Kathryn L. MacKay Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution was first proposed in the United States Congress in December 1923. It was promoted by Alice Paul and National Women’s party, but opposed by many of their colleagues who had worked to pass the Nineteenth Amendment (women’s suffrage) in 1920. The ERA would have eliminated protective …
Native Americans in Post War Utah
Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place One of the most thorny issues in postwar Utah arose from the abuse of Utah’s Native Americans. The 1950 census shows a population of 4,200 Indians in Utah, up from 2,000 in 1900. Nevertheless, the Utes, who had occupied the largest portion of Utah’s lands, had lost large blocks of preservation land. On …
The Civil Rights Movement in Utah
Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place During this time, the people of the United States struggled over the extension of civil rights to millions who had suffered for scores of years as second-class citizens. Dissatisfaction over segregated and inferior schools, colleges, hotels, restaurants, and recreation facilities forced questions of rights and equity into the courts in cases such as …
Political Pandemonium
Richard C. Roberts and Richard W. Sadler History of Weber County After the war the voting in Weber County became mixed between Democrats and Republicans. On the state level, in 1948 J. Bracken Lee was elected as governor; Weber’s David J. Wilson ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican, losing to Democrat Walter K. Granger. In the …
Legislative Malapportionment & Rural Domination
Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place African Americans and Native Americans were not the only ones to suffer discrimination. Urbanites of all colors endured abuse as well at the hands of a conservative, rural-dominated minority. Between 1931 and 1950, the legislature had refused to reapportion itself in spite of the Utah Constitution’s mandate. By the 1960s, Nevada, New Mexico, …
High Birthrates and Education
Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place Adequate funding for education has been the single most-difficult problem Utah has faced. At 21.8 per thousand people in 1990, Utah had the third highest birthrate in the nation after the District of Columbia and Alaska, and a rate higher than the national average of 16.7 per thousand. Two urban counties, Utah and …
Education Expansion
Linda Sillitoe History of Salt Lake County This generation was not only numerous but infused with the ambition of parents who had survived the Great Depression and World War II. Born into a quite different world, many children of the 1950s and 1960s considered post-high school education their due rather than an entitlement of privilege. From the Utah Technical College …
A Meaning For Utah’s Postwar Experience
Thomas G. Alexander Utah, the Right Place The two and half decades following World War II were a time of tension, contradiction, and creativity. Buffeted by McCarthyism, distrust, and right-wing ideology, politics shifted from liberal to conservative to moderate. Perhaps Arthur Watkins and Calvin Rampton best characterize the central tendencies. Although Watkins allowed ideology to rule his judgment during the …
Dr. Willem Kolff’s Artificial Heart
Linda Sillitoe History of Salt Lake County For some time the University of Utah Medical School had conducted energetic and innovative research into transplants, prostheses, and artificial organs under the direction of Dr. Willem Kolff. As quickly as the Federal Drug Administration approved the device at the end of 1982, a carefully-assembled team of surgeons and technicians removed a human …
Hostage Taking and Explosives in Salt Lake
Linda Sillitoe History of Salt Lake County Despite the fears around gang violence and a crowded judicial system, the frequency of bizarre and dramatic crimes diminished markedly after the mid-1980s as mysteriously as civil unrest had diminished in the nation after the mid-1970s. Two crimes, however, encapsulated the great fears of the 1990s, confronting cities and nations worldwide. Both involved …