E VE N T S of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave to children, along with a curriculum focused on empowerment and civic engagement. Morris described how his initiative developed, saying “We went into the schools with a program called ‘History, Human Rights, and the Power of One.’ I would just travel around from school to school, talking about history, talking about contemporary forms of slavery. And then people started to ask, teachers and parents and students … ‘How can we be modern day abolitionists like Frederick Douglass? How can we use our talent, our passion, our creativity, our intellect to spread the word about this in our communities?’ And so we developed service learning, civic engagement … curricula that we dispersed for free on our website and now we are in hundreds of schools all over the country.” Dr. Llewellyn Cornelius, the Donald L. Hollowell professor and director of the Center for Social Justice, Human and Civil Rights hosted the event and asked Morris what young people should know about the work ahead in the fight for social justice. In reply, Morris emphasized the importance of learning about the past, from the lives of civil rights leaders like Donald Hollowell. He talked about using voice, about voting and promoting just policy, and of staying passionate and committed to the future. His words reminded his audience that we each need to learn the stories of the past, and commit to acting for justice now. “We all have greatness flowing through our veins.” Morris said, as he ended the evening. “And history lives in each of us. But the future depends on how we carry that forth.”
FDFI President Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. and his mother, Chairperson Nettie Washington Douglass, hand out copies of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave to local students from Rochester, NY in 2019. The One Million Abolitionists project is distributing one million hardcover editions of the Narrative to students across the country. https://fdfi.org/our-initiatives/#1million
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, circa 1895.
Donald L. Hollowell (1917-2004) was a civil rights attorney in Georgia during the Civil Rights Movement. He fought racial segregation, served as the first Black regional director of a major federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and worked to increase African American voters as president of the Voter Education Project. Hollowell is best remembered for his instrumental role in winning the desegregation of the University of Georgia in 1961. Source: UGA School of Social Work
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