The People’s Bicentennial materials are a part of the recently processed Anthony Sarmiento papers (MS 0989). Digital copies are available for reference in our online collections. The complete Sarmiento papers are available for reference at the Kiplinger Research Library, by appointment.
The People’s Bicentennial Commission Program
“For too long patriotism has been used by the power holders to manipulate and exploit. It is time for all decent Americans who love their country and want to see it live up to its finest aspirations to take back the flag.” [i]
In this opening salvo, the People’s Bicentennial Commission (PBC) framed its mission as the federal Bicentennial’s counter-cultural counterpart. Founded in the early 1970s, veteran civil rights and antiwar activists organized the PBC in response to what they perceived as President Nixon’s intention to use the federal American Revolution Bicentennial Commission (ARBC) as a propaganda machine for his own reelection campaign. [ii]
Spearheading the PBC populist movement was a young, revolutionary firebrand named Jeremy Rifkin. Rifkin’s commission declared that the planned Bicentennial programming was corporatized nationalist propaganda. He argued it would “desecrate, manipulate, and exploit the principles and visions of the American Revolution for their own financial and political purposes.” The PBC rejected the Bicentennial as a “celebration,” asserting that “the bicentennial should not be a time for a grandiose display of chauvinism but rather a time for the reaffirmation of the principles of democracy and equity for all, which serve as the foundation upon which this nation was built.” [iii] [iv]
The People’s Bicentennial called for a return to the ideals of the American Revolution, and a redefinition of Patriotism. To that end, the organization reclaimed historic national imagery to illustrate its mission. It adopted the Don’t Tread on Me snake on official letterhead and included the Join or Die flag in publications. Through direct action and in print, the People’s Bicentennial championed a platform of economic democracy, tax equity, and wealth redistribution boldly defining contemporary economic and political institutions as un-American. [v] [vi]
Outreach included a newspaper (“Common Sense II”), multiple books and manifestos, The Voices of ’76 radio program, and even its own theater troupe. Additionally, local chapters coalesced across the country to advocate for reform related to health care, racial and sexual discrimination, civil liberties, political corruption, prison reform, and unemployment, among others. They established TEA parties (Tax Equity for Americans) and circulated a Declaration of Economic Independence dictating the abuses of Giant Corporations on the American People. Through these initiatives, the PBC connected national rhetoric to local action. [vii] [viii]
Rifkin’s commission presented a roadmap for how activist and humanities organizations and educators could leverage the true ideals of the American Revolution to platform alternative perspectives and create projects and programming.
The People’s Bicentennial Commission Letter
The People’s Bicentennial Commission engaged young people in schools and churches through community building and education initiatives built around interpreting American history through a radical and revolutionary framework.
The “People’s Bicentennial Program,” produced by the High School Student Information Center in cooperation with the PBC, aimed to reintegrate the past with the present, bring the classroom into the neighborhood, and inspire history-informed action. By doing so, it framed American history as a chronicle of various groups demanding justice. This perspective depicts the American Revolution not as a fixed moment in time but as a “continuing tradition which makes itself felt in the lives of Americans today.” Through locally rooted projects, students are encouraged to examine historical causation as a means to create a plan for group action. [ix]
“By forging a link between textbook and neighborhood, the democratic tradition can be made more real, more alive, and more relevant. By seeing democratic principles at work in the attitudes and hopes of people in the community, or by seeing these values shunted aside by individuals and institutions, the students will understand more fully what America is and what it can be.”[x]
Students were tasked with studying the ideals of the American Revolution, considering how those ideals were reflected in their community, and interrogating whether the institutions that affect students and community operate in accordance with those ideals. They were challenged to develop their own views on the principles of the American Revolution and investigate how these ideals appeared in their everyday lives. Then, students would pursue a neighborhood research project or oral history grounded in lived experience and community identity. Finally, students shared their work, engaging in discussions with other viewpoints, while strengthening relationships with their local community.
Other official Bicentennial projects pursued similar strategies of local outreach and bottom-up history. One was Cityscape, a Foxfire project and student-led magazine featured in the Fall 2025 issue of Washington History.
The People’s Bicentennial Commission did not limit themselves to producing student curriculum and provocative publications. Rowdy, irreverent, and feverishly patriotic, PBC members staged creative acts of street theater. In December, 1973 protesters disrupted official bicentennial commemorations in Boston by reportedly throwing oil drums into Boston Harbor. Likewise, in early 1976, unrepentant rabblerousers heckled presidential candidate Ronald Reagan during a speaking engagement in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. [xi] [xii]
The PBC also deployed various publicity stunts. However, the most notorious was Campaign Corporate Exposure. The campaign offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of any Fortune 500 company’s CEO. Campaign Corporate Exposure significantly damaged the group’s reputation. As a result, media coverage soured, and Red Scare-style accusations of socialism culminated in an official Senate investigation. The group was charged with attempting to “steal the Bicentennial.” [xiii] [xiv]
The death knell for the organization came on the Bicentennial itself. Ultimately, the People’s Bicentennial planned a counter-rally for July 4, 1976. It called for participants to converge on the National Mall to “DECLARE YOUR INDEPENDENCE FROM BIG BUSINESS” and “JOIN THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION!” Slated to host upwards of 250,000 people, the rally drew only 5,000. Consequently, unable to engage the American people and deliver their climactic event, the People’s Bicentennial Commission faded into obscurity. [xv] [xvi]
The People’s Bicentennial Declaration
Fifty years ago, the People’s Bicentennial formed as a response to a “precipitous decline in national morale.” Although imperfect and not always effective, their local actions garnered national attention. The PBC’s education initiatives opened and expanded the role of “historian” to encompass students and community members. They were successful in incorporating the curriculum into classrooms, libraries, and churches across the country. [xvii]
Today, the People’s Bicentennial charge to “recapture our revolutionary heritage” offers current audiences new ways to learn and teach history, build community, create art, express discontent, and yes…rebel. [xviii]
Autumn Kalikin is the Senior Manager of Collections of the DC History Center.
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[i] People’s Bicentennial Commission, “Community Groups and the People’s Bicentennial Commission,” ca. 1972.
[ii] Hall, Simon, “’Guerilla Theater…in the Guise of Red, White, and Blue Bunting’: The People’s Bicentennial Commission and the Politics of (Un-)Americanism.” Journal of American Studies, vol 52, no. 1, 2018, pp 114-36. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26803542.
[iii] People’s Bicentennial Commission, August 1972.
[iv] “Bicentennial’s Goals Set By People’s Commission,” New York Times, February 9, 1973.
[v] People’s Bicentennial Commission, “Dear Citizen,” August 1972.
[vi] Daly, Christopher B., “The People’s Bicentennial Commission: Slouching Towards the Economic Revolution,” The Harvard Crimson, April 28, 1975.
[vii] People’s Bicentennial Commission, “Declaration of Financial Independence,”>[vii] People’s Bicentennial Commission, “Declaration of Financial Independence,” Common Sense, vol 4, issue 1, 1976.
[viii] Mitgang, Herbert, “The Spirit of ’73,” New York Times, November 20, 1973.
[ix] High School Information Center, “A People’s Bicentennial Program,” ca 1972.
[x] Ibid.
[xi] Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, “The Attempt to Steal the Bicentennial, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1976, 41.
[xii] Hall, Simon, “’Guerilla Theater…in the Guise of Red, White, and Blue Bunting’: The People’s Bicentennial Commission and the Politics of (Un-)Americanism.” Journal of American Studies, vol 52, no. 1, 2018, pp 125. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26803542.
[xiii] “Bicentennial Follies,” New York Times, May 6, 1976.
[xiv] Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, “The Attempt to Steal the Bicentennial,” US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1976, 41.
[xv] Ibid.
[xvi] Howard, Ted, “Application for a Public Gathering in Park Areas Under Administration of National Capital Parks, National Parks Service,” October 15, 1975.
[xvii] People’s Bicentennial Commission “The People’s Bicentennial Era: The Tory’s Program,” 1972, 5.
[xviii] People’s Bicentennial Commission “The Radical Democratic Perspective: A Syllabus,” 1972.