Mass Humanities invites you to join us for the premiere of a new filmed reading of Frederick Douglass’ speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” on June 29, 2022 at 6:30pm ET. The virtual event is free.
Since 2009, Mass Humanities has supported public readings of the speech through our Reading Frederick Douglass Together program. There are 24 events scheduled across Massachusetts in June and July.
This year, Mass Humanities gathered voices from around the Commonwealth to read from Douglass’ speech. Participants include Henry Louis Gates, Annette Gordon-Reed, Lee Pelton of the Boston Foundation, State Senate President Karen Spilka, Consul General of Ireland Laoise Moore, National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Shelly Lowe, Congressman Jim McGovern, King Boston's Imari Paris Jeffries, Danielle Allen, GBH’s Callie Crossley and Phillip Martin, former Red Sox player and NESN analyst Sam Horne, and many of the partners who host the annual readings.
