Tour to the National Archives to Pay Tribute to the Bill of Rights and Celebrate New U.S. Citizenship

December 15, 2006, Washington, D.C.
Contact: Washington Foreign Press Center Program Officer Wendy Lyle
Telephone: 202-504-6362; Email: lylewp@state.gov


A group of eleven foreign print and broadcast journalists from Australia, China, and the Middle East participated in a special tour of the National Archives, the 215th anniversary tribute to the Bill of Rights and a ceremony welcoming thirty-five new Americans from 35 countries around the world.  The journalists toured the special exhibitions, documented the citizenship ceremony, which took place in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, directly in front of the original Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, and captured the joys of the new citizens.  U.S. officials at the event included Chief Judge Thomas Hogan, U.S. Archivist Allen Weinstein, US Citizenship and Immigration Service District Director Phyllis Howard, and Lonnie Bunch, Director of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of African American History.