While Americans broadly view the anniversary as a time for unity, Black respondents were significantly more likely to say the country has yet to fulfill its promise of equality and justice.

I thought about that recently while listening to speeches celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary, watching politicians wrap themselves in flags and founders, and hearing Michelle Obama stand before thousands at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center and describe it as "a living testament to the power of choice" and "an urgent call to go out there and do it again."

But for many Black Americans, the anniversary has become something else entirely. Rather than celebrating 250 years of freedom, they are asking whether the nation has fully delivered on promises made in 1776 while millions of Africans remained enslaved and generations of their descendants continued to fight for rights guaranteed to others.