Should we 'clean' Lady Liberty?

America250 Watch rolls on

It’s time for…

America250 Around America 🗺️

We’ve got our eye on how celebrations are shaping up around the country. Here’s a taste.

• The thing about a giant flag is it’s fit for any occasion. Here’s the latest effort in Philadelphia (flag capital of the US?)

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture will host a ‘Great American Farmers Market’ on the National Mall during National Farmers Market Week this August. Did you know the USDA was founded by Abraham Lincoln, and it remains the only federal agency located directly on the National Mall?

• America250 is old news. Have you heard about The Route 66 Centennial, including the largest classic car parade ever put down on pavement?

More America250 To Think About 🤔

• To celebrate America’s Bicentennial back in 1976, celebrities and politicians interrupted primetime television each night for nearly two years to speak for 60 seconds about the events that occurred 200 years ago on that day. James Poniewozik has a great look back on that series of looks back.

Charlton Heston kicked off the series, backed by a giant American flag, telling of George Washington’s worries after the Boston Tea Party. Representative Bella Abzug, in her trademark hat and thick New York accent, related a British man-o-war attack on the city’s waterfront. Lucille Ball described “corn-shucking parties” in colonial New England. (Not every day in history can be equally action-packed.) In a twist on the CBS anchor Walter Cronkite’s famous sign-off, each one concluded, “That’s the way it was.”

• We’re excited to follow Afar’s travel-themed 250 coverage and continue dreaming about the amazing vacations we’re totally going to be able to take next year.

• Thoughts on this proposal to turn Lady Liberty golden next year? Let us know in the comments!

  

Kellie Carter Jackson on a sad bit of ‘historical déjà vu’

Lately, I keep having what I like to call historical déjà vu, when something happens that eerily reminds me of the past. I ran across a story this week in which a New York City youth baseball coach, Youman Wilder, stood up to protect his players from ICE. Wilder is the founder of the Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy.

While his players were practicing his Riverside Park, he noticed unmistakable ICE agents in their uniforms approach his kids. He overheard the agents asking the children questions such as “Where are you from? How old are you? Where were you born? Were your parents born here?” Wilder intervened and told the agents it was inappropriate to ask these questions to children and told the children to invoke their fifth amendment right. He then told the kids the gather in the batting cage, where there was only one entrance, and he placed himself in front of the kids. Wilder quietly told children, “I’m willing to die to make sure you get home. I’m willing to die today.”

In an interview with a reporter, he was emphatic, “[ICE] will not take one of these kids.” The agents left, but after the confrontation, some of players did not return to the park for practice. It was clear that ICE was present to send an intimidating message. What’s more American than children playing baseball? And yet, this very act, placed some children at risk to be detained or have their family member deported. This is where we are now.

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Up next for our paying supporters, Kellie connects the latest ICE news to the 19th century, plus our usual list of key (and not-so-pivotal) events that took place this week.

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Here’s what happened over the days ahead in American political history…