Black Republicans gathered in the nation’s capital from March 18-20 in order to build a new movement of political diversity and effectiveness in Black America in the hopes of turning around the issues befalling African-Americans through the United States. And, if the partisan vote on health care serves as another indicator for much-needed change within the RNC after the 2008 vote for the first Black president, this weekend’s Frederick Douglass Foundation serves as notice that Black Republicans are growing in Washington esteem, political astuteness, and leadership potential.

Through leveraging the proud historical example of leadership from its namesake, Frederick Douglass (often noted as the man President Abraham Lincoln said himself was the one person whose opinion he respected most), leaders are emerging among the ranks within the Republican Party.

The 2nd Annual Leadership Summit was an opportunity for these leaders (ranging from activists to congressional candidates from California to New York) to continue bolstering the networking efforts that have connected the nation in a bond of urban conservatism that would make the late Jack Kemp proud.

In 1888, at the Republican National Convention, Douglass also received one vote as President of The United States making him the first African-American to receive any vote at all as President of the United States in the United States. And, in 1892, he was appointed Commissioner to The Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition by The Haitian Government. Frederick Douglass was also referred to as “the founder of The American Civil Rights Movement.”