AAUW Springfield Illinois Branch

Always a woman behind great ideas!

This Thanksgiving, take a little time to remember Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who helped make this national day of thanks possible. Native American harvest festivals had taken place for centuries in North America, and there had long been colonists’ services to give thanks, but there had never been a Thanksgiving holiday.

Throughout her time as an editor, Hale had written hundreds of letters to governors, ministers, newspaper editors, and every U.S. president with one request: that the last Thursday in November be set aside to “offer to God our tribute of joy and gratitude for the blessings of the year.”

In 1863, with the country torn by the Civil War, Hale’s campaign finally got people’s attention. That September, she put her Thanksgiving message into an editorial and wrote to President Abraham Lincoln, urging him to make Thanksgiving Day a fixed national festival.

Lincoln liked Hale’s idea. On October 3, 1863, he issued a proclamation declaring the last Thursday of November to be National Thanksgiving Day, and ordered all government offices in Washington to close on that day.

Learn more! Almanac.com/sarah-josepha-hale-godmother-thanksgiving

We will continue to show up — loud, proud, and unrelenting in the fight for our civil rights and our democracy.
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Keep sharing your photos from yesterday’s Day of Action — we’re inspired by every one of you. ✊🏽