Today@Sam Article

Celebrate Constitution Day At SHSU

Sept. 10, 2019
SHSU Media Contact: Wes Hamilton

On September 17, 1787, the United States Constitution was officially adopted. Today, we celebrate annually with Constitution Day and this year Sam Houston State University is hosting events on Sept. 16-17 in the Olson Auditorium (AB IV 220).

The events are sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean’s Office, departments of History and Political Science, and The American Democracy Project with the goal of providing knowledge and discussion on both older issues with the constitution and laws, as well as new issues and happenings that arise daily, according to Associate Professor of History Thomas Cox.

The keynote speaker will be Jonathan White, associate professor at Christopher Newport University. The presentation, "Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties During the Civil War" will begin at 4 p.m. in Olson Auditorium Sept. 16.

Presentations will continue on Sept. 17 in the LSC Theatre and include:

9:30 a.m. – “The Pershing Chinese and their Quest for U.S. Citizenship” – presented by Thomas H. Cox, associate professor of History.

11 a.m. – “Ben Butler, Ex Parte Milligan, and the Boundaries of Military Law in the Civial War Era” – presented by Brian Jordan, assistant professor of History and director of Graduate Studies, History Department.

12:30 p.m. – “Can We Right the Wrongs of the Past? Lessons from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on Remedying the Effects of Racial Discrimination” – presented by Zachary Montz, lecturer, History Department.

2 p.m. – “Intellectual Disability and Capital Punishment: How the U.S. Supreme Court Tamed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals” – presented by Michael Vaughn, professor of Criminal Justice

“Hopefully students will take away an understanding of the political movements and social struggles that went into the making and development of our Constitutional system,” Cox said. “Events like this reconnects us to the worldview of the framers, and by that I do not just mean what are frequently referred to as the ‘founding fathers.’ The generation who fought the Civil War, who created the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the Progressives who created the 16th, 17th, and Eighteenth Amendments, and the Suffragettes who passed the 19th Amendment were also founders.”

For more information, contact Cox at thc001@shsu.edu.

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