250th Anniversary

As the United States marks its 250th year, This July of our Founding we continue our Wizards of America series by turning to none other than perhaps the most well known of Americans, George Washington, a man whose name has become woven into the nation’s life.

Katherine Johnson is often remembered today as the woman who helped “do the math” for the Moon landing. That phrase is simple, and because it is simple, it has traveled widely. Yet her real story deserves more than a sentence.

This month we turn our attention to Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr., the first American to travel into space, a man whose famous flight lasted only minutes, yet whose preparation for those minutes had been shaped by years of training, military service, technical study, and keen American nerve held under extraordinary pressure.

This month, we turn our attention to a woman whose influence took a different form, though no less enduring in its effect: Dorothy Day. Born in Brooklyn in 1897, the daughter of a journalist, her early life was shaped by movement and a close exposure to the wider conditions of American life at the time.

Though Randolph’s name is not etched into marble as often as some of his contemporaries, his influence lingers in something quieter and perhaps more difficult to sustain: the expectation that deliberative bodies must function even when disagreement runs high.

As the United States enters its 250th year, the Grey School of Wizardry is taking a moment to look back at some of our nation’s wisest figures. Over the next year, we’ll be celebrating one American Wizard each month, reflecting on how they thought about the world, how their influence still rings true for today.