Tamil Solution

Educational News | Recruitment News | Tamil Articles

World Trends

Frederick Douglass statue vandalized

A statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass has been toppled and destroyed in upstate New York — on the 168th anniversary of his most famous anti-slavery speech.

Rochester police said the statue of the former slave was taken on Sunday from Maplewood Park, a site along the Underground Railroad where Douglass and Harriet Tubman helped shuttle slaves to freedom.

It was found at the brink of the Genesee River gorge about 50 feet away, and the damage to the base and a left-hand finger was deemed beyond repair, officials said.

The destruction came on the anniversary of Douglass’ 1852 speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” — one that had been widely shared recently amid ongoing Black Lives Matter protests.

In it, Douglass said that for a slave Independence Day is a day that reveals “the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

“This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn,” he said of the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom while so many were slaves.

Those who helped bring the statue to Rochester felt the timing was too coincidental to not be deliberate — along with the recent spike of statues of slave owners being toppled by anti-racism protesters.

“Is this some type of retaliation because of the national fever over confederate monuments right now? Very disappointing, it’s beyond disappointing,” Carvin Eison, a leader of the project that brought the Douglass statue to the park, told WROC.

“It’s particularly painful that it happened at this time,” Eison told the newspaper. “It’s really sad because here in Rochester the statue of Frederick Douglass has always been a face of good.”

A motive for the vandalism was not immediately clear.

Douglass, who was born a slave in Maryland, delivered one of his most famous speeches on July 5, 1852 in Rochester. The speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” questioned the Fourth of July celebration of freedom and liberty in a nation that enslaved people.

“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?” he asked while speaking before the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. “Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?…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.”

A group of Douglass’s descendants gathered to read that speech for a video released by NPR over the weekend. The five descendants of Douglass also reflected on the speech’s resonance amid the nationwide protests in response to the May 25 death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.

The presence of a Douglass monument in Rochester is also historically significant given the work he did during his life in the city. Maplewood Park is a site on the Underground Railroad where Douglass and others, including Harriet Tubman, aided slaves seeking freedom in the north.

The Douglass statue is one of 13 that were erected in the city in 2018, according to CBS affiliate WROC-TV. Sunday’s incident marks the second time one of the monuments has been vandalized. A

Eison said the damage to the statue is too significant for it to be repaired, but another will take its place. The damage is under investigation. And, despite a deluge of social media opinions Sunday about possible perpetrators, there is no indication yet of possible political motivation.

In the 1852 speech, Douglass credited the signers of the Declaration of Independence as “brave” and “great” men but called out the hypocrisy of celebrating the Fourth of July as a day of freedom while slaves were not free..
Independence Day to a slave, Douglass said, is “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.”

Douglass, who escaped slavery in Maryland in 1838 and settled in Rochester for about 30 years, said in the speech that the celebration of liberty and citizenship were offensive to the enslaved population.

“Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” .
The speech followed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The Fugitive Slave Act denied slaves freedom if they escaped to a free state and required them to be returned to their masters. It also banned runaway slaves from testifying on their own behalf and from having a trial by jury. Douglass’ address is considered one of the most important antislavery speeches prior to the Civil War.

New York emancipated slaves on July 4, 1827, 25 years before Douglass’ speech. The African American community chose to celebrate emancipation on July 5 instead of the national holiday, which is why Douglass chose to mark his speech on that day.
Douglass is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester. After his death, he became the first Black person in the United States be memorialized with a statue. That monument now resides at Frederick Douglass Memorial Plaza at Highland Park in the city. Another sculpture, “Let’s Have Tea,” portrays Douglass with friend and women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony in Rochester’s Susan B. Anthony Square.

Thirteen additional Douglass statues — including the one at Maplewood Park — were placed around Rochester in 2018, in remembrance of his 200th birthday.

That year, two St. John Fisher students were arrested for severe damage to one of the downtown statues. They maintained they were drunk when they vandalized the statue, while one witness claimed he heard racial slurs before the crime.

They later pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and participated in a restorative justice program in which they learned of the legacy of Douglass.
Eison contrasted the vandalism of the statue of Douglass, a man who pushed tirelessly for freedom for all, with the current removal of statues of soldiers of leaders of the Confederacy, who enslaved Black people and tried to break from the United States.

“It’s really sad because here in Rochester the statue of Frederick Douglass has always been a face of good,” Eison said.

There were no signs of graffiti at the statue or anywhere in the park, police said.

More:’We refuse to celebrate’: July 4th protesters say not all Americans are free

What did Frederick Douglass fight for?
How does Frederick Douglass define freedom?
What political party was Frederick Douglass?How did Frederick Douglass feel about slavery?
When did Frederick Douglass marry?Who was Frederick Douglass’s second wife?
What did Frederick Douglass do after he was free?
What happened to Frederick Douglass’s first wife?
What did Frederick Douglass do during the Civil War?
Why did Frederick Douglass never smile?
What did Frederick Douglass say about Abraham Lincoln?
How was Frederick Douglass successful?
When did Frederick Douglass become free?
What was Frederick Douglass height?
How did Frederick Douglass learn to read and write?
Why did Frederick Douglass want to escape?
How many slaves did Frederick Douglass save?
What was Frederick Douglass accomplishments?
Who was the first to escape slavery?
How did Frederick Douglass meet Anna Murray?
What was Frederick Douglass purpose for writing his narrative?
Where did Frederick Douglass speak?
What was Frederick Douglass first job?
How did Douglass achieve freedom?
How did Frederick Douglass influence Lincoln?
What religion was Frederick Douglass?
Why was the North Star newspaper important?
Who was Frederick Douglass book?
What did Frederick Douglass write about?
How did Frederick Douglass fight for equality?
Who called for women’s rights?
Who disagreed with Susan B Anthony?
When was the 19th Amendment passed?
What was accomplished at the Seneca Falls Convention?
What did the American Equal Rights Association do?