Black Agenda Report July 4th Special Issue

The Editors

01 Jul 2026

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“This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” - Frederick Douglass 1852 speech

In what is perhaps his most famous speech, Frederick Douglass asked, “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” That question can still be asked today by Black people in this country who are technically free. Yet in 2026 the United States has the largest population of unfree people than any other country in the world – and half of those who are incarcerated, in modern-day bondage, are Black and are forced to work without compensation. That fact is just one indicator of why, like Frederick Douglass, we mourn instead of rejoicing.

In that 1852 speech Douglass declared, “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” The Black Agenda Report editorial team acknowledges his prescience in knowing that the United States would still be false to its people and their history in 2026. This year, July 4th marks the 250th year after enslaving, genociding colonizers declared themselves to be independent of Britain.

They did so because the British Crown decreed they could not expand their colonies beyond the Appalachian Mountains and because they feared that slavery might be abolished. The men who in the Declaration of Independence railed against what they referred to as tyranny were very eager to inflict tyranny on other people as they embarked on a sick fantasy of stealing indigenous land and increasing the territory available for a plantation economy which needed the labor of enslaved people.

The narrative of praising evil deeds is still strong, as Barack Obama revealed when he felt compelled to say that George Washington’s slave holding did not “negate his greatness.” Black Agenda Report thanks Obama for proving us right when we declared him to be a “more effective evil” in preserving the violent, anti-human beginnings of the United States and exemplifying what Frederick Douglass predicted for the future of the country.

We hope that this issue illuminates our work at Black Agenda Report and lives up to our pledge of providing “News, commentary and analysis from the Black left.”

independence day

Frederick Douglass

July 4th

Slavery

declaration of independence

Colonialism

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