My favorite quote from Douglass is:
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” —Frederick Douglass
As a school teacher, I am usually the only one who has done the readings for the class. This makes the job of increasing literacy impossible, of course. I remind them of this quote, spoken by a slave, and point out the irony that a slave took careful note of the importance of reading to freedom and how, today, many who are free are actually enslaving themselves to those who have the true knowledge by shunning the practice of reading.
If only more African-Americans understood this they might rebel against the unholy Democrat/NEA alliance that seeks to keep black kids in dysfunctional schools that do not give them anything close to a 21st Century education. Douglass would be horrified that this is happening 150 years after the abolition of slavery, although he wouldn’t be surprised Democrats are behind it.