In America, the 4th of July is a day that commemorates the Second Continental Congress adopting the Declaration of Independence— a document that announced the official separation of the original 13 colonies from Great Britain. What few know is that the vote for Independence by approving the Lee Resolution—a bold, three-part proposal formally introduced in the Second Continental Congress on June 7, 1776, by Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee, officially declaring the thirteen colonies independent from Great Britain, calling for the formation of foreign alliances, and proposing a plan for confederation— actually took place on July 2nd. The first public readings of the document took place a few days later on July 8, and a year later on July 4th, 1777, the tradition of celebrating with fireworks was born out of a spontaneous celebration that included a 13 gun salute.
This day of Independence was not designated a federal holiday by the U.S. Congress until 1870, and it wasn’t until 1938 that it was made a paid federal holiday. Today, this spirit of patriotism and national pride lives on. Americans observe the holiday with large scale community events, including dazzling firework displays, neighborhood parades, family barbecues, concerts, and gatherings. Taylor Swift in particular, was known to have a star studded “TayMerica” bash at her Rhode Island mansion annually, mostly in the 2010’s and has since died down.
Personally, my family is full of immigrants that never really celebrated it in the first place, but here’s especially why I, and many others,believe there is not much worth celebrating.
The Declaration of Independence introduced the famous principle that “all men are created equal” and possess unalienable rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. This however, was a statement of ideals, not a legally binding framework of governance. When written, these ideals of equality were not applied in practice to women or enslaved people. 11 years later in 1788, The U.S Constitution was written providing actual legal structure of the U.S Government. When ratified, the Constitution did not create a uniform national standard for voting, Instead, it gave individual states the power to set voter eligibility laws. Because the Founders believed civic participation required having a financial stake in society, most state legislatures restricted the right to vote and hold office to white men who owned a specific amount of land or property. Over the following decades, poor white men demanded and eventually won the right to vote by changing individual state laws, achieving near universal white male suffrage by 1856. Voting and civil rights for other groups—such as African Americans and women—were not formally established until much later through the passage of constitutional amendments like the 15th Amendment and 19th Amendment. 41 out of the 56 men who signed the declaration of independence owned enslaved persons. The document not only condemns Britain for “inciting slave rebellions” but also refers to Native Americans as “merciless savages”. Post Civil War, black communities would hold their own 4th of July celebrations just to be attacked by white mobs.
While the British immigrants were jumping for joy at the “rights and freedoms” both of these documents stated and protected, this was not the case for everyone as it would take 87 years for the abolishment of slavery to be ordered, and two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, for freedom to finally arrive for those in Galveston on June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived with federal troops and read General Order No. 3 to the people of Texas. This pivotal day is now widely commemorated as Juneteenth.
Frederick Douglass, a former enslaved man and leading abolitionist, was invited to speak by the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. He purposefully chose to speak on July 5, rather than Independence Day. In his address, he noted: “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn….. “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”
While 53 years earlier the white immigrants would declare their rights and freedoms protected on this new land, there was nothing of the sorts for the original Americans. The Trail of Tears took place between 1830 and 1850. This was the forced, violent expulsion of approximately 100,000 Native Americans due to the Indian Removal Act.
Violating the Treaty of Holston signed on July 2, 1791, an agreement between the United States government and the Cherokee Nation—establishing that the Cherokee tribes fell under U.S. protection, redefined frontier boundaries, and granted the U.S. management of all Cherokee foreign affairs in exchange for peace and annuities— and driven by white settler greed and the discovery of gold, U.S. troops burned homes and dragged families into camps. Roughly a quarter of the marchers perished from starvation, exposure, and disease. The forced marches pushed people through freezing winters, rain, and severe drought. Wagon space was critically scarce at this time, leaving the majority to trek the 1,000+ mile distance on foot, many without shoes. Malnutrition, dehydration, and cholera took thousands of lives, leaving survivors to bury their loved ones in shallow graves along the route. Approximately 4,000 to 5,000 Cherokee men, women, and children alone died during the arduous, six-month journey. Other tribes, including the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole, suffered similarly catastrophic losses.
Today, freedom still seems to be as it was when the declaration was issued and when treaties were constantly violated, for white men. Wealthy or not. We still have a president that believes he is above the law, much like Andrew Jackson believed himself to be—intentionally refusing to enforce a landmark ruling, allowing the state of Georgia to disregard Native American sovereignty, hence leading to the Trail of Tears. This disregard is mirrored in analysis done by news outlets like The Washington Post identifying widespread noncompliance by the current administration, finding that the White House has actively defied roughly one in three judicial rulings made against their policies in lower courts.
Recently, eight immigration protesters received an unprecedented, combined 450 years in federal prison for a July 4, 2025, demonstration outside a Texas ICE detention facility that turned violent. Among the historic sentences, former Marine reservist Benjamin Hanil Song was handed 100 years for the attempted murder of an officer, while other participants received decades long terms. Daniel Sanchez Estrada was sentenced to 30 years simply for moving a box of political pamphlets after the protest concluded. The severe punishments mark the first major convictions utilizing a September 2025 executive order that designated “Antifa” as a Domestic Terrorist Organization to drastically elevate standard criminal charges. Yet, the Klu Klux Klan has taken thousands of lives of innocent Black Americans, civil rights workers and other minorities and continues to avoid being labeled a terrorist organization.
In comparison–While January 6th was always a special holiday for Cubans and Latinos who celebrate El Día De Los Reyes, that was eclipsed by a mob of bigots in 2021. While the White House has published a page of their recollection of events, what stands true is that a mob of Donald Trump supporters led a violent attack on the U.S Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden, fair and square. The mob overwhelmed police lines, broke through barricades and smashed windows while also ransacking offices in search of political leaders, most notably Democrats. The attack resulted in multiple deaths, injuries to over 140 police officers, and millions of dollars in damages. The difference in intention, violence and damage in comparison to the ICE protestors mentioned above is ASTRONOMICAL, however on Trump’s first day back in office on January 20th, 2025, he pardoned approximately 1,500 Jan 6th rioters, including those who had pleaded or been found guilty of assaulting police officers as well as immediate release and reduced sentences for 14 specific defendants, including prominent figures like Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
Today, the rights of Immigrants, Black Americans, Native Americans and just about and just about anyone the white anglo saxon protestant pundits in power view as “less than” constantly weigh in the balance. Rights which should be unalienable, as proposed in the declaration of our country, are held in front of minorities like a carrot. The United States was built on a foundation of equality for all humans, yet this foundation has yet to truly meet fruition, for even when it was proposed, we were not equal, and we have yet to be so. (This article, especially and heavily within the last paragraph was with the help of my incredible friend and editor, Lilli Eve who stayed up late with me working on this piece <3)