No Struggle, No Progress: the Frederick Douglass Speech We All Need to Memorize

When it comes to Black historic figures, their entire catalog of work is usually reduced to their greatest hits (*coughs in I have a dream*), and Frederick Douglass is no exception. I grew up hearing the famous quote “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.” What I didn’t grow up with was the inflammatory and infamous speech this quote was taken from. On August 3, 1857, Douglass spoke at the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1857-frederick-douglass-if-there-no-struggle-there-no-progress/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">23rd West India Emancipation</a> celebration at Canandaigua, New York. After giving a cursory nod to the so -called morality of British abolitionists, he spoke at length about how Black violence was a necessary component of abolition. <a href="https://ajahhales.medium.com/no-struggle-no-progress-the-frederick-douglass-speech-we-all-need-to-memorize-bad6ca837a6f">Read More</a>