Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Black Agenda Report July 4th Special Issue
The Editors
01 Jul 2026
🖨️ Print Article
George Washington

“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

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Barack Obama, George Washington and the 4th of July
01 July 2026
The opening of the Obama Center has brought Barack Obama back into the spotlight although he offers nothing new.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
F$$K the Fourth: Declaring Our Collective Independence from the Sinking Ship of U.S. Empire
01 July 2026
The settler colonial state is now more corrupt and more unequal than even the genocidal "founding fathers" imagined.
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Trump and America’s Fascist Forefathers
01 July 2026
Donald Trump is not an anomaly, but the heir of fascism which began in 1776 and continued throughout U.S. history.
Elias Isquith
White supremacy and slavery: Gerald Horne on the real story of American independence
01 July 2026
It's time to revisit America's heroic creation myth and what really happened in 1776, author-historian tells Salon.
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Slaveholders Who Signed the Declaration of Independence: Washington, Jefferson, and the People they Owned
01 July 2026
Black Agenda Report editors Margaret Kimberley and Ann Garrison discuss the personal and institutional hypocrisy that allowed those who said, "
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
SPEECH: Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference, February 14, 2026
25 February 2026
"A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization.”
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
The End of American Thanksgivings: A Cause for Universal Rejoicing
26 November 2025
Glen Ford wrote many powerful essays, but his unflinching analysis of the history of the holiday we call Thanksgiving remains relevant over 20
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Terrible Origins of July 4th
02 July 2025
As the Fourth of July grows closer, let us examine the reality of "independence day".
Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III
Dr. Wilmer Leon: When they tell you about their own, believe them
19 February 2025
"When people show you who they are, believe them" remains true when we examine the sorry state of the U.S. political arena.
Jon Jeter
A Grisly Kansas City Killing Shines a Light on Settler Colonialism’s ‘Boomerang Effect’
27 November 2024
The settler colony known as the United States inflicts violence upon Black people as a function of its existence.

More Stories


  • REPORT: Murdering Women in Nigeria, Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, May 1930
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    REPORT: Murdering Women in Nigeria, Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, May 1930
    16 Jun 2021
    British colonial officials turned their guns on women in two Nigerian towns in the 1920s, to put down protests against “head” taxes and levies on market stalls, killing scores. 
  • Ethiopia: Tribalism versus National Consciousness
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ethiopia: Tribalism versus National Consciousness
    16 Jun 2021
    Ethiopians struggle to forge a national consciousness that supersedes ethnic tribalism, while international human rights NGOs discuss their "responsibility to protect" them, writes Ann Garriso
  • The Town Crier’s List of Who’s Who in the capitalist state machine
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    The Town Crier’s List of Who’s Who in the capitalist state machine
    16 Jun 2021
    “Ain’t no power like the power of the people— ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop!” bouncing  off summer skyscrapers; ricocheting off resistance 
  • Community Control of Public Safety: Building a Transitional Program for Power 
    Netfa Freeman
    Community Control of Public Safety: Building a Transitional Program for Power 
    16 Jun 2021
    Why is more effort is put into trying to discredit CCOP, while the ruling class is pulling all stops to hoodwink the public with actual reformism, like the George Floyd Act.
  • Lessons from Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panther Party
    Ahjamu Umi
    Lessons from Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panther Party
    16 Jun 2021
    Just like we glorified the black leather jackets, black berets, and guns in the 60s, we still romanticize African people with guns and mouths that fire more inaccurately than the guns they carry.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us