Constitution updated state 50 years ago; can it do more? myjournalcourier.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from myjournalcourier.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) Given recent headlines, it’s hard to imagine characterizing Illinois government as efficient or forward-looking.
But the Illinois Constitution approved 50 years ago this week contained a credo for environmental protection that was a national harbinger. It afforded equal protection of the laws prohibitions on rules that arbitrarily discriminate as well as due process of law. With little discussion, it protected the rights of women in sharp contrast to the bitter fight over ratification of the federal Equal Rights Amendment a decade later.
For governance, it loosed chains forged in its 1870 predecessor which limited borrowing and erased state regulation of minutia and archaic industries. Its crown jewel was granting broad home-rule powers to larger cities, letting local residents decide how to administer city hall without Springfield interference.
50 years ago, Illinois updated constitution; can it do more? telegraphherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from telegraphherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The aftermath of the 1908 Race Riot in Springfield gave rise to the formation of the NAACP.
Dr. Wesley Robinson-McNeese recalled a scene where he was swimming with some Air Force buddies in the waters off Biloxi Beach in Mississippi in the late 1960s.
A stranger pulled up in a pickup truck and, producing a shotgun and hurling epithets, promised that he was going to blow away McNeese, who is Black, if he didn t get out of the water. My friends said, Wes, you’re a soldier, you don’t have to do that, McNeese remembered. I said, He’s not aiming the shotgun at you guys. He’s aiming it at me.
50 years ago, constitution updated Illinois; can it do more? chron.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chron.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.