#frederickdouglass — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #frederickdouglass, aggregated by home.social.
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People are asking me about the race problem.... I know of no race problem. The great problem that confronts the American people to-day is a national problem -- whether this great nation of ours is great enough to live up to its own convictions, carry out its own declaration of independence, and execute the provisions of its own constitution.
-- Frederick Douglass (1893)⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #FrederickDouglass #Americans #Racism #USConstitution
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Morning #Mists #Fogbow #LakeSantaFe #Florida
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On July 5th 1852, exactly 174 years ago today, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at Corinthian Hall here in #RochesterNY, at a gathering of the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. His words were blunt and honest, pointing out the hypocrisy about the laudable ideals of liberty and justice promised in the Declaration of Independence. He forced his audience to confront the truth, that the high-minded assertion that "all men are created equal", was NOT actually being extended to all.
The speech is known under the title "What to the American Slave is Your Fourth of July?" It is well worth reading again now, on this July 5th.
Here's the complete text of the speech, as published in a pamphlet at the time:
https://archive.org/details/Douglass_July_Oration/page/n1/mode/2up
And here are some central excerpts from the speech, read by some of Douglass's descendants: