The History of Liberty Day

Liberty Day began as an idea of two members of the Youth Service Committee of the Lions Club of Denver. Teachers had a problem: civics had been made ‘voluntary’, decreasing the number of available civics books. But at the same time, many American history textbooks appeared without the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution printed in the back -- takes up too much room in the book, teachers were told. But how could kids be taught about those documents without ever seeing the words? So private donations were collected for the printing of a pocket-sized booklet containing only the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, for free distribution. Teachers were grateful, but had another problem. They teach around ‘themes’, they said, and the appropriate ‘theme day’ for instruction about those documents is July 4th -- a day when students are not in school. They needed a day during the school year to focus upon those documents and our nation’s heritage. So a ‘theme day’ was created - and a contest named it Liberty Day. In the first year, Liberty Day was celebrated on September 17th - the day the Constitution was signed. Too close to the beginning of the school year, teachers decided. Then it was suggested that Liberty Day be celebrated on December 15th -- the day the Bill of Rights was ratified. Too close to Christmas, teachers decided. Then they suggested that some time in March would be best for the school calendar -- and the birthday of James Madison, ‘father of the Constitution’, just happens to be March 16th! So Liberty Day became officially celebrated on March 16th.

On March 16th, Lions club members and other volunteers would distribute booklets to school classes. But it was noticed that students would doodle on the booklets, throw them on the floor, and otherwise discard them. A better distribution system was needed. So the Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives took booklets to a school and spoke to the students for an hour. Afterward, the students lined up for him to autograph their booklet! Then former Colorado Senator Gary Hart took booklets to a Denver high school and spoke to the students about the separation of powers in the Constitution, and the students seemed enthralled. Colorado’s Attorney General Gale Norton spoke to students about constitutional cases, and kids started to see the importance of that document. A county commissioner talked to fifth graders about why we don’t have a king in this country anymore while disbursing the booklets - and got a stack of thank-you letters from students describing what they had learned. After those experiences, Liberty Day became focused upon having elected and previously-elected officials speak to school classes as they distributed the booklets. Now, eight years later, we have had numerous other very positive experiences that have dramatically expanded Liberty Day and its activities. Liberty Day is not just about a 'day' anymore, or a one-time celebration, but has become a year 'round, nationwide, educational effort.

Initially it was decided that everything about this celebration must be absolutely nonpartisan (Liberty Day has a nonprofit 501(c)(3) status from the IRS, so it must remain totally nonpartisan). Liberty Day Colorado (where this all began in 1997) has a list of Honorary Co-chairpersons, which is kept closely equal in number between Republicans and Democrats. Most of these people attended steering committee meetings and actively participated in visiting school classes on Liberty Day and at other times during the school year (even 'tho Liberty Day is now a year-long educational effort, there is still a special celebration on March 16th). Congressman David Skaggs of Colorado asked that the ‘speakers’ be elected (or previously elected) officials, for two reasons: (1) extremely biased individuals could be avoided in this way , and (2) any parental objection to anything a speaker would say could be quickly answered by showing that the speaker is or was the elected representative of a majority of the people.

Teachers were enthusiastic about having these elected officials visit their classrooms. But they doubted that they would have the time to contact the elected officials about being speakers. Elected officials also responded very favorably to the idea, but doubted that they would have time to try to get teachers on the telephone to arrange the details for such visits. Enter volunteer service club members! The volunteer service club members act as the ‘schedulers’ for the speaker and the teacher. Elected officials appreciate this procedure, as members of volunteer service groups are not known to be partisan lobbyists.

This proved to be highly successful in every state. Many state legislatures have proclaimed March 16th to be Liberty Day, and state legislators from all around the country have been speaking to school classes about the Constitution as they distribute the booklets to students. In Colorado, the legislature began the practice of starting the legislative session one hour late on March 16th, in order to allow legislators to visit school classes for Liberty Day. (Letters allowing this deviation in time schedule were signed by the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader -- always nonpartisan.). When both Houses of the Colorado legislature took off an hour on March 16, 2004, and legislators visited school classrooms to talk about the Constitution, they introduced a new twist into their undertaking: they asked the kids to write them letters, explaining what they had learned and what they thought was important in the Constitution. Each legislator then chose a few of these letters, which were posted on a large and colorful Liberty Day display in the Rotunda of the State Capitol. Teachers and principals were notified of the names of their students whose letters had been selected for posting. The feedback from schools was very positive, and special focus on student letters will be repeated next year.

The basic concern of the Liberty Day effort is citizenship - that quality in Americans showing them to be sufficiently aware of and interested in their government to make them competent and responsible self-governing citizens. When young people, who are the future citizens of this country, expressed a considerable amount of indifference toward their government, a seemingly legitimate question was raised: how can such an apathetic attitude among citizens maintain that degree of alertness required for American self-government?

Over two hundred years ago, at the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, a curious woman asked Ben Franklin, “Sir, what have you given us?” He answered simply “A republic -- if you can keep it.” If you can keep it -- that is our challenge today. Ben Franklin recognized that it was not a certainty. We have been given freedom. We have been given liberty. We have been given self-government. But can we keep it? That is the responsibility of every American.

Liberty Day started as a project to provide booklets and speakers for the schools in the Denver area. Then other groups in society wanted the booklets. Boy scouts wanted them, to study for their merit badges. Immigrants wanted them, to study for the INS citizenship test. U.S. representatives wanted to give them to constituents at town meetings. Judges wanted them. Service group members wanted to give them to their grandchildren. Every citizen should have a copy of the founding documents.

Liberty Day was incorporated, and received 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from the I.R.S.

Then other Lions club members around the state of Colorado wanted to give booklets to students in their local schools -- and to others in their communities. The District Governors of the Colorado Lions decided to adopt Liberty Day as a statewide project, appointing a statewide coordinator.

Then Colorado’s U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell took booklets to Washington, D.C. and handed them out to other U.S. Senators. Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado joined in a letter explaining Liberty Day to all U.S. Congressmen. Mayor Webb of Denver wrote a letter to other mayors around the country. Lieutenant Governor Joe Rogers wrote to all other Lieutenant Governors in other states. Attorney General Ken Salazar wrote to all other Attorneys General. The telephone started ringing.

A little Denver project, which had spread to the whole state of Colorado, quickly started to move around the country. Now, there are Liberty Day booklets (titled “Liberty Day [state name] “) for all 50 states. There are Liberty Day coordinators in 48 states, and all are working on raising money for their booklets as well as planning other Liberty Day activities. Most Liberty Day coordinators are service group members.

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