Join NHPR for special programming honoring Independence Day 2024

Tune in to the following special programming live on-air, online, or with the NHPR app.

Civics 101– The Declaration Does Not Apply: Thursday, July 4rd at 1PM

The founders left three groups out of the Declaration of Independence: Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, and women. This is how they responded.

A few years ago, Civics 101 did a series revisiting the Declaration of Independence, and three groups for which the tenants of life, liberty, and property enshrined in that document did not apply. We bring you all three parts of that series on July 4.

Part 1: Byron Williams, author of The Radical Declaration, walks us through how enslaved Americans and Black Americans pushed against the document from the very beginning of our nation’s founding.

Part 2: Writer and activist Mark Charles lays out the anti-Native American sentiments within it, the doctrines and proclamations from before 1776 that justified ‘discovery,’ and the Supreme Court decisions that continue to cite them all.

Part 3: Laura Free, host of the podcast Amended and professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, tells us about the Declaration of Sentiments, the document at the heart of the women’s suffrage movement.

Civics 101 is the podcast about how our democracy work — or is supposed to work, anyway. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts (it’s free!)

A Capitol Fourth from NPR
Thursday, July 4 from 8 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Celebrate our country’s 248th birthday with a star-studded musical extravaganza!

The 44th edition of America’s Independence Day celebration features performances by top stars from pop, country, R&B, classical and Broadway, and patriotic classics. Top musical artists join the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of premier pops conductor Jack Everly.

The annual Fourth of July celebration airs from the nation’s capital to a broadcast audience of millions and to our troops around the world via American Forces Network. This program is Hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro.