President Donald Trump signed legislation Thursday to create a commission to plan celebrations for the 200th anniversary of Frederick Douglass' birth.

Douglass, the escaped slaved who became a famed orator, newspaper publisher and voice of the abolitionist movement, made his home in Rochester and is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery.

In comments earlier this year, Trump seemed to insinuate that Douglass was still alive. Trump said at the start of Black History Month in February that, “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.”

In a statement, Trump announced that the commission "will be responsible for planning, developing, and carrying out activities to honor Frederick Douglass on the 200th anniversary of his birth."

He continued, "Our Nation rightly honors the life of Mr. Douglass."

The Friends of Frederick Douglass, a neighborhood coalition established in 1968 to keep his memory and message alive, held the Frederick Douglass Freedom Festival in July. Despite conflicting reports of when Douglass was born, the Friends of Frederick Douglass observe his birth year as 1817 (while most maintain he was born in 1818).

Douglass outlined and described his experiences as a slave in his 1845 biography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. The book, which became a bestseller, influenced the abolitionist movement.

He was born in Maryland and escaped slavery in 1838. Douglass died in 1895. He published his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom in 1855, and then wrote his final autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, in 1881.

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Douglass supported women's suffrage and became the first African-American nominated for the office of vice president in 1872. He was the running mate for Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party Ticket.

He published the North Star newspaper in Rochester from 1843 to 1872.

Like photography innovator George Eastman, Douglass was an early proponent of photography. “Frederick Douglass recognized the power of photography as the most democratic of arts and a crucial tool in the fight for social reform,” said Mayor Lovely Warren in 2016.

“By far the most fertile site for Douglass’s image is murals,” the authors of Picturing Frederick Douglass write. To illuminate this point, they include pictures of two Rochester murals featuring Douglass.

One by Shawn Dunwoody of Rochester is on West Main Street in Rochester beneath the Interstate 490 overpass. The other on Joseph Avenue is by the artist Lunar New Year of Newark, New Jersey.

"All Americans have much to learn from the life and writings of Mr. Douglass, and I look forward to working with the Commission to celebrate the achievements of this great man," Trump concluded.

WCLEVELAND@Gannett.com

Columnist Jim Memmott contributed to this story