As the U.S. celebrates the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, some Black people across Northeast Florida question whether the country is living up to the ideals the signees evoked 250 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u2018All men are created equal\u2019<\/p>\n
Anthropologist Johnnetta Betsch Cole, a Jacksonville native who is president emerita of both \u00a0 Spelman College and Bennett College, has seen plenty over the last 90 years but no period as distinct as this, she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s not an overstatement that we are in a period right now, all over the United States of America, where freedoms that were declared for us are continuously being removed,\u201d Cole tells Jacksonville Today. \u201cThis is a period like nothing we have seen before. Have we seen struggle? Yes. Have we seen challenges to our civil rights? Yes. But, today, across our country, the very tenets of democracy are being chipped away.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Dr. Johnnetta Cole imparts wisdom on Community Foundation of Northeast Florida CEO Isaiah Oliver after the 2025 OneJax Humanitarian Awards on May 1, 2025. OneJax celebrated five community champions for their decades of advocacy, activism, volunteerism and public services during its 2025 Humanitarian Awards ceremony. | Photo by Will Brown<\/p>\n
Black people have been central to American public policy and freedom<\/a> since before July 4, 1776.\u00a0<\/p>\n An earlier draft of the Declaration of Independence contained a clause that decried slavery in the British colonies.<\/p>\n It alleged Britain\u2019s King George III \u201chas waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.\u201d<\/p>\n It was removed from the final draft.<\/p>\n South Carolina \u2014 a colony that was dependent on agriculture produced at forced labor camps \u2014 was among two colonies that voted against the declaration on July 1, 1776<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania was the other. Delaware was undecided, and New York abstained.<\/p>\n A day later, on July 2, 1776, 12 of the 13 colonies approved the declaration. New York, once again, abstained.<\/p>\n It was approved July 4.<\/p>\n Today, Cole says, the ethos that men like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Eldridge Gerry \u2014 for whom the term gerrymandering is named after \u2014 committed to when they signed is being systemically attacked in Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cContradictions are not new to us,\u201d Cole says. \u201cThomas Jefferson, who signed that Declaration of Independence, had enslaved people. Contradiction is a mild term to use. We, as a people \u2014 and I would say all marginalized people, whether based on their race, their gender, their sexual orientation, their religion, their age, their ability or disability \u2014 contradictions are not new to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Peacefully assemble and redress of grievances<\/p>\n Cole\u2019s sentiment has been echoed from many corners of Jacksonville.\u00a0<\/p>\n In recent remarks to Jacksonville\u2019s Daniel W. Perkins Bar Association \u2014 a bar association of primarily Black law professionals \u2014 federal Judge Brian Davis said, \u201cOur democracy is at risk.\u201d Last year, former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince, in remarks to the same group, questioned whether the tenets of democracy are being upheld.<\/p>\n Throughout the Jacksonville area, many Black residents are voicing concerns in private about what they see as the erosion of American democracy, the fracture of voting rights protections and attacks on civil liberties. Many of them declined to be directly quoted or identified in this story for fear of personal and professional repercussions.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the public policy professional who stays silent in public, after watching a colleague lose their job over criticism of Charlie Kirk \u2014 the conservative podcaster who had a history of racist and homophobic statements \u2014 hours after his death.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the recently naturalized citizen who is afraid after immigration raids on a Southside school where a third of the students are English Language Learners.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the longtime educator who quietly endures what they believe is the erosion of public education because they would like to maintain their pension after devoting more than three decades to Duval County Public Schools.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the activist who believes the Florida Democratic Party is marginalizing and ignoring Black voters, but says they mention these things only around trusted individuals.<\/p>\n Grace Wills says being a Black person in Jacksonville, in Florida and in the United States in 2026 is a constant battle with microaggressions.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerica was pretending before, we are not pretending now,\u201d Wills says. \u201cThis mask is off. The veneer of equality and the idea we are an example to the world has been removed.\u201d<\/p>\n ACLU Florida Executive Director Bacardi Jackson says the voting rights and civil liberties of Floridians are under attack.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody doesn\u2019t have to march or show up at the No Kings marches, but every single one of us must and can do something!\u201d Jackson said during a virtual town hall in May that focused on redistricting, voting rights and equal representation.<\/p>\n Last October, Jackson was the keynote speaker for the Jacksonville NAACP\u2019s Freedom Fund luncheon. In her remarks, she directly compared President Donald Trump to Britain\u2019s George III and asserted that Florida is a \u201cpetri dish of regressive policies.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside the Hyatt Regency, in front of members of the Duval County School Board, Florida Legislature and Jacksonville City Council, Jackson said the \u201cwe hold these truths\u201d clause in the Declaration of Independence are the most important words ever printed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not the 56 who make me proud to be an American; but, the unknown foot soldiers who help us understand the meaning of those words,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n Political power and who wields it<\/p>\n When the Florida Legislature approved mid-decade redistricting in April \u2014 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states are able to draw districts based on nonracial factors, including partisan advantages\u00a0\u2014 Jackson was among those who excoriated both the court and the Legislature.<\/p>\n Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 office drew Florida\u2019s new map \u2014 and shared it with FOX News before the Florida Legislature. The recently upheld map<\/a> could return Florida\u2019s congressional delegation to the type of one-party control not seen since the Jim Crow era.<\/p>\n Minority advocacy group Florida Rising\u2019s chief advocacy and political officer, Mon\u00e9 Holder, tells Jacksonville Today she was outraged but not surprised<\/a> that Florida seeks to redraw its congressional maps six years early.<\/p>\n Florida Rising, as well as the Florida NAACP, Dream Defenders and other voting rights organizations, filed an amicus brief<\/a> with the Florida Supreme Court hours after the 2026 maps were upheld.<\/p>\n Holder says Florida\u2019s redistricting discussion was another example of legislative policies that targeted communities of color. She has since filed to run for a vacant seat on the Jacksonville City Council.<\/p>\n Fifty years ago, Earl Johnson Sr. became the first Black person to lead the Jacksonville City Council. To this day, only four people have been voted council president \u2014 Sam Newby is one of them.<\/p>\n This month, Newby told Jacksonville Today he has mixed thoughts about the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t included in that at first. African Americans, we didn\u2019t get our freedom until over 150 years later,\u201d says Newby, who ran for his at-large council seat as a Republican.<\/p>\n At the same time, America is a country that allowed someone who grew up in poverty on 45th and Cleveland Street in Northwest Jacksonville to assume one of the most powerful positions in the city. Newby notes that his late mother, Mildred Brown, was once forbidden from shopping at May Cohens, the department store that was once located where City Hall stands today.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Jacksonville, we have come a long way; but we have a long way to go,\u201d Newby says. \u201cIt shows me that in one generation we come from not coming into a building, to her son having an office in the building.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Education, Newby believes, is the equalizer for people of all backgrounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the best country in the world, but we still have to understand there are challenges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pursuit of happiness?<\/p>\n The St. Augustine Art Association cultivated an exhibit, When In The Course of Human Events, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n More than three dozen artists shared their definition of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness through their photographs, their poetry, their paintings and other mediums.<\/p>\n Richlin Burnett-Ryan and her husband, Weldon Ryan, were among those who submitted pieces for the St. Augustine exhibit. Burnett-Ryan produced a mixed media piece that featured the Statue of Liberty and was inspired by immigration, civil rights and the end of slavery.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we think about how African Americans, Blacks, people of color were considered in this document, we were not considered whole,\u201d Burnett-Ryan says. \u201cThe 250th anniversary has its bittersweet moments because with the election of (President Barack) Obama, a lot of us thought, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s the country finally, finally living up to its creed.\u2019 But, with this contractive political system, it\u2019s a scary time to be living. Our son left the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Burnett-Ryan immigrated from Guyana as a child. Ryan immigrated from Trinidad & Tobago during his childhood. They live in Palm Coast.<\/p>\n The Ryans say the pursuit of happiness is getting further away for the generations that have followed them.<\/p>\n Data from the Federal Reserve backs up the Ryans\u2019 analysis.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Bacardi-Jackson-1024x576.webp\")
ACLU of Florida Executive Director Bacardi Jackson visits WJCT Public Media for an appearance on First Coast Connect on Sept. 11, 2024. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/May-11-Edward-Waters-University-graduation-23-1024x683.jpg\")
Former Jacksonville City Council President Sam Newby receives an honorary doctorate from Edward Waters University as the university held its 154th commencement on May 11, 2024, at the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts. The location was moved Downtown to accommodate the growth of the university\u2019s graduating class. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n