The Fourth of July, a day of fireworks and parades for many Americans, holds a more nuanced meaning for African Americans. While it celebrates the ideals of liberty and equality, for many African Americans it is a harsh reminder of the ongoing fight for those very ideals.
For centuries, African Americans have been excluded from the freedoms enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. From the brutality of slavery to the segregation of Jim Crow laws, our journey towards equality has been arduous. Even with the Civil Rights Movement's victories, systemic racism and injustices persist.
This creates a complex experience on the Fourth of July. It's a day to honor the sacrifices of ancestors who fought for freedom, but it is also a reminder of the work left undone. Many African Americans use this holiday to challenge the status quo. Through protests, speeches, and art, they demand a more equitable future where "all men are created equal" becomes a reality.
According to ThinkNow, a cross-cultural marketing research company, 40% of African Americans said they do not celebrate the Fourth of July.
Derrick Spires, an associate professor of Literatures in English at Cornell University, told the Cornell Chronicle that Black people navigated a “national double-speak”— white Americans celebrated their own freedom, while dehumanizing and enslaving African people and displacing generations of Native Americans.
Three quarters of a century after the first Fourth of July celebrations were recorded in Philadelphia, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York, entitled, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
In it, he admonished the United States for its hypocritical celebrations for freedom.
“To him, your celebration is a sham,” said Douglass. “Your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery… a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”
“We don’t celebrate it, but we celebrate it,” said Briana Hunts. “I use this as a form of a way for me and my family to get together and create memories though that day.”
Hunts’ experience reflects the views of many African Americans, around the country, who spend the day convening with family–not to celebrate the Fourth of July, but, rather, observe the national holiday.
Many African Americans, however, would rather celebrate a day that honors their history and lived experiences in this country. And for many, Juneteenth has filled that gap.
On a programming note.
Unless something groundbreaking happens, regular reporting will resume on Monday, July 8th. Until then, from all of us here at the RN news desk, have a safe and happy Fourth of July!