LYNN — Toluwani Oladoja learned a lesson that would have made one-time Lynn resident Frederick Douglass proud.
“I learned that it doesn’t matter about your skin because we are all people and humans and we should join together,” said 7-year-old Oladoja.
Local educators and members of the Douglass 200 Committee spent Valentine’s Day helping Oladoja and other Lynn students learn about the famous abolitionist as they kicked off the yearlong celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth. With Mayor Thomas M. McGee and the full committee in attendance, it was a successful start to the first event of the year.
“He was a slave, he was born in the 1800s, and his tombstone is in Maryland,” said 9-year-old Mariama Bah. “It was fun learning all that, but I’m really excited for the cake they have.”
The event took place at City Hall and was complete with not only a sheet cake but a Douglass impersonator and a happy birthday sing-a-long as well. In order to embed the importance of his life into the young minds, committee member Arthur Akers recited one of Douglass’ first speeches titled “I have come to tell you about slavery,” which was read aloud in Lynn centuries ago.
Julia Greene, one of the committee’s founding members, was ecstatic at how the committee’s first event played out. Thankful for the work of Alan White as the impersonator, Green thought it was beautiful how well the children listened to the message Douglass intended to leave behind.
“When I was a kid we didn’t learn about Frederick Douglass in Lynn so this is really great and I hope in the years to come that we do more programming with kids here so they all learn it early and can be excited about it,” she said.
Committee member Darrell Murkison gave the event’s welcoming remarks and introduced each speaker. As director of the Community Minority Cultural Center, Murkison kept the eager children entertained with fun facts about Douglass’ residency in Lynn.
“The main reason for having an event like this is to make sure young people like yourselves understand the history of where you live,” he said to the kids.
Tom Dalton, another committee member, felt proud that Lynn was taking part in the statewide celebration. Dalton, who recently published “Frederick Douglass: The Lynn Years, 1841-1848,” played a huge part in planning this event.
“It’s great to start with kids because that’s really the generation you want to start teaching to about Douglass and I’m hoping they do more in the schools here about him, because there are a lot of good lessons to learn from him and his life,” he said.
