Descendants Read Parts of Frederick Douglas Speech.jpg

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.

With $6 million of support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen launches today food service operations at two NYC locations, with a plan to be functioning across 16 NYC Health + Hospitals facilities by Monday, April 27. According to the press release:

The collaboration will feed all NYC Health + Hospitals hospital, acute, and post-acute care staff plus additional personnel who have joined their ranks at these facilities, regardless of their department, discipline, or tour, seven days a week, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. from a uniquely designed grab-and-go "cafeteria." World Central Kitchen and NYC Health + Hospitals have strategized a variety of internal and external set-ups tailored to each individual facility's needs, ensuring that the highest safety standards are met, frontline workers experience little to no wait for meal dissemination, and that food is available to staff who work overnight shifts. The partnership aims to also meet workers' dietary restrictions with as little burden as possible.

Through its #ChefsForAmerica response to COVID-19, World Central Kitchen has been distributing 50,000 meals a day in the Bronx, Queens, Harlem, Brooklyn and New Jersey. The new partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies will allow World Central Kitchen to increase production at their meal distribution center at Hudson Yards and establish contracts with local vendors and restaurants to assist in providing thousands of additional fresh meals for the NYC Health + Hospitals staff.

In addition to supporting NYC’s hungry, exhausted healthcare workers, the initiative will allow some local restaurants to bring back employees in s first step to revive the ailing NYC restaurant industry. To offer your own financial support to the NYC, USA and global efforts of World Central Kitchen, click here.