It was founded by the politician and activist Frederick Douglass.

Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, Frederick Douglass assumed the surname from the poem The Lady of the Lake (1810) by Sir Walter Scott after his escape from slavery to hide from his former master.

As he explains in his first autobiography: I gave Mr. Johnson the privilege of choosing me a name, but told him he must not take from me the name of "Frederick."

Mr. Johnson had just been reading the Lady of the Lake, and at once suggested that my name be "Douglass.

"[1]His family would later go on to become a part of the African-American upper class, continuing to provide leadership and intermarrying with descendants of the African-American educationist and political kingmaker Booker T.