“ the Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro”
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A publication of Mass Humanities Spring 2009 “ The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro” Reading Frederick Douglass during the Presidency of Barack Obama Reserve seats early! By Pleun Bouricius Benefit Dinner Featuring “Fellow citizens, why am I called upon to speak challenge leveled by Rachel Maddow here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, Barack Obama at to do with your national independence? Do Constitution Hall in Following our annual public you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me Philadelphia last year: symposium on November 7, Ra- to speak today? What, to the American slave, “I have never been chel Maddow, host of MSNBC’s is your Fourth of July?” Thus began Frederick so naïve as to believe “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Douglass’s fiery July 5, 1852, speech, The Mean- that we can get beyond will speak at our annual benefit ing of the Fourth of July for the Negro, in which our racial divisions in dinner on the symposium’s theme the great orator famously took exception to a single election cycle. of “Soldiers & Citizens: Military being asked to commemorate the signing of the Race is an issue this nation cannot afford to and Civic Culture in America,” at Declaration of Independence. ignore right now. To work for ‘a more perfect Boston College’s Gasson Hall. In- union’ we need to start to understand complexi- dividual seats and sponsorships— This Fourth of July season, community groups, ties that we’ve never really worked through. which include group seating and libraries, towns, organizations, families, and [This] requires a reminder of how we arrived at public recognition—are avail- individuals are invited to read the speech this point.” able. Reserve seats at our Web communally. Mass Humanities has developed site, www.masshumanities.org. a Web resource with everything you need to “What better way to remind ourselves that To enquire about sponsorships, organize your own shared reading: the speech, we aren’t there yet,” asks David Harris of the contact John Sieracki at jsieracki@ discussion materials, supporting articles, and Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race masshumanities.org. A reception PR guidelines, which you can download at and Justice, “than with the speech of a man with symposium www.masshumanities.org. This statewide who was as eloquent as our president on the panelists will project will kick off on Tuesday, June 2 at issue of race and a source of inspiration for take place at noon. You are invited to join us in front of Lincoln himself?” BC’s McMullen the State House, where Massachusetts politi- Museum between cians and residents together will read and Douglass gave his address in 1852, a galvanizing the symposium discuss the speech. Partnering with Mass year in the history of slavery and abolition. That and the dinner. Humanities in this project are Community March, Boston’s Jewett & Company published Change Inc. (where the idea originated), Uncle Tom’s Cabin to national acclaim, out- the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute rage, and general sensation. The book had been for Race and Justice, the Ella Baker House, serialized in 1851 and 1852 in the antislavery Boston African American National Historic weekly, the National Era, which had 15,000 Site, the New Bedford Historical Society, subscribers when it started and 19,000 at the and others. conclusion of the novel.1 As historian David Blight puts it, “If Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the With this program, we mark the bicenten- fictional masterpiece of American abolition- nial year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, ism … then Douglass’s Fourth of July address is the Great Emancipator, by taking up the abolition’s rhetorical masterpiece …. Continued on page 5 MASS HUMANITIES Mass Humanities News 66 Bridge Street Northampton, MA 01060 tel (413) 584-8440 fax (413) 584-8454 www.masshumanities.org STAFF David Tebaldi EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR We fondly bid farewell to Susan Mikula, [email protected] who has done outstanding work as the Mass Pleun Bouricius Humanities fiscal officer for eight years. Susan PROGRAM OFFICER In March we welcomed plans to devote full attention to her art, photog- [email protected] Deepika Fernandes to our raphy. We will miss Susan’s humor and camara- Deepika Fernandes staff as the new fiscal officer. derie in the office, and also her faithful Labrador FISCAL OFFICER [email protected] A native of Goa, India, retriever, Poppy. Deepika came to us from the Tiffany Lyman-Olszewski Massachusetts Association of DEVELOPMENT AND Correction: In the winter 2009 edition of Mass Humanities, in the Portuguese Speakers in Cam- COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT article entitled, “FAIR Launches with a Jingle Jangle,” the song bridge, where she was staff [email protected] that John Porcino played to the families participating in this reading accountant and then manager Kristin O’Connell of finance and operations. program is actually called “All God’s Critters,” not “All Life’s ASSISTANT DIRECTOR [email protected] Deepika has a bachelor’s begree in accounting from Critters,” as we printed it. Mr. Porcino altered the lyrics of this Mangalore University and a master’s degree in com- well-known folk song by Bill Staines in this way when he performed Anne Rogers merce from Karnatak University, both in India. She in an effort to be inclusive, not knowing the religious beliefs of his SYSTEMS MANAGER [email protected] also has a master’s in business studies from Dublin audience members. Thanks go to reader Joan Sullivan Gray for City University in Dublin, Ireland. Deepika lives in pointing out the error. John Sieracki Longmeadow with her husband, an anesthesiologist DIR ECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS at Baystate Medical Center, and two children. Please contact John Sieracki, editor of Mass Humanities, with EDITOR OF MASS HUMANITIES any questions or comments about this newsletter: jsieracki@ [email protected] masshumanities.org. Melissa Wheaton ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT/GRANTS ADMINISTRATOR [email protected] Mass Humanities Executive Director Hayley Wood David Tebaldi elected a member of the MassPROGRA HumanitiesM OFFICER promotes the use of history,hwood@ literature,masshumanities.org philosophy, and the other American Antiquarian Society hu- One of the nation’s four premier independent research libraries, the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) was founded in 1812 in man- Worcester, Massachusetts (www.americanantiquarian.org). AAS ities members, who now number more than 800 persons from every disci- plines region of the country and from thirty-three foreign countries, are to elected by their colleagues in recognition of scholarship, for sup- deep- en our port of cultural institutions, for manifest interest in bibliographi- under- cal matters, or for distinction as community or national leaders in stand- ing humanistic affairs. Thirteen presidents of the United States have of the been members, and AAS members have been awarded seventy-five Pulitzer Prizes and over fifty Bancroft Prizes for their work. AAS President Ellen Dunlap, former First Lady Laura Bush, and David Tebaldi Kudos for Mass Moments From a recent e-mail: “ Dear Mass Humanities: I teach English and history at Eliot Girls’ Detention Center in Worcester, MA… Every morning, I print out that day’s eMoment on brightly colored paper. Each history class, we read and briefly discuss the historic moment. Every Friday, when we play Jeopardy, it is included as one of our categories. I love your Mass Moments, since it’s a fun an d informative way to begin each history class. Keep up the good work!” Sign up for “eMoments” and eNews at our Web site: www.masshumanities.org. 2 3 MASS HUMANITIES 66 Bridge Street Northampton, MA 01060 tel (413) 584-8440 Voices from the Port fax (413) 584-8454 By Hayley Wood www.masshumanities.org STAFF This June, radio listeners in and around knowledge of cultural anthropology to create a variety David Tebaldi EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR New Bedford will be able to tune in to of opportunities for people outside of the waterfront [email protected] Bristol County’s WBSM AM to hear a community to have access to what she calls “authentic new series of firsthand accounts of life in experiences learning about the workings of a com- Pleun Bouricius PROGRAM OFFICER the fishing community of New Bedford mercial fishing port.” Recording oral histories at the [email protected] Harbor. The series, festival emerged as a way to “give the fishing industry Deepika Fernandes “Voices from the a chance to tell its own story in its own way.” Above: Amanda Wright, FISCAL OFFICER Port,” will consist [email protected] sternman on a lobster boat in Narragansett Bay. of four-minute The fact that the commercial fishing industry in the Tiffany Lyman-Olszewski segments, narrated United States faces uncertain prospects underlies the BOARD OF DIRECTORS Below: Galon “Skip” Barlow, DEVELOPMENT AND inshore coastal fisherman from by WCAI’s Naomi zeal of festival organizers. Laura observes that in spite COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT PRESIDENT Buzzard’s Bay. [email protected] John Allen Burgess Arenberg, based of a significant rebound in the populations of ground- wilmerhale Photos by Jon Robson on recorded oral fish (which include such bottom-feeding species as Kristin O’Connell VICE PRESIDENT histories of people cod, halibut, yellowtail flounder, and ocean perch) and ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Susan Winston Leff [email protected] wells fargo bank involved in the scallops in the