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As advocates and policymakers at the state level sought to translate the promise of preschool into practice, they had to wrestle with the practical question of whether their preschool programs should serve all children or be targeted to the neediest. The idea that universal programs would be more politically popular and result in higher quality programs was not always a useful guide in practice. Attempts to enact universal pre‐kindergarten in California, Virginia, and other states ran into opposition precisely because the idea of providing “preschool for all” seemed a questionable use of public dollars when many families were already paying to send their children to private preschools. Not only was the promise of broad political support often misleading, but so was the promise that universal programs would necessarily produce higher quality than targeted ones. In practice, the universal preschool programs that states have designed have had mixed success at generating broad political support and high quality standards, while more incremental efforts to expand targeted programs have been quite successful.

This chapter describes the context in which the Progressive campaign for protective laws arose, assessing reformers' rationales and the oppositions they faced. Passage of the 1893 Illinois law marked the start of the Progressive Era campaign for protective labor laws. Through law, reformers hoped to impose standards on factories and improve the lives of industrial workers. Resistance to laws that affected men—from courts, legislators, unions, and public opinion—made protective laws for women and children imperative; reformers hoped that they would provide precedents for more “general” laws. Thus, single-sex laws became a crucial link in protectionist plans. The campaign for protective laws involved a range of supporters but rested largely on a dynamic organization, the National Consumers' League (NCL), and its determined leader, Florence Kelley (1859–1932), and the small group of activists that shaped its development.

This chapter recounts the efforts of the New England Mississippi Land Company to appropriate title to lands farther south. Ultimately, the New England Mississippi Land Company's chief counsel, Robert Goodloe Harper, would present both its claims and those of the United Illinois and Wabash Land Companies to the Supreme Court, tying together two of the Court's most important early decisions, Johnson v. M'Intosh and Fletcher v. Peck, and setting the stage for the judicial conquest of Native America.

This chapter focuses on how the United Illinois and Wabash Land Companies brought their claim before the Supreme Court of the United States. No further petitions would be submitted to Congress, at least until the Companies had received a favorable decision from the high court. All of the Companies' resources, and all of Robert Goodloe Harper's creative energies, would be devoted to crafting and prosecuting a suit to win such a decision.

This chapter discusses Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in Johnson v. M'Intosh. John Marshall had two implicit objectives in mind when he drafted the opinion: to facilitate a favorable settlement of the claims of the Virginia militia warrant holders and to soften Virginia's opposition to the court. To accomplish these ends, he recast the question pleaded by the Johnson parties and engaged in questionable historical exposition to resolve it.

This chapter discusses the rural methamphetamine crisis through the eyes of a Midwestern psychiatrist with over fifteen years experience working with diverse individuals affected by methamphetamine misuse. The account provides a flavor of psychiatric practice in rural Illinois during the methamphetamine crisis of the 1990s and 2000s, and echoes the accounts of mothers, children, and other knowledgeable adults presented in earlier chapters.

This chapter describes the conceptual and empirical bases of Life Story Intervention: a six- to eight-month-long, individualized program for school-aged children. It is evidence-based and draws on the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry guidelines for intervention with children who have experienced trauma, clinical discussions of substance-involved families, narrative therapy, and research on community- and relationship-based interventions. It also draws upon indigenous, oral narrative traditions in rural Illinois. It provides children with an opportunity to develop a supportive relationship with a healthy, reliable adult who can help them to express their feelings, and interpret and contextualize their experiences, including troubling or traumatic memories. It is delivered to children in their homes and communities by local professionals (e.g., social workers, child welfare workers, educators) who take on one child or two siblings and who are supervised by PhD- or MD-level licensed clinicians experienced in working with traumatized children.

Despite these calls for systemic and integrated practice and practice guidelines, the most recent national survey of school social work tasks indicated that most school social workers are delivering individual and group counseling services to a specific population (students with special education labels under IEPs), and crisis intervention. Consequently, most school social workers appear to be devoting little of their time to prevention programming or other examples of systemic work due to their high caseloads of students with previously identified special education needs or ever-increasing crisis intervention needs. The Illinois survey project presented in this chapter found that even after twelve years, Allen-Meares’ findings are still accurate in describing the majority of school social work practice choices in Illinois. This survey data is consistent with other recent state and national studies of school social work practice.

Chapter 2 follows Illinois’s transition from territory to state. A territorial census was likely padded to reach the required 40,000 inhabitants. The 1818 constitutional convention wrote the state’s founding document, many of its provisions drawn from other states’ constitutions. The delegates sought to limit the governor’s role by vesting powers in the legislature, leading to an unsteady balance of governmental powers. Delegates also focused on the question of slavery, termed “indentured servitude” in the constitution and described as “voluntary.” This wording set up debate in U.S. Congress that previewed the Missouri Compromise, but ultimately the constitution was approved and Illinois became a state on December 3, 1818. The slavery debate continued in Illinois, a frontier state that blended northern and southern sensibilities.

In this chapter, Clark Terry shares his experience of being offered tempting offers for jobs for various gigs and bands. It was in 1946 that Clark got scouted by Louis Jordan for his band. He had a famous band, with a renowned reputation. George Hudson expressed his disappointment at this offer and Clark decided not to join Louis Jordan. Not long after that, he got a telegram from Jimmy Lunceford asking Clark to join his band. It was Clark's wish to play for a band but this was a tough time to make a decision to leave George Hudson. It was precisely at this time, when George Hudson's group got the go for the tour with Illinois. Clark decided not to leave George when he was needed the most. Apart from taking up a few local gigs and temporarily joining Hamp's band, Clark decided not to leave George Hudson.

Clark Terry was at the worst of his times during the spring of 1946. It was after a period of hard work and hard times that he got an offer by Lucky Millander to play at the Castle Ballroom. Much to his disappointment, none of Clark's family members came to hear him play. Even though the performance was a hit among the audience, it did not appeal to Clark's heart. Soon after, he was ready to join George Hudson's band for the tour to Illinois. It was the same time when the Metronome magazine carried a full-page chapter on Clark about his career. Happy by all that he had got, Clark wanted jazz to be respected the way classical music was. The gig at the Apollo, for Illinois was a hit among the audience but was dislike by Illinois himself, and that's when Clark learned that it was not easy to impress everyone at the same time.

This chapter focuses on Wells-Barnett's fight against racism in American popular culture. Her leadership in the Negro Fellowship League (NFL) ensured that protest and politics would not be ignored. The league agitated against prejudice and injustice especially in Chicago and Illinois. To fight for rights on the national level, Wells-Barnett affiliated the organization with William Monroe Trotter's Equal Rights League in 1913. To promote political activity, the NFL hosted candidates' forums and urged voter participation. Many of Wells-Barnett's experiences confirmed her 1913 assertion that “when principle and prejudice come into collision, principle retires and leaves prejudice the victor.”