Yellow Journalism

Yellow Journalism was very profitable and popular because it appealed to the wealthy upper and middle classes feelings of superiority over the urban poor while also providing entertainment and amusement.

Example of Yellow Journalism 

alternate assignment

Legacy Museum

White House of the Confederacy

Alabama State Capitol

Confederate Memorial Monument

National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Freedom Rider's Bus from Freedom Rides Museum 

Montgomery Slave Trade Marker

Civil Rights Memorial

Our first site is the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. I think this site is very interesting because one of the memorials inside works to create an accurate, meaningful, and current report of which lynching states have chosen to recognize these victims and their injustices. This site can be challenging to spectators due to the use of “800 six-foot monuments”. From an art perspective, I believe these monuments are extremely successful in their goal of representing the “thousands of racial terror lynching victims in the united states”. Each monument is built seemingly larger than life to trigger a feeling of overwhelmingness, hopelessness, and defeat within each individual that walks through. I think this site is memorable because of the unique journey it takes visitors on and the emotions evoked from being faced with a “journey from slavery, through lynching and racial terror”. This memorial is nationally significant because it is the first memorial in the U.S. that’s goal is to ensure the legacy of African American injustices and that the resulting victims remain unforgotten, and that their struggles can continue to shed light on contemporary race issues.

EJI.org: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

The next site on our tour is the Legacy Museum. I think this site is very interesting due to the argument it is making and the clear bias it has. This is interesting to me because most museums are not built to model an essay. However, this museum does that by walking through a Black man’s journey from slavery, to civil rights, to the contemporary problem of “mass incarceration” of their culture. This journey is successful in showing the societal tribulations African Americans are still plagued with today, such as, mass incarceration and police brutality, while accurately proving a thesis statement that the civil rights battle is far from over. I find this extremely memorable because not many museums display this much political bias, however, since it’s privately funded, this museum was able to. I believe this museum is challenging for this very reason. It boldly engenders visitors to reflect upon African Americans’ continual struggle for equality, an issue many would instead prefer to ignore. This museum is nationally significant because it was built from years of research into the historical and contemporary injustices of the African American society, and it holds the nation’s biggest library of information on lynching (EJI). Design-wise, I am very impressed by this museum because of the location importance. The designers chose to build the museum on a former slave warehouse which immediately sets a somber tone and forces visitors to reflect.

EJI.org: The Legacy Museum

Our 3rd site is the Freedom Rides Museum, and this site is very interesting because it is a restored bus station located where the original attack on the Freedom Riders was. The bus station has been made to look how it originally did on May 20 of 1961, the day of the attack (Civil Rights Trail). I think this can be difficult for some visitors because it forces them to face this atrocity head on, since it is the actual site. This site is nationally significant because it was restored to be in remembrance of the Freedom Rider victims and to commend their bravery (AHC). It is memorable because their is a whole, actual burned bus working as an exhibit inside the museum.

Civil Rights Trail: Freedom Rides Museum

AHC: Freedom Rides Museum

Next, our fourth site, The White House of the Confederacy, has great national significance in my opinion. It was the official headquarters of the Confederacy during the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 (NPS). This site is interesting to me because attached to it is the best museum in the US for confederate civil war memorabilia. I think it’s memorable because the confederate president, Jefferson Davis, lived here during the war. I think this site can be challenging though because of the controversy of what it symbolizes. I think it’s symbolic of the innocent confederate soldiers lives lost, however, it could seemingly look as though it is representory of the confederate views on slavery. But, I do not think this is what the site is serving as a remembrance for.

NPS.gov: White House of the Confederacy 

Our next site is the Confederate Memorial Monument. This site is nationally significant because it was built to remember and commemorate the “122,000 Alabamians who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War” (LOC). This site is interesting to me because multiple laws have been formed to protect it, and I think this is interesting because not many monuments are this controversial. However, this can also make visiting it challenging due to the question it begs of whether a monument for the Confederacy on public land is appropriate or not. This site is memorable to me because it is so tall, standing at 88 feet (Enclyopedia of Alabama). From, a design perspective I think they chose to make the height of this monument so great because it serves to remember the “greatness” and lives of over 100,000 soldiers. It forces visitors to look up in awe and amazement which is what the designers wanted so that those feelings of the monument would translate to the soldiers lost, achieving its goal of successfully remembering the huge or “great” extent of lives lost.

LOC.gov: Confederate Memorial Monument

Enclyopedia of Alabama: Confederate Monument on Capitol Hill 

Our next site is Civil Rights Memorial. This site is interesting to me because the memorial helped to revive decades old cold cases on civil rights, and put 4 Klansmen and 8 white supremacists behind bars (SPL). This site is memorable to me because the designer, Maya Lin, left a space between the first and last entries in order to show that the fight for human rights is still not over. I think this site is challenging to viewers because it serves as a remembrance for over 40 martyrs who died because of racial injustices (SPL). The national significance of this site is to remember and honor those who gave up their lives for the civil rights battle, to appreciate the progress we made, and to cause visitors to reflect about how far we still have to go. From a design perspective this memorial is very successful in remembering and honoring the martyrs. In the middle there is a huge black granite circle with water flowing out the top and the names engraved in a chronological order, and the wall behind is black granite with a MLK quote. I think the black granite was chosen because it has to do with the skin tone of those remembered and it is a solemn color. The black circle forces the viewer’s eye down, and the names engraved on it lead to a cause and effect perception by displaying peoples actions and then the events that led to eventual freedom. This cause and effect perception creates an inspiring story that shows visitors normal people can cause big change, and the water compliments this by having a soothing, healing effect.

AtlasObscura: Civil Rights Memorial
SPLCenter.org: Civil Rights Memorial Celebrates 25th anniversary 

Our next site is the steps of the Alabama state capitol. This site is nationally significant because Jefferson Davis, George Wallace, and MLK have all given speeches here. Jefferson Davis gave his inaugural address speech here on February 18, 1861 (NCC). George Wallace, following in the footsteps of Davis, also gave his inaugural address here on January 14, 1963, and the main theme of his speech was that the southern states should always remain segregated (ADAH) . Martin Luther King gave his speech here at the end of Selma to Montgomery march on March 25, 1965 (AL.com). His speech, “How long, not long” had an inspiring theme about fighting for African Americans’ rights to vote.

Alabama Department of Archives and History: Inaugural Address of George Wallace 
AL.com: How Long, Not Long 
National Constitution Center: Dueling inaugural adresses

The last thing we’re visiting are the Montgomery Slave Trade Markers. These are significant because they help us to remember the injustices that occurred here. The slave trade in Montgomery was one of the biggest, booming slave trades in confederate states, and the slave population in Montgomery was higher than almost all other southern states at the start of the Civil War. Due to this, many traders would come here, so from 1848-1860 the Montgomery Probate office issued at minimum 164 slave trading licenses (Lat34north). Thus, this marker serves as a remembrance for all the slave injustices.
Lat34north: The Montgomery Slave Trade Marker

Montgomery post-research topic

America's drug policy has always been a source of controversy, and one of these main controversies are Drug-Induced Homicide Laws. These laws are incredibly detrimental to the justness of our legal system and have led to many resulting avoidable opioid overdoses. Drug Induced Homicide laws work to undermine Good Samaritan laws, disproportionately target African Americans, discourage witnesses from calling for medical attention, can unfairly condemn the victim's friend or lover, and are heavily misused in prosecutions (Health in Justice). There is really no upside to these laws because while they not only result in avoidable deaths, there is also no evidence of these laws being effective (Criminal Legal News). Thus, Drug-Induced Homicide laws are causing immeasurable damage to our legal system and generally only target low-level dealers and users, not the actual distributors and manufactures; thus, getting rid of these laws would help our society as a whole immensely.

Drug Induced Homicide Laws came about in the 1980's when America's legal system was under a great pressure to respond to the crack cocaine epidemic (Criminal Legal News). The federal government thought a harsh punishment was best, hoping it would work as a deterrent. So, in an effort to end the crisis they created the idea of a drug induced homicide and made the penalties for this so severe it is comparable to manslaughter or murder (ABA). The idea of drug-induced homicide is that anyone who made the drugs available to the user will be held responsible for their death. The problem with this law though is the lack of guidelines surrounding it (Chicago Tribune).What constitutes delivering drugs? This question has been asked over and over in hundreds of different court cases, but yet not effort at trying to clear up the vagueness surrounding the law has been made. This law was intended to punish high-level distributors and manufactures, however, the majority of prosecutions made using this law only punished fellow drug-user friends or family members of the victim who shared a small bit of their stash (NYPost). Prosecuting these people is incredibly damaging to our law system because not only does it wrongly and harshly target individuals close to the victim, but it also undermines the legal system. Good Samaritan Laws have been created to provide immunity for low-level drug users that are seeking medical help for an OD victim.(?) But, by undermining these laws, people who could have saved a life instead opt not to in fear of police involvement. For example, in a 2017 study by Lasalle, over half of witnesses to separate opioid overdoses were extremely reluctant to call for help(Criminal Legal News). Thus, the undermining of Good Samaritan Laws and harsh, unfair penalties with murky guidelines have lent itself to many harmful effects on America's legal system.

Racial bias is another huge problem within the DIH Laws, and has been proven over and over thorough empirical data surrounding arrests and sentences. For example, African Americans who are prosecuted under DIH Laws face a median of 9 years in prison, while whites only face a median of 5 years for the exact same crime (Health in Justice). Thus, these laws work to perpetuate racial disparities by locking up Blacks for significantly longer, thus harming their rehabilitation rate after prison more so than whites. It is incredibly important to stop these laws so the black community is not upon in horror as  "peddlers" or "pushers". However, stopping these laws is much harder than one would think, due to the increased frequency of their use. Twenty states already have DIH Laws and many other states charge this under various other offenses such as "felony-murder, depraved heart, or involuntary or voluntary manslaughter." (Drug Policy).The use of DIH laws have increased by 225% in 6 years, going from 363 cases in 2011 to 1178 cases in 2016. (Criminal Legal News). This, increase in prevalence of DIH Laws clearly shows that the problems caused from them will only continue to worsen until amendments are made.

Criminal Legal News: Drug Induced Homicide Laws Hurt Rather Than Help Opioid OD Crisis
Health In Justice: Drug Induced Homicide
NYPost: We Shouldn't Treat Drug OD's like Homicide 
ABA: Interest in Drug-Induced Homicide Laws Grows
Chicago Tribune: Who Counts as a Drug Dealer?
Drug Policy.org: An Overdose Death Isn't Murder

Chart showing relationship between victim and dealer

Chart depicting news mentions of DIH Laws

Map of states with DIH Laws