Premier

American Legion Illinois Premier Boys State is among the most respected and selective educational programs of government instruction for high school students. It is a participatory program in which students learn by doing and become part of the operation of city, county, and state governments. Now a national program of the American Legion, Boys State was founded in Illinois in 1935 to counter the socialism-inspired Young Pioneer Camps. The program was founded by three Illinois Legionnaires, Hayes Kennedy, Harold Card, and Matthew Murphy, who organized the first Boys State at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. That is why we use the moniker “Premier” as part of our title; we are Premier.

American Legion Auxiliary sponsors a separate but similar program for young women called Girls State.

At Boys State, participants learn the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of citizenship. Although fictional political parties are created and the citizens are randomly assigned to one, Boys State is nonpartisan in the sense of U.S. or Illinois political parties. The hands-on political and governmental elements of the program center around creating and facilitating city, county, and state governments. Boys State activities include various levels of legislative sessions, political party caucuses, four different election cycles, general assemblies, band concerts, law enforcement presentations, recreational programs, and so much more. We truly believe that the lessons learned and the informal interactions in this program create a week that shapes a lifetime.

American Legion posts select high school juniors to attend the program in June right after their junior year. In most cases, individual expenses are paid by a sponsoring Legion Post, a local business, or another community-based organization. Parents and grandparents are also able to sponsor a citizens.

Boys State and Girls State programs currently exist in every state of our union with the exception of Hawaii. As separate corporations, Boys State and Girls State programs vary in content and method of procedure, but each adheres to the same basic concept: teaching government from the city to the state level. Two participates from each Boys State and Girls State program are selected to go on and participate as Senators at Boys Nation and Girls Nation.

Founded in 1935 by The American Legion of Illinois
Sponsorship covers all registration, room and board fees
High school boys attend after their junior year
Nearly 100 volunteers are on staff each summer
Ten college scholarships are available each year
Held each June at Eastern Illinois University
Simulates an “off to college” experience
Lifelong friendships are developed from this unique summer opportunity

“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” – John F. Kennedy

Just about three decades before President Kennedy delivered that famous quote, three American Legion members from Illinois were living his vision. In June, 1935 Hayes Kennedy, Harold L. Card and Matthew J. Murphy convened the very first Boys State at the State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

About two hundred boys from across Illinois attended the camp designed to give young men an opportunity to learn the operation of American government on the local, state, and national levels. Their learn by doing approach had the boys create a mythical “51st State” (or in 1935, actually a mythical 49th State).

This idea took off as the second session saw attendance triple, and by 1937 Illinois Boys State had 1,200 in attendance and many other states began to develop and host their own Boys State camps. Currently all states except Hawaii have Boys State programs and the American Legion Auxiliary hosts Girls State programs across the country.

While every state and every program is separate and unique, they all follow the same basic ideas founder and “Father of American Legion Boys State,” Hayes Kennedy built into the original Illinois program.

Adapted from the 75th Annual Boys State Supplement

You’ve probably heard of some Boys State participates from across the country! Here are just a few familiar names:

Samuel Alito (Supreme Court Justice – New Jersey)
Neil Armstrong (Astronaut, first man to walk on the moon – Ohio)
Scott Bakula (American actor – Missouri)
Tom Brokaw (NBC News journalist – South Dakota)
Bill Clinton (42nd President of the United States – Arkansas)
Mitch Daniels Jr. (49th Governor of Indiana – Indiana)
Lou Dobbs (Former television host & political commentator – Idaho)
Michael Jordan (Hall of fame basketball player – North Carolina)
Ben Sasse (Former US Senator & university president – Nebraska)

From Illinois:
Roger Ebert (Pulitzer Prize winner & film critic)
Michael Flanagan (Former US Representative)
Michael Frerichs (Illinois State Treasurer)
Steve Osunsami (Award-winning ABC News Senior National Correspondent)
James Peters (Author “Arlington National Cemetery: Shrine to America’s Heroes”)
Sean Stephenson (Motivational speaker & former intern for President Clinton)

The youth movement in the United States known as “BOYS STATE” is a program of citizenship training sponsored by The American Legion.  Originated by the Department of Illinois in 1934, the plan was adopted by the national organization in 1935 and has since been put into operation in every state in the Union.

The program of training of Boys State has been developed on the fundamental assumption that youth can best “learn to do by doing.”  In the main, the mechanics of government in Illinois Boys State are patterned after the established agencies of city, county and state government in Illinois.  For all practical purposes, Illinois Boys State may be regarded as a mythical [fifty-first]* state with a constitution, a body of law and practices peculiar to it alone.

Boys State aims at all times to make its program of training in functional citizenship effective through creating a wide amount of opportunities for participation.  The good that may come to a citizen is limited only by the extent of his willingness to participate in various citizenship activities that are made available.

From the point of view of the young citizen, the success of the week’s work will be determined very largely by the attitude of the boys themselves toward the program.  If the majority of the boys attending this session of Illinois Boys State reflect the same high ideals of citizenship that have characterized previous sessions, the program of the current season will undoubtedly be an unqualified success.

In Boys State, good citizenship means loyalty, good sportsmanship, cooperation, dependability, responsiveness, and a keen interest in the week’s activities.  Good citizens think before they talk, and act only after mature consideration of their plans.  Good citizens are true Americans.

Let’s be Americans!

Hayes Kennedy, Founder
The American Legion
Illinois Premier Boys State

* Note, Illinois Boys State predates both Alaska and Hawaii by over 25 years. Originally Illinois Boys State would have been like a mythical 49th state.

After browsing our website if you have any additional questions please feel free to contact us.

Click on the PayPal Donate button below to support our program. To sponsor a full registration fee for one citizen donate $400 on the next screen.