History no longer lost: Frederick Douglass was no stranger to Terre Haute

Mar. 1—Vigo County historian Crystal Reynolds and members of Indiana State University's chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha led a downtown walking tour Tuesday, recalling what was called the lost history of Frederick Douglass and his involvement with Terre Haute.

The tour began at ISU's Cunningham Library, where rare books associated with Douglass are included in its special collections. It continued to the site of the old Terre Haute House, which he helped desegregate in 1872, now the location of the Hilton Garden Inn.

It concluded at the Vigo County Historical Museum, where Reynolds discovered a piece of Terre Haute House stationery signed by Douglass tucked in a box inside a closet.

The signature dates back to October of 1884, when Douglas spoke at two Republican events in the city. The second, on Oct. 24, was at the time Terre Haute's biggest political rally.

Born in February of 1818, Douglas was the most photographed man of the 19th century, Reynolds said. He escaped slavery at age 20 and adopted the oratorical cadences of a Black preacher — Reynolds compared his charismatic speaking pattern to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barrack Obama.

Over the course of his life, Douglass wrote three autobiographies: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" in 1845, "My Bondage and My Freedom" in 1855 and "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" in 1881.

Last year, Pi Kappa Alpha gifted the ISU Library with a rare reprint — only 60 copies were ever made — of his first memoir.

In 1868, Douglass made his first visit to Terre Haute and helped build the Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. On that visit, he was denied entry to the Terre Haute House, instead staying with civic leader Thomas Baur.

Outside the Hilton Garden Inn, Reynolds related the story of how Douglass desegregated the Terre Haute House. Days before his visit to Terre Haute, Douglass was denied access to a hotel in St. Louis. The Terre Haute newspaper and local civic leaders more or less browbeat the establishment into allowing him to stay there.

Nevertheless, Douglass was denied access to hotels around the country for years after the Terre Haute House's historic gesture. Last year represented the desegregation's sesquicentennial.

It was also outside the Hilton Garden Inn that Mayor Duke Bennett spoke of how Reynolds had versed him in aspects of Terre Haute history that he was not aware of, including Douglass and the Terre Haute House.

The mayor announced that a statue of Douglass by acclaimed Terre Haute sculptor Bill Wolfe — who also created the Larry Bird statue outside of Hulman Center — would be placed outside the hotel. Pi Kappa Alpha is in the process of raising $15,000 for Wolfe's statue

At the Vigo County Historical Museum, Reynolds spoke of the thrill of discovering the stationery with Douglass' signature, which now is displayed on the museum's third floor. Those who completed the tour were given a copy of Douglass' "Narrative."

At the conclusion of the tour, in the Historical Museum's auditorium, members of Pi Kappa Alpha gave Reynolds a copy of David Blight's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom," and Century 21's Carley Cottrell gave her a certificate and a flower bouquet for winning its "Relentless with Century 21" award, given to those who embody relentlessness.

At the end of the tour, Reynolds was asked what question she would have asked Douglass.

"He went all over speaking from an early age up until his death — that was decades and decades," she said. "Talk about relentless, he was relentless — he went from town to town to town and people would hurl insults at him or refused him accommodations. Most people would have buckled from the pressure.

"My question to him is, how did you do that? How did you ignore the noise and continue to give the message and fight for the cause? How did you do that for decades and decades despite everything they threw at you?"

Reynolds added, "And so, when [Terre Haute House] blinked, and said you could stay here — they let him eat there in 1870 and sit at a table by himself, and all of a sudden they let him stay. What did you think about that?"

David Kronke can be reached at 812-231-4232 or at david.kronke@tribstar.com.