Independence Day 1985: a black perspective, p. 15
Dublin Core
Title
Independence Day 1985: a black perspective, p. 15
Description
"There is a high and vibrant sense of expectancy that fills the languid days of summer as our nation awaits the garand and multifaceted rites associates with Independence Day.
The cares and tribulations of the day are lost, at least temporarily, to picnics, boating, swimming, dazzling pyrotechnical displays and, in general, unrestrained conviviality.
It is ironic that in 1776 when we dared, as a puny and embryonic confederation of states, to declare to the world that we were free from England, w did not have the power or clout to enforce our decision. However, our intrepid and gutsy maneuver worked and were alter able to achieve nationhood.
Even as we affirm to the world that we “ought to be free and equal,” the principle was not a reality because a hamartia (i.e., fatal flaw) existed in terms of barbarous and dehumanizing slavery.
The condition of chattel slavery reduced some Americans, simply because of their color, to a level of property or subhuman. Consequently, the lofty pretensions of “Liberty and justice for all” constituted a colossal sham and hypocrisy. Highly prominent and influential white leaders such as the “Sage of Monticello,” sought to establish a raison d’etre or justification for the iniquitous and monstrous system of slavery, Jefferson, commenting on black people in his widely read Notes of Virginia, would state:
Comparing them (i.e. slaves) by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me, that in memory they are equal to whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid… in imagination they are dull, tasteless and anomalous.”
Later, in less elegant language than Jefferson, Congressman John Sharp Williams, an unmitigated racist, would declare in congress in 1898:
“You could shipwreck 10,000 illiterate White Americans on a desert island, and in three weeks they would have a fairly good government, conceived and administered upon fairly democratic lines. You could shipwreck 10,000 Negroes (sic) every one of whom was a graduate of Harvard in less than three years, they would have retrograded governmentally; half of the men would have been killed, and the other half of men would have two wives apiece.”
Senator Ben Tillman of South Carolina would continue the attack:
“We have done our best (i.e. disenfranchisement of Black voters in South Carolina). We have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them (i.e. Black voters). We stuffed ballot boxes, We shot them (i.e., Blacks). We are not ashamed of it (Italics added).”
Invidious and base utterances of this type in the “land of the free and home of the brave” helped to create a national mindset that relegated black Americans to a suborder of life and treatment. The traducement and vilification of black Americans was expanded in an odious and repugnant statement made by Senator James R. Vardman on the floor of the United States Senate in 1900:
“Mr. President I am not the Negro’s (sic) enemy. I know what is best for him. I think I can measure his productive capacity. I know the influences that move him. I am familiar with the currents which sweep through his savage blood. I think I know him as he really is. The pure blooded negro (sic) reaches mental maturity soon after passes the period of puberty. The cranial sutures become ossified by the time he reaches 20 years of age; and it is not uncommon to find one who reads fluently at 15 years of age not to know a letter in the book at the age of 25 or 30.”
The aforesaid historical vignettes represent only a sample of the vile, bestial and cruel efforts made to break blacks in body and spirit. On this Independence Day 1985, while under a withering and unrelenting socio-economic and political siege, the spirits of black American, to an overwhelming degree, remain strong and unbroken.
It represents an extraordinary and indelible testimony to the resilience, tenacity and pluck of black Americans. To be sure, a powerful and inspirational slice of black Americana.
It is ironic that as we prepare to celebrate our national day of Independence much attention has been riveted on the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings pertaining to the nomination of Assistant Attorney General Bradford Reynolds for the position of Associate Attorney General for Civil Rights; the number three position in the United States Justice Department.
Assistant Attorney General Reynolds’ position on voting rights for blacks, busing as a means to achieve school desegregation, concern for the handicapped, among other issues, depict him as wholly unsuitable for the Associate Attorney General position. His nomination is deserving of a speedy rejection by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In spite of all the dreadful encumbrances and fierce opposition to us as black Americans enjoying the blessings of liberty and equality of opportunity, I urge you to maintain your hope. We are a people of unparalleled hope, faith and belief in better tomorrows.
Our forebears have participated in every war our nation has been involved and have made sacrificial efforts in the face of stupendous odds to advance freedom and opportunity at home and abroad.
Happy Independence Day and enjoy yourself fully. We have richly earned the right to savor and venerate our remarkable contributions as a people and to exult in the achievements. Let us celebrate Independence Day and continue to work unremittingly for a realization of our national ideal:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident; That all men are created equal and all endowed with their creator with certain inalienable rights… Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
We must be untiring and fearless in our effort to square the stated and grandiloquent ideal of Independence Day and the visceral and caustic realities endured by black, Hispanic, and poor Americans daily. Through it all, nonetheless, we must not become weary, complacent or abandon hope in our historic quest for full freedom, social justice and equality of opportunity."
The cares and tribulations of the day are lost, at least temporarily, to picnics, boating, swimming, dazzling pyrotechnical displays and, in general, unrestrained conviviality.
It is ironic that in 1776 when we dared, as a puny and embryonic confederation of states, to declare to the world that we were free from England, w did not have the power or clout to enforce our decision. However, our intrepid and gutsy maneuver worked and were alter able to achieve nationhood.
Even as we affirm to the world that we “ought to be free and equal,” the principle was not a reality because a hamartia (i.e., fatal flaw) existed in terms of barbarous and dehumanizing slavery.
The condition of chattel slavery reduced some Americans, simply because of their color, to a level of property or subhuman. Consequently, the lofty pretensions of “Liberty and justice for all” constituted a colossal sham and hypocrisy. Highly prominent and influential white leaders such as the “Sage of Monticello,” sought to establish a raison d’etre or justification for the iniquitous and monstrous system of slavery, Jefferson, commenting on black people in his widely read Notes of Virginia, would state:
Comparing them (i.e. slaves) by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me, that in memory they are equal to whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid… in imagination they are dull, tasteless and anomalous.”
Later, in less elegant language than Jefferson, Congressman John Sharp Williams, an unmitigated racist, would declare in congress in 1898:
“You could shipwreck 10,000 illiterate White Americans on a desert island, and in three weeks they would have a fairly good government, conceived and administered upon fairly democratic lines. You could shipwreck 10,000 Negroes (sic) every one of whom was a graduate of Harvard in less than three years, they would have retrograded governmentally; half of the men would have been killed, and the other half of men would have two wives apiece.”
Senator Ben Tillman of South Carolina would continue the attack:
“We have done our best (i.e. disenfranchisement of Black voters in South Carolina). We have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them (i.e. Black voters). We stuffed ballot boxes, We shot them (i.e., Blacks). We are not ashamed of it (Italics added).”
Invidious and base utterances of this type in the “land of the free and home of the brave” helped to create a national mindset that relegated black Americans to a suborder of life and treatment. The traducement and vilification of black Americans was expanded in an odious and repugnant statement made by Senator James R. Vardman on the floor of the United States Senate in 1900:
“Mr. President I am not the Negro’s (sic) enemy. I know what is best for him. I think I can measure his productive capacity. I know the influences that move him. I am familiar with the currents which sweep through his savage blood. I think I know him as he really is. The pure blooded negro (sic) reaches mental maturity soon after passes the period of puberty. The cranial sutures become ossified by the time he reaches 20 years of age; and it is not uncommon to find one who reads fluently at 15 years of age not to know a letter in the book at the age of 25 or 30.”
The aforesaid historical vignettes represent only a sample of the vile, bestial and cruel efforts made to break blacks in body and spirit. On this Independence Day 1985, while under a withering and unrelenting socio-economic and political siege, the spirits of black American, to an overwhelming degree, remain strong and unbroken.
It represents an extraordinary and indelible testimony to the resilience, tenacity and pluck of black Americans. To be sure, a powerful and inspirational slice of black Americana.
It is ironic that as we prepare to celebrate our national day of Independence much attention has been riveted on the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings pertaining to the nomination of Assistant Attorney General Bradford Reynolds for the position of Associate Attorney General for Civil Rights; the number three position in the United States Justice Department.
Assistant Attorney General Reynolds’ position on voting rights for blacks, busing as a means to achieve school desegregation, concern for the handicapped, among other issues, depict him as wholly unsuitable for the Associate Attorney General position. His nomination is deserving of a speedy rejection by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In spite of all the dreadful encumbrances and fierce opposition to us as black Americans enjoying the blessings of liberty and equality of opportunity, I urge you to maintain your hope. We are a people of unparalleled hope, faith and belief in better tomorrows.
Our forebears have participated in every war our nation has been involved and have made sacrificial efforts in the face of stupendous odds to advance freedom and opportunity at home and abroad.
Happy Independence Day and enjoy yourself fully. We have richly earned the right to savor and venerate our remarkable contributions as a people and to exult in the achievements. Let us celebrate Independence Day and continue to work unremittingly for a realization of our national ideal:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident; That all men are created equal and all endowed with their creator with certain inalienable rights… Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
We must be untiring and fearless in our effort to square the stated and grandiloquent ideal of Independence Day and the visceral and caustic realities endured by black, Hispanic, and poor Americans daily. Through it all, nonetheless, we must not become weary, complacent or abandon hope in our historic quest for full freedom, social justice and equality of opportunity."
Creator
Samuel L. Banks
Publisher
Baltimore Afro-American
Date
1985-7-15
Collection
Citation
Samuel L. Banks, “Independence Day 1985: a black perspective, p. 15,” African American Fourth of July, accessed April 28, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/138.