Constitution Day will be observed Monday [SEPT. 17] at East Central University with the annual Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture in Public Affairs and a "Do You Know Your Constitution?" quiz program. In addition, courses in history and political science will have special emphasis on the Constitution.
The Political Science Program will award prizes in the "Do You Know Your Constitution?" quiz program at 3 p.m. in the Estep Multimedia Center.
Randall B. Woods, Cooper distinguished professor of history at the University of Arkansas, will deliver the eighth Rothbaum Lecture at 7 p.m. in the Estep Multimedia Center. He will discuss "LBJ, Civil Rights and Viet Nam."
Pocket constitutions will be distributed at both events, provided by the office of U.S. Rep. Tom Cole.
Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society, will have copies of Woods' most recent book, "LBJ: Architect of American Ambition," available for $30. It was the editor's choice for both the New York Times and Harper's and Best Books of the Year for the Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor.
The lectureship was established by the late Julian Rothbaum of Tulsa to bring outstanding figures in government, academia, the media, non-profit organizations or the private sector to ECU to address major issues of public affairs at the national, state or local level.
Constitution Day commemorates Sept. 17, 1789, when the final draft of the U.S. Constitution was signed by members of the Constitutional Convention.
Woods also is the author of several books on 20th century diplomatic and political history, including "A Changing of the Guard: Anglo-American Relations, 1941-1946," "The Dawning of the Cold War" and "Fulbright: A Biography." He is past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
The Rothbaum Lecture is funded through an endowment Rothbaum established with a $25,000 gift to the ECU Foundation Inc. that was matched by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Rothbaum also established an endowment to fund the George Nigh Award for ECU's top graduating senior.
Rothbaum was a long-time leader in Oklahoma civic affairs, a 1986 inductee into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and a former member of the state regents and the University of Oklahoma Regents.
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