This is Karen Hunter and welcome to the hub. On July 5th 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York,

a speech before the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society.

This speech is widely known.

It's got different titles and many people have taken portions of it and there's even an audio rendition of it by James Earl Jones by Morgan Freeman.

I'm going to play in this podcast the one by Danny Glover because Danny Glover has been at the forefront right now of the reparations movement in America and he's been an activist for justice and the rights of black people in this country.

Yes, Danny Glover, Mr., really a powerful, powerful activist.

So I'm going to play his version of this particular speech by Frederick Douglas,

which has many names, but I'm going to call it,

what is the 4th of July to the Negro?

That's what I'm going to call it because that's

basically what he is saying July 5th he delivered this it is a powerful oration that

expresses like what needs to happen here and why or a

ration that expresses like what needs to happen here and why as black Americans the 4th of July is an empty holiday. Yes, we have the day off

we will cook out a lot of us have picnics mmm we will have a lot of us have picnics.

Mm, we will have barbecues.

I said picnic on purpose.

There will be fireworks, bombs bursting in air,

because that's really what that is a rendition of bombs bursting in air, but it's an empty

holiday for black Americans because millions of us, our ancestors, were in bondage, while

the America that we know celebrated its freedom.

The freedom for black people in this country in America is Juneteenth,

which I talk about in an earlier podcast as I talk about Twitter and Blackbirds and what they did for Juneteenth. But for us and

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