The
following list highlights the key people other than Presidents who are included
in the New York State Core Curriculum for the United States History and
Government and therefore may be tested on the Regents Examinations. They
represent the pluralism that is
Ansel Adams
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Photographer whose natural landscapes of the West are also a
statement about
the importance of the preservation of the
wildness.
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Bostonian American Revolutionary War leader, Political organizer, and
journalist who helped to organize the Sons of Liberty and the Massachusetts
Committee of Correspondence.
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Associated with the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.
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Member of the Continental Congress and signer of the
Declaration of Independence.
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Progressive Era reformer in the social settlement house
Movement.
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Founder of Hull House, a Chicago settlement house.
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Cofounder and first president of Women’s International League for Peace
and Freedom.
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Corecipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (1931).
- Involved in organizing of the NAACP.
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Women’s rights leader from 1851 until her death in 1906.
- Most active for women’s suffrage, but also
worked for
women’s property rights and rights of
married women.
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Leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) who met
with President Clinton and Israeli leader
Yitzhak Rabin in 1993
to achieve steps toward peace in the Middle
East.
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Nazi war criminal who was apprehended after World War II and tried for
his wartime brutality towards Jews.
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Known as the “Butcher of Lyons”. (France)
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Extreme abolitionist who believed in use of violence to promote his
cause.
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Became nationally known after his antislavery group killed proslavery
settlers at the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre.
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His raid against a federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry led to his trial
and execution.
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Considered a martyr by some antislavery groups and was immortalized by
Ralph Waldo Emerson in John Brown’s Body.
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Unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 1896 and 1900.
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Populist who supported farmers and free silver.
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Orator, religious fundamentalist (Scopes Trial), and anti-imperialist.
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Outspoken southern leader and advocate of states’ rights.
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Favored nullification and the extension of slavery into the
territories.
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Vice President under Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson;
resigned over nullification issue.
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Secretary of state under President Tyler; successfully pressed for
Texas annexation; opposed Mexican War and California statehood.
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Industrial and philanthropist of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.
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Built Carnegie Steel Company (later part of U.S. Steel).
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Writer of stories and novels about the struggle and the strength of the
pioneers settling the frontier.
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Won 1922 Pulitzer Prize for One Of Ours.
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Best known for O Pioneers! (1913), My Antonia (1918), and Death Comes
to the Archbishop (1927).
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Latino leader of California farm workers from 1962 until his death in
1933.
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Organized the United Farm Workers (UFW) to help migrant farm workers
gain better pay and working conditions.
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Prime minister of Great Britain during World war II.
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Roman Catholic priest who his weekly radio program to attack President
Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal Programs.
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Lost popularity because of his profascist,
anti-Semetic views; ordered by the Roman Catholic in
1942 to stop his political actions.
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Union organizer and socialist presidential candidate in every election
from the 1890s until World War I.
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Nineteenth- century Massachusetts socialist reformer who revolutionized
mental health reform.
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Superintendent of U.S. Army nurses in Civil War.
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Illinois Senator and excellent public speaker.
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His Kansas-Nebraska Act included his idea of popular sovereignty, which
increased sectional tension.
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Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois race for Senate made Lincoln nationally
known.
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Candidate for Northern faction of Democratic party in 1860 election.
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African American civil rights leader, historian, writer, sociologist.
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Cofounder of the Niagara Movement for racial equality and of the NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).
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A leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Published the poetry and stories of black writers in “The Crisis”,
publication of the NAACP.
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Disagreed with views of Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey as to
how African Americans should go about securing equal rights.
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Secretary of state under President Dwight Eisenhower.
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Made famous the concept of brinkmanship, a foreign policy that brought
the United States just to brink of war.
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Nazi war criminal.
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Captured in Argentina after World War II.
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Tried and executed in Israel for the deaths of millions of Jews during
World War II.
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Songwriter, band leader, jazz composer, pianist, and a leading figure
of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Helped popularize American music around the world.
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Famous songs include “Take The A Train”, “Mood Indigo”, and “Don’t Get
Around Much Anymore.”
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African American activist and NAACP field secretary.
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Murdered in Mississippi in 1963 by a sniper outside his house.
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Novelist whose works reflects climate of the “roaring twenties”.
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Novels include “The great Gatsby”, “The Side of Paradise”, and “Tender
is the Night.”
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Industrialist who headed Ford Motor Company.
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His innovative production methods reduced the cost of producing cars,
making it possible for the average person to own an automobile.
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Philadelphia statesman, diplomat, scientist, writer in revolutionary
period.
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Drafted the 1754 Albany Plan of Union.
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Member of Second Continental congress; served on committee to write the
Declaration of Independence, which he signed.
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Helped persuade France to sign the 1778 Treaty Of Alliance against
England.
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Helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris of 1783, ending American
Revolution.
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Influential Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention.
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Austrian psychiatrist who developed psychoanalysis.
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Theories emphasized the importance of sexual freedom; influenced
attitudes of the 1920s.
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African American nationalist leader who advocated pride and self-help
as a means of empowerment.
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Founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, a nationalist
and separatist group that wanted a separate black economy and urged African
Americans to emigrate to Africa.
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Organizer and president of American Federation of Labor, a craft union
for skilled workers.
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Stressed “bread and butter” issues such as wages and hours.
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New York delegate at Constitutional Convention who worked for a strong
central government.
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Wrote 51 of “The Federalist Papers” in support of ratification of the
Constitution.
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First secretary of the treasury: promoted national economic
development.
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Newspaper publisher whose style of journalism became known as yellow journalism.
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Helped create public pressure for Spanish-American War.
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Novelist whose writings expressed conflict and concern created by
changing American values.
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1954 Nobel Prize for Literature winner.
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Leader in the American Revolution in Virginia.
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As a member of Virginia House of Burgesses, introduced resolutions
opposing the Stamp Act.
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Member of Continental Congress; supporter of independence.
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Opposed Constitution because of belief that it gave too much power to
the federal government.
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Led movement for addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution.
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Former State Department official investigated as a possible Communist
spy by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
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Convicted of perjury in 1950.
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Prosecution by Richard Nixon made Nixon a national figure early in his
career.
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Poet, playwright, and novelist who wrote about the African American
experience, especially that of the poor and working class.
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A leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Attorney general (1961-1963) and brother of President John F. Kennedy.
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Assassinated in June 1968.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Civil rights leader who advocated civil disobedience and nonviolent
demonstrations as methods for achieving change.
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Founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.
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Led bus boycott in Montgomery,
Alabama.
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Led march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights.
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Gave “I have A Dream” speech in Washington D.C.
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Won Nobel Peace Prize.
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Assassinated in 1968.
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secretary of state under President Nixon and Ford.
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Deeply involved in foreign policy in Vietnam, China, the soviet Union
and the Middle east.
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Governor of Wisconsin whose program, the “Wisconsin Idea”, became the
model for progressive reform.
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Served as United States Senator and Progressive leader.
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Ran for President as the Progressive party candidate in 1924.
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Explorers who led the 1804-1806 expedition to survey lands included in
the Louisiana Purchase.
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Documented the land, plants, animals, and other natural resources from
Missouri to Oregon in maps, diaries, and drawings.
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Novelist whose work Main Street attacked middle class values.
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First American to win Nobel Prize for Literature (1930).
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British Enlightenment writer whose ideas influenced the Declaration of
Independence, state constitutions, and the United States Constitution.
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Believed that people are born free with certain natural rights
including the right to life, liberty, and property.
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Massachusetts Republican senator whose support of the American
imperialism and of a powerful navy strongly influenced Theodore Roosevelt.
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As chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Majority
and entry of the United States into the League of Nations.
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Served as a U.S. representative to Washington Conference.
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Populist governor of Louisiana and U.S. senator.
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Proposed that income and inheritance taxes on the wealthy be used to
give each American a $2,500 income, a car and a college education.
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Planned to challenge FDR for President, but was assassinated in 1935.
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Led U.S. troops in the Pacific in World War II.
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Commander of U.S. occupation forces in Japan after World War II.
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Relieved of command by Truman
after publicly disagreeing with him about the conduct of the Korean War.
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Leader of the 1960s Black Power movement.
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Assassinated in 1965.
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Army chief of staff during World War II and Secretary of state under
President Truman.
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Promoted the Marshall Plan, which assisted the economic recovery of
Europe after World War II.
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Chief Justice of the Untied States (!801-1835)
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Established prestige of the Supreme Court and strengthened power of
federal government in cases such as Marbury v.
Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and Gibbons v. Ogden.
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First stated the right of judicial review in Marbury
v. Madison (1803)
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New England Puritan associated with the concept of the Puritan work
ethic (meaning that hard work is its own reward) and an appreciation of thrift
and industry.
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Supported the Salem witch trials.
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Republican Senator of the late 1940s and early 1950s who led a campaign
to root out suspected Communists in American life.
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The term McCarthyism came to be associated with an era of government
investigation of the private lives of many in public service and in the
entertainment industry.
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French Enlightenment philosopher who admired the British system of
republican government.
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Influence is seen in separation of powers and in the checks and
balances provisions in the Constitution.
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Naturalist, conservationist, and writer who influenced President
Theodore Roosevelt to protect more land.
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Founder of the Sierra Club.
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Naturalist writer whose 1901 novel, “The Octopus”, told of the struggle
between railroad and California wheat growers.
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Physicist who led the American effort to build the first atomic bomb in
the 1940s.
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English-born writer and political philosopher whose influential pamphlet
“Common sense” (1776) pressed for independence from Great Britain.
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African American civil rights activist.
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Her refusal, in 1955, to give up her seat to a white person led to the
Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott and helped to launch the civil rights
movement.
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Social reformer and political leader.
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Named secretary of labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933,
becoming the first woman to serve a cabinet position.
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Third-party candidate and billionaire businessman who challenged George
Bush and Bill Clinton for the presidency in 1992 with new ideas about balancing
the federal budget and about other economic issues.
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Led 1853-1854 naval mission to open Japan to world trade.
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Negotiated Treaty of Kanagawa, which gave the United States trading
rights with Japan.
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Conservationist and politician who led the Division of Forestry of the
Department of agriculture under President Theodore Roosevelt.
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Publisher of the “New York Journal”, whose “yellow journalism” in a
circulation war with William Randolph Hearst helped provoke the Spanish
American War.
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Prime minister of Israel who signed a peace agreement with PLO leader Yasir Arafat in 1933 as a result of President Clinton’s
efforts.
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Assassinated in 1995.
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Journalist, photographer, and social reformer of the Progressive Era.
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Documented life in New York’s tenements in his 1890 book, “How The
Other Half lives.”
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Used writings and photographs to show the need for better housing for
the poor.
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Professional baseball player.
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Became the First African American to play in major league baseball when
he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
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Industrialist and philanthropist.
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Founder of the Standard Oil Company.
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Former governor of New York who was appointed Vice President by
President Gerald Ford in 1974.
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Only nonelected Vice President to serve with
a nonelected President.
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Political activist and First Lady.
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Early and long-time activist for rights for African Americans and women
during the New Deals as First Lady and as political activist on her own.
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Played a key role in creation of United Nations Declaration on Human
Rights (1948) and heading the UN Commission on Human Rights (1961).
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Chaired the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women during the
Kennedy Administration.
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Convicted and executed for treason in 1953 during the era of
McCarthyism.
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Possible innocence is still debated.
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French Enlightenment philosopher.
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Influenced the Declaration of Independence with his arguments in
support of government by the consent of the governed.
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Native American guide for part of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
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Honored in 2000 with her image on a dollar coin.
Nicola Sacco
and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
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Italian immigrants and anarchists executed for armed robbery and murder
at the height of the antiradical, anti-immigrant feelings of the 1920s.
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Cleared by the Massachusetts governor in 1977, some 50 years later.
-Pioneering
advocate of birth control.
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Organized first American birth control conference in 1921.
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Founder of a birth-control lobbying group that became Planned
Parenthood in 1942.
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Muckraking journalist of the Progressive Era.
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Influenced the passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection act with his novel “The
Jungle”, which deals with the exploitation of the poor and the factory
conditions that led to contaminated meat.
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Reform governor of New York and first Catholic to run for President.
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Lost to Hoover in the 1928 election, largely because voters did not
want a Catholic President and because Smith favored repeal of the Eighteenth
Amendment.
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Right-wing conservative Democrat who helped organized American Liberty
League (1934) and opposed New Deal.
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Harlem renaissance blues singer known as the “Empress of the Blues”.
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Recorded with prominent jazz musicians, such as Louis Armstrong and
Benny Goodman.
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Leading crusader for women’s rights; also for abolition and temperance.
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Began women’s rights movement with Seneca Falls Convention in New York
1848.
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Wrote Declaration of Sentiments (1848).
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With Susan B. Anthony, cofounded the National
woman Suffrage Association and coedited “Revolution”,
a woman’s rights journal.
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Muckraking journalist, editor, and reformer.
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Wrote about corruption in government and business in his 1906 novel, “The
Shame of the Cities.”
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Author whose novels often deal with problems of the working class
during the Great Depression.
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“The Grapes of Wraith” (Pulitzer Prize, 1939) describes the effect of
the drought that created the Dust Bowl on a group of farmers forced to leave
Oklahoma and work as migrant laborers in California.
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Muckraking journalist of the Progressive Era.
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Her History of Standard Oil Company exposed Rockefeller’s unfair and
often ruthless business practices.
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Political leader, minister, pacifist who ran six times as Socialist
party candidate for President.
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Supporter of moderate social reform, strongly anticommunist.
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Helped organize the American Civil Liberties Union and urged nuclear
disarmament.
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Opponent of the New Deal.
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Promoted a financially impossible plan to provide government pensions
for the elderly.