THE SOUTHERN TRUTH Take, Take, Take — America at 250: Freedom for Whom?
By Dr. Gloria Zuurveen, Editor-in-Chief
As America prepares to celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the question that must rise above the fireworks, flags, speeches, parades, and patriotic songs is this: Freedom for whom?
America calls this a celebration. But for Black America, Indigenous America, and all those whose ancestors paid the price for a freedom they were denied, this moment must be more than celebration. It must be examination. It must be confession. It must be truth.
Because from the beginning of this nation’s story, there has been a pattern that cannot be ignored.
Take, take, take.
Take the land.
Take the labor.
Take the names.
Take the language.
Take the family.
Take the wealth.
Take the rights.
Take the life.
Then turn around and ask the people from whom so much was taken to stand, clap, sing, salute, and celebrate.
But The Southern Truth must ask: what is freedom to those whose ancestors were enslaved? What is independence to those whose labor built a nation that denied them humanity? What is liberty to a people who still have to march, cry, protest, publish, preach, and demand justice when Black life is taken?
Frederick Douglass asked a mighty question in 1852: “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” His question still echoes across the land because America has yet to fully answer it. The nation has changed, but the contradiction remains. America celebrates liberty while too often denying justice. America praises freedom while too often protecting systems that take from the poor, the Black, the Indigenous, the voiceless, and the vulnerable.
At 250 years, America does not need another performance of patriotism. America needs repentance. America needs remembrance. America needs repair.
This is especially true when we look at what happened in Senatobia, Mississippi, where one-year-old Kohen Wiley was fatally shot during a police response at a Walmart parking lot on June 14, 2026. Public reporting states that police were responding to an alleged shoplifting call, and that an officer fired into a vehicle where baby Kohen was inside. His family and community have demanded transparency, including the release of body camera, dash camera, and Walmart surveillance footage. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has said a preliminary independent autopsy raises questions about the official account of how the shooting happened.
So again, we ask: Freedom for whom?
Freedom for whom when a one-year-old baby can lose his life in a police-involved shooting?
Freedom for whom when a mother is left grieving instead of holding her child?
Freedom for whom when a community must beg for footage, facts, accountability, and truth?
Freedom for whom when a family has to stand before cameras and plead for the world to see their pain before power will listen?
There is no firework bright enough to cover the blood of a child. There is no patriotic song loud enough to drown out a mother’s cry. There is no flag large enough to hide the truth when a baby’s life has been taken and a community is left asking why.
The death of baby Kohen Wiley must not be treated as another passing headline. It must be treated as a moral alarm. A baby’s life should be sacred in every city, every state, every courtroom, every church, every police department, every Walmart parking lot, and every corner of this country that claims to believe in life, liberty, and justice for all.
For all?
That is the question.
America loves to say “for all,” but Black people have had to fight for every word of that promise. We had to fight to be counted.
Fight to be free.
Fight to vote. Fight to learn.
Fight to live where we choose. Fight to own land.
Fight to publish our truth. Fight to walk, drive, shop, pray, work, protest, and simply exist without being treated as a threat.
This is why America at 250 cannot be a celebration without confrontation.
It must confront the taking.
Taking did not end with slavery. Taking took new forms.
It became Jim Crow.
It became redlining.
It became voter suppression.
It became mass incarceration.
It became economic exclusion.
It became police violence.
It became the silencing of Black voices.
It became the underfunding of Black institutions.
It became the disrespect of the Black press.
It became the loss of Black land, Black labor, Black businesses, Black opportunity, and Black life.
And now, in this present hour, we are watching communities still forced to ask the same old question: Who gets protected, and who gets taken from?
The Bible tells us in Psalm 24 that “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” That means no empire, no government, no corporation, no plantation, no politician, and no powerful institution can claim ultimate ownership over what God created. From Genesis, man was called to till the ground, to work, to steward, to care for what God provided. But takers turned stewardship into ownership, ownership into domination, and domination into oppression.
That is not divine order. That is disorder dressed up as progress.
When America celebrates 250 years, it must remember that Black America’s story is older than enslavement.
Our history did not begin in chains. Before there was a plantation, there was a people.
Before there was captivity, there was civilization.
Before there was forced labor, there was divine purpose.
Before there was America, there was Africa.
Before there was a lie, there was truth.
And after all the taking, Black America is still here.
Still praying.
Still publishing.
Still preaching.
Still organizing.
Still building.
Still remembering.
Still grieving.
Still rising.
Still demanding justice.
Still telling the truth.
So this Fourth of July, The Southern Truth does not say there is nothing to acknowledge.
There are ancestors who fought in wars for a country that would not fully fight for them.
There are Black soldiers buried under flags they were not allowed to enjoy equally.
There are Black mothers and fathers who believed in a freedom their children still had to chase.
There are Black communities that turned sorrow into survival and survival into strength.
But we cannot celebrate falsely.
We cannot celebrate amnesia.
We cannot celebrate a nation’s birthday while ignoring the babies, the mothers, the ancestors, and the communities still waiting for justice.
America at 250 must answer the question: Freedom for whom?
If freedom is real, then truth must be released.
If justice is real, then accountability must be public.
If life is sacred, then baby Kohen’s life must matter beyond a moment.
If America is truly free, then it must stop taking from those it has already wounded.
The Southern Truth says: tell the whole story. Release the truth. Honor the ancestors. Protect the children. Respect Black life. Repair what was broken. Stop hiding behind celebration and start walking in righteousness.
Because after 250 years, the people do not need more fireworks over injustice.
The people need freedom that is truthful.
Freedom that is accountable.
Freedom that does not take.
Freedom that restores.
Freedom for whom?
Freedom must be for the baby.
Freedom must be for the mother.
Freedom must be for the ancestors.
Freedom must be for the poor.
Freedom must be for the Black community.
Freedom must be for the people.
And until it is, The Southern Truth will keep asking the question.
