America's 250th Anniversary: A Moment of Celebration and Self-Reflection
- The First Experiment in Peace: Lessons from the Iroquois Confederacy
- The Declaration of 1776: A Global Message of Equality and Liberty
- Constitution and Democracy: The Foundation of Modern Statecraft
- From Slavery to Civil Rights: A Long Struggle
- World War II: The Decisive Battle Against Fascism
America's Contributions to Science, Art, and Literature
On July 4, 2026, the United States will mark its 250th anniversary. Discover which historical achievements warrant pride and which tragedies demand introspection—a deep examination of independence, the Constitution, racism, and global intervention.
What Americans should celebrate and mourn when the US turns 250 on July 4th 2026
By Justice Markandey Katju
Americans should celebrate :
1. The creation of the Iroquois Confederacy which brought peace to the long warring 5 tribes among the Iroquois, and showed that peace, not war, is the way to prosperity.
2. The Declaration of Independence in 1776, which declared that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, a declaration which was the first of its kind, and inspired the whole world, being followed soon thereafter in the Declaration of the Rights of Man in the great French Revolution of 1789.
Its language was even used by the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh on 2nd September 1945, in declaring Vietnamese independence
3. The creation of a Constitution in 1791, the first written Constitution in the world, which provided for democracy, the separation of powers between the organs of the state ( so that all power should not be concentrated in a king or dictator ), a Bill of Rights of the people, etc
4. The Emancipation Proclamation by the great US President Abraham Lincoln, the abolition of slavery by the 13th Constitutional Amendment, the decision of the US Supreme Court in Brown vs Board Education, 1954 ( overturning the devious decision in Plessy vs Ferguson, 1896 ), the brave sole dissent of Justice Harlan in Plessy who said that the Constitution was color blind, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
5 The fight against fascist countries in the Second World War
6. America's great contributions in science, technology, art and literature
Americans should mourn the following :
1. Almost total genocide of native Americans by the whites ( at one time, the going price of a Red Indian or native Americans scalp was two dollars ), and driving the survivors into concentration camps, euphemistically called reservations
2. The Dred Scott v Sandford decision of the US Supreme Court in 1857 which held that blacks are not US citizens and had no rights
3. Continuing oppression of blacks after the Civil War, by Jim Crow laws, the KKK, etc despite legal abolition of slavery
4. The Plessy decision of the US Supreme Court in 1896, which enunciated the devious 'separate but equal' doctrine, which legalised racial segregation in America for decades
5. The conversion of Latin American countries into US neo-colonies by the Big Brother policy, which enabled US companies to loot the natural resources of Latin America. Attempts by Latin American countries e.g. Chile, Gautemala, Nicaragua, Grenada etc to assert their independence were crushed by US troops or local US agents like Gen Pinochet
6. The unjustified wars and invasions of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc causing millions of deaths of the people of those countries, and the present war against Iran, which has caused deaths to many including 165 schoolgirls, and went contrary to President George Washington's wise advice to the American people in his Farewell Address in 1796 on completing his second term as President, that America should peacefully trade with foreign countries, not make war on them
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)
