The Declaration of Independence

Narrated by students from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. Original musical soundtrack by David Lovrien. Recorded live by the Dallas Winds, July 4, 2023 at the Meyerson Symphony Center. (Enable closed captions to read along with the text.)

Narrators: Jaelyn Thomas, Jasmin Johnson, Esau Price, Everett Johnson, Jaysson Jackson, Miracle Craig, Madeleine Jenkins, Matt Casas, Max Casas, Hernan Rojas, Jada Fisher

The Declaration is an amazing document, filled with powerful words and ideals that still resonate and inspire us today. In it, the Continental Congress declares the colonies to be free and independent states, then lists over 2 dozen grievances against King George III, knowing that these words and actions commit the United States to a bloody revolution.

But it is far from a perfect document. The authors, and the society in which they lived, could not begin to comprehend the diversity that would flourish in our country nearly 250 years later. It famously states "that all men are created equal" - even though women, enslaved people and Indigenous Americans were certainly not held equal. And for all its noble intentions, it makes multiple references to the institutional racism of that time, including an outright racial slur against Native Americans, whom it calls "merciless Indian Savages."

So, acknowledging that context, we present this reading of the first founding document of the United States - the Declaration of Independence.