Special to Iredell Free News

Constitution Week is an American observance to commemorate the adoption of the United States Constitution. The observance runs annually from September 17-23. It was officially declared on August 2, 1956, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower from a congressional resolution petitioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) sent through Senator William F. Knowland of California, but it was President George W Bush who officially declared the inception of Constitution Week in September 2002.

The purpose of the observance week is to promote study and education about the U.S. Constitution, which was originally adopted by the American Congress of the Confederation on September 17, 1787.

The DAR is a patriotic organization that encourages education and historic preservation in communities across America. In 1955, the President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Gertrude S. Carraway, (North Carolina’s only national DAR President General) adopted a project to promote the observance of the U.S. Constitution with a memorial week beginning on the anniversary of the signing of this document, September 17. She asked DAR chapters, committees, and members to study, teach, and discuss the U.S. Constitution. Caraway also encouraged members to invite their governors and mayors to issue proclamations celebrating the Constitution.

At DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., the inscription on the pediment reads, “Constitution Hall – a memorial to that immortal document, the Constitution of the United States, in which are incorporated the principles of freedom, equality and justice for which our forefathers strove.”

DAR Constitution Hall is the only structure dedicated to the U.S. Constitution.