Frederick Douglass Day 2025
The Department of English has honored the legacy of Frederick Douglas for the past seven years, an influential American abolitionist, writer, and orator. In February 2025, we held our annual “Frederick Douglass Day 2025” event which featured a series of keynote addresses, special collections exhibits, and our well-known Transcribe-a-Thon event.
On February 11 and 13, the Multimedia/Data/Library Day (Part of the Library’s Love Data week) and Black History Month Lighting Talks were held in Hodges Library to highlight the role of education and storytelling in preserving and advancing Douglass’s vision.
On February 13, the Plenary Talk by Jayme N. Canty-Williams, titled ““From Silence to Reconciliation: Black Queer Perspectives and Voices of the Black South” was held. This talk focused on Canty-Williams research focus: the experiences of Black women and queer persons in the American South.
On February 14, the Frederick Douglass Day Transcribe-a-Thon and Celebration, featuring the African American Perspectives Collections at the Library of Congress was held. This event highlighted the Library of Congress’s efforts to preserve African American history within its library collections.
This special event also featured honored guest, Tanya Martin, Mayor of Alcoa, TN. The event was sponsored by the University of Tennessee Departments of English, History, and Africana Studies, the Denbo Center for Humanities and the Arts, UT Libraries, UT Pride Center, and UT Special Collections.
