Loyalty Day - Sunday, April 26

Kent

The Veterans of Foreign Wars, will hold a Loyalty Day picnic at Veterans Memorial Park on Sunday, April 26. The history of loyalty day is a storied one.

On May 1, 1921, in response to the May Day celebrations of Communists, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars held a rally at Union Station in New York to promote American patriotism in the face of threats to our national identity and founding principles. That celebration came to be known as "Americanization Day." A resolution adopted in 1949, transformed the holiday into the more mellifluous, Loyalty Day.

By 1950, more than five million people participated in patriotic rallies on May 1. In 1958, Congress enacted Public law 529, permanently affixing loyalty day to the calendar. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush have all issued proclamations in honor of Loyalty Day.

-Michael Brendan Dougherty