Side A: Republican congressman William M. McCulloch was one of the architects of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, the first of three laws to recommit the nation to the cause of civil rights in the 1960s. “Bill” McCulloch was born near Holmesville to James H. and Ida McCulloch on November 24, 1901. Raised on the family farm, he attended local public schools, the College of Wooster, and, in 1925, earned his law degree from the Ohio State University. He married his childhood sweetheart Mabel Harris McCulloch (1904-1990) in 1927, after settling in Jacksonville to start his career during the Florida land-boom of the 1920s. It was in Jacksonville that the Deep South’s racial intolerance seared him. (Continued on other side)
Side B: (Continued from other side) The McCullochs returned to Ohio in 1928 and Bill joined a law firm in Piqua. He entered politics in 1932, winning election to the Ohio General Assembly. He was Speaker of the Ohio House from 1939-1944 and, after service in army during World War II, was elected the representative from the Fourth Ohio Congressional District, serving from 1948-1973. He rose to become the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. Seeing himself as an upholder of Republicans’ commitment to civil rights, dating from the founding of the party, McCulloch co-sponsored what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964, adroitly guiding it to passage. He died in 1980 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.