"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"

PBS Africans in America Web site ^ | 1852 | Frederick Douglass

[ArcLight]

At the risk of offending some here, I must post one of the great July 4 orations in US history. This bold, radical speech should be taught in every school in the land.

[Calpernia]

I too am from a slave family. I'm not of the founding fathers. I celebrate the 4th of July. What other land would we find these freedoms?

[plain talk]

Thanks for the post. What I like about this is the sense of proportion stated. That, yes, great injustices like slavery, were a stain on our country's history but that, when all is said and done, only a great country founded on solid principles could overcome these injustices, correct them and move on. (Well, at least, some of us have moved on.)

[MHGinTN]

When I saw the title of the thread, I clicked on it excpecting to find some dissonance contrived by democrats to divide the people along racial lines. What I found was one of the great speeches in our national history. If humankind begins again to smirk at high ideals, what then will pull upon our boot straps, to lift us from our paganhood?

[gitmo]

I have no idea where my family came from. But the founding of this nation established the freedoms we enjoy today regardless of our ancestry.

[Calpernia]

I think I'm lost. I shouldn't celebrate 4th of July because my gramma was a sharecropper?

[Knightsofswing]

My family [mother's side] came here as indentured servants [slavery by another name]from Ireland [sorry about the spelling]. But by the Lord God Almighty I am am an American[native born too]

[Calpernia]

Bump! My Gramma (Momma Nome), Great Aunts and Great Uncles (her siblings) where sharecroppers in Capri. Momma Nome and one of her brothers were the only ones that made it here.

[headsonpikes]

Bravo!

A moving speech, indeed.

[Wonder Warthog]

"At the risk of offending some here, I must post one of the great July 4 orations in US history. This bold, radical speech should be taught in every school in the land."

Whatever for?? What did Douglass have to say on any July 4th AFTER the Civil War??

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I bet MLK is rolling in his grave right now, and Jesse Jackboot should get a copy of this.

[MHGinTN]

Well, I don't know about that, but we all ought celebrate the fourth because we now possess the greatest nation in the history of humankind! ... The question is, will we continue to raise the right standards, or sink back into pagan selfishness?

[MoJo2001]

My family has never been enslaved. That's why I find it most offensive for certain segments of the minority population pushing for slave reparations.

Our country will heal the racial divide when racial profiteering has ended.

I celebrate the Fourth Of July because I'm an American and damn proud not be a member of any other country. That's it. It doesn't matter what color skin you have or don't have. If you are proud of America, you will honor her no matter what. That's the essence of America.

[Beth]

My family and I are immigrants. We're proud to now call ourselves Americans! There is no other country like it on earth. May God protect her and bless her!

[William McKinley]

Our founding fathers were not all sweetness and light with their speeches either. This is an outstanding speech, which I am adding to my bookmarks.

Happy 4th- and may the sins of the past be overcome for all Americans.

[satan]

Do the descendants of those who returned to Africa to found Liberia wish they could celebrate the 4th of July?

[William McKinley]

No. I think it means that you should remember that the battle for liberty did not end with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

[SamAdams76]

Don't see how you could offend anybody with that. A great speech by a great man. Taken in the context of the times (1852) in which it was given, the speech rings true. Black Americans had little to celebrate on July 4, 1852. And the United States was already splitting apart over the issue. At that time, we were only two years away from the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise), which set events in motion that ultimately led to the Civil War of 1861-1865 - the bloodiest war in American history.

Today, slavery is a distant memory and racism is on its way to being one (if only the liberals would quit trying to keep it alive). Black Americans are at last on more or less equal footing with their white counterparts. While we can't go back in time and set things right with what was done with their ancestors, I would think that black Americans are for the most part thankful that their ancestors were brought over here to the United States instead of being left in Africa, which even today is a third-world cesspool for the most part.

[Calpernia]

OH! I didn't follow your point! Of course, ALWAYS raise the standard!

It is easier to regress than progress! NEVER GET COMPLACENT!

Happy 4th my friend.

[rdf]

Thanks, great post

Richard F.