Belfast City Council will ask the Stormont Executive to erect a statue in the city centre of the American anti-slavery statesman and writer Frederick Douglass.
Sinn Fein councillor Ciaran Beattie made the proposal to the council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee on Friday (July 31st).
It was agreed they would write to the Department for Communities to commission a statue in Rosemary Street for the great nineteenth century African American social reformer and orator, who himself experienced slavery. The decision is to be ratified at the next full council meeting.
Councillor Beattie told the committee: “In most of the cities where Frederick Douglass spoke and had an impact, there is some sort of monument to remember him.
"In the current circumstances, with the global interest in the Black Lives Matter movement, Belfast here has an opportunity to showcase itself as a diverse and inclusive city.”
Councillor Beattie later said he was “delighted” the proposal was passed by the committee. He said a statue memorialising Douglass in Rosemary Street, where he once spoke, would be a "fitting tribute.”
Douglass kept close ties with Ireland and Britain throughout his life after leaving slavery. His two year lecture tour here coincided with the early years of the famine. He had a friendship with Daniel O'Connell during that period and later in life was an outspoken supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell's Home Rule movement.
