**UPDATE** This event was a huge success and was featured on CBS Sunday News with Jane Pauley, the Harvard Gazette and the Somerville Times!

The Somerville Museum hosted a reading of Frederick Douglass’ famous address, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” delivered to an AntiSlavery Society in 1852. We were part of a number of communities across the Commonwealth that read this address together every year and reflecting on our present and past. 
Given the current pandemic conditions, this event looked different than last year. With the help of the Somerville Media Center, we created a video that consisted of a collection of people pre-recording themselves reading sections of the famous speech. We played the video on a live Zoom event on Thursday, July 2nd followed by a discussion led by Keidrick Roy, our project scholar, who is a graduate student at Harvard University concentrating in American Studies and a Somerville resident. 

Keidrick Roy is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at Harvard University. His dissertation explores race, religion, and political philosophy in European and American intellectual history. In 2018 Keidrick co-curated an exhibit on the postbellum writings of Frederick Douglass for the American Writers Museum in Chicago, and he is currently working on an exhibition for the Houghton Library at Harvard University entitled “Reframing the Racial State.” Keidrick is a former military nuclear operations officer and Instructor of English at the United States Air Force Academy. Keidrick is a Somerville Museum and Advisory Council member, and will be leading our Summer Discussion Series, “Race, Fragility, and Anti-Racism” beginning on July 1st. 

The cost for this event was free, and all are encouraged to participate. Donations are always welcome!