[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2533]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO THE LATE FREDERICK DOUGLASS

  Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, on February, 14, 2005, one of our greatest 
Americans, Frederick Douglass, was honored at a celebration at the 
historic Ford's Theatre that was sponsored by the Caring Institute and 
the National Park Service. These two organizations play major roles in 
ensuring that the life and legacy of Mr. Douglass are not forgotten--
the Institute through its establishment of The Frederick Douglass 
Museum and the Hall of Fame for Caring Americans on Capitol Hill, and 
the National Park Service through its management of the Frederick 
Douglass National Historic Site at Cedar Hill in Anacostia. As you 
know, Cedar Hill was his home in Washington, DC.
  Frederick Douglass was one of the most important intellectual voices 
in American life in the 19th century. He was a forceful and persuasive 
writer and orator against slavery and for equal rights for African-
Americans. His experiences as a slave were central to exposing the 
injustices of slavery. His first autobiographical work, Narrative of 
the Life of Frederick Douglass, was published in 1845 when he was a 
runaway slave. His second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, was 
published in 1855, 9 years after friends and supporters in Great 
Britain bought his freedom. He frequently lectured about his 
experiences as a slave, and on what freedom meant to him.
  During the Civil War, Douglass served as a recruiter of African-
American soldiers for the North, and several times discussed with 
President Lincoln the problems of slavery. In the early 1870s, Douglass 
moved from Rochester, NY, where he had established the antislavery 
newspaper, the North Star, to Washington, DC, where he served as the 
District's Marshal, 1877-1881, and Recorder of Deeds, 1881-1886. 
Douglass later served our Nation as Minister to Haiti, 1889-1891.
  Even when he was serving in governmental capacities, Douglass 
continued to deliver speeches on the meaning of abolition and 
emancipation. Just as he fought for the rights of African-Americans, he 
also worked to expand women's rights. On the day he died, February 20, 
1895, he had attended a women's suffrage meeting.
  Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to 
one of our greatest Americans, Frederick Douglass. He would have 
celebrated his 187th birthday this month.

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