BigAngBlack ,
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Frederick Douglass
''What, to the Slave, is The Fourth of July''

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1852-frederick-douglass-what-slave-fourth-july/

July 5, 2024

If you haven't already, grab a sandwich and a drink, sit yo ass down and read the whole thing

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1/2

The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day, were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no matter how great the good to be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be calculated with as much precision as can be the course of the stars. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change! Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians.
But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct.
My subject, then fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slave’s point of view. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon,...

Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. This, however, did not answer the purpose. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn. Yet they persevered. They were not the men to look back.
ALT
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    BigAngBlack OP ,
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    1892
    Andrew Jackson Beard patents rotary engine ()

    1894
    George Washington ''G.W.'' Murray patents cotton chopper and seed planter

    1956
    Segregation laws on public transportation in Alabama ruled unconstitutional

    1975
    Arthur Ashe, 1st African American male to win men's single title at Wimbledon

    Cape Verde becomes independent

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    BigAngBlack OP ,
    @BigAngBlack@fosstodon.org avatar

    1827
    Emancipation Day, New York

    1969
    Robert Fitzgerald Diggs ''RZA'' born Staten Island, NYC

    1974
    Joe Lewis Thomas ''Joe'' born Columbus, GA



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    Joe

    Fitnessfoundry ,
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    @BigAngBlack @BlackMastodon @blackmastodon 📣🇺🇸Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (1951-2019), Civil Rights Activist and Humanitarian.

    Pass it on👇🏾
    “I'm begging the American people to pay attention to what is going on. Because if you want to have a democracy intact for your. children, and your children's children, and generations yet unborn we've got to guard this moment...this is our watch.”- Elijah E. Cummings🗳️

    DemocracyMattersALot ,
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    @BigAngBlack

    Such an amazing piece by an amazing man.

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    BigAngBlack OP ,
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    @DemocracyMattersALot
    And still so relevant

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