This year’s Fourth of July celebrations included readings of Frederick Douglass’s historic 1852 speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? The speech has been read annually at the Edgartown Federated Church since 2014 and at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs since 2004.
Mr. Douglass, an abolitionist and former enslaved person, first gave the speech on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, N.Y. to the Women of Rochester Anti-Slavery Sewing Society.
On Friday morning at the Federated Church, Rev. Mark Winters opened with a nod to Mr. Douglass’s speech Unity of Man, which was delivered in the church in 1857.
“This floor, where Frederick Douglass’s own feet stood at one point awhile ago, is a reminder to myself and to all of us that the ground under our feet has been trod by prophets, by people of courage, by people who have stood up when others told them to sit down.”
Elizabeth Villard, church historian and organizer of the event, noted how Mr. Douglass’s words feel both contemporary and historic.
“Douglass is writing about events in his own life, with the words he knew, but the power of these words on the 250th anniversary of our country lies in a way that his words seem to come from the ledes of a contemporary newscast or headlines of today’s newspaper,” Ms. Villard said from the pulpit.
Before the reading began, singer David Behnke and pianist Peter Boak performed a traditional African American spiritual song, Wade in the Water.
Clerk of the Dukes County superior court, T. George Davis, was the first reader and his words transported everyone back to when the United States was only 76 years old. This year, on the 250th anniversary of the United States, people at both events said the words still resonate today.
Tom Dunlop, author and journalist, was brought to tears while reading his portion of the Douglass speech.
“The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me,” Mr. Dunlop read. “The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”
Audience members sitting in the pews of the church nodded along in agreement. Rob Shepardson, who attended the event for the first time, said the hopeful ending of the speech resonated with him the most.
“For me it was very visceral, very present and personal,” Mr. Shepardson said. “It wasn’t history. It felt so current and so meaningful. And yet, he finishes with hope, which is very powerful.”
At the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs, the final speaker for the reading was assistant secretary of the Martha’s Vineyard NAACP, Toni Kauffman. Ms. Kauffman was also one of the readers at the Federated Church and has been a part of both events for at least seven years.
Ms. Kauffman stood on the stage wearing a Juneteenth shirt, commemorating June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas were prounced free — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
“I have on a Juneteenth shirt because I consider that Independence Day,” she said. “Today is July 4, it is, but this was my independence day.”
Many readers at the Tabernacle, including Ms. Kauffman, had volunteered to take part on the spur of the moment. Ernestine Jones, Latrenda Stephens and Connie Griffin were all visiting the Island for the first time. The women heard about the reading that morning at Inkwell Beach during the Polar Bear swim, a group of mostly African Americans who meet each morning for a communal gathering. Ms. Stephens said the diversity on stage amazed her.
“I love the fact that we can all get along and have one common bond because it’s not just about one race; it’s about all of us,” Ms. Stephens said.
Agnes Pena-Rosen organized the event alongside her husband, Jason Rosen, and their daughter, Danica Rosen. The reading was originally created 22 years ago by Mr. Rosen’s parents, Abigail and Tony McGrath. Last year’s Douglass reading was a memorial event in honor of Ms. McGrath, who died in December of 2024. Danica Rosen said she and her parents have worked hard to carry on the tradition.
“People on this Island have such an appetite for this. It’s so wanted and welcomed. It makes you feel like it’s doable,” Ms. Rosen said. “My grandparents were always great at these ideas that seem impossible, which I was always too scared to go for. But here it’s possible, and they have given us a great platform to keep it going.”
This article appears in July 10, 2026.