Native American at Oberlin College chosen as Douglass Fellow

OBERLIN — Iesha-LaShay Phillips, an Oberlin College junior who hails from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, has been selected as a 2021 Frederick Douglass Fellow. Fourteen winners were announced Wednesday at a St. Patrick's Day roundtable, where fellows were congratulated by Vice President Kamala Harris, Ireland Prime Minister Micheal Martin and Nettie Washington Douglass, the great-great-granddaughter of 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Phillips is a law and society and Africana studies double major at Oberlin College. She will receive a full scholarship to take part in a summer study-abroad program co-sponsored by Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs. Focused on leadership, intercultural communication and social justice, it will honor the 175th anniversary of the meeting between Douglass and the Irish reformer Daniel O'Connell. Seeking refuge from persecution, Douglass visited the Emerald Isle in 1845, and he was struck by the social acceptance he found. "I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult," he wrote in his memoirs after sharing tables, rides, lodging and church services with white Irish people. He was taken with O'Connell's oratory skills when "The Liberator" delivered a speech in Dublin. A brief encounter between the two had a profound influence on how Douglass fought slavery upon return to the United States. Phillips was chosen as a Douglass Fellow largely because of her work supporting Native American youth. She is the ambassador and princess of the Muskogee Creek Nation, representing her tribe nationally and creating cultural workshops for youths. "Frederick Douglass inspires me because he escaped slavery to chase his goals, run toward learning and liberation and expand his impact to a global scale," Phillips said in her application video. "His life's journey inspires my ambition to expand my small impact to a much larger scale."