On Valentine's Day 2019, we invite you to a 201st birthday party for Frederick Douglass. Although Douglass was born into bondage, and never knew his birthdate, he chose to celebrate every year on February 14th. We will commemorate his birthday by reading and discussing Black authored texts by and about Douglass and his wife Anna Douglass.
This year we have planned to celebrate Douglass Day 2019 with two Read-a-thons.
Both events will be video streamed online. CCP members will be available to talk with you on Facebook and Twitter. We'll get to work in Delaware and Philadelphia and simultaneous events around the country and abroad. Let's preserve the long history of Black activism together!
Douglass Day is a holiday that began around the turn of the 20th century. After the passing of Frederick Douglass in 1895, Black communities across the U.S. gathered to celebrate his birthday every year on February 14th. They celebrated, remembered, and protested against the threat of racial violence and attacks on their civil rights. Douglass Day may have been one of the original inspirations for Black History Month, shaped by Mary Church Terrell and Carter G. Woodson. In 2017, the Colored Conventions Project revived Douglass Day. Over 250 people came together at nine locations across the U.S. to work on Transcribe Minutes. (See our Douglass Day pages for 2017 and 2018)
Founded in 1976 in celebration of the nation's Bicentennial, the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) is the first institution funded and built by a major municipality to preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage of African Americans. Throughout its evolution, the museum has objectively interpreted and presented the achievements and aspirations of African Americans from pre-colonial times to the current day.
The African American Museum in Philadelphia brings diverse communities together in greater appreciation of the Black experience through the combined narrative of art, culture and historical witness.
DOUGLASS DAY 2019
MEDIA BACKGROUNDER
Read-a-thon events on February 14, 2019 Events
University of Delaware, Morris Library Room 114
181 S. College Ave., Newark, DE
Program runs from 11am to 1pm
Directions to UD
African American Museum in Philadelphia, Auditorium
701 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
Program runs from 4pm to 7pm
https://www.aampmuseum.org
Read-a-thons are being self organized across the US and in Ankara, Turkey in the following states:
More than 900 have registered to participate in Alabama California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Ankara, Turkey
Livestream of events via coloredconventions.org/hbd
Who: High school students, college and university students, public library users, museum patrons, student groups, seniors groups, book clubs, amateur historians and genealogists, librarians, archivists, scholars, teachers, scholars, activists, church goers, and other volunteers from Newark, Philadelphia, across the United States, and as far away as Ankara, Turkey.
What: An online and transnational read-a-thon celebration of the works of and about Frederick Douglass, his family and their legacy. See the readings, below.
Commentary: Address of Hon. Fred. Douglass, delivered before the National Convention of Colored Men In Louisville, KY, 1883, by Frederick Douglass.
Tribute: My Mother Anna Murray Douglass as I Recall Her, by Rosetta Douglass Sprague (1900).
Poem: Frederick Douglass, by Robert Hayden (1966).
About the Colored Conventions Project at the University of Delaware
The Colored Conventions Project archives seventy years of largely Black-authored documents from the colored conventions movement.
From 1830 through the 1890s, Africans in the US and Canada organized for full and equitable political, labour, gender and education opportunities, convening hundreds of highly structured, official conventions.
The meetings were administered through a defined governance structure, with voting on resolutions, drafting of policy, fundraising and the establishment of related societies, committees and chapters at local, regional and national levels.
Frederick Douglass attended more than a dozen conventions over four decades, was a key leader within the movement and one of its most prominent and prolific orators.
CCP Social Media
Twitter = @CCP_org
Facebook = ColoredConventionsProject
Instagram = @colored_conventions
About the African American Museum of Philadelphia
Founded in 1976 in celebration of the nation's Bicentennial, the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) is the first institution funded and built by a major municipality to preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage of African Americans. Throughout its evolution, the museum has objectively interpreted and presented the achievements and aspirations of African Americans from pre-colonial times to the current day.
AAMP’s Mission
The African American Museum in Philadelphia brings diverse communities together in greater appreciation of the Black experience through the combined narrative of art, culture and historical witness.
AAMP on Social Media
Twitter: @aampmuseum
Instagram: @aampmuseum
Douglass Day Sponsors
Douglass Day 2019 has generously supported by:
The African American Museum in Philadelphia, the University of Delaware's College of Arts and Sciences, the office of the Vice-Provost of Diversity and Inclusion, the Center for Black Culture, Morris Library and the Department of Africana Studies, AARP Delaware and AARP Philadelphia, and the Bethel AME Wilmington Choir.
