Americans in all 50 states and 16 U.S. territories will recite the Declaration of Independence simultaneously Wednesday, including a reading in Columbia at 5 p.m.
The time and date of this year’s reading honors the first time the declaration was read in public in 1776. John Nixon read the document to a crowd in Philadelphia on July 8, following its official adoption by the Continental Congress four days earlier.
In Missouri, the Declaration of Independence will be read by local volunteers at the State Historical Society of Missouri, 605 Elm St., in tandem with 11 other locations in the state.
It will be read at the same time at the Cole County Courthouse in Jefferson City, the Springfield National Cemetery, the Phelps County Courthouse steps and at other sites in Joplin, Rolla, Richland, Cape Fair, Caruthersville, Marionville, Aurora and Clinton.
Across the country, the declaration will be recited in a total of 796 places.
“It coincides with the 250th anniversary of the first reading,” said Joel Rhodes, director of the State Historical Society of Missouri. “This seemed like the logical place to do it; the building is so magnificent.”
In Columbia, the declaration will be divided into sections that will be read by 11 different people — an astronaut who was a professor at the University of Missouri, a Vietnam veteran fighter pilot, a local news anchor, a Columbia high school student and multiple members of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution.
In addition to the reading at 5 p.m., there will be performances appropriate to the theme. A color guard from the Sons of the American Revolution dressed in Colonial costume will carry the American flag, and the two actors portraying John and Abigail Adams from the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre’s musical production of “1776” will deliver a scene from the play.
For the final act of the evening, Theron Denson, a Columbia native known as the Black Diamond, will perform with his Neil Diamond tribute band. The evening will wrap up around 7 p.m.
Free Tiger Stripe ice cream will be served courtesy of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Veterans United also helped fund the evening’s events.
There will also be a barter boat, a trading post where people are encouraged to bring an item to exchange for another.
“It’s kind of a way of doing oral stories with people,” said Beth Pike, the State Historical Society assistant director of communications and educational outreach. “When they receive an object, they learn about what meaning it had in that other person’s life.”
Pike said she remembers the sense of belonging she felt on the nation’s 200th anniversary in 1976, when she was a sixth grader collecting bicentennial coins with her friends.
“Those are fun memories to go back to and remember how we all reunited for that time,” she said. “So I’m hoping that we can give these young people today who are coming to the festival something to remember.”