US EditionThe Experiment Continues: Frederick Douglass’s Fourth of July Speech Still Matters
- Frederick Douglass delivered his speech 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York before mostly white abolitionists.
- Douglass gave the oration to confront how the nation betrayed its founding principles by perpetuating slavery despite the 1776 Declaration of Independence.
- In the speech, he praised the American Revolution and the Founders as wise men while condemning slavery and urging adherence to liberty and equality principles.
- Douglass expressed that the celebrations of Independence Day did not include African Americans and described the Constitution, when correctly understood, as a powerful document that stands against slavery.
- His speech remains a powerful critique and inspiration that challenges Americans to uphold justice and continue fighting for the nation's unfinished promise of freedom.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Living in chains on the Fourth of July
by Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson How does your celebration relate to me? Confined in a concrete box—can’t hear, can’t see My life is solitary How for me is this day honorary? Or let’s go back to its origin days … As your forefathers proclaimed freedom, mine were their slaves Centuries later our status ain’t changed Dark skin still in chains – ain’t that strange? As you shoot off firecrackers, fire your guns I’m reminded of my ancestors on the run Fleei…
Hanford Sentinel
The Experiment Continues: Frederick Douglass’s Fourth of July speech still matters
GUEST COMMENTARY: As we mark the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is crucial that we uphold its ideals and acknowledge its lofty goals have not been fully achieved.
Time Magazine
DNyuzWhat to the Immigrant is the 4th of July?
On July 5, 1852, over a decade before Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Frederick Douglass delivered a keynote address at an Independence Day event. “What, to the American slave, is the Fourth of July?” Douglass asked. “A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license;…
The Fourth of July should remind us how dearly bought our freedoms are: editorial
Two hundred forty-nine years ago today, sometime in the late morning of July 4, 1776, all 56 representatives of the 13 colonies meeting as the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia took the extraordinary vote unanimously adopting the Declaration of Independence. The colonies were no longer colonies subservient to the crown, but rather the “thirteen united States of America.”
July 4 and the long tradition of US protest
Over the last two and a half centuries people in the US have used July 4 to make their stand against injustice, inequality, and oppression, and demand their rights. From an infamous speech by Frederick Douglass to women suffragists demanding the right to vote, civil rights protests, and a historic farm workers’ march, today we look at moments of July 4 resistance. This is episode 55 of Stories of Resistance—a podcast co-produced by The Real News…
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