Monday, May 22, 2017

New Thing 140, New Thing Every Day: Read "What To The Slave Is The 4th Of July?" Speech by Frederick Douglass

As much as I have learned about Frederick Douglass over the years, I had never read one of his speeches, and this one really was powerful. One thing that struck me was the anger he expressed, and the fact that it was an incredibly gutsy for him to give it to what I am sure was an almost entirely white audience.

Here is a link to the speech (as well as some very cool information about Douglass) -- http://www.freemaninstitute.com/douglass.htm
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1 comment:

  1. Angie HullMay 22, 2017 at 7:03 PM

    One of my students wears all black on the Fourth to make clear what the Fourth means to her. She was one of the leaders in bringing the issues of race to light at MU, although she sharply disagreed with the hunger strike and strategies used by that group. Her family (sisters) all deck out with parties and red white and blue. They disagreed so much with her protests and leadership in 2015 that they refused to talk to her or come to graduation in May (again, despite not being a part of blocking the parade, or hunger strikes etc, but very much a part of educating people like me and others on campus). The fact that she had to make those choices at all because of how non-white, non-middle class students are treated in 2-0-1-5 is ... astonishing. Angering. Anyway thank you for sharing this. I need to read it.

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