Frederick Douglass' Descendants Excerpt His 'Fourth of July' Speech

In a special presentation for America’s Independence Day July 4, 2020, five young descendants of the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass read and respond to excerpts of his famous speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” delivered on July 5, 1852.

On Saturday, five of Douglass' descendants -- Douglass Washington Morris II, 20, Isidore Dharma Douglass Skinner, 15, Zoë Douglass Skinner, 12, Alexa Anne Watson, 19 and Haley Rose Watson, 17 -- recited excerpts from the speech in the video made with NPR.

In his speech, Douglass says:

"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."

It continues, both by Douglass in 1852 and by his descendants in the video,

"What, to the American slave, is your Fourth 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."

After reciting excerpts, his descendants responded to what they'd read.

The full text of the speech is here.

Douglass, a former slave who became a famous abolitionist, delivered the speech to the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society at Corinthian Hall in downtown Rochester.

Frederick Douglass statue in Maplewood Park near site of original speech and on sacred ground of the Underground Railroad.

Many years later a statue of Frederick Douglass (featured above) was unveiled in Maplewood Park. The location includes Kelsey’s Landing,” where Hariett Tubman, Douglass and other abolitionists helped slaves seek freedom in the north.

The Frederick Douglass statue was vandalized in the early morning hours of July 5 and may have to be replaced.

Stacey Abrams Assures Us She'll Be America's President Before 2040

Stacey Abrams made headlines Friday, saying she “absolutely” believed Americans would send a black women to the Oval Office in the next 20 years. The rising Democratic star with a 5-star supporter named Mike Bloomberg sat for an interview with Clare Malone of FiveThirtyEight.

“Do you think they’ll elect you?” Malone asked. “Yes. I do,” Abrams responded. “That’s my plan. And I’m very pragmatic.” Abrams was interviewed as part of FiveThirtyEight’s “When Women Run” project. 

Stacey Abrams came to AOC’s attention in 2012 when as Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, Stacey led the charge against the “fetal pain bill”. The assault on women’s reproductive health led by the Republican Tea Party was particularly agregious in Georgia where Rep. Terry England (R-Auburn) compared pregnant women carrying stillborn fetuses to the cows and pigs on his farm. According to Rep. England and his warped thought process, if farmers have to “deliver calves, dead or alive,” then a woman carrying a dead fetus, or one not expected to survive, should have to carry it to term.

Mississippi-born, Yale grad Abrams arrived in the Georgia House in 2006, serving as minority leader from 2011 to until she left to run for governor in 2017. Note that Abrams continues to fight the erosion of women’s reproductive rights and declining maternal health in America.

After accepting defeat in the 2018 Georgia Governor’s race — an experience she explores in her TED Talk, Abrams turned her eye forward with plans to launch a national voter registration project called ‘Fair Fight’.

CBS News wrote in mid-January 2020 that Abrams reported raising more than $14.6 million in the last half of 2019. According to a report filed with the Georgia state ethics commission, a single $5 million donation came from Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg was the single largest contributor to Abrams’ 2018 governor’s run, donating about $500,000 to her campaign. He also worked with her earlier in 2014 on her New Georgia Project. Bloomberg appeared in Atlanta Friday, January 10 at an Abrams Fair Fight symposium.