<![CDATA[Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education - Blog]]>Fri, 10 Jul 2026 17:23:31 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Capstone presentations for Benedum Foundation Social Studies Project]]>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:11:14 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/capstone-presentations-for-benedum-foundation-social-studies-project(This is older news originally posted on April 17, 2024)
​​People Powered: Civic Action, Community Engagement, and American Representative Democracy
The year-long Benedum Foundation Grant, sponsored by the Robert Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education (in partnership with the Stubblefield Institute and the Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities at Shepherd University), will come to conclusion on Saturday, April 20, at 9:00 a.m. The project goal was to infuse Social Studies classrooms with experiential learning exploring the dynamics of democratic principles and the archival richness of the Robert Byrd Center. 

Social Studies teachers across the state are competing in this capstone experience for Benedum "People Powered" prizes, ranging from $5000 to $2500, funds that will go directly to programs at their schools for enhancing the teaching of social studies.]]><![CDATA[Grant gives teachers money for classroom civics lessons]]>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:06:52 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/grant-gives-teachers-money-for-classroom-civics-lessons(This is older news originally posted on May 17, 2024)
​Five middle and high school teachers were awarded classroom grants after participating in a Benedum Foundation sponsored summer institute run by Shepherd University’s Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education and Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities.

The teachers were among 30 participants in a summer workshop in June 2023 called People Powered: Civic Action, Community Engagement, and American Representative Democracy. The goal was to encourage teachers to transform 10th-12th grade history, social studies, and civics classes, and AP American history classes, by utilizing the rich resources of the Byrd Archives.

Each teacher received a $1,000 stipend for attending the workshop to use for resources and materials. In April they made presentations showing how they utilized the money. The teacher making the most effective presentation was awarded a $5,000 prize for the school to enhance its social studies curriculum and/or to apply toward learning resources and educational initiatives. Judges were Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt, retired director of the Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities, and Dr. Jason Allen, assistant professor of education.

The $5,000 prize went to Harpers Ferry Middle School for eighth-grade West Virginia studies teacher Caitlin Barker’s project titled “Storer College: Researching Our Local History and the Byrd Archive.”

“Caitlin touched each of the evaluative points and gave her students an exceptional learning experience as well as utilizing the Byrd Center Archive first-hand,” wrote Shurbutt and Allen.

Runner-up prizes of $2,500 went to four other teachers.

Huntington High School 10th- and 11th-grade teacher Heather Fletcher developed a unit called “Our Roots Run Deep: A Small Town with a Big Story, Black Huntington.” Fletcher introduced the work of Black scholars Dr. Bill Turner and Dr. Cicero Fain to her students as they explored the enriching environment of Huntington for African Americans in the early 20th century.

Alicen Galanis, who teaches world history and geography at Spring Mills High School, developed an interdisciplinary teaching unit called “Discovering the Great Depression and Harlem Renaissance in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God.’”

Ned MacFadden, a seventh-grade media teacher at Eastern Middle School’s Humanities and Communications Magnet Program in Montgomery County, Maryland, introduced his students to a lesson called “West Virginia and Maryland: Shared Problems, Shared Solutions.”

Ashley Malott, a ninth-grade advanced placement and honors world history teacher at Washington High School in Jefferson County, West Virginia, developed a lesson called “Data-Based Questions (DBQ) for AP History Students and the Robert Byrd Center.”

The People Powered project was made possible by a $136,250 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

by Cecelia Mason, Shepherd University Communications]]><![CDATA[West Virginia Hive Visits Byrd Center During "Bridging Innovation Week"]]>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:01:28 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/west-virginia-hive-visits-byrd-center-during-bridging-innovation-weekPicture
(This is older news originally posted on May 5, 2025)
​On May 1, The Robert C. Byrd Center was pleased to welcome Mike Fulton, Judy Moore, Mary Legg, Matt Nichols, and Devon Fitzgerald to Shepherd University for the West Virginia Business Link’s “Bridging Innovation Week.” 
Mike Fulton served as a staffer for Robert Mollohan (1979-1982) and Alan Mollohan (1982-1988) and currently serves as Director of the Washington, D.C. Office of the Asher Agency. In addition to housing archival materials from Senator Byrd, the Robert C. Byrd Center also houses materials from the collection of Representative Alan Mollohan and others.

Judy Moore currently serves as Executive Director of the West Virginia Hive, the entrepreneurship program of the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority (NRGRDA). Working with Judy, are Mary Legg (Business Capacity Services Department Lead), Matt Nichols (Regional Business Advisor), and Devon Fitzgerald (Regional Business Advisor).
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The mission of the West Virginia Hive is to connect entrepreneurs with the resources and expertise needed to grow successful companies in the Mountain State. Emeritus Director Ray Smock and Archivist Tish Wiggs provided the group with a peek at the Byrd Center Archives during their visit to Shepherd University.
]]><![CDATA[Ray Smock Book Mentioned in Wall Street Journal List]]>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 17:15:27 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/ray-smock-book-mentioned-in-wall-street-journal-list(This is older news originally posted December 15, 2023)
​A 2009 book written by Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education Interim Director Ray Smock is listed in the December 6, 2023, issue of The Wall Street Journal Books and Arts section as one of the five best books on Gilded Age politics. Writer C.W. Goodyear, author of “President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier,” lists Smock’s biography about Booker T. Washington, saying “Smock succeeds where Washington’s previous biographers fell short: distilling the life while losing none of its scale, and deftly untangling Washington’s legacy of appeasement toward whites. Mr. Smock does not dismiss the criticism of Washington, nor does he fault Washington’s attempt to bridge racial divides.”   ​]]><![CDATA[Director Emeritus Smock Speaks about Panama Canal]]>Mon, 29 Jun 2026 21:30:48 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/director-emeritus-smock-speaks-about-panama-canal(This is older news originally posted January 26th 2025) 
Recently Director Emeritus Dr. Ray Smock spoke with Lyn Widmyer about Senator Robert Byrd's involvement with the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 ended US control of the canal and ensured its neutrality. Senator Byrd successfully navigated the treaty through the Senate. You can watch the interview here.]]><![CDATA[Sailing (or Sinking) in Uncharted Waters]]>Wed, 09 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/sailing-or-sinking-in-uncharted-watersBy Ray Smock

The Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education, like so many other organizations across the nation, finds itself in truly uncharted waters. We are a not-for-profit, non-partisan, educational entity on the campus of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV. Our mission is to conduct programs and research that engage citizens in understanding Congress, the Constitution, and American democracy. We house the congressional papers of Senator Byrd and other West Virginia members of Congress. This archive is a wealth of information on the past seventy years of West Virginia and national history.

Being “non-partisan” cannot stand in the way of commenting frankly on the current chaos regarding the funding of organizations like ours.

We have lost federal funding from a Citizen Directed Spending program in the amount of $250,000. We learned this week that the West Virginia Humanities Council, which has supported our programs in the past, can no longer make grants. This dire situation applies to all fifty state and six territorial humanities councils, nationwide. We are concerned that other federal entities that support scholarship, research, and public programs related to American government and the U.S. Constitution will be adversely impacted in the weeks and months ahead.

“Uncharted waters” is a cliché. When my dad reached age 90 he would say, “I’m in uncharted waters.” It became a family joke. Life is full of uncertainties. But the phrase is not a joke when applied to the arbitrary firing of federal workers, the helter-skelter dismantling of agencies, and the suspension of funds that were appropriated by law.

The late Senator Robert C. Byrd was a champion of this nation’s constitutional order. He eloquently and often spoke out about the need for stable, effective government. Good government required decorum and respect for political differences. Effective government required regular parliamentary order and the application of checks and balances between three co-equal branches of the federal government. And the bedrock of good government is the rule of law.

None of these essential ingredients were designed to stifle political disagreements. These essential ingredients meant that strong partisan differences had a structure in which the will of the majority could be hammered out, often with compromise, where neither side of an issue got everything they sought.

The uncharted part of our current situation is that the rule of law is being ignored or violated. There is no regular order in Congress. Congress is so divided between the parties that political gridlock has, in effect, neutralized the power of Congress to exercise its most important power—the power of the purse.

Today a hybrid agency of government that was never established by law, called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is wreaking havoc within the Executive Branch of government. It is
headed by a billionaire who was never elected to any position, or appointed by any Congressional action. He is a temporary appointee of the President, given authority to act like a bull in a china shop with no prior experience in any aspect of government. This is unprecedented.

This brief statement about being in uncharted waters cannot begin to express the impact of arbitrary decisions on all aspects of government. My focus right now is local. My focus is trying to save the Byrd Center. I hope we can survive. I know this specific drama is being played out by many other entities that contribute to our understanding of American government and American history.

My former boss at the House of Representatives, the late Speaker Tip O’Neill, Jr., was famous for saying “All politics is local.” I see that phrase in new light as “local” entities like the Byrd Center, all across the nation, are caught up in the ripple effects of draconian, arbitrary slashing of federal funding, all without Congressional approval.

The uncharted nature of our current situation is its utter lawlessness

]]><![CDATA[Mapping U.S. Elections]]>Fri, 07 Jul 2023 15:39:28 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/mapping-us-elections​By Ray Smock

When I was the Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives, I was fortunate to meet up with a political geographer from West Virginia University, Dr. Kenneth C. Martis.  He was working on an incredible project to map every Congressional election beginning with the First Federal Congress in 1789. This involved researching more than 30,000 elections.  His work, The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989 is a seminal work in America political history.  We have a copy here at the Byrd Center if you ever want to explore the rich and complex history of political parties spread across national maps of the United States.
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At the same time Martis was working on his project, my office and the Senate Historical Office were preparing a new edition of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1789: Bicentennial Edition.  This massive volume contains biographies of more than 11,000 persons who have served in the House and Senate during its first two centuries.  We has many opportunities to share our information with Martis, and he, in turn, was able to help us correct many errors from earlier editions of the Biographical Directory.
 
The Senate Historian Richard Baker and I wrote a forward to Martis’s work and participated in a program at WVU when the atlas was published.  We also helped arrange for a major bicentennial exhibition of Martis’s work at the Library of Congress.
 
All this is preface to the article by David Skinner from the summer issue 2023 of Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, where the work of Ken Martis, is “rediscovered” in a story well told.  I hope you will read along about this remarkable work of scholarship, whose significance has not diminished with the passage of time.  ​
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The full article from The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities is available HERE.
]]><![CDATA[52 Words that Tell Us what Government is about]]>Wed, 18 Jan 2023 15:28:30 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/52-words-that-tell-us-what-government-is-aboutBy Ray Smock 
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This is a story about the Preamble to the Constitution that I am telling now to give some context to a donation that my wife Phyllis and I have just made to the Byrd Center.  We have long admired a fine piece of glass artwork displayed from time to time at the Shepherdstown, West Virginia shop Dickinson & Wait, which features beautiful  art and crafts by American artists.  
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This piece, a large circular plate with the entire Preamble to the Constitution in gold letters is by the California artist Stephen Schlanser, whose work is in the private collections of well-known public figures and world leaders. It was Phyllis who said to me this past weekend, “We have admired this piece for so long, it is time to get it and donate it to the Byrd Center.”  I heartily concurred! 
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The Preamble Plate, glass art by Stephen Schlanser.

I have long thought that the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution is the very best single sentence ever written that explains the purpose of government. It is fifty-two words in length.  You could build an entire academic course around it, or use it to introduce young school kids about why we have government and what that means.  And, you can even sing it!  More about this later.  

The wording of the Preamble to the Constitution was not debated at the Federal Convention of 1787, and it does not have the legal authority that the text of the document does. It was pretty much a flourish, an introduction with little meaning when compared with the body of the document.  

There was nothing unusual about the idea of having a preamble. This was common practice in England and that practice came to the New World. An earlier famous preamble, the one to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, takes up most of the document. We do not learn until the final paragraph that it is a declaration of independence and the end of colonial allegiance to the British crown.  That preamble contains the stirring words: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….” 

After the debates of the Federal Convention neared conclusion in August 1787, Delegate Edmund Randolph of Virginia made the point that the Constitution was a legal document, not a philosophical one and therefore it was not necessary to have a preamble that dealt with the philosophy of the structure of the new government they were about to establish.  

So the early draft of the preamble began “We the People of the States of….” Then followed a list of each individual state.  This draft ended with the phrase: “do ordain, declare and establish the following Constitution for the Government of Ourselves and our Posterity.”  Without much thought, the delegates unanimously approved this draft.  

When the Constitution and its preamble went to a final Committee on Style just nine days before the delegates would approve the document, Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, rewrote it and made it into literature and philosophy.  He changed “We the People of the States of…” to “We the People of the United States….” There was no need to mention the states individually.  Then Morris added six specific goals that described what the Constitution, and therefore, what Government itself was about: to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.  

This remarkably revised Preamble and the body of the Constitution was approved on September 17, 1787.  Edmund Randolph who was instrumental in defining the purpose of the Preamble was one of three delegates who refused to approve the Constitution that day. He was against it because it did not have a bill of rights and he thought it gave too much power to the executive branch. 

The Preamble is important as a philosophical concept of what government is for, and what it should achieve for the people of the nation.  It is so easy to get lost in the specific issues and circumstances of any particular point in American history that we sometimes need to return to the Preamble as a touchstone and ask ourselves, how well we are doing in the six broad areas of purpose.   

Now, to return to my reference about singing the Preamble. On the 200th anniversary of Constitution in 1987, it was my job as the first official Historian of the House of Representatives and as director of the Office for the Bicentennial of the House to plan, in conjunction with my Senate colleagues, major commemorative events.  One of the biggest was an excursion of a large contingent of House and Senate members via a special Amtrak train, to Philadelphia for the convening of special sessions of the House and Senate on the grounds of Independence Hall, where the Constitution was drafted and approved. 

Earlier during the bicentennial, my friend Franklin Roberts, a Philadelphia producer of historical events, had created a production with a troop of singers and actors (including one portraying Ben Franklin) who told the story of the drafting of the Constitution in song. It was called “Four Little Pages.”  It was a popular presentation at National Parks and other venues during the bicentennial years.  

I was so taken with this show that I wanted the Representatives assembled in Philadelphia to allow the troop onto the floor to sing the Preamble as the finale of our session. And, I wanted the Members of Congress, and the Speaker of the House, Jim Wright of Texas, to sing along.   

Speaker Wright was reluctant when I first presented the plan to him. I took a video tape of the performance to his private office and he watched it with interest. But he wondered if the dignity of our ceremony, and the solemnity of the speeches that day would be undercut by a troop of singers. He told me to have the actors assembled outside the chamber, and, if, at the last minute, it seemed right to him, he would give me the nod and I could bring the troop in.  At the very last moment the Speaker looked over to me and gave me the OK. I nodded to an assistant nearer the door, and the singers were ushered in.  As the Speaker announced some “special guests” the troop came in and after formally bowing to the Speaker and the members, and they won the chamber over.  Listening to the members of the House of 1987 singing the words of the Preamble drafted 200 years earlier, was one of my best moments as House Historian. 

I will think of that moment, and all that these 52 words mean to this nation every time I pass this lovely work of art.  May it inspire those who see it to reflect on the meaning of government.  ​
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The Preamble Plate on display in the Byrd Center office suite.
]]><![CDATA[Congress Recognizes the Value of Preserving the Papers of Members of Congress]]>Mon, 09 Jan 2023 15:50:47 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/congress-recognizes-the-value-of-preserving-the-papers-of-members-of-congressBy Ray Smock

I am happy to report that the $1.7 trillion Omnibus bill just passed and signed into law contains $2 million for competitive grants related to the processing and preservation of Congressional Papers.
 
It was twenty years ago that the Byrd Center hosted a meeting of congressional scholars, current and former members of Congress, and others to form a new association: The Association of Centers for the Study of Congress (ACSC). I served as its first president, and later Jay Wyatt, my successor as Director of the Byrd Center, also served as president. There are about 50 organizations nationwide that specialize in archives related to the papers of former members of the House and Senate.
 
The Byrd Center contains the congressional papers of five West Virginia members of Congress, the Senate Papers of Robert C. Byrd, and the House Papers of Harley Staggers, Sr, Harley Staggers, Jr., Robert Mollohan, and Alan Mollohan. Collectively the Byrd Center contains a rich story of West Virginia and national political issues covering more than 60 years.
 
Many of us in the ACSC have long sought a regular appropriation for the preservation of these collections so they could be made available for public research.  It has been fourteen years since Congress passed H. Con. Res. 307, which stated that members of the Senate and House should save their papers and make them available to the public for research.  It is a neglected part of our national documentary heritage.  While some collections have been funded over the years through earmarks, (and I am certainly not opposed to seeing them continue), preserving these collections should be recognized as essential to telling the story of American representative democracy. 
 
This $2 million will be administered by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, an independent agency affiliated with the National Archives and Records Commission. (NHPRC).
 
It will be up to the NHPRC to develop a competitive program and announce it to the public. I hope this will be the beginning of regular appropriations for this purpose. Congress remains the least studied of the three branches of government. The material in the Byrd Center and in other such places across the country represent a national treasure of state and national history, and the raw material for many research projects, books, and biographies. 
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A row in the Byrd Archive.
]]><![CDATA[A Great Speaker Graciously Steps Down]]>Thu, 17 Nov 2022 19:18:58 GMThttps://www.byrdcenter.org/blog/a-great-speaker-graciously-steps-downBy Ray Smock

I was the House Historian in 1987 when Nancy Pelosi first entered the House of Representatives. I witnessed her rise to leadership. 

She said in her speech today that she went from "homemaker to House Speaker." This is true but it does not tell the full story of her long involvement in American politics, which was a family calling with her father serving in numerous political offices including Congress and later as Mayor of Baltimore.  She was no ordinary freshman member in 1987. She hit the ground running. Nobody worked harder in the House than did Nancy Pelosi.

I have studied the speakership and leadership in the House and I had the honor of working for three Speakers: Thomas P. "Tip" O' Neill, Jr. of Massachusetts, Jim Wright of Texas, and Tom Foley of Washington State. Nancy Pelosi is the first woman to hold this job and she clearly ranks as one of the best and most effective speakers in American history.
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Past speakers from both parties have sought to represent their party and also the nation.  Some have been negative forces holding back the future and clinging to the past. This negative role was sometimes what the country seemed to want, as was the case at the turn of the 20th Century, when powerful speaker Joe Cannon of Illinois held up progressive legislation for years saying the country was doing fine and didn't need any new legislation.
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Wielding power alone does not make a leader great. Power does mark and shape the institution and national affairs.  Greatness in a speaker, I suggest, comes from a positive role, not a negative one. Greatness stems from a vision of a better future and the effort to improve the lives of the people.  In this context Nancy Pelosi qualifies easily as a great speaker.
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Today she cited the Preamble to the Constitution, still the best single definition of what government is for and should do.  Government should establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.  And when Speaker Pelosi got to the word "posterity" she clarified it. It is our nation's children. It is future generations. Children born today, she said, will live into the next century. What kind of nation and what kind of world do we want to leave to the children?

She will stay in Congress and represent her San Francisco district. I am sure she will continue to be force in the affairs of her party and the nation.  But today she passed the torch of leadership to a new generation. It is so in her character of looking forward.
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