Barry Goldwater (1909–1998) was a conservative Republican senator from Arizona who unsuccessfully challenged Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential election. Goldwater had earned the support of the New Right, but Johnson used the senator’s hardline anti-communist views to portray him as an extremist who might start a war against the Soviet Union. After his unsuccessful campaign, Goldwater returned to the Senate until his retirement in 1987.
César Chávez (1927–1993) was an American labor organizer who cofounded the National Farm Workers Association. Born to Mexican American migrant laborer parents, Chávez’s youth was spent working harvests with his family through California and Arizona. He served in the US Navy for two years during World War II before returning to migrant work. Chávez first became involved with labor activism as an organizer for Saul Alinsky’s Community Services Organization (CSO) in the 1950s. By 1958, he was the director of the CSO. He resigned four years...
Sandra Day O’Connor (1930– ) was the first female United States Supreme Court justice. After serving in various political and judicial capacities in her home state of Arizona, O’Connor was nominated to the Court in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. O’Connor was a moderate conservative justice, acting as a swing vote in major decisions. O’Connor split from her more conservative colleagues in several major cases, notably Webster v. Reproductive Services (1989) and Planned Parenthood...
John McCain (1936– ) is a US senator from Arizona who ran as the Republican candidate for president against Barack Obama in 2008. Born in the Panama Canal Zone, McCain had a long military career in the US Navy before entering politics. He served during the Vietnam War, during which he was captured, tortured, and held as a prisoner of war for more than five years in North Vietnam. He was released in 1973 and retired from the Navy in 1981. The following year, he was elected to the House of Representative from Arizona. In 1986, McCain was...
Until 1821, Spain ruled the area that now includes the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. Spanish explorers, priests, and soldiers had first entered the area in the early sixteenth century, half a century before the first English colonists arrived at Jamestown. Spain left a lasting cultural imprint on the region.
