The doors of Independence Hall had been flung open, and the British were coming.
More specifically, English tourists Chadi Rahim and his daughter, Sophia Rahim, 18, shivered in their parkas Thursday, awaiting one of the first tours of Independence Hall since its 119-day closure.
The historic state house, where American democracy was born in 1776, had been closed to the public since Oct. 1 — a temporary pause of access, stretching through the federal government shutdown and weeks of planned preservation work ahead of Philadelphia’s Semiquincentennial celebrations this year. The revamp included restoration of wood, masonry, plaster, and metal, historically accurate paint finishes, and the construction of accessibility ramps. The work would ensure that Independence Hall would continue as a “beacon of American freedom,” the National Park Service had said.
Tourists Jenna Lippert and Brandon Camperlino from Syracuse, NY listen as park service volunteer Bill Rooney (right) gives a tour in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chamber in Independence Hall Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026.
As part of the Independence Square Improvement Project, similar repairs were planned for Congress Hall and Old City Hall, which are part of the Independence Hall complex.
“Wear and tear,” National Park Ranger Hugh Evans assured 14 visitors assembled for the 11:30 a.m. tour.
All morning, a steady trickle of travelers trekked to the redbrick building in Old City where the Founding Fathers staked their necks on the promise of a freer and more perfect future.
Independence Visitor Center information desk host Woody Rosenbach displays a free Independence Hall cookie offered to the first 250 visitors on Thursday.
In Thursday’s cold, the tourists came from the rocky coasts of Oregon and the sunlit shores of California, from small towns and big cities, from red states and blue states. And their presence on such an auspicious day was completely by chance. None of the more than a dozen pilgrims to American democracy who braved frozen temps and icy footpaths said they had been aware that Independence Hall had only just reopened.
The site where the Declaration of Independence was signed 250 years ago, the building is one of Independence National Historic Park’s central attractions. The Liberty Bell Center, which was also closed during the shutdown, reopened in November. Officials expect that more than five million people will visit Independence Hall in 2026 for the national milestone.
Learning that their visits had fallen on the reopening of the historic site only lent more power, visitors said.
Rahim, a business owner with the sturdy frame of a Victorian boxer, said he and his daughter had decided on a Philadelphia holiday for shopping and relaxation and Rocky (Sophia is also a fan of National Treasure, a 2005 Nicolas Cage history caper that was filmed at Independence Hall and other historic district sites). But also because of the story only Philadelphia can tell about America’s founding.
And especially now, when the future of American democracy feels more at stake than ever.
“We know the story about independence,” Rahim said, buttoning up against the cold. But he and his daughter had wanted to experience it up close. “Sometimes stuff gets in the way. But if you see the history, it makes you realize what people went through to get us where we are now.”
During the 11 a.m. tour, National Park Ranger David Powers welcomed a half-dozen visitors into the stately, Georgian state room, where the Founders first passed independence. Walls and floors in the rooms where it happened reflected a new polish, while some painting could still use touching up.
After four months of closure and renovations, guided tours resumed every half hour Thursday. Security staff said they did not encounter crowds of guests seeking to stroll the sun-streaked confines where profound compromises of democracy were hashed out 2½ centuries ago.
Rather, on the day of the building’s reopening, many of the visitors represented just normal Americans, looking for signs of hope in uncertain times.
Rachel Lawson of Bend, Ore., and Amanda Shapiro of Southern California, colleagues in town for a work event, admired the simple elegance of the original woodwork design inside Congress Hall, home of the U.S. Congress from 1790 to 1800.
A newly painted pediment above a doorway in Independence Hall on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026.
“The attention to detail, the thoughtfulness, the regal energy,” she said.
Nearby, Luke Morris, a 20-something political podcaster from Washington, had planned his visit to Independence Hall as a reminder that Americans are still fighting for that promised future amid all the pain and turmoil.
“We are still fighting for what we think is right,” he said.
A Brooks armored truck pulled up to the main PSFS Bank office in Center City on the morning of Jan. 20, 1988, but guard Edward Leigh Hunt Jr. didn’t get out.
Two other employees of the Wilmington-based company, a driver and another guard, went inside the bank office on 13th Street near Market. When they returned about 30 minutes later, the 24-year-old Hunt was gone.
He fled the vehicle carrying two canvas bags containing used bills totaling $651,000, or more than $1.7 million in today’s dollars.
’See ya soon’
A few days after the robbery, Hunt, who went by Leigh, had made his way to Los Angeles, and phoned a friend from back home — mainly asking how much publicity he was receiving.
And then Hunt went silent for nearly 20 months.
In the meantime, he was twice featured on America’s Most Wanted and attracted national attention as well as a following.
“The whole incident has been bizarre since day one,” the fugitive’s father, Edward Leigh Hunt Sr., a former prosecutor for the Delaware Attorney General’s Office, would say later.
As the two-year anniversary of the heist approached, editors from the Wilmington News Journal newspaper inexplicably received a handwritten letter.
It was from Hunt, and he said the money was gone.
The University of Delaware graduate said he gambled it all away in an attempt, he wrote, to quadruple the sum and then return half the proceeds.
He missed his family, he wrote, and wanted to surrender on the second anniversary of the theft, Jan. 20, 1990, at noon in front of the Chamber of Commerce offices in downtown Los Angeles. He enclosed a photo of himself emerging from a swimming pool.
He sent a second letter to the newspaper a few days later, reiterating that he would be turning himself in. “Just a reminder,” he wrote.
“I’m sorry about the problems I have caused,” he added. “It’s nobody’s fault but mine. See ya soon.”
Going downtown
Hunt, now 26, arrived shirtless and five minutes late, but nonetheless surrendered as planned to members of the FBI.
“I love America,” Hunt said as he was taken into custody. “America is a great country.”
As he was taken away, according to the Los Angeles Times, a few supportive spectators shouted, “Free Leigh.”
Six months later, Hunt pleaded guilty to interstate theft, and a federal judge in Philadelphia sentenced him to eight years in prison. In hopes of getting his sentence reduced, Hunt later came clean and confessed to having hidden most of the money in a Hollywood storage locker.The FBI recovered nearly $574,000, and Hunt’s sentence was cut down to six years.
On Friday, the city revealed the 22 large replica Liberty Bells that will decorate Philly neighborhoods this year for the celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary. Officials also released a list of locations where the painted bells will soon be installed. The program announced two special replica bells for the Independence Visitor Center and the Convention Center.
Designed by 16 local artists selected through Mural Arts Philadelphia — and planned for commercial corridors and public parks everywhere from Chinatown and South Philly to West Philly and Wynnefield — the bells depict the histories, heroes, cultures, and traditions of Philly neighborhoods.
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“Philadelphia has always been a city of neighborhoods, each with its own story to tell,” said Mayor Cherelle L. Parker during an unveiling of the bells in Olney. “That’s why our communities and these talented artists came together to tell these stories.”
As part of the state nonprofit America250PA’s “Bells Across PA” program, more than 100 painted bells will be installed across Pennsylvania throughout the national milestone, also known as the Semiquincentennial.
For weeks, artists had toiled on their bells inside a makeshift studio behind the Widener Memorial School, each telling a different story of neighborhood pride.
Ana Thorne, of Center City, 37, is next to their bell they made during the Bells Across PA event in celebration of America’s 250th Birthday in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026.
An Italian Market bell depicts scenes of the bustling produce stands, flickering fire barrels, and smiling old- and new-school merchants. An El Centro de Oro bell is painted with images of the neighborhood’s historic Stetson Hats factory, the iconic Latin Music store Centro Musical, and popular iron palm tree sculptures. A Glen Foerd bell is decorated with paints mixed with water from the Delaware River.
“Our goal is to create a Semiquincentennial celebration that meets every Philadelphian where they are,” said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Visitor Center Corp. and Philadelphia250.
Local artist Cindy Lozito works on her South Philadelphia bell, one of 20 painted replicas of the Liberty Bells representing different neighborhoods Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. The bells will decorate parks and public spaces in every corner of the city during America’s 250th birthday.
Planners said they expect the bells to draw interest and curiosity similar to the painted donkeys that dotted Philly neighborhoods during the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Those painted decorations became the focus of scavenger hunts and countless selfies.
Organizers expect to install the bells sometime in March, once the weather warms.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary of Tourism Anne Ryan, reveals one of the bells called “Philly Workforce: Celebrating Our Past, Building the Future” made by artist Akira Gordon during the Bells Across PA event in celebration of America’s 250th Birthday in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026.
“I am asking all Philadelphians and everyone who visits our city in 2026 to see the bells,” Parker said.
Below is a full list of Philadelphia’s Bells Across PA installations, artists, and locations:
Neighborhood: Chinatown
Artist: Chenlin Cai, Xingzi Liang
Bell Title: “It Takes a Village”
Bell Location: 10th Street Plaza (10th and Vine Streets)
Neighborhood: City Hall/Center City
Artist: Akira Gordon
Bell Title: “Philly Workforce: Celebrating Our Past, Building the Future”
Bell Location: Municipal Services Building, 1401 John F. Kennedy Blvd.
Neighborhood: El Centro de Oro
Artist: Symone Salib
Bell Title: “El Centro de Oro”
Bell Location: 2739 N. Fifth St.
Neighborhood: Fox Chase
Artist: Sean Martorana
Bell Title: “Heartbeat of the Fox”
Bell Location: Lions Park, 7959 Oxford Ave.
Neighborhood: Germantown
Artist: Emily Busch
Bell Title: “Who’s Your North Star?”
Bell Location: Joseph E. Coleman Northwest Regional Library, 68 W. Chelten Ave.
Neighborhood: Hunting Park
Artist: Andrew Daniels
Bell Title: “United Hunting Park”
Bell Location: Hunting Park
Neighborhood: Logan Square
Artist: Cindy Lozito
Bell Title: “Connection Between the Stars”
Bell Location: Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th St.
Neighborhood: Mayfair
Artists: Alana Bogard, Madeleine Smith
Bell Title: “Celebrate Mayfair”
Bell Location: 7343 Frankford Ave.
Neighborhood: Mount Airy
Artist: Parris Stancell
Bell Title: “A Tapestry of Hidden History”
Bell Location: United Lutheran Seminary, 7301 Germantown Ave.
Neighborhood: Ogontz
Artist: Tykira Octaviah Mitchell
Bell Title: “Keeping It In the Family”
Bell Location: 7182 Ogontz Ave.
Neighborhood: Olney
Artist: Joanne Gallery
Bell Title: “Where Global is Local”
Bell Location: Greater Olney Library, 5501 N. Fifth St.
Neighborhood: Parkside
Artist: Parris Stancell
Bell Title: “Fun Facts and Historical Treasures of Fairmount Park”
Bell Location: Memorial Hall, 4231 Avenue of the Republic
Neighborhood: Point Breeze
Artist: Symone Salib
Bell Title: “The Promise of What’s to Come”
Bell Location: 1336 S. 21st St.
Neighborhood: Roxborough
Artist: Meghan Turbitt
Bell Title: “19128: A Place With Roots”
Bell Location: Roxborough Pocket Park, 6170 Ridge Ave.
Neighborhood: South Philadelphia
Artist: Cindy Lozito
Bell Title: “Open Everyday”
Bell Location: Piazza DiBruno, 914 S. Ninth St.
Neighborhood: Southwest
Artist: Michele Scott
Bell Title: “A Diagram of Value”
Bell Location: Bartram’s Garden, 5400 Lindbergh Blvd.
Neighborhood: Torresdale
Artist: Bob Dix
Bell Title: “Nature to Industry to Nature Again”
Bell Location: Glen Foerd, 5001 Grant Ave.
Neighborhood: University City
Artist: Sean Martorana
Bell Title: “The Ringing Railroad”
Bell Location: William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, 2955 Market St.
Neighborhood: West Philadelphia
Artist: Akira Gordon
Bell Title: “Lancaster Living Legacy”
Bell Location: 3952-54 Lancaster Ave.
Neighborhood: Wynnefield
Artist: Abigail Reeth
Bell Title: “Stories Tolled”
Bell Location: 5320 City Ave.
In addition to the bells listed above, there will be additional Liberty Bell replicas in Philadelphia as part of America250PA’s Bells Across PA program. These bells are in partnership with Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Visit Philadelphia.
Neighborhood: Center City
Artist: Tara Jacoby
Bell Title: “We The People”
Bell Location: Independence Visitor Center
Bell Sponsors: Visit Philadelphia, Philadelphia Visitor Center Corp.
Artist: Ana Thorne
Bell Title: “Colorful Independence”
Bell Location: Convention Center
Bell Sponsors: Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, Convention Center
CharlesDickens, a few weeks away from his 56th birthday, arrived near midnight in Philadelphia on Jan. 12, 1868.
He would stay at the Continental Hotel, and most notably, would give readings at the Concert Hall on Chestnut Street to sold-out audiences.
His first visit here, in March 1842, Dickens had mixed feelings.
He was horrified of how prisoners were treated at the “solitary prison” Eastern State Penitentiary, but delighted at meeting Philly’s other literary hero, Edgar Allan Poe.
He also called Philly “distractingly regular” in his 1842 memoir, American Notes.
He also called the city “handsome,” and “What I saw of its society, I generally liked.”
In December 1843, he would publish his most seminal work, A Christmas Carol, in England. Philadelphia publisher Carey & Hart would publish the first notable U.S. edition of the story, which could help explain why the city fell in love with the author and his penchant for highlighting working-class and underdog characters.
Dickens’ second visit was most notable for his readings from A Christmas Carol and his first novel The Pickwick Papers to “unbounded enthusiasm and loud applause,” according to an Inquirer report from the time.
“The rude and boisterous mob which, with flaunting banners, tossing hats and loud cries, follows the horse of some victorious general,” The Inquirer wrote.
Dickens died in 1870, at age 58. And while the whole world mourned his death, the city he so enraptured would take it a step further.
In 1905, Philadelphia became the first city to build a statue of him, despite explicit wishes written into Dickens’ will against the honor.
The Philadelphia Art Commission on Wednesday is slated to vote on a plan that, if approved, would affix the original statue — commissioned by Sylvester Stallone for 1982’s Rocky III — at the top of the museum’s East entrance steps later this year. Recently proposed by Creative Philadelphia, the city’s office for the creative sector, the move stands to place the iconic statue in one of the city’s most prominent locations for the umpteenth time since it arrived here more than 40 years ago.
In fact, Philly’s original Rocky statue has been shuttled back and forth between the museum and the stadium complex in South Philly — another site that was pitched as its permanent home — at least six times, according to Inquirer and Daily News reports. But since 2006, it has sat at the base of the museum’s famed stair set, its most permanent location to date.
Somehow, though, it always seems to end up overlooking the Benjamin Franklin Parkway from on high, however temporarily. And every so often, debate over the statue seems to reignite, regardless of where the statue sits — a cycle that has been repeating itself since the dawn of the 1980s.
Here is how The Inquirer and Daily News covered the early days of Philly’s famed Rocky statue:
Article from Dec 11, 1980 Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) <!— –>
An ‘unnecessarily strident’ monument
The statue’s roots can be traced back to December 1980, when Stallone proposed the temporary installation of his own bronze visage atop the museum steps for the filming of Rocky III. From the start, the star proposed giving the statue to the city following filming as a “way of reaching the common man and perhaps beginning an interest in fine art,” production manager Jim Brubaker told the Daily News.
In Budapest, you don’t always see generals and politicians,” Brubaker said. “You see working men with picks and shovels and that relates to the working class.”
That month, Brubaker and sculptor A. Thomas Schomberg presented a model of the proposed statue to the Art Commission, the Fairmount Park Commission, and the museum’s board. The commission voted 6-2 in favor of letting the statue stay at the museum for the duration of filming, with the two “no” votes indicating that they didn’t want the statue near the museum ever, for any reason, The Inquirer reported.
“There is a difference between size and greatness,” said local artist and commission member Joseph Brown. “This is unnecessarily strident. I appreciated Rocky, but I don’t think it put our museum and our city on the map.”
Article from May 9, 1981 Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) <!— –>
Rocky arrives
The Rocky statue that Philly knows today officially arrived on May 8, 1981, and was unveiled in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum that afternoon — three hours later than expected because the truck that was carrying it got stuck in traffic on the way from West Philly, according to a Daily News report.
The plan was for the statue to return to California following filming, but Stallone himself was already admittedly embarrassed by the controversy that had quickly cropped up.
“I’m sorry that got blown out of proportion,” Stallone said, according to a Daily News report. “It’s essentially a prop for the movie. I really don’t want to ruffle anyone’s feathers.”
After a few days, the Rocky statue was dismantled with the conclusion of filming, and was set to be on its way back to the Golden State. City Representative Dick Doran, however, urged Stallone to reconsider the statue’s relocation, noting that it could be relocated to the Spectrum in South Philly, or placed outside the Philadelphia Tourist Center on JFK Plaza.
Article from May 25, 1982 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) <!— –>
Philly’s ‘Rocky III’ premiere
In May 1982, Rocky III made its premiere in Philadelphia with a screening at the Sameric Theater at 19th and Chestnut in a star-studded affair that began with a reception at the Art Museum in which Stallone himself presented the Rocky statue to Philadelphia, almost exactly a year to the day that it first arrived in town. It was, The Inquirer reported, a 300th birthday gift to the city.
On May 24, 1982, the statue was officially unveiled to the city, with Stallone himself pulling the cord on a canvas cover to reveal the sculpture at the top of the museum’s steps as the Lincoln High School band played the Rocky theme, The Inquirer reported. Stallone had “done more for this city than anyone since Benjamin Franklin,” said Doran, then the city’s commerce director.
“I owe everything to the city of Philadelphia,” Stallone said at the unveiling. “If you could cut up the character of Rocky into a million pieces, each of you would be a part of it.”
Article from May 24, 1982 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) <!— –>
‘Schlock, chutzpah, and mediocrity’
Though the statue was displayed prominently, it was not exactly well-received. The Daily News’ Kitty Caparella, for example, called it “only a movie prop.”
Inquirer columnist Tom Fox, meanwhile, called the statue a “monument to schlock, chutzpah, and mediocrity.” Art Commission member Joe Brown, a local painter, meanwhile, told Fox the statue “violates the spirit of the museum and its environment,” and that the city would be better served by the creation of a statue depicting Tug McGraw, Pete Rose, or Dr. J instead.
Still, a museum spokesperson said, attendance had increased since the statue’s installation, though they believed it was because of a new exhibit featuring the work of artist Thomas Eakins. Those arriving at the museum to see Rocky, the spokesperson told the Daily News, “don’t even come inside.”
Article from Aug 3, 1982 Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) <!— –>
Goodbye, Rocky
Though the statue was only supposed to initially be installed at the Art Museum through mid-July 1982, it remained there through early August that year, Daily News reports from the time indicate. In fact, it wasn’t moved to the Spectrum until Aug. 3, 1982.
At the time, no one was willing to foot a reported $25,000 bill to get the statue to the Spectrum, and the issue was only settled after negotiations led to splitting the cost between the Spectrum and distributor United Artists, according to a Daily News report from the time. The city, a Commerce Department staffer told The Inquirer, flatly refused to pay.
But on a hot day, the statue’s run atop the Art Museum’s steps came to an end. Despite encountering difficulties with removal due to the concrete base upon which it had been installed, workers were ultimately able to send the statue on its way to the Spectrum — the spot where it would largely remain until it saw a high-profile move back to the Art Museum for the filming of Rocky V.
“People are going to miss him,” said onlooker Marcy Landesburg, of Wyncote, amid the statue’s 1982 removal. “They’re having a hard time dislodging him. He doesn’t want to go.”
The American colonies in the autumn of 1775, then under the thumb of King George III and his sprawling British Empire, were divided on the prospect of independence.
Revolutionary ideas start in refined quarters, but they must spread to the masses to surge into action.
And the 13 colonies were divided in threes: those who favored independence from English rule, those who opposed it, and those who wished to remain neutral.
And then the spark arrived as a pamphlet.
On Jan. 10, 1776, in a small publishing house at Third and Walnut Streets in present-day Old City, Englishman Thomas Paine published his 47-page document. It promoted the cause of American independence, and stoked the fires of revolution.
This pamphlet, titled “Common Sense,” was first printed anonymously.
But the colonists knew who wrote it.
An original English printing of “Common Sense,” the pamphlet written by Thomas Paine, combined with a rebuke entitled “Plain Truth” by James Chalmers, a British Loyalist officer. The two pamphlets were reprinted together in a book in London in 1776.
Paine was a self-educated rabble-rouser who had found little success making corsets or collecting taxes.
And who, upon meeting Benjamin Franklin after giving a speech in London,opted to join the upstart colonists and move to America in 1774.
After following Franklin to Philadelphia, he followed him into journalism, writing and editing for Pennsylvania Magazine.
It’s where he displayed a knack for speaking to the common people through essays denouncing slavery, promoting women’s rights, and dumping on English rule.
And again he took from Franklin, turning his pamphlet into a lightning rod.
In it he laid out his arguments in plain language.
An island, he argued, should not rule a continent.
“Every thing that is right or natural pleads for separation,” he wrote.
More than 500,000 copies circulated the colonies, convincing the commoners, the people who would actually take up arms against the Royal military,to support a war against Great Britain.
Despite his outsized role in lighting the fires of rebellion, Paine’s services would go unrecognized for a generation.
Hetemporarily returned to Europe after the war, and his later denouncing of Christianity did him no favors on either side of the Atlantic. He died in poverty in New York in 1809 at age 72.
It wouldn’t be until the mid-1970s for historians to recognize the enduring power of Paine’s pamphlet, which now holds a place of honor a step below Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
After more than 40 years behind bars, reputed former Black Mafia leader Lonnie Dawson has been freed from prison, ending a decades-long legal drama that includes state and federal convictions for crimes, including drug trafficking and murder.
Dawson’s release, though weeks old, went viral on social media in recent days thanks to video clips appearing to show his first moments as a newly free man. The widely shared video shows a man exiting the gates of a prison and immediately kneeling on a sidewalk in prayer.
Dawson, also known as Abdul Salim, was freed from SCI Smithfield in Huntingdon County on Dec. 22 following a successful petition under the Pennsylvania Post Conviction Relief Act, his attorney, David B. Mischak, told The Inquirer. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections confirmed Dawson’s release date, noting that he had been held in that state prison for three months before he was freed. The bulk of his incarceration, however, was served in federal prison.
“Mr. Dawson has spent the majority of his adult life behind bars,” Mischak said in a statement posted to his law firm’s website. “After more than 40 years of incarceration, Lonnie Dawson is grateful for the opportunity to live out his remaining years with dignity and peace.”
Dawson’s path to release was a long and circuitous one that stretches back to a 1975 murder of which he was twice convicted at the state level — and sentenced to life. In the 1980s, federal convictions on drug distribution and related charges followed, leading to a staggering 134-year federal sentence. Here is how The Inquirer and Daily News covered it:
Article from Aug 10, 1982 Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) <!— –>
The murder of Herschell Williams
In November 1975, a purported drug dealer and Black Mafia member named Herschell Williams — also known as the “Jolly Green Giant” due to his 6-foot-6 frame — was gunned down near his Mount Airy home. Shortly after the murder, Dawson, along with fellow reputed Black Mafia members Roy Hoskins and Joseph Rhone, were arrested in connection with the slaying while driving on the Schuylkill Expressway, reports from the time indicate.
Investigators later linked Williams’ murder to a dispute over cocaine, and authorities alleged that Hoskins and Rhone carried out the shooting while Dawson, whom they said ordered the killing, served as the getaway driver, The Inquirer and Daily News reported. Several months later, both Dawson and Hoskins were convicted of murder in separate cases and sentenced to life in prison, while Rhone, who jumped bail following his arrest, remained a fugitive.
The convictions stuck until July 1978, when the state Supreme Court ordered new trials due to legal errors during the initial proceedings. Following their arrests, both men had been questioned by then-Detective Michael Chitwood, and Dawson’s conviction was overturned in part because his attorney was not allowed to cross-examine Chitwood. Dawson alleged Chitwood had fabricated a confession used during the trial, according to Inquirer reports.
The retrial, however, did not work out in either man’s favor. Dawson, for his part, was again convicted in August 1982 and later sentenced to life for a second time, despite having maintained at trial that he was busy giving one of his children a haircut about 20 blocks away at the time Williams was killed, according to Inquirer and Daily News reports.
Article from Dec 14, 1982 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) <!— –>
A federal conviction
As Dawson awaited retrial in the Williams case, more legal issues were added to his docket. In April 1982, an FBI affidavit alleged that Dawson and Hoskins quickly took over the Black Mafia after the state Supreme Court overturned their convictions, and revealed that both had been investigated over the past year by federal authorities.
That, however, only came to light after Dawson, Hoskins, and several others were arrested following a high-speed car chase on I-95 in which a car was riddled with bullets in an apparent attempt to kill a federal informant, Inquirer and Daily News reports from the time indicate.
The informant, Lawrence D. Simons, who said he was a member of the Black Mafia, was unharmed in the chase, which concluded after his would-be killers crashed their vehicle into a tree, the Daily News reported.
Federal grand jury indictments followed, with Dawson and his alleged cohorts facing a lengthy list of charges, including obstruction of justice, conspiracy, drug, and gun counts. Authorities alleged Dawson was the Black Mafia’s leader, and said the group was linked to drug trafficking throughout Philadelphia and Delaware County, The Inquirer reported.
After a three-week trial, Dawson was found guilty on a number of counts, and sentenced to a 134-year prison sentence and $230,000 in fines — though a later appeal dropped that sentence to 65 years and $100,000. Hoskins faced a similarly stiff penalty.
U.S. District Judge Louis C. Bechtle in his ruling referred to both men as “major drug manufacturers” who were a “danger to the community.” The sentences, the Daily News reported at the time, were the harshest ever imposed by a federal judge in the Philadelphia area for drug trafficking.
Dawson in court denied he was involved in a major drug ring and called the charges “a bunch of malarkey,” the Daily News reported.
Article from Dec 21, 1984 Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) <!— –>
‘Ain’t calling too many shots now’
While Dawson was imprisoned in the early 1980s, a report from the Daily News alleged that he remained in control of drug sales in Philadelphia — particularly in North Philadelphia, Germantown, and Mount Airy. An unnamed FBI source told the People Paper that despite Dawson being jailed, his drug trafficking activity did not slow down, and said he regularly met with organized crime figures to orchestrate sales.
The Daily News later reported that Dawson was placed in administrative segregation in prison. The move, an unnamed associate told the paper, diminished Dawson’s alleged stature in the drug trade, and as a result, he “ain’t calling too many shots now.”
In late 1984, Dawson responded to the Daily News’ reporting directly in a letter to the paper in which he denied controlling drug sales anywhere. While in prison, he said, he had never met with organized crime figures to discuss drug manufacturing or sales, and said claims were floated by reporters “in hope of getting some type of promotion and/or attention.”
“Why must I be the sacrificial lamb?” Dawson wrote. “Why?”
Nowhere will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary like Philadelphia. Because nowhere else can celebrate the national milestone like Philadelphia.
Philly is where it happened.
Only in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776, did 56 sweat-soaked delegates of the Second Continental Congress stride into sweltering Independence Hall to stake their necks on an idea. In the course of human events, it had become time to declare self-evident truths. All men are created equal and endowed by certain unalienable rights.
Some men, that is.
This unforgivable erasure would have reverberations to this day. Nowhere are the centuries-old wounds of that betrayal more visible than in the unrelenting poverty, violence, and inequality preventing so many Philadelphians from their pursuit of happiness.
But the manifesto was still the most revolutionary freedom document humankind ever produced. A single piece of parchment composed of elegant, unwavering prose that defied and dared an empire, forever reordered the rights of man, and drew the eyes of humanity — and judgments of history — upon our humble burg.
Their work for the day done — and in keeping with the rest of the Founders’ stay in the City of Brotherly Love — the framers presumably dusted off their wigs, loosened up their waistcoats, and repaired to the cooling comfort of the City Tavern for a rager for the ages.
Only in Philadelphia.
Independence Hall in Independence National Historical Park Jan. 3, 2024. one of the Philadelphia region’s most visited areas, but the lustre has often seem faded in its grounds and buildings. But organizers say it will be different in time for 2026, the 250th birthday celebration of America.
‘Philly is beyond ready’
Two-and-half centuries later, the eyes of the world again fall upon our Philly — for yet another rager for the ages.
In Philly fashion, the city’s preparations for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, also known as the Semiquincentennial, stumbled to a rocky start. Poor funding, a lack of leadership, and miscommunication plagued early stages of Philly’s 250th party planning.
But in truer Philly fashion, dozens of passionate Philadelphian civil servants, cultural leaders, artists, volunteers, and philanthropies rallied to ensure the city where it happened met the moment.
Only a year ago, during a 2026 preparedness meetings, worried planners requested $100 million from city and state coffers to fund festivities and programming worthy of democracy’s birthplace. They have received it.
“A year ago, we were having a conversation about, ‘Are we ready?’, ‘Is the money there?’, ‘Can we pull this off?’” said Max Weisman, an aide to Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a key planner. “Yes, yes, yes.”
Philadelphia is ready, the planners say. Have no doubt.
These Philly-loving patriots say they have organized a once-in-a-lifetime party equal to the city’s unparalleled role in history — and its irrepressibly proud personality.
“Philly is beyond ready,” said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation and Philadelphia250, the city’s key planning partner for 2026. “Everyone is pulling out the red carpet. Every museum. Every cultural institution. Every neighborhood organization. Everyone is doing something special for the company that’s coming.”
In this depiction published in The Inquirer July 1, 1951, the first event of July 4, 1876, was a huge military parade. The celebration was held in Independence Square after the parade.
A ‘reintroduction to the world’
Look around. Everywhere signs abound of the already-underway party. In the scores of new museum exhibits grandly exploring every power and contradiction enshrined in the declaration bellowed out of Philadelphia 250 years ago. In the abundance of plans for neighborhood programming and beautifications that bring the party to the people in 2026. In new ventures honoring Philly diversity and pride. In the polish and paint in the works for the Historic District.
Hey, Philly cleans up when it needs to.
It was visible when a parade of ships sailed along the Delaware in October to kick off the 250th anniversary of the Navy, founded in Philly. And it was heard in the crisp salutes and solemn hymns of the Marines who crowded Old City in November to mark their branch’s founding, also in Philly in 1775. It builds in the excitement of clock-ticking preparations for the string of big-ticket events that will grace Philadelphia in 2026.
Six FIFA World Cup matches, with a summer fan festival and volunteer-training campus. The MLB All-Star Game. A pumped-up Fourth of July with to-be-announced special guests. TED Democracy talks featuring citizen speakers from Philly and beyond, exploring democracy’s painful past and uncertain present.
It rings out in the genuine excitement of Philadelphians who work in ceaseless dedication to the principle that Philadelphians know how to throw a party.
Philadelphia is not screwing up a party, is Weisman’s mantra (except he doesn’t say, “screwing.”)
Matthew Skic, of Morristown, N.J., Director of Collections and Exhibitions, (left), and Michael Hensinger, of Fishtown, Pa., Senior Manager of K-12 Education, (right), are dressed as Minute Men from the Massachusetts Militia at the opening of the exhibit Banners of Liberty which showcased the original revolutionary war flags at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, April 19, 2025.
Not just a party. A year-long, city-wide commemoration that delivers Philadelphia into a more prosperous future. Before city planners found their 250th footing, Philly tourism and cultural leaders banded together to seize the opportunity. With more than500,000 visitors expected for the World Cup alone, they aim to reintroduce Philadelphia to the world.
“Or introduce ourselves for the very first time to people who do not know Philadelphia or have a very narrow view of Philadelphia,” said Angela Val, president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, the nonprofit that serves as the city’s official leisure-tourism marketing agency. “We don’t take these big events lightly. They are investments. This is really an opportunity to set ourselves up for success in 2026 and beyond.”
Parties of the past
We’ve been here before.
Every 50 years since 1876, the nation’s Centennial year, and America’s first major birthday bash, Philly has dusted off its wig to get down. Each of these events came with larger national wounds.
“Before every one of these fairs, there’s a scar,” said David Brigham, librarian and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, referring to Philly’s previous national birthday parties. “There’s always been a conflict and a pain.”
And in these moments, Philly has strove to be a salve, he said. Most of the time, anyway.
In 1876, when America reeled from unhealed wounds of the Civil War, Philadelphia built a small city in Fairmount Park — and hosted 10 million people from 37 countries. The showcase of growing American innovation and economic prowess aimed to heal a ruptured nation. Memorial Hall, its massive art gallery, remains today as the Please Touch Museum.
In 1926, as America emerged from the carnage of World War I, our Sesquicentennial marked the building of the Ben Franklin Bridge, the transformation of what is now FDR Park, and the construction of a temporary, gleaming, utopian metropolis in South Philly.
The Bicentennial in 1976 led to the creation of the Mann Center and the African American Museum in Philadelphia, even if the party itself was marred by Mayor Frank Rizzo’s heavy-handed security — he summoned 15,000 National Guard members.
We’ve been here before. And we aren’t perfect.
As ready as Philadelphia stands, next year’s commemoration will not include the big legacy projects of past celebrations, the bridges, stadium, and new museums.
But maybe that’s not what this moment is about, anyway.
An unfinished journey
Just as past planners grappled with the questions of their American moment, Philadelphia organizers wrestle with ours.
“It’s a commemoration of why our republic was created,” Lovell said. “But also about a recommitment to the ideals that were established. We were founded on these basic principles and values that the Founding Fathers fought over. And we’re still fighting over it.”
It’s that same theme — the grand fragility of our American experiment — that pulses though the Museum of the American Revolution’s landmark exhibit, “The Declaration’s Journey.”
A breath-taking assemblage of rare artifacts, including Thomas Jefferson’s writing chair and Martin Luther King’s prison bench, the museum’s most ambitious show ever explores the 250-year global impact of the declaration. How words proclaimed out from Philadelphia inspired revolutions and freedom movements throughout the centuries
“The American Revolution is not synonymous with the Revolutionary War,” said R. Scott Stephenson, president of the museum. “It is a centuries-long, ongoing experiment in liberty, equality, and self-government.”
And that journey’s not yet over.
The birth of democracy in Philadelphia, and the worldwide struggle to sustain it, represents the most significant event since the birth of Christ, said filmmaker Ken Burns. (And here we though it was Super Bowl LII.)
The American war may be over, but the revolution is not, said Burns, whose 12-hour docuseries, “The American Revolution,” is streaming on PBS.
All we were promised was the pursuit, he said. And the chance to forever make the imperfect a little less so.
The republic the Founders forged in the Philly heat stands the most divided and tested it has been in decades, with core disagreements about its very foundations.
It is only right, then, that Philadelphians march onto the global stage. Who else but us?
In every way, being America’s birthplace shapes Philadelphia. Where else is its hallowed iconography such a daily staple? Where else does its symbolism so powerfully frame every civic successes — and failure? Every sports triumph and cultural happening. Every step forward; every stumble backward.
Where else does the promise and contradictions of a proclamation that turned the world upside down so intrinsically coarse through the lifeblood of a place?
Two friends — a rector and his organist at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square — found the inspiration in the run-up to the Christmas celebration in 1868.
The result of their delayed creativity was “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” composed and heard in a Philadelphia church.
It was a song that spread across the world, and put the 19th-century church on the map.
The silent stars
Three years before, in 1865, the church’s vicar visited the Holy Land.
So moved by what he saw on that trip, the Rev. Phillips Brooks put pen to paper.
The result was a poem:
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie.
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.
In totality, as a piece of music, the song is not exactly upbeat.
The lyrics reflect on the darkness found after midnight. Cries of misery reverberating through dark streets under cover of ink-black skies.
But there’s also everlasting light.
A Christmas miracle
Three years later in 1868, Brooks asked the church’s organist, Lewis Redner, a real estate agent who played the organ for four churches, to set music to those lyrics Brooks penned.
It was to be part of a song that would play during the Christmas holiday in 1868.
And then Brooks waited.
To his congregation, Brooks was an inspiring preacher. In the throes of the American Civil War, he would ride on a wagon to the battlefields around Gettysburg to perform last rites on dying soldiers and offer words of comfort to wounded soldiers — Union and Confederate.
Days turned to weeks, and Brooks was still waiting for the completed song.
But as the holiday approached, the procrastination had reached a fever pitch.
Two days before the Christmas service, on a Friday, Brooks nervously asked about the song.
“Have you ground out the music yet?”
“No,” Redner said.
But he assured Brooks: “I’ll have it by Sunday.”
On Saturday night, Redner wrote in his diary that his brain was in knots over the tune, according to The Inquirer.
Once asleep, he woke with a start.
He wrote that he heard an angel whispering in his ear.
Redner then scribbled down the tune.
And before the Sunday service, he layered on the harmony.
Outside the front door of Independence Hall, amid a wet and mild December in Philadelphia, a handful of devoutly orthodox Jews decided to add their light to the world.
Four men of the Lubavitcher sect of Hasidic Judaism, including renowned Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, gathered on Independence Mall on Dec. 14, 1974. Together they lit what is believed to be the first menorah, or Hanukkah candelabrum, ever illuminated on public property.
And together they watched their light spread.
“Philadelphia is where we started,” the now-88-year-old Rabbi Shemtov told The Inquirer in 2014. “Now it’s everywhere, in too many places to count.
“So, the idea caught fire,” he said, smiling through his long, gray beard.
Hanukkah is the Jewish celebration of light over darkness, and of faith and freedom over oppression and persecution. While it’s not the biggest holiday in the Jewish faith, its themes of perseverance and hope have been as synonymous with the winter solstice as any Christian tradition.
The most obvious reason that menorahs were traditionally not lit outside was because the flame would go out.
So on that breezy evening in mid-December, the flame stayed lit against all odds. Some might even call it divine intervention.
“What you need to understand,” Shemtov explained, is that Jewish tradition dictated that the candelabrum be lit at home, and placed “at the spot the house shares with the outside,” typically at the front door.
“Our sages say outside is better,” he said with a shrug. “So, we brought it outside a step further.”
In the years since, public menorahs havesprouted up across Europe and North America, from Revolution Square in Moscow to the White House in Washington.
“The simple lighting ceremony in Philadelphia,” wrote The Inquirer’s longtime religion reporter David O’Reilly, “became the foundational story of public menorahs for most of the world’s Jews.”
For centuries, menorah lighting had at times been a covert domestic ritual.
“We lit the first candle. There was some singing and dancing. It was a private event in public,” Shemtov said in 2014. “But even so, in concept we were sharing the thing with the world.”
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