Final preparations underway for Douglass Week

Final preparations are underway for Douglass Week, a creative event series that unites Cork and the US in celebrating the life and achievements of anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass and other changemakers.

Douglass Week will be held in Rochester, New York, on July 10-16, with additional in-person and online events in Ireland and Washington, DC.

The week is organised by US non-profit organisation the Globe Lane Initiative in partnership with a wide network of Douglass scholars, historians, and researchers, along with artists, musicians, poets, community groups, and activists from around the world.

As part of a two-year speaking tour through Ireland and Britain in late 1845, Frederick Douglass stayed in Cork for a month, delivering powerful speeches denouncing slavery and raising funds for the abolitionist cause in the US. 

He returned home to America in 1847 and settled in Rochester, where he published his North Star newspaper, raised children with wife Anna Murray Douglass, and continued a remarkable career as a writer, orator, diplomat, and adviser to at least three presidents, including Abraham Lincoln.

Co-organiser of Douglass Week, Dr Caroline Dunham-Schroeter, said the whole team believes it is vital to bring these stories to the locations where Douglass had an impact during his lifetime.

Several legacy projects have been developed around the world to strengthen links between host cities, notably the Cork Abolitionists Trail, part of Globe Lane Initiative’s ‘Journeys for Freedom’ project.

On Wednesday, July 12, Dr Adrian Mulligan of Bucknell University will lead a guided tour of the trail, a walking route of sites where Douglass lived and spoke during his time in Cork.

People are also encouraged to tune in online for a host of events ranging from a screening of a play about Douglass’ relationship with Lincoln to talks about the role of museums, curators, and activism and the history of the underground railroad in America.

More information and further events can be found at www.douglassweek.org.