When Independence High School’s graduating class of 1901 posed for a picture, twenty-four girls and nine boys stared into the camera lens, all gathered on the stairs in front of the school’s doors. Among these students was a future president, a First Lady, and a presidential press secretary. Behind the group, looming above, was a stained glass window with a Latin phrase displayed prominently: JUVENTUS SPES MUNDI. “Youth, the hope of the world.”
