From
Democracy
Now:
In
a Fourth of July holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick
Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the
abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of
his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro."
He was addressing the Rochester Ladies Antislavery Society. This is actor James
Earl Jones reading the speech during a performance of historian Howard Zinn’s
acclaimed book, "Voices of a People’s History of the United States."
He was introduced by Zinn.
Sorry I didn't have time to hook up the reading of this speech. The speech itself is a good read. I'm fine with it.- សតិវ អតុ
Transcript
This is a
rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: In this holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick
Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the
abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of
his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro."
He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. This is James
Earl Jones reading the historic address during a performance of Howard
Zinn’s Voices
of a People’s History of the United States. He was introduced by
Howard Zinn.
HOWARD ZINN: Frederick Douglass, once a slave, became a brilliant and powerful
leader of the anti-slavery movement. In 1852, he was asked to speak in
celebration of the Fourth of July.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS: [read by James
Earl Jones] Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon
to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your
national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of
natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?
And 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 this glorious anniversary! Your high
independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings
in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance
of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is
shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life 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. 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. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by
asking me to speak today?
What,
to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to
him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to
which he is a 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 denunciation 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 that would disgrace a nation of
savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking
and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.
At
a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I
the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour forth a
stream, a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering
sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is
not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the
earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the
nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the
hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man
must be proclaimed and denounced.
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