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


  • From Palestine to Colombia: The End of the White World Colonial/Capitalist Project?
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    From Palestine to Colombia: The End of the White World Colonial/Capitalist Project?
    12 May 2021
    Despite the quickening decline of the “West,” the US and its junior partners in imperialism are determined to hold humanity hostage to terminal capitalist greed and violence.
  • The acrobats are back…(gimme a bleepin’ break!)
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    The acrobats are back…(gimme a bleepin’ break!)
    12 May 2021
    The acrobats are back—riding bareback and backwards on Donkeys! They’re back juggling hocus-pocus focus groups; Back, spinning Wall Street straw into fools’ gold for the war-
  • The USA – Immoral, Illegal, Irredeemable, and Irrelevantto Global Africa’s Liberation Struggle
    Mark P. Fancher
    The USA – Immoral, Illegal, Irredeemable, and Irrelevantto Global Africa’s Liberation Struggle
    12 May 2021
    The U.S. can never be reformed to render justice to its African residents. “Our struggle must have Africa at its core.”
  • Police and the License to Kill
    Matthew D. Lassiter
    Police and the License to Kill
    12 May 2021
    Detroit’s wanton killing of hundreds of Blacks in the civil right era shows why most of today’s proposals to make police more accountable are bound to fail.
  • BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    Tiana Reid
    BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    12 May 2021
    There was no way to make light of this daunting book and its effects on me, no matter how much I thought I knew it.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us