On Wednesday, June 19th, writer, orator, statesman and prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass was honored by Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker John Boehner and other members of Congress in Washington D.C.
In a ceremony held in Emancipation Hall on the Capitol, a seven-foot bronze statue was unveiled in the likeness of Douglass.
Boehner remarked on Douglass, saying, “He is a man for all generations. Today we place him here, in the company of kings and explorers…for our leaders to gather around and seek wisdom, for our children to gaze upon and find inspiration.”
Douglass was born a slave in 1818 in Talbot County, Md., before escaping slavery to start “The North Star” newspaper and later becoming an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln.
Other accollades include becoming the the U.S. marshal for the D.C. in 1877, being named the recorder of deeds in 1881 and becoming the minister and consul general to Haiti in 1889 to name a few.
