Dr. Maulana Karenga on Frederick Douglass, July 4th, Juneteenth and Us*

Whether we discuss emancipation in June, independence in July, revolt and revolution in August, Kwanzaa and cultural and political liberation in December, or achievements against the odds, resilience and resistance in February, the issue, imperative and urgency of freedom and struggle are always with us. Indeed, it runs like a red line through our most ancient, awesome and humanity-revealing history.

It is a central concern in the ancient ethical teachings of our honored ancestors in the Sacred Husia in the Four Good Deeds of Ra which foreground and emphasize that humans are divinely endowed with certain capacities, conditions and associated rights related to and reflective of freedom.

And it is found in the continuing courageous questioning of and critical judgment on American society by our people and in their ongoing striving and struggle to achieve and constantly expand an inclusive realm and reality of freedom, justice and other shared good.

Thus, every Fourth of July we are morally compelled to stand again with Nana Frederick Douglass when he gives his classic speech on the meaning of July 4th for Black people in this country at Rochester, New York in 1852. And we do this first because of the pressing immediacy and compelling urgency of the issues involved: issues of freedom and unfreedom; justice and injustice; inclusion and exclusion; the affirmation of human rights and their denial; and the severe and sustained suffering that the lack of freedom and justice imposes on us and the oppressed peoples of the world, and indeed, the world itself.

The immediacy and urgency of these issues is clear given our conversations and struggles around reparations, the abolition of prisons, the end of systemic and police violence, the simple and clear right of freedom of expression at the ballot box, the right to be free from the Europeanization and destruction of our neighborhoods and communities under the euphemism of gentrification, the rights to clean water and food security, and the rights to guaranteed income for a life of dignity and decency and a quality education, as Nana W.E.B. DuBois says, “not only to make a living but also to make a life.”

Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at California State University-Long Beach, is an philosopher, author, holder of two PhDs, one in political science and the other in social ethics and creator of Kwanzaa. Karenga’s essay is titled, “Frederick Douglass, July 4th and Us: Freedom, False Claims, Bad Faith and Unavoidable Struggle”.