On New Year’s Eve, fireworks bloomed behind the Washington Monument. Along the side of the 550-foot structure, a birthday candle was projected, flickering as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played. This spectacle kicked off Freedom 250’s countdown to the semiquincentennial and was followed by animated neoclassic-style graphics overlaid with audio narrating the nation’s “discovery, expansion, independence, and future.” As the narrative unraveled and onlookers watched Christopher Columbus sail across the sea and settlers in wagons push westward, there was no mention of women or people of color.

This display, along with the announcement of a UFC fight on the White House lawn, an IndyCar grand prix near the National Mall, and the Great American State Fair, made it clear that this year’s semiquincentennial is more about creating spectacle in service of President Donald Trump’s idea of America than it is about honoring American history. With each event, the complexities that have brought America to where it is today are erased or sidelined in favor of blind patriotism—a celebration of an uncritical American story centering predominantly white men.

But state commissions are also celebrating the anniversary. And some of them are doing a far better job honoring the country’s complexity. These groups, formed by state governor appointments, legislation, and executive orders, are also political and flawed. But they are focusing on their communities, choosing to use the semiquincentennial as a moment to embrace diversity and make history more accessible. This anniversary is more than a celebration; it’s a chance to reexamine America’s story and take stock of those the federal government would rather censor from the larger narrative.

As these separate state commissions facilitated conversations with local communities, they found that more than any spectacle, people wanted to see themselves and their ancestors in the celebrations of 250 years of the United States.

In Rhode Island, one of the original 13 colonies, locals know their history and take pride in it. Lauren Fogarty, the commission’s program coordinator, said there’s been an opportunity to hear from more families about their personal connections to the Revolution, including from descendants of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, the first Black battalion in US military history. Although the history of the regiment has often been overshadowed, the anniversary and one of the commission’s grant recipients, the Rhode Island Historical Society, provided an opportunity for author John Rees to discuss the experiences of those soldiers during and after the war at an April event at the John Brown House Museum.

North Carolina’s commission has drawn attention to the Edenton Tea Party, where a group of 51 women gathered to pledge that they wouldn’t buy British goods, one of the earliest instances of women’s political activism. This history is presented in one of the children’s........

© Mother Jones