Mother’s Day has a rich history of motivating people to rise up for peace and human rights. Take a look at how Mother’s Day has affected our nation.

Back in the 1800s, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly care for their children. Later these clubs performed a crucial task during the civil war by gathering former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote peace between the two groups.

Mothers made another important historical splash in 1870. Julia Ward Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace.

But officially Mother’s Day came to be in the early 1900s thanks to Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis. Ann was inspired after her mother’s death to preserve a day to honor the sacrifices mothers made for their children.

And even late into the 60s Mother’s Day was used to pursue of human rights. In 1968 Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., used Mother’s Day to host a march in support of underprivileged women and children.

Perhaps the reason Mother’s Day has been used for a larger agenda points to the power of the matriarch. We at the Sounder celebrate women who have experienced motherhood, and all the love, grief and magic that comes with that title.

– Facts compiled from www.history.com.