About 150 preachers, rabbis and imams are promising to invoke Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass on July 4th as they call for the U.S. to tackle racism and poverty.<\/p>\n
The religious leaders are scheduled this weekend to frame their sermons around \u201cWhat to the Slave is the Fourth of July\u201d on the 168th anniversary of that speech by Douglass. The former slave gave his speech at an Independence Day celebration on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York. The address challenged the Founding Fathers and the hypocrisy of their ideals with the existence of slavery on American soil.<\/p>\n
The initiative to remember Douglass is led by the Poor People\u2019s Campaign, a coalition of religious leaders seeking to push the U.S. to address issues of poverty modeled after Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s last crusade.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The Declaration of Independence) was written mostly by Thomas Jefferson. Yet he owned hundreds of human beings, and enslaved them,\u201d Rabbi Arthur Waskow plans to tell The Shalom Center in Philadelphia, according to prepared remarks. \u201cThe contradiction between his words and his actions has been repeated through all American history.\u201d<\/p>\n
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