LYNN – of (Podcast) The city of Lynn, where Frederick Douglass arrived as a 23-year-old fugitive slave and rose to international fame as an abolitionist will celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth with a year-long series of events.
“Lynn Celebrates Douglass” will coincide with Douglass 200 events in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, MD, Rochester, N.Y., and New Bedford, cities where Douglass also lived. In November, President Trump signed legislation establishing a national committee to plan Douglass birthday events.
The Lynn celebration will begin with a party Feb. 14 at City Hall — Douglass’s 200th birthday. Also in February, the Community Minority Cultural Center is sponsoring a Black History Month film festival and an African-American Leadership Summit. The Lynn Museum will hold a Frederick Douglass Family Fun Day during February school vacation week.
Podcast – Julia Greene, Wendy Joseph, Tom Dalton, Brenda Womack, Roy Rhodes, Nicole McLain with Bill Newell – Discussing Frederick Douglas and Events
Frederick Douglass 200th Birthday
Roy Rhodes, Brenda Womack, Nicole McLain, Julia Greene, Wendy Joseph, Tom Dalton
Click on Links – LynnDouglass200 Facebook Page / Frederick Douglass Autobiography
Frederick Douglass’s account of ejection from railway car in Lynn
Frederick Douglass’ very first recorded speech delivered in Lynn, MA in October 1841
Additional Events
North Shore Community College will host a public reading Feb. 21 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, the autobiography Douglass wrote in Lynn during the winter of 1844-45. The classic slave narrative is still taught in schools and colleges.
Other events include an April talk and book signing for the recently published Frederick Douglass: The Lynn Years (1841-1848); a reading July 3 at High Rock Tower Park of one of Douglass’s most famous speeches; and a September lecture on the Confederate flag — “Symbol of Hate, Not Heritage” — at the Grand Army of the Republic Museum.
In the fall, a commemoration will be held in Central Square to mark an iconic event in Douglass’s life — his violent ejection from a train at the Lynn Depot on Sept. 28, 1841, after his refusal to move to a segregated “Jim Crow” car.
The celebration concludes in October with a tour of abolitionist graves in Pine Grove Cemetery and a gospel music concert at Washington Street Baptist Church. All events are open to the public.
Douglass, the most prominent African-American of the 19th century, arrived in Lynn in 1841 a few years after escaping from slavery to begin work as an agent, or traveling lecturer, for the Massachusetts AntiSlavery Society. He lived here with his wife and four young children in houses on Baldwin Street, Newhall Street and Harrison Court, and gave his first recorded speech in Lynn. After almost seven years here, he moved to Rochester to start his own newspaper, becoming the voice for the country’s three million slaves.
Over his 77 years, Douglass advised President Abraham Lincoln, recruited black soldiers for the legendary Massachusetts 54th Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, and was named U.S. marshal for the District of Columbia, the highest position held up to that time by an African-American.