Reading Frederick Douglass Together
Our Purpose
Reading Frederick Douglass Together is a social initiative that uses the words and ideas of Frederick Douglass to create and foster a community of individuals who are passionate about keeping the legacy of Douglass alive. Our group travels to different communities in Indiana to hold interactive readings and discussions about Douglass's most revolutionary speeches. Explore our events page for upcoming events and join us for our next discussion near you.
Our History
In the early 2000s, a group of private citizens began to organize annual public readings of Douglass’s iconic “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”, at the historic Boston Commons, as a springboard for discussion on the status of current race relations in the United States. The Massachusetts Humanities took over leadership of the program in 2009 and has gone on to sponsor dozens of such public readings across the state, breathing new life into Douglass’s words and legacy.
2018 marked the 200th anniversary of Douglass’s birth. The Frederick Douglass Papers, which is preparing a modern 15-volume scholarly edition of Douglass’s speeches, letters, journalism, and autobiographies for the Yale University Press, decided to import this tradition to our home state of Indiana. Over time, we expanded on the repertoire, preparing the texts of seven of Douglass’s addresses for public readings at any time of the year. Accompanying them are introductory PowerPoints and suggested discussion questions. Our events use these speeches and materials to explore the relevance of Douglass’s ideas to the problems our nation faces today. The Resources tab on this website was created to share these materials with any interested individual or organization who might want to host their own readings of Douglass’s work.
