As Central New Yorkers prepare to mark the nation 250th anniversary, one group wants the celebration to go beyond the ideals of patriotism and freedom heralded in the Declaration of Independence. A commemorative poster highlights the people and movements that sought to bring the document to life.
“The title of the poster is 250 years of people's resistance and with subtitle, No Kings, No Colonies, No Genocide…”
Andy Mager is a coordinator with Syracuse Cultural Workers, a publisher of social justice materials.
“As we designed the poster, we wanted to think about what were key social movements that created important changes in our country," he said. "So we wanted to represent indigenous peoples at the beginning, so there's an image of the Treaty of Canandaigua signed in 1794."
In all, there are 19 images, including the raising of the Haudenosaunee flag, the early labor movement, and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
“There's an image of two Olympic athletes at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City with their raised gloved fists supporting the Black Power movement," Mager said.
Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University Mark Rupert said he sees the beauty of capturing what has never been fully realized. He was a consultant for the poster.
“I see the founding documents as unfulfilled promises, and it's up to us to attempt to move toward realizing them," he said. "I see this poster as commemorating a whole host of struggles of people who have been engaged in trying to do that over the entire history of the country.”
Mager said everything from civil, women’s, and LGBTQ rights are under attack.
“The struggle for freedom is a constant one. We're in a moment now where many of the elements of progress that we've made, there's efforts to dismantle them.”
Like the anti-government posters of the 60’s and 70’s, Mager said this poster serves as a stark reminder of the centuries of hard-fought movements to achieve and retain those rights.
