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U.S. Congress holds rare gathering in Philly's Independence Hall

Two days before the American revolutionaries signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the Second Continental Congress gathered in Philadelphia to formally vote on the matter. Standing in virtually the same spot 250 years later, their distant successors commemorated that historic moment while grappling, at times, with what it left out. “The fact that we have you here together is a symbol of progress,” said U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, a retiring Democrat who’s spent more than four decades as one of Philadelphia’s central Black political leaders. “250 years ago, people like me were not fully included in the founders’ vision. … The struggle to live up to our founding ideals was hard fought.”
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    Jenna Miller
    I produce, film, and edit video stories about the communities and issues that shape the Philly region.