The Beauty of Constitution Day

Constitution Day mandates that virtually every college and university in the United States create programs to discuss and explore the Constitution. The topic is usually left up to the speaker and the institution. I have probably given 25 or 30 such talks. The majority have been on slavery, race, and the Constitution. Often I talk about how slavery was so deeply embedded into the Constitution that it took four years of civil war, some 650,000 deaths, and three Constitutional Amendments to end the system. And, as readers of this blog so fully understand, we are still living with the consequences and legacies of slavery, it abolition, and its aftermath. I have also talked about Frederick Douglass’s constitutional thought, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, voting rights, the fugitive slave laws, the Civil Rights Acts of 1866, 1875, and 1964, and how the original meaning of the Second Amendment had nothing to do with the private ownership of guns.

I have given talks in the Deep South on how slavery – and not states’ rights – was the cause of secession and the Civil War. In addition to students, the audience often includes members of the general public, who get an unexpected education in constitutional law and American history. I sometimes hand out to the audience of the full text of the South Carolina or Texas “Declaration of the Causes of Secession” or Alexander Stephens’s “Cornerstone Speech,” so they can see how slavery and assertions of racism were the true “cornerstones” of the Confederacy. These have been some the best teaching moments of my career

Last year I was at Morehead State University for Constitution Day, while that town’s most famous resident – Kim Davis – was sitting in jail for her contemptuous disregard for the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the local U.S. District Court. In my scheduled lecture, I was able to tell my Kentucky audiences about slavery and the Constitution. While not a Confederate State, Kentucky was a slave state until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. But given the issue of the moment, I spoke in 3 or 4 large undergraduate classes about the Constitution, the rule of law, marriage equality, and what religious freedom really means. I was able to explain to the students who were mostly from Eastern Kentucky, why liberty is truly “indivisible,” why civil rights have to be the same for all of us, and why a county clerk was under a legal and moral obligation to implement the rule of law for all people. Some of the students were uncomfortable having to think hard about these issues – but a large number stopped to personally thank me for these insights. Talking about Kim Davis in Eastern Kentucky — it truly doesn’t get any better than this.

So, I guess I love Constitution Day. It provides venues for scholars to bring significant information to college students and the general public about liberty, law, and our shared history. It is a vehicle to discuss slavery, abolition, civil rights, civil liberties, and why we still need to create a regime of liberty and justice for all.

Do we need more of this? Sure. It would be great to have a Constitutional Liberty Day in February to compliment Constitution Day. But we don’t need an “alternative” Constitution day, we just need another one. But, until we get that, let’s make sure we make the most of September 17. Volunteer for the committee in your institution to make it a day about rights and liberty, about constitutional history, about civil rights. Seize the Day!

Paul Finkelman is currently the Ariel F. Sallows Visiting Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Saskatchewan, and a Senior Fellow in the Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent book is Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson (3rd ed., Routledge).