7 - Commemoration and Contestation: Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama

Summary

Antislavery and women's rights icons Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony are often paired in ways that blend representations of the past with inspirational approaches to the future. The two are linked in a progressive narrative that celebrates their tenacity, their courage, and, ultimately, how these fierce advocates for equality and justice “saw many of their dreams come true.” These “friends for freedom,” as the title of Suzanne Slade's 2014 children's book suggests, “helped America grow up.” Similarly, Dean Robbins's 2016 Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass presents the life experiences of the reformers as parallel, emphasizing their shared struggle for comparable goals. “The two of them bravely spoke out for each other's causes, making appearances together throughout their lives,” Robbins writes. “They never stopped fighting, and they never doubted that victory would come.” In the end, “Anthony and Douglass won their battles.”

The commemorative pairing of Anthony and Douglass as “friends for freedom” is highly visible in Rochester, New York—the city they shared in the mid-nineteenth century. The Frederick Douglass–Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge spans the Genesee River in the city's center. The University of Rochester's campus has buildings named for the two, as well as the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies. In the city's west, the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House sits across Susan B. Anthony Square Park from the Frederick Douglass Resource Center. A sculpture depicting Douglass and Anthony conversing over tea occupies the center of the square. “It's a social statement,” said Laotian American sculptor Pepsy M. Kettavong of his work. “A black man and a white woman are drinking tea together. A Laotian makes their sculpture. It could be a metaphor for American democracy.” And in Rochester's Mount Hope Cemetery, where the grave of Susan B. Anthony drew crowds on Election Day 2016, Frederick Douglass is also interred.