TheLoop21.com

By: Susan Anderson (Add to your loop)
Fri, 07/03/2009 - 00:00

The holiday is about our liberty as much as it's about America's independence.

Americans have long taken to heart the meaning of the July 4, 1776, signing of the Declaration of Independence, which says "all men are created equal." Despite centuries of unequal treatment for African Americans and other minorities, the Fourth of July has often been a day we stand up for our right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

During the 1800 Constitutional Convention, free black men from Philadelphia petitioned Congress to end the slave trade and adopt laws to emancipate “their brethren." Massachusetts Congressman George Thacher condemned slavery as “a cancer of immense magnitude, that would sometime destroy the body politic.” But the House of Representatives voted 85-1 to refuse the petition.

In 1838, Native American leader Black Hawk gave a Fourth of July speech at Fort Madison, Iowa. He fought with the British against the American Revolution, and opposed ceding Indian lands to the U.S. At the end of his life, he addressed a mostly white crowd on July 4. “A few summers ago I was fighting against you … but that is past — it is buried — let it be forgotten.”

In a July 4, 1852, address in Rochester, N.Y., Frederick Douglass asked, “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?”

“The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn … Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?”

In 1876, five officers of the National Woman Suffrage Association, including Susan B. Anthony, stormed the official Centennial Fourth of July celebration in Washington. They had been refused an invitation to participate, but shocked the assembly by presenting a copy of their Declaration of Rights for Women. Afterward, the women marched out to their own rally.

Jump to the 20th century, and the injustice of war raised new questions about July 4. Chris Tashima and Tim Toyama's film, Day of Independence, focuses on the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. The filmmakers say the lessons in their film “can be applied to events that are occurring today, such as the racial profiling of Middle Easterners.” And, in an introduction to the new edition of his anti-war memoir, Born on the 4th of July, Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic wrote about the "tragic and senseless war in Iraq."

The Fourth of July was once a time for Americans of conscience to challenge the way the country fulfilled the promise of independence. Surely it’s not too late to recapture the spirit of protest that started with the American revolutionaries in 1776.

Susan D. Anderson teaches, speaks and writes about African American history, politics and culture. She is the author of Nostalgia for a Trumpet: Poems of Memory and History, published by Northwestern University Press. She has been a Visiting Professor at Pitzer College, a contributor to the Los Angeles Times Sunday Opinion since 1999, and currently manages an archival program at the USC Libraries.

(Photo by at Rennett Stowe at flickr.)

Are American students taught enough about the Black role in American history?

Yes, it has improved

Maybe, in some places

No, that's pretty obvious

I don't know

Does it even matter?