A bronze statue of Frederick Douglass in the U.S. Capitol
Frederick Douglass never knew exactly when he was born, as birthdates were rarely recorded for slaves. But he chose to celebrate his birthday on February 14 because he liked the day for its emphasis on love and because he said he last saw his mother on Valentine’s Day when she gave him a heart-shaped ginger cake. We do know that Douglass was born in Maryland around 1818; his mother was a slave and his father was likely one of his mother’s owners. Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 and soon became one of the most eloquent anti-slavery voices in America.
Douglass regularly advocated for Abraham Lincoln to extend more rights to Black people. While the two often disagreed, they came to be friends. In 2023, I saw a 2-man play, “Walk to Respect,” that dramatized this relationship using the actual words of both men. Those words were so inspiring that they made me cry.
After the war, Douglass served in several government positions while continuing to speak and write for the rights of Black people and women. When he died in 1895, thousands came to pay respects, and senators and Supreme Court justices served as pallbearers. Douglass left many rousing words, but I want to mark his birthday this year with these words from an 1857 speech:
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want the rain without thunder and lighting. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, and it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.” ~ “West India Emancipation” speech in Canandaigua, New York, August 4, 1857
The two-man play, “A Walk to Respect” dramatized the relationship between Douglass and Lincoln using their own words. I saw this performance at the Kennedy Center in 2023.
0 Comments