4th annual Fredrick Douglass Reading event held in Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Ahead of the Fourth of July, the Indian Orchard Citizens Council partnered with Take The Mic Public Speaking to host a Frederic Douglass reading.

Wednesday was the 4th annual reading of Frederick Douglass’ speech, ‘ What to the Slave is the Fourth of July ‘ and this year it was at Loon Pond in Springfield.

The event was created to share the words of Frederick Douglass from his speech on July 5,1852. At the time, the United States was celebrating their independence but there were still people enslaved who weren’t independent.

“If we don’t know our history, we are bound to repeat it and we don’t want to repeat some of the bad parts of our history,” said Zaida Govan, President of the Indian Orchard Citizens Council.

Govan and many others there told 22News many of the positives and negatives in the speech are still pertinent in today’s society. About 15 readers stood at the podium and read paragraphs from the speech. The event was funded this year through grants with Mass Humanities and Mass Cultural Council.

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