My Country – Arthur Wergs Mitchell In 1934, Arthur Wergs Mitchell became the first Democratic African-American member of Congress. Representing the First District of Illinois, Mitchell integrated himself into the Chicago political machine and changed political parties. However, over time, the machine came to dislike him as he challenged their authority. He began his career as an …
Month: April 2017
My Country – Simon Fish A major component of An Almanac of Liberty is British history, specifically religious history. Simon Fish wrote an attack on monasteries and the Roman Catholic Church. The tract was A Supplication of Beggars. Fish called the clergy “sturdy, idle, holy thieves.” He argued that they collected vast wealth for over 400 years through …
My Country – The Captive Justice Douglas begins today’s entry in An Almanac of Liberty by stating that censorship in 1950s America was more subtle than English censorship. I will note that this has not changed based on the case of “Almost, Maine.” As we noted homosexuality caused a North Carolina school to halt a production. The same …
My Country – Protecting the Arts The current administration hopes to slash the arts out of the federal budget. The budget plan eliminates the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As a member of PBS, I greatly disagree …
My Country – Religious Tolerance and Roman Catholic Bigotry On April 24, 1929, Senator William Borah of Idaho responded to Senator Tom Heflin’s campaign against Catholics. Senator Heflin had brought a resolution to the floor of the senate. It asked Senators to vote “whether they are for the American Government or for the Roman …
My Country – Contempt of Congress On April 23, 1917, the Supreme Court held that Congress could not hold in contempt a US Attorney, who wrote a letter, charging that a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee was endeavoring to interfere with investigations being made by a grand jury. Historically, the House of Representatives could hold a …
My Country – Federal Employers’ Liability Act On April 22, 1908, Congress passed the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, which governed the liability of interstate railroads. Under FELA, railroad workers who are not covered by regular workers’ compensation laws were able to sue companies for their injury claims. Why Was This Necessary? Justice Douglas recounts a story about a butcher …
My Country – Juvenile Courts On April 21, 1899, Illinois enacted the first Juvenile Courts system. Other states followed their example. By the mid-twentieth century, we had many judicial clinics for juveniles. The goal was to shift criminal courts from focusing on punishments and encouraging rehabilitation based on the individual juvenile’s needs. After Illinois enacted the law, …
My Country – Australian Ballots In 1888, Louisville, Kentucky became the first minipicality to use the Australian Ballot. Today, we all use them. But what are they? How did we vote before? Voting in Early America When colonists landed in Jamestown, they decided to form a government. Within days, they elected a council and a …
My Country – Massachusetts Compromise Shockingly, not everyone loved the Constitution. No matter what we learn in school, the Anti-Federalists did not want to create a government in the way the Constitution looked. Their main argument was that a Bill of Rights was necessary to protect individuals from the federal government. At the time, five …