Exploring the First Amendment

The “Exploring the First Amendment” institutes will consider the development of the First Amendment in Philadelphia, from William Penn’s founding of the Colony of Pennsylvania through the present day. Through immersive visits and lectures at key sites in Historic Philadelphia, participants will learn how Philadelphia’s tradition of honoring and testing the limits of speech, press, religion, and assembly was essential to the American founding and key to America’s future. Participants will further learn how the Philadelphia tradition of embodying the First Amendment through freedom of conscience helped forge a new, and then-uniquely American culture.