Photo Archives: Presentation @ Woman’s National Democratic Club (Washington, DC)

HBCU Seniors: The Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Scholarship Program is Open [Deadline – November 16, 2018]

---

This new scholarship honors and commemorates the works and influence of Frederick Douglass, offering awards to college seniors attending HBCUs.

On the occasion of the bicentennial year (2018) of the birth of Frederick Douglass, Tony Signore has partnered with UNCF to establish the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Scholarship Program in honor of the great writer, orator, social reformer and abolitionist, and in recognition of exceptional accomplishments by students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

The Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Scholarship Program pays tribute to one of the most important African American figures in our country’s history. Based on Signore’s deep respect and admiration for Douglass, which was instilled in him more than 35 years ago by the Jesuits at Fordham University, he has collaborated with UNCF to create a scholarship program to recognize and honor the transformative and historic leader by providing support to outstanding young women and men attending HBCUs.

The program, designed and funded by the Signore Family, is available via UNCF for a period of 20 years.

The program will award one $10,000 scholarship each year through academic year 2038-39 to an exceptional HBCU senior with unmet financial need, who demonstrates high academic achievement, strong leadership and community service during their freshman, sophomore and junior years of college.

To learn more about the program and to apply, visit 

UNCF.org/FrederickDouglass.

Applications must be received by November 16.

VIDEO: Ranger Mark on “Frederick Douglass in the Post Civil War Years (Lecture)”

Star Democrat, “Douglass visited Cambridge” [Print edition, September 26, 2018; front page & p. 11]

Photo by Jack Rodgers, Star Democrat

Douglass visited Cambridge, researchers say

Story by: Jack Rodgers

CAMBRIDGE — The Harriet Tubman Museum hosted two speakers Sept. 21, who spoke about newly found evidence that Frederick Douglass visited Cambridge in 1877.

Linda Duyer, a local Eastern Shore historian and John Muller, author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C: The Lion of Anacostia, both talked about their findings Friday, which point to a Douglass visit.

“We found it to be an extraordinary visit in a number of ways,” Duyer said. “This was a much more exciting visit.”

Duyer said Douglass came to Cambridge by steamboat overnight on Sept. 22, 1877, arriving in the early morning. Douglass was accompanied by John Mercer Langston, abolitionist and U.S. ambassador to Haiti.

The pair left from Long Wharf traveling up High Street, making arrangements to stay at the Cambridge Hotel. At that time, the hotel was on the northwest side of High Street, and was eventually moved to the other side, Duyer said.

Douglass and Langston then traveled to Bethel Church, where they were met by 400 to 500 people, Duyer said. Throughout their visit, Douglass and Langston were followed by bands as they walked through the area, she said.

Duyer said Douglass was not originally set to speak to the crowd, however, he ended up speaking for two hours. Douglass did not use a prepared speech, but spoke directly to both black and white audience members separately, she said.

“At one point he said, ‘Do a man a kindness and you will like him, do him an injury and you will hate him,’ which I thought was interesting,” Duyer said.

Duyer said the town commissioners also had invited Douglass to Cambridge in a proclamation, posted in a local publication. Douglass’ visit to Cambridge also came two months after his visit with his former slavemaster in the county.

Muller said Langston and Douglass had a complicated relationship, which at times may have been adversarial. This made their joint visit more unique, he said.

Muller said Douglass’ visit to Cambridge is groundbreaking and in some way changed his history.

“Frederick Douglass was an outlaw for justice and righteousness,” Muller said. “He was a very sought-after orator, writer and lecturer.”

LINK:

“Douglass visited Cambridge, researchers say”

---

Editor’s Note:

I will be presenting at the Union United Methodist Church on Saturday, October 20 at the invitation of the St. Michael’s Museum and at the Easton Branch of the Talbot County Free Library on Thursday, November 1.

See you soon.

JM

Thank you to Cambridge, Maryland for uplifting lost history of Dr. Frederick (Bailey) Douglass

Thank you to Linda Duyer, Mr. Pinder, Mr. Jarmon, Mr. and Mrs. Green of Tubman Tours, the Harriet Tubman Organization, WHCP, Star Democrat and all who attended the presentation on Frederick Douglass in Cambridge, Maryland this past Friday evening.

Hope to see you soon!

Photos: Linda Duyer

George Washington University Museum and Textile Museum presents talk with two Douglass authors & graduates [Monday, October 1 @ 12 Noon]

---

With nationwide recognition of the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial occurring across the country and around the globe, join GW graduates and authors Paul Kendrick and John Muller as they discuss their respective books covering the relationship between Frederick Douglass and President Lincoln, and the life and times of Douglass in “Washington City.”

Their discussion will be moderated by GW Professor Randi Kristensen.

Monday, October 1, 2018
12:00pm
The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum
701 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052

Lecture of United States Marshal Frederick Douglass announced in daily Hagerstown newspaper [April 1879]

 

SOURCE:

Microfilm holdings; Washington County Library, Hagerstown Branch

Dr. Frederick Douglass was a Marylander; addresses Emancipation Day in Cumberland, Maryland [September 22, 1879]

An an indigenous Eastern Shoreman Dr. Frederick (Bailey) Douglass could rightfully claim identity as a Baltimorean and thus kinship status as a Marylander through and through.

Lost to history have been several return visits Dr. Douglass made to the Shore as well as numerous lifelong relationships he maintained with Marylanders from members of the Lloyd family to abolitionist and educator Emily Edmonson of Montgomery County. Additionally, the speeches and activities of Dr. Douglass throughout the different regions and areas of his native state are widely forgotten in existing scholarship and bicentennial commemorations.

Untold by his own hand and biographers, in September 1879 Dr. Douglass visited the Cumberland Valley, drawing a reported 2,000 whites and blacks to the city of Cumberland from West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Western Maryland.

Courtesy of Washington County Free Library, Western Maryland Room

Sharing the stage with former Congressman and Lincoln appointee Henry W. Hoffman, Dr. Douglass spoke to acknowledge September 22nd as Emancipation Day, whereas 17 years before President Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

In truth, Dr. Douglass ran with many men, such as Henry O. Wagoner and James W. C. Pennington, who traveled out of underground railroad stations in Western Maryland to freedom. Martin Delany, one of Douglass’ early associates, was indigenous to the Appalachia area.

In the 1880s Dr. Douglass frequently traveled to Harper’s Ferry to attend to his duties as a board member of Storer College.

Known to travel near and far within his home state and throughout the country and world, I’ve confirmed Dr. Douglass spoke in Hagerstown for the benefit of a local church in 1879, about six months before visiting Cumberland in September.

Point is: Dr. Douglass, an Eastern Shoreman by birth and Point Boy by initiation, touched all parts of his native state, including Allegheny and Washington counties in Western Maryland.

It is beyond time to uplift the history and give Dr. Douglass the full recognition he so rightfully deserves as a Marylander.

JM

---

ANNIVERSARY OF EMANCIPATION.

Monday, 22d inst., emancipation day was celebrated in Cumberland with much rejoicing by the colored people, who poured into the city on every train. The procession formed at the Queen City Hotel about half past 12 and marched through the principal streets to the fair grounds where dinner was served and addresses delivered by Hons Frederick Douglass, of Washington, and Henry W. Hoffman, of Cumberland, and others.

Frostburg was fully represented.

—

---

SOURCE:

Mining Journal,  “Anniversary of Emancipation.” 27 September, 1879, p. 3

—

Editor’s Note (1):

Special thanks to reference library and archivist Elizabeth Howe of the Western Maryland Room of the Washington County Free Library for the research support.

Editor’s Note (2):

I have been invited to present on “Frederick Douglass in Western Maryland” at the October 1, 2018 meeting of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture.

Due to a previous commitment I will be unable to present but have made arrangements for the information to be presented on behalf of W Street Douglassonians.

—

Maryland Commission on African American History & Culture

Public Meeting

Monday, October 1, 2018 at 11:00 AM (Washington County)

Hagerstown Community College

111400 Robinwood Drive

Career Programs Building Rooms 211 & 213

Hagerstown, MD 21742

—

RSVP National Archives: Frederick Douglass, 19th-Century Civil Rights Activist: His Legacy Today (Thursday, October 18 @ 7:00 PM)

Frederick Douglass, 19th-Century Civil Rights Activist: His Legacy Today

William G. McGowan Theater
Washington, DC

Thursday, October 18, 2018 – 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Reserve a Seat 
View on YouTube

Join us for a panel discussion in honor of the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Douglass.

The panel will explore Douglass’s legacy as well as contemporary issues related to his causes. Moderated by John Whittington Franklin, senior manager, Office of External Affairs, NMAAHC, Smithsonian Institution, panelists include David Blight, professor of history, Yale University; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, ASALH president and chair, History Department, Harvard University; and Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., co-founder and president, Frederick Douglass Family Initiative.

Frederick Douglass himself (portrayed by Phil Darius Wallace) will also appear.

Book signings of the bicentennial edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and Blight’s book Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom will follow the discussion.

Presented in partnership with the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Lincoln Group of DC – October 16, 2018 – Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln in memoriam of John Eliff

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Maggiano’s-Chevy Chase 5333 Wisconsin Ave, NW

Washington DC

Maggiano dinner options

Members $35.00 USD Non-Members $40.00 USD Program Only $20.00 USD

Right at the Friendship Heights Metro stop.  The adjacent Chevy Chase Pavilion parking garage has a restaurant discount cost of $3.80 for four hours.   You can enter the garage from Wisconsin Ave, 50 feet north of the restaurant (between Marshalls and Cheesecake factory), but the best garage entrance for Maggiano’s is from Western Ave.

John Muller – Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass

The Lincoln Group of DC is honored and pleased to commemorate the 2018 Bicentennial of Frederick Douglass by inviting John Muller to discuss Douglass’s immense contributions to the end of slavery in America. John is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist, historian, playwright, tour guide and policy analyst. He has been active in the local history community of Washington, D.C. over the past decade and has developed a specialized knowledge of the history of the Anacostia community, the city’s first sub-division. In 2012 Frederick Douglass in Washington D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia was published by The History Press. The book was selected as the DC Public Library’s 2013 DC Reads.

For a decade, John Muller has written articles on local history and neighborhood politics in the Washington metropolitan area for a variety of print and online news and history publications including Capital Community News, Civil War News, DCist, East City Arts, East of the River, Greater Greater Washington, Huffington Post, Washington City Paper, Washington History, Washington Informer, Washington Post and Washington Times. He has spoken multiple times at the Library of Congress, Politics and Prose, Gaithersburg Book Festival, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site as well as the American Library in Paris, Newseum, Mark Twain House and Museum and other local and national venues.

While an undergraduate, along with his close friend, Muller co-founded a non-profit theatre company, DreamCity Theatre Group, that brought “stories from the streets to the stage.” The 70, about the 70 bus that runs Georgia Avenue, remains a legendary local play. Muller also wrote Mayor for Life about the late D.C. iconoclast and Mayor Marion Barry. (As a local reporter Muller covered Mayor Barry.)

John is a 2007 graduate of George Washington University, with a BA in Public Policy.

Please join us for this unique event celebration the life and contributions of Frederick Douglass during his bicentennial year.