Portrait of Judge John B. Sanborn Jr.

Judge John B. Sanborn Jr.

Portrait of Judge John B. Sanborn Jr.

Legislative Redistricting, 1959–1993

By the late 1950s Minnesota’s legislative districts—last configured in 1913—had become alarmingly imbalanced. Though the state constitution required the districts to be drawn “in proportion to population,” the populations of House districts ranged from 7,290 residents to 107,246, and Senate districts from 16,878 to 153,455. It would take fourteen years, three federal lawsuits, three special sessions of the legislature, three governor’s vetoes, one trip to the Minnesota Supreme Court, and one to the US Supreme Court to fix the problem, and then temporarily. Twenty years and one more governor’s veto later, the US Supreme Court intervened again.

Picture of Carl Rowan taken during his time as an ensign in the United States Navy. Uploaded by Flickr user Tennessee State Library and Archives, February 11, 2013. CC BY-NC-ND-2.0.

Carl Thomas Rowan

Picture of Carl Rowan taken during his time as an ensign in the United States Navy. Uploaded by Flickr user Tennessee State Library and Archives, February 11, 2013. CC BY-NC-ND-2.0.

Rowan in Washington, DC, ca .1997. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND-2.0) license.Rowan in Washington, DC, ca .1997. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND-2.0) license.

Carl Rowan

Rowan in Washington, DC, ca .1997. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND-2.0) license.

Rowan, Carl Thomas (1925–2000)

Carl Thomas Rowan was a prominent American journalist, author, and government official. A liberal commentator and champion for civil rights, Rowan published books and a variety of news columns syndicated across the US. He was one of the first commissioned black officers in the US Navy, and became the highest-ranking black government official of his time.

Osmund Osmundson, ca. 1910

Osmund Osmundson

Osmund Osmundson, ca. 1910

Osmundson, Osmund O. (1826–1914)

Osmund Osmundson, founder of Nerstrand, Minnesota, played a prominent role in a variety of local affairs, including business, civics, and education. He was one of several men who incorporated St. Olaf College in 1874. Built in 1880, his spacious brick house in Nerstrand was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Woman-suffrage banner used by the St. Paul Political Equality Club, 1920–1936.

Woman-suffrage banner

Woman-suffrage banner used by the St. Paul Political Equality Club, 1920–1936.

Minnesota Governor J. A. O. Preus and Idelle Preus voting, ca. 1920.

Governor J. A. O. Preus and Idelle Preus

Minnesota Governor J. A. O. Preus and Idelle Preus voting, ca. 1920.

Suffrage cartoon by A. T. Reid from the Minneapolis Tribune, showing the tally of suffrage states by political parties as of July 16, 1920. The man represents southern Democrats who had a reputation for being anti-suffrage.

Suffrage cartoon

Suffrage cartoon by A. T. Reid from the Minneapolis Tribune, showing the tally of suffrage states by political parties as of July 16, 1920. The man represents southern Democrats who had a reputation for being anti-suffrage.

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