Yesterday in La Crosse
A teacher walkout, 46 years ago
In early 1971, La Crosse Education Association members walked off the job for a day, shutting down all 20 schools in the district. The strike capped a year-long dispute with the school district, which the Tribune called “the biggest educational crisis in La Crosse history.” The union and the school board had agreed on most parts of a contract, including a base salary of $7300. But the talks broke down on the issue of contract renewal.
Daniel Ellsberg was a leaker. Ellsberg sent the Pentagon Papers to the media in ’71, when Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott said Democratic candidates for president were using the war as a “political football”…for criticizing President Nixon for a war they had supported under Lyndon Johnson. More than 20 years later, Ellsberg spoke at Main Hall on the U-W-L campus about his anti-war activism.
And Wisconsin became the 34th state to approve a lower voting age of 18. A handful of lawmakers opposed the change. Only four more states were needed to make the 26th amendment a federal law, in 1971. Yesterday in La Crosse.