Two hundred years after his birth, Frederick Douglass endures unequalled as the invincible adversary of racial despair and disaffection – the preeminent apostle of hopefulness in the American promise of liberty and justice for all. In America’s dedication to principles of natural rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence, Douglass found reason to love and identify with his country, despite the injustices that he and his people had suffered. A formidable thinker, activist, and polemicist, Douglass produced the most powerful argument for the affirmation of America’s Founding principles in the history of African-American political thought.

Peter C. Myers is a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and the author of Frederick Douglass: Race and the Rebirth of American Liberalism. Reverend Dean Nelson is a licensed minister and ordained pastor who currently serves as the chairman of the Douglass Leadership Institute. Diana Schaub is a professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and the author of several essays on African-American American political thought.