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In the summer of 1852, Fredrick Douglass was asked to give a speech for the nation on the Fourth of July. Douglass took this opportunity as a chance to voice the hypocrisy of celebration American freedom when many Americans were not yet free. In his speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July," Douglass noted that patriotism for the captive man seems nothing more than mockery. For Douglass, celebrating the Fourth without recognized the millions held in slavery is a great injustice. He states, "Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them."
I agree with Douglass that celebrating independence is a mockery to those enslaved by the nation that guarantees in its very constitution their freedom. I also believe that the hypocrisy of our nation did not with Douglass. It is, in fact a much more deep-rooted injustice now. The pain of slavery and segregation could not be so easily relinquished with an amendment to the constitution. To can the hearts of others is a much more difficult feat.
"Oppression makes a wise man mad," said Douglass, and the sentiment reigns true today. Those who still face opposition because of the color of their skin may be growing impatient. Many of the men and women fighting for justice feel that equality must be taken now not by politely asking for it, but by demanding it. As it turns out, Douglass felt the same way. In his speech, Douglass cried for freedom, "O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake." Movements like Black Lives Matter have taken form under the notion that "enough is enough." The citizens of our nation are angry, and it is time for a change.
I leave you now with a final quote from Douglass' Fourth of July speech, in hopes that it will affect you as greatly as it did me, "Is this the land your Fathers loved,
The freedom which they toiled to win?/ Is this the earth whereon they moved?/ Are these the graves they slumber in?"