On Saturday, July 4th, Strategy for Black Lives partners with Warriors in the Garden in marching to end qualified immunity. Morally lacking and systemically destabilizing from its inception, qualified immunity has protected the worst offenders among the police for too long. While America celebrates its independence, we will march boldly in the spirit of Fredrick Douglas, who asked on July 5th, 1852, "What to the slave is the Fourth of July?" and answered, "To Him, your celebration is a sham." He recognized the cruel irony of celebrating a nation's liberty while that very nation held men in bondage. 155 years after slavery, Black people are still murdered relentlessly at the hands of the state. The state relegates Black students to segregated schools and imprisons millions of Black people through private corporations that profit off next-to-free labor. 155 years after slavery, we are not yet free.
We march on the Fourth of July to demand that our democracy, both national and local, live up to its professed ideals.
This day immortalizes the moment when the indignities, injustices, exploitation, and violence, became too intolerable, and fundamental change became necessary. Black America will not tolerate this knee on our neck. We march here in New York and from coast-to-coast, to create a nation whose Independence Day we can all proudly celebrate, knowing all people are created equal.
Who: Strategy for Black Lives, Warriors in the Garden
Where: 42nd Street and 5th Avenue
When: Saturday, July 4th, 12:00pm
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