"Frederick Douglass" by Robert hayden

What got my attention about this poem the most is it was published in 1966, and in that time black people were no slaves anymore and in fact have all the same rights as a white person did. But this poem is about Frederick Douglass, (line 7 pg 1069) “this man, Douglass, this former slave, this Negro” now how can a former slave be in 1966, but down at the bottom of my page it reads, “Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), an escaped slave, was involved in the Underground Railroad and became publisher of the famous abolitionist newspaper the North Star, in Rochester, New York.” After I read that I wasn’t so confused about the time line differences. But it made me think, why the North Star would want to publish a very old poem about a slave, who took up the courage and do what, was right for his people. Is it because he did what others wouldn’t have dreamed of back then, to escape, then to help the others who had escaped just like him, to assist their aid to the North. Possibly knowing that there was a great chance of being caught and whipped or worse hanged for it? You also must think about what it means to be free. Today in 2012, I think we have too much freedom growing up in America, we don’t know what it is like to have to fight for that what is right. To know how many lives would be lost for this one thing. The one thing that lets you have opportunities and dreams. Freedom. This man to me Frederick, he was a hero and inspired many that your dreams can happen, you just got to make them happen. You can’t sit and wait for someone else to free you from your chains. Sometimes you got to do it yourself.