"....We ask you to take tomorrow and dream; we know that you will see visions we do not see. We are certain that in capturing today for you, you can plan and build. Take our constitution and study it, work with it in your classrooms, understand its meaning and the facts within it. Help others to love and appreciate it. You are Alaska's children...."
These are some of the words that were spoken in the closing minutes of the Alaskan Constitutional Convention on February 6, 1956. Looking forward to the future with vision and hope, a group of men and women forged the Constitution for Alaska; the 49th State of the Union.
It is an honor to acknowledge these people for they truly had great vision.
The Alaska State Constitutional Convention developed from a movement which had been started by James Wickersham in 1916, when he introduced the first statehood bill in the United States Congress. In 1949, the territorial legislature created the first Alaska Statehood Committee. During the early 1950s, a formal organization entitled Operation Statehood was developed. In 1955, The territorial legislature called a constitutional convention without a congressional enabling act, and delegates were chosen throughout the state. When they met in College, Alaska, they chose William Egan as president of the convention. The convention deliberated from November 1955 to February 1956, when they signed the new state constitution. The document was ratified by the voters of Alaska in the primary election of April 1956. The constitution became effective January 3rd, 1959, when the President of the United States issued the proclamation, declaring Alaska to be a State of the Union.
My father, George Cooper, Vice Chairman on the Commitee of Suffrage, Elections and Apportionments, signing the Constitution.