THE MCGILL UNDERGRADUATE JOURNAL OF HISTORY XXIII EDITION 2008-2009 historical discourses MCGILL UNIVERSITY MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA Cover: Ansel Adams, Pine Forest in Snow, Yosemite National Park, California, 1933. Courtesy of Hachette Book Group, USA. Adams is one of America’s best known photographers. He captured scenes of American nature in the 1930s during the growth of the conservation movement. Historical Discourses is published annually by McGill Universi- ty undergraduate history students. All essays become prop- erty of Historical Discourses and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the authors. Historical Discourses accepts history papers written by McGill undergraduate students. Submissions in either English or French are welcome and may be sent to: History Department Office (Room 625) Stephen Leacock Building 855 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T7 Historical Discourses Volume XXIII 2008-2009 EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Charles Bartlett Erika Harding DESIGN AND LAYOUT EDITOR Erika Harding EDITORIAL BOARD Robert Eisenberg Jacob Fox Lucy Mair Alexander McAuley Elizabeth Mirhady Nikolas Mouriopoulos Adriana Pansera Michael Solda Arianne Swieca Melissa Tam Alessandra Toteda Table of Contents Foreword -1- Randolph’s Movement: A. Philip Randolph’s March on Washington and its Lasting Effects on the Civil Rights Movement By Melissa Gismondi -3- Knitting Women Into the Fabric of the Nation: Knitting and Female Citizenship During Wartime By Sarah Pinnington -21- Purge Imperfect: The Contentious Trial of Robert Brasillach By Daniel Gurin -39- Incredible Survival: The Welsh Language in the Nineteenth Century By Margherita Devine -55- From Saloon Crusades To Suffrage Campaigns: Inebriation, Temperence, and Suffrage in America, 1870-1897 By Maeve Jones -71- Between East And West: A Comparative History of Finland And Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948 By Mikko Patokallio -89- The Fisherman’s Wife And Museum: Women and Heritage Museums on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore, 1970-1985 By Rachel Abs -109- The Subjugation Of Turkey: German-Ottoman Relations and the 1913 Military Mission By Clancy Zeifman -131- Ce N’ést Que Début: The Québec Student Movement By Frederick Burrill -159- 1688-89: A “Bloodless” Revolution? By Sierra Robart -199- Historical Discourses 2008-2009 Foreword History is inherently human. The historian spends much of his or her time studying people from the past. As such, one of the most valuable aspects of the study of history is that it impels us to learn about the interaction between men, women, and children. Through the study of history, we can begin to understand where we come from. Historical Discourses reveals the excellence of McGill’s History Department. Both the strength of the faculty and stu- dents shine through these essays. We received and reviewed nearly 130 papers covering a range of historical subjects. The ten essays selected in this, the XXIII publication of Historical Discourses, are examples of excellent analyses, in-depth research, and eloquent writing. We would like to thank the members of the editorial board for their time and help in the editing process. They worked closely with the authors to fine-tune and perfect their papers. Their thoughts and insight were vital in the final deci- sion of which essays to include. We also thank the Arts Under- graduate Society, the Department of History, and the History Students’ Association for their generous financial contribu- tions. Please enjoy. Charles Bartlett Erika Harding Editors-in-Chief Historical Discourses 2008-2009 Historical Discourses 2008-2009 Randolph’s Movement: A. Philip Randolph’s March on Washington and its Lasting Legacy on the Civil Rights Movement By Melissa Gismondi The African-American community hoped that the Second World War would bring about substantial social change. This paper documents A. Philip Randolph’s efforts to reach an accord with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the profound impact this had on future leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The author concludes that WWII was indeed a crucial step in the journey towards equal rights. Noted sociologist Stanislas Andreski’s theory as published in Military Organization and Society states that because total war requires the participation of underprivileged or minority groups, their actions during the war could lead to great possibilities for social gains. For an example, one might look to the Emancipation Proclamation as a reward for African-American participation in the Civil War. Many twentieth-century black leaders, most significantly W.E.B. DuBois, believed similar gains could result from black participation in The Great War. Instead, the 90s brought a rise in the Ku Klux Klan and race riots throughout the nation, which, due to the Great Migration, were no longer solely situated in the South. If the First World War brought little reward for African- Americans, it was believed that World War II was to have a much more groundbreaking impact. Most importantly, President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 880, which sought to banish racial discrimination from the defense industry, was a significant victory in the modern civil rights movement and a most welcome reward for the African American community. Yet, while the actual success of Order 880 itself was questionable, the tactics employed by the Historical Discourses 2008-2009 March on Washington Movement, innovated by A. Philip Randolph, revolutionized black protest and would later be used by the likes of Martin Luther King in later civil rights activities. Order 880 may have been a more symbolic victory for the African American community, but was a victory that nonetheless provided hope and inspiration for the next phase of the civil rights movement. Discrimination in the Economy and Army Before looking at the events leading up to the Executive Order 880, it is crucial for one to understand the plight of African Americans at the time of, and leading up to, World War II. While white Americans were benefiting from an economic boom due to the rapid growth in the defence industry, African Americans remained in the background. In many cases, African Americans were the first ones to be fired in the wake of the Depression and the last ones to be hired in the wartime boom. Racist policies were dominant in the defence industries and are reflected in statistics from 90: from April to October of that year, the rate of unemployment among whites fell from 7.7 percent to percent. Yet, while white Americans experienced an almost 6 percent drop in their unemployment rates, unemployment for African Americans was static at percent of the population, as it had been the previous year. The racist policies of defense industries were no secret. In particular, aircraft companies made it explicitly known they would not hire African Americans. The aircraft industry entailed clean, skilled work; the common conception was that this was not the type of work for a black man. In 90, an almost invisible 0. percent of aircraft workers were African American. The Head of Relations for Vultee Aircraft Company stated it was not the policy of his company to employ workers not of the Caucasian race, and other sectors of the defence industry were run in a similar fashion. A Historical Discourses 2008-2009 federal government survey conducted at the time found 8 percent of defence industry jobs in Michigan were reserved for whites only. The Standard Steel Corporation went so far as to inform the Kansas chapter of the Urban League that: “We have not had a Negro worker in twenty-five years, and do not plan to start now.”6 Racist policies seemed to be the norm, a routine procedure most companies expected the public to respect. Furthermore, the government was more than aware of the situation. The Census Bureau published a study at the time explaining the unemployment of African-Americans, attesting that unemployment was a result of “their comparative lack of training and experience,” but, more importantly, because “many employers were unwilling to hire non-whites...”7 While African American oppression in the economy affected every black citizen regardless of age or gender, a more specific, yet equally important, issue for African Americans was segregation in the armed forces. The Army was essentially a Jim Crow army: by 90, the 700 African American men in the army were restricted to segregated units, and black army officers were a rarity. Only five black officials existed: one colonel, one captain, and three chaplains. Black men were only welcomed in the Navy as mess men and were completely excluded from the Marines and Air Corps. Segregation spread as far as army hospitals. A surgeon general in the army remarked, “For reasons not biologically convincing but which are commonly recognized as psychologically important in America, it is not deemed advisable to collect and mix Caucasian and Negro blood.”8 The hypocrisy of segregated units for a nation dedicated to the protection of democracy was overwhelming. The rise of Nazism began to change the way Americans viewed their own race relations and a feeling grew amongst many African-American leaders that now was the perfect time to act. The inconsistency of preaching democracy abroad, with no consideration of practices at home, was something African American leaders were ready to jump on. Action was slowly building throughout the nation. The most popular story told at the time involved a Negro soldier on 6 Historical Discourses 2008-2009 a bus in the South. After refusing to comply with