He was one of the most notable abolitionists of the 19th century and the most photographed American of the century, using photos of himself to counter prevalent racist caricatures. Frederick Douglass (c.  February 1817 or 1818 to February 20, 1895) was born enslaved in Maryland, and around age 12, a female slave-owner taught him to read a little, which lit a fire in Douglass. When she stopped the lessons, he continued to teach himself to read and write, even teaching others, and he escaped north in 1838. Douglass was the only Black person to attend the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention, and he spoke in favor of women’s suffrage. He gave his seminal speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” in 1852, and helped recruit Black men to fight in the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, Douglass continued to write and speak out for civil rights.
This towering figure in American history has usually showed up onscreen in movies and TV shows set during the Civil War period. Frederick Douglass may play a small role in these frock flicks, but he’s been portrayed by some fine actors. Let’s take a look.
Robert Guillaume in North and South (1985)
Raymond St. Jacques in Glory (1989)
Don Cheadle in Drunk History (2010)
Eamonn Walker in Copper (2013)
John Legend in Underground (2017)
Tory Kittles in Harriet (2019)
Daveed Diggs in The Good Lord Bird (2020)
Harry Lennix in Emperor (2020)
Which onscreen version of Frederick Douglass do you prefer?
Man candy indeed! Douglass was gorgeous! His looks and charisma must have converted many a young lady to the abolitionist cause.
Whatever works; Marvin Gaye must have convinced any number of women that racism was sheer ignorance.
No disrespect intended to a brilliant man but Wowser! Douglas is IMO better looking than any of the actors playing him and that’s saying something.
GLORY all the way: Mr Douglass gets a single scene and does so much with it that it practically qualifies as a campaign video for just about any given election.
I am also far more amused than I should be by the mental image of Mr Douglass as #1 pin-up of his century (Clearly actor/model John Wilkes Booth was after Mr Lincoln because the long fellow was enabling such competition with the Emancipation Proclamation!).
Query: Is the younger Mr Booth in enough films to qualify for a ‘Man Ick Monday’ all his own?
I went to see “Glory” when it first came out, and remember thinking, “Oh, god, that’s Frederick Douglass–they resurrected him!” Once in a while, casting and styling are so right that you can almost believe it’s the actual person. (And, yes, very pin-up worthy as well. The awful J.W. Booth’s brother Edwin–a Union man–was not bad either.)
John Wilkes Booth was quite a pin up himself. One of the witnesses in the assassin’s trial was a young woman who described herself as staring at Booth ‘right wishfully’ and of course saw critical evidence while eating the eye candy
John Legend seems like an odd casting choice in terms of looks.
My favorite portrayal of Douglass by far is JB Smoove in Epic Rap Battle’s “Frederick Douglass vs. Thomas Jefferson.” Very much worth a watch or several.
I just watched it (it’s linked above). Thanks for the suggestion! I love JB Smoove, I love whoever wrote that rap, it’s gets the points right.
I had NO IDEA that Fredrick Douglass had been portrayed onscreen so many times. I want to see all of these!
I have yet to come across the right cinematic Frederick Douglass. I would have voted for Robert Guillaume for that speech alone, but he was too old to be portraying Douglass in 1848.