This is Philosophy Bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.

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Frederick Douglas and W.E.B. Dubois were two prominent African-Americans

who made a significant impact on the civil rights movement in the US.

Douglas is particularly associated with 19th century abolitionism

and Dubois with 20th century Pan-Africanism.

In this interview, Chi K. Jeffers introduces some of their key ideas.

Chi K. Jeffers, welcome to Philosophy Bites.

Thank you so much. Happy to be back.

We're talking today about two important African-American thinkers,

both of whom will be known to listeners.

The first is Frederick Douglass, and the second is Du Bois.

Let's start with Douglas.

I think you've called him the foremost black intellectual of the 19th century.

Tell us about his life. Yeah, Frederick Douglas was born enslaved in Maryland. He eventually escapes to the North. After that, in the 1840s,

becomes a public speaker, part of an abolitionist movement. He's first associated with a very important white abolitionist named William Lloyd Garrison.

It is under the leadership of Garrison that he publishes his first account of his life,

although he would go on to write two more.

Eventually, he seeks independence from the Garrisonians.

He becomes a newspaper man.

And so through his speaking and his newspapers,

he became one of the most important abolitionist voices in the antebellum era.

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