In 1852, Frederick Douglass questioned the significance of so-called “Independence Day” for Black people, a sentiment that rings true for Black Americans today, perhaps more so in recent years. 

Qualin Golden has lived in many cities around the country. He moved to Durham last fall. He just turned 32 and comes from a military family: his grandfather, both of his parents and his sister have all served. Golden is different, though. 

“You’re not really a person, you’re more of like a number. Most people just say you’re just a number or a cog in the machine type of deal,” he told The Tribune. When he was a kid, the Fourth of July simply meant a day to have a barbecue with family, maybe watch fireworks.  “I wasn’t really told anything, I just knew it was a day when friends and family could spend the day together,” he said.

But as he got older, there had been a sort of “shift.” Conversations on social media that were critical of the holiday influenced him. “What it made me think was like, ‘should I actually celebrate the holiday?’” he said.

Olivia Brew is a rising high school senior in Apex and plans to go to the beach for the holiday weekend. She was spending her Monday evening at Southpoint Mall with a friend. She said the holiday seemed more exciting and patriotic as a child. 

“With how the government and everything has kind of shifted away from beliefs that align with mine, it’s been less about the patriotism of it all and more like the community behind it,” she told The Tribune. “This is the place where we all live, and we’re all Americans in that way, so I’m not gonna not celebrate it, but I’m not gonna celebrate the political aspect of the state right now.” 

Brew said she values individuality and allowing self-expression, but doesn’t see the government allowing that type of freedom. “I feel like in a lot of ways, the government has catered the way the world works to a vast majority instead of those individual minorities and the people that need it to be catered to them more,” she said. “There’s still a lot of racism in our everyday lives, and it comes from a systemic standpoint where it’s built into how we live our lives. It’s simple things like, if a group of Black kids were to go out and be in a store like this, they’re more likely to get kicked out for the same thing that another group wouldn’t get kicked out for.” 

Melodie Walker-Edmund, 54, and her husband Craig Edmund, 51, were in downtown Durham chaperoning their daughter and her friends Monday evening. Melodie is originally from Maryland, and Craig moved to the states from Antigua when he was 22. 

Coming from the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area, Walker-Edmund told The Tribune that, as a child, there was pride, patriotism and excitement for fireworks, but as she got older and learned more of the history and more about Juneteenth, her attitude has shifted as well. 

“Fast-forward now, and it’s very different,” she said. “Just from where we are as far as the United States goes and what’s been done and what we’re doing to other cultures, the pride isn’t there like it used to be before. I think it’s more of the Fourth of July being for fireworks if the kids wanna watch it.”

Husband Craig agreed. “July Fourth doesn’t really ring as anything special for me, and I appreciate the significance of Juneteenth more, because learning that as independence came, it still took a few years before that happened for everyone at that time.” 

Jacian Jones is 24 and sees no reason to celebrate the holiday. 

“Over time, I realized more and more what the holiday really was, and the fact that my people weren’t even free at the time. It’s like, what does that even have to do with me when my people were in bondage?”

Jones said it’s OK to use the time off from work to gather with family and friends for a cookout. It is a weekend during the summer, after all. 

“For the people who are still celebrating it, and you see everything that’s going on in America to this day, it’s like come on now. I need you to wake up,” he said. “You would think everybody would have a conscience and have the intellectual ability to see what’s going on.”

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