Frederick Douglass on Shelby County

It was a simple answer to a provocative question. In his 1865 speech delivered in

Boston at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass offered a brief but biting answer to the question raised in his speech. The question is framed in the title of his address: "What the Black Man Wants." The answer was clear and unmistakable: The right to vote. But the realization of Douglass' dream for black Americans has proven to be just as elusive today as it was almost 150 years ago, when Douglas first made his demand.