Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 01/Oscar Falkes

Overview

 * Oscar Falkes was born in April 1869 in Village Springs, Alabama, where he spent the majority of his life. Oscar married his late wife in 1895; the two had two sons that were born in 1911.He was a practicing Methodist. After his wife died in 1929, he moved to Birmingham, Alabama spending his remaining days with his niece and brother.

Marriage and Family

 * Oscar married into the Simmons family in 1895 and had two children with his late wife who past away in 1929. The two sons J.H Falkes and Sam Falkes were born in 1911, and were killed in WWI during a bombing that took place in France Oscar Attended a Methodist Church daily. According to him the church helped him cope with the loss of his sons.

Political Views

 * Oscar was a Democrat for the majority of his life until World War I. After his two sons in France died under the Wilson administration, he became a republican with a massive dislike towards Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson swayed public opinion to enter the war and Oscar Blamed him for the death of his sons, calling him and his administration liars.

Parents Coping PTSD from the Death of a Child



 * Parent's who lose their son or daughter often find ways to make sense of the situation or attempt to fill the void.Using religion as a coping mechanism is not uncommon for individuals who loss family members to homicide. According to the Scientific Study of Religion, family members of homicide victims engage in high amounts of religious coping.In fact only 13% reported feeling angry with God "quite a bit" or "a great deal" of the time Parents often feel an irreplaceable void when losing a child to war.According to the mother of Gold Star recipient U.S. Army Sgt. Robbie Carr "People say it gets easier, but no, it gets harder. There will never be a holiday when I have all of my children together". Sergeant Carr was killed March 13, 2007, by an improvised explosive device on the streets of Baghdad, Iraq. The Mother referred to a part of her life that died with the death of her son.

WWI Under President Wilson

 * On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went in front of Congress to request for the immediate mobilization U.S. troops to face Germany in World War I. During this address to Congress, Wilson urged the necessity to lead the great peaceful country into war He proclaimed "Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not the will of their people." Four days passing, Congress agreed and declared war on Germany. Woodrow Wilson initial intentions were to be as transparent on the war as possible.He appointed an official group called the Committee on Public Information (CPI) to give speeches, publish pamphlets and create films that explained America’s role in the war. But almost immediately it entered the field of opinion management in its attempts to weld the American people into an effective instrument for war and to spread Wilsonian idealism throughout the world The federal government was ordered to take over the railroad industry that were striking to end the possibility of work from stopping. Wilson also passed the Espionage Act, Targeting all war protesters and union organizers.