Birch Bayh

The Hoosier Senate icon made his mark on our foundational document, and almost abolished the Electoral College.

Birch Bayh was born in Terre Haute in 1928, just before the start of the Great Depression. From the beginning, his life was marked by a mix of national and local, agriculture and ambition.

“Don’t let these [civil rights] laws gather dust,” he warned the audience.

These Hoosier Hall of Fame winners get a lot of love—but is it deserved? We asked the experts.

In a chamber where one party enjoys a thin majority, Indiana’s junior senator has garnered disproportionate influence as one of a handful of Democratic legislators from red and purple states who hold swing votes.