NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #5; 2 February 2006)
2. HISTORY GROUPS APPEAL TO SECRETARY SPELLINGS TO FUND STATE HISTORY ASSESSMENT
3. HISTORIANS URGE COURT TO OPEN 40-YEAR OLD PRESIDENTIAL MEMOS
4. BITS AND BYTES: Idea of America Essay Contest Announced; Comments Sought on Proposed ISSO Directive; Gilder Lehrman Postdoctoral Fellowships
5. ARTICLES OF INTEREST: No posting this week
1. SITE SELECTED FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MUSEUM On 30 January 2006 the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents announced its preference for where to place the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. If the regents recommendation is embraced by other planning authorities, the new museum dedicated to black history will be built on a five-acre parcel just 800 feet from the Washington Monument, at the intersection of 14th Avenue and Constitution Avenue N.W., just across the street from the National Museum of American History.
Placement of the museum on the National Mall is designed to make it a popular tourist destination once construction of the $350 million facility is completed in 2016. Lonnie G. Bunch, director of the new museum, stated that “the selection of the site ensures that the history will be available for all those that visit the Mall.” Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small expressed similar sentiments and announced that officials will now begin working on architectural plans with the National Capitol Planning Commission and the Commission of Find Arts and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, all of which must also pass judgement on the site.
The location selected by the regents is not without controversy. Four sites had been under active consideration: where the present Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building is located (also on the Mall), the “Liberty Loan” site (located not far from the Bureau of Engraving and the Holocaust Museum), the “Banneker Overlook” site (situated in the Southwest waterfront
area) and the site selected by the Regents. Critics of the Mall location fear that the museum’s height could obscure the view of the Washington Monument. Others believe the proposed location is unacceptable as it is one of a few remaining parcels of open land used for Mall events; construction on it will have a detrimental impact on large Mall events. The preferred location is also in a floodplain and traffic congestion and a lack of parking also will present challenges for the museum’s planners.
About fifty percent of the cost of the projected 350,000 square-foot facility will be provided by the federal government, the balance being raised privately. The museum’s collections will cover the gamut of the black experience in America – from the slave experience through post-Civil War Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights movement.
2. HISTORY GROUPS APPEAL TO SECRETARY SPELLINGS TO FUND STATE HISTORY ASSESSMENT Several major history organizations have sent a letter to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings requesting that she find within her department’s discretionary budget the funds necessary to initiate a state by state assessment of student’s performance on history tests.
The letter, signed by representatives of the American Historical Association, National Coalition for History, National Council for History Education, National Council for the Social Studies, Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Historians urges the secretary, “ to find the requisite funds in the FY 2006 budget authorization for the Department of Education to carry out provisions of Senate bill 860 (S. 860).”
The referenced legislation was introduced last year by Senators Lamar Alexander (Chair of the Education and Early Childhood Development
Subcommittee) and Ted Kennedy (the Ranking Minority member for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee). At first, congressional funding to implement the measure seemed assured, but the specific funding for implementation was struck down at the last moment by House and Senate managers. Reportedly, they eliminated the funding from the conference report that appropriates funding for the Education department in fiscal
2006 budget in order to lessen the projected budget deficit. The conferees did, however, reference the legislation in the Department of Education conference report for Public Law 109-149 and urged the secretary to begin work on the assessment using other departmental funds.
In hearings conducted in June 2005 by the Senate Education and Early Childhood Development Subcommittee on this measure, the Executive Director of the National Assessment Governing Board, Dr. Charles Smith, stated that American History is our students "worst subject" in public schools. During that hearing, noted historian David McCullough also expressed his personal concern that the ignorance America's children display about their nation's past presents the most dangerous threat to America's future.
The letter from the historical associations states: “In our collective view, this year state accountability in U.S. History must be made a departmental priority... we urge that you carefully scrutinize the budget Congress authorized your department for FY 2006 and find the necessary funds to begin work on the first state-wide comparison of the 2006 N.A.E.P.
U.S. History assessment.”
No response to the letter has yet been received from the Secretary’s office.
3. HISTORIANS URGE COURT TO OPEN 40-YEAR OLD PRESIDENTIAL MEMOS On 27 January 2006 several of the nation's leading history, archival, political science, and other scholarly associations, along with a number of prominent scholars of the presidency and the Vietnam War, filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit brought by University of California, Davis, Professor Larry Berman. The case involves Berman's effort to obtain release under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of two almost 40-year-old CIA memos to President Johnson. Represented by Matthew W.S. Estes, the scholars seek to alert the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to the broad implications of the lower court’s ruling.
In the lower court, U.S. District Judge David Levi held that the CIA may categorically refuse to review for release all President's Daily Briefs, in perpetuity, regardless of their content, because the intelligence reports are a protected intelligence method. Attorney Matthew Estes commented, "Judge Levi's expansive ruling could reverse 40 years of access to historical CIA intelligence products. The decision is not required by the Freedom of Information Act or court precedents and, in fact, is in direct conflict with applicable Supreme Court holdings and Congressional action.
It also represents poor public policy that runs counter to the principle that historical presidential records should be made public that has been cited by the Supreme Court, Congress and our past presidents."
Judge Levi also held that the briefs could be categorically withheld because they are protected by a limitless presidential privilege for confidential communications with advisers. The scholars argue that this holding contradicts the Supreme Court's decision in the Nixon tapes cases that privilege erodes over time and Congress's clear finding in the 1978 Presidential Records Act that the privilege no longer applies 12 years after the president leaves office. Moreover, the rationale for the privilege makes no sense in light of the extensive public availability of President Johnson's deliberations, including over 400 hours of tapes of his oval office conversations.
Signatories to the amici include: the American Historical Association, the American Political Science Association, the National Coalition for History, the Organization of American Historians, the Presidency Research Group, the Society of American Archivists, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. The noted scholars listed on the amici include: Barton J. Bernstein, Robert Dallek, Lloyd Gardner, Fred I. Greenstein, George C.
Herring, Jeffrey P. Kimball, Stanley I. Kutler, Walter LaFeber, Anna Nelson, and Robert D. Schulzinger.
The amicus brief, along with other court papers and supporting documents, is available on the National Security Archive website at http://www.nsarchive.org.
4. BITS AND BYTES
Item #1 – Idea of America Essay Contest Announced: The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invites all eligible high school juniors to enter the 2006 “Idea of America Essay Contest,” Open to 11th-grade students and
16- and 17-year-old home-schooled students, the contest offers a cash prize of $5,000 to the author of the winning essay. Three national finalists will each receive cash prizes of $1,000. The deadline for entries is 19 April 2006. The contest seeks to encourage students to think and write analytically about significant events and individuals in American history and to examine and analyze the defining principles of the American nation. For the 2006 contest, students must write an original 1,500-word essay that examines the historical debate in the nation’s First Congress over the benefits and disadvantages of adopting the First Amendment. Winners will be announced in the fall of 2006 during a special ceremony in Washington D.C. For additional information and guidelines visit http://www.humanities.gov .
Item #2 – Comments Sought on Proposed ISSO Directive: A proposed rule published in the Federal Register on 27 January 2006 ( page 4541) relating to the Information Security Oversight Office is titled, “National Industrial Security Program Directive No. 1.” The rule seeks to help safeguard federal government classified information that is released to contractors, licensees, and grantees of the United States Government. The agency is inviting comments on the rule; deadline for submissions is 13 March 2006. For the proposed rule go to:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net.
Item #3 – Gilder Lehrman Postdoctoral Fellowships: The Gilder Lehrman Center has announced its postdoctoral fellowships for the 2006-07 academic year in “Slavery, Abolition, and Resistence.” The fellowship seeks to promote a better understanding of all aspects of the institution of slavery from the earliest times to the present. The fellowship program is designed to support both established and younger scholars by providing access to the research facilities at Yale University. Application details may be obtained by taping into: http://www.h-net.org/ .
5. ARTICLES OF INTEREST
No posting this week.