Columbia University

As I usher a group of teens through the first floor of the New-York Historical Society, my red loafers dance to an uneven rhythm of clicks and clacks against the hardwood floor. I nearly sashay toward the elevator before stopping just short of it. Right next to it lies the “Witnesses to Freedom” exhibit, a large glass case that houses a worn, 1845-dated copy of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass among other objects that symbolize the struggle for liberty in the lead up to the Civil War. When we reach the case, I have just 10 minutes to dazzle my crowd—a dozen teens who, like me,…