In a dramatic reading of a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852, the question of freedom is begged. While the nation celebrated its first Independence Day, more than 4 million human beings were still in bondage.
To Douglass, a man who liberated himself and who went on to become a staunch abolitionist, this hypocrisy could not go unchecked. Douglass delivered this 2,500-word speech before a group at the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. He asked, “What To The Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Danny Glover, an actor and social justice activist, embodies the spirit of Douglass in this video:
