1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [18]
Calley, William (1943– ) On March 16, 1968, U.S. Army lieutenant William L. Calley’s platoon marched into the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai, reputedly a Viet Cong stronghold. In an atrocity recorded by U.S. Army photographers, the platoon massacred 347 unarmed civilians, including women, old men, and children. After an army cover-up was exposed by Vietnam veteran Ronald Ridenhour, several soldiers were tried by court martial, of whom only Calley was convicted on March 29, 1971. Many Americans saw My Lai as a microcosm of the Vietnam War, in which U.S. “defenders of democracy” were slaughtering the innocents; others saw Calley as a victim, thrust into a war without clear direction from policy makers. Calley was released in September 1974 after a federal court overturned his conviction.
Camp, Walter (1859–1925) Team captain (head coach) of the Yale football team, Camp introduced a host of innovations that transformed what had been essentially a form of English rugby into the modern game of American football. During the 1880s, his innovations became widely accepted, and he is generally credited as the inventor of the American form of the game.
Candler, Asa Griggs (1851–1929) Candler was an Atlanta druggist who, in 1887, bought the formula for Coca-Cola, at the time an obscure soda fountain beverage. Candler developed an improved manufacturing process and marketed Coca-Cola so skillfully that it became an enterprise of global proportions—probably the most universally recognized product of America.
Capone, Al (1899–1947) Born to Italian immigrant parents, Capone grew up in Brooklyn and, from youth, rose in New York’s criminal gangs. A razor fight in a saloon resulted in his nickname, “Scarface.” By the 1920s, Capone became organized crime boss of Chicago, which made him the most powerful and famous criminal in the United States. Despite crimes of corruption and violation of Prohibition, gambling, prostitution, and other laws—even despite gangland murders (most infamously the St. Valentine Day’s Massacre of February 14, 1929)—Capone evaded prosecution until he was finally convicted on charges of income tax evasion in 1931. He was imprisoned, but released in 1939 because of advanced syphilis.
Capra, Frank (1897–1991) Born in Italy, Capra grew up in Los Angeles and directed his first films in the early 1920s. In 1934, his It Happened One Night won an Academy Award and typified his gently satiric, slyly sentimental comic style, which presented naïve heroes who embody optimistic American “populist” values—founded on essential selflessness and decency—that invariably enable them to triumph over shrewder, more cynical opponents. Favorite Capra films include Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).
Carey, Henry (1793–1879) This pioneering economist and sociologist founded the “American school” of economics, based on supremely optimistic notions of steady—indeed, unstoppable—economic progress and the possibility of productively harmonizing diverse economic interests.
Carmichael, Stokely (1941–1998) Born in Trinidad, Carmichael immigrated to the Bronx in 1952 and, while a student at Howard University, became active in the Civil Rights movement. By the mid-1960s, Carmichael was in the forefront of young African Americans who had grown impatient with the non-violent philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and espoused a more militant approach to social and racial justice he dubbed “Black Power.” During the late 1960s, he became vocal in protest against the Vietnam War and other examples of what he deemed American tyranny and repression. He moved to Guinea, West Africa, in 1969, and, after changing his name to Kwame Toure, helped found the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, dedicated to Pan-Africanism.
Carnegie, Andrew (1835–1919) Born poor in Scotland, Carnegie immigrated to the