Howard County Times (Baltimore Sun): “Columbia author to present the ‘lost history’ of Frederick Douglass’ visits to Howard County” by Ethan Ehrenhaft; October 28, 2022

Thank you to Ethan Ehranhaft of the Howard County Times (Baltimore Sun) for his feature on the upcoming presentation on the Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Howard County at the Elkridge Library Tuesday, November 1, 2022 at 7:00 PM.

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story link *here*

2013 videos of NBC Washington Black History Month program on Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.

In reviewing some of our archives we came across a 2013 Black History Month program from WRC-NBC / NBC 4 Washington focusing on Frederick Douglass in Washington City.

Danella Sealock was kind enough to interview John Muller, author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia and Dr. Ka’mal McClarin, curator of the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

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Livestream interview w/ Doni Glover of BmoreNews.com [Mon, October 24, 2022 @ 9AM]

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Tune in live! Visit Doni Glover’s YouTube – *Here*

Schedule a Walking Tour: The Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Frederick, Maryland (private & group tours available)

http://tinyurl.com/LostHistoryTours

Sgt. Lewis Henry Douglass (U.S. Army, ret.) serves as pall bearer for Osborne Perry Anderson (U.S. Army, ret.), only surviving Black American member of 1859 Harpers Ferry raid

As time now passes over the 163rd anniversary of the failed raid on Harpers Ferry of October 1859 by John Brown and his twenty or so raiders collective memory, emotion and interest in the history and particulars of this event remain as strong as ever.

In studying Frederick Douglass over the years I’ve slowly become more familiar with his relationship to John Brown, Storer College and Harpers Ferry and areas of West Virginia. In the early 1870s Douglass first began to present a lecture on John Brown that would culminate in his delivery of a version of this address at a commencement / benefit / building dedication for Anthony Hall on the campus of Storer College in 1881. (Presently, there is no historical marker or interpretive sign for Douglass’ 1881 speech at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park.)

Lewis Henry Douglass (1840 – 1908)

The connections of the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry to Frederick Douglass and his family were personal. The Douglass family knew John Brown and John Brown knew the Douglass family. As well, the Douglass family knew other members of John Brown’s revolutionary army.

In late 1872 Osborne Perry Anderson died in Washington City. His funeral was held at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church with notable pall bearers William E. Matthews, Robert Purvis of Philadelphia, Dr. Charles B. Purvis of Howard University Medical School, United States Congressman Josiah T. Walls (R-FL), and Lewis Henry Douglass, eldest son of Frederick Douglass.

A death notice for Anderson ran in the New National Era, edited by Frederick Douglass and his sons. In its eulogy the paper offered:

“Osborne P. Anderson was truly a noble and devoted lover of freedom for all mankind and proved his devotion in a way that many other decided and earnest friends of freedom really had not the courage to pursue, of of which they failed to see the utility. Yet the course pursued by John Brown, and Osborne P. Anderson, was the entering wedge to rive the chains from the Southern Slave.”

William Calvin Chase of the Washington Bee praises George Washington Welcome of West Virginia (September 1883)

William Calvin Chase, pictured above, of the Washington Bee apparently knew George Washington Welcome of West Virginia. Chase’s paper praised Welcome’s editorial and career on several occasions in the early 1880s.

Over the past year or so researching the lost history of Frederick Douglass in the Mountain State I subsequently stumbled into the lost history of George Washington Welcome, who attended a private banquet with Douglass in Wheeling, West Virginia in the fall of 1884.

Upon discovering this association and connection between Douglass and Welcome I pondered, who was George Washington Welcome?

I can now confirm with a significant portfolio of evidence that Welcome, buried in present-day Martinsburg, West Virginia, was the publisher and editor of West Virginia’s first Black newspaper in 1882.

In 1884, Welcome sold his investment in his second newspaper venture, the Pioneer Press, to John Robert Clifford.

Somehow and some way while the history of J. R. Clifford has been recognized and uplifted across the state, region and country in the past fifteen years or so Welcome has remained lost, hidden and forgotten.

Utilizing the extant archival record and investigating this lost history as a detective it is evident that over a brief period in the early 1880s Welcome was known throughout West Virginia and the region as an influential political organizer and respected newspaper publisher.

While I have yet to confirm existing copies of Welcome’s first publishing enterprise an examination of contemporary newspaper archives reference the Wheeling Times, launched by Welcome and an associate in West Virginia’s capital city in either August or September 1882.

Some of the more interesting appearances of Welcome and references to his groundbreaking newspaper publishing can be found in the pages of the Washington Bee. Mentions of Welcome in the Washington Bee, published in Washington City for several decades by William Calvin Chase, Esq., are telling.

In September 1883 the Bee reprinted a short biographical entry on Welcome from a newspaper in Michigan with commentary that is presumably from the editorial desk of W. C. Chase.

Knowing Mr. Chase as we have over the past decade or so of related Frederick Douglass research we can confirm that Mr. Chase did not suffer fools and was reluctant to offer praise. Chase’s brief commendation of Welcome is revealing. As T. Thomas Fortune could attest, Chase was more likely to spar, critique and even admonish other newspapers and their editors than offer approval.

And mind you, this excerpted clip from the Bee from 1883 is nearly an entire year before J. R. Clifford, who Chase would come to know well, purchases the ownership of the Pioneer Press from Welcome.

Washington Bee. September 1883.

Did Welcome and Chase know each other? The record indicates they clearly did.

Did Welcome and Chase both know Frederick Douglass privately? They did.

More specifically how did Welcome and Chase know each other? From Black political networks of the Republican Party? From annual conventions of the Black Press? Through mutual associations and connections within the Black Press, such as editor emeritus Douglass?

Some of these questions have yet to be answered and/or will remain open-ended as the research continues.

With the recent launch of the print and online publication Black by God: The West Virginian by West Virginia University journalism graduate Crystal Good and supported by a statewide group of correspondents I have been inspired to look further into the lost history of George Washington Welcome.

SAVE THE DATE — February 14, 2023 Celebrating the 200th birthday of Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Douglass Day. (Registration link)

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SAVE THE DATE —  February 14, 2023 Celebrating the 200th birthday of Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Join us to change Black women’s history together!

Live broadcast / New crowdsourcing project / Birthday cake bake off

— Info & registration -> http://douglassday.org —

Walking Tour: Frederick Douglass & Howard University (7th Street & GA Ave) [Sun., October 16, 2022 @ 1:00 PM]

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The history of Frederick Douglass and Howard University, where he served on the Board of Trustees for a quarter-century, has been largely lost and overlooked within the history of both Reconstruction Washington, D.C. and the mythic public biography of Douglass.

Join author of the definitive book, Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia (The History Press, 2012), for a unique walk back in time to discover the sacred history of Howard University, Miner Normal School and the 7th Street Turnpike.

Tour will discuss history of local Washington City and the Shaw neighborhood following the Civil War, Reconstruction and within the past half-century. Stops on tour include Shiloh Baptist Church, Carter G. Woodson Memorial Park, African-American Civil War Memorial, Howard University Hospital, Howard Hall and several stops for the 70 bus and local history heritage markers.

Historic topics include formation of Howard University, the first generation of co-ed and integrated graduates, faculty including John Mercer Langston, Richard T. Greener, Emily Edmonson Johnson, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, as well as the local and national political support from Senators to Presidents of Howard University to Presidents of the United States.

** REGISTERE HERE **

REGISTER: The Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Howard County, Maryland (In-Person) [November 1, 2022 @ 7:00 PM at Elkridge Branch of Howard County Library System]

Internationally known, in life and afterlife, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as an orator, abolitionist, editor, suffragist and American reformist, the history and placement of Frederick Douglass in Howard County, Maryland has not been previously recognized and discussed. 

Following the Civil War, Frederick Douglass was invited to speak in Howard County on several separate occasions, including a political ratification meeting, a camp meeting in company with his sons and an Emancipation Day celebration where Douglass served as the day’s keynote speaker. 

The Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Howard County, Maryland will focus on the relationships and associations Douglass had with several notable Howard County citizens within local and national reform circles of politics, higher education, suffrage, and the church. The presentation, followed by a Q&A, will include maps, prints, letters, newspapers, photographs, ephemera and more from local, regional, and national collections and archives. Learn more about Douglass and his connections to local railroads, Wayman Grove, Irving Park, Annapolis Junction, local educators, local preachers, local politicians, local suffragists and students attending Howard University in Washington, D.C. from Howard County, Maryland, including the communities of Ellicott City, Roxbury Mills and Simpsonville.

** REGISTER HERE **

mural of Frederick Douglass in South Baltimore w/ Baltimore Ravens logo & train

On a recent sojourn to Baltimore I caught glimpse of a Frederick Douglass mural I don’t recall seeing before. Based upon the condition of the mural I can deduce it has likely been there for several years. My imprecise guess would be the mural is from five to ten years old.

A brief review revealed no information on its date of installation nor the artist(s) who painted it. Maybe this mural was the result of a community service project?

In artistic appeal the mural is quite simple. On a whitewashed canvass behind a community tennis court, from left to right there is an old steam railroad engine followed by passengers car, presumably a B&O train, Baltimore Ravens logo and head shot of an older Frederick Douglass. The only text on the mural is the oft-repeated Douglass quote from an 1857 speech, “If there is no struggle there is no progress.”

This is the second Douglass mural we have seen in Baltimore over the past month or so. We hope to continue to see Douglass represented in public art and murals in the city so consequential in forging and forming the direction of his celebrated life.

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image courtesy of Lost History Associates. JHM