Very much long-awaited, "Hamilton", the Broadway musical based on the life of Founding Father and first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, debuted on the Disney+ streaming service on Friday, July 3rd. As popular as ever with everyone stuck at home and theatres closed, it also stirred up again the discussion of the show's portrayal of the Founding Fathers and the representation of people of color.
This conversation stretched into the next day, Saturday, July 4th, as the United States celebrated its 244th anniversary of independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. This year, history was really a talking point with protests for justice and racial equality happening across the country. Celebrations were held too, like any other year, but with differences due to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. Many events were scrapped nationwide and the few that still went on were either reconfigured to be a digital event or closed the public. The U.S. National Archives pre-recorded their traditional Declaration of Independence reading ceremony by using footage from their 2017 event in Washington, DC and having narrations provided by journalist Soledad O'Brien.
The Archives also used Zoom, the meetings platform in use by many people right now during the pandemic, to conduct Q&A sessions with historical figures (played by actors) as well as experts with the Archives and the National Archives Foundation. PBS' annual "A Capitol Fourth" celebration on the South Lawn outside the Capitol Building was mostly pre-recorded and had no crowd; they showed this year's National Mall fireworks live along with musical scores from previous years. At both events, presenters said that this Independence Day is different not just because of the pandemic but of how more people are becoming aware of our nation's injustices and broken promises that were in the Declaration of Independence.
Blocks away, President Trump's second annual "Salute to America" was smaller compared to last year but was planned like his Mount Rushmore event the day prior — people sitting shoulder-to-shoulder without masks — which went against the Federal government's official COVID-19 guidance. He also said that 99% of all COVID-19 cases are "harmless", which is an unsubstantiated claim that is not backed up by evidence and can't be as many more people across the country are getting sick and there are still tragic deaths that could have been avoided.
Philadelphia, the home of "The Room Where It Happened" (i.e. Independence Hall and the signing of the Declaration of Independence) still had its full week of events in the "Wawa Welcome America" festival sponsored by regional convenience store chain Wawa. Activities during the week were virtual and there were no fireworks this year in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The traditional Fourth of July concert was still live but held inside The Met with no audience and shown on WCAU-TV NBC10 Philadelphia and WWSI-TV Telemundo 62 with Cynthia Erivo and Jason Derulo each having a whole hour (without commercials) on the Independence Blue Cross stage. Earlier in the day, both stations also aired the "Celebration of Freedom" ceremony with support from the City of Philadelphia under Mayor Jim Kenney and the City Council.
Also in Philadelphia, Independence National Historic Park, part of the National Park Service, as well as the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution (PSSR) and the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (DSDI) continued their tradition of the non-partisan "Let Freedom Ring" ceremony at Independence NHP's Liberty Bell Center. Many of the themes of the ceremony were that the promise of freedom being marked on Independence Day never came true even today; there is still work that needs to be done building on top of what the Founders did as they risked their lives signing the Declaration. Speakers at the ceremony were Cynthia MacLeod (superintendent of Independence NHP), Ben Ramsey Wolfe Sr. (PSSR President), Rev. W. Douglas Banks (pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Germantown, PA and descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings), and PA State Rep. Tim Hennessey (R). The bell, with its famous crack, was ceremonially tapped by World War II veteran (Ret.) U.S. Army Lieutenant John Edward James Jr. (who recently turned 100 years old in June), Rev. Banks and his children, Lucy Duke Tenachi (DSDI President-General), and PSSR President Ben Wolfe Sr. This is the 51st year of the ceremony.
Closer to home, celebrations were also cut down, but a pandemic couldn't stop these traditions. The Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, now in its 44th year, was a bit different; Macy's and the City of New York held smaller 5-minute fireworks displays at locations across the city and most of them got into the actual TV special which was shown on WNBC-TV NBC4 New York and the rest of the NBC network. This week's displays from the five boroughs as well as displays on the Empire State Building and One Times Square (home of the New Year's Ball Drop and in sight from the New York Marriott Marquis hotel rooftop where Craig Melvin and Dylan Dreyer from "Today" hosted) were synced to powerful music by John Legend, Mayo Clinic surgeon Dr. Elvis, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Jeremy Gaynor, and the Young People's Chorus of New York City as well as an amazing recording by the late Kim Weston of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing".
Another tradition that is more long-standing is the annual Independence Day celebration & reading of the Declaration of Independence at Saint Paul's Church National Historic Site here in Mount Vernon, also part of the National Park Service. The pre-Revolutionary War-era church, cemetery, and village green has been home to the festively patriotic event attended by local members of the U.S. military and many Mount Vernon and Westchester County residents as well as people nearby from New York City, Connecticut, New Jersey, and other areas. There would be bunting and ribbons, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, events at Saint Paul's NHS have been canceled except for virtual webinars with Site Manager David Osborn and an online "NPS Junior Ranger at Home" program. Therefore, no members of the public were invited but the traditions of a member of the Banning family reading the Declaration of Independence and the ringing of the historic bell at St. Paul's continues. For 138 years, John P. Banning, his father, and his grandfather have been reading the Declaration at St. Paul's NHS — even before the church became part of the National Park Service (given to NPS in 1980, opened to the public in 1984) and even before it got National Historic Site status (1943). Saint Paul's NHS is the birthplace of the Bill of Rights as well as the First Amendment and freedom of the press and is where famed journalist John Peter Zenger was covering the Great Election of 1733. For this year's ceremony, the City of Mount Vernon and the Mayor's Office worked with St. Paul's NHS to record it for the Site's Facebook page. Mount Vernon Veterans Service Agency director Kristen Briez Reed and Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard gave remarks and reader John P. Banning also talked about his personal and years-long battle on reading our nation's founding document given the current situation and how the Declaration discusses on racism and history. As he read the names of the signers (who actually signed August 2, 1776), the bell rung 13 times in honor of the original colonies-turned-states, an Independence Day tradition that started just after the end of the American Revolution. That bell is inscribed with the name of Rev. Thomas Standard who was in charge of Saint Paul's Church and bought it from Whitechapel Foundry in London in 1758, the exact same foundry that made the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia's Independence NHP. What an amazing coincidence!
St. Paul's NHS is administered jointly by the National Park Service and the Society of the National Shrine of the Bill Rights.
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