Frederick Douglass — the 19th-century orator, statesman, abolitionist, and former slave — would be pleased that his great-great-granddaughter, Nettie Washington Douglass, is a guest speaker at the institution where he gave his final public speech: West Chester University.

Nettie Washington Douglass, who is also the great-granddaughter of 19th-century educator and intellectual Booker T. Washington, will be on campus this weekend, Oct. 9 and 10.

On Saturday, she will discuss her famous ancestor and human rights as part of a panel at the American INSIGHT 2021 Free Speech Film Award Ceremony. It takes place from 3-5 PM in Sykes Student Union Theater, located at 110 West Rosedale Avenue. Parking is available immediately behind the building. The event is open to the public and free with registration (masks are required inside).

Washington Douglass is the co-founder and chairwoman of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiative, an organization that promotes human rights, racial equity, and social justice. Actor and activist Paul Oakley Stovall, who is currently playing George Washington in the national tour of Hamilton, will join the conversation via Zoom. He is working on a song cycle about Frederick Douglass’s experiences in Ireland and has collaborated with the Irish Institute for Music and Song. Both he and Washington Douglass have been in Ireland this year, retracing the footsteps of Frederick Douglass, who spent four months there in 1845.

The discussion will be moderated by Karen Curry, American INSIGHT board member and former NBC and CNN bureau chief, and includes Anita Foeman, WCU professor of communications and media, who researches genetic ancestry and the narratives, behaviors, and perspectives that define people.

Following the discussion is a screening of the winning film in the American INSIGHT Free Speech Film Festival: Footsteps in the Wind, a seven-minute, animated short film set to Sting’s song “Inshallah.” Based on the harsh and intense reality of refugees around the world, this film is a narrative journey told through the eyes of children who never give up on their dreams.

These WCU students will join the program and read quotes from Frederick Douglass:

• Camryn Smith, women’s and gender studies major and a College of Arts and Humanities ambassador
• Mahmou Turay, sports medicine major in the WCU Honors College
• Craig Johnson, psychology major in the WCU Honors College

On Sunday, Washington Douglass will visit WCU’s Special Collections to view and receive a copy of her great-great-grandfather’s letters written in 1895 to George Morris Philips, who was West Chester Normal School’s principal at the time.

Sunday’s event is by invitation only.

For more information, contact Hyoejin Yoon.