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Colleagues: I am currently researching a question which I hope to turn into a paper, or article, and I solicit your assistance. The relationship between the Jim Crow segregation laws of the United States (1877-1954) apparently had a powerful impact upon Hitler and became the model for his racial purity and citizenship laws (1935ff). In Mein Kampf he even praised the U.S. for having at least made a beginning toward a rational policy of citizenship. What has not been adequately researched and articulated in the possible impact the Holocaust may have had upon the dismantling of Jim Crow and the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement in the post-WWII era. I am convinced that the horrific revelations of Nazi atrocities made the U.S. acutely aware of the potential consequences of racial purity laws. I am further convinced that the U.S. involvement in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials put this nation in the very difficult position of condemning the consequences of long-standing domestic policies here at home. Even if our government had been able to ignore the moral inconsistency which this position made clear, the Cold War created an atmosphere in which the Soviet Union would have capitalized on it. My question is this: are you aware of any significant research on this question? If so, please share your knowledge with me --- either off-list or to the entire group. I thank you in advance. Sincerely Ben S. Austin ==================================================== Ben S. Austin, Assistant Professor of Sociology Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132 baustin@frank.mtsu.edu http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin ====================================================
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