The Yazoo Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution members attended the Naturalization Ceremony held on July 7, 2016 in the U.S. District Courthouse Southern District Jackson.
The Yazoo Chapter DAR members who attended were Janet Looney Whittington, Yazoo Chapter Regent and NSDAR Vice President General 2013-2016, Penny Simmons Jackson, Yazoo Chapter Flag Chairman, U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan, III, Priscilla Allen Harper, MSSDAR Organizing Secretary and Montine Young Bond, MSSDAR Chaplin.
It was an inspiring day as a guitarist and a singer played and sang "God Bless America" and then led the entire room in singing the "Star Spangled Banner".
Eighteen people from fourteen countries took the oath to become U.S.A citizens. A person from China stood and told how much it meant to be an American citizen. The other countries represented were Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Philippines, India, Ecuador, China, Colombia, Jamaica, Romania, Honduras, Tanzania and the Dominican Republic.
Yazoo Chapter DAR members gave each new citizen a gift bag as they went forward to receive their Citizenship papers. The bags contained: an American flag, flag code, patriotic pen, red-white-blue sticky pad, DAR book mark made by Yazoo Chapter, patriotic red-white-blue wrapped candy and a patriotic cozy.
Patriotism is one of the National DAR's goals since it was formed in 1890 when the organization helped the immigrants at Ellis Island become citizens. For 85 years from 1921-1995 the DAR compiled and published the DAR Manuel for Citizenship. To date more than 10 million DAR Citizenship Manuals have been distributed.
