This Fourth of July marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence promised liberty and equality for all – even as it excluded most of the people living on the land it claimed to liberate.
For many Americans, the semiquincentennial is less a celebration than a reckoning. The country arrives at this milestone amid sustained attacks on voting rights, civil rights and democratic institutions – challenges that organizers say are taking the country back generations. It’s a moment that activists and advocates describe as both a crisis and an opening to reimagine the promises of freedom and democracy.
