By Winfield Delle
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., commonly called "The Wall," has the distinction of being the most-visited memorial in the United States. This slide and discussion program examines the controversial history of "The Wall" and the myths, truths and bizarre stories associated with it. It does not attempt to evaluate the moral, political or military aspects of the Vietnam War.

3. World War II

The Allied Invasion of Japan
By Jack Campbell
With the use of declassified, former top-secret battle plans, Campbell tells the story of the planned Allied invasion of Japan in the last days of World War II. Scheduled for Nov. 1, 1945, the invasion was called off in favor of atomic bombs, which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This presentation also explores the subsequent debate over the use of nuclear arms. 

Nebraskans Remember World War II
By Doug Rung
In 1996, the NHC and five Nebraska communities sponsored the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit "Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home Front, 1941-1945." Rung led his community's oral history project and helped to preserve a unique portion of Nebraska history by those who recounted their memories of war years. Travel back with Rung to the 1940s and World War II for stories about local military installations, the people involved with their operations and how the war affected the economy and everyday life of many Nebraskans.

Produce for Victory: Nebraskans in World War II
By Martha Ellen Webb
This program examines Nebraska's role in World War II wartime production on the home front. Nebraskans contributed to the war effort in many ways, from working at government ordnance plants to collecting scrap metal to growing Victory Gardens. Nebraska industries were converted to war production and new factories were built. Operations at ordnance plants in Grand Island, Mead and Hastings are described. Because the B-29 bombers that were used to carry the atomic bombs were made at the Martin Bomber Plant in Omaha, the talk also includes a section covering the development of the atomic bomb.