Law and Order in Mayor Charles Stenvig’s Minneapolis | Jeff Manuel and Andy Urban | February 2007

		Law and Order in Mayor Charles Stenvig’s Minneapolis Jeff Manuel and Andy Urban

		In 1969, just months after Hubert H. Humphrey narrowly lost the presidential election to Richard Nixon, the city where he began his political career, Minneapolis, elected a mayor with no previous political experience, no party affiliation, and no platform aside from his pledge to “take the handcuffs off the police.” Labeled the “George Wallace of the North” by his opponents, Charles Stenvig’s 1969 mayoral victory marked a decisive shift in Minneapolis’s political landscape. Minnesota had long been a stronghold of New Deal liberalism and progressive politics, as illustrated by the careers of Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and Walter Mondale. Campaigning on the themes of “law and order,” resentment against student and black “militants,” Christian values, and fiscal conservatism, Stenvig was elected for three separate terms as mayor. “Law and Order: The Career and Legacy of Minneapolis Mayor Charles Stenvig,” an exhibit on display at the University of Minnesota’s Andersen Library Gallery, explores not only Stenvig’s local impact but also his connection to a burgeoning national movement. Jeff Manuel and Andy Urban, Ph.D. candidates in history at the University of Minnesota and the exhibit’s curators, began looking at Stenvig’s career during a graduate seminar in public history that encouraged students to research topics of local interest. Using video footage, historical photographs, campaign memorabilia, audio clips, and oral histories, the exhibit examines Stenvig’s relationship to the antiwar movement, affirmative action and busing, crime, moral values, and masculinity. The exhibit also allows visitors to explore Stenvig’s legacy in the context of governmental expertise. Stenvig clashed repeatedly with university administrators over their claims that they knew best how to manage campus dissent, and dismissed the technocrats and social scientists who had previously administered the city’s programs. The exhibit posits important questions that still resonate today: why did Stenvig appeal to voters and why did they trust him to manage the city’s affairs? “Law and Order: The Career and Legacy of Minneapolis Mayor Charles Stenvig” will be open to the public in the Andersen Library Gallery from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays. The exhibit will also be open during the OAH’s Thursday evening reception at the library, 5:30-7:00 p.m., and Manuel and Urban will be on hand to answer questions. Jeff Manuel and Andy Urban are the curators of the exhibit and Ph.D. candidates in history at the University of Minnesota.