I have referenced
the great Fredrick Douglas several times in my many posts, blogs, videos, and
tweets. I reference his life’s deeds so frequently, because I am in awe of his
intelligence; his bravery; his discernment--- in a word the man was great.
I refuse. Fredrick Douglas refused to remain
a slave. Fredrick Douglas refused to remain illiterate, so he learned. He
realized knowledge is power. Power strong enough to free the mind from the
shackles of mental slavery, which was more important than freedom from the
physical slavery.
After freeing
himself mentally, his great challenge became freeing his fellow enslaved
Brothers and Sisters. First mentally; then physically.
How do you explain
the inhumane wrongness of slavery to a slave who doesn’t know he is a slave?
I reference
Fredrick Douglas a lot, because I still would like to know the answer to that
question.
How do I convince
a forty-year-old Brother that colleges and universities (education) aren’t
exclusive to certain race of people? How do I convince him of the fact the jim
crow laws were abolished, he can move out the “ghetto” if he wanted to?
No. We didn’t
start from the bottom.
If we look at the
lives and writings of the true heroes of the past, we would find that we are
facing a large majority of what our ancestors faced many centuries ago.
Fredrick Douglas
was confronted with back stabbing “house niggers,” and double-crossing female
slaves who were in love with the slave masters. And through it all, he
prevailed. Not Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey, the slave, but Fredrick
Douglas, the man.
Freedom is all I
want. For everybody.
Fredrick Douglas 1818-1895
James Scott. May 18,
2013
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