Good morning, Chicago. Tomorrow is our nation’s 250th birthday. Here are some stories to help you celebrate the holiday.
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(Val Proudkii / Capital Concerts)
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A 250th birthday seems worthy of multiple celebrations, so this year PBS is hosting two specials for the Fourth of July and America’s 250th. First up is the annual “A Capitol Fourth” with fireworks and music from Washington, D.C., this year premiering on Friday, July 3, at 7 p.m. with a repeat at 8:30 p.m. as well as the following day, July 4, at 5:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. It will also be available to stream via the PBS app.
A special addition for the semiquincentennial is “America Made in Virginia: 250 Years Together,” which will broadcast live from colonial Williamsburg with performances, fireworks and drones on Saturday, July 4, at 7 p.m. and via the PBS app.
Meet some of the performers from both specials below.
“A Capitol Fourth”
Alfonso Ribeiro: Actor and TV host Alfonso Ribeiro hosts this celebration from Washington, D.C.
Chicago: With a name shortened from Chicago Transit Authority and founders who were students at DePaul and Roosevelt, the band Chicago is strongly rooted in its eponymous city.
Patti LaBelle: She's an iconic voice and performer of popular music, often known as the “Godmother of Soul,” with a career stretching back to the 1960s.
Kool & the Gang: This R&B band featuring brothers and friends have sampled numerous genres over the decades but are best known for “Jungle Boogie” and “Celebration.”
Trace Adkins: Adkins is a country singer with multiple No. 1 hits to his name and a recognizable deep voice, and he is a return performer to “A Capitol Fourth.”
Alan Jackson: One of the best-selling music artists of all time, Jackson is a neotraditional country singer.
Carly Pearce: A country singer-songwriter from a younger generation, Pearce has received various country music awards and a Grammy.
“America Made in Virginia: 250 Years Together”
Richard Thomas: The actor narrates “America Made in Virginia.”
Kelli O’Hara: O’Hara is a Broadway star who has also appeared in TV shows.
Judy Collins: The legendary singer-songwriter has been performing for almost seven decades.
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(WTTW News)
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Americans nationwide are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States, marked by the signing of the Declaration of Independence. However, the country’s origins started before English settlers claimed the land as their own.
For centuries, Native Americans have fought for rights, land and sovereignty after the United States broke treaties and forcibly removed millions of Natives from ancestral land. Today, Native communities are still healing from a history of broken promises as other Americans celebrate the semiquincentennial.
Justin Velasquez, director of the Tunica-Biloxi Chicago Branch Office, said the celebrations bring nuanced emotions for many Natives in the United States.
“I think 250 is very complicated for Native Americans because that’s 250 years basically of admitting we’ve been conquered,” Velasquez said. “But at the same time I am born in America and I only know America and I love this country.”
Data from the 2020 census showed that Native American populations in the U.S. are rapidly increasing, but that data is the result of significant underreporting, meaning the population could be larger than we know.
Because of the tense relationship between many Native American communities and the United States government, many Natives do not fill out the census. Decades of distrust in governmental forms and agreements still have tangible impacts in the United States today.
One of the ways these impacts manifest is in the lack of proper healthcare for Native Americans. Velasquez said that issue is one of the biggest Natives face.
“Native Americans on average live 11.2 years less than the general population,” Velasquez said. “It goes back to data and not having those correct numbers on a lot of intake forms for medical things. We’re listed as an ‘other.’”
Healthcare isn’t the only place where Natives are misrepresented. In the United States education system, Native Americans are often portrayed in a pre-1900s context ignoring contemporary Native issues and efforts. This miseducation impacts social relationships between Natives and non-Natives, portrayals of Native Americans in media and stigma surrounding various tribes nationwide.
For Velasquez, it’s Native Americans who should have the power to decide what’s next.
“We need to start being in charge of telling our own story,” Velasquez said. “If we let someone else tell our story, they’re gonna tell it wrong.”
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Mindy Dean poses for a photo at the farmers market in Bedford, N.H., Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo / Holly Ramer)
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Via AP: Across the United States, many Americans are celebrating their country’s 250th birthday by closing their ears to all the partisan shouting. All the fingernails-on-chalkboard screeching out of Washington. All the clamor of social media agitprop.
Instead, in varied ways, they are tuning into their own personal concepts of America the Beautiful.
In Associated Press interviews with citizens in the days before the Fourth, auto technician Joe Fuqua-Bejarano, in Topeka, Kansas, sized up “what makes us awesome” as a people. It’s clearly not the politics, in his view, but rather resilience.
“We’ve just all got to find unity somewhere, whether that’s in laughter or perseverance, and keep everybody cool,” he said from the fireworks stand where he’s doing a booming business as a side hustle.
The world’s long-running image of Americans as a brash and confident lot did not square easily with the tempered enthusiasms and trepidations expressed by many of the people AP interviewed.
“There are lots of points of contention going around,” noted one of them, Christina Zhou, a 25-year-old research assistant from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet “there are still a lot of beautiful things that are happening.”
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More From WTTW News:
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Back in the Day: July 3, 2015 - The Grateful Dead Reunite at Soldier Field
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On this day 11 years ago, the surviving members of the Grateful Dead — Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart — kicked off a run of three sold-out shows at Chicago’s Soldier Field. The concerts, dubbed “Fare Thee Well,” celebrated 50 years of the Grateful Dead and marked the reunion of all core members playing together onstage for the first time since 2009. Rounding out the band was Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio alongside keyboardists Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti. The show drew a record-breaking crowd of 70,764 fans and was released as part of a box set live album in 2015. On the official program for the event, then President Barack Obama gave a message
to fans: “Here’s to fifty years of the Grateful Dead, an iconic American band that embodies the creativity, passion, and ability to bring people together that makes American music so great. Enjoy this weekend's celebration of your fans and legacy. And as Jerry would say, ‘Let there be songs to fill the air.’”
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What's your favorite restaurant or bar patio in the Chicago area?
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. Here's what you had to say:
“Gray’s Mill. Beautiful beer garden right on the Fox River. It might be a haul for some but worth the trip. Great place to pass a lazy summer afternoon. Extensive menu and beer offerings. It’s in Montgomery.” — Chris R.
“Hopleaf!” — Bill A.
“Tre Kroner for brunch/lunch.” — Halle U.
“Love the patio in Oak Park's Maya del Sol. The patios at the bar The Longroom and at The Dawson are also faves.” — @tennillenallen.blacksky.app
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry
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