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The 2008 theme is: “Conflict and Compromise in [Chicago/Illinois] History”
Suggested Topics for “Conflict and Compromise”
These are the topics only—it is up to the student historians to find the stories, people, and sources that will make the story come alive, allow students to analyze, present evidence, and explain significance.
Political Conflicts and Compromises
- Chicago Responds to the Fugitive Slave Act
- Stephen Douglas and the Missouri Compromise
- Founding of Chicago
- Double V Campaign of World War II
- Staying Republican in the African-American Community: Irene and Harris Gaines
- Immigrant groups and political voice/representation and power [Puerto Ricans, Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Asians….]
- Who Governs the City? Municipal Charter Reform
- Battle for the Equal Rights Amendment
- Who Won What: Saul Alinsky’s style and other community organizing styles
- The Fight to Create the Forest Preserves
- Chicago vs St. Louis and the Sanitary and Shipping Canal
- Paul Douglas the Creation of Indiana Dunes
- John Altgeld and Pardoning of Haymarket
- Immigration Policy & Changing Communities [Chinese, Mexican, German…]
- Harold Washington from Council Wars to County Armistice
- Legislative Black Caucus
- Clarence Darrow for the Defense
- After the Fire: The Rebuilding of Chicago
- Fair Employment Practices Commission
- Dealing at the Wigwam: [National party conventions for each party have been held in Chicago—any defining moments for the party or for the nation]
- Nativists vs Immigrants
- Illinois: Free vs Slave State
- Struggle to End the Black Codes in Illinois
- Red Squad—The Fight to End and Expose It
- After Conflicts, Commissions: The Role and Impact of [Kerner, Walker, 1919 Race….] Commission
- Finding a Home for UIC
- “Socialized Motherhood?” The Sheppard-Towner Act
- Conflict Within: Ntl v American Women’s Suffrage Association in Chicago
- The Machine v Independents: Len Despres
- Illlinois Civil Rights Act of 1885
- Student Take-Overs/Sit-ins [Black Studies at NU, Child Care at UIC, War at UC….]
- National Origins Act of 1924: Ethnic Conflict and Compromise
- Immigration Act of1965
- Back of the Yards Council
- The Woodlawn Organization
- Russell Square Neighborhood
- Integrating Chicago’s Y’s
- Abolitionists in Chicago
- More than Suffrage [other women’s struggles for equal rights….]
- Illinois Responds to the Great Depression—“Send Me Money or Send me Bullets”
- AMA’s Opposition to Health Care Insurance for All
- Cold War in the Schools
- Homefront Battles During War
- Clocking Conflict and Compromise—Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
- Chicago Freedom Movement
Economic Conflicts and Compromises
- Company Unionism in Pullman
- City Founders or City Speculators?
- Steel Industrial Council and Alshuler arbitration
- Chicago Relief Society & Who Determines “The Worthy Poor?!”
- Battle over the Air Waves: FCC v Private Radio Industry
- Battle over Transportation: Public v Yerkes
- Fight for the 10-hour day for women
- New Deal [Social Security, WPA, Fair Labor Standards Act, Isolationism…]
- Munn v Illinois
- Capitalism Moves: Canals vs Railroads
- Johnson Administration’s War on Poverty in Chicago Neighborhoods
- The Bimetallism Debate: Silver vs Gold
- Chicago Board of Trade
- Garment Workers: Knowing When to Conflict and When to Compromise
- Pullman Strike
- 1877 Uprising
- Failures and Lessons of the 1904 and 1921 Stockyard Strikes
- Stockyards Council
- Steel Council
- Workers Responses to Industrial Capitalism [IWW, CIO, AFL, Labor parties….]
- Wagner Act’s Effect in Chicago
- Business and Professional People in the Public Interest
- Operation Breadbasket
- Firefighters Strike
- Gail Cincotta and Redlining the Neighborhoods
- Pullman Ladies’ Auxiliary
- Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work
- Consumer Campaign movement
Social, Cultural, or Ideological Conflict & Compromise
- World’s Columbian Exposition [issues around architecture, women, African-Americans, other nations/peoples]
- World’s Fairs, Whose Fairs?
- Integration of the Loyola U basketball team and other recreational, sports
- Old Settlers and the New Migrants
- “The Quiet Art of No Compromise“ and the Third World Press
- Many Feminisms [Abortion, birth control, work, stereotypes….]
- Discrimination of women for jobs, pay, etc.
- Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Civil Rights Movement
- Charlemae Rollins and the Origins of Multicultural Children’s Books
- Early Birth Control Movement
- Rebel Voices: Alternative Publishing in Chicago
- Victor Arrigo and the Creation of Columbus Day
- World Parliament of Religions
- Vashti McCullom and Separation of Church
- Uplifting Julius Rosenwald
- The South Moves North: Elder Lucy Smith and the Chicago Church Establishment
- Americanization of Immigrant Catholic Church
- When the Only Way is Out: The Howalton School
- Environmental Justice in the Neighborhoods
Urban
- Open Housing (city and suburbs)
- Public Housing
- Settlement Houses, The Elite, The Neighbors (Hull House and beyond)
- White Riots and Integrated Housing
- The Gentrification of Lincoln Park
- White flight [Austin, Beverly…]
- Battle on the Lakefront: Forever Free and Clear?
- Urban renewal [Sandburg homes, Lake Meadows….]
- Urban Renewal and the Neighborhood: Who Decided, Who Gained
- Preservation cases
- A School to Call Our Own [Juarez, DuSable….]
- Annexation of Chicago: Conflicts and Compromises
- Building of the Kennedy Expressway and Community Rights
Military/Wartime/Peace Conflict and Compromise
- Copperheads in Chicago
- POW Camp Douglass
- Colonel McCormick
- Segregation of Troops
- Segregation on the Home Front
- Race or Ethnic Loyalties during War [World War I, World War II, Vietnam….]
- Free Speech during War
- Women in Military… WAVES, WACS
- Black Hawk War and Before
- Illinois Territory in the American Revolution
- Multicultural Chicago
- Which Side Are You On? Billy Sauganush
- Illinois Calvary
- After the War and Rosie…
- Jane Addams at The Hague WWI
- Cold War in Chicago
- Treaties that Built Chicago
- Anti-Imperialist League
- Early dissenters of the Vietnam War
- Abraham Lincoln Brigade
- Conscientious Objectors in World War I, WWII, Vietnam
- Nonviolent Action: Labor and Civil Rights Sit-ins
- World War I: Dewey vs Randolph Bourne
- Memorials to War—What Story is Being Told
- Role of Chicago in Japanese Relocation
- Ben Hecht’s Mission to save European Jews from the Holocaust
- Nuclear Freeze: Citizen Peace Action of the 1980s, Ban Bomb
- Council on Foreign Relations—Cold War Alternative
- Women Strike for Peace
Read the National History Day Essay
Want more ideas for finding a topic for History Fair?
See the Chicago History Fair Find Topics page.
Got questions, comments, suggestions about these topics or any others? Visit and participate on our History Fair Blog.
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