DOUGLASS DAY 2026 Commemoration and Transcription Project
Join the Forbes House Museum in honoring Frederick Douglass by joining in the transcribe-a-thon in our beautiful interiors. Transcribers should bring their own computer; wifi, tables, chairs, and snacks provided! FREE, BUT PLEASE RSVP.
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, 2026 from 12-3 PM (Eastern) and will be streamed live on YouTube. Douglass Day invites people from all backgrounds to join in this effort to make these histories more widely accessible and searchable.
From 1830 until well after the Civil War, African Americans gathered across the United States and Canada to participate in political meetings held at the state and national levels. A cornerstone of Black organizing in the nineteenth century, these “Colored Conventions” brought Black men and women together in a decades-long campaign for civil and human rights. The Colored Conventions anticipated the rise of the NAAACP and the Civil Rights Movement.
Participants preserved the legacy of the Colored Conventions movement through the records that they kept. Delegates produced “minutes,” or transcriptions of the meetings, which include role calls and reports from various committees, including committees on civil rights, the Black press, and education, to name just a few of the topics that arose at conventions. We also know about Colored Conventions through newspaper articles that reported on them. Minutes and newspaper articles are some of the historical documents that you will get to transcribe.
12:00 to 12:30pm | Opening Presentations
“Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Douglass Day program overview
Featured Speakers
Transcription tutorial
12:30 to 1:00pm | Transcription Activity
Time for transcribing, readings, discussions, etc.
We’ll leave the live stream running, but will go silent.
1:00 to 1:30pm | Singing & Reading
Sing “Happy birthday”
A dramatic reading of “Why Hold a Colored Convention?” by Hassan El-Amin & introductions
1:30 to 2:00pm | Transcription Activity
Time for transcribing, readings, discussions, etc.
2:00 to 2:20pm | Community Discussion
2:20 to 2:45pm | Transcription Activity
Time for transcribing, readings, discussions, etc.
2:45 to 3:00pm | Closing Announcements
Highlights from the day
Final reflections
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3474362-0
