Picture this: America’s Ugly Side Shows Up for the 250th Celebration

For many Black Americans, the image seared into their collective memory from America’s 250th anniversary shows a young Black woman seated on the Washington D.C. Metro surrounded by masked white men–members of the white supremacist group, Patriot Front.

She sat still, a composed look of calm on her face. All around her white men, fresh off a parade of hate through the nation’s capital, stood holding onto handrails. Some sat an arm’s length from her.

On social media, the obvious parallel to another brave Black woman on public transportation comes to mind. In 1955 Rosa Parks ignited the Birmingham Bus Boycott by refusing to give up her seat to a white man. History names her resistance as a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement.

Fast forward to 2026, and here we are seemingly, again. Not much has changed. Years ago, their faces were uncovered. This time they wore masks suggestive of the old guard of racism, the Ku Klux Klan.

What bad public relations for America on her celebration as a nation of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Clearly, the question still is: which people.