THREAD: Throughout this #BlackHistoryMonth we’ll be highlighting Black Americans and their contributions to the Republican Party.

Often criticized as the party of “old white men,” few realize that the Republican Party’s connection to Black Americans runs deep.

(2/7) In fact, famous reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass identified as a member of the Republican Party. Throughout the American Civil War, Douglass advocated on behalf of Black soldiers fighting for the Union and even worked with President Abraham Lincoln to...

(3/7) ... ensure that freed slaves in the South would truly be liberated by never returning to their former masters.

After the war, during Reconstruction, Douglass continued to advocate for equity of not just Black Americans, but women too. He briefly left the United...

(4/7) ... States to serve as a diplomat in the Dominican Republican, but later returned to advocate against the rise of armed white supremacist groups backed by the Democrat Party in areas formerly controlled by the Confederates.

In 1868, Douglass announced his support...

(5/7) ... of Ulysses S. Grant for President, who would later be elected as our nation’s 18th President. It was because of his advocacy that President Grant signed the Civil Rights Act of 1871, as well as the second and third Enforcement Acts, which led to the arrest of more...

(6/7) ... than 5,000 white supremacists.

Douglass spent much of the remainder of his life speaking against the evils of white supremacy and advocating for equity between men and women of all races. In 1895, he passed away after giving a speech in Washington D.C. and...

(7/7) ... was later buried with his family in Rochester, New York, where he had lived for most of his life.