Highlights Archives
Autumn Issue of the Magazine is Here!
In an election year in which the Democratic candidate for president of the United States is an African American, it is difficult to imagine that just 50 years ago Louisiana state segregation laws barred African Americans from playing college ball. And at a time when women play such a pivotal role in American politics, it is equally difficult to imagine that less than 40 years ago female journalists were prohibited from joining the oldest press club in the nation. But the autumn 2008 issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History tackles the history of these two instances of blatant discrimination head-on.
 Cover of the autumn 2008 issue In the article "Cancelled Due to Racism: The Wisconsin Badger Football Games Against Louisiana State in 1957 and 1958," author Richard Haney takes us through political and administrative decisions in Louisiana and Wisconsin that prevented the University of Wisconsin and LSU — two of the best college football teams of the 1950s — from meeting on the gridiron during those years. Louisiana law specifically prohibited a number of activities "involving personal and social contacts in which the participants or contestants are members of the white and Negro races." The University of Wisconsin was the first team to cancel games due to segregationist policies in the South, and several other schools followed suit. Ultimately, the UW's action was among the many harbingers of the broad-based civil rights movement that would permanently transform American society.
In a similar vein, during an election year in which one of the top contenders for the Democratic nomination and the candidate for vice president on the Republican ticket are women, we learn in Kimberly Wilmot Voss' and Lance Speere's article, "Way Past Deadline: The Women's Fight to Integrate the Milwaukee Press Club," it wasn't until 1972 that women were admitted as members. As the oldest press club in the country, the Milwaukee Press Club was also the last to admit women journalists, even though Milwaukee has had talented women journalists since the 1800s.
In another article, a retired history professor recalls the early history of Madison's Camp Randall. During the Civil War in the spring of 1862 — long before Camp Randall was used for Badger football games — it served as a prisoner of war camp. Professor Tommy Thompson tells the story of the Confederate soldiers and their experiences at Camp Randall in his article, "Dying Like Rotten Sheepe."
All this, and more, awaits readers of the autumn issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History. And remember, a subscription to the quarterly magazine is just one benefit of membership in the Wisconsin Historical Society.
:: Posted September 12, 2008
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