Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave in the movement that fought to end slavery in the United States. He became a{#blank#}1{#/blank#} voice in the year before the Civil War.

    A few weeks ago, the National Park Service (NPS) {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Douglass's birth and Black History Month with reopening of his home at Cedar Hill, a{#blank#}3{#/blank#}  site in Washington. D.C. The two-story house, which contains many of Douglass's personal possessions, had undergone a three-year {#blank#}4{#/blank#} . (Thanks to the NTS website, however, you don't have to live in the nation's capital to visit it. Take a tour online.)

He was born in Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey to a slave mother and a white father who never knew Douglass grew up to become the first black {#blank#}5{#/blank#} to hold a government office— as US minister and consul general (总领事)to Haiti.

    As a youth, he never went to school. Educating slaves was illegal in the South, so he{#blank#}6{#/blank#}  taught himself to read and write. At 21 years old, he escaped from his slave owner to Massachusetts and changed his last name to Douglass, to hide his identity.

    In the 1850s, Douglass was involved with the Underground Railroad, the system {#blank#}7{#/blank#} up by antislavery groups to bring runaway slaves to the North and Canada. His home in Rochester, N.Y. was near the Canadian border. It became an important station on the {#blank#}8{#/blank#} , housing as many as 11 runaway slaves at a time.

    He died in 1895. In his lifetime, Douglass {#blank#}9{#/blank#}  the end of slavery in 1865 and the adoption of the 15^th Amendment to the US Constitution (美国宪法修正案), which{#blank#}10{#/blank#} African-Americans the right to vote.

Museums Rethink What to Do with Their African Art Collections

Recently, a discussion is happening in museums around the world over the volume of African art in their collections. Officials in Germany and the Netherlands have announced plans to return art and artifacts (文物) taken from Africa during the{#blank#}1{#/blank#}period. And more museum staff are meeting on the topic across Europe.

According to the most commonly{#blank#}2{#/blank#}figures from UNESCO（United Nations Educational, Scientifie and Cultural Organization）, 90% to 95%of sub-Saharan cultural artifacts are{#blank#}3{#/blank#}outside Africa. Many were taken by force long ago and ended up in museums across Europe and North America.

At the Africa Museum in Belgium, director Guido Gryseels says 85 percent of the-museum's collection comes from the Congo-the site of Belgium's{#blank#}4{#/blank#}colony in Central Africa. For decades, Congolese leaders have asked for these objects to be returned. Most of their{#blank#}5{#/blank#}, and those by African countries to other museums, have been refused.

But recent events in Europe have{#blank#}6{#/blank#}the possibility of returns at a much larger scale. In addition to the plans announced in Germany, last year France conducted a study of how much African art French museums are holding and made{#blank#}7{#/blank#}about what to do with it.

The study recommended the return of a wide range of objects taken by force. The suggestion got mixed{#blank#}8{#/blank#}in France, where there are at least 90000 African items in museums.

In France, some people have suggested returns could leave shelves{#blank#}9{#/blank#}in French museums. Cecile Fromont, a French historian of Central African art, says that's not going to happen. One way of thinking about it, she says, is that more African art can go on display.

However, Guido Gryseels of the Africa Museum in Belgium{#blank#}10{#/blank#}that attitudes are changing. He says he's in discussion with the Congo to return works.