Daily News | Philadelphia 8th graders met Frederick Douglass’ great-great grandson, Kevin Douglass Greene
Amora Williams–Edmunds, an 8th grader at Jenks Academy for the Arts and Sciences, squealed with delight when she ran up to her teacher, Katherine Muc at the Lovett Memorial Library in East Mount Airy Wednesday.
The 8th graders were quiet and attentive as Greene began speaking. He is a tall, striking man with a gray beard, and looks remarkably like his great-great grandfather. He told the Jenks students that his ancestor loved learning. He told them the white plantation owner told his wife to stop teaching Frederick how to read and write as a child because “it would ruin him for being a slave.”“Power!,” the students responded.
“He didn’t have to hide in a wagon or walk through the woods, like you hear with some of the people Harriet Tubman helped to escape,“ Greene said.Frederick Bailey would later change his name toGreene spoke to the students the day after what is celebrated as Douglass’ 205th birthdate. Douglass was born in February 1818 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He didn’t know his exact birthday, so he chose to celebrate it on Feb. 14.
“But an enslaved person has a personality. They had a family. They had wants. They were sad. They were happy. An enslaved person had an identity.”
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