How Boys State affected me
Boys State was created in 1935 to counteract a project underway in the 1930's called Young Pioneer Camps, which were promoted by the Fascist party to attract high school students. At these camps the Fascist Part would advocate the virtues of the Fascist system and the uselessness of Democracy. Hayes Kennedy, the Americanism Chairman of the Illinois Department of the American Legion, felt that a counter movement had to be started among the ranks of the nation's youth to stress the importance and value of a Democratic form of government and maintain an effort to preserve and perpetuate it. The Illinois Department of the American Legion approved Kenney's project and in the summer of that year, the first Boys State in the nation was held on the grounds of the Illinois State Fair and eventually spread nationwide.