Father’s Day In America
by Ryan Moore
History of Father’s Day
• Sonora Smart Dodd is the woman
credited with creating Father’s Day in
America.
• Sonora Smart Dodd’s father, Henry Jackson
Smart was a Civil War veteran and a
widower who raised his children as a single
father.
• Sonora was sitting in church in 1909
listening to a Mother’s day sermon and it
made her think of all that her father had
done for her after her Mother died.
• She felt that the important role that father’s
play in their children’s lives was being
disrespected.
• She decided that there should be a special
day set aside for Father’s Day and began a
National Campaign.
• Religious leaders rallied around her cause
and the first Father’s Day was held in 1910
in her home town of Spokane, Washington.
• Sonora chose to celebrate Father’s Day in
June because her Father was born in June
• Mother’s Day was immediately accepted and
made into a National holiday but Sonora
faced a lot of resistance in getting Father’s
Day accepted.
• 14 years after the first Father’s Day
celebration Sonora got President
Calvin Coolidge to publicly support
making Father’s Day a national holiday.
• Congress however was opposed to
President Coolidge’s plan to make it a
national holiday.
• They were afraid that the holiday would
become commercialized.
• Father’s Day did not die out however, with
Sonora’s support a trade organization was
started in the 1930’s called the National
Council for Promotion of Father’s Day. Their
goal was to establish Father’s Day as a
commercial holiday.
In 1966
(56 years after the first Father’s day)
President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed
Father’s Day
an official national holiday.
In 1972
President Nixon signed a law making
Father’s Day a national celebration
on the third Sunday of June.
Father’s Day Traditions
• Father’s day is the fifth most popular
card-sending holiday in the U.S.
• Ties were the traditional gift
• Other gifts are clothing, sporting
goods, tools, electronics and other
things.
• The official flower for Father’s Day is
the Rose.
• The red rose is worn or displayed to
honor a father that is still alive
• A White Rose is meant to honor a
Father who has passed away.
• The most common way to celebrate
Father’s Day , other than sending
cards, is to have a family get together.
• Popular ways to celebrate are having a
family cook out.
• Going out to eat at a Restaurant with
the Family.
• Or having a family picnic.
• However you celebrate Father’s Day, it
is a way to thank father’s for all they
have done for us.