What Frederick Douglass’ ‘What To The Slave Is The 4th Of July’ Means Today

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Over 200 years after Frederick Douglass questioned “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” in an act of resistance to Independence Day, Black Americans are still grappling with how to celebrate freedoms and liberties that haven’t been fully granted to them.
Friday (July 4) marks Independence Day, a federal holiday that commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the birth of a free America from Great Britain. The