As the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, many Black Americans are approaching the milestone with a mixture of pride, skepticism, and concern about the nation’s future.
While commemorations planned across the country will honor the nation’s founding, civil rights leaders, historians, and advocates have argued that any observance of America’s 250th birthday must also confront the country’s history of slavery, disenfranchisement, and racial inequality.
“As the nation marks 250 years, democracy, civil rights, and the rule of law are faced with existential tests,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said in announcing America 250: A Guide for Defending Democracy, a civic engagement initiative developed by the National Urban League and the Demand Diversity Roundtable.
Morial said the project is intended to help Americans evaluate elected officials and candidates through the lens of constitutional principles rather than political affiliation.
“Americans need clear, consistent guidelines that help them evaluate public officials and candidates based on constitutional principles — not political affiliation,” Morial said. “This project is rooted in a simple belief: when people understand how systems work, they are more confident in using their voices.”
Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, argued the country is confronting challenges that many believe threaten decades of progress.
“Today’s unprecedented attacks reflect years of planning to limit social and racial progress,” Johnson said.
The anniversary also has renewed debate about how the nation’s history is remembered and who is included in the American story.
Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude Jr., whose new book examines how race has shaped previous national anniversaries, said recent attacks on key civil rights protections mirror earlier periods when Black Americans were pushed to the margins of the national narrative.
“We’ve witnessed a simultaneous attack on two major pieces of legislation: the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965,” Glaude said in a recent interview. “Both of them fundamentally changed the trajectory of the nation.”
Glaude explained those laws helped create the conditions for a multiracial democracy and warned that current efforts to weaken them represent “a wholesale attack on that vision of the country.”
Looking back at previous anniversaries, Glaude said the nation has repeatedly omitted difficult truths from its historical narrative.
“‘Disremembering’ is so important,” he said, borrowing from the language of novelist Toni Morrison. “There’s a violence that attends this.”
He pointed to the nation’s 1876 centennial celebration, when Frederick Douglass was largely sidelined despite being among the country’s most influential voices.
“What has to happen here in order to protect the innocence of the country?” Glaude asked. “Black folks have to be disappeared. We have to be made to play minor, bit parts in the story.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton said Black Americans have a unique perspective on the nation’s anniversary because their history predates the country’s founding.
“The National Action Network is proud to stand with Marc Morial and the National Urban League for the launch of America 250: A Guide for Defending Democracy,” Sharpton said. “As this nation prepares to mark its 250th anniversary, we must never forget that the history of Africans in America stretches back much further, to 1619.”
Sharpton said the work of fulfilling the nation’s promises remains unfinished.
“As a coalition, we are continuing the work to see that the nation’s foundational promises are finally realized for every American,” he said.
Believing in the American Dream, Concerns About the Future
The questions being raised by civil rights leaders closely mirror the findings of a new national survey that found Americans both proud of their country and deeply concerned about its direction.
The Elon University America250 Poll found that 68% of Americans say they are proud to be American, and 65% declared there is no other country where they would rather live. Nearly 80% agreed that the United States plays a uniquely important role in world history.
At the same time, 73% rated the health of American democracy as only fair or poor, and 52% said the nation is not successfully living up to its founding ideals.
“We found several points of optimism among Americans, including pride in being American and belief that the United States has a uniquely important role to play in world history,” Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll, wrote in the survey’s analysis.
The survey of 1,000 adults found Americans sharply divided over the nation’s condition.
Nearly 7 in 10 respondents said the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be more disappointed than proud if they could see the state of American democracy today. Americans also expressed little confidence in political leadership. Sixty-eight percent said elected officials over the past decade have been worse than leaders of earlier generations. Forty percent said no major political party often represents their views.
Many respondents described a country living through a period of instability. Thirty-nine percent said current times are much more turbulent than average, while another 31% said they are somewhat more turbulent than average. One-quarter said they feel the nation is on the brink of a major crisis every day, while another 15% said they feel that way weekly.
Yet Americans have not abandoned belief in the country’s opportunities. When asked about the American Dream, 47% said it is true that people who work hard generally succeed regardless of the circumstances into which they were born. Thirty-four percent disagreed, while 19% were undecided.
The poll also asked Americans to identify the greatest presidents in U.S. history. Abraham Lincoln finished first with 26%, followed by Barack Obama at 17%, George Washington at 12% and Donald Trump at 11%. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan each received 9%, while John F. Kennedy drew 6%.
When respondents were asked which public figure best exemplified American democracy’s highest ideals, Lincoln again led the list at 20%. Obama ranked second at 11%, followed by Washington and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., each at 9%.
Americans were also asked when democracy most fully lived up to its highest ideals. The Civil Rights Movement topped the list at 16%, followed by World War II at 11% and the end of slavery at 8%. Four percent pointed to Obama’s election as president, placing it among the most frequently cited moments in the survey.
Looking ahead, respondents expressed more pessimism than optimism about the next 50 years. Majorities predicted the country would become more politically divided, less economically equal and less influential globally by 2076. Only 36% said they were confident political institutions would make mostly good decisions on major issues over the next half century.
Still, researchers found an unexpected source of hope. Americans under 30 consistently expressed more optimism about the nation’s future than older generations, even while showing less attachment to traditional expressions of patriotism and national identity.
“One of the most surprising findings in the survey was that Gen Z was among the most optimistic generations about America’s future,” Husser said. “This optimism stands out at a time when many Americans are expressing concerns about democracy and the nation’s direction.”
For many Black Americans, that combination of hope and concern is familiar territory. Pride in the country’s achievements exists alongside questions about whether the United States will fully honor the democratic promises it made nearly 250 years ago.
“At a time when the United States should be coming together to celebrate all that we are, how far we’ve come, and commit to finishing the work to make America a place where freedom and equality are truly for all, a white supremacist faction is pushing our country in the opposite direction, whitewashing our past so they can whitewash our future,” declared Nicole Carty, an organizer and movement strategist who has played roles in movements of the 21st century, including Occupy Wall Street and the Movement for Black Lives.
