From July 25 to July 29, teachers from Wyoming and North Dakota gathered during a We the People teachers’ institute to listen to presentations from former U.S. senator and U.S. attorney Doug Jones, as well as Dr. David Adler, president of the Alturas Institute, and Professor Tim Moore, deputy director of the Center for the Study of the American Constitution at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The John P. Ellbogen Foundation provided support for this event. 

Jones delivered the keynote presentation on the prosecution of former Ku Klux Klan members Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton for their roles in bombing the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963.

Adler and Jones also moderated a discussion on the state of democracy. Wyoming State Coordinator Matt Strannigan said that Jones was “very gracious by offering to sit for a Wyoming Humanities Council podcast and an interview with Craig Blumenshine of Wyoming Public Broadcasting” to discuss civic education.

Jones, Adler, and a Wyoming high school government teacher were also interviewed for the PBS series, Wyoming Chronicle. The episode will focus on the state of our democracy and why citizenship and an understanding of our founding documents are so important. Be on the lookout for this episode, which will be available in October.

The Center joins Wyoming We the People in saluting the John P. Ellbogen Foundation for supporting nonpartisan professional development opportunities and promoting quality civic education in Wyoming.