‘Miscellany’ Archives
Beyond the 4th of July
Raise Your Voice By Peter Molenaar The 15th of every month is “alley time” for those who submit articles, yet the fire crackers persist late into the night”¦ disturbing little children and disrupting the sleep of workers. “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” is the title now given to a speech by Frederick Douglass, delivered July 5th, 1852. Has the image of Frederick Douglass been embedded in every mind? Wielding the stature of a George Floyd, Douglass”™ Native-American facial bone structure shown prominently through his African-American complexion. Having escaped the illiteracy of an enslaved childhood, he rose to become an eloquent orator and esteemed author of the day. Naturally, Wendell Phillips, our neighborhood namesake, was a friend of his. Sample some of Frederick”™s words: Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of [...]
