By Lynn Jones-Turpin | While most Americans celebrate freedom on the Fourth of July and many associate Black freedom with the emancipation of proclamation, Jacksonville veteran Allen Bird believes another date deserves national recognition.
Bird launched the inaugural National Citizenship Day on July 9 at A. Philip Randolph Heritage Park, Marking the anniversary of the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 – the constitutional milestone that established of birthright citizenship and guaranteed equal protection under the law. Held under the theme “Pride of Belonging,” the observance brought together community members to reflect on the generations who endured slavery, the Reconstruction leaders who secured constitutional citizenship for formerly enslaved people, and those that fought to make those constitutional rights a reality.
“For many of us, July 4 celebrates America’s freedom,” Bird said. “But July 9 represented the covenant that Black Americans full citizens under the Constitution. With the Fourth of July we remember the freedom but forgot the covenant.”
The 14th Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens and guaranteed every citizen equal protection under the law. Constitutional scholars have long described it as one of the nations most transformative, overturning the U.S. Supreme Courts 1857 Dred Scott decision, which had ruled that people of African descent could not be citizens of the U.S. Although President Lincoln’s Emancipation of Proclamation declared enslaved people in Confederate – held territory to be free beginning Jan. 1, 1863, it did not Grant citizenship or constitutional rights. Those legal protections came five years later with the ratification of the 14th Amendment.
“Recognizing this date enables us to truly recognize our citizenship as Black Americans,” Bird Said. The event included a reading from Allen Y. Bird’s book, The promise and the completion, along with inter-generational fellowship and discussion about the historical significant for Reconstruction and citizenship.
Bird said his long-term vision is to establish a week of national observances extending from Independence Day on July 4 through National Citizenship Day on July 9, creating a broader celebration of both America’s founding ideals and the constitutional expansion of those rights to formerly enslaved African Americans.
Organizers hope National Citizenship day will become an annual tradition, encouraging Americans to remember July 9, 1868, not only as a constitutional milestone but as the day the promise of America’s citizenship was formerly extended to Black Americans through the nation’s highest law.
“For us,” Bird said, “its about understanding where we belong in the American story and passing that knowledge on to future generations.”