Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a "lineage membership organization"[citation needed] dedicated to promoting historic preservation, education, and patriotism.
DAR has chapters in all fifty of the U.S. states as well as in the District of Columbia. There are also DAR chapters in Australia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom. DAR's motto is "God, Home, and Country." Some state chapters of DAR date from as early as October 11, 1890, and the National Society of DAR was incorporated by Congressional charter in 1896.
The National Society of DAR is the final arbiter of the acceptability of all applications for membership. Membership in DAR is open to women at least eighteen years of age who can prove lineal bloodline descent from an ancestor who aided in achieving United States independence. Acceptable ancestors include various related categories of known historical figures, including:
- Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence,
- Military veterans of the American Revolutionary War, including State navies and militias, local militias, privateers, and French and Spanish soldiers and sailors who fought in the American theater of war,
- Civil servants of provisional or State governments; members of the Continental Congress and State conventions and assemblies; signers of Oaths of Allegiance or Oaths of Fidelity and Support;
- participants in the Boston Tea Party; prisoners of war, refugees, and defenders of forts and frontiers; doctors and nurses who aided Revolutionary casualties; and ministers, petitioners, and
- others who gave material or patriotic support to the Revolutionary cause.
The DAR does not discriminate based on race or religion, and welcomes all women with a provable blood line to revolutionary ancestors. Women adopted into any family must prove their blood lineage to "a patriot" as listed above.
Although DAR now forbids discrimination in membership based on race or creed, some members held segregationist views when this was still public policy in the United States. DAR banned African American contralto Marian Anderson from performing at their headquarters, Constitution Hall, on Easter Sunday 1939 in the then-segregated city of Washington, D.C. In protest, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her membership and helped arrange a special public performance for the singer in front of the Lincoln Memorial on that day with an audience of 70,000, not including the listeners of the live radio coverage. Ironically, Eleanor Roosevelt had not raised a similar protest when the District of Columbia, then under control of a Democratic Congress and President, had also barred Anderson from performing an integrated concert at the auditorium of a white high school.
Later, the DAR apologized and welcomed Ms. Anderson to Constitution Hall on a number of occasions soon after 1939, including a benefit concert for war relief in 1942. Ms. Anderson chose Constitution Hall as the place where she would launch her farewell American tour in 1964. On January 27, 2005, the DAR co-hosted the first day of issue dedication ceremony of the Marian Anderson commemorative stamp with the U. S. Postal Service and Ms. Anderson's family. DAR chapters are involved in raising funds for local scholarships and educational awards, preserving historical properties and artifacts and promoting patriotism within their communities.
Further reading
- Hunter, Ann Arnold. A Century of Service: The Story of the DAR. 1991, Washington, DC. National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.
External links
- Daughters of the American Revolution website
- Daughters of the American Revolution at americanrevolution.com
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