FREDERICK DOUGLASS DAY 2025
Click here for the program book with full details of the day’s events
Saturday, September 27, 2025
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Frederick Douglass Day activities are free and open to the public.
Schedule of Events:
Parade – 10am
Street Parade (Glenwood Avenue to the Talbot County Court House, Washington Street)
Parade Announcer – Ella Taylor
Parade Participants:
EHS NJROTC color guard
FDHS banner carried by Carolyn and Ryann Hayman
Grand Marshall – Childlene Brooks
Honorary Marshall – Family of Brenda Wooden
Devon Beck- FDHS VP, Gabriella Thompson (MC),
Giuliana Thompson and Minister Javion Jones
BAAM boys & girls
Randy Welch & his bagpipes
TCPS Superintendent Dr Sharon M. Pepukayi
Chesapeake Multicultural Resource Center – Pack 3
TCFL Director Dana Newman and Michele Johnson, Maryland Commission 250
White Marsh Elementary School Band under the direction of Katie Frase
Easton Town Council Representative Keasha Haythe
Polaris Village Academy
Foundation of HOPE
Talbot 250 Commission – Sarah Kilmon
Hispanic Dance Group
Ben Bruner, WHCP radio and Jaelon Moaney
Waterfowl Festival Mascots: Willa the Waterfowl Fox, Webster the Waterfowl Goose,
and Winston the Waterfowl Dog
Samuel T. Hemsley Elks Lodge 974
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Easton
Easton Middle School Band under the direction of Sara Booth
East Coast Cruisers of Salisbury
Easton Utilities
Easton Fire Department
Oxford Fire Department, Henry Hale
Buffalo Soldiers Maryland and The Calvary Scouts
The Frederick Douglass Honor Society would like to thank our drivers:
Mike Newman-Mustang Convertible Dawn Caldwell – VW Convertible
Gael de Schaetzen – 2018 Mustang Convertible William Camper – 1996 Mustang Convertible
Joe Whitesell – 1937 Morris Eight Convertible Paulette Addison – SUV
Thaddeus Hackett – Corvette
Welcome Ceremony – 10:30am
Welcome Ceremony on the front lawn of the Talbot County Court House featuring:
Devon Beck, Vice-President of the Frederick Douglass Honor Society
FDD Welcome Ceremony Mistress of Ceremony – Gabriella Thompson
Invocation – Javion Jones (Minister, Union Baptist Church)
Amazing Grace – Bagpipe music by Randy Welch
Easton NJROTC Color Guard Presentation of Colors
Pledge of Allegiance – BAAM and the Multicultural Resource Center
National Anthem – Mid-Shore Community Band – Director Matt Fullerton
Frederick Douglass Speech –Jaelon T. Moaney, Vice Chair of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture
Music – Mid-Shore Community Band Keasha Haythe,
Talbot County Council Don Abbatiello
Easton Town Council President Michele Johnson,
Maryland Commission 250 Music – Dana Bowser
Dr. Sharon Pepukayi, Talbot County Public Schools Superintendent
Dana Newman, Talbot County Free Library
Music – Dana Bowser
Closing Remarks – by Giuliana Thompson
Music – When the Saints Go Marching In – Mid-Shore Community Band
Children’s Village – 11:30 am to 3pm
Activities include Face painting, free Frederick Douglass coloring books, games, a prize wheel, and portrait booth where kids can take photos with Frederick Douglass. Story time with Shauna Beulah at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and much more.
Marketplace – 11:30am to 3pm
Our Frederick Douglass Marketplace will feature local and regional food vendors, a variety of artisans and not for profit organizations.
Located at Dover and West Streets across from the Talbot County Free Library.
Entertainment Stage – 12:00 Noon to 3 pm
Location: In front of Roma Alla Pala on West Street
Introduction of Master of Ceremonies Devon Beck by Taylor Beck
12-12:15 Bay Country Chorus
12:15-12:30 Stefany Sofia Fernandez
12:30-12:45 New St. Johns United Methodist Church Male Choir
12:45-1:00 St. Michaels Middle High School Choir
1:00-1:30 Line Dancing Music by Allan Butler
1:30-1:45 Ruby Fisher
1:45-2 Allegra Academy
2-2:15 Ayla Dennis
2:15-2:30 Asbury United Methodist Church Choir
2:30-3 Block Party Music by Allan Butler
Frederick Douglass Lecture – 1 PM
The Talbot County Free Library will host, in the meeting room, a lecture by Nicholas Buccola, a professor of humanism and ethics at Claremont McKenna College in California. The lecture is entitled “Frederick Douglass, American Revolutionary” and examines how Douglass saw himself as a successor to the American revolutionaries and how he reinterpreted their ideals to confront the injustices of his era.
Buccola is a widely recognized scholar whose work on figures like Douglass, James Baldwin, and Abraham Lincoln has earned critical acclaim. Following his lecture, he will sign copies of his book “Essential Frederick Douglass”.
Inside the Library, visitors can see multimedia panels of Douglass and his family, paintings of him and his wife Anna Murray Douglass, and items owned by Douglass from his Cedar Hill home, courtesy of the National Park Services.
The Hill Community Walking Tour – 3 PM
The Hill Community Walking tour will begin at 3 p.m. in front of the Avalon Theatre in Easton and will be led by Yvonne Freeman. Easton’s Hill Community has been home to free African Americans since the 1780s, more than 80 years before the Civil War ended in 1865. Free black people resided throughout early Easton, living side by side with white neighbors and with enslaved people. Stops on the tour include the Hambleton House, the James Freeman Home, the Bethel African American Episcopal Church, the Buffalo Soldier House, and the Asbury United Methodist Church.