America 250: FREE Virtual Training Sessions – Apr 25

Posted by Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies on April 15, 2025

You are invited to attend law-related and civic education programming in anticipation of America 250 through a series of six one-hour CLE and Act 48 virtual sessions that LEAP 50, the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies, and the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Pro Bono Office (100 South Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101) will run from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Friday, April 25, 2025.

Don’t know about America 250? The United States Semiquincentennial, also called the Bisesquicentennial, the Sestercentennial, or the Quarter Millennial, will be the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. Festivities will mark various events leading up to the Declaration’s anniversary on Independence Day, July 4, 2026. The cool kids in the civics world are calling this the Semiquin!

The designers of this educational event believe there have been multiple revolutions throughout our nation’s history, with the first American revolution starting on April 19, 1775, when the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Thus, we are beginning our celebration of the Semiquin earlier than others, kicking things off with this program. We believe the first revolution doesn’t end until the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, meaning our Semiquin will last until 2041. For those keeping score at home, Revolution #2 was from the Dred Scott decision to the end of Reconstruction in 1875, and Revolution #3 went from the Supreme Court decision in Brown in 1954 to the shooting of Martin Luther King in 1968. We believe we are in the 4th American Revolution, which started with the election of President Barack Obama and is still going on during the second term of President Donald Trump.

Since the law has played a huge role throughout America’s four revolutions, the April 25th event will focus heavily on courts and the law.

Learn more and register.