
In history, the population of African Americans in the United States have always struggled to gain the respect and freedom as citizens. The United States started this bad streak when slavery began in what was the colonies under British rule. Then years later, after the end of slavery, African Americans were still being mistreated by the “people of America.” In the mid-1950s and 60s, blacks were rebelling because of how they were being used by the United States but yet still were not being treated like Americans. On July 5th, 1852, Fredrick Douglass stood in front of an auditorium filled with members of the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York and spoke about how it felt to be a slave on the Fourth of July. He talked about how being a slave on that day of celebration was nothing to celebrate. While one hundred and fourteen years later, one hundred and three years after slavery, at the University of California at Berkley, Stokley Carmichael delivered a speech to a room filled of white students for are too against injustice about how much had changed in the United States and how much had yet to change. By October of 1966, the United States had eradicated slavery however African Americans were not yet free. Many African Americans still felt the heat of injustice, especially at a time that included the Vietnam War. Upon carefully inspection, the reader can still the message of these two men are very similar and different in subject matter.

Upon simple observation, the reader can see that both men are talking about the treatment of African Americans at those specific periods of time. For Fredrick Douglass, he spoke at a time during which African Americans were trying to gain freedom from the bondage of slavery that had crippled the United States since its inception. Douglass refers to how African Americans were living in the United States but were not an actual part of the country. But rather slaves in the United States were like people who were on the outside looking in on those who enjoyed the freedoms of being an American citizen. To the present audience, Douglass is trying to bring awareness and almost garner support for the cause of freedom, by giving a firsthand account of slavery.

Now in comparison, again these two speeches were talking about the condition at the time of the African American population in United States. On the one hand, African Americans were staring down the barrel of a nation that treated them as second class and servants. And the latter speech, presented African Americans looking at life of again as being second class and inferior, yet supposedly free. To the reader, it can easily be seen that life really had not changed from 1852 to 1966. The gap in time even with the changes that were being made, there were still great barriers from the African American people. 

However, for Stokely Carmichael, he delivered his speech at a time where Africans Americans were trying to gain freedom from the injustice of “just being a black person.”  Both men are speaking to a relatively white crowd who want to make a difference in their world, both men in their speeches explain the struggles that they and some many others had to go through just because of the color of their skin. He argued that the America he lived in was “their” America and not his, while Carmichael spoke about how unjust it was for an African American man to go fight for the United States in Vietnam only to be killed and even buried in his own country. On the contrary, both men historically had different ways of solving the problems in the country at the time While Carmichael in equal rights for blacks, after the end of slavery, but through violence and isolation.

Upon inspection of both works, the reader can see that the message of both men is just about the same and that is making people aware of the injustices served towards African-Americans and other people of color. The only difference in the message is its language, as they come from different time periods in history. It is recommended that one would read Douglass’ work first as it gives one the perspective of an African American person living before the end of slavery. While later reading Carmichael’s, work will help the reader understand life as an African-American still fighting for freedom some 100 years after the end of slavery, and much did not change in that time span. When reading these pieces, the reader can compare them to what is going on in the world around them in the current period.

In conclusion, the reader is exposed through these two pieces of writing that offer proof of their similarity and differences. Similarity these two writings serve the same purpose of bringing awareness to a problem. That problem being the struggle of being black in the United States at the time. While there were also differences in how they believed in how the problem should be solved, as well as what was going on during their times. In history, the population of African Americans in the United States have always struggled to gain the respect and freedom as citizens. The United States started this bad streak when slavery began in what was the colonies under British rule. Then years later, after the end of slavery, African Americans were still being mistreated by the “people of America.” In the mid-1950s and 60s, blacks were rebelling because of how they were being used by the United States but still were not being treated like Americans. Upon carefully inspection, the reader can still the message of these two men are very similar and different in subject matter.