"The Fourth of July: safe and sane?"
Dublin Core
Title
"The Fourth of July: safe and sane?"
Description
"During my boyhood, this coming midnight was for me a delirium of bliss; for on the glorious Fourth my mother allowed me to rise at midnight and go out on the street and yell until breakfast. While that method of entertainment does not appeal to me now, I shall never forget what happiness it brought then; and I am sorry for small boys today because we have what is strangely called a safe and sane Fourth. Is it? In the day of my youth we fired off crackers and guns and pistols and toy cannon and how we enjoyed it! In the whole nation a few boys were injured. But where gunpowder slew its jota, the automobile slays its quota. And the quota is appalling. This Fourth of July week-end is going to be tragic indeed. We know now that many that persons who ate their breakfast this morning will not eat it Monday morning, because they will be dead. Safe and sane.
In those days the Declaration of Independence was publicly read aloud and a Fourth of July oration was pronounced by the local orator. I distinctly remember in Hartford hearing the Declaration in Bushnell park and Joe Barbour making an eloquent oration to the crowd. Two things we might remember on this Fourth of July. Every American should make a Declaration of Independence in his own heart. Liberty everywhere is in greater danger than it was in 1776. Let us determine to keep our liberty as it is the most precious thing we have. The second thing to remember is that the nation we hated in 1776 is now our most intimate friend. Our closest associate in the whole world. And it is the one great world power in the Eastern Hemisphere that steadfastly upholds the principle of human freedom."
In those days the Declaration of Independence was publicly read aloud and a Fourth of July oration was pronounced by the local orator. I distinctly remember in Hartford hearing the Declaration in Bushnell park and Joe Barbour making an eloquent oration to the crowd. Two things we might remember on this Fourth of July. Every American should make a Declaration of Independence in his own heart. Liberty everywhere is in greater danger than it was in 1776. Let us determine to keep our liberty as it is the most precious thing we have. The second thing to remember is that the nation we hated in 1776 is now our most intimate friend. Our closest associate in the whole world. And it is the one great world power in the Eastern Hemisphere that steadfastly upholds the principle of human freedom."
Creator
N/A
Publisher
The Chicago Defender
Date
1937-7-3
Collection
Citation
N/A, “"The Fourth of July: safe and sane?",” African American Fourth of July, accessed April 28, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/198.