Since 1950, Exchange Clubs across America have dedicated thousands of Freedom Shrines in civic buildings, schools, libraries and state capitols. The Freedom Shrines are permanent displays of historic American documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The Fayetteville Exchange Club provided a Freedom Shrine for the first floor of the Historic Washington County Courthouse and will rededicate the shrine at 10 a.m. Friday, September 17. The ceremony is open to the public and is one of several events leading up to the reopening of the courthouse to the public on Saturday morning.
Judy Albritton, president of the Fayetteville Exchange Club, will provide opening remarks, and Terry Jones, former prosecuting attorney, will speak about the exhibit.
Recent updates to the collection of historic documents include Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's" Four Freedoms" speech, and an account of the proceedings of the Susan B. Anthony trial.
Only one document in the collection, the Mayflower Compact, was written prior to the concept of a United States of America. It was included "because it illustrates that the seed of eventual American freedom was carried to these shores by its very earliest settlers," according to the National Exchange Club.
The historic documents include:
- The Mayflor Compact
- Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration of Independence
- The Declaration of Independence
- Benjamin Franklin's epitaph
- Patrick Henry's instructions to George Rogers Clark
- The Treaty of Paris, 1783
- The Northwest Ordinance
- Washington's letter to Colonel Nicola
- Washington's copy of the Constitution
- The U.S. Constitution
- Washington's first inaugural
- Washington's farewell
- Jefferson's first inaugural
- The Bill of Rights
- The Star Spangled Banner
- The Monroe Doctrine
- Lincoln's second inaugural
- The Emancipation Proclamation
- The Gettysburg Address
- Lee's letter accepting the Washington College presidency
- Theodore Roosevelt's letter on Cuba
- The Thirteenth Amendment
- The Nineteenth Amendment
- Letter naming Eisenhower Supreme Commander
- General McAuliffe's "Christmas Message"
- Wilson's first inaugural
- German Instrument of Surrender, WWII
- Jackson's letter describing the Battle of New Orleans
- Instrument of Surrender in the Pacific
- F.D.R.'s "Four Freedoms" speech
- J.F.K.'s "Ask Not…" speech
- Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech
- Account of the proceedings of the Susan B. Anthony trial.