On This Day... December 5th, 2019
What happened around this time in FBA’s history? See below for some pretty cool tidbits.
Dec. 2, 1943: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt addresses the FBA’s weekly luncheon meeting, which sold out its capacity of 150 tickets weeks in advance. Speaking of her recent trip to visit U.S. troops fighting in the South Pacific, she tells her audience: “It is the obligation of those at home to justify sacrifices being made on the battlefronts by energetically working for an early victory and a lasting peace which will provide an education and a job for the men returning to civilian life.”
Dec. 12, 1922: FBA holds its first banquet at Rauscher’s, an elegant French institution in downtown D.C. Speakers include U.S. Sen. Thomas Sterling, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Mable Walker Willebrandt, and Walter McCoy, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.
Dec. 18, 1991: In honor of the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, the FBA holds a “town meeting” at Philadelphia’s Congress Hall, where the foundational document was ratified on Dec. 15, 1791. As part of the program — which is videotaped and later distributed to FBA chapters as well as high school civics teachers throughout the country — local high school students discuss the Bill of Rights with an expert panel of attorneys and judges.
December 1966: The FBA announces the creation of a Speakers Bureau, through which expert members will appear as guest speakers at FBA chapter events.