Many of the new artifacts carry the weight of history, but also the freedom stories and intimate histories of the families that long preserved them.
Kenneth B. Morris Jr.’s family treasures have always been American treasures.
Morris, 62, is the great-great-great-grandson of abolitionist and orator, Frederick Douglass, and great-great-grandson of famed educator and founder of Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. Washington.
Growing up surrounded by the relics of his famous ancestry — including Douglass’ books, photos, letters, reading glasses, and Stradivarius violin — Morris once took Abraham Lincoln’s ivory-handled walking stick, gifted to Douglass by the late president’s widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, to elementary school show and tell.
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