frederick douglass 1

Frederick Douglass, Image Ownership: Public Domain

..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 light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. ...
What would Frederick Douglass have to say almost 163 years after delivering his famous public speech in Rochester, New York before then President Millard Fillmore and other illustrious guests on why he could not, in good conscious, celebrate the fourth of July? Would his words still ring true today? If you have not read Douglass' speech, now is a good time to do so because his words resonate as clearly and strongly today in the aftermath of all that we have witnessed over the last six months in Ferguson, Baltimore, Charleston and other places that did not make national headlines. And, our collective post-traumatic stress syndrome as Black people extends back almost four hundred years.
Original Post: TUESDAY, 21 JULY 2015 15:17, insight news
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