Historians in Nashville have been on the hunt for a prominent man named Fred Douglas. But they are happy to report that no one by the name has been found. Because they had a pretty good hunch that a park bought in the 1930s was named after the famed abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass. The name just wasn't spelled correctly.
How the name ended up in an abbreviated style has been a mystery that lingered for decades and has only now been corrected after citizens forced the issue. While the clarification has not been controversial, there was a time that the mere idea of the park ruffled feathers. It was just the city's second "Negro park," and the first was named for a white family.
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