{"id":28869,"date":"2025-11-08T22:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T22:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/28869\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T22:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T22:03:08","slug":"renowned-frederick-douglass-reenactor-wows-crowd-at-historic-courthouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/28869\/","title":{"rendered":"Renowned Frederick Douglass reenactor wows crowd at historic courthouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Into the Allentown courtroom where abolitionist Frederick Douglass spoke to a capacity crowd 155 years ago stepped his contemporary doppelganger, a scholar and reenactor named Darius Wallace<\/a> who announced himself with song.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwing low,\u201d he sang, \u201csweet chariot\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The words of the old spiritual filled the Gold Courtroom of the Historic Lehigh Valley Courthouse<\/a> on Saturday, borne on Wallace\u2019s powerful baritone and setting the mood for a 45-minute performance that went far beyond oratory into an almost cinematic rendering of episodes in Douglass\u2019 impossibly eventful life.<\/p>\n

Born into slavery in Maryland in 1818, Douglass escaped bondage when he fled north in 1838. By the time he spoke in the courtroom, on April 8, 1870,<\/a> he was internationally known and admired. His speech \u2014a two-hour reflection on immigration called \u201cA Composite Nation\u201d \u2014 sold out.<\/p>\n

Wallace gave a different speech, called \u201cSelf-Made Men.\u201d<\/a> More precisely, he built a performance around the core of Douglass\u2019 original oration, weaving in episodes of the abolitionist\u2019s life as a slave and, later, a man rising in renown and esteem to the point where he was welcomed to the White House by Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s appearance was sponsored by the Lehigh County Historical Society in cooperation with President Judge J. Brian Johnson and the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County. It is one what will be a long series of programs around the county celebrating the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary next year.<\/p>\n

Johnson opened the event by asking attendees to turn off their cell phones \u2014 not just as a matter of courtesy, he said, but to help conjure the sense that cell phones and suchlike contrivances hadn\u2019t yet been invented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re essentially going back in time,\u201d he said. \u201cCell phones kind of take you out of the moment. Let this courtroom be our time machine and let us go back 150 years to meet Frederick Douglass in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was easy enough to forget the present inside the spacious courtroom, restored to a pristine period look along with the rest of the old courthouse in a decade-long renovation.<\/p>\n

Wallace used the space as a stage, roaming up the aisles to lock eyes with a spectator, bobbing and scratching the carpet like a chicken as he told an allegorical tale about an eagle accidentally born in a barnyard, and now and again lifting his voice into song.<\/p>\n

The snippets of spirituals served almost as chapter headings as Wallace\u2019s emotive Douglass recounted his early days being raised by his grandmother and his increasingly horrified comprehension of servitude.<\/p>\n

The Old Testament images, drawn from the stories of Moses and the captive Israelites, reflected the heartbreaking lot of the slave: the cruel masters, the crushing labor, the laws that made it a capital offense to teach a slave to read or write.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a boy I did not understand those songs,\u201d he said. \u201cThey told a tale of woe that was altogether beyond my comprehension.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other stories threw into stark relief the gap between the American ideal and the stain of slavery. An anecdote about one of Douglass\u2019 cruelest masters made for a pithy illustration.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe beat me every day except Sunday,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was a religious man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallace also recreated one of the three White House meetings between Douglass and Lincoln, pantomiming the pair sharing tea and debating the presence of Black soldiers in the Union army.<\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s performance \u2014 which he will repeat Monday at three Allentown School District assemblies \u2014 drew a long standing ovation from the crowd of about 200.<\/p>\n

\u201cFabulous,\u201d declared Margot Kent, a German-born Allentonian growing teary eyed as the applause died down. \u201cWhat a talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or dsheehan@mcall.com\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Into the Allentown courtroom where abolitionist Frederick Douglass spoke to a capacity crowd 155 years ago stepped his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,182,139,432],"class_list":["post-28869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}