There was once a slave ... : $b The heroic story of Frederick DouglassDu Bois, Shirley Graham
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There was once a slave ... : $b The heroic story of Frederick Douglass
Du Bois, Shirley Graham
Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895
I must have stayed in those rooms for some time, because suddenly I
realized it was growing dark and that I was alone. A glass door stood
ajar and I stepped through and out upon a little balcony, a tiny
balcony where one could sit alone and think. Surely many times on just
such spring evenings Douglass had stepped out on his balcony. Looking
far over the group of houses clustered at the foot of the hill, he
must have caught the gleam of the Potomac as I did, and beyond that
all Washington spread out like a bit of magic. Washington Monument
was not pointing to the sky in his day, but there was the beautiful
rounded dome of the Capitol. He could see that Capitol of which he
was so proud--he could contemplate all the intriguing pattern of the
city which he loved so much, capital of the nation which he served so
faithfully.
Then, all at once, as I stood there on the balcony, I knew why it
was that in the evening of his life Frederick Douglass’ eyes were so
serene. Not because he was lost in illusions of grandeur, not because
he thought the goal attained, not because he thought all the people
were marching forward. But as he stood there on his little balcony
he could lift his eyes and, looking straight ahead, could see over
the dome of the Capitol, steadfastly shedding its rays of hope and
guidance, the north star.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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