(The Center Square) – As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year, elected leaders are envisioning big parades across the state on July 4.
“We are going to be having meetings with several municipalities to talk about the ability to partner to put on a parade,” first-term Republican state Labor Commissioner Luke Farley told a state legislative committee Tuesday. “Some of them may already have parades which we could piggy-back onto.”
He proposed a parade in downtown Raleigh around the Capitol.
“Downtown Raleigh – the Capitol Square – would be totally decked out in bunting and other celebratory red, white and blue regalia,” Farley said. “And we would have a big parade that brought together people from across the state, marching bands from high schools and universities.”
There would be Revolutionary War reenactors in period dress, along with active duty-military as well, the labor commissioner said.
“And wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the General Assembly was available to march, all the executive branch and all our statewide elected judges as well as a show of unity for America 250?” Farley said.
He promised to update the legislative committee about his parade plans later in the week after holding discussions with cities and town officials in the state.
The committee was established in the 2023 Appropriations Act former Gov. Roy Cooper allowed to become law without his signature. While the state budget due July 1 is still in negotiation and yet to be enacted, money has been made available for the committee.
More is expected within the spending plan’s passage after the first of the year.
Total funding has eclipsed $2.7 million primarily through the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, including up to $10,000 each for individual counties to do celebrations, exhibits and educational activities. Nearly $1.2 million has been distributed to at least 74 of the state’s 100 counties.
The nonprofit American 250 NC Foundation is another key partner.
“We’re going to lend the full support of the North Carolina Department of Labor to this project,” the commissioner told legislators.
Rep. Hugh Blackwell, R-Burke, cochairman of the legislative America’s Semiquincentennial Committee, said he was “intrigued” by the idea of a large July 4 parade in Raleigh and other cities and towns.
“It would be sort of nice if all of the downtowns across the state did the same thing,” Blackwell said. “If people are going to be purchasing particular types of bunting or flags, or celebratory things, maybe we could find a way of making it available.”
North Carolina played a pivotal role in the American Revolution, Steven McKee, the new chairman of the Celebrate America Foundation, told the legislative committee Tuesday.
“It’s important and it’s not just next year,” McKee said of the semiquincentennial celebration.
Next July 4 commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, McKee said. But the crucial battles of the war occurred years later, he explained.
“We’re going to go all the way out to 2033 with the peace treaty that ended the war,” he said.
When the Revolutionary War shifted to the South, North Carolina played a “consequential role” in securing the nation’s independence, McKee said.
“One of the things we like to say is that the war certainly started in the North, it was fought to a stalemate, and it was 100% won here in the Southern department,” McKee told legislators.
