Press Release & Media Advisory

Newsroom Press Release

Douglass Day 2026 Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

10th Annual Transcribe-a-thon Honors Frederick Douglass on February 13, 2026

Santa Barbara, CA & worldwide — Douglass Day is proud to announce a transcribe-a-thon in honor of the birthday of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895).

The transcribe-a-thon will bring together thousands of participants at more than one hundred events taking place around the world. Students, teachers, and community members will help to transcribe an unprecedented collection of records from the historic Colored Conventions movement. These materials have been digitized and made available through collaborations with the non-profit Zooniverse platform. 

The Douglass Day transcribe-a-thon will be held on February 13, 2025 from 12-3 PM (Eastern) and will be streamed live on YouTube. The transcribing will be done on Zooniverse.org, a citizen science platform led by the the Adler Planetarium. Douglass Day invites people from all backgrounds to join in this effort to make these histories more widely accessible and searchable. 

Primary Contact: douglassdayorg@gmail.com 

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Hero Images & Illustrations

All images below and on this website are available for non-commercial use in Douglass Day related communications and media. All media are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Douglass Day 2026 commemorative image featuring the Dred Scott family and two red-toned images of the Colored Conventions.

Banner for Douglass Day 2026, including Dred and Harriet Scott with scenes of the 19th-century Colored Conventions Movement. Courtesy of Courtney Murray Ross/Douglass Day.

Dred Scott. Harriet, wife of Dred Scott

Dred Scott and Harriet Scott, 1887. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014645331/.

A historical engraving of the 1869 National Colored Convention in session in Washington, D.C. The image shows a convention from the back of the hall. The speaker is is in the far back of the image and is barely visible. The focus in on eight people in the back of the room paying attention not to the speaker but to a woman speaking to two young women. The scene is set in a large hall with arched windows, a central chandelier, and a clock on the wall. Caption in the image reads "The National Colored Convention in Session at Washington, DC—Sketched by Theo. R. Davis."

The National Colored Convention in Session at Washington, D.C.” by Theo R. Davis, published in Harper’s Weekly, Feb. 6, 1869. Courtesy of Jim Casey/Douglass Day.

Video Greeting from Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden

Click the image to view in a new window.

Media Advisory & Background Info

What is Douglass Day? 

Douglass Day is an annual holiday celebrated on February 14th, the chosen birthday of Frederick Douglass. As Douglass never knew his actual birthdate, his family chose Valentine’s Day to commemorate his life. The holiday was established after Douglass’ passing in 1895, when influential activist Mary Church Terrell proposed a national holiday to honor his legacy. Douglass Day events were widespread in the early 20th century and served as inspiration for the creation of Black History Month. In 2017, a group at the University of Delaware revived the holiday as an annual event to preserve Black history through collective actions, such as creating new resources for teaching and learning about Black history. All are welcome to participate and learn more about the history of Douglass Day, both distant and recent, by visiting https://douglassday.org/history-of-douglass-day. Between 2017 and the present, Douglass Day has involved 40,000+ people in 910 locations around the world.

What is a transcribe-a-thon?

A transcribe-a-thon is an event in which a group of people work together to transcribe a collection of digitized historical materials. The primary goal of a transcribe-a-thon is to make the materials more easily accessible, but these events also serve to promote awareness of parts of Black history – and especially Black women’s history – that remain too-little-known. Transcribe-a-thons can take place at in-person events. Many people organize virtual gatherings. The experience of taking part in a transcribe-a-thon can transform us from consumers of history into knowledge producers–a collective action for saving and expanding Black history together! 

What can I expect to see at a Douglass Day event? 

Visuals may include; opening ceremony, individuals gathering, meeting each other, singing, celebrating (party / cake cutting), people transcribing, short historical presentations (projected archival photographs and original documents), and short interviews with historians and relevant experts. 

Where can I find more visuals & graphics?

Additional visual materials are published on the Douglass Day website’s Graphics page.

Contacts