Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
In the James Madison Day Convocation address, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas tells an overflow Wilson Hall Auditorium audience that Madison deliberately created an inefficient central government and 'struck the balance on the side of liberty.'

Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader
At the UPB lecture, consumer advocate Ralph Nader encourages students to become activists, run for local office on the Green Party ticket and challenge corporations.

Teacher of the Year to bring Madison to the masses
President Linwood H. Rose names the new director of JMU's James Madison Center: 1998 National Teacher of the Year Phil Bigler, who vows to bring Madison to the masses.

Rose joins Rehnquist on national panel
JMU President Linwood H. Rose joins Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist on a national panel commemorating the 250th anniversary of James Madison's birth.

Madison's genius still resounds
James Madison created the framework for a new form of government that has made the United States a sentinel for freedom and the envy of the world.

The wisest founder
James Madison biographer Ralph Ketcham calls the genius of James Madison, among all the nation's founding fathers, the most profound and far-reaching.

The first first lady
Dolley Madison scholar Holly Shulman explores the spirit and substance of the first lady as official hostess, as popular trendsetter and as a full partner in the Madison political alliance.

Digging for Madison
Few records remain to tell the personal story of the man who lived a very public life of nation building. It is left to the JMU-Montpelier archaeological field school to reconstruct the historical record of James Madison and his plantation community.

Invisible history
Descendants of enslaved African-Americans offer a fuller probing of American history and the legacy of James Madison.