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Born a slave Douglass portrayer brings message of success to area
There’s a strong message embedded in Michael E. Crutcher Sr.’s portrayal of abolitionist, orator, editor, statesman, Lincoln adviser and women’s suffragist Frederick Douglass.
Whether he’s portraying this “grandfather of the Civil Rights movement” to grade-school classrooms, church groups, college students or on videos such as the one he created for The History Channel that runs in Washington, D.C.’s Ford Theatre Museum, Crutcher reveals education as the key to Douglass’ success in life.
“I tell them that without education they stand a risk of falling into a cycle of modern-day slavery, of crime and ignorance,” the retired Army veteran and actor said.
“Frederick Douglass was born a slave and given the opportunity to basically teach himself to read and write,” he added. “Education was his ticket out of slavery.”
Crutcher, a Morganfield native whose mother served on the city council and his father as a high school principal, will bring “The Spirit of Frederick Douglass” to Henderson Community College on Tuesday as part of Diversity Explosion Week.
With February designated as Black History Month, Crutcher is currently in high demand with programs scheduled in Atlanta, Murfreesboro, Tenn., Springfield, Ill., (for a National Park Service program in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s 201st birthday), Nebraska, Maryland, Chicago and on KCTCS campuses.
The Lexington resident and former assistant professor at University of Kentucky’s Lexington Community College recently took his portrayal of Douglass to London, England, for several programs.
He was born on Sept. 3, the same day of the year that Douglass escaped slavery and started a new life, and became interested in the orator while doing research on his own great-great-grandfather, who was a member of the 13th United States Colored Troops Heavy Artillery (a Union regiment during the Civil War) out of Camp Nelson, Kentucky.
Crutcher became a Douglass scholar and decided it was his calling to share Douglass’ principles of freedom, equality, religion and self-esteem when he started his portrayals about six years ago.
As an example of Douglass’ spiritual strength, Crutcher often tells a story about how important forgiveness was in a country that had been ripped apart by the Civil War. He said that following the war Douglass returned to the slave owner from which he had escaped to tell him he did not hate him any more.
“His message was: ‘Listen and do not foster hatred in your heart’,” he said.
Considered one of the premier Douglass presenters in the country, Crutcher said that though there’s much to convey about the statesman’s life he thinks he’s pretty successful in his efforts.
“For anybody who does not know who he was or his significance in history, they’ll walk away after an hour and really know who he was, how prolific he was,” Crutcher said. “He was a forerunner from way back of the Civil Rights movement. He was fighting for freedom, fighting for eradication of slavery.”
