My family celebrated July 4 at North Park, a public park in Pittsburgh. For us it was a special holiday bringing together families and friends to enjoy badminton, swimming, and fireworks. I can still remember who made the potato salad and who grilled the hot dogs.

I don’t recall knowing the significance of Independence Day, but for us it was a day OFF.

My parents ran an economy-priced men’s clothing store in a small mill town called Ambridge, Pennsylvania. It was the home of the American Bridge Company, a division of U. S. Steel. I could stand on my front porch and watch molten steel being poured into large molds. Charles’ Men’s Store was open 6 days a week, and on Sundays we went to wholesale houses to replenish our stock. 

The Fourth was surely a day for our family to be independent from our work week.

By the time I was in my teens, I understood clearly that the Fourth was a celebration of our Constitution and our independence from England. For me, the Constitution meant that we as citizens had more rights than we had historically had. Certainly, something worth celebrating. We lit sparklers and decorated our lawns with flags.

My first year of law school included a course on Constitutional Law. Being one of only nine women students in a school population of 900, I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that the Declaration of Independence declared that “all men are created equal.” Not only was my professional school male-dominated but so was my country.

Later I learned that it also didn’t include any enslaved Africans nor indigenous people. 

Independence Day became increasingly complicated for me. 

Yes, the colonists fought for their natural right of liberty, but just for them, not for all of us.

When the Declaration was signed, millions of enslaved people were still in bondage, and many of the freedoms being celebrated were never extended to them.

Some have asked, should we celebrate Independence Day or apologize for it?

I believe July 4th can be a time for celebration, not of our Founding Fathers, but rather of leaders who have worked tirelessly to remedy the deficiencies of the Declaration.

In the Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton confronted a male-dominated society by using the language of the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” Stanton is to be celebrated. 

We also owe our gratitude for the Declaration of Black Abolitionists which declared the same sentiments. Frederick Douglass called July 4th “a day of mourning, an example of America’s hypocrisy.” He stated that the American people already knew enslaved Black Americans were entitled to liberty. “You have already declared it,” he reminded us. 

Virginia Minor, a St. Louis activist, is worthy of celebration. In 1867 she was a founder of Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri, the first political organization in U.S. history formed solely to secure voting rights for women. She attempted to register to vote in the 1872 presidential election. After being turned away, she sued the local registrar, taking her fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Her husband filed the lawsuit on her behalf, as married women were not permitted to file lawsuits.

Even though the Court ruled against her in 1874, it set a monumental precedent, establishing that while women were citizens, voting was not an automatic, inherent right of citizenship on the federal level.

This decision showed that the path for women’s suffrage would be through changing the laws, not challenging them in court.

The St. Louis suffragists should also be celebrated for their courage and persistence. They organized a highly visual protest called the Golden Lane during the 1916 National Democratic Convention. Over 3,000 women, dressed in white and wearing gold sashes, lined the streets leading to the site of the convention, the St. Louis Coliseum, holding yellow parasols. It was a silent “walkless, talkless parade,” designed to confront delegates and demand women’s inclusion in the party platform.

At a time when our Constitution is ignored by our national leaders, I celebrate the courageous judges who hold true to its principles. They are demanding that the rule of law be followed and staying the execution of our government’s actions that blatantly violate due process.

Most recently, leaders of both parties are reaching across the aisle to stand up for what they know is unlawful, the actions that cross the line of dignity and lawfulness.

Each of us has an opportunity to celebrate this holiday by speaking out where we see injustice, representing the defenseless and the oppressed, and by contributing our time and talent to groups that advocate for voter protection and immigration reform.

When we became lawyers, we took an oath to actively use the privilege of being members of the bar. We renew that oath every year on Law Day. Let us make this a law year that we can be proud of and celebrate.