Celebrate Douglass Day 2025 with Emory Libraries!
By Gaby Hale, Outreach Archivist
Emory Libraries will once again be taking part in the national Douglass Day festivities on February 14th from 12pm-3pm in Rose Library. This annual event is free and open to the public. We ask that you register at this link, but it is not required. If you are able, bring a laptop to take part in the transcription portion of the celebration.
Who is Frederick Douglass?
Frederick Douglass, undated. Robert Langmuir African American photograph collection.
Frederick Douglass was an American abolitionist, orator, and social reformer who was the most prominent Black civil rights leader in the 1800s. Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in February 1818, and escaped to freedom in 1838. He went on to become an important speaker and writer against the institution of slavery. Douglass wrote three autobiographies, the most well known today being Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, published in 1845. Douglass also supported other causes, such as women’s voting rights, and was known for his willingness to take part in conversations with folks of differing beliefs from him.
Literacy was an essential tool during Frederick Douglass’s path to freedom. Douglass first began learning to read at age 12 from one of his owners in Baltimore. However, she later went back on that decision and forbade him from reading, though he continued to practice on his own. On education, Douglass said in 1894: “Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.”
Frederick Douglass as the Commissioner to Santo Domingo, Brooklyn Navy Yard, January 1871. Robert Langmuir African American photograph collection.
What is Douglass Day?
Frederick Douglass never knew his true birthdate, and chose February 14th for himself because of his memories where his mother called him her “Little Valentine”. Beginning in 2017, Douglass Day celebrates the birthday of Douglass through the creation of new widely accessible resources on Black history. Each year, a different set of archival (usually handwritten) materials related to Black history are chosen for folks across the nation to spend an hour or two transcribing. This transcription is then made freely available for folks to access online alongside the original document.
What will Douglass Day at Emory Libraries look like?
We will take part in the national festivities, including singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, transcribing portions of the African American Perspectives collection at the Library of Congress, and indulging in birthday cupcakes! In addition, there will be selected rare materials on display from Rose Library and Pitts Theological Library related to Black history.
Tentative Schedule of Activities:
12:00 to 12:30pm | Opening Presentation
12:30 to 1:00pm | Transcription Activity
1:00 to 1:30pm | Singing & Reading
1:30 to 2:45pm | Transcription Activity
2:45 to 3:00pm | Closing Announcements
Other Resources for Douglass Day