The Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass Family Freedom-Fighting Collective

Discover the revolutionary world and work of 19th-century African American liberators Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass.

In this special event, Kenneth B. Morris Jr., the great-great-great-grandson of Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass, will be in-conversation with Celeste-Marie Bernier, the Douglass family historian.

Together they will discuss the lives of those in the Douglass Family Freedom-Fighting Collective:

• Anna Murray Douglass,

• Frederick Douglass,

• Rosetta Douglass,

• Lewis Henry Douglass,

• Frederick Douglass Jr.,

• Charles Remond Douglass,

• and Annie Douglass.

The centuries-long Collective transformed history through revolutionary liberation. Over generations, members of the family laboured as:

• Underground Railroad freedom-fighters,

• educators,

• authors,

• orators,

• antislavery agitators,

• community organisers,

• historians,

• foodways specialists,

• business owners,

• human rights philosophers,

• government workers,

• labour union founders,

• and civil rights leaders.

Struggling, sacrificing, and surviving together, they lived their lives as a united power and by their rallying call to arms: "Why not we endure hardship that our race may be free?" (Anna Murray Douglass).

About the speakers

Kenneth B. Morris Jr. is the Co-Founder and President of Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives. Ken descends from two of the most influential names in United States history. He is the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great-grandson of fellow revolutionary Booker T. Washington.

Celeste-Marie Bernier is Professor of United States and Atlantic Studies at the University of Edinburgh and historian-consultant-researcher-writer to Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives and the Frederick Douglass Honor Society. She is the author and editor of a forthcoming nine-book series, 'Douglass Family Lives: The Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass Family Biography and Collected Works'.