Black History Month at Bowdoin
“Black history is everyone’s history. It’s a time to celebrate the ancestors who have put in the work that essentially created the foundation that we all get to live on today. Their work is all of our work.”
—Jasmine Ross, interim director of the Center for Multicultural Life
Douglass Day is an annual program that marks the birth of Frederick Douglass, the American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After he escaped his enslavers in Maryland, Douglass devoted his life to Black civil rights and became the most important Black activist of the 19th century.
Although Douglass never knew his birthdate, he chose February 14th because his mother called him her “Little Valentine.” People inspired by his life and work have long celebrated him on this date. The observations in his honor were the beginning of Black History Month.
Each year, Douglass Day gathers thousands of people, online and in person, to help create new and freely available resources for learning about Black history. This year, Bowdoin will host its first Douglass Day Party!
Partygoers will help transcribe documents from the African American Perspectives Collection at the Library of Congress. No experience is required: volunteers simply type out the text from a document (such as a newspaper article or letter), preserving the original spelling, grammar, and punctuation. The uploaded documents make historical information more accessible to future students of Black history. This is public history at its best.
When: Friday, February 14 from 12:00-3:00
Where: Ladd House Living Room
Feel free to bring your lunch (along with your laptop) Cake will be served!
Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, a professor of history at Smith College and daughter of late comedian Richard Pryor, will give a talk February 28 on “why the n-word is so hard to talk about,” despite it being prevalent in both racist and anti-racist documents, art, literature, history, and politics.