As we celebrate the independence of our nation with fireworks, travel, and backyard cookouts, it is sobering to consider that the fruits of liberty and justice are still not equally shared across our nation.  Among the African American citizens of our nation, we have lingering memories of our quest for justice and equality which teach us that the struggle continues.

 

The speeches, and book excerpt, highlighted below offer reminders about our progress upon which we all should reflect, as we resolve to continue the struggle.

 

Frederick Douglass

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle."

Fourth of July Speech -- Rochester, NY July 5, 1852

Frederick Douglass was invited to speak on the occasion of celebrating Independence Day in 1852.  Here is an excerpt from his speech:

"...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? ...The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." 

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903
In this landmark book, Du Bois declared that the color line was America's challenge of the 20th century.  Little has changed in the 21st century.

 

"The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face...

 

"Freedom... the freedom to love and aspire.  Work, culture, liberty -- all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, ... not in opposition to or contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic."

Martin Luther King, Jr., "I have a Dream" Speech August 28, 1963 

The basic premise of this speech still haunts us today.  Many are still dealing with this default by our nation.

 

"In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."

 

Barack Obama Barack Obama's Speech on Race -- March 18, 2008

This speech articulated the struggles of the 21st century that still have not been addressed.

 

"Segregated schools were and are inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education. And the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions or the police force or the fire department - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between blacks and whites, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persist in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pickup, building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continues to haunt us... 

 

For all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and, increasingly, young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race and racism continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways." 

Roger Madison, CEO