Full text of Martin Luther King Jr. speech: “The American Dream” delivered on July 4th, 1965. Listen to the audio version here: TRANSCRIPT: Martin Luther King Jr. I would like to discuss some of the This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. Here are 14 of the greatest 4th of July speeches, with links to their transcripts for further reading. Feel free to study them at length! Looking for more inspiring speeches? Check out these famous speeches by women. 1. Frederick Douglass — “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” Lincoln Memorial Washington, D.C. July 4, 2019 6:36 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Hello, America. Hello. The First Lady and I wish each and every one of you a Happy Independence Day on this truly historic Fourth of July! (Applause.) Today, we come together as one nation with this very special Salute to America. We celebrate our history, our people, and the heroes who proudly defend our flag — the President Joe Biden gave a speech on Independence Day, July 4, 2021. Read the transcript of his remarks here. Note: The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original. Donald Trump held a “Salute to America” event at the White House on July 4, 2020. Read the full transcript here. Full transcript of the famous speech “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” by Frederick Douglass. At an Independence Day celebration at historic Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1962, President Kennedy delivered an address on the importance of the Declaration of Independence to contemporary Americans. “To read it today,” he said, “is to hear a trumpet call. For that Declaration unleashed not merely a revolution against the British, but a revolution in human What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. It became one of Douglass’s most famous speeches—criticizing the chasm between America’s Founding principles and the institution of slavery. In the speech, Douglass lamented that Independence Day wasn’t a day of celebration for enslaved people. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” EXTRACT FROM AN ORATION, AT ROCHESTER, JULY 5, 1852. FELLOW-CITIZENS-Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. And when both died on the same day within hours of each other, that date was July 4th, 50 years exactly after that first gift to us, the Declaration of Independence. My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great Americans of our past. President Ronald Reagan gave an Independence Day speech on July 4, 1986. Read his full speech transcript here. Douglass delivered this speech before a crowd in Rochester, NY on July 5, 1852. The poem at the end was written by famed abolitionist and colleague William Lloyd Garrison, and published on March 17, 1845 in the Signal of Liberty an anti-slavery newspaper. On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a speech at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, held at Rochester's Corinthian Hall. It was biting oratory, in which the speaker First publication of Douglass' famous speech. ORATION, DELIVERED IN CORINTHIAN HALL, ROCHESTER, BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS, JULY 5TH, 1852. Published by Request ROCHESTER: PRINTED BY LEE, MANN & CO., AMERICAN BUILDING. 1852. See transcript here: From police shootings to the wage gap to crippling stereotypes (and everything in between), there are too many parallels today with what Douglass described in his speech to white America, including
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