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


  • Our ‘democracy’
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Our ‘democracy’
    23 Jul 2021
    Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who Pay nothing for water washing their waste to sewage 
  • The Conspicuous Absence of Derrick Bell—Rethinking the CRT Debate, Part 1
    Patrick D. Anderson
    The Conspicuous Absence of Derrick Bell—Rethinking the CRT Debate, Part 1
    23 Jul 2021
    Bell levels a class critique against the Black bourgeoisie, whom he sees as having led Black political protest down the wrong path time and time again.
  • Memo to France as Its Soldiers Leave Africa: “Get Out and Stay Out!”
    Mark P. Fancher
    Memo to France as Its Soldiers Leave Africa: “Get Out and Stay Out!”
    22 Jul 2021
    French bullying of Africa has been driven entirely by self-interest and greed.
  • BAR Book Forum: Matthieu Chapman’s Book, “Anti-Black Racism in Early Modern English Drama”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Matthieu Chapman’s Book, “Anti-Black Racism in Early Modern English Drama”
    22 Jul 2021
    This book analyzes Early Modern English Drama as a form of cultural production in which the paradigm of Early Modern England was shifting to account for encounters with black Africans.
  • BAR Book Forum: Julia Rose Kraut’s “Threat of Dissent”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Julia Rose Kraut’s “Threat of Dissent”
    22 Jul 2021
    Ideological exclusion and deportation from the United States, and how they has been consistently used as tools of political repression.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us