By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



The United States Constitution is not a dead document, and some local women want to make sure that we all remember it.

Members of the Birmingham Territory Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) have provided some north Jefferson County classrooms with posters and bookmarks that contain the preamble of the U.S. Constitution.

Members also left posters and bookmarks at the Gardendale-Martha Moore Public Library.

The women are going to all this effort in order to celebrate Constitution Week, which starts today. Today’s date marks the 221st anniversary of the signing of the U.S Constitution.

“The Constitution is one of the least-read documents in our country,” said Margaret Alexander, second vice regent of the DAR Birmingham Territory Chapter. “Constitution Week reminds people to read it and be able to understand the rights that are provided to us by the constitution.”

Alexander said the efforts that DAR members undertake in order to educate students and others about the Constitution are well worth it.

“People need to be educated on what it took to get our rights, and people need to stand up for these rights and elect politicians that will see that the rights are preserved,” she said.

The north Jefferson cities of Warrior, Gardendale and Morris have read proclamations at their council meetings announcing Constitution Week, according to Alexander.

Alexander and her sister Sharon Wade co-chair their chapter’s Constitution Week Committee.

It is thanks to DAR that Constitution Week exists.

In 1955, DAR members petitioned Congress to set aside Sept. 17-23 every year to be dedicated for the observance of Constitution Week, according to a DAR press release.

The U.S. Congress later adopted the resolution. On Aug. 2, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed it into Public Law No. 915.

The purpose of Constitution Week is three-fold. The week emphasizes citizens’ responsibilities to protect and defend the Constitution; informs people that the Constitution is the basis for America’s heritage and foundation for way of life; and to encourage the study of historical events that led up to the framing of the Constitution in September 1787.