Club Histories Research Articles

Relationships influencing organisational culture in men’s elite football clubs in Norway

This paper examines the relationships within and outside organisations that have the leverage to influence culture in the context of men’s elite football clubs in Norway. Participants from three clubs held positions as Performance Director (n=2), sport psychology practitioner (n = 3), and physiotherapist (n = 2) and participated in semi-structured interviews focusing on the relationships, tensions, and dynamic organisational forces in their respective clubs. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we developed two overarching themes showing (1) Organisational cultures in time frames and (2) Relationships among stakeholders influencing organisational culture. Developing these themes indicated that an organisational culture is not only a point of arrival, but also a point of departure for future activities. Hence, those charged with organisational culture work must maintain awareness of the influence of a club’s history and how it influences dynamic tensions with stakeholders within and outside clubs. It is also critical that cultural practitioners are mindful of players’ and staffs’ individual journeys, which influence how they self-organise into fluid and temporary subgroups. The findings can sharpen our understanding of working with culture in elite football by emphasising other sources of culture besides leaders’ attempts at controlling or steering it in their preferred way. Using the findings provided in this study can help practitioners recognise organisational tensions or slippage towards cultural problems before they lead to traumatic organisational crises.

Establishing women in sports history: Manchester City football club

ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of an oral history project focusing on the experiences of female footballers, in particular those playing for Manchester City Women since its formation as a community initiative in 1988, through to its modern-day position as a leading Women's Super League club. It discusses the development of the project, analysis of the methodology employed and provides high-level findings on the club's history, the participants and the research process. For too long female participation, even at England's most famous clubs, has not been widely recognised, reported on or understood. This project, supported by a professional football club, begins to address these omissions. It does so by focusing on personal testimonies, together with archive material to generate an historical account of how a team, established as a community initiative, developed into a major trophy-winning club.

Marketing professional clubs to a foreign market: the brand image of Real Madrid and its impact on behavior intentions from a Chinese perspective

The purpose of this research is first to ascertain what the brand image of a globally recognized sport club is as perceived by the citizens of a foreign market, then to determine how brand image predict behavioral intentions from the perspective of citizens of a foreign market. Using Real Madrid as an example, a survey study was conducted to collect data from residents of Shanghai, China on their perceptions of the club using a public intercept methodology, and CFA analysis resulted in a 16-item scale showing acceptable validity resulted in the creation of five dimensions titled ‘club performance’, ‘CSR activity’, ‘club quality’, ‘club history and tradition’, and ‘team spirit’. In addition, the study supported the assumption that club image would predict the behavioral intentions of citizens from a foreign market. Professional sport clubs wanting to engage with foreign markets need to recognize the relationship between their brand image and the behavioral intentions of citizens in each foreign market to attract them to become supporters of the club.

Social responsibility by Australian football clubs in the 1890s

Purpose This paper aims to examine the social responsibility (SR) by Australian football clubs during the late nineteenth century. While there has been some contemporary research linking SR with sporting clubs, there is a dearth of such studies in the historical context. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a qualitative approach and in the absence of annual reports, relies on The Suburban newspaper narratives of club annual general meetings (AGMs). The National Library of Australia’s newspaper digitisation programme was used which is a unique archive in management research. Findings Even though it was well-known that football provided a social outlet for watching games, this paper found clubs also engaged in a number of SR-related activities that benefited many stakeholders and the surrounding communities. Originality/value Deficient in much of the history of Australian football is the SR that clubs displayed to their stakeholders. This paper lengthens the historical SR literature for sporting clubs, and provides rich and detailed evidence of SR. While Australian football club histories continue to highlight winning teams, premierships and major personalities, their SR contribution is also significant and extends to the foundation of the game.

Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina by Raanan Rein

Reviewed by: Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina by Raanan Rein Patrick F. McDevitt (bio) Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina. By Raanan Rein. Translated by Martha Grenzeback. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015. xii + 226 pp. This monograph makes a vital contribution to the study of both sport and ethnicity in Latin America by examining the longstanding and critical association of Argentina’s Jewish community with the Club Atlanta of the Villa Crespo neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Although the club was not solely run nor patronized by Jews, the prominence of Jewish players and administrators–most vitally the presidency of León Kolbowski–and Villa Crespo’s role as a center of Jewish life in Argentina helped to transform the club and its fans into a metonym for the wider Jewish community from the middle of the twentieth century on. As such, the club became a source of pride for immigrants and their children and grandchildren. Although the title of the book promises a wider history of Jewish footballers and fans in Argentina, Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina is primarily an institutional history of the Club Atlanta and its relationship to the immediate neighborhood rather than a wide-ranging study of Jewish identity and the national game. This emphasis can be viewed as both a strength and a weakness. By focusing so intently on one club, Rein is able to paint a detailed picture of the process by which some Argentinian Jews were transformed “from gringos to criollos” through the adoption of the national sport (15). The downside of this approach is that one is left to extrapolate how this process affected the Jewish population beyond Villa Crespo and the Club Atlanta fan base. To be clear, this is much more than just a traditional “club history”; rather, this book is a true social and cultural history of one club. This is an important distinction. The book attentively explores the ways in which a mixed neighborhood and its associated athletic club came to be predominantly associated with the Jewish community and consequently began to attract the allegiance of fans from beyond the immediate locality. Rein does an excellent job of integrating the development of the club with the wider political history of Argentina. The chapter on the club during the Peron years is especially illuminating and thought-provoking for the manner in which it shows the centrality of sports in legitimating political power. The narrow focus of the book does not preclude the reader from drawing wider insight. Of course, it is patently true that the game of soccer has played and continues to play a defining role in shaping Argentinian society, not just in terms of fandom but on the field itself thanks to the [End Page 582] development of a so-called criollo style of play which focused on creativity and fluidity in contrast to the supposed mechanical nature of European play. This style of play has frequently been held to be emblematic of an essential Argentinian spirit. However, this nationalist interpretation has frequently ignored smaller ethnic groups, including Jews. Rein’s in-depth study of the Club Atlanta remedies that oversight. Grenzeback’s translation of Rein is well-written and enjoyable, but the book’s title promises more than it delivers. It is nonetheless a rigorously-researched and well-contextualized piece of scholarship. This often marginalized club that was frequently in doubt of its ability to continue existing comes to life, and its importance in the broader Argentine context is convincingly demonstrated. However, a more ambitious project that included a further discussion and analysis of the many Argentine Jews who played for other clubs, the national team, or served as administrators beyond Club Atlanta would have been welcome. For example, Juan Pablo Sorín and Leopoldo Bard merit only brief mentions, while Daniel Brailovsky and Walter Samuel are not discussed at all. In particular, an exploration of the Argentine-born and raised Brailovsky’s decision to play for Israel would have possibly shed some light on the double consciousness of Argentinian Jews. In conclusion, Rein’s book takes many important steps toward shedding light on the integrative and nation-building...

More than Male-Gazing: Reflections on Female Fans of Rugby Union in New Zealand, 1870–1920

ABSTRACTThe presence of women in and around rugby union in New Zealand remains on the margins of the histories of the game of rugby and the more social and cultural histories that explore rugby’s impact on the formation of a New Zealand national identity. Yet, as this article demonstrates, women have long since engaged with rugby union in ways that may well have assisted in its ascendancy and ultimate claiming of the title of New Zealand’s national game. Through readings of newspapers, magazines, and club histories covering the period from the 1870s through to the Great War a picture emerges: women from both the middle and lower classes of New Zealand society supported the game of rugby as spectators, supporters, and fans. They did so in a manner that was sometimes acceptable but at other times regarded as distinctly inappropriate. In addition, women’s involvement was informal and localized – most obvious at the community level – and it is this feature that helps to explain women’s virtual invisibility in the histories of rugby union in New Zealand.

‘If I strive not after my own salvation, who shall strive for me, and if not now, when?’ The Role of Religion in the West Central Jewish Working Girls' Club, 1893–1939

This article looks at the inclusion of religion within the West Central Jewish Working Girls' Club in London through newspapers, club histories and oral testimonies. Previous scholarship has downplayed the religious element in Jewish youth clubs; however, this article will demonstrate that religion was a factor within the activities of the West Central Club. Drawing on reports from the club leaders, this article will show that religion was present through prayers and services held on the Sabbath, and, where possible, this religion promoted domesticity for young women.

Measuring the technical efficiency of football legends: who were Real Madrid's all‐time most efficient players?

AbstractMany football players contribute to aggregate results throughout a football club's history. However, no scientific research has pinpointed the most technically efficient players in a football club's history considering their position on the field. The aim of this paper is to propose an output‐oriented nonincreasing returns to scale super‐efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) model in order to measure football players’ performance. The model is applied empirically to Real Madrid's best players (white legends) from the signing of Luis Molowny to Raúl González's departure. Results are also calculated and compared with the standard DEA in order to form the most efficient and super‐efficient historical squad of Real Madrid footballers.

The Dragons of the North: Working-Class Culture, the Miners' Lockout, and the Development of Rugby League in South Wales, 1926–31

The fortunes of Pontypridd Rugby League Club, the most significant attempt to expand rugby league to Wales before the Second World War, have broadly escaped the attention of historians. This article examines the club's history in depth, highlighting the organization of supporters' clubs, junior and senior (amateur) league and cup competitions, and the ties to prevailing sporting culture and the labour movement. Drawing on fresh newspaper and archival research, it argues that, far from being inevitably doomed to failure, another victim of tough economic circumstances, Pontypridd was a viable outfit with the grassroots potential to survive much longer than it did and that it exemplified the growing diversity of sporting activity in the South Wales Valleys in the inter-war years.

Grass Roots: The Development of Tennis in Britain, 1918–1978

Most research on British tennis has focused on social exclusion at the tennis club, on its middle-class image, and on the ‘shamateurism’ of the pre-1968 era. This paper will chart the development of the sport at grass-roots level. It will demonstrate that tennis in the workplace and public parks allowed lower income families to play and that significant numbers did so in less formal settings than those overseen by regional Lawn Tennis Associations. It will suggest that a concentration on the wealthy south-east of England has distorted our impression of the sport itself and the ‘average’ club. Evidence from club histories, official handbooks, company archives and detailed local studies presents a very different picture from that of the suburban ‘garden party’.

Charismatic cops, patriarchs and a few good women: leadership, club culture and young peoples' drinking

The paper reports on key findings of a research project that examined the roles that community-based sporting clubs in the Australian state of Victoria play in shaping young people's understandings and uses of alcohol. Our research imagined clubs as community hubs that are located in complex networks that impact on the ways that clubs understand their locations in communities, and which have unpredictable influences and consequences on club histories, culture and orientations to issues such as young people and alcohol use. The paper focuses on understanding the key roles played by club leaders in facilitating change and transformation in these contexts, particularly in terms of alcohol-related practices and the potential impact of these on young people's uses and understanding of alcohol. We situate these findings in a framework that draws on the literature of complexity science and complex adaptive systems (CAS) to suggest that these practices and changes need to be understood in ways that allow for complexity, uncertainty, emergent behaviours and adaptive change.

‘Ladies First’?: Establishing a Place for Women Golfers in British Golf Clubs, 1867–1914

Sport can be an important agent for social change and social control and is said to have reinforced and reproduced gender divisions and contributed to definitions of masculinity and femininity. It is evident that in both academic and popular literature about sport not enough attention has been paid to the female experience of sporting culture.1 From this perspective, the importance of golf clubs and female involvement, albeit in a restricted way in terms of when and where it was possible to play, deserves some discussion. The aim of this article is to focus on the way women were received by male players in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a crucial time for the sport's development in Britain. In particular, it will address issues of female representation and participation within golf clubs. Drawing on existing club histories and the writings of contemporary female players, the article seeks to identify the position women occupied via consideration of the way women were treated in a sample of British clubs from the 1860s to the start of the First World War.

The Gordon Base Ball Club of Chicago and the Black Sporting Fraternity, 1884–1886

On March 5, 1884, Sporting Life published this item: Gordon Base Ball Club of Chicago, one of the best organizations, proposes to capture the championship of the United States. W. C. Sutliffe is the manager. The players in this club receive from $35 to $50 per week. (1) The Gordon Base Ball Club, or of St. Louis, as sportswriters called them, offer another remarkable chapter to nineteenth-century baseball. The Gordons (1884-86) comprised talented ball tossers from independent professional aggregations: the Unknowns and the Garden Citys, both of Chicago, and the Black Stockings of St. Louis. The Gordons' professional tours followed a regional circuit previously traveled by the Black Stockings in 1883, and it is not improbable that former Black Stockings' players scheduled their new club's road itinerary. Like the Black Stockings, the Gordon Base Ball Club crossed bats with black and white clubs, professionals, semi-professionals and so-called amateurs. Leslie A. Heaphy's Black Baseball and Chicago correctly observes that little is known about late nineteenth-century teams or individual players in the Garden City--another name for Chicago--because sports coverage of nines tended to be sporadic. Heaphy explains: Most of these early teams had to rely on word of mouth advertising and the like since newspapers came and went rather quickly. There were twenty-six African American newspapers established in Chicago between 1878 and 1920 but few lasted. (2) When referring to the Gordon Base Ball Club of 1884, for example, Heaphy's assessment of local newspapers, both white (The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Daily News, and Daily Inter-Ocean) and (The Conservator), appears correct. However, I will suggest here that evidence not be restricted to the Chicago press, and, as the evidence does illustrate, and white newspapers throughout the Midwest and South covered the Gordon Base Ball Club's exploits. What makes the Gordons special? Given the limited number of years the club existed, one might answer nothing at all. Regarding the Gordons, historians have not written much. Conversely, they have rediscovered the Cuban Giants, arguably one of baseball's most successful late nineteenth-century clubs. By comparison, time and neglect shrouds the Gordons' history. Research on baseball, in its infancy, is rather uneven. Late nineteenth-century editors and sportswriters found the Gordons wanting as well. Given the social status of the Chicago White Stockings of the National League, the Chicago Unions of the Union Association, the Chicago Amateur Base Ball Association, and independents, the Gordons competed for highly sought-after column space, but they received scant attention in the local sports pages. The club's unstable position seemed easy to ignore and its pretensions easy to rebuff. Simply claiming themselves colored champions of the United meant little, if anything, to Chicago baseball's elite. This nine deserves better. Historian Neil Harris is correct when he writes that it is so easy to get the postbellum Gilded Age (1873-1901) wrong, because getting it right requires so much research and concentration. (3) It's no one's fault, really. The Gordons weren't or aren't anyone's favorite team. That is, until now. I find the Gordon Base Ball Club's history rather complex and illuminating. It reads like a mystery novel, enigmatically woven into the sociocultural fabric of late nineteenth-century Chicago. The Gordons emerged in the postbellum Gilded Age, the period of economic ascendancy in the United States following the Civil War. While local sports coverage may have ignored their exploits, sportswriters across the country considered the nine good copy; they embodied Chicago's thriving sporting culture. The Gordons were contemporaries of other professional nines, including the St. Louis Black Stockings, Louisville Fall Citys, New Orleans Pickwicks, New Orleans Unions, and Chicago Unknowns. …

浦和レッドダイヤモンズの自律的経営と成長要因

The Urawa Red Diamonds is a representative "big club" in J1-league. It not only won the championship of the J-league 2006 season for the first time in the club's history, but also had an average of 45, 573 attendance per game in that year, which was the league record in the J-league history. Its annual income was 5.8 billion yen. But it was not an easy task for the club to realize this position. The management of the club had been strongly affected by the parent company. Because of the failure of the parent company, the team was demoted to the J2-league in the year 2000 season. The team's success came after the club gained autonomy in management and implemented active reforms. This paper reports on how the Urawa Red Diamonds increased the team performance, the attendance, and the revenue, leading to success.

After the Siren: Sources for Rugby League History Research in Australia

The 2008 centenary of rugby league football in Australia provides opportunities for clubs, governing bodies and cultural institutions to celebrate the sport's heritage. This article examines the major collectors of primary sources relating to rugby league in Australia, including cultural institutions, rugby league organisations and private collectors. It discusses the major categories of primary sources, including printed, manuscript and pictorial material, as well as artefacts. It also suggests sources for exploring beyond the traditional 'who beat whom' narrative that dominates many club histories.

A Shooting at the Galt House: The Death of General William Nelson

A Shooting at the Galt House: The Death of General William Nelson Kirk C. Jenkins Three Confederate generals were murdered during the Civil War: Gen. Earl Van Dorn was shot to death by the husband of a woman he had allegedly seduced; Gen. Lucius Walker was killed in a duel with Gen. John Marmaduke; and Gen. John Wharton was shot by a Texas cavalryman following an argument. But it has been the single slain Union general, William "Bull" Nelson, who has attracted the attention of historians over the years.1 The death of Bull Nelson is the stuff of screenplays: the killing occurred in a moment of crisis, in the midst of Braxton Bragg's invasion of the North, with the entire Federal army encamped around Louisville, about to take the field against the Rebels. The victim, a larger-than-life character who seemed to inspire only the strongest feelings of loyalty or hatred in everyone he met, was gunned down, unarmed, in front of one hundred witnesses by a Union general with the unfortunate name of Jefferson Davis. Best of all, the air of conspiracy and cover-up has always hung heavy over the story of Nelson and Davis's fatal confrontation. A friend of Nelson's who served as one of the pallbearers at his funeral charged in a 1906 article that Nelson was the victim of a conspiracy among Indiana officers in his command. Another author implied that the governor of Indiana, Oliver Morton, was involved in planning the shooting, and yet another suggested that Morton orchestrated Buell's dismissal to coincide with Nelson's death.2 Even the writers who have not seen conspiracy in the shooting itself have seen dark forces at work in the weeks following the incident. General Buell's 1 Richard N. Current, ed., Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, 4 vols. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), 3:1009, 4:1652, 1679, 1I0T, Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, i960), 315, 322, 332; The Civil War Book ofLists (Conshohocken, Pa.: Combined Books, 1994), 152-53. 2 A. M. Ellis, "Major General William Nelson," Kentucky State Historical Society Register 7 (May 1906): 62; Hambleton Tapp, "The Assassination of General William Nelson September 29, 1862 and its Ramifications," The Filson Club History Quarterly 19 (Oct. 1945): 204; Arthur A. Griese, "A Louisville Tragedy—1862," The Filson Club History Quarterly 26 (Apr. 1952): 143. Civil War History, Vol. xliii. No. 2 © 1997 by The Kent State University Press 102CIVIL WAR HISTORY chief of staff, James Barnet Fry, charged a calculated, cold-blooded government cover-up of the shooting, with Governor Morton cast as the lead villain, and other historians have since uncritically repeated Fry's claim.3 A serious charge indeed, but one in conflict with the evidence. It is time for one more look at the shooting of Bull Nelson. Before this article meets the eyes ofour readers, this city may be attacked by rebels and its streets reddened with blood. . . . Let all worldly matters be laid aside . . . meet with alacrity at the places where you are required to meet, and take with you the weapons which have been preserved as heirlooms in your families. . . . Never let it be said that the proud commercial capital of the State was surrendered to the invaders. Never while we have living men or dead bodies to form as breastworks against them. ... To arms and out! —Louisville Daily Journal, September 4, 1 862 Louisville had been under martial law for three weeks, ever since Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith had swept into the state through the Cumberland Gap, pulverized a ragtag Federal force at Richmond, and captured Lexington and Frankfort. During those first days after the disaster at Richmond, everyone had assumed that Smith would keep right on going and take possession of Louisville as well. Louisvillians' nerves were further shaken as refugee families from the Lexington area descended on the city in droves with vivid stories of the ragged Southern veterans. Among the refugees were the new governor, James Robinson, and the entire state legislature, along with the state archives and over one million dollars in state...

The Book-of-the-Month Club and the General Reader: On the Uses of "Serious" Fiction

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Book-of-the-Month Club and the General Reader: On the Uses of "Serious" FictionJanice RadwayJanice Radway Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Critical Inquiry Volume 14, Number 3Spring, 1988The Sociology of Literature Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/448454 Views: 15Total views on this site Citations: 17Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1988 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Victoria Kingham The Excluded Middle: Cultural Polemics and Magazines in America, 1915–1933, (Jan 2012): 115–129.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230354647_8Andrew P. Carlin The Corpus Status of Literature in Teaching Sociology: Novels as “Sociological Reconstruction”, The American Sociologist 41, no.33 (May 2010): 211–231.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-010-9096-8Larry Isaac Movements, Aesthetics, and Markets in Literary Change: Making the American Labor Problem Novel, American Sociological Review 74, no.66 (Dec 2009): 938–965.https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240907400605Elisabeth Klaus Janice Radway: „Frauengenres“ und die alltägliche Produktion von Gender, (Jan 2009): 290–303.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-91839-6_24Denel Rehberg Sedo RICHARD & JUDY'S BOOK CLUB AND ‘CANADA READS’: Readers, books and cultural programming in a digital era1, Information, Communication & Society 11, no.22 (Mar 2008): 188–206.https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180801934487Linsey Howie Ritualising in Book Clubs: Implications for Evolving Occupational Identities, Journal of Occupational Science 10, no.33 (Nov 2003): 130–139.https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2003.9686520David E. Sutton Is Anybody Out There ?, Critique of Anthropology 11, no.11 (Jul 2016): 91–104.https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X9101100105 The Dialectics of Our America, (Jan 1991): 3–22.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822381709-001 “Squeezed by the Banana Company”, (Jan 1991): 23–48.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822381709-002 Chicano Border Narratives as Cultural Critique, (Jan 1991): 49–84.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822381709-003 The Real and the Marvelous in Charleston, South Carolina, (Jan 1991): 87–104.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822381709-004 The Hybridity of Culture in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God, (Jan 1991): 105–120.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822381709-005 The School of Caliban, (Jan 1991): 123–148.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822381709-006 Postcolonial Borders, Dissent, and the Politics of the Possible, (Jan 1991): 149–153.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822381709-007 Notes, (Jan 1991): 155–179.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822381709-008 References, (Jan 1991): 181–195.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822381709-009Elizabeth Long Cultural studies, Critical Studies in Mass Communication 6, no.44 (Dec 1989): 427–435.https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038909366768

The Club of Rome – Reaffirmation of a Mission

Following the death of its president and founder Aurelio Peccei, the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome agreed that it was imperative that the Club maintain its momentum and fund of good will in facing the problems of the end of the century. Deep consideration has been given to the objectives and methods of the Club, and the need for many changes of emphasis is recognized. Nevertheless, it remains committed to the aims which were articulated when it was founded in 1968. For the Club's history, see: A. King, The Club of Rome, a Case Study of Institutional Innovation. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 4, 54, 1979. ‘We are dedicated to ensuring a promising future for humankind, and, despite the many problems of transition in world society, we believe that human creativity can be mobilized to overcome the difficulties ahead.’

The Club of Rome – Reaffirmation of a Mission

Following the death of its president and founder Aurelio Peccei, the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome agreed that it was imperative that the Club maintain its momentum and fund of good will in facing the problems of the end of the century. Deep consideration has been given to the objectives and methods of the Club, and the need for many changes of emphasis is recognized. Nevertheless, it remains committed to the aims which were articulated when it was founded in 1968. For the Club's history, see: A. King, The Club of Rome, a Case Study of Institutional Innovation. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 4, 54, 1979. ‘We are dedicated to ensuring a promising future for humankind, and, despite the many problems of transition in world society, we believe that human creativity can be mobilized to overcome the difficulties ahead.’

Benjamin H. Bristow: Civil Rights Champion, 1866-1872

BENJAMIN H. BRISTOW: Civil Rights Champion, 1866-1872 Ross A. Webb In our own day, when the issue of civil rights weighs heavy upon the American conscience, it is interesting that the arguments and aims of contemporary civil rights leaders rest heavily upon those put forward in the post-Civil War period. The issue then, as now, involved a Federal invasion of states rights as a result of congressional legislation aimed at guaranteeing the rights of a minority—namely the Negro. One of the champions of civil rights in that era of detraction was Benjamin Helm Bristow. Born on June 20, 1832, at Elkton, Kentucky, Bristow was the son of Francis Marion Bristow, outspoken congressional critic of secession in 1861.1 After attending Jefferson College in Pennsylvania , Bristow read law in his father's office. With the outbreak of rebellion he became a Union supporter. Although resident in a pro-Confederate area, Bristow helped raise two Federal regiments in Kentucky; saw service at Fort Donelson and Shiloh; assisted in the capture of the Confederate raider, John Hunt Morgan; and served in the state senate from 1863 to 1865 as a strong supporter of the Lincoln administration . With the adjournment of the senate in June 1865, Colonel Bristow resumed his law practice at Hopkinsville.2 However, in the fall of that year, through his friendship with Attorney General James Speed, he secured the appointment as assistant district attorney for Kentucky. In this capacity he assumed a leading role in the prosecution of the government 's cases since the United States attorney, Joshua Tevis, was prone to ill health.3 In the spring of 1866 Bristow wrote to the Attorney General requesting permission to arrest and prosecute formerly indicted Confederates. He advised Speed that pardon to such individuals should be dealt out sparingly since governmental leniency was not appreciated. Speed considered Bristow's observations so important that he showed the letter to the President. Already aware of "the troubles in Kentucky," Johnson promised the Attorney General that he would withhold further par1 See Ross A. Webb, "Francis Marion Bristow, A Study in Unionism," The Filson Club History Quarterly, XXXVII (Apr., 1963), 142-158. 2 See Ross A. Webb, "A Yankee From Dixie: Benjamin Helm Bristow," Civil War History, X (Mar., 1964), 80-94. 3 Joshua Tevis to James Speed, Nov. 16, 1865. Papers of the Attorney General, Letters Received, Kentucky, 1832-1870, National Archives, Record Group 60 ( hereafter referred to as NA, RG. ). J.A. Rowland to Joshua Tevis, Nov. 21, 1865, Papers of the Attorney General, Letter Book E, 316, NA, RG 60. 39 40CIVIL WAR HISTORY dons to Kentuckians and authorized Bristow to proceed with his actions . Antagonized by the aggressive activities of his assistant, Tevis remonstrated and shortly after resigned, whereupon Bristow was appointed his successor.4 As reconstruction got under way, the legal business of the government increased tremendously; the calendars of the Federal courts were filled with treason, confiscation, and revenue cases. Bristow requested, and secured, the appointment of Gabriel C. Wharton as his assistant. Together they worked hard to impose Federal law and order upon the state.5 Kentucky at this time was filled with unrest due to the antagonism against the administration caused by the promulgation of the Thirteenth Amendment and the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau. Although the legislature, in conformity with the law, repealed the slave code and gave virtually all civil rights to the Negro, it did withhold the use of Negro testimony as evidence against whites.6 Dissatisfaction grew even stronger when the Radical Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of April 9, 1866, over President Johnson's veto. This measure not only attempted to define citizenship, but asserted the right of the Federal government to intervene in state affairs if necessary to protect its citizens. It declared that individuals "of every race and color" had the right in every state to sue, give evidence, inherit, hold and convey property , and were entitled "to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property." As a threat to delinquent states, the Federal courts were given exclusive jurisdiction over offenders and the United States military...