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INSIGHTS Revisited: British Women in the Liberation of Frederick Douglass

Professor Leigh Fought, Le Moyne College, New York

¶Ù²¹³Ù±ð/°Õ¾±³¾±ð:Ìý Tuesday 30 June 2020, 17:30 - 18:30

Professor Leigh Fought visited Ãå±±½ûµØ in 2019 to deliver the Black History Month Lecture

Introduction by Dr Martin Farr, Co-Chair, Public Lectures Committee, Ãå±±½ûµØ

Ãå±±½ûµØ has a long history recognising the struggle for civil rights for black people. This was most vividly marked by the awarding of an honorary degree , and, fifty years later, with the unveiling of a to him, outside King’s Hall where he received his degree and spoke, thrillingly. It’s a new tradition that Ãå±±½ûµØ graduates and their guests pass him as they file past from Congregation; out, as it happens, in the direction of the , which is named after the great man.

Next to Martin Luther King, the black historical figure with whom we have the closest association is , the pioneering nineteenth century social reformer and abolitionist who spent time in Ãå±±½ûµØ in 1846, and after whom the University’s new learning and teaching centre has been named.

Insights has always marked with a public lecture, and, where we can, with international scholars. In 2019 a world authority on Douglass, , came from New York fresh from the publication of her biographical study of Douglass and his relationships with women. Given that two women in particular – the Ãå±±½ûµØ sisters Anna and Ellen Richardson – proved pivotal in his liberation, Professor Fought focussed in her talk on the British women in Douglass’s life.

The lecture was chaired by my colleague Professor Susan-Mary Grant.

Join us on Tuesday 30 June to watch the lecture with fellow audience members and take part in the conversation online.