How would you describe the mission of this project to a friend?
A brief history
Schools should be named after role models. My school is named after a person who used racist ideas to steal land, and he opposed ending slavery. We should change the name of my school because James K. Polk is not a person to celebrate.
Where we are today
I have collected over 3,000 signatures and received unanimous support from the student council officers at my school. I am proud to have won the Fresno Center for Nonviolence Youth Way of Peace Award.
How Polk Influenced Hitler
1844-1877 Manifest Destiny
Hitler was inspired by Polk so much he talked about implementing actions done in Polk's Manifest Destiny:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R1gcipAvplY
NAZI GERMANY’S RACE LAWS, THE UNITED STATES, AND AMERICAN INDIANS https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7173&context=lawreview
Hitler's Autobiography Mein Kamph: https://greatwar.nl/books/meinkampf/meinkampf.pdf
Polk secretly buying and separating children from enslaved parents:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/news/president-james-polk-slavery-children
An account of an enslaved woman on the era: Harriet Jacobs on Rape and Slavery, 1860:
https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-cotton-revolution/harriet-jacobs-on-rape-and-slavery/