Timely Connections: Frederick Douglass & Scientific Racism
In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Eric Herschthal, a fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library, suggests that we remember Frederick Douglass “as someone whose insights about scientific theories of race are every bit as relevant in our era as they were when he wrote them.” Take a look at the examples Herschthal provides about Douglass’ efforts to challenge scientific racism, including ethnology or, as it was sometimes referred to, “the science of race”. Then read a Library of Congress Folklife Today blog post discussing Douglass and his attempts to take on this issue. After, dig into related primary sources. What new insights and perspectives into racism from the past and the present do these sources help you gain?
Frederick Douglass’s Fight Against Scientific Racism The New York Times Feb. 22, 2018
Ethnology & Egypt
- Frederick Douglass: “I Am A Man” Folklife Today February 14, 2018
- The Diversity of Origin of the Races (From the Christian Examiner for July, 1850) by Louis Agassiz
- Prof. Agassiz portrait
- The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered July 12, 1854
- Ethnology of the negro or prognathous race: a lecture delivered Nov. 30, 1857, before the N. O. Academy of Sciences
- Anthropology for the people : a refutation of the theory of the adamic origin of all races 1891
- Frederick Douglass Diary (Tour of Europe and Africa) September 15, 1886 – June 14, 1888
World’s Fair