Leaders from around Massachusetts read “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
As part of this year’s Reading Frederick Douglass Together events, Mass Humanities produced a virtual reading of Douglass’ speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Participants include, among others: Harvard University’s Henry Louis Gates and Annette Gordon-Reed, The Boston Foundation’s Lee Pelton, State Senate President Karen Spilka, National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Shelly Lowe, Congressman Jim McGovern, GBH’s Callie Crossley and Phillip Martin, Former Red Sox player and NESN analyst Sam Horne, and many others.
The video was produced in partnership with HEARD Strategy and distributed in partnership with The Emancipator.
Mass Humanities thanks all of the participants for the contributions:
L’Merchie Frazier – Museum of African-American History Boston/Nantucket
Keith Motley – Urban League
Melany LaRoe – Springfield Public Schools
Edmund Barry Gaither – National Center for Afro-American Artists
Callie Crosley – GBH
Danielle Allen – Author and Political Theorist
Daunasia Yancey BLM Boston
Liz Duclos-Orsello – Mass Humanities, Salem St. University
Leo Hwang – University of Massachusetts Amherst
Barbara Burgo – Cape Cod Cape Verdean Museum
Byron Rushing – Former MA State Representative
Sam Horn – Red Sox, NESN
Phillip Martin – GBH
Shelly Lowe – National Endowment for the Humanities
Lindsay Sabadosa – MA State Representative
Elijah Langston Floyd – Chicopee Public Schools
Justin Hurst Springfield City Council At-Large
Jerry Ayantola – Worcester Public Schools
Karen Spilka – MA Senate President
Henry Louis Gates, Jr – Author and Historian
Imari Paris Jeffries – King Boston
Michael Bobbitt – Mass Cultural Council
Jim McGovern – Congressman
Julia Meija – Boston City Council At-Large
David C. Howse – ArtsEmerson
Noube Rateau – Frederick Douglass Neighborhood Assoc., Brockton
Nancy Martin – Frederick Douglass Neighborhood Assoc., Brockton
Josh Garcia – Mayor of Holyoke
Yves Salmon-Fernandez – Mass Humanities, Southern New Hampshire University
Katherine Stevens – Mass Humanities
Cedric Arno – Music Mania TV
Wallace Johnson – Poet
Fran Smith – Partner, Boston Common Douglass Reading
Brian Boyles – Mass Humanities
Laoise Moore – Irish Consul General
Doneeca Thurston – Lynn Arts
Eleanor Lucia Yates – West Springfield Public Schools
Lee Pelton – The Boston Foundation
Crystal Valentine – Poet
Vanessa Unicorn – Worcester Clemente Course
Chika Offurum – PBS American Experience
David Harris – Douglass Program Co-Founder
Tre’Andre Valentine – Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
Annette Gordon-Reed – Historian
Juan Matos – Worcester Poet Laureate
Latoya Bosworth, PhD – Mass Humanities
Since 2009, Mass Humanities has supported readings of the speech in communities around Massachusetts.
