Editing Frederick Douglass (section)

==Reconstruction era==
[[File:George Kendall Warren - Frederick Douglass - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|Frederick Douglass in 1876, around 58 years of age]]

After the Civil War, Douglass continued to work for equality for African Americans and women. Due to his prominence and activism during the war, Douglass received several political appointments. He served as president of the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]]-era [[Freedman's Savings Bank]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=McFeely |first=William S. |author-link=William S. McFeely |url=https://archive.org/details/frederickdouglas00will_0 |title=Frederick Douglass |date=1991 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. |isbn=978-0-393-02823-2 |location=New York |page=283 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Meanwhile, white insurgents had quickly arisen in the South after the war, organizing first as secret [[vigilante]] groups, including the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Armed insurgency took different forms. Powerful paramilitary groups included the [[White League]] and the [[Red Shirts (Southern United States)|Red Shirts]], both active during the 1870s in the Deep South. They operated as "the military arm of the Democratic Party", turning out Republican officeholders and disrupting elections.<ref>[[George C. Rable]]. ''But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction'', Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1984, p. 132.</ref> Starting 10 years after the war, Democrats regained political power in every state of the former Confederacy and began to reassert [[white supremacy]]. They enforced this by a combination of violence, late 19th-century laws imposing [[racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] and a concerted effort to [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|disfranchise]] African Americans. New labor and criminal laws also limited their freedom.<ref>[[Richard Pildes|Richard H. Pildes]], [https://ssrn.com/abstract=224731 "Democracy, Anti-Democracy, and the Canon"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121211213/https://ssrn.com/abstract=224731|date=November 21, 2018}}, ''Constitutional Commentary'', Vol. 17, 2000, pp. 12–13. Retrieved March 10, 2008.</ref>

To combat these efforts, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of [[Ulysses S. Grant]] in [[1868 United States presidential election|1868]]. In 1870, Douglass started his last newspaper, the ''[[New National Era]]'', attempting to hold his country to its commitment to equality.<ref name="pbs.org" /> President Grant sent a congressionally sponsored commission, accompanied by Douglass, on a mission to the West Indies to investigate whether the annexation of Santo Domingo would be good for the United States. Grant believed annexation would help relieve the violent situation in the South by allowing African Americans their own state. Douglass and the commission favored annexation, but Congress remained opposed to annexation. Douglass criticized Senator [[Charles Sumner]], who opposed annexation, stating that if Sumner continued to oppose annexation he would "regard him as the worst foe the colored race has on this continent."<ref>Brands (2012). ''The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace'', p. 462.</ref>

[[File:2000-2008 17th Street, NW.JPG|thumb|Douglass's former residence in the [[U Street Corridor]] of Washington, D.C. He built 2000–2004 17th Street, [[Northwest, Washington, D.C.|NW]], in 1875.]]

After the midterm elections, Grant signed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1871]] (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act) and the second and third [[Enforcement Acts]]. Grant used their provisions vigorously, suspending ''[[habeas corpus]]'' in South Carolina and sending troops there and into other states. Under his leadership over 5,000 arrests were made. Grant's vigor in disrupting the Klan made him unpopular among many whites but earned praise from Douglass. A Douglass associate wrote that African Americans "will ever cherish a grateful remembrance of [Grant's] name, fame and great services."

In 1872, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States, as [[Victoria Woodhull]]'s running mate on the [[National Equal Rights Party|Equal Rights Party]] ticket. He was nominated without his knowledge. Douglass neither campaigned for the ticket nor acknowledged that he had been nominated.<ref name="VP">{{Cite book |last=Trotman |first=C. James |title=Frederick Douglass: A Biography |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-313-35036-8 |pages=118–119}}</ref> In that year, he was [[presidential elector]] at large for the [[State of New York]], and took that state's votes to Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1879 |title=Douglass, Frederick |encyclopedia=[[American Cyclopedia]] |publisher=[[D. Appleton and Company]] |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/stream/americancyclopae06ripluoft#page/228/mode/2up |access-date=February 9, 2015 |volume=6 |page=228}}</ref>

However, in early June of that year, Douglass's third Rochester home, on South Avenue, burned down; arson was suspected. There was extensive damage to the house, its furnishings, and the grounds; in addition, sixteen volumes of the ''North Star'' and ''Frederick Douglass' Paper'' were lost. Douglass then moved to Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blight |first=David W. |author-link=David W. Blight |title=Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4165-9031-6 |location=New York |pages=471–474}}</ref>

Throughout the Reconstruction era, Douglass continued speaking, emphasizing the importance of work, voting rights and actual exercise of suffrage. His speeches for the twenty-five years following the war emphasized work to counter the racism that was then prevalent in unions.<ref>Olasky, Marvin. "History turned right side up". ''World magazine''. February 13, 2010. p. 22.</ref> In a November 15, 1867, speech he said: {{blockquote|''A man's rights rest in three boxes. The ballot box, jury box, and the cartridge box. Let no man be kept from the ballot box because of his color. Let no woman be kept from the ballot box because of her sex.''<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Robin Van Auken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zFclDyk2LTEC&pg=PA57 |title=Williamsport: Boomtown on the Susquehanna |last2=Louis E Hunsinger |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7385-2438-2 |page=57 |access-date=October 26, 2015 |archive-date=May 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501101215/https://books.google.com/books?id=zFclDyk2LTEC&pg=PA57 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}In an 1869 speech entitled "Our Composite Nationality,"<ref name=":2" /> Douglass spoke in defense of [[Chinese immigration to the United States]], their admission "as witnesses in our courts of law", their naturalization as citizens, and their right to vote and to hold office. This was at a time when even many fellow Republicans expressed [[Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States|anti-Chinese sentiment]] and opposed their immigration and the other rights that Douglass named.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Blight |first=David W. |date=2019-11-09 |title=Frederick Douglass's Vision for a Reborn America |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/frederick-douglass-david-blight-america/600802/ |access-date=2025-02-15 |work=The Atlantic |language=en |issn=2151-9463}}</ref> Describing the freedom to immigrate as a [[human right]], Douglass argued, "I hold that a liberal and brotherly welcome to all who are likely to come to the United States is the only wise policy which this nation can adopt."<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Sample Document One: Our Composite Nationality: An Address Delivered in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 7, 1869 · Digital Edition · Frederick Douglass Papers Project |url=https://frederickdouglasspapersproject.com/s/digitaledition/item/18009 |access-date=2025-02-15 |website=frederickdouglasspapersproject.com}}</ref>  

Douglass spoke at many colleges around the country, including [[Bates College]] in [[Lewiston, Maine]], in 1873.

In 1881, at [[Storer College]] in [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia]], Douglass delivered a speech praising John Brown and revealing unknown information about their relationship, including their meeting in an abandoned stone quarry near Chambersburg shortly before the raid.<ref name="douglassdover" />