I believed Martin Luther King when he said men should judged by their character rather than the color of their skins. I believed Frederick Douglass when I read him years ago. And I believe them both today. What I do not understand is why so many do not see their words as obvious truths. I can not control how I entered this world - in what skin, with what natural endowments and with what advantages or disadvantages. All I can control is what I believe and what I do. Is it not obvious then, from first principles, that I should wish to be judged by what I can control - my actions and my character? Why is this so hard to see?
Truth is truth, but it sure rings clearly coming from a man so courageous and gifted. It's astonishing to us how he looked forward, not to the past. But maybe it wouldn't be quite so astonishing if he and other like-minded, brave men and women from his era were taught and quoted more often. Thank you.
This 1894 speech by the great Frederick Douglass is very fitting indeed for Memorial Day and for 2025! Mr. Douglass was one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. If he were alive today he’d reject the identity politics and race essentialism of BLM and the race grievance industry. Mr. Douglass would’ve seen groups like the NAACP, SCLC and the Urban League for what they are, pc pressure groups that thrive and make money off dividing people and keeping racism and racial thinking alive.
Many white men and women fought for both the abolition of slavery and equal rights for all. Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, John Brown, the Grimke Sisters, Anna Dickinson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charles Sumner, and Thaddeus Stevens were all white. But they believed very strongly that all men and women should be free in this great country of ours. The Southern Student Organizing Committee, the Young Patriots Organization, the White Panthers, Jim Zwerg, Phillip Berrigan, James Reeb, Jim Peck, Rev. Robert Graetz, Big Jim Folsom, Hubert Humphrey, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, JFK, RFK, and LBJ, among others were all white Americans North and South, who fought to ensure that civil rights and the principles contained within the founding documents would be extended to us all.
Many Jewish, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans fought for equal rights for black Americans as well. The Civil Rights Movement was a struggle that all Americans took part in. We need to see each other as Americans first and foremost and nothing else. Think about this this Memorial Day, Americans of all races: white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Hawaiian, Arab, etc. died so we could be free. Race or color doesn’t matter. What matters is that a man loves his country, works hard, pays his taxes, follows the law, and raises his family. We are a nation of nations! We are English, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, African-American, Mexican, Cuban, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indigenous, Nigerian, Somalian, Afghani, Iraqi, and much more but at the end of the day we all come together to form one rich, diverse union.
We need to heed Frederick Douglass’ words and not allow anything or anyone to divide us! It’s thinkers like Coleman Hughes, John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Kmele Foster, Randall Kennedy, Adolph Reed, Jr., Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, Larry Elder, and Carol Swain we ought to be listening to when it comes to race. Not charlatans like Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, Marc Lamont Hill, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Bryan Stevenson, Angela Davis, and Nikki Hannah-Jones.
Also, no more of this nonsense where people compare the struggle of African-Americans for freedom and civil rights to Hamas in their genocidal war against Israel! Don’t you DARE compare those courageous heroes to an evil terrorist group looking to build a global caliphate! Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Carter Woodson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, and Diane Nash would’ve been appalled by the things Hamas did on October 7th and call them out at as what they are-evil incarnate. Nor do Hamas represent the values of the vast majority of black Muslims in America. Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali would’ve hated Hamas and Hamas them.
If he were alive today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have had the upmost sympathy and compassion for the people of Gaza and prayed for them. But he would’ve stood with Israel against the monsters in Hamas no doubt and compared them to the Ku Klux Klan, White Citizens’ Council and the segregationist politicians he fought against back in his day. By the same token returning to the main subject of this article, that he and Frederick Douglass if alive today, would both be very upset without how obsessed with race this country has become.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American hero who advocated for colorblindness, universalism, racial equality, pacifism, labor unions, democratic socialism, and black self-improvement. Fredrick Douglass fought for the abolition of slavery, civil rights, women’s suffrage, for the acceptance of immigrants, and self-determination for peoples around the globe. They weren’t one of these performative Instagram activists they were the real deal and are American icons! Don’t you think we ought to be listening to them instead of Ivy League academics with bogus degrees and social media influencers and TikTokers? The black men and women who fought and died for our freedom over the centuries did so to prove they were worthy of being treated just like anyone else not to continue to be treated according to their pigmentation.
Every now and then a Frederick Douglass comes into the world to remind us what we're capable of when we place principles above ideologies and claim the human race as our only race.
A beautiful essay. Today, the Democrats, the party of slavery discriminate on the basis of race and sex because in the past there was discrimination on the basis of race and sex.
I believe this is related. Two Americans celebrating the hitherto stunted opportunities for persons of truth and conscience within our great nation to achieve not only their own dreams, but to weave those dreams into the fabric of the whole...
I believed Martin Luther King when he said men should judged by their character rather than the color of their skins. I believed Frederick Douglass when I read him years ago. And I believe them both today. What I do not understand is why so many do not see their words as obvious truths. I can not control how I entered this world - in what skin, with what natural endowments and with what advantages or disadvantages. All I can control is what I believe and what I do. Is it not obvious then, from first principles, that I should wish to be judged by what I can control - my actions and my character? Why is this so hard to see?
A truly great man and a truly great American. Thank you for posting this speech.
Truth is truth, but it sure rings clearly coming from a man so courageous and gifted. It's astonishing to us how he looked forward, not to the past. But maybe it wouldn't be quite so astonishing if he and other like-minded, brave men and women from his era were taught and quoted more often. Thank you.
Great words for Memorial Day. And for every holiday. And for everyday as well.
This 1894 speech by the great Frederick Douglass is very fitting indeed for Memorial Day and for 2025! Mr. Douglass was one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. If he were alive today he’d reject the identity politics and race essentialism of BLM and the race grievance industry. Mr. Douglass would’ve seen groups like the NAACP, SCLC and the Urban League for what they are, pc pressure groups that thrive and make money off dividing people and keeping racism and racial thinking alive.
Many white men and women fought for both the abolition of slavery and equal rights for all. Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, John Brown, the Grimke Sisters, Anna Dickinson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charles Sumner, and Thaddeus Stevens were all white. But they believed very strongly that all men and women should be free in this great country of ours. The Southern Student Organizing Committee, the Young Patriots Organization, the White Panthers, Jim Zwerg, Phillip Berrigan, James Reeb, Jim Peck, Rev. Robert Graetz, Big Jim Folsom, Hubert Humphrey, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, JFK, RFK, and LBJ, among others were all white Americans North and South, who fought to ensure that civil rights and the principles contained within the founding documents would be extended to us all.
Many Jewish, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans fought for equal rights for black Americans as well. The Civil Rights Movement was a struggle that all Americans took part in. We need to see each other as Americans first and foremost and nothing else. Think about this this Memorial Day, Americans of all races: white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Hawaiian, Arab, etc. died so we could be free. Race or color doesn’t matter. What matters is that a man loves his country, works hard, pays his taxes, follows the law, and raises his family. We are a nation of nations! We are English, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, African-American, Mexican, Cuban, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indigenous, Nigerian, Somalian, Afghani, Iraqi, and much more but at the end of the day we all come together to form one rich, diverse union.
We need to heed Frederick Douglass’ words and not allow anything or anyone to divide us! It’s thinkers like Coleman Hughes, John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Kmele Foster, Randall Kennedy, Adolph Reed, Jr., Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, Larry Elder, and Carol Swain we ought to be listening to when it comes to race. Not charlatans like Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, Marc Lamont Hill, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Bryan Stevenson, Angela Davis, and Nikki Hannah-Jones.
Also, no more of this nonsense where people compare the struggle of African-Americans for freedom and civil rights to Hamas in their genocidal war against Israel! Don’t you DARE compare those courageous heroes to an evil terrorist group looking to build a global caliphate! Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Carter Woodson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, and Diane Nash would’ve been appalled by the things Hamas did on October 7th and call them out at as what they are-evil incarnate. Nor do Hamas represent the values of the vast majority of black Muslims in America. Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali would’ve hated Hamas and Hamas them.
If he were alive today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have had the upmost sympathy and compassion for the people of Gaza and prayed for them. But he would’ve stood with Israel against the monsters in Hamas no doubt and compared them to the Ku Klux Klan, White Citizens’ Council and the segregationist politicians he fought against back in his day. By the same token returning to the main subject of this article, that he and Frederick Douglass if alive today, would both be very upset without how obsessed with race this country has become.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American hero who advocated for colorblindness, universalism, racial equality, pacifism, labor unions, democratic socialism, and black self-improvement. Fredrick Douglass fought for the abolition of slavery, civil rights, women’s suffrage, for the acceptance of immigrants, and self-determination for peoples around the globe. They weren’t one of these performative Instagram activists they were the real deal and are American icons! Don’t you think we ought to be listening to them instead of Ivy League academics with bogus degrees and social media influencers and TikTokers? The black men and women who fought and died for our freedom over the centuries did so to prove they were worthy of being treated just like anyone else not to continue to be treated according to their pigmentation.
Absolutely brilliant speech!
Hear, hear!! Huzzah!!!
Important lessons for today from one of the great figures of American history.
Every now and then a Frederick Douglass comes into the world to remind us what we're capable of when we place principles above ideologies and claim the human race as our only race.
bravo bravo xoxoxo
A beautiful essay. Today, the Democrats, the party of slavery discriminate on the basis of race and sex because in the past there was discrimination on the basis of race and sex.
I believe this is related. Two Americans celebrating the hitherto stunted opportunities for persons of truth and conscience within our great nation to achieve not only their own dreams, but to weave those dreams into the fabric of the whole...
https://substack.com/home/post/p-164531125