Fellow citizens, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? In his fiery July 5, 1852 speech, known … Continue reading The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro: 4th Annual Communal Reading of a Lecture by Frederick Douglass