Initial Broadcast Date: January 11, 1972
30 minutes – Color
This program interweaves a profile of the great black orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass with the story of the actor who portrays him, Arthur Burghardt, who is now in prison serving a five year term for draft evasion. It includes conversations with Burghardt before his incarceration last month and excerpts from a one-man play which he adapted from Douglas’ original works and which rand during part of September and November in two New York theaters. These conversations and performances evoke the spirit of the great freedom-fighter, his relevance to all black people today, and his special meaningfulness to the story of Burghardt.
Born in 1817, Frederick Douglass resisted his own slavery at an early age. He escaped to the North, where he began his life-long career as a leader in the anti-slavery crusade. He was an advisor to President Lincoln, a leading 19th century Abolitionist, a fighter for women’s rights, and a diplomatic representative from the United States to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Burghardt, who feels that “black children don’t think about history with any relevance,” has sought “to propagate the cause of Frederick Douglass” through the re-enactment of his speeches. In this way he also can bring prominence to this black hero who has largely been ignored by American history.
Douglass once said that “the newly emancipated black man … is free from the individual master, but the slave of society.” Like Douglass, who once resisted his master, Burghardt has resisted his master – society – by refusing induction. He feels that, given the state of rights of black people in this country, there is “little in America I can defend” – in this war or in any other war.
Burghardt relates to Black Journal the story of his year-long efforts to obtain a conscientious objector status from his local draft board and the problems he encountered. Burghardt began his term last month. He had hoped to take his play to other cities, such as Atlanta.
“Black Journal” is a production of NET Division, Educational Broadcasting Corporation
Executive producer: Tony Brown
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