Introducing Honor Your Hometown
The Honor Your Hometown Campaign is a non-partisan,
all-volunteer campaign to honor hometowns across America.
Marty Stuart and Ken Burns
Marty
“So, the moral of the story is this: To any of us who are so busy that we think we can’t go back home, to our hometowns, that’s precisely the time that I find I need to go back home. And there’s usually unconditional love, healing and restoration waiting there that reminds you who you are. And just in case you don’t have a hometown, I’ll loan you mine.”
Ken
“The Honor Your Hometown campaign is about all of us. It is a reminder that no matter where we’re from, big city or a small town, North or South, East or West, we are connected to the places and people who shaped us. So much more connects us than divides us. We are the UNITED States. We are “us.” And there is no them.”
HYH Gets National Coverage
NBC’s Nightly News with Lester Holt
CBS Mornings
“I just think it’s a beautiful project.”
— CBS Mornings’ Tony Dokoupil
The Today Show
“We are a collection of small towns.”
— The Today Show’s Al Roker
USA Today
Marty Stuart and Ken Burns wrote an op-ed in USA Today calling for a national holiday for hometowns across America. “Honoring our hometowns might seem small or insignificant to some,” they wrote. “We disagree. American democracy, the essence of our civic life, is built on a foundation of strong communities.”
In Memoriam: General Colin Powell
It’s hard to imagine a bigger life than the one lived by General Colin Luther Powell, statesman, diplomat, author, educator, and four-star general. He was the first African-American National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State.
General Powell was outspoken in his love for his hometown of New York, especially his home “street” — Kelly Street in the Bronx. We are honored that he offered to make the first tribute video for the “Honor Your Hometown” campaign.
Dolly!
The legend, Dolly Parton, kicks things off with a tribute to her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee.
Garth and Trisha!
Garth Brooks, the only artist in U.S. music history to record nine albums that received diamond status, and Trisha Yearwood, bestselling artist, author, and three-time Grammy winner, argue about the best hometown in the world. He says Yukon, Oklahoma. She says Monticello, Georgia. Both say that big city or small town, we should focus on those things that connect us.
Out of this world
Astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei aboard the International Space Station pays tribute to his many hometowns ... including a special tribute to his hometown in space.
Art and Culture
Kristin Chenoweth
Broadway legend Kristin Chenoweth takes us back to her brilliant hometown of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where she says, “We have red dirt, but we’ve got good ice cream, and we’ve got good food, and we’ve got good people.”
Jon Batiste
The Oscar winner — and longtime bandleader for Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” - honors his hometown of Metairie, Louisiana, which “taught me the importance of all generations coming together.”
Malcolm Gladwell
“It would be pitch black out, sometimes driving snow, I was 13 years old … but I was never scared. Every time I passed a church, I felt that someone — much more powerful than me — was looking over me.”
— Malcolm Gladwell on jogging through his small town, Elmira, in Southwestern Ontario.
“We have a saying in Nashville. It all begins with a song.”
Marty Stuart
Hometown Songs
Take Me Home, Country Roads
Bill Danoff will tell you he had never stepped foot in West Virginia when he wrote what is now the state song — and perhaps the most iconic hometown song ever written. “The key to me,” he says, “is ‘Take me home to the place I belong.’ That didn’t dawn on me until this year. … Because wherever you’re coming home to, you’re doing it because that’s where you belong. That’s where it feels right in your heart to be.”
Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert and John Denver in 1971
This Land Is Your Land
Deana McCloud, Executive Director of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa Oklahoma: “Woody tells us that the only way we can save ourselves, is to get together and work and fight for each other.”
Coach K
Legendary Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski talks about his hometown for 42 years — Durham, North Carolina — and the hometown treasure that is Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Chris Nikic
What can you even say about Chris Nikic? In November 2020, he became the first person with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman triathlon. He has won an ESPY Award, the Laureus Sport for Good Award, he’s a Special Olympics Ambassador and, with his father, Nik wrote the book “1% Better: Reaching My Full Potential and How You Can Too.”
Chris talks about all the hometowns across America that have inspired him on his inspirational journey.
Sports Treasures
Honoring Our Veterans
Every hometown pays tribute to those local heroes who serve. On the left, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winner Gary Sinise talks about the values he learned growing up in Chicago and how those led him to dedicate so much of his life to serving America’s heroes.
On the right, Arlington National Cemetery Historian Tim Frank pays special tribute to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 100 years after his burial. “Although Arlington is now his hometown,” he says, “he could have come from your hometown.”
Presidents and their Hometowns
Harry Truman
Harry Truman’s grandson Clifton shares his grandfather’s love for his hometown of Independence, Missouri.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower’s granddaughter talks about her grandfather and his hometown of Abilene, Kansas.
Lyndon Johnson
Luci Baines Johnson says her father never lost the values and principles he picked up in the Hill Country of Texas.
Lincoln’s Farewell to Springfield
My friends:
No one not in my situation can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born and one is buried. I now leave not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington.
Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in him, who can go with me and remain with you and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To his care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.
Abraham Lincoln
Springfield, Iillinois
February 11, 1861
The Women of Country Music
Connie Smith (with Mr. Connie Smith, Marty Stuart) sings Johnny Cash’s “Over the Next Hill” in the Ryman Auditorium to honor her hometown of Nashville.
Hometown Treasures
From Mister Rogers Neighborhood to the Bobblehead Museum to the Coney Island Hot Dog Stand in Hattiesburg, every city has its own special gem.
Fred Rogers built his neighborhood around the friendliness of his hometown, Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Phil Sklar co-founded the Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Robert St. John pays tribute to the Coney Island restaurant, where countless people in Hattiesburg, Mississippi grew up.
National Treasures
National League of Cities Invites 19,000 Cities, Towns and Villages to Honor Their Hometowns
“The National League of Cities represents over 19,000 cities, towns and villages across the U.S. We know first-hand that the heartbeat of America is in our hometowns. The Honor Your Hometown initiative highlights the incredible communities, big and small, and the people who live there. Our President, Councilmember Kathy Maness and CEO, Clarence Anthony have kicked us off, sharing their passion for their hometowns and communities. NLC is proud to share stories from our outstanding members and local government officials from across the country.”
NLC President Kathy Maness
NLC CEO Clarence Anthony
Cities of Inspiration
Honor Your Hometown came about because Marty Stuart (Philadelphia, MS), Ken Burns (Walpole, NH), and Dan McGinn (Nitro, WV) decided we need a national celebration of the experiences and values that most closely tie us together, our hometowns. The first mayor to submit a video was Amy Goodwin of Charleston WV. (Ken still owes a Walpole video).
Philadelphia, Mississippi
Charleston, West Virginia
Nitro, West Virginia
America’s Oldest Cities
St. Augustine, Florida
Founded 1565
Jamestown, Virginia
Founded 1607
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Founded 1607
Scores of Mayors Honor Hometowns
Hometown Pillars
Organizations that are strengthening hometowns across America
The American Red Cross
Points of Light
Habitat for Humanity
YMCA
Make-A-Wish America
Operation Homefront
Educating America
Carla Hayden
Librarian of Congress
Lonnie Bunch
Secretary of the Smithsonian
David Ferriero
Archivist of the United States
Personal Stories
