America's First Statue to a Black American

Can you guess who? Most people get it wrong.

Whenever I speak to students or even adults, I like to ask a simple question: "Who was the first African American to be honored with a public statue in the United States?" The most common guess is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks. Once, a woman confidently answered Abraham Lincoln, which made me wonder if she had missed part of the question.

But the answer surprises almost everyone.

On June 9, 1899, a remarkable event took place in Rochester, New York. A statue was unveiled that made history, not just locally but nationally. It was the first public statue in the United States ever dedicated to an African American. That statue honored my great-great-great-grandfather, Frederick Douglass, and it was erected just four years after he died in 1895.

Sidney W. Edwards Douglass Monument, Rochester, New York