Jack O’Byrne, executive director of the Camden County Historical Society, pointed out that the Declaration of Independence proclaims “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

O’Byrne said “that was certainly not the case back then.”

“What they thought of equal men were … white men that owned property,” he said. “This was only probably about 3% of the population. Clearly we have made progress, but we haven’t made the promised land yet.”

O’Byrne and Francis said that for all of the times the country has moved forward towards the idea of all men being created equal, there has been a regression away from that mark.

“For many who thought it was the end of history and that we had reached a pinnacle when Barack Obama got elected [president] and perhaps that was the end of racism,” O’Byrne said. “But obviously now here in 2025, we know there’s been a severe backlash and now there’s the rapid erosion of rights and almost the elimination of Black and anyone else’s history.”

“The backslide … [is] so drastic,” Francis said about current times. “I’m not sure there’s ever been a backslide, a backlash, this dramatic.”

It is critical to remember the history of the country

Francis said recent moves by the Trump administration to reshape American history is an attack on the nation’s “ability to dream and envision a free world.”

“If they succeed in that, it’s like we have nothing,” she said. “That’s where we find hope. We find a roadmap to creating new futures.”

O’Byrne said it is important to tell “the whole story of the struggle for equality that was promised in the Declaration of Independence.” He takes his cue from documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who shared his response to those who criticize him for “being too woke.”

“[Burns’] saying, ‘I’m just calling balls and strikes,’ these are the facts that have presented themselves and to deny that things actually happened … that’s not doing history any service or doing the American people any service,” O’Byrne said.