“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.”
Abolitionist journalist and orator Frederick Douglass spoke those profound words as part of his iconic “West India Emancipation” speech in 1857. Douglass devoted his life to fighting slavery and racism through his speeches and antislavery newspaper, The North Star.
Beginning next month, an updated North Star, founded by activist journalist Shaun King and edited by noted scholar Dr. Keisha Blain, will emerge online with content created by progressives seeking to agitate for justice in the spirit of Douglass and the movement he inspired.
The content will “function as an important tool for activists,” Blain told Diverse in a recent interview after King announced her appointment as editor.
“We’re thinking of it as a great resource for anyone committed to social justice,” Blain said. “What’s important is that we’re going to take a very strong stance and not be afraid to take a position — just like the original North Star we will encourage writers to speak boldly against the injustices that they see.”
In announcing plans for the launch, King said on Medium.com: “We live in a deeply problematic time; 172 years ago, in another deeply problematic time, with the systemic evil of slavery still in full force in the United States, an abolitionist newspaper was started by Frederick Douglass and Dr. Martin Delany to fight back and tell the whole truth about the world as they knew it.”
Douglass’ paper was named to reflect the guidance of the celestial North Star in leading enslaved Black people out of the South to freedom.
