Title:
At Frederick Douglas House, Learning How an Escaped
Slave Became a Leader
Description: This is
a VOA Special English General News Report.
See text below
Text:
People come to this house in search of
African-American history.
TOUR GUIDE: "Now the irons that you see up here,
these are the various irons that the Douglass family
used. This iron is really interesting. This is an
iron for putting ruffles in a woman's dress. So it
sort of demonstrates the type of people who were
living in the house."
Frederick Douglass owned this home in Washington,
D.C., after slavery ended in 1865. Douglass was born
a slave, but escaped. He later became a major
African-American leader. Kamal McClarin works for
the National Park Service.
KAMAL McCLARIN: "That transition from slavery to
freedom and living in a home like this really
provides the public with tremendous inspiration and
demonstrating those notions of self determination,
you can rise from nothing to something."
The house is called Cedar Hill. Frederick Douglass
purchased it in a Washington neighborhood where only
white people lived. He and his family lived here
from 1877 until he died in 1895. Today, visitors see
how Douglass lived and they learn about his life.
TOUR GUIDE: "If you have heard anything or read
anything about Douglass, you probably heard people
mention that his voice rivaled Daniel Webster, who
was one of the great orators of the 19th century."
Historian Thomas Fenske brought his friends to the
Frederick Douglass home. He says the building was in
need of repairs in the 1970s, but later fixed.
THOMAS FENSKE: "Frederick Douglass was very, very
important for, as a founder of the civil rights
movement. He talked with President Lincoln, advised
Lincoln on various things and, of course, was one of
our country's great writers. So I think it's
important to have a house like this to keep his
memory alive."
More than 60,000 people have visited the home since
2006. Sarah Ward is one of them.
SARAH WARD: "I learned that Frederick Douglass
escaped from being a slave and he went through a lot
of hard times. He taught himself how to read and
write, and became very educated and successful."
Susan Nako brought her son Simon from New York.
SUSAN NAKO: "Simon's list for his first grade class
for Black History Month did not include Frederick
Douglass. And I am appalled because he's my hero
from when I was a little girl."
Michael Scott and his wife came from Virginia.
MICHAEL SCOTT: "This day and time, a lot of
African-American children don't know about Frederick
Douglass. They don't know about it. In order for us
to go forward, we got to remember our past, where we
came from and those who paved the way for us."
The National Park Service cares for the Federal
Douglass home. The Park Service is working on
expanding its activities there as interest in
African-American history grows. I'm Steve Ember.
Hi. I
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the news section of English Global Group. This
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
