Douglass Day comes to SUNY Geneseo
A day commemorating the legacy of Frederick Douglass
Photo courtesy of George K. Warren (National Archive Gift Collection)/Wikimedia Commons
This past Friday, Feb. 13, SUNY Geneseo hosted its fourth annual Douglass Day celebration in the Milne Library Multipurpose Room. Douglass Day, honoring Frederick Douglass, has been officially celebrated in Geneseo since 2023. However, Douglass Day activities in America can be traced back to 1895 after his passing, according to the Smithsonian Museum Transcription Center. Douglassday.org tells us that Douglass Day is a nationwide event dedicated to honoring the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass through collaboration and community effort on his chosen birthday of Feb. 14. This year, Geneseo celebrated on Feb 13. due to Douglass’s birthday falling on a Saturday.
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery and would later escape enslavement and become an appreciated, commended writer and an abolitionist. The National Women’s History Museum details that Douglass would also eventually become active within the suffragette movement of the time, supporting the social and political rights of women: “He spoke during the convention about how women were born with their equal rights to men; ‘it was hers before she comprehended it. It is inscribed upon all the powers and facilities of her soul, and no custom, law or usage can ever destroy it.’” Douglass would continue his work “for the rights of women until his death.” Douglass’s work with women is especially poignant given that, according to scholars such as Dr. Murray Ross, guest speaker on the Douglass Day broadcast presented by UC Santa Barbara, it was Black women who organized commemorations immediately following his passing.
These women helped to ensure that his legacy would endure. Leaders like Mary Church Terrell and Anna Julia Cooper worked to continue the tradition of honoring Douglass’s work and promoting Black history and civic engagement. However, while still steeped in history, Douglass Day as it is known today was revived in 2017 by a small group in the University of Delaware, who sought to help to create new digital resources by transcribing historical documents relating to the Black political movements of Douglass’s time.
Douglass Day at Geneseo started with music performed by the Geneseo Chamber Choir led by Dr. Floriano, which has been an ongoing tradition since 2024, as outlined in previous Douglass Day schedules. Afterwards, participants in Douglass Day settled in the Milne Multipurpose Room to watch the 2026 broadcast of Douglass Day, hosted by the Douglass Day Youtube Channel, which went live from UC Santa Barbara.
This year, participants worked through the online platform Zooniverse. Participants were guided on creating accounts and transcribing scanned archival materials line by line. The documents often come from projects like the Colored Conventions Project, which preserves the records of 19th-century Black political organizing. Volunteers were instructed to carefully reproduce the original spelling, punctuation, and formatting, as well as tag names. Names that were mentioned specifically to tag were those of Black women, who have been historically under-documented, to ensure proper archival recognition.
While Douglass Day may only be celebrated one day a year, it is a year-round project which seeks to continue on the legacy of Frederick Douglass. As announced in the broadcast by Dr. Murray Ross, the theme that accompanied this Douglass Day was “All rights for all,” echoing the broader impact and principles of Frederick Douglass’s work as well as the continued goal of the Colored Conventions Project.