Tag Archives: Frederick Douglass

Impact of Douglass’ Speech on American Freedom

Posted on July 5, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On July 3, 2026, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley delivered Frederick Douglass’ iconic speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” in the House, commemorating its history 174 years earlier. Douglass critiqued American hypocrisy regarding freedom and slavery, ultimately expressing hope for the end of slavery, emphasizing the importance of recognizing Black history. Continue reading →

Posted in Race, History & American Society | Tagged Black Patriotism, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, history, literature, politics, Slavery, The Black Blood of Poetry, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? | Leave a comment

One Hundred Years of Black History

Posted on February 16, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My father was born the same month Negro History Week was announced, timed to Lincoln’s February 12 and Douglass’s February 14 birthdays. Nearing his centennial, he embodied Black history: North Carolina segregation, a segregated WWII Army, then migration to New York. He rarely spoke of it, but history and literature helped me understand. Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Memory & Personal Essays, Race, History & American Society | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Bard College, Bicentennial, Black Arts Movement, Black History Month, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Carter G. Woodson, Decisive Decade, Family, fathers, Fourth of July, Frederic, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, Growing Up, Kent State, Martin Luther King Jr., Negro History Week, North Carolina, raising black boys, Samuel Yette, Segregation, The Black Blood of Poetry, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch | Leave a comment

Happy Birthday to Black History Month!

Posted on February 7, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Black History Month is nearly 100 years old! Granted, it began as Black History Week, on February 7, 1926, and didn’t become Black History Month until February 10, 1976. My father, a Native Southern Son, was born in the same … Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society | Tagged Black History Month, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Civil War, fathers, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, Growing Up, Lost Cause, Martin Luther King Jr., Negro History Week, patriotism, raising black boys, segregated U.S. Army, The Miseducation of the Negro, W. E. B. Du Bois, What is the Fourth of July to the Negro?, World War II | 2 Comments

Happy Black History Month!

Posted on February 1, 2021 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Today, February 1, 2021, is Black History Month. Before there was Black History Month, there was Black History Week. Actually, then it was called “Negro History Week.” In 1926 (the year my father was born), historian Carter G. Woodson and … Continue reading →

Posted in Race, History & American Society | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Black History Month, Black History Week, Carter G. Woodson, Frederick Douglass, Negro History Week | Leave a comment

On this day in American History – July 5, 1852 — Frederick Douglass gives his famous speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Posted on July 5, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

One hundred and sixty-eight years ago today Frederick Douglass gave his famous speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Douglass was born into slavery in 1818, the product of a white male raping a Black woman. White … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged "paradox of the positive", #FrederickDouglassLifeMatters, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, BlackLivesMatter, Christiaen van Couwenberg, D. Waymer, Frederick Douglass, patriotism, R.L. Heath, Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, Slavery, The Rape of the Negro Girl, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? | Leave a comment

Happy Black Independence Day!

Posted on June 19, 2019 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States, a day more important to descendants of Africans than the Fourth of July. (Read Frederick Douglass’ classic speech, “What is the Fourth of July to … Continue reading →

Posted in Race, History & American Society | Tagged Black Independence Day, Civil War, Emancipation Day, Emancipation Park, Frederick Douglass, Freedom Day, General Gordon Granger, General Orders No. 3, Slavery, What is the Fourth of July to the Negro? | 1 Comment

Two Classic Speeches on Voting

Posted on October 31, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

With Election Day right around the corner, now is a good time to read or re-read two pieces, Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” given on July 5, 1852, and Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the … Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged Black Patriotism, Frederick Douglass, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., patriotism, The Ballot or the Bullet, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, Voting, voting rights | Leave a comment

Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” (July 5, 1852)

Posted on October 31, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with … Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged Black Patriotism, Frederick Douglass, Lynching, Slavery, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, Voting | Leave a comment

A New Paradigm – Elevating the Voice of Formerly Incarcerated People

Posted on May 7, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

With the recent launch of JustLeadershipUSA, Glenn Martin, President and Founder of JustLeadershipUSA, is looking to elevate the voice of Americans impacted by crime and incarceration, especially people who have been imprisoned, by positioning them as “informed, empowered reform partners.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, Research & Lived Expertise | Tagged 13th Amendment, Alex Haley, Alexis de Beaumont, All of Us or None, Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Blessed and Highly Favored: Memoirs of a Multiple Felon, But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry, But They All Come Back: Rethinking Prisoner Reentry, Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, Citizens Against Recidivism, criminal justice system, disenfranchisement, Elaine Bartlett, Era of Reentry, Exodus Transitional Community, felon disenfranchisement, formerly incarcerated people, franchise, Frederick Douglass, George Pataki, Glenn E. Martin, Great Society, Gustave de Tocqueville, Harvey Brown, incarceration, Jennifer Gonnerman, Jeremy Travis, Julio Medina, JustLeadershipUSA, leadership development, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett, Lyndon B. Johnson, Malcolm X, mandatory minimum sentencing, Mass Incarceration, Michelle Alexander, New York, On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France, Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, parole releasing policies, Piper Kerman, Richard Nixon, Rockefeller Drug Laws, slavery and imprisonment in the United States, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet, the glass ceiling, the green wall, The Life of an Ex-Con, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Theo Harris, United States, United States Supreme Court, war on crime, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? | Leave a comment

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Tag Archives: Frederick Douglass

Impact of Douglass’ Speech on American Freedom

One Hundred Years of Black History

Happy Birthday to Black History Month!

Happy Black History Month!

On this day in American History – July 5, 1852 — Frederick Douglass gives his famous speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Happy Black Independence Day!

Two Classic Speeches on Voting

Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” (July 5, 1852)

A New Paradigm – Elevating the Voice of Formerly Incarcerated People

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