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In Nashville, Spelling Frederick Douglass' Name Correctly Ends An 80-Year Mystery

For nearly 80 years, this sign misspelled the name of famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Blake Farmer/Nashville Public Radio
For nearly 80 years, this sign misspelled the name of famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Historians in Nashville have been on the hunt for a prominent man named Fred Douglas. But they are happy to report that no one by the name has been found. Because they had a pretty good hunch that a park bought in the 1930s was named after the famed abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass. The name just wasn't spelled correctly.

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How the name ended up in an abbreviated style has been a mystery that lingered for decades and has only now been corrected after citizens forced the issue. While the clarification has not been controversial, there was a time that the mere idea of the park ruffled feathers. It was just the city's second "Negro park," and the first was named for a white family.

The white neighbors of what would become Douglas Park were so angry the city put the plans on ice for a few years, then quietly opened the park with no fanfare or explanation for the name. Some historians believe the name could have been left vague as a form of plausible deniability. For more than 80 years, there's been confusion about whether the city meant to honor Frederick Douglass.

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