“This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”
Frederick Douglass said these words during his oration entitled, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” With this sentence, Douglass establishes two entities — the slave and the free man — and while the two are often associated within the context of Civil War America, the racial implications of their relationship are still very relevant today. Douglass’ words should not be written off as a quote from history, but should be revived and understood as representative of the racism that Black Americans still continue to face today, especially as it relates to controversies around Confederate statues.
In his oration, Douglass depicts the irony of the Fourth of July — how a day that represents America’s independence can make some feel especially unfree. While it is a day that warrants gratitude from the perspective of a white man, for a former slave, there is the burden that comes with being considered “free” but simultaneously excluded from the privileges that free white men exercise. At the time, Douglass elaborated on his feelings by explaining, “I am not included within the pale of [this] glorious anniversary.” He uses the duality of the word pale to insinuate both the group of people who do celebrate and the whiteness that deems them worthy of the privilege.
However, Douglass tactically included a positive change in tone, saying, “the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young … a mere speck in the life of a nation.” He elicits the young age of America to insinuate that its destiny is not fixed. Rather, time poses an opportunity to change the racial narrative of the United States as opposed to cementing the current inequality that defines it.
America may no longer be 76 years old, but Black Americans still face a lot of the same unjust violence and racism they were subject to then. Moreover, the Fourth of July is not the only controversial historical symbol that must be addressed. In modern-day America, Confederate statues from the Civil War have become a major point of contention. These statues that glorify Confederate figures distort history and glorify people who defended slavery and secession. Therefore, many have argued for the removal of these statues to eliminate the painful reminder of the past institutionalized racism that defined the United States. Furthermore, racism continues to be perpetuated by those in opposition to the removal of the monuments.
Amid attempts to remove and take these statues, which are symbols of the pain and suffering, some, including former President Donald Trump, have tried to thwart these efforts. In 2020 Trump tweeted, “I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other federal property in the [United States] with up to 10 years in prison.” Not only does this kind of thinking allow the racial implications that fuel archaic racist ideals to persist, but it justifies Douglass’s answer to his own question — “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer — a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”
Douglass highlights that despite the admirable ideals of freedom that the nation’s founders established, there is palpable hypocrisy in that this is the same nation that endorsed slavery. Promoting the preservation of Confederate monuments represents the same hypocritical principle. The advocacy for the monuments’ protection normalizes sentiment that segregates Black Americans from white Americans. It legitimizes this racist thinking and conveys the message that what these statues stand for is valid. Douglass argued that although former slaves gained citizen status, Black Americans were still not entitled to the benefits of being white. He rhetorically asks, “Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” The legal and political inequality with which Douglass is concerned has not been left behind, but has persisted.
Douglass concluded his speech with the words, “For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.” Modern-day issues make evident that the racism that Douglass spoke of in 1852 still festers beneath America’s image of freedom today, placing the equality and liberty that the nation was founded upon further and further out of reach.
Julia O’Reilly is a sophomore majoring in biological sciences.