by Kathie Malley-Morrison
“What, to the American person of color, is your 4th 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. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”
Substitute the word “slave” for “person of color,” and you have a verbatim excerpt from an invited speech (What to a slave is the Fourth of July?) by highly respected abolitionist (and former slave) Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852.
There has been growing recognition in the United States of the extent to which Douglass’s words continue to ring true. Injustice prevails. Millions of Americans have been and still are denied not just life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness but the common respect due to human beings and the basic fundamentals of a sustainable existence. For no reason other than the color of their skin.
Recognition of that reality has helped bring Douglass’s words back into prominence in an era when the evils of racism are thrusting themselves into our awareness daily. Indeed, it has become an annual event on the Boston Common. as well as in Brockton, MA, and elsewhere, to stage a joint reading of Douglass’s entire speech by members of the community. See, for example, this .
If you recognize the extent to which our country fails to live up to its highest ethical aspirations and obligations, please take some time this July 4 to read Douglass’s speech in its entirety. it’s available here .
Better yet, listen to this community reading in Brockton MA, where Douglass once lived, or this James Earl Jones reading.
Today’s fireworks should be in your own mind and heart, and should be aimed at living up to the promises of the Declaration of Independence. Become part of the dream Douglass envisioned as he ended his speech:
“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work…I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age….”