AMERICA, AIN’T ALWAYS BEEN FREE FOR ME. A Semiquincentennial Editorial Commemorating the Black Experience in America at 250.
AMERICA, AIN’T ALWAYS BEEN FREE FOR ME. A Semiquincentennial Editorial Commemorating the Black Experience in America at 250. By Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church • Fort Worth, Texas Reflecting on 250 Years of Independence Through the Lens of Black History. As America commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, millions of Americans will gather beneath red, white, and blue skies to celebrate the birth of a nation founded upon the ideals of liberty, equality, and self-government. We celebrate those ideals. But we cannot celebrate 250 years of freedom as though every American experienced them equally. History refuses to let us make that claim. For millions of Black Americans, independence in 1776 did not mean freedom. While the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that “all men are created equal,” slavery remained legal, and generations of African Americans lived in bondage—denied citizenship, voting rights, education, property...
