Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

the Catholic chufch, and other groups like Lutherans and all that had
schools to ask for this kind of help.
Q: Did Senator Cherry approach you to cosponsor the bill?
A: I'm sure he did. He might have said to me that he had such a bill
and I knew what the concept was and if 1 were in agreement with that concept
then I would sponsor it, which I did.
Q: Other than voting for such a bill, what does cosponsoring involve?
A: Well, if you cosponsor a bill, it means you agree with the concept of
the bill and, in addition to voting for it, you would be expected to speak
for the bill when it came up for debate, to answer questions as they arose.
The sponsor usually answers most of the questions, hut a cosponsor would
be supportive in answering the questions or addressing some of rhe arguments
in opposition. You would be expected, of course, to help it get through
committee and to vote for it on the floor. You would also be expected to
resist amendments which would weaken the impact of the bill.
Q: Do you recall any amendments with this particular bill?
A: I wouldn't remember any specific amendments, no.
Q: Do you remember any of the committee action in regard to this bill?
A: Not in specificity, no.
Q: There was a bill introduced by Senator Graham in 1973 which was to
forbid the phyment of dues in associations when those associations would not
allow member and nonmember schools to participate in athletics or sports.
Do you recall that bill?
A: I don't remember that at all.
Q: It failed. Were there any other areas in education that we haven't
touched on here? Any other specific educational bills that had to do with
the civil rights of the students or of individuals that you feel were
important?
A: (pause) I don't remember any offhand, any others offhand.
Q: Okay. On the Fair Employment Practices Commission, the effort to get
this established went over several years starting in 1953, before you
were involved there, I guess. Evidently Senator Wimbish was very active in
1953 in attempting to get a bill through on this. Did you know Senator
Wimbish ?
A: Knew him very well. He preceded Senator Smith in the Senate. When he
left the Senate, Senator Smith went there. I suppose that Representative
Corneal Davis in the House was a prime sponsor of the bill for many many