July 4, 2020 – NAACP New Bedford

Defund White Supremacy in Bristol County

The Bristol County Sheriffs Department is a human rights horror show. The suicide rate at the jail is the highest in the state. Prisoners receive substandard food and, recently, a riot occurred after prisoners had been demanding cleaning and safety equipment to protect themselves from COVID-19. If this were not enough, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson has numerous links to White Supremacist and milita groups, and he spends most of his time lobbying for Trump's anti-immigrant policies in conjunction with a group set up by White Supremacist John Tanton. While the Bristol County Sheriff is an elected position and funding...

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?

On July 5,1852, Frederick Douglass delivered the following speech in Rochester, New York. It is a fiery reproach of American independence — "your 4th of July" not "ours" — demanding that White America keep its unfulfilled promises. Douglass's words are, sadly, as relevant today as they were when he spoken them 86 years after American Independence. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my...