Community partners included Arts Council of Princeton, Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, Campaign to End the New Jim Crow, CASA for Children of Mercer and Burlington, Coalition for Peace Action, First Baptist Church of Princeton, Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Make Us Visible New Jersey, Mass Incarceration Task Force, Morningstar Church of God in Christ, Municipality of Princeton, Mt. Pisgah AME Church, Muslim Center of Greater Princeton, People & Stories / Gente y Cuentos, Princeton Civil Rights Commission, Princeton Jewish Center, Princeton United Methodist Church, Princeton Senior Resource Center, Send Hunger Packing Princeton, Trinity Church, Trenton Literacy Movement, Trenton Spoken Word, Ujima Village Christian Church, Union Baptist Church of Trenton, Unitarian Universalist Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Witherspoon Jackson Cultural & Historical Society, Woman Cradle of Abundance, Work Well Partnership, and the YWCA Princeton.
Community members read an amended version of Frederick Douglass’ influential speech, given on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, to the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society.
The life and works of Frederick Douglass continue to shape our understanding of America. A gifted orator and prescient writer, Douglass forces us to reckon with the legacy of slavery and the promises of democracy. One of the most celebrated orators of his day, Douglass’ powerful language, resolute denunciations of slavery and forceful examination of the Constitution challenge us to think about the histories we tell, the values they teach, and if our actions match our aspirations. To quote Douglass, “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the future.”
This event was recorded on July 5, 2022.