Frederick Douglass

"Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity." " ... I had something of the feeling about Baltimore that is expressed in the proverb, that `being hanged in England is preferable to dying a natural death in Ireland.' I had the strongest desire to see Baltimore." "I had resided but a short time in Baltimore before I observed a marked difference in the treatment of slaves. ... A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation.

In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, through his organization, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (later renamed the Association for the Study of African American Life and History), founded and promoted Negro History Week. He selected February because Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthdays fell during this month. His desire was for Americans to recognize and celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of black people. The response was overwhelming, as black schools, black churches and black and white community leaders around the country rallied behind this call and pushed Negro History Week to the forefront.

When he was an old man, in the late 19th century, Frederick Douglass was asked what younger African-Americans should do about racism. "Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!" he replied.That must be the best three-word autobiography ever written, for it is the story of his life. And the life of this Maryland-born slave, who became a great voice for freedom, remains as inspirational today as it is significant."He was without question the most important African-American leader and personality of the 19th century," writes historian Waldo E. Martin Jr. in the book that accompanies "Majestic in His Wrath," a lively, well-organized, instructive exhibit at + Washington's National Portrait Gallery.

Class 4A Old Mill 49, Catonsville 20 Quince Orchard 23, C.H. Flowers 12   Class 3A River Hill 41, Aberdeen 7 Thomas Johnson 12, Huntingtown 3   Class 2A Middletown 48, Edmondson 8 Frederick Douglass 22, Kent Island 6   Class 1A Dunbar 42, Overlea 6 Perryville 20, Fort Hill 14, OT   STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS (at M&T Bank Stadium)...

Baltimore newspapers of 100 years ago carried the news that the great Frederick Douglass had died at his home in the Anacostia section of Washington.The life of the former slave, who was born on the Eastern Shore and who learned to read and write in Fells Point, is the story of a passionate American advocate.Scholar Waldo Martin calls him " . . . without question the most important African American leader and personality of the nineteenth century."And so, 100 years after his death, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington has mounted a fitting testimonial, "Majestic in His Wrath, A Pictorial Life of Frederick Douglass."

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.William S. McFeely.Norton.465 pages. $24.95.Maryland signified the worst and best of times to Frederick Douglass, for he experienced both servitude and acclaim in his native state. Born into slavery on the Eastern Shore -- he never knew his father and lost his mother early -- Douglass came to Baltimore in 1826 at age 8 and returned a decade later to serve in the shipbuilding trade. In 1865, he reappeared under far different circumstances.He was honored at the dedication of Baltimore's Douglass Institute, established to "promote the intellectual advancement" of the city's black community.

Lynne V. Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, told about 85 people at the Enoch Pratt Free Library last night that they don't know what obstacles are - not compared to what abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass endured. "You think you've got obstacles to overcome," Cheney said. "Look at what this man did." Cheney's remarks followed a dramatic presentation by Frederick Douglass IV and his wife, B.J. Douglass, that chronicled his great-great-grandfather's escape from slavery in Baltimore on Sept.

Following the lead of Chicago and other areas, Baltimore is planning a citywide reading assignment come fall, and the front-running book is the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, the one-time slave who became one of the most important black American leaders of the 19th century. City and library officials confirmed yesterday that they are putting together a program to encourage community reading centered on the city's annual book fair in September. The idea started in Seattle - residents read The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks - but gained speed after Chicago's program last year had citizens thumbing through Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.

WHEN weekend diggers recently unearthed 1830s railroad ties next to the former President Street Station, they thought they had hit pay dirt. Further excavations uncovered some of the earliest railroad tracks constructed in the United States, dating to the days of Frederick Douglass.This is exciting news to railroad buffs and supporters of the Baltimore Civil War Museum, which occupies the restored station house at Eastern Avenue and President Street. But the discoveries ought to inspire far more people.

MARYLAND WAS Frederick Douglass' state of birth in 1817 and a place where he spent his formative years before fleeing to the North and starting his career as an abolitionist. He apprenticed in Baltimore as a ship caulker and later spent summers near Annapolis.A century after Douglass' death in 1895, the state of Maryland has now approved the $500,000 purchase of his summer house in Highland Beach, a historically black waterfront community started by Douglass' son, Charles. The transaction, which the state will conduct in conjunction with Anne Arundel County, will assure that this recently restored landmark will become an archival museum honoring Douglass and Highland Beach's history.

A new vision for our city in the 21st century is sorely lacking from the discourse in the Baltimore City mayor's race. Sure, lowering property taxes is a good idea, but it is not a game changer - even if it could be done without slashing city services. More than fiscal magic, our city yearns for a leader with a strategy for improving Baltimore's image and economic prospects. We all realize that Baltimore is not a place that people from other states or countries think of as a prime vacation destination.

At 20 years old, R. Donahue Peebles was a penniless college dropout, he told an audience of hundreds Sunday, as the keynote speaker during the 30th commencement of Baltimore's Sojourner-Douglass College. Roughly seven years later, he was a multimillionaire real estate investor. And today, at 50, he's in the top 10 on Forbes' list of wealthiest African-Americans. His Florida-based company, Peebles Corp., is the largest African-American-owned real estate development business in the country, with a $4 billion portfolio and offices in Washington and Las Vegas.

A 19-year-old man was shot in the face as a crowd left a basketball game at Frederick Douglass High School, turning the school and nearby Mondawmin Mall into a crime scene Tuesday evening and shutting down public transportation out of the busy mall. Police said the victim, who was not a student, was shot about 7 p.m. on a median strip in the 2300 block of Gwynns Falls Parkway, between the school and the mall. He ran into the mall, leaving a trail of blood on the white tile floors through the upper level and along the sidewalk outside, where he collapsed at the Mondawmin Station Metro stop.

The sight of sailboats skimming the waters of the Inner Harbor through the picture windows of the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum provided the perfect backdrop for the museum's Third Anniversary Dinner - and served as a reminder that one of the museum's namesakes, Isaac Myers, started the first African-American-owned shipyard in the United States. The anniversary wasn't the only thing to celebrate at the museum, a Living Classrooms Foundation affiliate. Living Classrooms President/CEO James Piper Bond explained that the evening would be full of tributes.

There was Michael Steele on national TV the other day, slamming Baltimore's Frederick Douglass High School for failing black kids, the same ones he failed after making a dramatic personal vow three years ago to get the school fixed. And there was Doc Cheatham on local radio yesterday, announcing he'd gotten the Maryland Historical Society to take down a monkey mural because he thought the stripes on the animals' heads looked like cornrows. You have to wonder which America needs more: public figures who raise real issues but do nothing about them, or those who get silly things done.

City schools chief Andres Alonso publicly asked Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele last night to apologize for making disparaging remarks about Frederick Douglass High School on national television. A spokesman for Steele, Maryland's former lieutenant governor, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In February 2006, Steele visited Douglass in West Baltimore, holding it up as an example of the failures of urban education and making a personal commitment to turn the school around.

The importance of education is not lost on Fred Morsell. He doesn't want it to be lost on students either.Which is why Mr. Morsell dons a gray wig and beard, dark coat and tails, a gray vest concealing a pocket watch and a white shirt adorned with a string bow tie to become Frederick Douglass, escaped slave and abolitionist.Mr. Morsell, 52, bought his traveling drama, "Presenting Mr. Frederick Douglass," to students at Annapolis High School yesterday. The visit was part of the school's celebration of Black History Month.

A second-story porch in the Victorian summer home Frederick Douglass built gave the aging former slave, abolitionist orator, publisher and diplomat a bittersweet vantage point as he gazed across the Chesapeake Bay. The view from Highland Beach, four miles south of Annapolis, crystallized his crossing-over story of escaping from slavery. It was a tale Douglass told countless times to awed audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, stirring anti-slavery sentiments before the Civil War. "As a free man, I could look across the bay to the [Eastern Shore]

Environmental education programs offered Annapolis Recreation & Parks is offering environmental educational programs at the newly renovated, city-owned Back Creek Nature Park at 1314 Edgewood Road. The urban ecology park offers recreation, education and a living classroom. Public programs will be offered that are geared for children ages 3 to 10 for $5 per class. Scheduled courses, 90 minutes long, include: * "Extreme Shoreline Strategies" at 3 p.m. today: Learn how to protect the shoreline.

Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln By John Stauffer Twelve / 432 pages / $30 Frederick Douglass didn't think much of Abraham Lincoln's assertion in 1862 that blacks were the cause of the Civil War or his plan to send as many of them as possible to the republic of Colombia. The innocent horse does not make the horse thief, Douglass fumed. It is "the cruel and brutal cupidity of those who wish to possess horses, or money, and Negroes" that ought to be blamed.