Andalusia Reads the Declaration to open July 4 events; parade set for 10 a.m.

An event billed “Andalusia Reads the Declaration” in Andalusia City opened the community’s Fourth of July observances with a historical introduction and a complete reading of the Declaration of Independence, organizers said.

The event presenter said the Daughters of the American Revolution are providing refreshments after the reading and are organizing a parade that will start at First Baptist Church and proceed to the square, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, July 4. The presenter added that other activities are planned through the Fourth.

The presenter provided a short historical overview before the reading, noting that by May 1776 tensions between the American colonies and Great Britain had risen and that, in June 1776, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee proposed that the colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.” The presenter identified the committee assigned to draft the Declaration as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston and Thomas Jefferson, saying Jefferson, then 33, was the committee’s principal writer.

The presenter summarized key dates cited in the narration: that Congress debated and revised the draft in late June and early July 1776, that the resolution for independence was voted on and passed in early July (with New York initially holding out), that the Declaration was adopted on the morning of July 4 with Congress’s revisions, and that printed copies were distributed beginning July 5. The presenter also noted that “on the nineteenth of the month, Congress ordered that the declaration be engrossed on the parchment,” and that most delegates who were present later signed the parchment copy.

Readers then recited the Declaration of Independence in full as part of the program. As one reader said during the recitation, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,” language the presenter framed as both a practical and theoretical statement about government and rights. The presenter cited historians John Meacham and Thomas Ricks when describing the Declaration as at once a “birth certificate,” a “charter” and a “mission statement.”

Organizers did not provide additional logistical details about the parade route beyond the start and finish points named during the program, nor did they specify whether permits or street closures are required. The presenter only said refreshments would follow the reading and that other scheduled activities would take place through July 4.

The event was presented as a civic commemoration rather than a governmental meeting or decision-making session. No votes or formal actions were recorded during the program.

Local organizers and participants said the reading and historical remarks were intended to place the holiday in historical context and to announce community activities tied to the city’s July 4 observance.