The Frederick Douglass Family Initiative, a non-profit co-founded by direct descendants of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, will move from its current home in Atlanta to Rochester, the foundation will announce tonight.
Kenneth B. Morris Jr., Douglass’s great-great-great grandson and Washington’s great-great grandson, will join his mother, Nettie Washington Douglass, for the announcement during the Frederick Douglass program at Hochstein Performance Hall. That program, which begins at 7 p.m., will include music and a talk by David Blight, author of the new biography, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.”
Morris and Robert J. Benz co-founded the Frederick Douglass Family Initiative to further Douglass’s efforts, focusing initially on education about human trafficking. In a press release announcing the Initiative’s decision to move, Benz said its leaders want to leverage their experience in confronting human trafficking to help “address challenges facing this community and many other communities around this nation and the globe.”
“When I stand in this city that my great-great grandfather called home and chose as his final resting place,” Nettie Washington Douglass said, “I realize that all Rochester residents are heir to his legacy and members of the Douglass family. Rochester is where his legacy will continue to live. I think together we can make great things happen here.”
Kenneth Morris: The descendant of the orator, abolitionist, and newspaper editor is in Rochester this week in conjunction with two programs on Frederick Douglass