Frederick Douglass honored as journalist

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Frederick Douglass is known for fiercely opposing slavery after running away from his Maryland owner, for championing equal rights and women's rights, and for being a forceful speaker.

But he spent much of his adult life as a journalist, first publishing a newspaper in Rochester, N.Y., where he lived near the Canadian border to be able to flee if pursued, and then in the District.

Douglass was the first black reporter allowed into the Capitol press galleries, where journalists watch lawmakers on the floors of the House and Senate.

His role as a pioneering journalist was honored yesterday during Black History Month, when the committee of reporters that controls access to the galleries dedicated a plaque and portrait to him.

Douglass was a member of the congressional press galleries from 1870 to 1874.

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