How public celebrations quietly remake what it means to be American

From a synagogue’s 5K to Appalachia’s Hillbilly Days, shared celebrations pull strangers together.

By: Catherine Simpson Bueker, Emmanuel College, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: July 1, 2026

Words: 1,314

Last Updated: 2 weeks, 5 days ago

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By Catherine Simpson Bueker, Emmanuel College

Twenty-five years ago, I attended a Fourth of July parade in Boston that has stuck with me.

The head drummer of the colonial fife and drum band was a Black man in a Revolutionary War costume, his dreadlocks peeking from under a powdered wig. As the parade stopped to lay a wreath at the Granary Burying Ground where founding fathers John Hancock and Samuel Adams are buried, a …

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