Today in honor of Black History Month, we celebrate the life of Frederick Douglass, who was born on February 7, 1817, in Tuckahoe, Maryland. After escaping slavery in 1838, he became a national leader of the abolition movement. He also supported the women’s suffrage movement and ran for vice president as running mate to Victoria Woodhull on the Equal Rights Party ticket. He opposed colonialism and imperialism, including the U.S. war with Mexico. In addition to being a brilliant orator, writer and social justice activist, Douglass was also the most photographed man of the 19th century. He sat for over 160 portraits, always taking a dignified pose. He considered photography a tool for creating a positive image of black men.

Douglass wrote that "experience demonstrates that there may be a slavery of wages only a little less galling and crushing in its effects than chattel slavery, and that this slavery of wages must go down with the other." In 1869, along with Isaac Meyers, he organized the First U.S. National Colored Convention and the Colored National Labor Union. At the time, white unions routinely refused to accept African American members or to show solidarity with black workers. Additionally, employers often hired black scabs during strikes by white unions, while the KKK often recruited within white unions, exacerbating mistrust. Over time, the union became more and more political (much like most modern unions), until it became a de facto branch of the Republican Party (which in those days was known as the party of abolition).

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