PITTSFIELD, Mass. – As many Americans get ready to celebrate the nation’s 250th “birthday,” Juneteenth stands as a reminder of the original sin that characterized the country’s first century and the painful legacy that persists well into its third.

 

The Berkshire County Branch of the NAACP put that message front and center at Sunday’s Juneteenth celebration at Durant Park, providing attendees with an inter-generational community reading of Frederick Douglass’ landmark speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

 

In it, Douglass, who escaped slavery at age 20 and went on to be one of the great orators of his day, offers a no holds barred critique of the antebellum United States, exposing the hypocrisy of a nation that celebrated its freedom from England while enslaving more than 3 million of its own people.

 

A member of the NAACP Berkshire County Branch Executive Committee said that Douglass’ message, first delivered in Rochester, N.Y., on July 5, 1850, is still pertinent today.

 

“Even after the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, Black people had to fight for freedom, the right to vote, the right to be citizens, right to own property, everything, and so we are facing those challenges still today,” said Frances Jones-Sneed, PhD., an emeritus professor of history at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

 

“I think his words back at that point in time are still relevant today, and that’s the reason why all over the country, people are reading that speech.”

 

On Sunday afternoon, Jones-Sneed took the first turn at the microphone, reading from the opening passages of Douglass’ speech, when he laid the groundwork by reminding his audience of the true revolutionary spirit of 1776.