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July Fourth is held up as a day to celebrate the struggle for freedom and independence. But the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, himself a former slave and the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The North Star, dared to challenge the exaltation of the holiday. Here is part of his remarkable address to the Rochester (New York) Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society.
Danny Glover reads Frederick Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” (July 5, 1851) at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles, California on October 5, 2005.
Danny Glover reads Frederick Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” (July 5, 1852) from Voices of a People’s History on Vimeo.
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Holding Trump accountable for his illegal war on Iran
The devastating American and Israeli attacks have killed hundreds of Iranians, and the death toll continues to rise.
As independent media, what we do next matters a lot. It’s up to us to report the truth, demand accountability, and reckon with the consequences of U.S. militarism at this cataclysmic historical moment.
Trump may be an authoritarian, but he is not entirely invulnerable, nor are the elected officials who have given him pass after pass. We cannot let him believe for a second longer that he can get away with something this wildly illegal or recklessly dangerous without accountability.
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