Published on Show Me Mizzou Dec. 17, 2025
When it comes to political history, there’s power in perspective. This was clear in October as Albie Sachs transported a packed crowd at the State Historical Society of Missouri back in time to the early days of South African apartheid through his firsthand accounts and powerful protest songs.
Sachs — a lawyer, anti-apartheid activist and later judge on the first South African Constitutional Court — served as the kickoff speaker in the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy’s America at 250: Global Perspectives speaker series. The series is part of the institute’s overarching programming to both celebrate and study America’s constitutional democracy at age 250. In addition to Sachs, the Global 250 speaker series will include not only a United States historical view from Kinder Director Jay Sexton but also scholarly perspectives from experts around the world, including Australia, Italy, France, Mexico, Iceland, Canada, Japan, Korea and the United Kingdom.
“Foreign perspectives provide us with the opportunity to step beyond our national frame, to transcend the stalemated culture wars that have come to structure and distort our understanding of the past, which in the process has limited the possibilities for the future,” Sexton said at the inaugural lecture.
There’s also value in the local perspective — and in getting young people to share theirs at an early age. So as part of 250th anniversary programming, the Kinder Institute also held the first-ever Missouri Civics Bee in August. Nine middle-school students from around the state answered civics-minded quiz questions and presented their own solutions to policy and community challenges.
Konnor Chipps, an eighth-grader from the Raymore-Peculiar School District, won the Civics Bee with a policy position on the Missouri Department of Transportation’s winter road maintenance, an issue he experienced firsthand during hard winters riding with his father to school. Chipps used historical research on federal funding and policy as well as data on hiring practices and labor turnover to propose ways to improve and refine road maintenance. As Missouri’s state winner, he got a chance to present and expand upon his case at The National Civics Bee in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 11.
Other Kinder Institute programming for America’s 250th is currently in the works, including the upcoming results of public history research from ASH Scholars, a joint program of Mizzou’s Honors College and the Office of Undergraduate Research. Working with Lily Santoro, associate teaching professor of history, the Public History ASH Scholars team is analyzing public sentiment about the Declaration of Independence as it nears its anniversary. These scholars will share their results both in an exhibit at the Missouri State Capitol and an upcoming podcast series in collaboration with Missouri Humanities.
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