Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a Maryland-born author, educator, publisher, speaker, and abolitionist. As a young slave in the South, he started an illegal, secret school to educate his fellow slaves. After fleeing to the North, he published his famous autobiography and the abolitionist newspaper the North Star (later Frederick Douglass' Paper, and spoke out against racial inustice. During the Civil War, he served as an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln and, with the North's victory he saw the passages of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. But he continued to fight for social injustice to the end of his days, speaking out against lynching and "Jim Crow" laws, and passing away shortly after attending an meeting on women's suffrage in 1895.

Alex Wilson is a writer and stage/film actor from northern Ohio and now based in Carrboro, North Carolina. He starred in the North American Premiere of Richard Taylor's musical Whistle Down the Wind and recently filmed The Third Cord with Emmy-nominated director Jack Lucido. His animated comics-parody film All's Fair in Love and Police Actions was recently selected as an iFilm Pick. He is the founder of Telltale Weekly and Spoken Alexandria. See his website for more. [new windows, all].