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VIDEO: Frederick Douglass' Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth Of July' Speech

NPR
NPR

[embed]https://youtu.be/NBe5qbnkqoM[/embed]

 

The U.S. celebrates this Independence Day amid nationwide protests and calls for systemic reforms. In this short film, five young descendants of Frederick Douglass read and respond to excerpts of his famous speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" which asks all of us to consider America's long history of denying equal rights to Black Americans.

A text version of the full speech is available here.

This video was inspired by Jennifer Crandall's documentary project "Whitman, Alabama". Visit whitmanalabama.com.
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