Celebrating July 4th in the U.S. is complicated for many African Americans, but that doesn’t stop others from being inspired by their ancestors’ history, especially as the nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary occurs under the Trump administration, which is overwhelmingly unpopular among many in the Black community.
“Today, we sit in the shadow of skyscrapers and of a history that’s too often ignored,” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams at his Black America 250th gathering on June 27 at the historic site of the first slave market in New York City, near Wall Street and Pearl Street in lower Manhattan.
New York City, from settlement to city, is older than the United States itself, and turned 400 in 2025. According to the New York Public Library (NYPL), the city’s slave market opened in 1711. By 1730, about 42% of the population owned slaves — a higher percentage than in any other city in the country except Charleston, South Carolina, according to the NYPL. The enslaved population literally built the city, said NYPL. The market closed in 1762, but slavery was not abolished until July 4, 1827.
“Here in New York, our city codified that atrocity. Where now stands benches, once there were auction blocks,” said Williams. “The council at the time sanctioned this barbaric industry for over 50 years. In fact, enslaved Africans helped build the first City Council.”
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams holds Black America 250 gathering on Wall Street for 250th anniversary of America on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo credit: Ariama C. Long photos) 
Williams giving speech about 250th anniversary of America on Saturday, June 27, 2026.(Photo credit: Ariama C. Long photos) 
Reverend Dr. Jaqueline J. Lewis, senior minister and public theologian at Middle Church.(Photo credit: Ariama C. Long photos) 
NYC public park signage on Wall Street detailing history of New York City’s slave trade.(Photo credit: Ariama C. Long photos) 
Photo from New York Public Library’s archives showing New York City’s slave trade.(Photo credit: Ariama C. Long photos) 
Historic site of New York City’s slave market on Wall and Pearl Street in Manhattan. 2026. (Photo credit: Ariama C. Long photos)
In his days as a councilmember, Williams fought for a decade to get something as simple as a sign marking the slave market site in Manhattan and detailing the history of the northern slave trade. His Intro 833-A bill that mandated that the transportation department install the sign was passed in a reparations package in 2024. However, the anticipated state reparations report has been delayed until 2029.
“Fireworks will echo over the East River and most won’t think of the Black bodies stolen and trafficked across it, but for me, that legacy echoes. So does the question that Frederick Douglass preferred, ‘What to the slave is the 4th of July?’” said Williams.
How does one enjoy the birthday of the country that enslaved Africans for centuries, then followed with violent Jim Crow laws and domestic terrorism against Black men and women? With the advent of social media, some online sidestep acknowledging the day altogether to cheekily celebrate Juneteenth twice. Others gather in community to simply eat food and watch fireworks without much allegiance to the country at all.
To discuss Douglass’s question, Williams gathered a panel to exchange views about progress since the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter period, as well as the new barriers Black communities face. This includes the recent Republican push at the federal level to eliminate diversity programs and the efforts to suppress Black history in schools, dismantle voting rights, and gerrymander Black voting districts, as well as a mass deportation agenda.
“We sit today between our country’s observance of Juneteenth and the 4th of July, between celebrations of freedom delivered and freedom declared,” Williams said. “That same state of unease in between is where I find myself today as a Black man in America … For the first 100 years of this country, a Black man was 3/5 of an American, and for the next 100, a second-class citizen by the law. If a Black man was a second-class citizen, what do you say of a Black woman, like my mother and my daughters? That is a whole speech for another time.”
On the event’s panel were L. Joy Williams, chair of the New York State Conference of the NAACP; Arva Rice, president and CEO of the New York Urban League; and archivist and historian Chris Cobbs.
“I think it’s important as we are teaching these empowering stories, we are teaching our history, that we also get to the meat of it and explain to our next generation so they can see beyond what narrative has been created for them, what propaganda has been created for them, so you can see yourself in the struggle of a Palestinian,” said L. Joy Williams. “You can see yourself in the struggle for those who are fighting in Sudan.”
Rice added that “I think that we have been told, particularly by this administration, that we cannot critique the United States without being seen as or deemed as unpatriotic. The fact is, and we know, we built this. This is ours. It is our music. It is our culture. It is our work. It is our backbone. For them to say that we cannot critique what we built? We cannot believe that.”
