Last Saturday I went to see the Liberty Bell. This was not my idea, and I found it unexpectedly gripping.
The exhibits preceding the Bell itself attempt to tell its story as an enduring symbol of American liberty (shockingly). It rang to announce the Intolerable Acts, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the ratification of the Constitution, the deaths of many of the Founders. (But not, actually, the Declaration of Independence.)
That stuff most of us know. But the exhibits go beyond Revolutionary history. Abolitionists first called it the Liberty Bell in an attempt to claim that value as a right of enslaved people and to connect the fight for their freedom with the history of America's national freedom. Suffragists, too, claimed it, creating a replica called the Justice Bell, which:
traveled the country with its clapper chained to its side, silent until women won the right to vote. On September 25, 1920, it was brought to Independence Hall and rung in ceremonies celebrating the ratification of the 19th amendment.
It's an astounding history, really -- disempowered groups seeking to lay claim to their share of American history and values through this broken bell. But there's an unacknowledged hole or contradiction at the heart of this history. None of these groups were, in their moments in history, able successfully to lay claim to the symbolism of the Bell, to the claim of being fully American and as much a part of the nation's core values and identity.
Now, when we go to see the Bell we look at a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. standing by the Bell and see a clip of his "I Have a Dream" speech, but that's in retrospect. In their historical moments abolitionists and suffragists and Civil Rights leaders were not seen as the natural heirs of American liberty. It's to our credit that we (for the most part) see them in that light now, but before we get too pleased with ourselves we have to consider who will, in 50 or 100 years, be the next set of panels in the display. Who now is fighting to claim their full share of rights in and ownership of our society?
There are some obvious answers. The one that stood out as I made my way through the exhibits to the Bell itself came in the people around me. An elderly woman in hijab and long black robe, with two younger men and two younger women -- one in hijab, the other not. Asian-American women smiling as they had their picture taken in front of the Liberty Bell. People who in all likelihood (based on what we know about immigration patterns and laws) were immigrants or first- or second-generation Americans, visiting this symbol of America's successful fight to be an independent nation free of colonial rule, this symbol -- however retrospective -- of the fights for abolition and women's suffrage and civil rights.
It's almost too hackneyed to say, but damn, it slaps you right in the face. Anyone want to chip in to bring some of Arizona's state officials in for a look?