The first reading of 2024 took place on Douglass’s chosen birth day.
Each year, Mass Humanities organizes and funds free public events where communities gather together to read and talk about Frederick Douglass’ influential address, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” We began 2024 with a shared reading at the UMass Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts (HFA). Fittingly, the gathering took place on February 14, Douglass’s chosen day of birth.
“Reading the speech together, and especially having numerous people read the speech and put their individual voices into Douglass’s words—literally breathing life back into his words—to me that’s just a really powerful way of pushing back against efforts of silencing,” says Cara Takakjian, associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion at UMass HFA. “[It’s about] raising a communal, a collective voice, to remember and continue to pay attention.”