The Fourth of July is a federal holiday commemorating the Declaration of Independence in the United States. The Second Continental Congress ratified the Declaration on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.
July 4 is associated with fireworks, parades, carnivals, fairs, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches, and ceremonies. In addition, Americans commemorate the day with various other public and private events celebrating this country’s history, government, and traditions.
Yet, many Black Americans remain ambivalent about this federal holiday.
One reason is of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 41 owned slaves. For example, at age 33, Thomas Jefferson, a primary author of the Declaration of Independence, who would become the third President of the United States, owned more than 600 slaves during his lifetime, the most of any occupant of the White House.
Having grown up in Virginia around slaves, Jefferson, who acquired most of his slaves through inheritance, also bought and sold them. In addition, Jefferson fathered two children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings.
Another reason is Black people were not considered even fully human when the Declaration of Independence was signed. As the signers wrote, “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” into the historic document, the forefathers and foremothers of those enslaved, were not considered as having rights to those freedoms.
Indeed, the Declaration’s final version does not reference slavery. A passage condemning slavery was removed before the document was signed.
Therefore, it’s completely understandable why, for Black Americans, the significance of July 4 does not carry the weight and importance that it does in other racial and ethnic groups.
Truthfully, The Declaration of Independence is not the symbol of American Democracy that makes Black people uncomfortable. Many find it offensive even as they rise, place their right hand over their hearts, and sing the “Star-Spangled Banner” at sporting and other public events.
The author, a 34-year-old lawyer named Francis Scott Key, spoke of Black people being a “distinct and inferior race,” only supporting the emancipation of enslaved people only if they were immediately shipped to Africa.
One original verse of the tune reads, “No refuge could save the hireling and slave, from the terror or flight or groom of the grave.”
The “Star-Spangled Banner” did not become America’s national anthem for a century after it was written.
Why are Black Americans regularly reminded that two premier pinnacles of American Democracy, the Declaration of Independence and “Star-Spangled Banner,” are rooted in centuries-old racism?
In Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered the keynote address at an Independence Day celebration, asking, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” He noted “that the nation’s fathers were great men for their ideals of freedom.” But in doing so, he brings awareness to the hypocrisy of their ideals by the existence of slavery on American soil.
In his scathing Independence Day speech, Douglass also stated, “The Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice. I must mourn.”
Those Black Americans who choose not to celebrate July 4 should never be viewed or condoned as unpatriotic. Instead, they should be considered authentic Americans committed to reminding the United States that it has fallen short of the Declaration of Independence’s words of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for all.