Paul Soglin

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Paul Soglin (born April 22, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois) is a politician and activist based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Soglin was raised in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. He graduated from Highland Park High School and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1966 and, in 1972, a law degree from the university's law school.

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[edit] Political career

While a graduate student in the University of Wisconsin-Madison History Department, Soglin was first elected to Madison's Common Council in 1968. He was re-elected in 1970, and 1972. The following year, he ran for mayor of Madison and was elected.

In May of 1969, Soglin, while representing the Eighth Ward, was twice arrested at the first infamous Mifflin Street Block Party. Soglin was tried and found guilty of "Failing to Obey the Lawful Order of a Police Officer." The charge from the second day, "Unlawful Assembly," was thrown out by a federal court. The following fall he enrolled in law school.

He served as mayor of Madison for three terms from 1973 to 1979. In 1979 he became a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. After serving for nearly a decade as a lawyer in Madison, Soglin returned to office in 1989, serving additional three additional terms as mayor until 1997. The last term was not completed when Soglin made an unsuccessful run for the United States House of Representatives in 1996, seeking to represent Wisconsin's Second Congressional District. In 2003, he sought election once again as mayor of Madison, but was defeated by a narrow margin by Dave Cieslewicz. Ironically, in his latest campaign for mayor, Soglin was often perceived as the conservative candidate.

[edit] Accomplishments as mayor

Soglin led Madison through a dynamic period of change and growth. Among the changes and accomplishments on his watch:

  • Soglin led the project to construct the State Street Mall and the Concourse around Capital Square.
  • Under his guidance, the city started its first day care program, providing certification for independent day care centers.
  • During his first administration, the city coordinated renovation of several buildings on State Street to build the Madison Civic Center. (That center was itself renovated and is now the Overture Center.)
  • Soglin led reforms in the city's hiring of women and minorities.
  • Soglin was part of a team that enabled Monona Terrace, a building designed for Madison by noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s, to finally be built.

During Soglin's terms in office, Madison's bond rating (per Moody's Investment Services) was upgraded to AAA status. Madison was also named to the most livable cities list several times during Soglin's second tenure as mayor, capturing the number one spot in 1996 and again in 1998.

[edit] Activism

Soglin is a noted activist, an aspect of his public life that began when he was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Soglin participated in numerous demonstrations and advocated for a number of causes, but his most notable moment as an activist was his participation in demonstrations against Dow Chemicals on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in 1967. Dow had come to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to recruit engineering students as potential new employees, but students were protesting the company because of Dow's role in the war in Vietnam (the company was the manufacturer of napalm).

Dow also manufactured Agent Orange which, unbeknownst to the students and the soldiers serving in Vietnam, was to be a far more devastating chemical, due primarily to the fact that it contained small amounts of dioxin.

Soglin was beaten by police during the demonstrations and was elected to lead the subsequent student strike.

Much of this demonstration was captured on film, and an interview with Soglin by journalist and author David Maraniss served as the basis for several chapters of the book They Marched Into Sunlight, as well as the PBS documentary Two Days In October. Interview footage with Soglin also figures prominently in the documentary, The War at Home (1979), which chronicled the history of Madison in the Vietnam War era.

In 1975, Soglin became the first U.S. mayor and only the fourth politician from the United States to meet Fidel Castro.

[edit] References

  • Kenner, Robert, director (2005). Two Days in October. Documentary film. PBS Direct. DVD Release, November 8, 2005. ASIN B000BKSITY
  • Maraniss, David (2003). They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America, October 1967. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-1780-2
  • Silber, Glenn and Barry Alexander Brown, directors (1979). The War at Home. Documentary film. Buena Vista Home Entertainment. DVD Release, September 3, 2002. ASIN B000065V3U

[edit] External links