Dr. Nicholas Buccola, founding director of Linfield University’s Frederick Douglass Forum on Law, Rights, and Justice, will deliver Rhodes College’s virtual Constitution Day lecture on Monday, Oct. 5, at 3 p.m. The title of the talk is “To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: Frederick Douglass’ Aspirational Constitution.”
Register in advance for this event.
According to the Frederick Douglass Forum on Law, Rights, and Justice website, “The Forum was named in honor of Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery and devoted his nearly six decades in public life to the ‘mission’ of hastening ‘the day when the principles of liberty and humanity expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States shall be the law and the practice of every section, and of all the people of this great country without regard to race, sex, color, or religion.’”
Buccola teaches political science at Linfield University in McMinnville, OR, and is the editor of The Essential Douglass: Writings and Speeches (2016) and The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass: In Pursuit of American Liberty (2012). His most recent book is The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate Over Race in America (2019), which tells the story of the iconic debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr. in 1965. Buccola also has published essays in scholarly journals and in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, and Salon.
The purpose of Rhodes College’s annual Constitution Day is to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, and to reflect on the role and function of the government and Americans’ liberties and obligations as citizens.
This year’s event is sponsored by the Project for the Study of Liberal Democracy with a generous grant from the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History. Those with specific inquiries about the lecture can contact Rhodes Department of Political Science at bakerj@rhodes.edu.