Frederick Douglass and the 4th of July

Frederick Douglass

The timing was right in our American Literature course last week.  On the last day we met prior to the holiday weekend, the class was ready to discuss the last section of Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.  We were able to broaden our conversation, fittingly, to incorporate Douglass's powerful speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July." 

Douglass spoke in 1852 in front of a massive audience in New York, an audience of Black and white individuals.  Invited to deliver a speech on the occasion of national celebration, Douglass took the US, and white society, to task in a scathing critique.  He states, "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.  You may rejoice, I must mourn.  To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony." 

Students listened to an audio file of James Earl Jones performing the speech, and I had to smile as their eyes got bigger and bigger with each moment.  Many had previously mentioned their respect and admiration for Douglass based on his narrative, but reading and listening to this speech moved students to truly consider the courage evidenced by Douglass, as well as the danger in delivering such a speech.

When most folks are celebrating the usual suspects of founding fathers, many of whom willfully enslaved peoples of African descent, I hope students are also thinking about the contributions and bravery of those named heroes such as Frederick Douglass, and the multitudes of unnamed enslaved and free Black men and women who fought for freedom.