On July 4, recognize the Black and Indigenous soldiers who helped win the Revolutionary War

The Fourth of July marks the declaration of America’s independence, and with it, the founders’ ambition to create a country defined by greater equality and opportunity for all. Of course, their vision of equality was woefully incomplete, in ways that are embodied by Juneteenth. That holiday, long celebrated by Black Americans, both commemorates Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and recognizes the 2½ years it took for the news of freedom to reach all enslaved Americans.