Frederick Douglass on Freedom

06/02/24 Black History, History

Hoosiers Reading Frederick Douglass Together

The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities started the program Reading Frederick Douglass Together to encourage groups to read and discuss Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” and explore freedom in America.

Douglass first gave the speech on July 5, 1852 at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Abraham Lincoln delivered this speech well before the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the 13th Amendment in 1865, which freed enslaved people. His words in The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro continue to resonate with Black citizens after more than 150 years, highlighting that not all were free at the time. The speech says in part,

“This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” And he asked them, “Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?”

Resources

If you are unable to attend a reading, you can find the text here. There is a printable tip sheet, discussion guide, and page of helpful resources. Watch this short video of five descendants of Frederick Douglass reading excerpts from his famous speech, which calls on people to reflect on America’s long history of denying equal rights to Black Americans.

Frederick Douglass, born into slavery in 1818, grew up to become a human rights activist, gifted speaker, and author. He also started a newspaper, served as a U.S. Marshal, and became the first African American to receive a vote for President at a major party’s convention during the 1888 Republican National Convention. (Benjamin Harrison, from Indianapolis, went on to win the presidency in 1889.) He lectured on civil rights and abolition and also supported Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and Susan B. Anthony in their fight for women’s suffrage. He published his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, in 1845. It it the first hand account of his childhood as a slave. You can read it here.

More Reading:

• National Museum of African American History & Culture: Our American Story – Frederick Douglass
• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center: Frederick Douglass
• IUPUI: The Frederick Douglass Papers
  This collection at IUPUI in Indianapolis edits and publishes the speeches, letters, autobiographies, and other writings of Frederick Douglass. Their website helps both beginners and those seeking to explore thousands of documents from Frederick Douglass’s lifetime.
• Library of Congress: Frederick Douglass Papers
  This is another collection of Douglass documents. It includes a diary about a trip he took to Europe and many other writings about racial prejudice, civil rights, and prison reform.
• Smithsonian Article June 30, 2020: What Frederick Douglass Had to Say About Monuments
• The Frederick Douglass Book Prize is an annual award given to the most outstanding non-fiction book on the subject of slavery, resistance, and abolition. The 2020 winner has not been announced yet but here are three recent winners: Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War’s Slave Refugee Camps by Amy Murrell Taylor, 2018 Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits by Tiya Miles.

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Visit the Center for Black Literature & Culture at Central Library to find and check out books that affirm and celebrate the Black experience.

The CBLC includes a section just for kids. Every book taken off the shelf, both fiction and non-fiction, features Black characters or historical and contemporary people that highlight the Black experience, history, or biography.