Speaker: Sara Crook

Location: Norfolk Public Library, Room B/C

This session will discuss the history and politics of Nebraska’s admittance as the 37th state in the Union. As the first state admitted after the Civil War, Nebraska not only faced the politics within the state, but Reconstruction politics as well.

Dr. Sara Crook is professor emerita of political science and history at Peru State College, receiving many scholarly and teaching awards during her tenure. Dr. Crook has also served as chair of the Humanities Nebraska board, president of the Nebraska State Historical Society board, chair of the Nebraska Sesquicentennial Commission, and is the current chair of the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission. She also is a member of the Humanities Nebraska Speakers Bureau.

Dr. Crook’s love of Nebraska history and politics goes back to her childhood. As a farm girl growing up in a country church and attending a one-room country school in the Platte River Valley in the 1950s and 60s, she developed a deep appreciation for Nebraska and its people that continues to this day.