Frederick Douglass / The Slave Auction

Reading the poem “Frederick Douglass” by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) I couldn’t help but wonder how it could have been used as a highbrow defense for President Trump’s recent comments which made it seem as if Douglass, a historic abolitionist and human rights activist who died in 1895, was still alive. Dunbar wrote:

“Oh, Douglass, thou hast passed beyond the shore,

But still thy voice is ringing o’er the gale!

Thou’st taught thy race how high her hopes may soar,

And bade her seek the heights, nor faint, nor fail.

She will not fail, she heeds thy stirring cry,

She knows thy guardian spirit will be nigh,

And, rising from beneath the chast’ning rod,

She stretches out her bleeding hands to God!”

“Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice,” said President Trump at a breakfast with Black supporters highlighting the start of Black History Month. White House press secretary Sean Spicer later followed up saying that the President “wants to highlight the contributions that he [Douglass] has made, and I think through a lot of the actions and statements he’s going to make, I think the contributions of Frederick Douglass will become more and more.” What Spicer should have done instead was suggest that the President was merely quoting Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem which says that Douglass’ voice, despite him being dead, still resonates in today’s culture, because the Civil Rights struggle for minorities in America is far from over.

A typical criticism of the #BlackLivesMatter movement is that not only Black but all lives matter. It is true that all lives matter, but it is not a sufficient rebuttal, since it is evident that the public overall has insufficient knowledge of Black lives specifically, given the current President, and the White House press secretary seem to not fully know who Frederick Douglass was. It's not well known that the first woman to run for President of the United States was Victoria Woodhull in 1872, but what's even more less known is that she announced Douglass as her Vice President – that's "how high" Douglass showed people their "hopes may soar."

Ben Carson, the newly appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, recently compared slaves to immigrants during a speech addressing his Department. Carson said: “There were other immigrants who came in the bottom of slave ships, who worked even longer, even harder, for less, but they too had a dream…”  It may be unfair to criticize Carson’s comments since he is not an expert on slavery or history, but one can only hope that a link to “The Slave Auction” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) would come his way so he can note the difference between being sold into bondage and free will. Harper’s poem goes:

The sale began – young girls were there,

Defenceless in their wretchedness,

Whose stifled sobs of deep despair

Revealed their anguish and distress.

And mothers stood with streaming eyes

And saw their dearest children sold;

Unheeded rose their bitter cries,

While tyrants bartered them for gold.

And woman, with her love and truth –

For these in sable forms may dwell –

Gaz’d on the husband of her youth,

With anguish none may paint or tell.