Hoosiers celebrate Constitution Day

Members of Young Americans for Liberty celebrated Constitution Day on Monday by exercising their First Amendment freedom of speech and encouraging others to do the same.

Students involved with Young Americans for Liberty handed their peers colored chalk so they could answer the question that topped a large blackboard: “What issue is most important?”

Passersby scrawled their concerns — among them the redistribution of wealth, the Ninth Amendment and both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.

“We’re offering students the chance to express themselves and exercise their First Amendment rights,” said Nate O’Connor, senior and Indiana state chair of Young Americans for Liberty. “Here at IU, free speech doesn’t entirely exist.”

University policy, O’Connor said, limits free speech to areas like Dunn Meadow and the Sample Gates and encourages students reserve those areas before using them.

Other Constitution Day events included a panel discussion about voter identification laws at the Maurer School of Law, a forum sponsored by the School of Public and Environmental Affairs about voting policy and a forum about non-citizen access to education at the School of Education.

Free copies of the Constitution were made available to students at the Herman B Wells Library.

About 100 IU students, staff and faculty attended a watch party for the live stream of a National Endowment for the Humanities forum with Civil War historians in Washington, D.C.

The panel included Duke University Professor Thavolia Glymph, Columbia University Professor Eric Foner, University of Richmond President Edward Ayers and President and CEO of the American Civil War Center Christy Coleman.

The panelists’ discussion focused heavily on the Emancipation Proclamation, which Associate Professor of History Alex Lichtenstein said is due to the document’s upcoming 150th anniversary.

Lichtenstein said the Emancipation Proclamation shaped the rewriting of the Constitution in the years following the Civil War.

Coleman’s comments highlighted the same connection.

“For me, (the Emancipation Proclamation) is an important document because...this is the beginning of us confirming that we will be a forever-free nation,” Coleman said. “This document led to the 13th Amendment, which will lead to the 14th Amendment, which will lead to the 15th Amendment, and that’s why talking about the Emancipation Proclamation is so important.”

Lichtenstein, who offered his H106: American History II students extra credit for attending, said he would have liked to see more students attend the watch party .

“I don’t think they have a clue about Constitution Day,” he said. “I think they’re interested in the Constitution, though.”

O’Connor, who stood with Young Americans for Liberty from about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., said he felt as if students didn’t care about First Amendment issues.

“The apathy is astounding, but there have been those who have made it worthwhile for sure,” he said. “Free speech is important for those who want to exercise it.”

Lichtenstein said in his classes, he tries to make the Constitution relevant to his students’ lives.

“When I talk about the 15th Amendment, which is about voting rights, it’s directly connected to what’s going on now, with the efforts to decide whether these voter ID laws are constitutional or not,” Lichtenstein said. “It goes right back to what was going on in the 1860s and 1870s. I think when student hear that, they’re interested.”