Aaron Pearl-Cropp of Springfield admitted the odds of him finding a pennant commemorating the 1963 March on Washington, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have A Dream speech, were very rare.
Pearl-Cropp, 52, a City of Springfield Public Works employee and a collector of civil rights memorabilia, said he had only seen the pennant twice, both times in museum settings, and an auction house he works with told him that it was a piece that rarely came up for sale.
But a chance conversation with a worker painting his house last summer eventually led to Pearl-Cropp landing the prize.
The following is a commentary from Dr. Robert Smith, Dean of the College of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Illinois Springfield.
Photo by David Blanchette The historic Elijah Iles House at Seventh and Cook streets may soon become part of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. The Lincoln Home National Historic Site may soon be larger and tell more of Springfield s history if several local organizations are successful in their efforts to expand the site s boundaries to encompass the old and the new. The Elijah Iles House Foundation Board on Dec. 29 passed a resolution encouraging the National Park Service to expand the historic site boundary to include the Iles House at Seventh and Cook streets and the soon-to-be-reconstructed Lincoln Cottage on Eighth Street, across the alley from the Iles House.
BIll Brady / Courtesy
The 44th State Senate District will have a new senator by the end of the month, after Bill Brady’s resignation at the end of last year triggered an appointment process involving Republican chairs from the five counties that make up the district.
Illinois law requires vacant seats in the General Assembly be filled within 30 days by a managing committee for the Senate or House district in question. The replacement must come from the same political party as their predecessor.
Matt Dietrich with the Illinois State Board of Elections said there is only one case where appointees have to run in a special election to fill out a term.
(The Center Square) – The new term of the Illinois Legislature begins Wednesday afternoon and all eyes are on who will be the next speaker of the House. Longtime Illinois politics observer and University of Illinois Spr.