An extended interview with John Garcia, Director of Scholarly Programs and Partnerships at the American Antiquarian Society. John is featured in “Making Headlines,” one of four new short films about the 250th that will premiere on GBH television in July 2026.
In this interview John examines a range of topics, including Freedom’s Journal, the first Black newspaper; the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Indigenous newspaper; Mary Katharine Goddard, who printed the first copy of the Declaration of Independence that displayed the names of the signatories; Thomas Paine and Common Sense; children’s literature and the hobby press, and the connection between journalism and democracy.