[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I disagree with the idea that the fourth of July was just "Co-Opted, rather, it was celebrated because of its association with freedom. The source article for Ms. Gershon's article was written by Brian Page and is located in:

Tennessee Historical Quarterly Vol. 58, No. 4 (Winter 1999), pp. 284-301 (18 pages)

In view of the historical vandalism that is going on around us its worth reading Mr. Page's well researched article to get a feel for Black freedman activity prior to Democrat instituted Jim Crow laws.

In addition a discussion of the Fourth of July, it depicts an organized and active American black community and documents Freedman benevolent societies and organizations an postwar pre-Jim Crow south. (Includes a positive Nathan Bedford Forrest reference for those intrested!)

Here is a direct link.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/42627498?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

Info on online publisher, JSTOR:

"JSTOR Daily is an online publication that contextualizes current events with scholarship. Drawing on the richness of JSTOR’s digital library of more than 2,000 academic journals, thousands of monographs, and other materials, JSTOR Daily stories provide background—historical, scientific, literary, political, and otherwise—for understanding our world. All of our stories contain links to free, publicly accessible research on JSTOR."

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

(Off to do errands and chores, etc.)