WEST CHESTER — The Green Team America250 celebration Thursday at Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center was a chance to learn about, and be inspired by, American and West Chester history.
Several speakers with placards gave an Iroquois Thanksgiving Prayer for the Natural World, the Declaration of Independence was read, and then biographies were presented about places, events and people both nationally and in West Chester. More than 100 people attended and enjoyed a taco meal afterwards with gelato. Musicians White Feathers performed.
The Iroquois readings centered around water, birds, trees, winds, the sun, moon, stars and “the Creator, our great spirit.”
Learning about Lincoln at the Green Team event for America250 at Uptown! (COURTESY OF JIM HUDGINGS)
A narrator said, “Now we are all thankful for our mother Earth,” while several others said, “Now our minds are one.”
“The Promise of America: Our Roots and Branches” featured a reading of the Declaration of Independence by Chair of the Public Arts Commission Jimmer Breen.
It was noted that the Declaration is powerful and inspires people around the world to fight for freedom and equality.
Highlighting the Iroquois past at Uptown! (BILL RETTEW – DAILY LOCAL NEWS)
Breen said he practiced a great deal for the reading.
“It gave me an opportunity to really dig into, read through it, and understand what was said,” Breen said.
One of those included in the biographies section of the programs was Humphry Marshall. He was a botanist and self-educated scientist who established the second American botanical garden, and the first book on native American trees and shrubs.
He is the namesake of the Village of Marshallton.
The first biography of Lincoln was published in West Chester at the Lincoln Building, at 28 W. Market St.
“Little Lincolns” (high schoolers) recite the Gettysburg Address in costume every year during the West Chester Old Fashioned Christmas and Christmas Parade.
The Statue of Liberty message was presented by Susan Karas.
When she recited “Give me your tired, your poor…” Karas teared up.
“I practiced so I wouldn’t, but I couldn’t make it through. I knew it from high school,” Karas said. “It was a joy. My son lives in New York and when I visit, we go by the statue all the time.”
Karas’ grandparents immigrated through Ellis Island.
World renowned artist Mary Cassatt lived in West Chester on South High Street. She was the only woman artist exhibited with the Impressionists.
“Women should be someone and not something,” Cassatt had said.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who saw the United States through the Great Depression and World War II, was discussed.
His four Essential Freedoms of Speech, Worship, From Fear and From Want were elaborated upon.
Event organizer Margaret Hudgings, a Green Team member, said that we’ve lost sight of our founding principles of freedom and liberty, and FDR’s four freedoms, especially, the freedoms from want and from fear.
“Many people are struggling and afraid,” Hudgings said. “It’s not the America of our founding principles.”
Thirty-four-year-veteran Marine Smedley Butler, who won 16 medals, including the Medal of Honor twice, was recognized.
The advocate and former West Miner Street resident said that “war is a racket.”
Mayor Lillian DeBaptiste movingly read part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Aug. 28, 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech that 250,000 people heard live at the Lincoln Memorial.
The mayor spoke to the language of patriotism, and unity and justice for all for its people.
She quoted King as saying, “not judged by the color of their skin, but” … and then the audience finished the quote by saying … “by the content of their character.”
“It was both intimidating and awe inspiring to speak the words of Martin Luther King,” DeBaptiste said. “His words of 1963 are just as important in 2026.”
West Chester activist and chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington Bayard Rustin was honored.
He was an activist not because he was gay or Black, but because of his Quaker upbringing, the speakers said.
Pennsylvanian Rachel Carson, author of the1962 book “Silent Spring,” alerted the nation to ecological dangers, including pesticide use and DDT.
“In nature, nothing exists alone,” she said.
Dawn Mazzone helped organize the event, with 30 speakers. She said that it was touching that people were inspired by historical references so pertinent today.
“It’s a good reminder of America’s values,” she said. “There’s a lot of lessons we can learn today from looking at the past.”