"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

More Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
Return to the Source: Democracy is Dead
20 Jan 2021
By what stretch of the imagination can the US be a democracy when ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does?
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Uganda: Bobi Wine Rocks the Vote but Museveni Claims Victory
20 Jan 2021
Ugandan pop star turned presidential candidate Bobi Wine is not Sankara or Lumumba, but he has risked his life to mount a fierce challenge to the 36-year dictatorship of President Yoweri Museveni.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
20 Jan 2021
Kristallnacht came casting lead ballots, overthrowing Black elected officials and Massacring those that VOTED for them— Wilmington, North Carolina, 1898;
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Casualties of the Old Cold War Should Inform Opposition to U.S.’ New Cold War against China
20 Jan 2021
The US share of the global economy has shrunk dramatically since 1
Flint Taylor and Jeff Haas
New Documents Suggest J. Edgar Hoover Was Involved in Fred Hampton’s Murder
20 Jan 2021
Newly released FBI files provide direct documentation that the FBI chief and other high officials were involved in the raid and the coverup that followed.

Related Podcasts

More Stories