(CNN) - On July Fourth, 1852, just like every year before and since, America celebrated the anniversary of its independence.
But on the very next day that year, abolitionist and escaped slave Frederick Douglass gave a speech on the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom while allowing slavery. Douglass delivered the famous oration, "The meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," in Rochester, NY.
Now, 165 years later, on Monday, a crowd gathered on Boston Common to recite the speech. People queued up to take turns reading in a line that eventually stretched around the audience.
It was the ninth annual reading, according to the group that organized the event.
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