Frederick Douglass Street Project
Cork is an increasingly diverse city renowned for the warm welcome it extends to those who come from all over the world to live and work here. Dedicating a public space to a prominent person of colour and committed anti-racism activist who has a clear historical connection to the city would represent a powerful endorsement of the tolerance and multiculturalism that is such a strength of our community.
Plaque to commemorate Douglass’s visit to Cork in the Imperial Hotel, Cork.
A Street? A Plaque?
We feel that the dedication of a public space to Douglass in our city would be a way of acknowledging Cork’s complex history of profiting from and campaigning against the slave trade.
Much of the wealth of the city in the 18th century came from supplying provisions to the Atlantic slave trade, especially the dried and salted meat that was fed to enslaved men and women on the plantations of the Caribbean.
Photo of local artists Kevin O’Brien’s mural on Grand Parade Street in Cork, 2020.
A Space?
A number of prominent slave traders had connections to Cork and at least two properties in the city were bought with funds from the compensation offered by the British government to slave owners when the trade was abolished. However, and importantly, Cork was also home to an important and active abolitionist movement that challenged the slave trade and was instrumental in inviting and hosting Frederick Douglass. Voices in our city spoke out against the oppression and exploitation that underpinned the institution of racialised slavery.
We have been in contact with a variety of local City Councillors and have received a lot of positive replies and support for the project, especially since we have teamed up with the Frederick Douglass Family Initiative. We believe that, in the context of the global #BlackLivesMatter movement and a renewed debate about systemic racism and discrimination, here and abroad, politicians have offered help and ensured us that they will vote for the project in their individual committees. The next step would then be to approach the mayor and other local and national prominent figures who will support our projects.
We are delighted that, currently, we have over 3,000 signatures. However, we are not going to stop there; we are aiming for 5,000 signatures by the end of the year. We know the support is there, so, for us, it is about raising awareness and allowing people to explore Frederick Douglass’s story to support our efforts to commemorate him more prominently in Cork. When we get to 5,000 signatures, we will be in an even better position to work with the officials involved in the renaming (or naming) process. Moreover, we are interested in raising more national awareness for Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists who came to Ireland in the 19th century, like Olaudah Equiano (who visited Ireland in 1791) or Charles Lenox Remond (who visited Ireland in 1841).
Dr Dónal Hassett and Dr Caroline Schroeter, who are leading the street renaming project, are both in the same research community in University College Cork. Naturally, their paths have crossed several times since they have both spent years researching oppressive systems, colonialism, racism, slavery – historical and modern-day – as well as commemorations and representations of the past. They have had the opportunity to engage with people from around the world to discuss these issues and have taken a keen interest in global civil rights and human rights activism over the last two decades. Their research covers the developments that have led to the current social, political and cultural situation that we are in now and, thus, with this campaign, they seek to seize on the current momentum of the discussion about public heritage brought about in part by the #BlackLivesMatter movement. A combination of all of these developments led them to collaborate on these projects because they were both looking for ways to act that go beyond research and discussion in order to confront local commemorations of colonialism.
Feel free to contact Dr Dónal Hassett or Dr Caroline Schroeter if you have questions about the project or if you like to get involved.