Constitution Day 2023: News & Special Days

On September 17, 1787, members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the Constitution. Read more at the Library of Congress.

On August 28, 1963, one-hundred years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, approximately 200,000 to 250,000 people arrived in Washington, D.C., and peacefully marched down Constitution and Independence Avenues to the Lincoln Memorial, to rectify, in the words of A. Philip Randolph, “old grievances and to help resolve an American crisis.” Precipitating factors included the subjugation of African Americans to Jim Crow segregation and laws in practically every sector in society, a disproportionate level of high unemployment and unequal wages, and other forms of legal, economic, and social inequality. Read more at the Library of Congress.

Ten suffragists were arrested on August 28, 1917, as they picketed the White House.  The protesters were there in an effort to pressure President Woodrow Wilson to support the proposed "Anthony amendment" to the Constitution that would guarantee women the right to vote..."  Read more at the Library of Congress.

"In May 1919, the House of Representatives passed what was to become the 19th Amendment, which was ratified by three-fourths of the states on August 18, 1920."  (Centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, National Archives and Records Administration). See more at the National Archives.

On August 17, 1790, the Hebrew Congregation External of Newport, Rhode Island, presented a congratulatory address to President George Washington on the occasion of his visit to their city. Both the address, written by Moses Seixas, and Washington’s response appeared together in several newspapers. They encapsulate Washington’s clearest articulation of his belief in religious freedom and the first presidential affirmation of the free and equal status of Jewish-American citizens. Read more at the Library of Congress.

On July 28, 1868, Secretary of State William Seward issued a proclamation certifying without reservation that the Fourteenth Amendment was a part of the United States Constitution... the Fourteenth Amendment forbids any state to deny to any person “life, liberty or property, without due process of law” or to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The foundation of our modern civil rights, read more at the Library of Congress.

The result of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the rise and progress of the African race in America and its final accomplishment, and celebration on May 19th, A.D., 1870.  Open digital file at the Library of Congress.

On May 16, 1868, the U.S. Senate voted 35 to 19, one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict President Andrew Johnson of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” as he was charged under the eleventh article of impeachment. Read more at the Library of Congress.

Ratified February 27, 1951. Read more at the National Archives and the Congressional Research Service.

Collection of poll taxes in national elections was prohibited by the January 23, 1964, ratification of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. Passage of the amendment affected voting in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, and Virginia. Read more at the Library of Congress.

On December 15, 1791, the new United States of America ratified the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, confirming the fundamental rights of its citizens. Read more at the Library of Congress.

On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, ratified three years later and ultimately foundational to the United States Constitution. Read more at the Library of Congress.