Frederick Douglass Lecture – 1 PM

The Talbot County Free Library will host, in the meeting room, a lecture by Damon Root. He is a senior editor at Reason, and the author of Reason’s semiweekly Injustice System newsletter. He is also the author of two books: A Glorious Liberty: Frederick Douglass and the Fight for an Antislavery Constitution (Potomac Books, 2020) and Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). Root’s third book, Emancipation War: The Fall of Slavery and the Coming of the Thirteenth Amendment (Potomac Books 2026).

A Glorious Liberty, has been praised by reviewers, who called it “refreshing and thoughtful” (Intellectual History Review), “thoroughly researched and readable”(The Objective Standard), “informed” (Shepherd Express), “a meticulously researched celebration of the intellectual legacy of Frederick Douglass” (Radley Balko), “a highly accessible and engaging overview of abolitionist constitutionalism” (Randy Barnett), “a great and important book” (Greg Lukianoff), and” brilliant…one of the best concise histories of the movement to end slavery” (Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine). According to the columnist and author George F. Will, “today once again the original constitution is being vilified, as a validation of slavery, by people with disrespectable agendas and negligible understanding. Damon Root, who explicates the great document as well as anyone writing today, brings the patience of Job and noble ally – Frederick Douglass – to the task of refuting this recycled canard. Root and Douglass, like root beer and ice cream, are an irresistible American combination.”

Emancipation War: The Fall of Slavery and the Coming of the Thirteenth Amendment draws on Damon’s encyclopedic knowledge of constitutional law and history. Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist George Will called Damon “one of the most consistently illuminating writers of constitutional questions”, and Greg Lukianoff, CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, praised Emancipation War “a powerfully written book – and a genuine joy to read.”

Root is the winner of the 2015 Los Angeles Press Club Award for Best Political/Government Reporting and the winner of the 2011 R.C. Hoiles Prize for Journalism. Root’s book A Glorious Liberty was named a 2021 Outstanding Academic Title by the editors of Choice, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Root’s work has been cited by the Texas Supreme Court and in the writings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. His work has been cited in leading scholarly journals, including the Columbia Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy. His 2007 essay on NAACP co-founder Moorfield Storey was recommended in Race & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader (University Press of Kentucky).

Root’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, Newsweek, New York Post, New York Daily News, New York Press, Washington Times, WallStreetJournal.com, The Globe and Mail, The Orange County Register, and other publications.

Root has spoken before audiences at Harvard Law School, Georgetown Law Center, Columbia University, and the New York Civil Liberties Union, and he has been featured on C-Span’s Book TV, the Fox Business Channel, New York Public Radio, SIRIUS Satellite Radio, and other media outlets.