Eligibility

• Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence;
• Military veterans of the American Revolutionary War, including State navies and militias, local militias, privateers, and French or Spanish French Revolution and sailors who fought in the American theater of war;
• Civil servants of provisional or State governments;
• Members of the Continental Congress and State conventions and assemblies;
• Signers of Oaths of Allegiance or Oaths of Fidelity and Support;
• Participants in the Boston Tea Party;
• Prisoners of war, refugees, and defenders of forts and frontiers; doctors and nurses who aided Revolutionary casualties; and ministers, petitioners;
• And others who gave material or patriotic support to the Revolutionary cause.

  American history essay contest

  Each year, the DAR conducts a national American history essay contest among students in grades 5 through 8. A topic is selected for use during the academic year, and essays are judged "for historical accuracy, adherence to topic, organization of materials, interest, originality, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and neatness." The contest is conducted locally by the DAR chapters, and chapter winners are judged regionally and nationally, with national winners receiving a monetary award.

  Scholarships

  The DAR awards $150,000 per year in scholarships to high school, undergraduate, graduate, music, law, nursing, and medical school students. Only two of the 20 scholarships offered are restricted to DAR members or their descendants.

  Literacy promotion

  In 1989, the DAR established the NSDAR Literacy Promotion Committee, which coordinates the efforts of DAR volunteers to promote child and adult literacy. Volunteers teach English, tutor reading, prepare students for GED examinations, raise funds for literacy programs, and participate in many other ways.

  Marian Anderson controversy

  Although the DAR now forbids discrimination in membership based on race or creed, some members held segregationist views when this was still public policy in the United States. In 1932 the DAR adopted a rule excluding African-American artists from the stage at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., built in 1929 by the DAR, following protests over "mixed seating"; blacks and whites seated together at concerts of black artists. In 1936, Sol Hurok, manager of African-American contralto Marian Anderson since 1935, attempted to book Anderson at Constitution Hall. Due to the "white performers only" policy, the booking was refused. Instead, Anderson performed at a Washington area black high school, and was also invited by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to perform for her and President Roosevelt. Eleanor had publicly resigned from the DAR when she heard that Marian Anderson was banned. During this time, Anderson came under considerable pressure from the NAACP to not perform for segregated audiences.
     In 1939, Hurok, along with the NAACP and Howard University, petitioned the DAR to make an exception to the "white performers only" policy for a new booking, which was declined by the DAR. Hurok attempted to find a local high school for the performance, but the only suitable venue was an auditorium at a white high school. The school board, which was indirectly under the authority of the DAR President, refused to allow Anderson to perform there. DAR president Mrs. Henry M. Robert, Jr., sent the First Lady the following reply:

  My dear Mrs. Roosevelt,
  Your letter of resignation reaches me in Colorado upon my return from the far West. I greatly regret that you found this action necessary. Our society is engaged in the education for citizenship''and the humanitarian service in which we know you to be vitally interested.
  I am indeed sorry not to have been in Washington at this time. Perhaps I might have been able to remove some of the misunderstanding and to have presented to you personally the attitude of the society.
  With best wishes always.
  Very sincerely,

  Hurok and the NAACP again appealed to the DAR, and were again refused.
     The DAR later apologized and welcomed Ms. Anderson to Constitution Hall on a number of occasions after 1939, including a benefit concert for war relief in 1942. However, they didn't officially reverse their "whites only" policy until 1952. Ms. Anderson chose Constitution Hall as the place where she'd launch her farewell American tour in 1964. On January 27, 2005, the DAR co-hosted the first day of issue dedication ceremony of the Marian Anderson commemorative stamp with the U.S. Postal Service and Ms. Anderson's family.

  Ferguson controversy

  In March 1984, a new controversy erupted when Lena Lorraine Santos Ferguson said she'd been denied membership in a Washington, D.C. chapter of the DAR because she was black.
     In a March 12, 1984 Washington Post story, reporter Ronald Kessler quoted Ferguson’s two white sponsors, Margaret M. Johnston and Elizabeth E. Thompson, as saying that although Ferguson met the lineage requirements and could trace her ancestry to Jonah Gay, who helped the Revolutionary War effort as a member of a Friendship, Maine, town committee, fellow DAR members told them that Ferguson wasn't wanted because she was black.
     What caused a sensation was a quote from Sarah M. King, the president general of the DAR. King told Kessler that each of the DAR’s more than 3,000 local chapters decides if it wishes to accept members.
     Asked if the DAR considers discrimination against blacks by its local chapters to be acceptable, she said, “If you give a dinner party, and someone insisted on coming and you didn’t want them, what would you do?”
     King continued, “Being black isn't the only reason why some people have not been accepted into chapters. There are other reasons: divorce, spite, neighbors’ dislike. I'd say being black is very far down the line... There are a lot of people who are troublemakers. You wouldn’t want them in there because they could cause some problems.”
     After those comments ran in a page one story and ignited a firestorm, the D.C. City Council threatened to revoke the DAR’s real estate tax exemption. As more publicity erupted, King acknowledged that Ferguson should have been admitted and said her application to join the DAR was handled “inappropriately.”
     Representing Ferguson free of charge, lawyers from the old line Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson began working with King to develop positive ways of ensuring that blacks won't be discriminated against when applying for membership.
     The DAR changed its bylaws to bar discrimination “on the basis of race or creed.” King announced a resolution to recognize “the heroic contributions of black patriots in the American Revolution.”
     As a result of the Washington Post story, not only was Ferguson, a retired school secretary, admitted to the DAR, she became chairman and founder of the D.C. DAR Scholarship Committee
     Ferguson died in March 2004 at the age of 75.
     “I wanted to honor my mother and father as well as my black and white heritage,” Mrs. Ferguson told Kessler after being admitted. “And I want to encourage other black women to embrace their own rich history, because we’re all Americans.”

  Notable DAR members

  Historical members

• Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist
• Clara Barton, American Red Cross founder
• Laura Bush, current First Lady of the United States
• Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady of the United States, activist
• Elizabeth Dole, current US Senator from North Carolina
• Janet Reno, former Attorney General of the United States