Douglass Day
Join us for Douglass Day!
A day of love & collective action for Black history!
Every Valentine’s Day, we invite you to a birthday party for Frederick Douglass. Although Douglass never knew his birthdate, he chose to celebrate every year on February 14th. We celebrate this date as a moment for creating Black history together.
Douglass Day is an annual program that marks the birth of Frederick Douglass. Each year, we gather thousands of people to help create new & freely available resources for learning about Black history. We frequently focus on important Black women’s archives, such as Anna Julia Cooper (2020), Mary Church Terrell (2021), Mary Ann Shadd Cary (2023) and plenty more to come in future years. Learn more about the history of Douglass Day.
Douglass Day 2025 will take many forms — in-person, online, or hybrid! We are delighted to present Douglass Day featuring new offerings posted by the Library of Congress and their By The People crowdsourcing platform. Our main event will be live-streamed for everyone to watch online. If you choose to hold a virtual event, you may wish to consult our guide for hosting virtual events.
This year we are delighted to announce our fourth annual cake contest. Make your best cakes and desserts to celebrate Douglass. Post photos of your creations using the hashtag #DouglassDay on Twitter and Instagram to enter our contest!
See more about the Great Douglass Day Bake Off.
Comments Are Welcome
Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.
Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.
See our full Comments Policy here.