Jurisprudence

As early as 1856, journalists began to refer to baseball as our National Pastime. People all over the country played, watched, and read about a sport supposedly invented in 1839 by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York, now the home of…
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Lessons learned from one of Tennessee's most famous statesmen. The post-World War II baby boomer generation grew up with Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, starring Fess Parker in the title role: Born on a…
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Presented with opportunity, a disadvantaged student changes his entire trajectory with one high school basketball game. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability as to any program…
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Once upon a time…there were more passenger pigeons in the world than any other bird species. Some experts estimated the total population at between three and five billion when Europeans discovered the Americas. In 1813, French-American…
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During the 1940s in the American South, Jim Crow laws segregated Americans. “Separate but equal” was the catch phrase. Black people were prohibited from using facilities designated for whites, such as water fountains, the “white section”…
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If George Washington is the “father of our country” and James Madison the “father of our constitution,” Alexander Hamilton, the top aide to Washington in the Revolutionary War, principal author of the Federalist Papers, and the first…
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A Knoxville Elegy J.D. Vance’s best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy is a fascinating rendition of how the author, during his youth, somehow survived a family background of alcoholism, drug addiction, violence, and failed relationships to…
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The History (And Future?) of Immigration in the United States Winston Churchill, whose mother, Jennie, was born in America, qualifies as one of the genuine heroes of World War II. As England’s Prime Minister charged with defending…
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During the Protestant Reformation, Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and, in 1534, declared himself as King to be the “supreme leader” of the Church of England. In 1630, during the reign of Charles I, the Puritans, who…
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Days before the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln on March 4, 1861, seven southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. On April 12, southern forces opened fire on Fort Sumpter. Four more states, including…
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