How Silent Fall the Cherry Blossoms

[Michel Van]

That is a beautiful human touch in this TL.
This event has large impact on racial segregation, what let early desegregation in US.
and U.N. fight against Biological chemical nuclear weapons.

Geon, do you continue this TL after events of World war II ?

 

[Unknown]

This is an interesting alternate beginning to the civil rights movement.

I bet, TTL, if he exists, Morgan Freeman plays Daryl Cleaver.

 

[iiicollies]

No, it'll be more of a role for Morgan Freeman

 

[Unknown]

No, it'll be more of a role for Morgan Freeman

I corrected it, since he is described as "elderly" and Freeman fits the role.

 

[Michel Van]

About events of North Grand Avenue

will St Louis starts earlier it's Urban renewal projects ?
there over 33000 "Slum Surgery" houses to replace by modern social buildings
in OTL St Louis faced the Suburbanization and population loss and the Pruitt–Igoe urban housing fiasco

it would be interesting to see if US architects and the federal Public Housing Authority get a consensus on successful urban housing project "Daryl Cleaver"

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I am almost certain a Nationalized health care system will result in this timeline.

the current US plan of employer-offered insurance plans was created during WW2 due to government-mandated wage and price controls. Since businesses couldn't offer better wages to attract employees (and the war created full employment, leading to a shortage of workers), so they offered better benefits, including fantastic health care packages, instead.

In the aftermath of this attack, the weaknesses of the then-current health system, plus the fact employer-offered insurance is still pretty new, should lead to a full national health care system.


With Darryl Cleaver kickstarting the second wave of the Civil Rights Movement 11 years early, I suspect the Tuskegee Airmen will be seen as part-and-parcel of the Civil Rights Movement, ESPECIALLY with their reputation of "never losing a bomber to an enemy aircraft"

 

[NHBL]

Inspiring...

"Mercy Train" brought a tear to my eye--heck, more than one. You hit it beautifully here..Wow!!!

Seldom does a timeline, opr pieces of one, evoke that level of responce from me on an emotional level. Enough said here--AMAZING!

 

[Michel Van]

I am almost certain a Nationalized health care system will result in this timeline.

the current US plan of employer-offered insurance plans was created during WW2 due to government-mandated wage and price controls. Since businesses couldn't offer better wages to attract employees (and the war created full employment, leading to a shortage of workers), so they offered better benefits, including fantastic health care packages, instead.

In the aftermath of this attack, the weaknesses of the then-current health system, plus the fact employer-offered insurance is still pretty new, should lead to a full national health care system.


With Darryl Cleaver kickstarting the second wave of the Civil Rights Movement 11 years early, I suspect the Tuskegee Airmen will be seen as part-and-parcel of the Civil Rights Movement, ESPECIALLY with their reputation of "never losing a bomber to an enemy aircraft"

i second that !

Eider Roosevelt or Truman will push the Nationalized health care system to cope with future emergency.
and US House of Representatives in predicament, make usual opposition politic and face public rage or follow President oder and vote unanimous for it?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

Another thought..

I bet Otto Skorzeny has picked as the radio officer, someone who can speak English with a Swedish accent, and will get his hijacked freighter to the US by joining up with a convoy returning to the US

 

[deathscompanion1]

At least one thing has come out of this, jump starting the civil rights movement.

Coupled with desegregation of the armed forces in a few years and the necessity of at least temporarily relaxing restrictions on blacks using 'white' services it could really start the ball rolling early at least officially. Socially I'm not sure.

 

[Geon]

That is a beautiful human touch in this TL.
This event has large impact on racial segregation, what let early desegregation in US.
and U.N. fight against Biological chemical nuclear weapons.

Geon, do you continue this TL after events of World war II ?

Michel

I will be having a post-war section to my timeline hopefully. In addition, I may also have some other side-touches such as an interview with Charlie Chaplin on his movie, Night of the Vultures. A lot will depend on how this TL goes.

Geon

 

[marcus_aurelius]

i second that !

Eider Roosevelt or Truman will push the Nationalized health care system to cope with future emergency.
and US House of Representatives in predicament, make usual opposition politic and face public rage or follow President oder and vote unanimous for it?

If the government sold it as a national security imperative, it'll have bigger chances of getting passed. Anyone who opposed to this during the war would be committing electoral suicide.

Also, I fear Asian-Americans would be the biggest loser of this whole thing...

Marc A

 

[neopeius]

Excellent timeline. I haven't followed a history this assiduously since CalBear's. I'll definitely nominate it for a Turtledove.

 

[pdf27]

Another thought..

I bet Otto Skorzeny has picked as the radio officer, someone who can speak English with a Swedish accent, and will get his hijacked freighter to the US by joining up with a convoy returning to the US

Nowhere near that simple - you couldn't just tag along to a convoy, it formed up some time before departure and included a face-to-face conference. The blockade runners tended to have a very short life expectancy by this stage of the war too...

 

[bguy]

If the government sold it as a national security imperative, it'll have bigger chances of getting passed. Anyone who opposed to this during the war would be committing electoral suicide.

That seems unlikely. Just a generation before a plague swept the United States that killed an estimated 675,000 people, and that didn't lead to a push for national health care, so why would this attack, that hasn't even killed 1/1000 of the people the Spanish influenza did, create any irresistible impulse for national health care? The AMA will continue to passionately oppose national health care, which will give the Conservative Coalition that dominates Congress all the political cover they need to block such a measure. (Especially since the public health system has done a good job in responding to the attack so far.) And in a few months the war will be over and the public's interest will be on shortages of goods and labor unrest rather than on anything to do with health care.

 

[katchen]

Where are the Governors of New York and Missouri in all of this? Traditionally if martial law was going to be declared in their states, they would be the ones to do it and utilize their state National Guards to enforce order (with the option to call in federal troops if necessary.) FDR might technically have the legal authority to order in federal troops on his own under the Insurrection Act, but politically doing so without first consulting with the Governors of those states will look really bad. The Republicans will see this as FDR trying to destroy Dewey's political future by basically claiming he is too incompetent to maintain order in his state, the South will freak out about the prospect of a president imposing marital law in a state without that state's consent, and every state Governor will be furious about the precedent FDR is establishing here. As such I would think FDR would first try to get Dewey and Donnel to declare martial law on their own, and only if they refused would he act unilaterally.

And while the Plague has hit St. Louis, what about St.Louis's battered stepchild, East St. Louis, Il?

 

[katchen]

 

[katchen]

About East St. Louis....
By age 16, Davis was a member of the music society and playing professionally when not at school. At 17, he spent a year playing in Eddie Randle's band, the Blue Devils. During this time, Sonny Stitt tried to persuade him to join the Tiny Bradshaw band, then passing through town, but Davis' mother insisted that he finish his final year of high school. He graduated from East St. Louis Lincoln High School in 1944.
In 1944, the Billy Eckstine band visited East St. Louis. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were members of the band, and Davis was brought in on third trumpet for a couple of weeks because the regular player, Buddy Anderson, was out sick. Even after this experience, once Eckstine's band left town, Davis' parents were still keen for him to continue formal academic studies.(from Wikipedia--Miles Davis

Billy Eckstein, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker are coming to town. I hope they'll be all right Miles Davis too. The jazz world would be a poorer place if anything happened to them.

 

[eltf177]

I too see desegregation ending earlier, if for no other reason that this is putting stress on the military who now need more combat troops - not men who just dig ditches and bury garbage due to the color of their skin.

 

[Geon]

Minor changes

A friend of mine who knows a little more about music then I do and is well versed in history as well offered a few suggestions after I read the last part.

I have changed "Jim Crow" to segragationist as I learned "Jim Crow" was meant specifically to keep people from voting.

Also, I have tweaked the song so it may sound better.

I will try for another update later today.

Geon