Frederick Douglass

Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey into slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Frederick Douglass taught himself to read and write in secret, escaped to freedom in 1838, and emerged as the most powerful orator of the 19th century. His 1845 autobiography, 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,' became an international bestseller and a devastating indictment of slavery. After a two-year speaking tour of Great Britain, where supporters purchased his legal freedom, he returned to found the North Star newspaper in Rochester, New York — one of the most influential abolitionist publications in America. He advised President Lincoln during the Civil War, fought for the enlistment of Black soldiers, and after the war held federal appointments including U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia and Minister to Haiti.

Douglass's home, Cedar Hill in Washington, D.C., is a national historic site, and his words are quoted by every generation fighting for justice. He mentored Ida B. Wells and countless others, and his insistence that 'power concedes nothing without a demand' became a motto of movements for civil rights.