Frederick Douglass Statue Torn Down On Anniversary Of Famous Speech

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July 6th, 2020

A statue of the abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass, pictured here, was torn from its base in Rochester, N.Y., on the anniversary of his famous speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

AP

A statue of Frederick Douglass, installed in 2018 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolitionist’s birth, was ripped from its pedestal in Rochester, N.Y., on Sunday — the 168th anniversary of one of Douglass’ most famous speeches.

“Are the great principles of political freedom and natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” Douglass asked in his “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July” address on July 5, 1852, in Rochester.

“I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary!” the former slave declared in the speech to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. “Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.”

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