Harvard Scholar to Speak on Frederick Douglass Day

On Saturday, September 28—Frederick Douglass Day—Harvard Fellow Keidrick Roy, Ph.D.,
will speak at 1:00 p.m. in the Easton branch of the Talbot County Free Library. Dr. Roy’s
subject will be his newest book, “American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black
Liberalism (Princeton University Press, September 2024).

Roy received his doctorate from Harvard in 2022. His dissertation, entitled “Jefferson’s Map,
Douglass’s Territory,” won two major Harvard awards: the DeLancey K. Jay Prize (for best
work across the University on any subject related to the history or development of constitutional
government) and the Helen Choate Bell Prize (for best dissertation on any subject in American
Literature).

Roy received his undergraduate degree from the United States Air Force Academy, and his
Master’s from The University of Arizona. He served as a nuclear operations officer in the
United States Air Force from 2010-2014.

Following completion of his fellowship at Harvard, Dr. Roy will take up a position as an
assistant professor of government (political theory) at Dartmouth.

In reviewing Roy’s “American Dark Age,” Henry Louis Gates, Jr., wrote, “Keidrick Roy
illuminates the racial feudal obsessions of the generations that paradoxically celebrated the
Declaration of Independence while ardently championing a slave system that betrayed its most
revolutionary ideals. In exposing these medieval fascinations, Roy gives center stage to the
Black abolitionists whose resistance ensured that the Civil War wasn’t just fought for the Union
but for the values of liberal democracy.  ‘American Dark Age’ is a remarkably fresh and
provocative work of scholarship, one worth serious consideration in our more ‘modern times.’”
Talbot County’s celebration of its most famous native son, Frederick Douglass Day, Saturday,
September 28, will include a parade, a welcome ceremony at the courthouse, a Children’s
Village (with games, photography, face-painting, the Frederick Douglass Reading Challenge
featuring six $50 gift certificate prizes from Target, and more), food and retail vendors,
geocaching, a live entertainment stage, Frederick Douglass artifacts courtesy of the National
Park Service, and Dr. Roy’s lecture.

Frederick Douglass Day is presented by the Frederick Douglass Honor Society, the Town of
Easton, Talbot County, and the Talbot County Free Library. Sponsors include the Blake-
Blackston American Legion Post #77, Talbot Arts, the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, and
Easton Utilities.

All Frederick Douglass Day events are free and open to the public. For more information,
contact the library at 410-822-1626, or visit frederickdouglasshonorsociety.com or tcfl.org.