Posted by TheBlackList on January 30, 2009 at 5:53pm
Atlanta, GA (BlackNews.com) - On the first day of Black History Month, direct descendants of the great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, are calling for President Obama to commit his administration to ending slavery once and for all.
"Half the victims of today's slavery are children," says Nettie Washington Douglass, who is the great great granddaughter of Frederick Douglass and the great granddaughter of Booker T. Washington. "They are exploited in every civilized country of the world including ours. Children toil in various forms of labor and their bodies are sold for profit in the sex industry." According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, human trafficking is now the second most lucrative illicit industry in the world behind drug trafficking. "This cannot continue."
Douglass is Chairwoman of the Atlanta-based Frederick Douglass Family Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission it is to perpetuate the legacy of Frederick Douglass by seeking an end to all forms of slavery. Douglass' eldest son, Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., the foundation's President, says that, "Leadership is the key to bringing this issue to the forefront. Today's slavery is one of the world's most pressing human rights emergencies. The Obama administration is our best chance to make a stand against this crime that has plagued mankind for centuries. The U.S. government's work in this area must be aggressively expanded and refined."
In his inaugural speech, President Obama hit upon the essence of the challenge, "What is required of us now," he said, "is a new era of responsibility. A recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task."
It is estimated by the abolitionist organization, Free The Slaves, that up to 27 million people are living in some form of servitude in the world today -- 80% are female and 50% are children. In her opening letter for the 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report, former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice said, "Defeating human trafficking is a great moral calling of our day."
For more information about the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation, please go to www.fdff.org or contact Robert J. Benz at 702-523-4845.
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