Easy A: meaningful actions in five minutes or less

Watch This: Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?”

Jun 25, 2026 | Easy A

250 years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, putting to paper the American ideals of freedom, equality, and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But what did this declaration mean for indigenous and enslaved people in America?

Any honest commemoration of July 4th must recognize the true history of the time – between one third to two thirds of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were enslavers. Some British called out the founding fathers for their hypocrisy, and 76 years later, so did formerly enslaved abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

In 1852, the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society – yes, women have been organizing for good for a long time! – invited Frederick Douglass to give the keynote address at their Independence Day event. There he delivered, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” now also referred to as, “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?”

Douglass pointed out the hypocrisy of celebrating the Declaration of Independence while still enslaving people, and called upon America to make freedom a reality for all.

Earn your Easy A this week by watching James Earl Jones read some of the address:

Slavery has ended, but we still have a lot of work to do to fully live up to the promise of America outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Come back next week to honor America’s 250th by taking action!

Subscribe to Easy A

Recent Posts

Do This: Make your Voting Plan for the Midterm Elections

There are probably a lot of reasons fewer people vote in midterm elections than in presidential elections. Maybe they don’t know that they’re happening. Maybe they don’t know who is running for state and local offices, or they don’t realize how important those offices...

Watch This: Heather Cox Richardson’s Midterm Election Advice

Midterm Election Day is just around the corner on November 3, but early voting has already started, or is starting in many states soon. In other words, the election is now! We know it’s important to vote in the midterms, but we also know that many of our friends and...

Read This: Five reasons to vote in the midterm elections

We are just 26 days away from midterm Election Day, so let’s spend the next few weeks getting ourselves and everyone we know ready to vote. Voters usually turnout more in Presidential elections than they do in midterm elections. For example, 66% of voters cast a...

Do This: Participate in Banned Books Week

Unite Against Book Bans, an initiative of the American Library Association (ALA), hosts Banned Books Week every year. This year’s Banned Books Week starts in just a few days and runs from October 4 to 10. More than 4,200 books were challenged in 2025, and we need to...

Watch This: How book banners are threatening librarians

If you were asked to list dangerous jobs in America, you might think of firefighters, power line workers, or maybe people in construction. But librarians? In a recent survey, U.S. library workers reported more than 8,200 traumatic incidents in their jobs, ranging from...