History Fair assignment #1

What is this year’s history fair theme?

• Actions/Legacies

Eight questions to answer…

• 1) Do individuals make a difference in history?

• 2) Do only famous people make a difference?

• 3) How do unknown people play a part in history?

Continued….

• 4) Who are the important individuals in your life? Who has made a difference/impacted you?

• 5) What was an experience that had a big effect on your life?

And finally….

• 6) How do you think YOU could make a difference in the world?

• 7) If you could change something, create, invent…what would it be? Why?

• 8) Once you know that, list 3 things you’d need to do to achieve it and who might help you or oppose you.

List the 4 different ways in which you can present your findings.

• Exhibit

• Paper

• Live performance

• Video documentary

Some individuals who might make good history fair topics…

William Ogden

• Chicago’s first mayor• Helped Chicago recover

after a financial crash in the 1830s

• Designed first swing bridge across the Chicago River

• Donated land for Rush Medical Center

• Promoted canals and railroads

Frances Willard

• Served as dean of the Northwestern Female College in Evanston

• Worked as journalist and editor of Chicago Daily Post

• Helped establish the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1874 (anti-alcohol)

• Supported abolition of prostitution, prison reform, and women’s suffrage

Amos Alonzo Stagg

• Football coach at University of Chicago, 1892-1932

• Developed the tackling dummy, huddle, reverse and man in motion plays, lateral pass, uniform #s, and the awarding of varsity letters

Rachelle Yarros

• Set up an obstetrical and gynecological practice in Chicago in 1895

• Advocated birth control and sex education

• set up first birth control clinic in Chicago with the help of Margaret Sanger—this formed the root of the future Planned Parenthood clinics

Albert Parsons

• Joined the Socialist Labor Party with wife Lucy and edited radical journal Alarm

• Fought for 8 hour work day

• Executed after Haymarket Riot, though nobody knows who threw the bomb at that event

Jane Addams

• Founded Hull House in Chicago, 1889, to help immigrants

• Established English classes, soup kitchens, nurseries, playgrounds

• Promoted garbage inspection and first juvenile court in the country

• Legacy of peace activism, Nobel Peace Prize, 1931

Montgomery Ward

• Invented the first mail order catalog

• Helped link farmers to the city

• Fought to keep the lakefront “forever open, clear and free” in Chicago

• Took the city to court with his own money

Upton Sinclair

• Went undercover to Chicago’s stockyards and wrote The Jungle about what he saw

• Revealed horrible working conditions and disgusting meatpacking practices

• His work led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act

John H. Johnson

• Created a publishing empire that included Negro Digest, Ebony, and Jet magazines

• Also owned book publishing and cosmetics companies

• Made TV specials and owned a life insurance company

• Visited many countries on behalf of the US government

Rudy Lozano• Forged partnerships

among Latinos, African-Americans and other minorities, particularly in election of Harold Washington in 1983

• Regional director of Ladies Garment Workers Union

• Tried to organize workers at Del Rey Tortilleria factory

• Was killed in his own home

Florence Scala

• Resident of Little Italy who fought UIC expansion

• Lost the battle, but inspired others by her example

Frank Collin

• Led a neo-Nazi group in an attempt to hold a march in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie

• Claimed freedom of speech rights to do so

• ACLU won the case for him, but ultimately, his group did not march there

• There are many layers to this case…

Richard Nickel

• Tried to save historic Chicago buildings from demolition

• Saved the old Stock Exchange trading room floor, which was relocated to the Art Institute

• When he failed at times, he captured the buildings in pictures

• Died in a building that was being demolished

Al Raby

• CPS teacher who was active in the Civil Rights Movement

• Led Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO) and helped bring Martin Luther King, Jr. to Chicago as part of the Chicago Freedom Movement

• Marched for open housing

Bill Ayers

• Led a group called the Weathermen

• Was part of the “Days of Rage” in Chicago in 1969 to spread the anti-Vietnam War message

• Participated in other bombings, including that of the Haymarket police statue

• Now a professor at the University of Illinois

Some other topic ideas:

• Architects: Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe

City planners

• Ellis Chesbrough—water purification issues

• Daniel Burnham—Chicago Plan of 1909

Mayors/politicians

• Anton Cermak

• Richard J. Daley

• Michael Bilandic

• Jane Byrne

• Harold Washington

Businessmen

• Marshall Field• Oscar Mayer• George Pullman• Potter Palmer• Robert McCormick—Tribune• Robert Abbott—Chicago Defender• Ray Kroc—McDonalds• Charles Walgreen• William Wrigley• LEO BURNETT-advertising• Hugh Hefner--Playboy

Writers

• Theodore Dreiser• Nelson Algren• Ben Hecht• Richard Wright• Lorraine Hansberry• Studs Terkel

Musicians

• Louis Armstrong

• Muddy Waters

• Chess Brothers—recording label

Actors/theater people

• Bernard Sahlins—Second City founder• Gary Sinise—one of Steppenwolf Theater

founders, actor• John Malkovich—affiliated with Steppenwolf,

actor

Reformers/educators/unionists

• Saul Alinsky—stockyards area organizer• John Dewey—education reformer• Ida B. Wells—anti-lynching campaign• Jackie Vaughn—CTU activist• Fred Hampton—Black Panthers• Ben Reitman—Hobo College• Abbie Hoffman—anti-Vietnam War• Carl Hansberry—anti-redlining, segregation

And a few more ideas…more to follow soon

• Enrico Fermi—first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction

• Wallace C. Abbott—Abbott Labs

• Walter Polovchak—Ukrainian boy given asylum by the US when he refused to go back home with his parents

• Abby Mandel—promoter of Cuisinart, local foods, and Green City Market founder