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Reading Frederick Douglass Together grants of up to $2,000 support public readings and discussions in Massachusetts of the orator’s famous address, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Reading Frederick Douglass Together grants support public readings and discussions in Massachusetts of the orator’s famous address, “What to the
Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Readings can take place anywhere, from community centers to historical societies to town greens. At each event, people take turns reading parts of the speech until it is completed. Each community considers the meaning of the speech in the past and its resonances in the present.
All nonprofit, educational institutions, government organizations, or state or federally recognized tribes that serve Massachusetts residents are eligible to apply.
Ad-hoc groups must find an eligible organization to be their fiscal sponsor. Fiscal sponsors are non-profit organizations that manage the grant funds and have signed fiscal sponsor agreements with the group that will host the reading.
| Application Deadline: | Grants Announced: |
| January 5, 2024 | January 22, 2024 |
| February 2, 2024 | February 19, 2024 |
| March 9, 2024 | March 18, 2024 |
| April 5, 2024 | April 22, 2024 |
| May 10, 2024 | May 28, 2024 |
| June 7, 2024 | June 17, 2024 |
View our Reading Frederick Douglass Together resources page.
Read the history of the Reading Frederick Douglass Together program.
local public readings, gather with your neighbors, and read the speech out loud from start to finish.
about the shared reading tradition and the power of gathering your community to reflect on historical texts
new ideas about the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass while discussing current civic issues.
opportunities for yourself and others to bridge the past and present.
Relive moments from our first shared reading of 2024, which took place at the UMass Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts.
Inspired by a visit to a correctional facility in 1995, writer Earl Shorris started a course with faculty of fellow scholars at the Roberto Clemente Family Guidance Center in the city’s Lower East Side neighborhood. Graduates of that first course went on to become dentists, nurses, fashion designers, and drug counselors with two participants later earning their PhDs. Since 1996, over 10,000 students have benefited from the Clemente Course in the Humanities. Classes continue to take place across the U.S., and around the world.
In 1999, we brought the Clemente Course to Massachusetts to give everyone, regardless of race, income and educational background, the opportunity to enrich their lives through the humanities. Overcoming formidable obstacles such as economic instability, health challenges, family responsibilities and disability, we have seen over 750 Massachusetts residents graduate from the program.
Mass Humanities hosts periodic webinars and workshops to support you and set the stage for a successful funded project.
Mass Humanities
66 Bridge Street,
Northampton, MA 01060
Mass Humanities
66 Bridge Street,
Northampton, MA 01060