History Awesome / DearAmerica

* Dawnie's friend Gertie gets one near the end. Throughout the book, one of Dawnie's dreams has been to be the "Bell Ringer" (the person who rings the school bell), but it's decided this honor will be given to the student who scores the highest on final exams, which turns out to be Gertie, who doesn't want it nearly as much as Dawnie does. So Gertie stages an elaborate scene where she claims to need help ringing the bell and pulls Dawnie to give her said help. After a few seconds, Gertie steps away, leaving Dawnie ringing the bell on her own, and then tells the administration she's giving Dawnie the position.
** Why is this so significant? Dawnie is the only African-American student at the school (early-stage integration), and she's been bullied and ostracized by most of her peers (the main exception being Gertie). Gertie is not only giving her friend something nice, she's making Dawnie important to the school.
** Following Gertie's actions, the school officially declares that Dawnie is the school bell ringer, and Gertie is placed in charge of morning salutation. It’s a sign that Prettyman is finally (if reluctantly) accepting them. What’s more, Dawnie and Goober’s bully, Bobby Hatch, is stuck with cleaning the erasers, the hated job that Dawnie had been forced to take on for her first year.

* [[KickTheSonOfABitch Kat kicking her arrogant cousin Henry's ass]] when he so [[SmugSnake boastfully and blandly states]] that his siblings (expect for his just-as-obnoxious older brother) were sent to his paternal Grandmother's home. Of course Kat is punished for it.

---> Mem: “Mind your tongue. My father is pleased by Mistress Potts because she has comely ways and she is dear with Blessing and she makes a nice pudding and she is quiet and elegant in her manner unlike yourself!”

---> Everyone has something to say. And I want to say it in Polish, no matter what laws the Czar makes.

---> I think Alma is the bravest person I know.

--->'''Harriet:''' That he is a tyrant has nothing to do with me or my family. My mother stands in the picket line alongside Kat's mother and Nancy Abbot's mother. My father is a doctor in the same hospital with Kat's father. He fought in the Spanish-American War and my grandfather fought in the Civil War. We would never think of changing our name.

--->'''Father:''' [[BewareTheNiceOnes Wilson!]]

---> Do they call it great because nearly every country under the sun is fighting in it? As if this is some magnificent achievement!

---> I knew I hugged a giant and that I would still have to grow in ways that could not be measured in inches.

---> When I looked up, [[BewareTheNiceOnes I caught Betty's eye. She nodded]]. One small victory in this crummy war.

* On the first anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, the teacher assigned to teach social studies to the teenagers at the incarceration camp makes a big deal [[RefugeInAudacity (in front of a]] [[WhatAnIdiot mostly Japanese]] [[{{Jerkass}} American classroom)]] about whether the relocation of the citizens was the right thing to do and got more and more shrill to get a response. All the Nisei students looked away and refused to answer and then she calls on Piper, the lone white girl. Piper thinks about delivering a sarcastic TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to the teacher, but joins her fellow students in the silence and shrugging. One example of a quiet SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome and nicely avoids the white savior trope.

* Mem standing up to Mistress Billington for Hannah Potts when she learns of gossip that the only reason Mem’s [[spoiler: recently widowed father]] could be interested in her is for owning a feather mattress.

* Mr. Harms is both a CoolTeacher and SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome due to his abolitionist efforts. [[spoiler: He's nearly killed for his efforts, but man!]]

* The fact that Patsy, who everybody thought was dumb and incapable of learning, [[spoiler: became a teacher.]]

* The reconciliation between [[spoiler: Miriam and the rest of her family after she is disowned.]]
* The fact that Zipporah [[spoiler: does become a famous actress, up to being nominated for an Academy Award.]] She also marries her childhood [[VitriolicBestBuds Vitriolic Best Bud]] Yitzy, and they spend the '40s rescuing Jewish kids from Nazi Europe.

* Willie Faye gently telling off the mean girls for acting like Minnie’s father has abandoned them, saying that he has actually been “called.” and will return. Even though she has no idea why he left, she will ''not'' let her new family be slandered. Best part? [[spoiler: She ends up being right.]]

* William choosing to lie to save his tutor's life is a cross between this and a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}. His exact reasons for doing this are never made clear[[labelnote:*]]specifically, whether he was sympathetic to the abolitionist cause or just protecting Mr. Harms because he cared about him[[/labelnote]], but Clotee knows how significant it is.

** The picket line has been growing even when the weather is very cold, President Wilson was said to have felt sorry enough to invite the women in for coffee but the suffragists refused and stated they'll only come when it's a talk about the federal amendment for Women's suffrage. Kat states it makes her think of Sojourner Truth's words about men who will be chivalrous because it's easier than treating women as human beings and individuals. Kat's Mother, Aunt, and their fellow suffragists are that committed to the cause that they turn down coffee from the FUCKING President of the United States.

* When Mrs. Weiss talks to the family chauffeur Richard about how they can't keep him on as an employee since Jews are no longer permitted to have a car; he then states to her that he thinks the persecution is wrong and he doesn't know why it is happening, he will still accompany her on her shopping trips and carry her packages with his personal car. Counts as SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} as well.

** Following Gertie's actions, the school officially declares that Dawnie is the school bell ringer, and Gertie is placed in charge of morning salutation. It’s a sign that Prettyman is finally (and reluctantly) accepting them. What’s more, Dawnie and Goober’s bully, Bobby Hatch, is stuck with cleaning the erasers, the hated job that Dawnie had been forced to take on for her first year.

** He is nonplussed by teenage boys calling him "Jap lover" and tossing rocks at his car.

* In the end, it’s declared that Dawnie is officially the school bell ringer and Gertie is placed in charge of morning salutation. It’s a sign that Prettyman is finally (and reluctantly) accepting them. What’s more, Dawnie and Goober’s bully Bobby Hatch is stuck with cleaning the erasers, Dawnie’s hated job.

* Sarah Jane saving the lives of her students during a blizzard. After the roof rips off the poorly constructed schoolhouse, she ties her students together on a rope and manages to get all of them home (or, in the case of the four children who live outside of town, to the homes of other students whose parents are willing to take them in). In doing so, she gains the respect of even her strongest detractors.

* After Mr. Harms is exposed, Clotee chooses to remain a slave herself so that she can take his place guiding other escapees to freedom.

* After Mr. Harms is exposed Clotee chooses to remain a slave herself so that she can take his place guiding other escapees to freedom.

* The epilogue notes that Julie became an acclaimed actress like her aunt; that [[HeroicSacrifice Dr. Weiss]] stood up to treat a patient despite orders from a Nazi that shot and killed him; Julie reunites with her friend Sophy, old tutor Miss Sachs, and brother Max.

* Erma Jean loses her voice while the family is still in Tennessee, a response to trauma. At the urging of the girls' grandparents, Daddy takes her to a pastor who claims to be a healer. Said pastor accuses Erma Jean of having no faith. Dad pulls a PapaWolf, calls the pastor a charlatan, and marches Erma Jean out of the church.

* Dr. Bowen (Kat's Father) standing up to his brother in law Bayard, after he starts blaming and unleashing misogynistic verbal abuse on his wife, his other daughter Alma, Mrs. Bowen, and Kat for Clary coming down from bronchitis (after being out in the cold taking coffee to the picket line); Dr. Bowen tried being rational and calm and then when Bayard turns around and hisses at Auntie Claire for "the reason her brain's weakness was, other than being a woman" where [[BigBrotherInstinct the Doctor said he won't let him talk that way to his wife]]. When Bayard tells him to leave, Dr. Bowen states he will, but [[PapaWolf shall return to treat his niece]]. Gracefully put.

** Several more suffragists get arrested, along with Mrs. Bowen and Auntie Claire, after an ambush that even involved [[KickTheDog forcibly prying a banner away from an elderly woman]]. Every woman spoke on her behalf with Mrs. Bowen makes the classiest TheReasonYouSuckSpeech ever.

** It's said an African American woman and her daughter are on the picket lines....even if it means they lose support from Southern Congressmen.

* Mama's eventual acceptance of American customs, such as removing her wig, since she had been so scared and resistant before.
** Granted, Mama's wig only slips off when she accepts her daughter with open arms but she regularly still wears the wig.

---> There will be rules around here. You'll get your clothes wasted and your bathwater hot and ready at the end of each day. You'll get your meals cooked and your lunches packed. There will be no credit here or "put on book." You'll pay your board on time, you'll be on time for supper, you'll wash before you sit at my table, and there will be no liquor or disrespectful language or behavior in my house. I've got three young girls, and I intend to raise them right.
* Anetka turning down Mr. Kacmarek's marriage proposal: while his intentions were kind, she however barely knows him and she is not going to marry again if it meant having a loveless marriage like the one with Stanley.

* William choosing to lie to save his tutor's life is a cross between this and a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}. His exact reasons for doing this are never made clear, but Clotee knows how significant it is.