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This is America in Pursuit, a limited runrun series from ThruLine and NPR.

I'm Randab al-Fattah.

Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the U.S. that began 250 years ago.

And of course, at the heart of these stories are the people that made history happen,

people who had a bold vision for the America they wanted to see despite the obstacles.

The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her

claims have been born of earnest struggle.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

Frederick Douglass is one of the greatest minds in American history.

Born into slavery in the early 1800s,

Douglas lived through the Civil War, emancipation, black men getting the right to vote,

and the beginning of the terrors and humiliations of Jim Crow.

And through all of that, he kept coming back to one thing, a sacred right he believed was at the

heart of American democracy, voting.

This struggle may be a moral one or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical,

but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand.

It never did, and it never will.

Today on the show, Ramtin and I bring you the story of one man's dedication to changing

how American democracy worked for everyone by fighting for the right for all people to have a say.

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