In the year 1852, Frederick Douglass was asked to speak on July 4th. This was in Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. He agreed to speak but insisted that he speak on July 5th rather than July 4th. He did not want to lift the 4th of July. He used the occasion to educate those present on how that which they were celebrating lifted them but increased the heavy weight on enslaved peoples.
Let's take a look at some passages of Douglass’ famous speech that has come to be known as "The Meaning of July Fourth to the Negro". For this moment "Negro" encompasses slaves, colored, Blacks, Africans, African Americans, etc. Originally the speech was known as "What to the slave is the Fourth of July".
I am going to get out of the way so that Frederick Douglass can speak through his own words. He was truly profound.
This Fourth of July is yours, not mine, you may rejoice but I must mourn . . .
Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice extended to us? Am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?. . .
I am not included within the pale of your glorious anniversary. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn . . .
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future . . . Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the Jubilee shouts that reach them . . .
America is false to the past, false to the present and solemnly binds itself to be false to the future . . .
There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia that which if committed by a Black man, no matter how ignorant he be, subject him to punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a White man to like punishment . . .
But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors . . .
You invite to your shores fugitives from oppressors from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them and pour out your money to them like water, but the fugitives from oppression in your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill . . .
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July. I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than any 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 denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty, equally hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgiving with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, imprudence 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 bloodier than the people of the United States at this very hour . . .
Everything that serves to perpetuate slavery – the great sin and shame of America! I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slave holder, shall not confess to be right and just . . .
For it is not light that is needed; but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake....
All I can say is that we must read the entire speech, discuss, digest, stand on it, and be lifted by it so we can see further, reach higher, and go farther. History either lifts us up or holds us down, so let us be lifted.
EPILOGUE – Some things make little or no impact. Other things make an impact in the moment. Still other things make an impact over time. Then there are things that make an impact in the moment that then grow over time. Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech was impactful then and continues to grow in impact to this day.
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