Black History Knowledge — September 3

What happened on this day. These are the September 3 moments in Black history worth knowing, remembering, and passing on.

1838 — Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery

On September 3, 1838, twenty-year-old Frederick Douglass boarded a northbound train in Baltimore disguised as a free Black sailor and carrying borrowed seaman’s papers. Within twenty-four hours he reached New York and freedom, beginning the public life that made him the century’s most powerful voice against slavery.

1868 — Georgia expels its Black legislators

On September 3, 1868, the Georgia House of Representatives voted to expel its Black members, ruling that the state constitution gave Black men the right to vote but not to hold office. Representative Henry McNeal Turner answered with a defiant speech declaring "I am here to demand my rights," and Congress later forced the members’ reinstatement.

1944 — Recy Taylor is abducted and assaulted in Alabama

On September 3, 1944, Recy Taylor, a young Black wife and mother, was abducted and raped by six white men while walking home from church in Abbeville, Alabama. The NAACP sent investigator Rosa Parks, whose Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor built a national campaign that connected the defense of Black women to the coming civil rights movement, though two grand juries refused to indict.

Wear the history: Frederick Douglass — from the Black Knowledge Wear collection.