A feature length documentary film exploring the founding of the United States through the lens of Philadelphia, America's first capital.
BECOMING AMERICAN:
Philadelphia's Story
"Becoming American: Philadelphia's Story restores to the historical record the enormous role Black people played in the shaping of our country's fundamental institutions both at its founding and in its crucial early decades.
It is a compelling exploration of the role of race in our country's founding, and the black men and women who were Founders as well, and will be welcomed in the classroom as we attempt to tell the full story of America's founding 250 years ago."
Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Harvard University
The Trailer
Watch the full film on PBS stations nationwide beginning June 15, 2026
This is a story that must be told — not just for Philadelphia, but for America.
Oliver St. Clair Franklin
Host & Executive Producer
Our job was to breathe life into Philadelphia’s extensive archives so the audience
knows how the people of this city helped shape America’s blueprint for the future.
Annie Connolly
Executive Producer
A Message From
Oliver St. Clair Franklin
I arrived in Philadelphia in 1972 and was excited about being here during the upcoming Bicentennial in 1976. Philadelphia was the second largest city in the British Empire at the time of Independence, and had the largest number of free and literate Africans in that empire living here - something I thought that should be celebrated as well.
However, there was a lack of emotional connection with the bicentennial from the Afro-American community, which was a direct result of a lack of knowledge of history. Most Afro-Americans have ancestors who were in British North America before 1740, but there was little about this in the public domain; nor was there much about the extraordinary African community here - resilient people who built families, founded institutions, supported those escaping enslavement and, with white allies, participated fully in public life. It's an extraordinary and uplifting story.
My hope is that this film will help build a human connection to Philadelphia during this time, that people feel the 'energy' when they walk our historical streets, and by the time of our Tricentennial, that these stories are fully integrated into the historical narrative.
