Program History
As early as 1827, males were hired to serve as messengers in Congress. In the Congressional Record (formerly known as the Congressional Globe), the term Page was first used in 1839 and referred to as a youth employed as a personal attendant to a person of high rank.
However, some sources claim that Pages have served as messengers since the very first Congress 1789.
Over the years, the Page Program has seen many changes. In 1965, the late Senator Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) appointed the first black male Page to actually serve and in the summer of 1973, the first female Pages were appointed.
The House of Representatives Page Board was established in 1982 and the first Members of the House Page Board were appointed in November of the same year the Page Board was established. The Board consists of two Members from the majority party selected by the Speaker, one Member from the minority party selected by the Minority Leader, the Clerk of the House and the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House.
1983 was a year of change and after much scandal, the Page Residence Hall was established and Congress required that all Pages be at least sixteen years old and juniors in high school. Previous to that, the age range of Pages was 14 to 18 and no type of housing was provided.
Read more about this topic: United States House Of Representatives Page
Famous quotes containing the words program and/or history:
“George Shears ... was hanged in a barn near the store. The rope was thrown over a beam, and he was asked to walk up a ladder to save the trouble of preparing a drop for him. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I am not used to this business. Shall I jump off or slide off?” He was told to jump.”
—For the State of Montana, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)