Lindsey Wilson University will mark Constitution Day 2026 with a roundtable discussion at 3pmCT on September 17, 2026, then follow it with a bell-ringing ceremony. The free public event centers on the U.S. Constitution and is built around a campus observance that also points to the differences between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Lucas Somers, a history professor at Lindsey Wilson University, said, “I want them to take away from the roundtable discussion what the Constitution is and what it isn’t.” He added, “I also hope that people will be able to better understand what the Constitution means to them.”
Thomas D. Clark Reading Room
The roundtable will take place in the Thomas D. Clark Reading Room of the Katie A. Murrell Library. Casey McGowan, a criminal justice professor, Mattew Powers, a political science professor, and Somers will take part in the discussion.
The program is sponsored by the Lindsey Wilson History Club in partnership with the Jane Lampton Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Columbia. The library is in the Holloway Building, and the event is open to the public at no cost.
Alumni Victory Bell
After the roundtable, the campus will move to the Alumni Victory Bell on the Campus Quadrangle for a bell-ringing ceremony. The ceremony will mark the day the Constitution was signed in 1787 by 39 delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
The timeline reaches beyond that moment. The Constitution was ratified by the states the following year and took effect in 1789, and September 17 has been designated as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day since 2004.
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence
The 2026 observance comes during the semiquincentennial year of the Declaration of Independence, and the campus programming is designed to keep the two documents distinct. The roundtable, the bell-ringing ceremony, the library display, and the voter-registration drive all point back to that same effort: making the Constitution familiar enough that the differences are harder to miss.
How many people will attend has not been set, and the free format leaves the scale of the audience to the turnout on the day. For readers planning to go, the practical details are fixed: September 17, 2026, 3pmCT, the Thomas D. Clark Reading Room, then the Alumni Victory Bell.
