We have been celebrating Law Day on May 1st for over sixty (60) years, and it is important to remember how the day was started in the first place.

Law Day was first proposed in 1957 by Charles S. Rhyne (1912-2003), lawyer and American Bar Association (ABA) president. Rhyne is most well-known for his Supreme Court case that led to federal courts having the right to redraw electoral districts to reflect population shifts and establish the one-person, one-vote rule (Baker v. Carr). Rhyne was also the one to push for the Bar Association of Washing DC to become integrated, removing being white as a requirement for membership.

From there, in 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower proclaimed May 1st would be Law Day, with Congress codifying it as a national day in 1961. Since then, Law Day has been, as described by the ABA, “a national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law. [It] provides an opportunity to understand how law and the legal process protect our liberty, strive to achieve justice, and contribute to the freedoms that all Americans share.”

While Law Day is known for having a theme for the nation to reflect on and give focus to, this hasn’t always been the case. The first official theme given to the day was in 1969: “Justice and Equality Depend on Law and YOU!” This was likely do to that fact that 1969 was a rather tumultuous year, featuring many pivotal moments in history, such as:

The failure of the Paris Peace Talks between the US and North Vietnam, which would prolong the Vietnam War for another six (6) years;

The Supreme Court ruling that students have a right to express opinions at odds with the government in light of many protests against the war, a decision that many Americans opposed;

The Thanh Phong Massacre in Vietnam led by US Troops, in which thirteen (13) unarmed women and children were killed;

The May 13th Incident, where race riots began in Malaysia against ethnic Chinese citizens in the country;

And Charlie Manson and his cult commit their ‘Helter Skelter’ murders, killing seven total.

This choice of theme was likely an effort to try and bring the country together as increased tensions rose across the world.

Many themes would crop up occasionally for the next few years:

1971: “Channel Change Through Law and Reason”

1973: “Help Your Courts Assure Justice”

1975: “Young America, Lead the Way”

1976: “200 Years of Liberty and Law”

1977: “Partners in Justice”

However, it wouldn’t become a yearly feature of the day until 1983’s “Law – The Language of Liberty”. 

What is also interesting is the fact that May 1st is the day most of the world celebrates International Workers Day, or Labor Day. Started in 1889 in Paris, it was proposed and enacted by the Second International, a world-wide collection of socialist and labour parties. They chose May 1st as a way to recognize the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, in which a labor rally striking for an eight-hour workday were bombed, leading to death and injury. Despite it being based on American workers, President Grover Cleveland had the first Monday in September be the official date instead to distance the holiday from any socialist and anarchist leanings.

In Eisenhower’s May 1st, 1958, proclamation he states that Law Day is to be “a day of national dedication to the principle of government under laws would afford us an opportunity better to understand and appreciate the manifold virtues of such a government and to focus the attention of the world upon them.”