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The following list provides examples of New York State history topics related to this year's theme, Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, Consequences. These aren't topics you have to use, just some to start you thinking. The list provides a starting point for teachers and students to brainstorm ideas for New York State History Day projects. Students should keep in mind that many excellent topics can be found in their home towns and cities. Contact your local historical society, archive, library, or museum to uncover a great topic right in your hometown!
New York State History Day Topic Ideas
- Prendergast’s Revolt: New York Anti-Rent Riots: William Prendergast, an American colonist became a leader of an “Anti-Rent Rebellion, “because of high rents and their inability to own the land they worked rebellion.
- New York City Civil War Anti-Draft Riots: For three days in July of 1863 rioters wrecked havoc in the streets of New York City to revolt against unfair Civil War conscription which allowed for a “Rich Man’s Exemption.”
- Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: During 1911 in New York City the deadliest industrialdisaster in the city’s history occurred when a fire took 146 garment workers lives when building managers locked stairwells and exits. , who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Most of the victims were Jewish and Italian immigrant women between sixteen to twenty-three years old
- Susan B Anthony and The Revolution:An Americancivil rights leader in the 19th century women's rights movement who introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and alsoco-founded the women's rights journal, The Revolution.
- John Peter Zenger and Freedom of the Press: Zenger was a German-American printer, publisher, editor, and journalist in New York City. He was a defendant in a landmark legal case in American jurisprudence that determined that truth was a defense against charges of libel and "laid the foundation for American press freedom."
- Elizabeth Blackwell and Women’s Rights: The first American woman doctor, she became active in the anti-slavery movement, and in 1868 established a Women's Medical College at the Infirmary to train women, physicians, and doctors. She later co-founded with Florence Nightingale the Women's Medical College in England. Blackwell taught at London School of Medicine for Women, which she had co-founded and accepted a chair in gynecology.
- New York City: Redlining Neighborhoods: The practice of marking a red line on a map to areas where banks would not invest. This became a form of discrimination against particular groups of people based on race or sex. Areas most frequently discriminated against were black inner city neighborhoods.
- The Guerilla Girls: Women’s Equality in Art: An anonymous group of feminists devoted to fighting internationally against sexism within the visual fine art world. Started in New York City in 1985 to protest gender and racial inequality in the art world, members are known for the gorilla masks they wear to keep their anonymity.
- Founding of Hamilton College: Founded in 1793 by Samuel Kirkland as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, it was a seminary that did missionary work with the Oneida tribe. The seminary was open to both European-American and Oneida boys.
- Alcoholics Anonymous at the Knickerbocker Hospital: In 1945 and AA ward was created at Knickerbocker Hospital in New York City, combining a 19 bed medically staffed detoxification unit with AA members running meetings for patients. Long before alcoholism was considered a disease some recognized the need for rehabilitation.
- Steroid Use in Sports: Starting with the World Weightlifting Championships in 1954, steroid use by athletes has been both accepted and fought against because of its “unfair” advantage to users. The debate continues today in all sports and how this issue should be addressed.
- Lochner vs. New York: “Liberty of Contract”: A landmark United States Supreme Court case derived from Utica, New York, it held that a "liberty of contract" was implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case involved a New York law that limited the number of hours that a baker could work each day to ten, and limited the number of hours that a baker could work each week to 60.
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