An urgent anthology featuring some of the most eminent Black voices of our time reckoning with, reacting to, and rewriting the Declaration of Independence for both the crisis of our present moment and the promise of our future freedom
When discussing the American experiment, the Declaration of Independence is perhaps the most-cited basis for who we are as a nation. Yet for these past 250 years, Thomas Jefferson’s edict that “all men are created equal” has never actually rung true for every American. In the midst of our current era of hostile government policy and the breach of many a social contract, we must ask, what does independence by the people and for the people actually look like today?
Our Declarations of Independence is a rich collection of meditations on this question from Black thinkers representing a multitude of generations, industries, and ideologies. Carefully compiled by the renowned lawyer, commentator, and social justice advocate Angela T. Rye, this project offers unprecedented insight into the true legacy of Jefferson’s “self-evident” truths, as observed through a Black lens. And by engaging with experts from a bevy of backgrounds, the essays offer intersectional perspectives on the Black experience, wrestling with what independence might mean for labor organizers, clergy members, queer rights advocates, coalitions of women, and several others. We also experience direct engagement with the complicated legacy of the founding fathers in writing from one of Jefferson’s direct descendants. The collection is further enriched with a rumination from an activist in the lineage of Frederick Douglass, who famously asked, “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?”
A response, a reckoning, a reconciliation, a revival, a revolution, Our Declarations of Independence delivers a much-needed new vision of America. For our ancestors, for ourselves, for our future generations, declaring a new independence—one that truly believes in rights for all, not just men, and for all races and identities—is the only path to true liberty.
