It’s February, 1946. World War II ended just five months ago with the Japanese surrender, but the end of the war has not brought peace to Pittsburgh.

In fact, the end of the war has created many problems for our city. The war provided jobs, but now those jobs are drying up. During the war, we put aside our differences to focus on the war effort, but now old racial and economic tensions are rising to the surface.

With deteriorating neighborhoods, growing slums, aging housing, and rampant pollution, we face an urban crisis.

This Historic Decisions issue guide, published by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, is based on research done in collaboration with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. Historic Decisions issue guides foster the development of deliberative democratic skills through examining the difficult choices Americans faced in the past. The actions presented in these issue guides are based on ideas or proposals actively considered at the time the historic decision was made and do not reflect the views of the foundation, its directors, or its officers.

The purpose of this guide is to provide a framework for a deliberation about what to do about people who were still without housing and work in September 1952, seven years after the end of World War II. It is written from the perspective of people living at that time and contains the information that was available to them at that time.

This deliberation guide focuses on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, encouraging students to examine the choices the Californio indigenous people faced in June 1849 as they determined how they would approach, or avoid, a future as American citizens. As students investigate the cultural, historical, economic, and political context of the time, they will wrestle with and weigh possible answers to the question: What do you do when the border crosses you?