A Gift of Opportunity: Harry Colmery and the GI Bill of Rights

Harry Colmery, a Topekan, is credited with writing the initial draft of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights. He was part of a committee formed by the national American Legion to secure benefits for those men and women who served in World War II. This pod cast features Colmery's testimony to Congress about what the United States owed to the men and women who had fought for the freedom and liberty of their country. Many historians credit the GI Bill with the rise of a college-educated middle class and with the increase in home ownership among U.S. citizens.