This is but a mere fraction of one of America’s great speeches: I urge you to read “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July,” by Frederick Douglass, in its entirety. Many of its words are every inch as poignant in 2022 as they were in 1852. He celebrates the achievements of America’s founders, gives credit to their bravery and character when due, and calls us, the citizens of today, to more: “Fellow-citizens: above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.” He ends with a verse by William Lloyd Garrison: “God speed the hour, the glorious hour, when none on earth shall exercise a lordly power, Nor in a tyrant’s presence cower; But to all manhood’s stature tower, By equal birth! That hour will come, to each, to all, and from his prison-house, the thrall; Go forth Until that year, day, hour, arrive; With head, and heart, and hand, I’ll strive; To break the rod and rend the gyve; The spoiler of his prey deprive— So witness heaven! And never from my chosen post, whate’er the peril or the cost, be driven.” 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸