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Frederick Douglass

High School Students Celebrate Emancipation Jubilee -- and Look to the Future

Alan Singer | Posted 04.23.2013 | New York
Read More: Hofstra University, High School, Education, Emancipation Proclamation Annivesary, Martin Luther King, Emancipation Proclamation, Frederick Douglass, Trayvon Martin, New York News
Alan Singer

A giant portrait of Frederick Douglass stared down at the audience of about three hundred high school students who gathered in the Hofstra University student center to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

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The Politics of Redemption and Black Leadership Revisited

Pascal Robert | Posted 03.27.2013 | Black Voices
Read More: Black Nationalism, Politics, Black Politics, Martin Luther King, Black-Leadership, President Barack Obama, The Politics of Redemption, Black Leadership, Frederick Douglass, Barack Obama, Video, Black Voices News
Pascal Robert

The politics of redemption is premised on the need for blacks to constantly seek the validation and approval of whites. Besides being terribly humiliating as a construct, the politics of redemption is a bankrupt world view, and an even more repellent political strategy.

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7 Sensational Frederick Douglass Quotes

Posted 02.20.2013 | Black Voices
Read More: Frederick Douglass Birthday, Frederick Douglass Quotes, Frederick Douglass Birth Date, Frederick Douglass, Black History Month, Black Voices News

Happy birthday, Frederick Douglass! Well, sort of. Unfortunately the exact date of the iconic abolitionist's birth is unknown, with several propos...

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We’ll Walk Hand In Hand?

Rev. Dr. Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder | Posted 04.22.2013 | Religion
Read More: Scripture Study, Scripture Commentary, Christianity, Immigration Reform, On Scripture, Frederick Douglass, Philippians 3:20, Immigration, Genesis 15, Video, Religion News
Rev. Dr. Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder

Some 12 million women, men and children across these United States await with baited breath to see what political deals will be made to construct either a pathway to citizenship or pave a road to deportation hell.

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One More Step Towards Statehood?

The Huffington Post | Chelsea Kiene | Posted 02.05.2013 | DC
Read More: Eleanor Norton, Civil War, District of Columbia, Civil Rights Activists, Slavery, Washington D.C., Capitol, DC Statehood, Frederick Douglass Abolition, Statuary Hall, Frederick Douglass, D.C., Abolitionists, Civil Rights, U.S. Capitol, Black History Month, DC News

WASHINGTON -- Abolitionist and civil rights activist Frederick Douglass is preparing for a new home in the nation’s Capitol. Or rather, the bronz...

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This Is Activism's Moment

Hugh Hogan | Posted 04.01.2013 | New York
Read More: Philanthropy, Civil Rights Movement, Social Justice, Obama Second Term, Hurricane Sandy, Community Organizers, Grassroots, Activism, President Obama, Activist, Frederick Douglass, New York City, Barack Obama, New York News
Hugh Hogan

How do we build on this essential post-election moment, in which the forces of progress have a shot at shoring up reforms of the last century, and making our system more fair, just and compassionate?

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Controversial Spokesperson Makes Historically Fuzzy Claim About Slavery

The Huffington Post | Meredith Bennett-Smith | Posted 01.22.2013 | Religion
Read More: Religion News, Bryan Fischer, Video, Bryan Fischer the Abolitionists, Bryan Fischer Evangelicals Ended Slavery, The Abolitionists, Bryan Fisher Anti-Gay, Bryan Fischer American Family Association, Bryan Fischer Statements, Bryan Fischer Slavery, Frederick Douglass, God Bryan Fischer, Religion News

American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer made a generalization about the end of slavery during his daily "Focal Point" broadcast on Friday,...

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WATCH: John Brown, Religion And Violent Abolition

R. Blakeslee Gilpin | Posted 03.24.2013 | Religion
Read More: Religion and Slavery, Christianity, Religion and Politics, Frederick Douglass, American History, Abolition, Abolitionists, Slavery, Video, Religion News
R. Blakeslee Gilpin

Written in and bleached out of our nation's founding documents, anti-slavery thought had some of the most curious fellow travelers of any reform movement in U.S. history.

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Obama Asks America to Learn the Radical Lessons of Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall

Peter Dreier | Posted 03.23.2013 | Politics
Read More: Luis Leon, Martin Luther King, Lucretia Mott, Howard Zinn, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Merlie Evers, Selma, Richard Blanco, Frederick Douglass, Barack Obama, Stonewall, Seneca Falls, Obama Inauguration Speech, Inauguration Day 2013, Politics News
Peter Dreier

In evoking the battles at Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall -- and in selecting Evers, Blanco, and Rev. Leon to participate in the ceremony -- Obama was reminding Americans that the progress toward a better society is made primarily by people working together through social movements.

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What Every American Should Know About Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist Prophet

John Stauffer | Posted 03.10.2013 | Religion
Read More: Video, Abolition, Slavery, Christianity, Black History, Prophecy, Frederick Douglass, Christian Prophets, Christian Social Justice, Religion News
John Stauffer

For Douglass, there was an intimate link between individual conversion and social reform. The path of reform flowed outward from self to society. Before eradicating social evil, you first had to purify the self.

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LOOK: Plans For New Bridge, Traffic Circles Unveiled

Posted 01.02.2013 | DC
Read More: New Frederick Douglass Bridge Renderings, Video, New Frederick Douglass Bridge, Vincent Gray, Anacostia River, Frederick Douglass Bridge, New Frederick Douglass Bridge Photos, Frederick Douglass, DC News

WASHINGTON -- District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray has released design plans for a new South Capitol Street bridgespan over the Anacostia River. Th...

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A Letter to Frederick Douglass on the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary Of The Emancipation Proclamation

Darnell L. Moore | Posted 01.01.2013 | Black Voices
Read More: Emancipation Proclamation, Frederick Douglass, Black Voices News
Darnell L. Moore

Today, 120 years after you offered testimony about black progress and an acute prognosis of America's condition, I wonder: Are the advancements of black people in this nation the best measures for "progress"?

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A Letter to My Ancestor: Frederick Douglass

Rep. Hank Johnson | Posted 03.03.2013 | Black Voices
Read More: Emancipation Proclamation Annivesary, Emancipation Proclamation, Frederick Douglass, Black Voices News
Rep. Hank Johnson

It has required tremendous sacrifice, but today our people have reached the pinnacle in all facets of American society. There is no level of achievement off limits or out of reach for African-Americans in this great country we call home.

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Emancipation Proclamation Provided a Seminal Moment in the Nation's History

Byron Williams | Posted 03.02.2013 | Black Voices
Read More: 13th Amendment, Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation Annivesary, Emancipation Proclamation, Frederick Douglass, Black Voices News
Byron Williams

The proclamation did more than make slavery illegal in the rebellion states; it changed the course of the war and forever transformed the nation. For the first time, it made ubiquitous the Jeffersonian notion of all being created equal.

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Lincoln Film Forgets D.C.'s Frederick Douglass -- And African American Leadership

Michael Shank | Posted 01.28.2013 | Entertainment
Read More: 13th Amendment, Black Soldiers, Civil War, Cedar Hill, Civil Rights, Lydia Hamilton Smith, Elizabeth Keckley, Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, Frederick Douglass, Lincoln Review, Lincoln Film, Entertainment News
Michael Shank

Unlike Lincoln, we cannot ignore Frederick Douglass' critique in the current conversation over equality, or lack thereof, of opportunity, access and mobility in this country.

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Obama's Style - Now Aggressive, Always Colored by a Hero

David Tereshchuk | Posted 12.17.2012 | Media
Read More: Hofstra University, Candy Crowley, Mitt Romney, Cnn, Presidential Debates, Frederick Douglass, Barack Obama, Media News
David Tereshchuk

That determination to operate across divides will be needed it if Obama is to govern another four years, especially as they begin with our grimly-expected "fiscal cliff" at the turn of the year, and need for serious new agreed measures to come out of Capitol Hill.

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Frederick Douglass Statue In U.S. Capitol?

Posted 09.10.2012 | DC
Read More: Video, Emancipation Hall, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Dan Lungren, Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass Statue, U.S. Capitol, Charles Schumer, DC News

WASHINGTON -- Will Frederick Douglass finally make it into the U.S. Capitol? The District of Columbia's delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton...

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Brooklyn's African American History Remains Largely Forgotten and Unmarked

Alan Singer | Posted 10.14.2012 | New York
Read More: Metrotech, Black History, Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, Frederick Douglass, Brooklyn, Slavery, Brooklyn History, NY History, New York News
Alan Singer

January 1, 2013 is the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Finally "Brooklyn's in the House" in efforts to bring the story of slavery in the United States to a broader public.

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How Progressives Should Talk About Patriotism

Ian Reifowitz | Posted 09.05.2012 | Politics
Read More: National Identity, Fourth of July, Independence Day, Frederick Douglass, Civil Rights Movement, Barack Obama, Slavery, Politics News
Ian Reifowitz

What we cannot do, what Douglass himself did not do as seen in the conclusion to his 1852 speech, is cede patriotism and an embrace of America to the right wing.

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Learning and Independence: Examples for the Fourth

Michael Roth | Posted 09.03.2012 | College
Read More: Liberal Education, 4th of July, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, College News
Michael Roth

I've been so impressed by the consistent links between education and freedom that run through American intellectual history. As we celebrate America's birthday, let me share just two.

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What, to a Novelist, Is the 4th of July?

Lois Leveen | Posted 09.02.2012 | Books
Read More: Declaration of Independence, American History, Lois Leveen, Independence Day, Women's History, Books, July 4th, Historical Fiction, Novels, Black History, Book Clubs, Book, Fourth of July, Frederick Douglass, Mary Bowser, Novel, Books News
Lois Leveen

What better way to celebrate the Fourth of July than with a novel inspired by a real-life hero who risked her own liberty to ensure America finally made real the ideals illuminated in the Declaration of Independence?

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Teachers as Crap Detectors and the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility

Alan Singer | Posted 07.23.2012 | Home
Read More: Ernest Hemingway, Social Responsibility, Michael Bloomberg, Race to the Top, Mother Jones, Upton Sinclair, Bill Gates, Huck Finn, Barack Obama, New York City, Pearson Education, Margaret Mead, Rupert Murdoch, Teachers, Teaching, Frederick Douglass, Home News
Alan Singer

Tom Roderick, executive director of the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, asked me to share my thoughts on teaching and crap detection. These are some of the things I learned from forty years as a teacher.

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Emancipation Day 2012: What Frederick Douglass Would Think of Ward 8's 21st-Century Troubles

Chris Gentilviso | Posted 06.16.2012 | DC
Read More: Emancipation Day 2012, Emancipation, Emancipation 150th Anniversary, Dc Emancipation Day, Frederick Douglass Abolition, Frederick Douglass, Cedar Hill, Emancipation Day, Marion Barry, Marion Barry Ward 8, Ward 8, DC News
Chris Gentilviso

To understand the importance of Washington D.C. Emancipation Day, look no further than the story of those who thought this event would never happen.

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Student Harassed For Essay Comparing School To Modern Slavery

The Huffington Post | Laura Hibbard | Posted 03.07.2012 | Home
Read More: School Racism, Video, Slavery, Racism, Discrimination, Frederick Douglass Abolition, Frederick Douglass, Racism in Schools, School Discrimination, Home News

When Jada Williams, a 13-year-old student at Rochester's School No. 3, wrote an essay making comparisons between a slavemaster discouraging Frederick ...

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For the Love of Justice: A Valentine's Day Tribute to Frederick Douglass

Hugh Hogan | Posted 04.15.2012 | New York
Read More: Immigration Reform, Social Justice, U.S. Postal Service, Homelessness, Street Vendors, Frederick Douglass, Human Trafficking, New York Street Vendors, Ny DREAM Act, Valentine's Day Ny, New York News
Hugh Hogan

In honor of Frederick Douglass' activism, here is my Valentine's Day message to New Yorkers who want to make this city a fairer, more caring and compassionate place.

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