Happy Douglass Day
join the transcribe-a-thon or watch on Zoom!
Last year, we told you that Valentine’s Day is also a day for celebrating Frederick Douglass’s birthday. Like many people born into slavery, Douglass didn’t know the exact date of his birth. After he escaped to freedom, he recalled that his mother, who died when he was very young, called him her “little valentine,” so he chose Valentine’s Day as his birthday.
Douglass Day, a collective dedicated to preserving and sharing Black History, invites people every year to get involved in service work. This year’s focus is on Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893), an activist, journalist, teacher, intellectual, and lawyer. Douglass Day will celebrate her 200th birthday with readings, transcription of her papers and documents, and a panel discussion of her life’s work and significance. You can watch on Youtube or sign up to help! From douglassday.org:
Shadd Cary was one of the earliest Black women to found and edit a newspaper, attend law school, and serve as a Civil War recruiter. She grew up in the strong Black communities of Delaware and Philadelphia before emigrating to Canada. After the US Civil War, she moved to Washington DC.
Across all of these places, Shadd Cary worked endlessly to empower and educate Black people in the United States and Canada through her public writing and speaking, editing, suffrage activism, and community organizing. She was a fearless advocate for her causes. As she wrote in an 1849 letter to Frederick Dogulass, “in anything relating to our people, I am insensible of boundaries.”
Here’s a video that explains how Douglass Day eventually inspired Black History month:
And more about how a Douglass Day transcribe-a-thon works:
And here’s the Douglass Day Spotify playlist—a great way to start your day and definitely how we’re starting ours.
Be well, Frog Troublers!