Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government created by statute to regulate interstate communications by radio, wire and cable. The FCC serves the public in the areas of broadband access, fair competition, radio frequency use, media responsibility, public safety, homeland security; the FCC was formed by the Communications Act of 1934 to replace the radio regulation functions of the Federal Radio Commission. The FCC took over wire communication regulation from the Interstate Commerce Commission; the FCC's mandated jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Territories of the United States. The FCC provides varied degrees of cooperation and leadership for similar communications bodies in other countries of North America; the FCC is funded by regulatory fees. It has an estimated fiscal-2016 budget of US $388 million, it has 1,688 federal employees, made up of 50% males and 50% females as of December, 2017. The FCC's mission, specified in Section One of the Communications Act of 1934 and amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is to "make available so far as possible, to all the people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or sex, efficient and world-wide wire and radio communication services with adequate facilities at reasonable charges."
The Act furthermore provides that the FCC was created "for the purpose of the national defense" and "for the purpose of promoting safety of life and property through the use of wire and radio communications."Consistent with the objectives of the Act as well as the 1999 Government Performance and Results Act, the FCC has identified four goals in its 2018-22 Strategic Plan. They are: Closing the Digital Divide, Promoting Innovation, Protecting Consumers & Public Safety, Reforming the FCC's Processes; the FCC is directed by five commissioners appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate for five-year terms, except when filling an unexpired term. The U. S. President designates one of the commissioners to serve as chairman. Only three commissioners may be members of the same political party. None of them may have a financial interest in any FCC-related business. † Commissioners may continue serving until the appointment of their replacements. However, they may not serve beyond the end of the next session of Congress following term expiration.
In practice, this means that commissioners may serve up to 1 1/2 years beyond the official term expiration dates listed above if no replacement is appointed. This would end on the date that Congress adjourns its annual session no than noon on January 4; the FCC is organized into seven Bureaus, which process applications for licenses and other filings, analyze complaints, conduct investigations and implement regulations, participate in hearings. The Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau develops and implements the FCC's consumer policies, including disability access. CGB serves as the public face of the FCC through outreach and education, as well as through their Consumer Center, responsible for responding to consumer inquiries and complaints. CGB maintains collaborative partnerships with state and tribal governments in such areas as emergency preparedness and implementation of new technologies; the Enforcement Bureau is responsible for enforcement of provisions of the Communications Act 1934, FCC rules, FCC orders, terms and conditions of station authorizations.
Major areas of enforcement that are handled by the Enforcement Bureau are consumer protection, local competition, public safety, homeland security. The International Bureau develops international policies in telecommunications, such as coordination of frequency allocation and orbital assignments so as to minimize cases of international electromagnetic interference involving U. S. licensees. The International Bureau oversees FCC compliance with the international Radio Regulations and other international agreements; the Media Bureau develops and administers the policy and licensing programs relating to electronic media, including cable television, broadcast television, radio in the United States and its territories. The Media Bureau handles post-licensing matters regarding direct broadcast satellite service; the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau regulates domestic wireless telecommunications programs and policies, including licensing. The bureau implements competitive bidding for spectrum auctions and regulates wireless communications services including mobile phones, public safety, other commercial and private radio services.
The Wireline Competition Bureau develops policy concerning wire line telecommunications. The Wireline Competition Bureau's main objective is to promote growth and economical investments in wireline technology infrastructure, development and services; the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau was launched in 2006 with a focus on critical communications infrastructure. The FCC has eleven Staff Offices; the FCC's Offices provide support services to the Bureaus. The Office of Administrative Law Judges is responsible for conducting hearings ordered by the Commission; the hearing function includes acting on interlocutory requests filed in the proceedings such as petitions to intervene, petitions to enlarge issues, contested discovery requests. An Administrative Law Judge, appointed under the Administrative Procedure Act, presides at the hearing during which documents and sworn testimony are received in evidence, witnesses are cross-examined. At the co
Florida
Florida is the southernmost contiguous state in the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Straits of Florida. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States; the Miami metropolitan area is Florida's most populous urban area. Tallahassee is the state's capital. Florida's $1.0 trillion economy is the fourth largest in the United States. If it were a country, Florida would be the 16th largest economy in the world, the 58th most populous as of 2018. In 2017, Florida's per capita personal income was ranking 26th in the nation; the unemployment rate in September 2018 was 3.5% and ranked as the 18th in the United States. Florida exports nearly $55 billion in goods made in the 8th highest among all states.
The Miami Metropolitan Area is by far the largest urban economy in Florida and the 12th largest in the United States with a GDP of $344.9 billion as of 2017. This is more than twice the number of the next metro area, the Tampa Bay Area, which has a GDP of $145.3 billion. Florida is home to 51 of the world's billionaires with most of them residing in South Florida; the first European contact was made in 1513 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who called it la Florida upon landing there in the Easter season, known in Spanish as Pascua Florida. Florida was a challenge for the European colonial powers before it gained statehood in the United States in 1845, it was a principal location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans, racial segregation after the American Civil War. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, as well as for its increasing environmental issues; the state's economy relies on tourism and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century.
Florida is renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, winter vegetables, the Kennedy Space Center, as a popular destination for retirees. Florida is the flattest state in the United States. Lake Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in the U. S. state of Florida. Florida's close proximity to the ocean influences many aspects of daily life. Florida is a reflection of multiple inheritance. Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, continues to attract celebrities and athletes, it is internationally known for golf, auto racing, water sports. Several beaches in Florida have emerald-colored coastal waters. About two-thirds of Florida occupies a peninsula between the Gulf of the Atlantic Ocean. Florida has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States 1,350 miles, not including the contribution of the many barrier islands. Florida has a total of 4,510 islands; this is the second-highest number of islands of any state of the United States.
It is the only state that borders both the Gulf of the Atlantic Ocean. Much of the state is characterized by sedimentary soil. Florida has the lowest high point of any U. S. state. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south; the American alligator, American crocodile, American flamingo, Roseate spoonbill, Florida panther, bottlenose dolphin, manatee can be found in Everglades National Park in the southern part of the state. Along with Hawaii, Florida is one of only two states that has a tropical climate, is the only continental state with either a tropical climate or a coral reef; the Florida Reef is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States, the third-largest coral barrier reef system in the world. By the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee of the Florida Panhandle, the Timucua of northern and central Florida, the Ais of the central Atlantic coast, the Tocobaga of the Tampa Bay area, the Calusa of southwest Florida and the Tequesta of the southeastern coast.
Florida was the first region of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans. The earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2, 1513, he named the region Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is mythical and only appeared long after his death. In May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land, he described seeing a thick wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet, with intertwined and elevated roots making landing difficult. The Spanish introduced Christianity, horses, the Castilian language, more to Florida. Spain established several settlements with varying degrees of success. In 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561.
In 1565, the settlement of St. Augustine was established under the leadership of admiral and
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith was an American politician, elected Governor of New York four times and was the Democratic Party's candidate for President in 1928. Smith was the foremost urban leader of the Efficiency Movement in the United States and was noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as governor in the 1920s; the son of an Irish-American mother and a Civil War veteran father, he was raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge, where he resided for his entire life. Like many other New York politicians of his era, he was linked to the notorious Tammany Hall political machine that controlled New York City's politics, although he remained untarnished by corruption. Smith was a strong opponent of Prohibition, which he did not think could be enforced, viewed it as an over-extension of the government's constitutional power, he was the first Catholic nominee for President. His candidacy mobilized Catholic votes from women, who had only received federal suffrage, it brought out the anti-Catholic vote, strong among white conservative Democrats in the South, although Smith was still successful within the states of the Deep South.
As a committed "wet" who opposed the prohibition laws, Smith attracted two groups: those who wanted their beer and liquor and did not like dealing with criminal bootleggers, those who were outraged that new criminal gangs had taken over the streets in most large and medium-sized cities. Many Protestants feared his candidacy, including German Lutherans and Southern Baptists, believing that the Pope in Rome would dictate his policies. Incumbent Republican Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was aided by national prosperity and the absence of American involvement in war. Four years Smith sought the 1932 nomination but was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, his former ally and successor as Governor of New York. Smith entered business in New York City, became involved in the construction and promotion of the Empire State Building, became an vocal opponent of Roosevelt's New Deal. Smith was born at 174 South Street, raised in the Fourth Ward on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, his mother, was the daughter of Maria Marsh and Thomas Mulvihill, who were immigrants from County Westmeath, Ireland.
His father, Alfred Emanuele Ferraro, took the anglicized name Alfred E. Smith; the elder Alfred was the son of Italian and German immigrants. He served with the 11th New York Fire Zouaves in the opening months of the Civil War. Smith grew up with his family struggling financially in the Gilded Age; the Brooklyn Bridge was being constructed nearby. "The Brooklyn Bridge and I grew up together", Smith would recall. His four grandparents were Irish, German and Anglo-Irish, but Smith identified with the Irish-American community and became its leading spokesman in the 1920s, his father Alfred owned a small trucking firm, but died when the boy was 13. Aged 14, Smith had to drop out of St. James parochial school to help support the family, worked at a fish market for seven years. Prior to dropping out of school, he served as an altar boy, was influenced by the Catholic priests he worked with, he never attended high school or college, claimed he learned about people by studying them at the Fulton Fish Market, where he worked for $12 per week.
His acting skills made him a success on the amateur theater circuit. He became known, developed the smooth oratorical style that characterized his political career. On May 6, 1900, Al Smith married Catherine Ann Dunn, with whom he had five children. In his political career, Smith built on his working-class beginnings, identifying himself with immigrants and campaigning as a man of the people. Although indebted to the Tammany Hall political machine to its boss, "Silent" Charlie Murphy, he remained untarnished by corruption and worked for the passage of progressive legislation, it was during his early unofficial jobs with Tammany Hall that he gained renown as an excellent speaker. Smith's first political job was in 1895, as an investigator in the office of the Commissioner of Jurors as appointed by Tammany Hall. Smith was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 1904, was elected to office, serving through 1915. After being approached by Frances Perkins, an activist to improve labor practices, Smith sought to improve the conditions of factory workers.
He served as vice chairman of the state commission appointed to investigate factory conditions after 146 workers died in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Meeting the families of the deceased Triangle factory workers left a strong impression on him. Together with Perkins, Smith crusaded against dangerous and unhealthy workplace conditions and championed corrective legislation; the Commission was chaired by State Senator Robert F. Wagner and co-chaired by Smith, they held a series of publicized investigations around the state, interviewing 222 witnesses and taking 3500 pages of testimony. They hired field agents to do on-site inspections of factories. Starting with the issue of fire safety, they studied broader issues of the risks of injury in the factory environment, their findings led to thirty-eight new laws regulating labor in New York State, gave each of them a reputation as leading progressive reformers working on behalf of the working class. In the process, they changed Tammany's reputation from mere co
History of Pittsburgh
The history of Pittsburgh began with centuries of Native American civilization in the modern Pittsburgh region, known as "Dionde:gâ'" in the Seneca language.' French and British explorers encountered the strategic confluence where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio, which leads to the Mississippi River. The area became a battleground when Britain fought for control in the 1750s; when the British were victorious, the French ceded control of territories east of the Mississippi. Following American independence in 1783, the village around Fort Pitt continued to grow; the region saw the short-lived Whiskey Rebellion, when farmers rebelled against federal taxes on whiskey. The War of 1812 cut off the supply of British goods. By 1815, Pittsburgh was producing large quantities of iron, brass and glass products. By the 1840s, Pittsburgh had grown to one of the largest cities west of the Allegheny Mountains. Production of steel began in 1875. During the 1877 railway riots it was the site of the most violence and damage in any city affected by the nationwide strikes of that summer.
Workers protested against cuts in wages, burning down buildings at the railyards, including 100 train engines and more than 1,000 cars. Forty men were killed, most of them strikers. By 1911, Pittsburgh was producing half the nation's steel. Pittsburgh was a Republican party stronghold until 1932; the soaring unemployment of the Great Depression, the New Deal relief programs and the rise of powerful labor unions in the 1930s turned the city into a liberal stronghold of the New Deal Coalition under powerful Democratic mayors. In World War II, it was the center of the "Arsenal of Democracy", producing munitions for the Allied war effort as prosperity returned. Following World War II, Pittsburgh launched a clean air and civic revitalization project known as the "Renaissance." The industrial base continued to expand through the 1960s, but after 1970 foreign competition led to the collapse of the steel industry, with massive layoffs and mill closures. Top corporate headquarters moved out in the 1980s.
In 2007 the city lost its status as a major transportation hub. The population of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area is holding steady at 2.4 million. For thousands of years, Native Americans inhabited the region where the Allegheny and the Monongahela join to form the Ohio. Paleo-Indians conducted a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the region as early as 19,000 years ago. Meadowcroft Rockshelter, an archaeological site west of Pittsburgh, provides evidence that these first Americans lived in the region from that date. During the Adena culture that followed, Mound Builders erected a large Indian Mound at the future site of McKees Rocks, about three miles from the head of the Ohio; the Indian Mound, a burial site, was augmented in years by members of the Hopewell culture. By 1700 the Iroquois Confederacy, the Five Nations-based south of the Great Lakes in present-day New York, held dominion over the upper Ohio valley, reserving it for hunting grounds. Other tribes included the Lenape, displaced from eastern Pennsylvania by European settlement, the Shawnee, who had migrated up from the south.
With the arrival of European explorers, these tribes and others had been devastated by European infectious diseases, such as smallpox, measles and malaria, to which they had no immunity. In 1748, when Conrad Weiser visited Logstown, 18 miles downriver from Pittsburgh, he counted 789 warriors gathered: the Iroquois included 163 Seneca, 74 Mohawk, 35 Onondaga, 20 Cayuga, 15 Oneida. Other tribes were 165 Lenape, 162 Shawnee, 100 Wyandot, 40 Tisagechroami, 15 Mohican. Shannopin's Town, a Seneca tribe village on the east bank of the Allegheny, was the home village of Queen Aliquippa, it was deserted after 1749. Sawcunk, on the mouth of the Beaver River, was a Lenape settlement and the principal residence of Shingas, a chief of theirs. Chartier's Town was a Shawnee town established in 1734 by Peter Chartier. Kittanning was a Shawnee village on the Allegheny, with an estimated 300 -- 400 residents; the first Europeans arrived in the 1710s as traders. Michael Bezallion was the first to describe the forks of the Ohio in a manuscript in 1717, that year European traders established posts and settlements in the area.
Europeans first began to settle in the region in 1748, when the first Ohio Company, an English land speculation company, won a grant of 200,000 acres in the upper Ohio Valley. From a post at present-day Cumberland, the company began to construct an 80-mile wagon road to the Monongahela River employing a Delaware Indian chief named Nemacolin and a party of settlers headed by Capt. Michael Cresap to begin widening the track into a road, it followed the same route as an ancient Amerindian trail, now known as Nemacolin's Trail. The river crossing and flats at Redstone creek, was the earliest point and shortest distance for the descent of a wagon road. In the war, the site fortified as Fort Burd was one of several possible destinations. Another alternative was the divergent route that became Braddock's Road a few years through present-day New Stanton. In the event, the colonists did not succeed in improving the Amerindian path to a wagon road much beyond the Cumberland Narrows pass before they were confronted by hostile Native Americans.
The colonists mounted a series of expeditions in order to accomplish piecemeal improvements to the track. The French had built nearby Logstown as a trade and council center for the Native Americans to increase their influence in the Ohio Valley. Between June
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and referred to as Washington or D. C. is the capital of the United States. Founded after the American Revolution as the seat of government of the newly independent country, Washington was named after George Washington, first President of the United States and Founding Father; as the seat of the United States federal government and several international organizations, Washington is an important world political capital. The city is one of the most visited cities in the world, with more than 20 million tourists annually; the signing of the Residence Act on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of a capital district located along the Potomac River on the country's East Coast. The U. S. Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U. S. Congress, the District is therefore not a part of any state; the states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, which included the pre-existing settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria.
The City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia. Washington had an estimated population of 702,455 as of July 2018, making it the 20th most populous city in the United States. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city's daytime population to more than one million during the workweek. Washington's metropolitan area, the country's sixth largest, had a 2017 estimated population of 6.2 million residents. All three branches of the U. S. federal government are centered in the District: Congress and the U. S. Supreme Court. Washington is home to many national monuments, museums situated on or around the National Mall; the city hosts 177 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many international organizations, trade unions, non-profit, lobbying groups, professional associations, including the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, AARP, the National Geographic Society, the Human Rights Campaign, the International Finance Corporation, the American Red Cross.
A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973. However, Congress may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, but the District has no representation in the Senate. The District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century. One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. In his Federalist No. 43, published January 23, 1788, James Madison argued that the new federal government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance and safety.
Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia. Known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. Article One, Section Eight, of the Constitution permits the establishment of a "District as may, by cession of particular states, the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States". However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital. In what is now known as the Compromise of 1790, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson came to an agreement that the federal government would pay each state's remaining Revolutionary War debts in exchange for establishing the new national capital in the southern United States. On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River; the exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who signed the bill into law on July 16.
Formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory: the port of Georgetown, founded in 1751, the city of Alexandria, founded in 1749. During 1791–92, Andrew Ellicott and several assistants, including a free African American astronomer named Benjamin Banneker, surveyed the borders of the federal district and placed boundary stones at every mile point. Many of the stones are still standing. A new federal city was constructed on the north bank of the Potomac, to the east of Georgetown. On September 9, 1791, the three commissioners overseeing the capital's construction named the city in honor of President Washington; the federal district was named Columbia, a poetic name for the United States in use at that time. Congress held its first session in Washington on November 17, 1800. Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 that organized the District and placed the entire territory under the exclusive control of the federal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in cities where there is urban decay. Urban renewal refers to the clearing out of blighted areas in inner cities to clear out slums and create opportunities for higher class housing and more. Modern attempts at renewal began in the late 19th century in developed nations, experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s under the rubric of reconstruction; the process has had a major impact on many urban landscapes, has played an important role in the history and demographics of cities around the world. Urban renewal is a process where owned properties within a designated renewal area are purchased or taken by eminent domain by a municipal redevelopment authority and reconveyed to selected developers who devote them to other uses; until 1970, the displaced owners and tenants received only the constitutionally-mandated "just compensation" specified in the Fifth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution; this measure of compensation covered only the fair market value of the taken property, omitted compensation for a variety of incidental losses like, for example, moving expenses, loss of favorable financing and notably, business losses, such as loss of business goodwill.
In the 1970s the federal government and state governments enacted the Uniform Relocation Assistance Act which provides for limited compensation of some of these losses. However the Act denies the displaced land owners the right to sue to enforce its provisions, so it is deemed an act of legislative grace rather than a constitutional right. Urban redevelopment has been controversial because of such practices as taking private property by eminent domain for "public use" and turning it over to redevelopers free of charge or for less than the acquisition cost. Thus, in the controversial Connecticut case of Kelo v. City of New London the plan called for a redeveloper to lease the subject 90-acre waterfront property for $1 per year; this process is carried out in rural areas, referred to as village renewal, though it may not be the same in practice. In some cases, renewal may result in urban sprawl when city infrastructure begins to include freeways and expressways. Urban renewal has been seen by proponents as an economic engine and a reform mechanism, by critics as a mechanism for control.
Though it may bring more wealth to communities, it may edge out its preexisting residents. Some redevelopment projects have been failures, including the Kelo case, in which the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the taking by a 5 to 4 vote, but where nothing was built on the taken property. Many cities link the revitalization of the central business district and gentrification of residential neighborhoods to earlier urban renewal programs; the goal of urban renewal evolved into a policy based less on destruction and more on renovation and investment, today is an integral part of many local governments combined with small and big business incentives. Urban renewal sometimes lives up to the hopes of its original proponents – it has been assessed by politicians, urban planners, civic leaders, residents – it has played an undeniably important if controversial role, but at other times urban redevelopment projects have failed in several American cities, having wasted large amounts of public funds to no purpose.
Replenished housing stock might be an improvement in quality. It may, in some instances, improve cultural and social amenity, it may improve opportunities for safety and surveillance. Developments such as London Docklands increased tax revenues for government. In late 1964, the British commentator Neil Wates expressed the opinion that urban renewal in the United States had'demonstrated the tremendous advantages which flow from an urban renewal programme,' such as remedying the'personal problems' of the poor, creation or renovation of housing stock and cultural'opportunities'. In the United States successful urban redevelopment projects tend to revitalize downtown areas, but have not been successful in revitalizing cities as a whole; the process has resulted in the displacement of low-income city inhabitants when their dwellings were taken and demolished. Urban redevelopment became an engine of construction of shopping malls, automobile factories and dealerships, "large box" department stores.
Thus, in Washington, DC, the famous Southwest Washington renewal project displaced thousands of African-American families, but provided them with no replacement housing because at the time the law did not provide for any. The version of the project, approved by the U. S. Supreme Court in Berman, provided for low-cost replacement housing, one-third of, to rent for $17/room/month, but after the court's decision, that provision in the local law was repealed. Replacement housing – in the form of high-rise housing for low-income tenants – have not been successful; these projects are difficult to police, leading to an increase in crime, such structures might in themselves be dehumanising. Public housing projects like Cabrini-Green in Chicago and Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis became so bad that they had to be demolished; the concept of urban renewal as a method for social reform emerged in England as a reaction to the cramped and unsanitary conditions of the urban poor in the industrializing cities of the 19th century.
The agenda that emerged was a progressive d
1948 Democratic National Convention
The 1948 Democratic National Convention was held at Philadelphia Convention Hall in Philadelphia, from July 12 to July 14, 1948, resulted in the nominations of President Harry S. Truman for a full term and Senator Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky for Vice President in the 1948 presidential election. One of the decisive factors in convening both major party conventions in Philadelphia that year was that the Philadelphia area was part of the newly-developing broadcast television market. In 1947, TV stations in New York City and Philadelphia were connected by a coaxial cable, so in 1948 two of the three new television networks, NBC and CBS, had the ability to telecast along the east coast live gavel to gavel coverage of both conventions. In television's early days, live broadcasts were not recorded, but a few minutes of Kinescope film of the conventions has survived; the convention was called to order by Senator Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky. With delegates demoralized by Republican wins in 1946 that had given them control of Congress, what appeared to be Truman's slim chance for reelection in his own right, on July 13 Barkley gave the keynote speech, as he had in 1932 and 1936.
He roused the delegates with his opening declaration. We are here to give the American people an accounting of our stewardship in the administration of their affairs for sixteen outstanding, eventful years, for not one of which we make an apology!" Barkley continued by recalling the bad times of the Great Depression of the 1930s to turn the Republicans' most-repeated attack back on them. Republicans proposed "to clean the cobwebs" from the federal government. Said Barkley: "I am not an expert on cobwebs, but if my memory does not betray me, when the Democratic party took over... sixteen years ago the spiders were so weak from starvation they could not weave a cobweb in any department of the government in Washington!" Barkley concluded his hour-long oration with a visionary call for the Democrats to "lead the children of men... into a free world and a free life," which inspired the delegates to cheer for more than 30 minutes. His rhetorical effort had the effect of energizing delegates, it had the effect of propelling Barkley towards the vice presidential nomination.
Balloting for president and vice president took place on July 13. Southerners who opposed the expansion of civil rights attempted to stop Truman's nomination, but he was nominated on the first ballot. In the absence of three dozen Southern delegates who walked out of the convention with Thurmond, 947 Democrats voted to nominate Truman as their candidate. Various Democratic Party leaders had promoted candidates for the vice presidential nomination, including Alben W. Barkley and Wilson W. Wyatt of Kentucky, William Preston Lane Jr. and Millard Tydings of Maryland, Oscar R. Ewing of Iowa, James Roosevelt of California, Joseph C. O'Mahoney of Wyoming. In addition, Truman tried unsuccessfully to interest William O. Douglas in the nomination. During the convention, Barkley's keynote speech won over delegates; when it became clear Barkley had enough support to obtain the nomination, Truman agreed to accept him as his running mate. Barkley was nominated by acclamation. On July 14, Northern Democrats led by Mayor of Minneapolis Hubert Humphrey and Illinois Senator Paul Douglas pushed for the convention to adopt a strong civil rights platform plank and endorse President Truman's pro-civil rights actions.
They were opposed by conservatives opposed to racial integration and by moderates who feared alienating Southern voters, including some of Truman's own aides. They were supported by northeastern urban Democratic leaders, who thought the plank would appeal to the growing black vote in their cities. In a speech to the convention, Humphrey urged the Democratic Party to "get out of the shadow of states' rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights." The convention adopted the civil rights plank in a close vote. In response, all 22 members of the Mississippi delegation, led by Governor Fielding L. Wright and former Governor Hugh L. White, walked out of the assembly. Thirteen members of the Alabama delegation followed; the bolted delegates and other Southerners formed the States' Rights Democratic Party, which nominated Strom Thurmond for President and Wright for Vice President. The fight over the civil rights plank was a launching point for Humphrey, he was elected to the United States Senate that year, in 1964 was elected Vice President.
Truman was scheduled to give his acceptance speech at 10 PM on July 14, but the convention was behind schedule, so he spoke in the early morning hours of July 15. In his opening, Truman told the delegates "Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make these Republicans like it — don't you forget that!" His pugnacious attack on what he termed the "Do-Nothing 80th Congress", further energized the delegates who had not taken part in the Dixiecrat walkout. Truman's speech was looked on in retrospect as the start of the "Give'em Hell, Harry!" Campaign theme that enabled Truman to win the November general election. History of the United States Democratic Party Democratic Party presidential primaries, 1948 List of Democratic National Conventions U. S. presidential nomination convention 1948 Republican National Convention United States presidential election, 1948 22nd Amendment Democratic Party Platform of 1948 at The American Presidency Project Truman Nomination Acceptance Speech for President at DNC at The American
