{"id":879139,"date":"2026-06-19T22:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/879139\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T22:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:08:16","slug":"descendants-of-frederick-douglass-john-brown-reflect-on-civil-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/879139\/","title":{"rendered":"Descendants of Frederick Douglass, John Brown reflect on civil rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brian Evans, a semiconductor scientist who is a descendant of abolitionist John Brown, echoed Douglass Greene\u2019s concerns about how American history is remembered and taught.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s very important on the 250th [anniversary] that we don\u2019t venerate the founding fathers the way we have been taught to through school. They were not persons who wanted democracy. Remember, they were all slaveholders. They were not going to change that themselves,\u201d Evans said.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-744881\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-06-19-e-lee-brian-evans-kevin-douglass-green-philadelphia-presidents-house-independence-mall-ju.jpeg\" alt=\"Kevin Douglass Green and Brian Evans pose for a photo at the President's House exhibit.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"  \/>Kevin Douglass Greene, a direct descendant of Frederick Douglass, and Brian Evans, a direct descendant of abolitionist John Brown, visit the President\u2019s House slavery exhibit on Independence Mall. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to understand that they were \u2014 yes, they wanted to get away from King George, but they wanted to be King George in a new land. And so, they brought those ideas, etc., over here,\u201d he continued.\n<\/p>\n<p>Evans went on to say that he thinks the founding fathers had a bad record on human rights.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemember, women didn\u2019t have rights. Non-property owners didn\u2019t have rights,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Evans said the current Supreme Court\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/episodes\/fallout-after-scotus-guts-voting-rights-act\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">interpretation of the Constitution<\/a> is taking the country backward, contributing to voting rights disputes and opening the door to gerrymandering in states, including Tennessee and Alabama.\n<\/p>\n<p>Douglass Greene and Evans said the country has a long way to go to address the legacy of slavery.\n<\/p>\n<p>Evans said he is working with historically Black colleges and universities to teach entrepreneurship through a NASA partnership tied to a semiconductor patent he holds. He hopes the effort will create opportunities for future entrepreneurs of color.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Evans, a semiconductor scientist who is a descendant of abolitionist John Brown, echoed Douglass Greene\u2019s concerns about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":879140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,8981,6607,1448,2830,1311,71827,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-879139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-frederick-douglass","tag-juneteenth","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-slavery","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116779058703214223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}