Constitution Day

In December 2004, West Virginia's Democratic Senator, the late Robert C. Byrd, offered an amendment to designate September 17 as Constitution and Citizenship Day. Senator Byrd, who was known as the unofficial constitutional scholar of the United States Congress, believed that American school students lack significant knowledge regarding the United States Constitution. Constitution and Citizenship Day, September 17, is designated to the study and celebration of the United States Constitution.

On May 24, 2005 the U. S. Department of Education announced that all educational institutions receiving federal funding must provide an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution on September 17 of each year in commemoration of the signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787.

• Senator Robert C. Byrd in 2004 - A Dramatic Reading the Preamble of the United States Constitution

Below are links that will enable you to learn more about the United States Constitution and Constitution and Citizenship Day.

• National Archives' Charters of Freedom
  Original documents, transcripts and biographical information on those who attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Read about events leading up to the Constitutional Convention. Discover which states did not send any delegates. The web site also has Images of the Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
• Constitution Day 2020 at ConstitutionFacts.com
  This web site has free educational resources. Take a quiz to test your knowledge of the Constitution, try a crossword puzzle. Find out some fascinating facts and then find your Constitution I.Q.
• The National Constitution Center's Interactive Constitution
  Search the United States Constitution by keyword, topic, or Supreme Court Case.
  
  

Suggested Books and DVDs/Videos available at the MacPhaidin Library

Books

Anastaplo, George. The Amendments to the Constitution: A Commentary. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

Devins, Neal and Louis Fisher. The Democratic Constitution. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Greve, Michael S. The Upside-Down Constitution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012. http:/www.eBrary.com.

Holton, Woody. Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution. 1st ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

Jaffa, Harry V. Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution: A Disputed Question. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Pub., 1994.

Lynch, Joseph M. Negotiating the Constitution: The Earliest Debates Over Original Intent. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999.

McClanahan, Brion T. The Founding Fathers' Guide to the Constitution. Washington, D.C.: Regnery History, 2012.

Phillips, Christopher. Constitution Cafe: Jefferson's Brew for a True Revolution. 1st ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2011.

Robertson, David Brian. The Original Compromise: What the Constitution's Framers Were Really Thinking. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Schwarzenbach, Sibyl A. and Patricia Smith. Women and the United States Constitution: History, Interpretation, and Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.

Sheehan, Colleen A. and Gary L. McDowell. Friends of the Constitution: Writings of the "Other" Federalists, 1787-1788. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1998.

Tribe, Laurence H. The Invisible Constitution. Inalienable Rights Series. Oxford England; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

DVDs/Videos

Our Constitution: A Conversation. Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, 2005. KF 4550 .o87 2005.

Key Constitutional Concepts. Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. Philadelphia, PA. 2006.

Streaming Videos

The Library also has access to many streaming videos for Stonehill users. If you are a Stonehill student, faculty, or staff member, you can visit our homepage and use HillSearch to find online video content about the Constitution, including titles such as In the Beginning, and Contemporary Life v. the Constitution.