Monday, January 21, 2019
MLK Day
But for the racism of the 19th Century, we might be celebrating Frederick Douglass Day. He was the foremost orator and abolitionist of his time who rose from slavery to celebrity before he died 25 years after the end of the Civil War. He spoke with Lincoln. He traveled across the North and the Midwest delivering hundreds of speeches calling for the destruction of America's original sin. He was a fearsome writer and intellect who saw and foresaw the pre- and post-Emancipation challenges of Black Americans. He had a brief moment of triumph when slavery was abolished but then saw the post-Reconstruction South descend into lynch mobs and Jim Crow. He never gave up until the day he died in his 77th year. He believed in the power of the spoken and written word and he was an inspiration to both blacks and whites. The country owes him much and is still reaching for the ideals that he called for 150 years ago.
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