frederick douglass. friendship was seen as a kind of test case of how well democracy was working. throughout western culture, people believed a virtuous society was one in which friendships flourished. in a new united states, which was unlike classical greece or rome, which americans were self-consciously patterning themselves, americans understood this new society was a multiracial one. so in thinking about how democracy functioned on the ground, people began exploring the concept of interracial friendship to see how democracy was working. people from, as i said, whitman, emerson, thoreau, frederick douglass -- interracial friendship was a key test case for how well democracy was doing. i published a version of that in time magazine in 2005 when lincoln was featured on the cover as a founding father. full as i continued to write that chapter, and after publishing in time magazine, i realized that chapter threatened to overwhelm the rest of my book on interracial friendship because of the significance of

and douglass a slave. most people think of a slave and a white man is totally different at that time. what are the commonalities in the parallel aspects of their upbringing? probably first and foremost is the fact that more than any other factor, they were able to rise up because they learned how to use words as weapons. they understood the importance of literacy, the importance of being able to articulate their thoughts in order to convert your audiences to their cause. -- there audiences to their cause. both of them learned to hone their skills of literacy and writing, both of them virtually memorized the same six books. long before they ever met, they both read and reread and virtually memorized the same six books. any of you have any ideas of what those books are? the bible is one, probably the most important. this is a period in which common education was not that well-known. particularly in the south, particular in what is now the midwestern states. many young boys did not have formal education. if y

so it's not as though, you know frederick douglass goes out to give a speech and it's just him. we don't give an attention to anna and what she's doing on the other side. that's that's quiet for this so powerful and keeping the movement going i talk about in the book. there's a story in which william parker is housing for fugitive slaves and the slave owner. gorsuch comes to his house to retrieve these slaves because he parker has a reputation for housing fugitives and when his wife sees what's happening that the interaction between her husband william parker and this lay holder and it's getting tense and you know words are being exchanged and it's kind of like over my dead body type stuff and people are brandishing weapons. she says to her husband. should i sound the alarm? i think i'm gonna sound the alarm and she goes up to the attic and she starts to blow. he's really loud horn to to alert the black protection society that we're in trouble that you need to come. 80 people show up and surround william parker's house with like guns rifles pitchforks farm equipment and the whol

someone who rivaled frederick douglass and prominence in the 1850s. and along these walls here we have pictures of some of the members of the 54th. we've begun of course with a picture of colonel robert gould shaw. he was offered the commission as colonel of the regimen by governor andrew. that was one of the first things that governor andrew. did he made sure that he had very firm leadership of the 54th. at the time military regulations stipulated that the in the rank and file soldiers could be african-american's but the officers had to be white. that was the rule at the time and governor andrew knew that it was important to have the leadership of the 54th be men from strong abolitionist families, which shah's family was so he offered the leadership to shaw. shaw was initially hesitant about accepting it. you might have heard or seen the movie glory which came out in the late 1980s starring denzel washington and matthew broderick matthew broderick played shaw and the movie depicts very well. shaw's in this initial reluctance about accepting the commi

i'm not claiming any more than douglass did that all northerners were saints and all southerners wereons but account for the worst excesses its costs or the human suffering and fallibility and cruelty on both sides. it remained a reviewable that on the central issue of slavery union and confederate ideology were starkly opposed. union ideology was based on free labor and majority rule and insist as a slaveholder should no longer rule the country with the framework in which change and progress were possible not inevitable and not easy but possible the big years like frederick douglass and harriet tubman who faced immense diversity had cracked open the door for change. confederate ideology bike contrast was in defense of slavery and the supremacy of slaveholders flatly rejected the possibility of progress. they were enemies of change and they sought to slow that freedom and chain it shut. .. the right side won the war and fell to us still to fulfill the promise of that victory. thank you. >> hello. i'm aga that and i'm a junior at the high school and a member of the student advisory cou

i know that is taken from an great quote from frederick douglass and charles leno frederick douglass, he's really a great example of the paradigm you are talking about in self-actualization and empowering the individual. >> that is right. ps i write in the book i wrote in the book that he is a role model for social entrepreneurs and not only because he overcame so much and in spite of that of what he had to overcome the accomplish so much. as he described his ah-ha moments, what caused him to do that and so there is a lesson for all of us, not that we are going to be frederick douglass or accomplish what he did but we can learn from bad and if i could just mention a few of them, i think it's important. the first one was when he was eight years old. he learned that he wasn't a slave although he was warned in slavery, he wasn't a slave because he was inferior, he was a slave because he was being kept ignorant and so he was determined to change that and he threw ingenious methods taught himself to read in the next ah-ha moment for him was when he was 16 he got the opportunity to teach su

by inviting me frederick douglass to the white house to consult on public affairs. he was saying i am the president of the black people as well as the white people and i mean to honor their rights as men and citizens. now this speech is not very well known there's it's not in any of the anthologies of douglas speeches including the five-volume set that the yale university press press published back in the 90s. nor in any of the other anthologies, which is very surprising because it's in the frederick douglass papers. the manuscript and it was written up in the new york times the new york herald and the new york tribune fairly extensively in june of 65. and it stands in very start contrast. to the speech that you're all familiar with. that he gave 11 years later in the city of washington at the dedication of the emancipation memorial. in which you said that abraham lincoln was preeminently the white man's president. well 11 years earlier. he said he was emphatically the black man's president. and we need to go into the reasons why he may have altered his tune in 1876

i'm always taken by its taken from a great quote i know frederick douglass but he is a great r example. that's right. he, as i write in the book, he is a role model for a social entrepreneur and not only because he overcame so much and in spite of that of what he had to overcome, he accomplished so much as he described his moment and what caused him to do that. we can learn from that if i can mention a few of them. he was being kept ignorant and changes determined to that. and in the methods the next moment was they got the opportunity to teach sunday school to others who were enslaved. he said okay that's then. he has all these problems and thet horrors of being a slave, but what he said at last i found a way to contribute, so from the start he was contribution motivated looking for ways to contribute and then of course he was punished brutally for violating but he couldn't take it anymore and so he beat up his slave breaker that they sentve m to. he said at last i am a man so he fully began to believe in himself and said i'm going to leave. if they kill me i don't care i'm going to e

we do a lot of frederick douglass reading the narrative in several of his speeches. i was happy to see kim spoke, one of his poems is there. he certainly not known for poems. and i love to introduce students to a poet named george horton. as countries amazing and is very 19th century for lines stances but it's also very clear and crisp lettuce experience as an enslaved person in his biography is the most distinctive thing in american lit and i think the students will experience. he is to crime a vegetable wagon from the plantation to the newly founded university of north carolina chapel hill on sundays. and eventually me in writing poems for students girlfriend is to give the girlfriends. and he would talk with them and they realize he was a poet he became friends and professors wife helped him get in first couple of his books published. and he eventually asked his master if he could live in the chapel hill. hogan is poems the slaveowner agrees laws he faced a certain amount of money today which he does. we lived until emancipation off the plantation like off-campus

and that's going to be a person like charles douglas the son of frederick douglass. he was in the 54th mass originally and then he is going to transfer to the fifth, massachusetts cavalry. but douglas inspired many of the soldiers and this famous recruiting speech and i quote. the opportunity is given us to be men. with one courageous resolution we may blot out the handwriting of ages against us. once let the black man get upon this person the brass letters us. let him get an eagle on his button. and a musket on his shoulder. and bullets in his pocket. and there is no power on the earth. or under the earth. which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the united states. i say again. this is our chance. and whoa be tied us if we fail to embrace it. now during the civil war there were only four state regiments that will retain their state identification all of the other state regimen will be changed to usct regiments. but those four of probably pretty famous and that's the 54th, massachusetts infantry colored the 55th, massachusetts infantry color the

think about this project and to encourage the project is the research that i've found on frederick douglass his words. so was it was a civil war that inspired douglas to write and speak on photography like many americans. he believed that photographs and pictures greatly contributed to the succession and a war over slavery during the civil war douglas wrote a number of lectures. he also had created this sense of man the sense of commitment to the war and he wrote once you the black man get upon his person the breath letter us. let him get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket and there's no power on earth or under earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the united states. finding that quote and i use it often just in terms of in the aspect of the visuality of the experience of being photographed harry may weems is a contemporary artist who is central to my research. so i look she as we think about the missing history of images carrie may weems. creates this self-portraits and an antebellum dress style with with a quilt and

i think he would've talk to frederick douglass about it or booker t.ashington and all the people who talk about it today. i think he would've looked how do we do this? >> how were the canals financed? there was some speculation in the stock market so explain how this was financed. >> this is one of the interesting stories of american finance when they financed they floated some bonds which were horribly inadequate. for those sections of the canal which in management theory probably not a good idea in today's age you hire one contractor. for the contract out for bid and in the best bidder gets the job. and they send notices out to ireland to say to promise the poor irish guys doing to be a navigator? that's what they called them a navigator digging it by hand. so at first it was an undercapitalized project then they got foreign financing and then to build the canals of course the land-grant system is basically you get the land and you find the money to build it some money was raised for the transcontinental railroad mostly bonds but a lot of foreign inv

that america was in that revolt that frederick douglass had complained about 100 years before. but nevertheless, he offered optimism, every single time. i think that's the most distinctive thing about dr. king is the timber of his voice. you hear the struggle between realism and hope in his voice. and it comes out as a hymn for hope every time. and i think that we have to be careful to do that, too, to figure out ways to offer optimism in this time of stirring so that we, too, have a chance to -- to take the legacy of equal souls, equal votes forward again. my -- bob moses -- i give speeches occasionally with bob moses. and he does, every one of them he says, i wish that every candidate, every debate would begin simply by recapturing the astonishing breath taking audacity and optimism of our form of government and every citizen's responsibility simply by reciting the first sentence in the constitution. it's very easy. but when you think what's piled up there from 1787, it's pretty breath taking. we the people of the united states, in order the form a more perfect union, establi

. >> abraham lincoln and frederick douglass knew each other well, tell us about their report and how their relationship impacted lincoln's values and policies. >> in modern parlance, i think they would have been enemies. lincoln was the first president i could tell who welcomed douglas into the white house. douglas was a thinker, speaker, abolitionist. he wrote two autobiographies and you read them, he is amazing. he opens up the whole issue of slavery and economic equality and what we need to do. there's probably no better person if you want to understand where we are today, read frederick douglass and there's a good biography on him right now. douglas was very critical of lincoln in the early years even though they talked on what we would consider a fairly regular basis and he was in the white house and lincoln welcomed him in. douglas didn't think lincoln was doing enough to end slavery. emancipation proclamation didn't and slavery in totality and it was incomplete declaration that mostly read slaves to fight the union side so that is one interpretation. all the pieces thatre need

and obviously frederick douglass is one of them. he and douglas interact more than once while lincoln is president and lincoln seems to be learning from each of those encounters my way, changing positions. first he's meeting with douglas, he's not getting done was anything he wants but my and, he's given douglas all that he wants. which is both reflecting how the war is progressing but also showing lincoln is not afraid to really hear what douglas is saying and trying to maybe go that direction if that will work. i think john slade is reportedly there. he's the only person listening to lincoln practices dress. they later write that lincoln would read it out loud. it's exactly how lincoln would practice, he would read stuff out about thepeople . so he would do that and the gettysburg address, we know how short it was what it may well be the greatest two-minute oration in american history. and the person that seems to have been the primary sounding board was an african-american who he had known for years. so that's all part of the lin

i went to this field, there was a famous fight douglass had with this slave owner, edward covey. i became obsessed by how it was unrecognized, there was no notice of any kind that he had ever been there. i tried to do an oral history project right started talking to people to see how many people knew that douglas had spent this year there. the two things that were important about the walk, with the importance of place, acknowledging the history in certain places that might have been washed away or forgotten, and also a different view of this fight we are all having over which statues to have and which ones to maintain, teardown. part of my point is, we can have that debate about which statues to take down, but we should also be debating which things to note, which things to either celebrate or highlight that we might not already be celebrating or highlighting. a lot of my walk was animated by the desire to find those places and be in those places. susan: all of the threats come together. before we get into the specifics of the walk, i think a lot of people were very curious about

frederick douglass did it a bit differently.because as douglas says, that often the people that are oppressed and sometimes -- i'm happiest when icing but also i can be sad when icing. so you look at the different storms. as i told you about the blues. people will sing the blues. people seeing with the blues when the happy, or sing the blues on your side. you're always seeing lose when you're sad rachel, i have a woman. right across town, she's good to me, she's good to me. she gives me loving and money to and i think for me. that she went into. he said? he's only had one time. and that's when his wife catches him with a lady over town. otherwise, he doesn't have the blue. but it is the blues. and as he often said, sometimes you're just in the country western music, which i do sometime on sunday morning, because they know i have good music on. it's nothing but the white man's blues. so it's a different forms as we listen to that. and now, in his book he takes on again the black folks, booker ty washington. and booker ty washingt

and then frederick douglass said, but look at us now.after the 13th, 14th, 15th amendments had been passed. now what is the supreme court doing. now it is pulling out all the stops to put limits on federal power. harlot made that same point. and then harlan at the end of his opinion answered the supreme court's dig about the special favors of the law, and this is what he said. it is, i submit, scarcely just to say that the colored race has been the special favorite of the laws. with the nation through congress sought to accomplish in reference to that race is what had already been done in every state in the union for the white race to secure and protect rights belonging to freeman and citizens, nothing more. the one underlining purpose has been to enable the black race to take the rank of mere citizens. the title of my top was the long reach of the civil rights cases, they did in fact have a long reach. the act of 1875 was the last federal law. it was an aide of racial justice in the 19th century. there was not another civil rights, fede

as you know we're in african american history month, and it was the birth date of frederick douglass, and that's what he celebrating. and we establish the birthday of w.e.b. du bois and also

she showed me by example has frederick douglass, as james baldwin has said. children are never good at listening to their elders but they never fail to imitate them . i want you all to know that in kristin clarke wehave an extraordinary american, and extraordinary person . she's been a great mom. and i know what she has done with her life. she has lived perhaps with the greatest principle of all which is for us in this generation to make a better way for the next. for us to make a more perfect union. for us to understand the art of the moral universe is indeed long but we must bend it moretowards justice . i tell my colleagues and urge you to confirm her to this sacrosanct and urgent position ndtoday because i am confident to the core of my being because she will not just make us proud. she will not just defend those for having their rights trampled or dignity marginalized. but that she will make a better way. for america that fulfills the promise has still not yet, for us to be a nation . with liberty and justice for all. and you mister president mister pres

american history tv, john stauffer talks about his book, "giants: the parallel lives of frederick douglasses the two men to the recently inaugurated barack obama. the national archives hosted the event and provided the video. >> today in the midst of a very historic week with the inauguration of our new president emme we have a fitting and timely lecture --

i remember frederick douglass laura wrote to her recalling that during reconstruction when they lived in washington dc mama and i were walking along and she saw the honorable frederick douglass and stopped him to tell him of her admiration for him and that she had named a son for him fred d henry. she told him that she wanted me to be able to say that i had shaken hands with him. he raised his still cat as she spoke to him and he shook hands with me with a courteousness that i have never forgotten. robert terrell's mother valued education for her children, but she had been forbidden to read or write as a slave. after emancipation, she never learned to write and may not have been able to read laura recalled. the dictation i used to take down from muslims when writing for her. judge terrell certainly lived up to his mother's hopes for he learned greek and latin and gained a higher education from harvard university. just like the white terrell men who had enslaved him. his mother had asserted her autonomy race pride and clear expectation that her children less than a generation removes f

. >> next john stauffer talks , about his book, "giants: the parallel lives of frederick douglass andhe two men to the recently inaugurated barack obama. the national archives hosted the event and provided the video. in about 90 minutes, we visit the national gallery of art to learn about a civil war kernel and the 54th massachusetts volunteer infantry, one of the war's first african-american units. the senior curator of photography shows us the relief sculpture by augusta singh gardens. and then we look back to queen elizabeth the second's address to a joint session of congress. >> today in the midst of a very historic week with the inauguration of our new president, we have a fitting and timely book lecture. over this week, as i view some of the different news programs, a continuously repeated refrain by many commentators was that president obama stands on the shoulders of key historical figures who paved the way for him.

and frederick douglass said no, there's no soil as conducive to the growth of reform as american soilught different things at different times. but that's where we have to be is that this is an ongoing struggle, and you should not be banning and shutting down conversations that you find uncomfortable. >> but here's the thing. the enlightenment project that the founders embarked upon was embarked upon, in fairness, for themselves, it was an every man a king, as you said, where the king could be removed. but here's the thing, if you create a country, and the purpose of that is to liberate yourself, and you build that on a foundation of saying, but i also can negate the humanity of these black people because i want to own them, and i can negate the humanity of these indigenous people because i want their land, you build something in that we need to reckon with, and so i understand why for a lot of people they take our history negatively personally, it's not an indictment, it's just history. but i want to take you to what -- she said about mitch mcconnell. take a listen. >> 1619 was an imp

frederick douglass was speaking in 1852 if i'm not mistaken. slavery was still a fact.d feel loyal to the country. there was a hard problem there. we have the benefit of having been liberated and having equal citizenship in the richest country on the planet, so it's our country. >> brian: got you. professor lowry, thank you so much. it is a privilege to have you on the show. thank you for watching "prime time." i'm brian kilmeade. i will see you next time. coming up now, tucker. ♪ ♪ >> tucker: good evening, and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." loudoun county virginia right outside washington, d.c., was for a very long time, for generations, a reasonable place. it was orderly and calm, well-maintained. loudoun county famously worked, certainly in contrast to the city nearby. and then to go things happened to loudoun county. first, lots of federal money flowed i

american history tv, john stauffer talks about his book, "giants: the parallel lives of frederick douglassmpares the two men to the recently inaugurated barack obama. the national archives hosted the event and provided the video. >> today in the midst of a very historic week with the inauguration of our new president, we have a most fitting and timely book lecture. over this week, as i view some of the different news programs, a continuously repeated refrain by many commentators was that president obama stands on the shoulders of key historical figures who paved the way for

support staff and recruiters for the military in fact, the person prays by lincoln and frederick douglass as the most effective exponent of the union cause was anna dickinson the first woman to address congress in a courageous order who stood down pro slavery mobs in the same way. immigrants and catholics left. no doubt that day two willingly risked everything for their country by the time the war ended in 1865 a consensus has spread through the country that those previously denied the rights of citizenship had proven that worth and deserved full legal inequality. the result was a trio of amendments that sought to correct to glaring contradictions in the constitution. it's unstated support for slavery, and it's failure to define citizenship. the first issue was resolved by the 13th amendment which ended slavery in the united states. defining citizenship proved a little bit more difficult difficult and contentious resulting in the 14th amendment which became part of the constitution 1868. its opening words appeared to make clear the legal inequality of all americans in eloquent and precise

i always get that in washington and frederick douglass's death verse 95 95, right? i mean in one sense the death of frederick douglass is the end of one age plessy versus ferguson is the beginning of the next stage a year later and what plastic workers first workers ferguson essentially does is says separate but equal is legal what it means an application is that it's mostly separate and unequal becomes the norm and what they decide to do marshall in houston and others is they go back to the original court ruling it says separate but equal is legal and what they decide to do is to launch an attack in which they want to make it in fact separate and equal so wherever you have these different kinds of settings see different kinds of schools for african-americans and for white children if the facilities are not equal their ideas lets force them to live up to the law and to make them equal and the undercurrent to this is they think that it'll be so expensive to create two equal systems that i don't force the powers that be to finally said, this is too expensive we can't

let us change that and make this the 51st state and name it in honor of frederick douglass. i yield the floor. mr. cardin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i first want to thank my colleague and friend, senator carper, for leading this effort on s. 51, the d.c. statehood act. it's long overdue that we acknowledge an injustice in our country and give the citizens of the district of columbia their full representation rights by statehood. i have been working on this issue for a long time. when i was speaker of the maryland general assembly almost 40 years ago, the maryland general assembly took action to give full representation to the people of the district and the congress of the united states. that was 40 years ago, and we're still working on this issue. it's long overdue that we acknowledge a shortcoming in our own system for 700,000 residents of the district of columbia. i had the honoring of chairing the u.s. helsinki commission. it's the implementing arm for the helsinki final act, the organization for security and cooperation

memory the strides made to improve the community under the previous administration and as frederick douglass stated, the nation is secure only while it is honest and virtuous. when i look at the country today, i see a nation that has chosen to be governed by the rule of law and not the rule of man. the united states is great not because it is perfect. i don't see systemic racism i see systemic corruption. the racial injustices and yes racism does exist and plagued many of the communities. it is however because of the freedom of all americans have bestowed on to us by our constitution which gives us the ability to improve on our imperfections to evolve and get as close to the quality and i hope this is used to recognize a past injustice so it is not repeated and used as a political tool to promote systemic racism. i hope this resolution isn't used as a political tool to cause the law to cease and exist. i hope this resolution will not be used to politicize every facet of the racial diversity for political gains and to exploit and emotionally crippled cripplethe community. as a participant in

or when a high schooler reads frederick douglass' stirring 1852 speech what to the slave is the fourthjuly, that teenager learns to recognize the former slaves appeal to divine justice, an argument that critiques existing human laws by holding them accountable to a higher law. in each case teaching our history well prepares the next generation. to understand our people's virtues and limitations, to interpret american ideals in relation to the institutions and the reality of human fallibility and to distinguish arguments that can sustain our pursuit of a more perfect union. that is what makes american history such a vital subject. on this constitution day 2020 surrounded by original manuscripts here in the rotunda, it is fitting for us to reflect on why we must teach american history wisely. it serves as a source of inspiration for all, but especially the young who deserve an opportunity to claim their constitutional birth right, a legacy enshrined in the constitution and proclaimed in the declaration. what fred douglas called that glorious liberty document. it is the ongoing pursuit of

what frederick douglass called, that glorious liberty document. it is the ongoing pursuit of liberty that makes american history such a hopeful subject. yet, for several decades, the teaching of american history has been weighed down with ideological big. from an academic world suffused with skepticism and devoted to debunking the heirs of the past, this disconcerting trend in scholarship is also encouraging the popular press to depict history as a simplified morality tale. where in contemporary categories are apply to historical events to opportunity to learn from the past and it's errors, there is something deeper, more disturbing beneath this expose the failings of our forebears. while the study of academic orientation which prefers theory and ideology over the discovery of truth. history does indeed provide the conscientious study of history offers us rich phase of truth to explore our common humanity. are we not six succeptible to the same witnesses as those we read of in the history books? certainly, we are prone to greed, anger, and pride.