On Saturday, we as a nation celebrated the country’s semiquincentennial.
Most of you haven’t heard of it by that phrase, as it doesn’t “roll off the tongue” as the phrase “Bicentennial” did 50 years ago, and it is not as catchy. But it is actually the correct name for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. However, those of us who are old enough to remember the nation’s bicentennial will notice stark differences between the way we celebrated then and now.
I was 11 and 12 years old in 1976. For two years, “The Bicentennial Minute” appeared nightly on CBS, telling us stories of American history by the celebrities of the day. Red, white and blue were everywhere. “America Rock” showed patriotic cartoons to schoolchildren on Saturday mornings (one of which was prophetically titled “No More Kings,” albeit referring to George III). Additionally, I was one of hundreds of Charleston-area children who participated in a massive bicentennial pageant at Johnson Hagood Stadium. I recall that we sang patriotic songs and interestingly, included “What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love.” Today, I understand why.
Most of us who were children then were not aware of it at the time, but the patriotic fervor of the bicentennial was a psychological reaction to the previous dozen or so years of American history. The 1960s and early ‘70s were a period of intense polarization in our history. Race riots, the Vietnam War, battles over desegregation, assassinations of major figures, massive drug abuse and battles between the generations saw divisions and strife between Americans unprecedented since the Civil War a century earlier. Some good came out of it, such as better enforcement of laws protecting racial minorities and women, as well as a greater concern for the environment. But after the end of the Vietnam War and the end of the Watergate crisis, most Americans wanted to put all of that behind them and the bicentennial came along just in time as a means for Americans to cheerfully forget the traumas of the recent past.
We who were children then were largely unaware of these developments. We occasionally heard adults talking about Vietnam, Watergate and the other issues of the day. But unless you had parents or siblings in Vietnam or lived in areas where riots took place, we were mostly enjoying our childhoods, riding bikes, playing with friends and being entertained by the cartoons of the day. So when the Bicentennial came, we appeared in pageants and parades, occasionally in colonial garb, and joyfully shot firecrackers. The issues of slavery during the American Revolution or the internal divisions between the loyalists and patriots of that era were almost never brought to our attention at the time.
The current semiquincentennial was celebrated on a far muted level. Historians seem to be the main ones who are doing serious and introspective programs on this event, and most Americans appear to be taking this with little difference than other Independence Day celebrations. The major reason for this state of affairs is clear — the polarization of our present time. While it may be argued whether these current divisions pale in comparison to the 1960s and early ‘70s, it clearly results in a lack of feeling of national unity at the moment as both major political parties suffer major splits over their direction as we speak, as well as the acrimony resulting from the actions of our current president and his supporters and dissenters.
Many are concerned that this may be a period of national decline and feel unsure of the future. While the country has survived such eras before, the unclear future of our present course causes major anxiety among many. We do not know what the Tricentennial of America will bring in 2076 but can only hope that those who are young today will have more of a feeling to be in a mood for national celebration and sober reflection.
Fordham is a Charleston author, lecturer and adjunct professor of history. His most recent book is “Black Folk Tales and Chronicles of South Carolina,” The History Press, 2025.
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