On a day of independence celebrated by white people while enslaving the blacks of this American nation, there is no gratitude in which he can express and speaks this sarcastically. He is sad this day to rebuke the American people and calls them vain, hypocrites and cruel. Asking, “What to the American slave is your 4th of July?” and Douglass states too, the independence we rejoice in is “a sham!” This American nation rejoices in it’s independence from tyranny only to subject others to an even worse barbaric life of bondage. Douglass says to this cruel, hypocrite country that with their “revolting barbarity… America reigns without a rival”. Disbelief was my first thought, something along the lines of “No way!” which was then followed by an excited feeling and an audible “yes” as Douglass’s sarcastic tone turned to truth followed by ‘stern rebuke’(Douglass).
He gave a powerful speech on the fourth of July addressing his fellow African Americans called ‘What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July.’ He portrays how all of America celebrates Independence Day with their political freedom. “May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot’s heart might be sadder and the reformer’s brow heavier. Its future might be shrouded in gloom in the hope of it prophets go out in sorrow. There is consolation in the thought that America is young” (Douglas, 1852).
Example 1.) "But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land."
When he refers to the Constituition and Declaration of Independence and says "This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. ", his crediablty shows. This is when King's arguement of equality is evident.(King). He goes on to defend his arguement when he states "It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. ", claiming that equality is not being met.
The South’s population was slow on the ride and the talk of abolitions and the end of slavery was not good news to them. They we’re losing control on the part of their government, and they blamed it all on president Lincoln. The South was doomed basically from the beginning before president Lincoln came into the picture. The south was in ruins, economy destroy by the blockade, and major hyperinflation. The Union had experience and a booming industrial economy, a strong federal government.
WHAT WOULD MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SAY TO PRESIDENT OBAMA? If Martin Luther King Jr. were here today, he would take heart in the fact that the vestiges of legalized segregation are gone. He would be amazed that a likeness of him had been placed on the National Mall. And he would be gratified that America had elected its first African-American president. His dream was about more than racial justice, though it often represents the greatest moral stain on our society.
One example of this was the simple that no able bodied man was able to live in these projects along with their families. They were forced to struggle on their own to look for low-end jobs. This idea of the American family that consisted of a working father and a working mother clearly weren’t in affect here. It proved hurtful to the lifestyle of many African American families. As a women stated in the film, “The strong and tightly knit families I had grew up around had begun to shatter and it was one of the most tragic things I had seen”(Pruitt-Igoe).
Lord Dunmore in an effort to gain more manpower promised freedom to all slaves fighting for the Rebels. The British then had over 800 slaves join British Forces. These concerns were spoken of with clear disagreement by one of our founding forefathers Thomas Jefferson who wrote in a draft of the Declaration of Independence about the King and slavery, Jefferson stated “he [the king of Britain] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit
His dreams are gone, they have “festered like a sore” (4) as time has passed him by, and all he has left are the memories of the ideas he never followed through on. You can feel the weight of this, as is sags in the air between you. Hughes opens and closes this piece with a question. At the end, he asks us “or does it explode?” (11) As I read these lines, leading up to this question, I can see the Harlem of forgotten dreams. The boarded up storefronts, the “Going out of business” signs, and I can feel the anger.
What is more, Mr. Nixon spends more than half the ad explicitly telling the American people how Civil Rights is necessary for the fight against communism: Why must we vigorously defend them [Civil Rights]? First, because it is right and just. And second, because we cannot compete successfully against communism if we fail to utilize completely the minds and energy of all our citizens. And third, the whole world is watching us. When we fail to grant equality to all, that makes news – bad news – for America all over the world.