[Peace-discuss] it was illegal to speak English in Illinois (1923 to 1969)

[Karen Medina]

In 1923 the state of Illinois made American, not English, its official
language. The move was a protest against the British, who had dragged
their feet over independence for Ireland. But the Brits ignored the
Illinois law even more successfully than they had ignored the Irish.
Illinois residents ignored the law as well. They continued to speak
English, not American, and to study English in schools that were
required by law to use American as the language of instruction.

-The English-Only Question: An Official Language for Americans? By
Dennis E. Baron
http://books.google.com/books?id=7B50uY_bVKMC&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=Illinois+state+law+american+not+eng#v=onepage&q&f=false