This episode is brought to you in part by the 2023 Holiday Gift Guide for Book Lovers from CT Creative Studio.

We invite you to choose an adventure for each person on your gift list. This guide holds the perfect

text for every reader. Visit Christmas Gift Buying guide.com to browse our books. This is Pass the Mic. Hey folks, this is Jammar Tisbee

and welcome to a special episode of Pass the Mic.

Every year around the 4th of July, thoughtful people, historically informed people,

racially conscious people, start thinking about the meaning of the 4th of July

for all people in America. We can think back to the Declaration of Independence

and its lofty words about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, knowing full

well that in 1776, not all people were free not all people had their

liberty and at the same time certain people in the United States were

declaring their independence from Britain there were were people of African descent held in chains.

Women had hardly any of their civil or human rights, Native Americans constantly being pushed

off of their land and massacred.

In so many ways, this was not a land of opportunity for everyone.

And few people have encapsulated that tension and that contradiction better than Frederick Douglas.

A formerly enslaved black man who emancipated himself, he went on to become an abolitionist,

and a statesman, and an outspoken leader in the Black Freedom

Struggle and indeed the American struggle for justice.

In 1852 he gave an address called What to the Slave is the 4th of July.

Now, many of you have probably heard of this speech by now, maybe have listened to or read an excerpt, but if you're like me and many other people,

you maybe don't have time to sit and read the entire thing all the way through, or even

to watch some of the many dramatizations on video.

...