In the late 1860s, during the height of the Reconstruction Era, Frederick Douglass toured the country delivering a speech titled “Composite Nation.” In his lecture, Douglass expressed his ideas about an ideal nation in which prejudice was eradicated. Douglass shared explicit support for immigration from East Asia, a concept that was greatly rejected by most politicians and citizens. In his speech, Douglass writes “There are such things in the world as human rights. They rest upon no conventional foundation, but are external, universal, and indestructible. Among these, is the right of locomotion; the right of migration; the right which belongs to no particular race, but belongs alike to all and to all alike… It is this great right that I assert for the Chinese and the Japanese, and for all other varieties of men equally with yourselves, now and forever.”
Africana Studies at Penn
In the late 1860s, during the height of the Reconstruction Era, Frederick Douglass toured the country delivering a speech titled “Composite Nation.” In his lecture, Douglass expressed his ideas about an ideal nation in which prejudice was eradicated. Douglass shared explicit support for immigration from East Asia, a concept that was greatly rejected by most politicians and citizens. In his speech, Douglass writes “There are such things in the world as human rights. They rest upon no conventional foundation, but are external, universal, and indestructible. Among these, is the right of locomotion; the right of migration; the right which belongs to no particular race, but belongs alike to all and to all alike… It is this great right that I assert for the Chinese and the Japanese, and for all other varieties of men equally with yourselves, now and forever.”
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1 year ago | [YT] | 2