“Strike For Freedom: Frederick Douglass in Scotland” Film Screening and Discussion

Smith-Buonanno Hall
, Room 106

The 15-minute film “Strike for Freedom” chronicles new efforts to memorialize Frederick Douglass’s abolitionist work in Scotland. In the 19th-century, Edinburgh was a city of freedom for Black social justice campaigners born into slavery in the USA. Committed to ‘telling the story of the slave’ and the ‘strike for freedom’, Douglass and other Black abolitionists came to the city to collaborate, speak publicly, and to inspire thousands to join the anti-slavery campaign.

Following the film, panelists will discuss memory, history, the archive, and the enduring effects of slavery unwilling to die:

  • Dr. George Lipsitz, Professor of Black Studies and of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara 
  • Dr. Bill Lawson, Professor of Philosophy, The University of Memphis
  • Dr. Celeste-Marie Bernier, Personal Chair in U.S. and Atlantic Studies and Professor of English Literature, The University of Edinburgh
  • Respondent: Dr. Rebecca Louise Carter, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Urban Studies, Brown University

A Q. and A. with the speakers will follow. 

Free and open to the public. 

Film Screenings, Lectures, Discussions + Conferences