Help us kick off Constitution Week! Stop by the ACS table in the Lobby to pick up your pocket Constitution and sign up to win a framed replica Constitution! We’ll be posting more on all the events we’re hosting during Constitution Week, but first, some history about Constitution Day and Week!

 

History of Constitution Week:

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) petitioned Congress in 1955 to designate the week of September 17-23 to commemorate the creation of the Constitution on September 17, 1787. President Eisenhower proclaimed the first Constitution Week with Proclamation 3109 on August 19, 1955, and enacted the Congressional resolution establishing Constitution Week on August 2, 1956. Citizenship Day coincides with Constitution Day on September 17 to celebrate the creation of American citizenship.

 

The DAR lists the aims of Constitution Week:

• To emphasize citizens’ responsibilities for protecting and defending the Constitution;
• Inform people that the Constitution is the basis for America’s great heritage and the foundation for our way of life; and
• Encourage the study of the historical events which led to the framing of the Constitution in September 1787.

For more on the history of the framing of the Constitution, see the National Archives page on the subject.

 

Sources:

Constitution Week. Daughters of the American Revolution

Constitution of the United States – A History. National Archives.