Featuring Kenneth B. Morris, Jr.
Co-Founder/President, Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives (FDFI)
Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. knows what it means to stand on the shoulders of giants. He is the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass, one of the most significant American abolitionists, and is the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington, one of the most important American educators and founder of Tuskegee University. But Kenneth also understands what it means to stand tall on those shoulders.
As the Co-founder and President of Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives (FDFI), Ken continues his family’s legacy of anti-slavery and educational work. FDFI brings the guidance of history to the fight against modern forms of slavery with its mission“[t]o Advance Freedom through Knowledge and Strategic Action.”
Ken recognizes that “Slavery is in just about all of the products that we consume every day. “ He asks “Are we complicit in allowing slavery to thrive and exist today because we want products so cheaply?” In honor of his grandfather Frederick Douglass, FDFI set a goal of creating one million abolitionists to help end human trafficking, a modern form of slavery.
Ken received a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies at the University of La Verne. He strongly believes, as did Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, that education is the pathway to freedom.
As part of the modern day abolitionist movement, FDFI educates young people about all forms of forced servitude and inspires them to action. Current FDFI projects include PROTECT, a partnership with 3Strands Global and Love Never Fails, to provide grade-level appropriate, state standard-compliant human trafficking prevention education to thousands of California schoolchildren from grade school to high school and the One Million Abolitionists project, which with a wide range of, educational institutions, community organizations, and individuals will print and distribute one million copies of a special Bicentennial edition of Frederick Douglass’s first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, to young people across the country through the 2018 celebration of the bicentennial of Douglass’s birth.
In addition to his work at FDFI, Ken is a public speaker who regularly presents for charitable organizations, local, state, and federal government agencies, civic organizations, and students across the country. He has lectured at universities including Columbia University, Morehouse College, UNLV, Tuskegee University, Loyola University Chicago, and Yale University, and has appeared on CNN, Democracy Now!, PBS, NPR, The Tavis Smiley Show, and the CBS Evening News. Ken has also served as a keynote speaker at the United Nations on several occasions.
Ken appeared in both the National Geographic documentary Civil Warriors, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and in the 2015 History Channel documentary Blood and Glory: The Civil War in Color, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the end of the war. He also appeared in the National Geographic documentary Rise Up: The Legacy of Nat Turner. He contributed the afterword to Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American and the foreword to a bicentennial edition of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.
Ken has received many awards and recognitions for his advocacy including an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Frederick Douglass Underground Railroad Legacy, Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism, Anne Frank Change the World Award, Legacy Keeper Award, and Frederick Douglass Medal.
Prior to co-founding FDFI in 2007, Ken was a partner at C&A Marketing, a marketing and entertainment firm partnership. He has been a member of the board of directors for Kaleidoscope Arts Factory, the Booker T. Washington Family Committee, and the Dean’s Advisory Committee at the University of La Verne. Ken is a director of the Frederick Douglass Ireland Project and an Ambassador for the nonprofit organization Human Rights First. In November 2017, Ken was named to the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission where he serves as Commission Chair.
Ken’s many roles and recognitions have offered him opportunities to continue the legacies of his grandfathers. As he stands on their shoulders, he is also raising up on his own shoulders future abolitionists.