The Negro - Black Editorials

28/07/2024

August is National Black Owned Business Month, so with that being said, please do find a black owned business to support this coming month of August.

04/07/2024

"What to the Slave is the 4th of July?"
- by Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852

Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too — great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.

Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. — The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can today take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!"

To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery Ñ the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look today, in the presence of Amercans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival....
..Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. — Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.

The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. "Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto God." In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:

God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.

God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.

God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant's presence cower;
But to all manhood's stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.

Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive —
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.

Douglass delivered this speech before a crowd in Rochester, NY on July 5, 1852. The poem at the end was written by famed abolitionist and colleague William Lloyd Garrison, and published on March 17, 1845 in the Signal of Liberty an anti-slavery newspaper.

24/06/2024

No matter what, trust and believe you can handle it this week!

Send a message to learn more

15/08/2023

Celebrating the culture!
Who was your fav rapper or group of all time?

07/08/2023

Why the chair called out from our ansestors.

The More You Know, The More You Grow!

On July 7, 1911 Nathaniel Alexander of Lynchburg, Virginia patented a folding chair with book table on the back.. According to his patent, Nathaniel Alexander designed his chair to be used in schools, churches, and other auditoriums.

https://www.thoughtco.com/nathaniel-alexander-folding-chair-4074172

13/05/2023

Good to hear about Jamie Foxx

25/04/2023

Titled: The Enduring Impact of Harry Belafonte on Black America: A Legacy of Music, Activism, and Social Justice"

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Harry Belafonte was a trailblazing singer, actor, and activist whose impact on Black America was significant and enduring. Belafonte's music, which blended elements of Caribbean and American styles, helped to popularize calypso and create a broader cultural understanding of Caribbean music in the United States. Belafonte was also an outspoken advocate for civil rights and used his platform to raise awareness of the struggle for equality and justice for black Americans. He was a close friend and supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and helped to fund and organize the civil rights movement through his foundation, The Belafonte Foundation.

Belafonte's commitment to social justice extended beyond the United States, and he used his fame to raise awareness of global issues like apartheid in South Africa and the plight of refugees around the world. Belafonte was one of the first black performers to achieve mainstream success in Hollywood, paving the way for other black actors and artists to break into the industry. He was also a pioneer in the television industry, hosting one of the first racially integrated variety shows, "The Nat King Cole Show," in the 1950s.

Belafonte's impact on black America can be seen in his influence on subsequent generations of black artists, including Harry's own daughter, Shari Belafonte, who has followed in her father's footsteps as a performer and activist.

Belafonte's legacy will continue to inspire social justice movements around the world, and will always remain a beloved figure in the black community, even after death. Harry Belafonte's impact on black America is a testament to the power of art and activism to effect change and inspire generations to fight for justice and equality

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08/07/2022

Love to see this with a company who is space focused, inclusion is important to helping uplift the overall community.

25/05/2022

The cycle sadly continues. We see things exposed;
Speak up for everyone to see the sad truths...
We even talk about making changing..., but Dang it man!
It's Such a shame, that times have changed,
But yet our realities still remain the same.

06/01/2022

This is a very fascinating story of the baby from Tupac's Brenda got a baby rap... This words of the baby 21 years later (2012) as he give his speech as Valedictorian of his college class of 2012.

momma - Brenda
baby - Ruben Gregory Jackson
daddy - uncle

21 years after Tupac documented the life and death of a young mother named Brenda, fans have been asking whatever happened to the baby born in in**st that she left behind. Thanks to social media we…

01/12/2021

Excellent!!!

Barbados removed Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and became a republic in a grand ceremony that started late Monday and included Prince Charles and Rihanna.

27/11/2021

Fifty years ago, the United American Indians of New England declared Thanksgiving a National Day of Mourning.

27/10/2021

Attorney Courtney Cox had been identified as the victim of a Wednesday morning shooting at a high-rise building located in Atlanta.

20/10/2021

LeBron James is putting in that work off the court to help build a brighter future thru his "I Promise" program. Respect!

09/10/2021

Nationwide — Chris & Roberta Holmes, the founders of The Black Home Shopping Channel streaming on Exposure Network TV, have announced that they are producing a new channel on the […]

06/10/2021

Be Great Today Because You Can!

28/09/2021

Learn More, Grow More, Be More.

Simply stated, Critical Race Theory, explains how the collective struggles of Black Americans are the result of systemic racism and not just "a few bad apples" or well-publicized racist incidents.

28/09/2021

Overcoming adversity to live and thrive in your black Excellence!

A Trailblazing architect . About him : https://www.npr.org/2012/06/22/155442524/a-trailblazing-black-architect-who-helped-shape-l-a

23/09/2021

You must always keep proper perspective of your place in time, so you can understand where we came from, and what is still ahead of us to keep fighting against to strive for a better tomorrow!

20/09/2021

What can happens when you pour into them early! !

Caleb Anderson, who just turned 13, is an aerospace engineering major instead of a seventh-grader.

17/09/2021

Dr. Sian Proctor is making history as the first Black woman to serve as a pilot of a spacecraft when SpaceX’s Inspiration4 Mission launches.

05/07/2021

This project was funded by the National Park Service. Principal Investigator Dr. Rebecca M. Joseph was formerly Senior Anthropologist, Northeast Region, National Park Service and is the author of this report. Research associates Brooke Rosenblatt and Carolyn Kinebrew are independent consultants. Rel...

18/06/2021

Speaking Truth with Opal Lee

In 2016, at the age of 89, former teacher and lifelong activist Opal Lee walked 1,400 miles from her home in Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., in an ef...

18/06/2021

How Corporate America is treating Juneteenth!

Major corporations are celebrating Juneteenth in unique ways this week.

01/06/2021

Discussion about the Documentary Tulsa Burning.

Your support helps us continue creating online content for our community. Donate now: http://www.92Y.org/DonateJoin directors and executive producers Stanley...

01/06/2021

Hate is a powerful thing... Know your history so that you are not doomed to repeat it!

Ahead of the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Trymaine Lee travels to the neighborhood once known as Black Wall Street, where residents say t...

01/06/2021

Know your history

One hundred years ago, on May 31 and June 1, 1921, white mobs in Tulsa, Oklahoma attacked the city’s Black residents and businesses in one of the worst incid...

26/05/2021

A Win for the community.

Clarke will be the first woman, and first Black woman, to run the powerful division created in 1957. Every Republican but one voted against her.

04/03/2021

23/01/2021

The power of information... Excellent podcase right here! please listen and share this post to help other be empowered!

Marcus Barney aka Him 500 has established himself as one of the most dangerous men online teaching things that you can’t Google. His journey from working at ...