User:Jperry98/sandbox/sandbox

Evaluating an Article
I chose the article Fascism in North America to evaluate. Despite this being a very loaded topic, most of what is written remains neutral and balanced. Everything written so far is relevant to the topic and nothing stands out as distracting. However, the article does lack some information that could really bolster what is already written. For instance, fascism is never defined. Without a definition it's hard to asses whether the following information falls within the category of "fascism". In addition, most of the information given stops around 1960/70. In modern times we have seen a rise in fascist tendencies and groups within the United States. This information needs to be added to give a better picture to the article's topic. Lastly, there is a lot of room to expand on what is already written. Every subsection could benefit with an information overall to expand each section with more facts and clearer picture of the history of this topic.

Most of the citations given G from reliable sources, however there is a few easily identifiable problems with some of the resources used in crafting this article. For instance, the original writer cites a source numerous times that was written in 1941. I question the credibility of this source due to the context it was written in. The world was fighting a war against fascism during this time and most things on this subject were highly slanted in support or opposition of the ideology. In addition, there is a Spanish blog cited that is not credible.

This a C-Class article apart of the United States History Wiki-Project. The latest discussion on the talk page discusses the reasons for and against including Donald Trump in the article. It appears that the consensus is that he should not be included in attempt to remain neutral and unbiased.

~

Choosing Articles
The first article I selected for review is about the Sundown Town. The article has some information, but still lacks key components to show the full picture of the topic. It is marked as a start class article varying from mid to high importance depending on the category.There is still a lot to add to this article for instance, the history portion of the section is pretty vague and broad and could use more information about how sundown towns operated in the U.S. Within the article there is information that helps paint a partial picture of the topic, but lacks cohesion and depth that an article of this importance desperately needs. This article also heavily relies on articles from the New York Times and the Washington Post. Though this isn't necessarily troublesome, however there could be a better balance if it had more academic sources.

The second article I selected was titled Criticism of the United States government. This article needs to have a complete overhaul. To begin, the information is splattered all over the page. Some of it is quite obscure, while the rest rely quite heavily on more modern criticisms. What this article needs most is a cohesive look at the criticisms of the U.S from its origin to the current day, through academic and primary sources. There is barely any mention of domestic policy, which objectively speaking is an avenue that needs to be explored in this topic. In addition, most of the sources used are not relevant, current, or reliable. This is a loaded topic, but I believe with good sources, it can be explored objectively.

The last article I selected was American patriotism. This article lacks substantial information and sources. It only discusses the revolutionary era of the U.S's history and has one source. For a full picture of this topic, there needs to be ample information about it all the way the present. There needs to be information about the role patriotism plays in U.S wars, in particular from world war I to the present. Information needs to be given about how Patriotism plays a role in our culture. How it can be perceived as racially charged or used as a cover for more sinister means. There is tons of academic work done on this topic, and I believe there can be a lot added to this page.

Accumulating Sources
https://pointloma.worldcat.org/title/sundown-towns-a-hidden-dimension-of-american-racism/oclc/58789453&referer=brief_results

https://pointloma.worldcat.org/title/global-heartland-displaced-labor-transnational-lives-and-local-placemaking/oclc/933559795&referer=brief_results

https://pointloma.worldcat.org/oclc/25726999486984&referer=brief_results

https://pointloma.worldcat.org/oclc/25725217382023&referer=brief_results

https://pointloma.worldcat.org/oclc/26255231529638&referer=brief_results

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26214270?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://www-jstor-org.pointloma.idm.oclc.org/stable/westhistquar.41.2.0171?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=Sundown&searchText=Towns&searchText=and&searchText=Counties%3A&searchText=Racial&searchText=Exclusion&searchText=in&searchText=the&searchText=South&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Fgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3BQuery%3DSundown%2BTowns%2Band%2BCounties%253A%2BRacial%2BExclusion%2Bin%2Bthe%2BSouth%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bacc%3Don&ab_segments=0%2Ftbsub-1%2Frelevance_config_with_defaults&refreqid=search%3Aea1ddab946c5f6687e0524ef9b8e7d9a

Draft
Following the end of the Reconstruction Era, many thousands of towns and counties across the United States became sundown localities ,as part of the imposition of Jim Crow laws and other racist practices. In most cases, the exclusion was official town policy or was promulgated by the community's real estate agents via exclusionary covenants governing who could buy or rent property. In others, the policy was enforced through intimidation. This intimidation could occur in a number of ways, including harassment by law enforcement officers. Though widely believed to be a thing of the past, many hundreds of sunset towns continue to effectively exclude blacks and other minorities to the present day.

In 1844, before the Civil War, Oregon banned African Americans from the territory altogether. Those who failed to leave could expect to receive lashings, under a law known as the "Peter Burnett Lash Law", named for California's first governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett. No persons were ever lashed under the law; it was quickly amended to replace lashing with forced labor, and eventually repealed the following year after a change in the makeup of the legislature. However, additional laws aimed at African Americans entering Oregon were ratified in 1849 and 1857, the last of which was not repealed until 1926. This law in Oregon was the pretext to future laws restricting where minorities live. *

Since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and especially since the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited racial discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing, the number of sundown towns has decreased. However, as sociologist James W. Loewen writes in his book on the subject, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (2005), it is impossible to precisely count the number of sundown towns at any given time, because most towns have not kept records of the ordinances or signs that marked the town's sundown status. He further notes that hundreds of cities across America have been sundown towns at some point in their history.

Additionally, Loewen notes that sundown status meant more than just that African Americans were unable to live in these towns. Any blacks who entered or were found in sundown towns after sunset were subject to harassment, threats, and violent acts—up to and including lynching.

The U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education ruled segregation of schools unconstitutional in 1954. Loewen argues that the case caused some municipalities in the South to become sundown towns. Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky saw drastic drops in African-American populations living in the states following the decision.

* Outside of Oregon, other places looked to laws and legislation to help restrict Blacks from residing within Cities, Towns, and States. One of the more famous cases of this can be found in 1911 Louisville, where the mayor of the city proposed a law that would restrict Blacks from owning property in different parts of the city. However, this simple city ordnance soon reached public attention when it was challenged in the supreme court case Buchanan v. Warley in 1917. Ultimately, the court decided that the laws passed in Louisville where unconstitutional, thus setting the legal precedent that similar laws couldn't exist or be passed in the future. This one legal victory didn't stop towns from developing into sundown towns. City planners and Real Estate companies used their powers and authorities to make sure that white communities remained white, and black communities remained black. These were private individuals making decisions based on their own personal benefit relating to their companies profits or a cities safety thus their measures in creating sundown towns were often ignored in the courts. In addition to unfair housing rules, citizens turned to violence and harassment in making sure Blacks would not reside in their cities after sundown. Whites in the north felt that their way of life was threatened by the increased population of minorities moving in their neighborhoods and a racial tension started to build. This tension often boiled over into acts of violence, sometimes to huge scales such as the 1943 Detroit race riot.