Eyes on the Prize
As part of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday on January 21st, the film, “American Civil Rights Years, Eyes on the Prize, volumes 1 and 2” will be shown during the Civil Rights Film Festival at the Frederick Douglass National Historical Site in Anacostia.
Films will be shown between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 2: 00 p.m. Sunday, January 6 through Tuesday, January 15.
Additionally, on Sunday, Jan. 13th at 2:30 p.m., a Park Ranger will lead a discussion entitled “Frederick Douglass: The Father of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Frederick Douglas was born in to slavery in 1818 about 60 miles east of DC in Maryland. As a child, he learned to read, which was uncommon for slaves at that time and considered dangerous by some slave owners. By the age of 15, he was secretly teaching other slaves to read the Bible and when discovered, he was severely and repeatedly whipped.
At the age of 20 he escaped his owner and dressed as a freed sailor, road a train to New York City.
He traveled to England for safety and British anti-slavery sympathizers paid his owner $710.96 to free Douglas.
Three years later and back in the U.S., he delivered his first of many abolitionist speeches, detailing the cruel life of a slave. He toured the North and later parts of Europe speaking about the ills of human bondage. He later wrote his most famous book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
As an abolitionist, writer and editor, he fought against the violation of human rights and became a well-known statesman. He fought against the Ku Klux Klan, was nominated for Vice President (a position he didn’t want) on the Equal Rights Party. He was condemned by 
many blacks for speaking out against the black exodus movement, an unorganized mass migration (1879-80) to Kansas by freed slaves.
In 1877, he moved into his final home he called Cedar Hill in Washington, DC, now the Frederick Douglass National Historical Site.
He served as president of of bank, the marshal and recorder of deeds of the District of Columbia, became an ordained minister and even an ambassador to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
His home is now the Frederick Douglass National Historical Site.
Frederick Douglass National Historical Site
1411 W Street SE
Washington DC 20020 (map it)
202-426-5961
Dates and Times - The site is open daily - 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., one hour later April 16, - Oct. 15. Films will be shown daily, Jan. 6th -15th at 11:30 a.m. and 2: 00 p.m.
Tickets - Admission to the site and to view the films are free.
Nearest Metro Subway Station - Anacostia - Green Line. Then take the B2 Metro bus toward Mt. Ranier. The bus stops in front of the Douglass home.
Parking - Street parking is available in the area.
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POSTED IN: City History & Information, Freebies - Free or No Cost, Movies, Museums, People
1 opinion for Eyes on the Prize
Douglas Karr
Jan 5, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Thank goodness that Douglas was a brilliant man and recognized that joining John Brown wasn’t a good idea.
Douglas met with John Brown but refused to join him. John Brown’s sons were killed and John Brown later hanged when his rebellion was squashed by none other than Robert E. Lee.
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