July 5, 1852: Frederick Douglass delivers his “Fourth of July” speech.
The day after the United States celebrated its seventy-sixth Independence Day, abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass delivered an address to the Ladies of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. In this memorable passage, Douglass unleashed a blistering attack on the hypocrisy of his country and of the holiday itself:
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.
georgeharrisons-pointynipples:
John and George put the finishing touches on the dramatic ending of “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite.” 1967
How I feel about me going to see Roger Waters tonight.
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john cale, lou reed, patti smith & david byrne, nyc, 1976, ph bob gruen
