Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History & Education Director Zach Dougherty, left, and “We the People” Parade founder Mark Kohut hold some of the signs that are being incorporated into the center archive. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Eighty-seven posters bearing the words of the U.S. Constitution could be seen standing tall at the first “We the People” Parade in downtown Shepherdstown, when it was held on Sept. 20.

That parade, founded by Shepherdstown resident Mark Kohut, was organized in collaboration with the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History & Education, which for two decades had already been holding its own commemoration of Constitution Day, after it was solidified as an official federal observance through the efforts of the center’s founder.

“Senator Byrd understood history. He was well read in ancient Roman history, English history and really how that later evolved into our early founding and those principles of good government that ended up creating the Constitutional process that we have today,” said Robert C. Byrd Center Director Zachary Dougherty. “With that, Senator Byrd’s fear — after being in the Senate for so many years and seeing how our government truly works, up close — is that particularly around the time that the holiday was introduced, people did not understand how Congress worked. They didn’t understand that there is a system of checks-and-balances and that it’s not a system that is to be taken for granted.

“In 2025, while Senator Byrd is no longer with us, if there’s any legacy that he would wish would continue today it would be that, being a strong proponent of the Constitution in the Senate, he would want people in his home state to value it and understand that it is something we have to fight for,” Dougherty said. “Being a little bit of an untraditional director, not coming from a particularly academic background — I was a community organizer and, before that, the codirector of March for Our Lives — so for me, as much as I think it’s important that we’re educating students in school about the Constitution and Congress, the real change is going to come from the street. Tying your sneakers, rolling up your sleeves and hitting the streets — that’s what our democracy needs right now. Change is not going to come from incredible scholarship or from inside of the library — it’s going to be from regular people stepping up.”

For this reason, the Byrd Center was particularly motivated to support the establishment of the Constitution Day-inspired parade. And, with the goal of seeing the parade continue for many years to come, Dougherty recently accepted the collection of signs from the parade and a thumb drive with a recording of the parade, for incorporation into the Byrd Center archive. The thumb drive will remain in the archive for posterity, while the signs will be available for the parade’s use, when it next returns.

Eighty-seven posters, bearing the words of the U.S. Constitution, are lined up in order inside of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History & Education. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

“This is a proud part of Shepherdstown’s history,” Dougherty said. “Being it was the first tradition of its kind for Shepherdstown, the relevance of Byrd and the Constitution and us having a national observance, because of Byrd, this felt like the perfect place for these signs to be. It’s an intersection of community and the Constitution, in the best way, so it’s something that, on our end, we’re wanting to be able to preserve and say that, even 15 years after Byrd’s passing, we’re still continuing his legacy here in Shepherdstown.”

Kohut wholeheartedly agreed with Dougherty, regarding the appropriateness of the collection being placed in the center which was founded by Byrd.

“Senator Byrd was famously known for always carrying a copy of the Constitution,” Kohut said. “A lot of people in this town, when we were handing out copies of the Constitution, said that they were already carrying a copy of it with them. More than a few said, ‘Oh, I always have one with me, because of Senator Robert Byrd.'”