Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

"What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" read by Ossie Davis
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
01 Jul 2022
🖨️ Print Article

Black Agenda Radio · "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" read by Ossie Davis

On July 5, 1852 Frederick Douglass was asked to speak on the topic of the nation’s independence celebration. Now known as "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?", the speech was a stinging indictment of slavery in the U.S., but the words are still relevant to Black people 170 years later. The late Ossie Davis read excerpts from Douglass’s remarks.

Slavery in U.S.
Frederick Douglass

Related Podcasts

Frederick Douglass
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
"What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" read by Ossie Davis
03 July 2024
As we grow closer to the Fourth of July, BAR once again shares
Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy
03 March 2023
Black Agenda Radio July 1, 2022
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio July 1, 2022
01 July 2022
We discuss reproductive justice in the wake of the supreme court ruling which overturned the Roe v. Wade decision.

More Stories


  • Michelle Obama Slanders Black Men in Her Book, Adds to the Obama Family’s Long Anti-Black Tradition
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Michelle Obama Slanders Black Men in Her Book, Adds to the Obama Family’s Long Anti-Black Tradition
    19 Dec 2018
    The Obamas are cashing in on their lifelong project to further the destruction of Black people, while blaming the victim.
  • The People v. The Information Monopolies: Case Continued
    Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
    The People v. The Information Monopolies: Case Continued
    19 Dec 2018
    Democrats failed to get enough votes to repeal the FCC’s undoing of net neutrality, but there’s still time to change some member’s votes.
  • BAR Book Forum: Julia Jordan-Zachery’s“Shadow Bodies“and Sabine Broeck’s “Gender and the Abjection of Blackness”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Julia Jordan-Zachery’s“Shadow Bodies“and Sabine Broeck’s “Gender and the Abjection of Blackness”
    19 Dec 2018
    Our authors examine how white feminism became “junior partner to enslavist capitalist patriarchy,” and how do we “resist silences that limit the span of democracy?”
  • This Radical Plan to Fund the ‘Green New Deal’ Just Might Work
    Ellen Brown
    This Radical Plan to Fund the ‘Green New Deal’ Just Might Work
    19 Dec 2018
    The US could finance a “Green” New Deal in the same way that it paid for the first New Deal, during the Depression – with public “banking” institutions.
  • “Green Book” – Not Our Story; His-Story, Their Fiction
    Wilmer J. Leon III
    “Green Book” – Not Our Story; His-Story, Their Fiction
    19 Dec 2018
    Hollywood does not hesitate to totally fictionalize, diminish and malign a Black historical figure, Dr Don Shirley, for its own white supremacist purposes.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us