What is America About?

Here are the things I didn’t know about the US and the research I’ve done to figure them out.

The Trail of Tears — was part of a series of forced displacements of approximately 60,000 Native Americans between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government known as the Indian removal.

Vietnam War — 1954–1975, a protracted (long) conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. Called the “American War” in Vietnam (or, in full, the “War Against the Americans to Save the Nation”), the war was also part of a larger regional conflict and a manifestation of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies.

Rosa Parks — was an activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott (political and social protest against racial segregation on the public transit system in Montgomery, AL). The United States Congress has honored her as “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”

Manifest Destiny — the idea that the United States is destined — by God, its advocates believed — to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. Was used to justify the forced removal of Native Americans and other groups from their homes. The rapid expansion of the United States intensified the issue of slavery as new states were added to the Union, leading to the outbreak of the Civil War.

Roe v. Wade — was a landmark decision of the U.S Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.

Japanese-American Internment — In the United States during World War II, about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom lived on the West coast, were forcibly relocated and put in concentration camps. Approximately two-thirds of the internees were United States citizens. These actions were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

Obviously, you can’t know everything about a country you’ve never even been to, let alone lived — but we can try. I’m glad that I know more now.