{"id":207387,"date":"2026-06-01T12:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207387\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:10:12","slug":"why-some-philadelphians-arent-excited-for-america-250","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207387\/","title":{"rendered":"Why some Philadelphians aren\u2019t excited for America 250"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Birthday celebrations can be fraught the older you get \u2014 especially the big ones. Not only do you have to come up with a good party idea and get a bunch of people to show up, but suddenly the day becomes an evaluation on how your life is going: are you where you want to be?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same can be said of the United States\u2019 250th birthday party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

America\u2019s \u201csemiquincentennial\u201d \u2014 a word you may not have known before 2026, but keeps cropping up in the city\u2019s marketing materials \u2014 is taking place all summer. Restaurants, bars, museums and even casinos are throwing their America 250-branded bashes with custom hats, specialty cocktails and t-shirts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comcast is sponsoring a party. Walmart is sponsoring a party. Wawa is sponsoring a party. The World Cup \u2014 a global soccer tournament that the majority of Americans have historically tuned out of<\/a> \u2014 is now getting tied in with the ultimate American bash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s been interesting to me is how many types of events can masquerade as 250 celebrations,\u201d said Emma Hart, an early American history professor at the University of Pennsylvania. \u201cI\u2019m actually going to the World Cup on July the fourth\u2026 It\u2019s going to be France versus Germany if it all goes according to form, which is definitely not very American.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"American flag flying at Independence Mall. (Mark Henninger\/Imagic Digital)<\/p>\n

Hart has been subscribed to and following planning emails for national America 250 celebrations. History, she said, can be subjective \u2014 and the Trump administration\u2019s focus on 250 parties often takes a simplistic approach to understanding our country\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe version of the 250 that\u2019s coming through, is the version of American history that is obviously closely honed to the current administration\u2019s view,\u201d she said. \u201cWhich is wholly celebratory and focuses very much on the Founding Fathers who, you know, rightfully are celebrated as having a major role in the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that what they did was incredible in its time,\u201d she said, but also noted that this was a version of events that eschews nuance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yet, with all the buzz \u2014 are Philadelphians actually that excited about America 250, or are we just celebrating out of obligation? Reflecting on the last 250 years, is the country where it wants to be?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Are you excited for America 250?<\/p>\n

National news has been tinged with doom and gloom this year with headlines like \u201cLife, Liberty and the Pursuit of Unhappiness\u201d from the New York Times<\/a>, or \u201cPublic Anger Is Rising\u201d from the Atlantic<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Americans are facing rising inflation,<\/a> higher utility bills<\/a>, ICE raids<\/a>, AI and technological disruption<\/a>, a war with Iran<\/a>, among other national headlines in 2026.<\/p>\n

We headed to Washington Square Park in historic Philadelphia to take the temperature on sentiments around America 250.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not feeling overly celebratory when I consider America in the current age,\u201d Jesse Peirce, a local nurse, who lives in the area, said. \u201cI would love to remember that there are so many positive elements to both this country and more so to its people, but I think that can be overshadowed by what\u2019s currently happening politically and socially.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peirce is one of a handful of Philadelphians we chatted with who wasn\u2019t feeling positive about celebrating America\u2019s 250th birthday, even during such a big milestone year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen ICE agents, even in this park,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s disheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philadelphia artist and rapper Sharif Lacey<\/a>, known for his stage name Reef the Lost Cauze<\/a>, had similar feelings to Peirce. He was afraid that the celebrations might ring a little tone deaf \u2014 especially for residents of color.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Philly rapper Sharif Talib Lacey, AKA Reef the Lost Cauze, in August 2023. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel as though for myself and people that look like me, there\u2019s nothing really to celebrate,\u201d Lacey said. \u201cThe promise of America, the ideals of America, the belief of America has always kind of been an illusion \u2014 always been something that\u2019s kind of eluded us\u2026 What we\u2019re seeing happening all over this country, as far as Black and brown people are concerned, I would find it very understandable and very relatable for anyone that didn\u2019t feel like they were a part of the party, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like people having a picnic in the park, enjoying themselves, and you\u2019re looking from the outside in,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Some Philadelphians we ran into weren\u2019t even aware that an America 250 celebration was taking place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know nothing about America 250,\u201d Veronica Philipsborn, a Fairmount resident who works in criminal defense, said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t even aware that there were celebrations happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only 250 event she had heard of was the 2026 FIFA World Cup. However, she was not \u201cparticularly excited about\u201d the upcoming fan fest on Lemon Hill.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A Rendering of Philadelphia\u2019s Fan Festival site for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, located at East Fairmount Park\u2019s Lemon Hill. (Courtesy of Philadelphia Soccer 2026)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s such a beautiful community space, and they only invested into it because of this FIFA thing,\u201d Philipsborn said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to cater to outsiders and non-Philadelphians, and I think at the end of the World Cup viewing, the park is just going to be kind of left a mess, and I really hope they take care of it and make it nice for residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

For their part, fan fest organizers have pledged to install the permanent infrastructure upgrades<\/a> and park enhancements to improve Lemon Hill following the World Cup.<\/p>\n

What should a 250 celebration look like?<\/p>\n

Not everyone we ran into believed that America 250 festivities needed to be a big reckoning on our country\u2019s faults, but rather hoped for a celebration of our nation\u2019s ideals.<\/p>\n

Cynthia Murray, VP of sales and marketing at the Bottle Shop in Spring Lake at the Jersey Shore, came to Philadelphia for a special trip with a friend. The pair had just visited the Museum of the American Revolution<\/a> and were dressed in a full red, white and blue get-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling really excited about it, and really proud to be an American,\u201d Murray said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a great opportunity to visit Philadelphia in this important year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just saw the Liberty Bell,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re here in this beautiful Independence Park. It\u2019s so nice here. It\u2019s such a walkable city. You can really feel the history as you\u2019re walking the steps that Ben Franklin took.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"(Billy Penn file photo) Credit: Danya Henninger \/ Billy Penn<\/p>\n

For Murray, taking the time to celebrate what is good and working about our country does not have to be a bad thing. After all, when we celebrate our own birthdays, we don\u2019t publicly drudge up our flaws and mistakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a shame,\u201d she said of people who aren\u2019t feeling the hype. \u201cAs Americans, we should be proud of being Americans, and we have to take the good with the bad, and people have different political views\u2026 We have to look back and see how we started and how far we have come and how we will continue to grow and change. In life, there are differences, but at the end of the day, we are all Americans, and I really feel strongly about that, and very proud of being an American.\u201d<\/p>\n

For residents like Lacey, however, questioning the state of the country and pushing against where we are coming up short is a way to commemorate America 250.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess in the literal sense, we\u2019re celebrating independence, you know, defecting from Britain and all that jazz, and the birth of a nation<\/a> \u2014 no pun intended,\u201d Lacey said. \u201cBut I think we really need to question what that nation has become. What that nation will become, moving into the future. So, it\u2019s a double-edged sword. I had a grandfather that fought in World War II, and you know, I definitely wouldn\u2019t want to be anything but an American. I just wish America felt the same way about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNations are complicated and not entirely positive\u201d<\/p>\n

Seth Bruggeman<\/a>, a history professor at Temple University,<\/a> said that it can be hard for administrations to force a wholly celebratory picture of our nation \u2014 especially in today\u2019s digital age.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difficulty with celebrations like the 250, really any of the centennial celebrations we\u2019ve had, is that they seek to organize how we think about the past around stories of accomplishment and progress and achievement,\u201d Bruggeman said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s fine, and those are good things and they all exist within the American saga. But as you and I and anybody who\u2019s ever lived for a moment anywhere knows, stories about nations are complicated and not entirely positive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Philadelphia has a long history of celebrating the country on big birthday occasions. America\u2019s Centennial party in 1876 took place in Philadelphia<\/a>, and became our country\u2019s first World\u2019s Fair.<\/a> Planners built Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park (now the Please Touch Museum) for the occasion and attracted nearly 10 million visitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"An image of the Women\u2019s Pavilion at the 1876 World\u2019s Fair. (Courtesy of Wikimedia)<\/p>\n

Still, while Bruggeman noted that the public loved that celebration, it was far from a perfect time in our country. The Centennial took place about a decade after the Civil War and came on the heels of the Financial Panic of 1873.<\/a> What\u2019s more, the celebration itself largely catered to white men.<\/p>\n

Bruggeman cited the 1984 book \u201cAll the World\u2019s a Fair\u201d<\/a> by Robert Rydell, which speaks to the racial and gender disparities at the Centennial.<\/p>\n

According to Rydell, the event was deeply shaped by racial and gender tensions. Black construction workers and contractors were largely excluded from jobs to build the fair.
Frederick Douglass \u201csuffered humiliation,\u201d as police initially barred him from sitting with other dignitaries. Women had to fight to be included, and were permitted a separate pavilion. Then, Black women, who helped raise money for the event, weren\u2019t allowed to participate.<\/p>\n

Rydell quotes Miss R. Cole, a Black activist, in the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was then, and not till then,\u201d Miss R. Cole said, \u201cthat I had any idea that our work was to be confined exclusively among our own color, and that we were to have no voice nor to form any part of the local committee in the wards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s bicentennial celebration in 1976<\/a> was also mired in political conflict. The nation was recovering from the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. In Philadelphia, civil rights groups pushed back against the Rizzo administration and protested the celebrations.<\/p>\n

\"\"A view of the parade on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway during the Bicentennial parade, July 4, 1976. (Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries)<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that there\u2019s ever a moment where America is just doing perfectly well,\u201d Bruggeman said. He added that national celebrations that don\u2019t embrace nuance or leave out certain groups, like the Centennial celebration, have been met with diminishing returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy big concern is that we don\u2019t also whitewash our current moment,\u201d Bruggeman said. \u201cWe have to see the complexity, and we have to make sure that when we remember, we do it in a way that acknowledges and affirms the struggles that all Americans face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Museums, art and America 250<\/p>\n

While many America 250 parties feel like corporate sponsorships, Professor Hart believes that there are local institutions working to take a more comprehensive approach when it comes to the semiquincentennial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in Philadelphia exhibitions \u2014 like the Museum of the American Revolution\u2019s \u2018Declaration\u2019s Journey<\/a>\u2019 exhibition \u2014 you see a very nuanced version of America, in which 1776 was the beginning of a journey towards equality that we\u2019re still on,\u201d Hart said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She pointed to the Trump administration\u2019s recent involvement in taking down the slavery exhibit at the Presidents\u2019 House<\/a> as a clear point in that ongoing journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re at this point, where people at the local level are doing what they want to do, and people at the federal level are doing what they want to do,\u201d Hart said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"In January, protesters taped signs to a wall at the President\u2019s House site on Independence Mall, where an exhibition about slavery at the nation\u2019s first presidential residence was taken down. It has since been restored. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

Bruggeman also pointed to the slavery exhibit at the President\u2019s House as an important moment in our 250th year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am 100% absolutely opposed to the president intervening in the historical work of the National Park Service,\u201d he said. \u201cOn the other hand, I would never want to take a position that says the historical work of the National Park Service is unflawed and should remain absent of critique, right? It\u2019s the critique, it\u2019s the conversation, it\u2019s the pushing and pulling, it\u2019s the challenging of what we think about the past, not just its affirmation, but the challenging of it. That is really what doing history is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even local museums, he warned, cannot give the full picture.<\/p>\n

In addition to historical exhibits, art museums are curating shows that aim to reflect a more complicated view of the American legacy.<\/p>\n

Mural Arts is putting on printmaking workshops<\/a> asking the question, \u201cWhat does freedom require today?\u201d Smaller galleries around the city are presenting shows hoping to tackle a more full picture of the semiquincentennial.<\/p>\n

InLiquid\u2019s upcoming Future\/Past\/Present<\/a>, for example, focuses on \u201cerased histories\u201d and \u201creimagined American iconography.\u201d The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts are showing \u201cA Nation of Artists<\/a>,\u201d which looks at the evolution of American art, including works from Black, Indigenous, immigrant and historically underrepresented artists.<\/p>\n

\"\"Buffalo dance, 1928 by artist Awa Tsireh, a member of the Pueblo nation, at the \u201cNation of Artists\u201d exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t pretend to have the whole national story, because every museum is unique,\u201d Kathleen Foster, senior curator of American art at the PMA, told WHYY News<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re very strong on a local, regional story. We\u2019ve tried as much as we can to open it up to tell a more national story, to include Indigenous voices, to include artists from the South and from the West. But the truth is, there is no museum that is encyclopedic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps there is no perfect way to celebrate America\u2019s 250th, but for Lacey, his ideal celebration is one that embraces our country\u2019s flaws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica really is about revolution and revolutionaries, and people that were not afraid to speak up to make things change,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything that we see, everything that we have, everything that\u2019s become possible is from people that died or put their blood, sweat and tears into making those changes. I would want to celebrate them, because those are the people that really are what America is about to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Birthday celebrations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4000,8120,564,94,69,71,70,9880],"class_list":["post-207387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america-250","tag-america250","tag-featured","tag-history","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-semiquincentennial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}