About Douglass Day 2024

This Valentine’s Day, we invite you to join us to honor the 19th-century author, statesman, and activist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) by celebrating his birthday and transcribing digitized historical records by participating in UTK's 7th annual Douglass Day transcribe-a-thon.

Although Douglass never knew his birthdate, he chose to celebrate every year on February 14. Let's celebrate this date as a moment for creating Black history together. 

Join a transcribe-a-thon that brings together thousands of participants at more than 100 simultaneous events around the world. Students, teachers, and community members will help to transcribe an unprecedented collection of digitized papers left by Frederick Douglass. These papers have been digitized and made available through collaborations with the Library of Congress and the ByThePeople platform. 

UTK's Douglass Day transcribe-a-thon will be held on February 14, 2024, 12-3 PM (Eastern) at the Frieson Black Cultural Center. The transcribing will be done on crowd.loc.gov, a citizen science platform led by the the Library of Congress. Douglass Day invites people from all backgrounds to join in this effort to make Douglass’s correspondence more widely accessible and searchable. 

#blackhistorymonth 

#bhm24