Where do you fit in to this project?
In any number of ways:
You put the Community in Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Community.
Help us keep Douglass’s legacy strong for another hundred years and more. Thank you for all you do.
Join the Conversation
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Use our hashtags: #FDBC #Douglass200 #FD2018
Find us on social media:
Twitter Facebook Tumblr
Volunteer
The Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Community project has ongoing volunteer opportunities for both our digital and face-to- face offerings.
Just fill out this form.
Organize a Reading Frederick Douglass Together event in your community
Find resources here or ask us for help. Take photos or video and send to us for sharing with the Douglass Bicentennial Community.
Are you organizing some other Douglass-related event?
Send us the info and we’ll consider posting it on our Community calendar. Use this form to submit an event.
Are you a teacher (K–18+)?
Check out our Teaching Resources. Let us know what you think.
What tools and methods do you use to teach about Douglass? Consider sharing them with us at [email protected].
Are you an artist whose work features or relates to Douglass?
Check out our arts section. Consider sharing your art with us in any medium: visual arts, theatre, poetry, spoken word, clothing, jewelry, crafts, music, video, and more.
Help us build the Douglass knowledge base
Is there a statue near you? A plaque? A historic site? A school or other institution or award named for Douglass? Is there a Douglass connection to places you don’t see mentioned on our maps or elsewhere on our site? Email us at [email protected].
Donate
The Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Community is currently pursuing 501(c)(3) status; until then, consider donating to one of our partners such as The National Park Service Foundation; the African American Civil War Museum; or DC Murals. And watch our calendar, newsletter, and social media for info on how you can support other Douglass-related initiatives and projects. And thank you!
HOW
We begin with the knowledge that electronic and face-to-face interaction grow together. The idea for a Douglass bicentennial global online community took root in the District of Columbia, where Douglass made his home for the last quarter-century of his long illustrious life.
Like Douglass himself, the people, organizations, and institutions in the District nurture a proudly local identity and community even while welcoming the rest of the country and the world. Some of our community partners--such as the Douglass National Historic Site, the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum and others--have long worked together to celebrate Douglass's birthday every year. Yet even those efforts have no common platform, and no way to link with friends and partners elsewhere, including the many communities that also claim Douglass as their own: New Bedford, Massachusetts; Rochester, New York; Maryland's Eastern Shore; and many more.
We aim to make a home on the web for all things Douglass. This will only be truly reflective of the worldwide Douglass community as you join us, send news of your events and other Douglass news that comes your way, and build and grow this community with us--through social media and other multiple intersecting networks.
To get things started, we offer this site, its calendar, and blog. More features are planned, including art galleries and product pages. We are also on Facebook and Twitter, and coming soon to Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Flickr, and Soundcloud, among others.
Why Now
Organizing now will allow the “civil society” sector—artists, writers, poets, musicians, dancers, actors, archivists, scholars, librarians, public historians, stewards of historic sites, humanitarians, educators, activists, fans and admirers—to occupy the foreground, to take a leading role in raising Douglass’s public profile by doing what they do best, that is, lift up Douglass in all his compelling complexity.
Beyond the Bicentennial
We believe that, once brought together through the bicentennial, a global Douglass community, in its united power and strength, can work together long afterward to continue to promote, preserve, and extend Douglass's legacy.