James Earl Jones reads Frederick Douglass's July 4th speech

For America's 250th, I read Frederick Douglass’ speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” on the House floor—for the first time in history. His speech endures as a mirror & mandate for us all—to confront our inequities while fighting for an America as good as its promise.

What to the slave is the 4th of July? This was the woeful question of Frederick Douglass, one of the greatest Americans.

Just here to post this again like I do every year, not only because Douglass was one of the founding philosophers of American liberty but because I am so moved by the kids Frederick Douglass’ descendants deliver “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”

With Frederick Douglass being recognized more and more every day, was this the 2nd best 4th of July speech in U.S. history?

“The question comes in the tradition of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who in 1852 famously asked, ‘What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?’ (His answer included ‘mere bombast, fraud, deception and hypocrisy.’)”

Frederick Douglass’ ‘What to the Slave Is Your 4th of July? – July 5, 1852 A leading abolitionist delivers a broadside to those who celebrate Independence Day when so many remain enslaved

“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: 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.” Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852 🇺🇸

Frederick Douglass. This Fourth we celebrate his legacy and his role in the context of our country’s founding. Watch:

In 1852, when Frederick Douglass delivered his now-famous "What to the slave is the Fourth of July?" speech, he made a point to call out people who wanted to praise George Washington's emancipation of the people he enslaved without bothering to grapple with the persistent injustice of slavery. 🧵/1

“To no one was the world more beautiful or life more sweet. How then as I have said shall we explain his apparent indifference to life? I can find but one answer, and that is, his intense hatred to oppression.” Frederick Douglass on John Brown www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3...

From a marginalized standpoint, they combine love of and fierce belief in what America could be with stark recognition of the horror of what it is Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the 4th of July” is a classic example of this, fiery criticism and disappointment *because* we can do better

Frederick Douglass is great; there were also abolitionists who were even more skeptical of the Constitution at the time (and since.) which...I feel like both of those perspectives were valuable? how are they not both resources to draw on?

Annual reminder. 1/ "If we heed Baldwin’s call to listen to the testimonies of those who are unprotected by the law (or dehumanized precisely by the law), it leads us back to the powerful indictment of the U.S. that Frederick Douglass gave on July 5, 1852" truthout.org/articles/fre...

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." ~ Frederick Douglass

“What to the Slave is The Fourth of July?”: Annotated On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a Fourth of July speech that became his most famous public oration. daily.jstor.org/what-to-the-...