On Juneteenth, let's celebrate with some wisdom from Frederick Douglass and his 1857 speech, "What the Black Man Wants."
"Let me not be misunderstood here. I am not asking for sympathy at the hands of abolitionists, nor sympathy at the hands of any. I think the American people are disposed often to be generous, rather than just. ... What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy -- but simply justice. ... Everybody has asked the question, 'What shall we do with the Negro?' I have one answer from the very beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played mischief with us. If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, or early-ripe, let them fall! And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall, also. All I ask is to give him a chance to stand on his own legs. "
- Frederick Douglass,
"What the Black Man Wants," Speech in Boston, April 1865
