“The 1976 celebration was a more vital and happy one because of a broad belief that two years earlier the system had worked, and we were celebrating a system that had cleansed itself. We were in a period of renewal and relief, and today we’re in a period of fear and loathing. We don’t have any reason to celebrate our founding documents, because we’re living in an authoritarian state that is quite different from the one that the founders created.” — Jonathan Alter
In a proclamation declaring 1976 the Bicentennial Year, President Ford called upon “every man, woman, and child to celebrate the diversity of tradition, culture and heritage that reflects our people and our patrimony.”
A half century later, President Trump used the occasion of the nation’s 250th anniversary to celebrate Trump.
In 2016, a bipartisan act of Congress created the United States Semiquincentennial Commission, branded America250, to “foster shared experiences that spark imagination, showcase the rich tapestry of our American stories, inspire service in our communities, honor the enduring strength, and celebrate the resilience of the United States of America.”
In 2025, the Trump administration began diverting funds intended for the nonpartisan commission to “Freedom 250,” a public-private partnership through which donors could purchase access to Trump and millions of dollars could be funneled to Trump allies. Among the events it has planned or produced are a mixed martial arts event held on the White House lawn in June and an IndyCar street race around the National Mall set for August.
On July 5, 1976, President Ford addressed newly naturalized Americans in Virginia: “‘Black is beautiful’ was a motto of genius which uplifted us far above its intention. Once Americans had thought about it and perceived its truth, we began to realize that so are brown, white, red, and yellow beautiful … You came as strangers among us and you leave here as citizens, equal in fundamental rights, equal before the law, with an equal share in the promise of the future.”
In a speech to open the sparsely attended Great American State Fair, Trump denigrated immigrants as “murderers, gang members, drug dealers, and dangerous criminals” and bragged about eliminating racial justice initiatives.
In 1976, the nation was struggling to recover from one of the most notorious episodes of presidential corruption in our history up to that point: a political espionage program, illegally funded by donor contributions, which the Nixon administration tried to cover up by destroying evidence, obstructing investigators and bribing burglars.
The bipartisan resolve with which Congress confronted the Watergate scandal seems unthinkable today. Not only did a congressional committee vote unanimously to subpoena audiotapes that exposed the president’s guilt, but members of the president’s own party also stood ready to vote for his impeachment and conviction, and urged him to resign.
But the reforms passed in the wake of the scandal did not anticipate a future president willing to flout institutional norms and test the limits of every available safeguard.
In his Bicentennial speech, Ford asked, “Are the institutions under which we live working the way they should? Are the foundations laid in 1776 and 1789 still strong enough and sound enough to resist the tremors of our times? Are our God-given rights secure, our hard-won liberties protected?”
Fifty years later, these questions no longer sound like a celebration of American resilience — they stand as an urgent test of whether our democracy can still summon the courage, accountability and civic faith that once enabled it to correct its own course.
Morial is president/CEO of the National Urban League.
