The life and works of Frederick Douglass continue to shape our understanding of America. In 2022, Mass Humanities invited leaders from across the Commonwealth to contribute to a new reading of “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Readers:
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. Find a RFDT event near you: https://masshumanities.org/programs/douglass/.
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Beautiful THANK YOU for the opportunity to allow me Puerto Rican woman to read this AMAIZING man. I am so honored Vanessa Unicorn
I missed the live reading, so I am thankful that it is available online. This was powerful and moving. I look forward to participating in a reading.