Newburyport Hosts Reading Of "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July"

WBZ NewsRadio's Kendall Buhl reports.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Considered not just a seminal address in the abolitionist movement,
but one of the greatest orations in American history. Frederick
Douglas is what to the slave is? The fourth of
July wasn't delivered on the holiday itself.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
He refused to give it on the fourth of July.
He didn't feel the holiday was for him or for
other black people in this country.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Kristin Phiale Harper's among the dozens of volunteers who together
read in a bridge version of the famous speech at
the statue of douglas Frenemy Newburyport abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Afterwards,
a discussion led by civil rights history and professor Jason
Sokel says there's a power in reading the words aloud.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Words on a page are one thing, they're magical themselves,
but people read a speech like this together. The collective
part of the endeavor is I think what's meaningful and impactful.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
It's the event's eighth year, and organizers say that with
Douglas's words on inequality is relevant today as they were
one hundred and seventy three years ago. The tradition will
continue from Newburyport kettlebyll do you busy? Boston's news radio