Toppled Main Street Frederick Douglass statue to be reinstalled Wednesday

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — The Frederick Douglass statue on Main Street in Aqueduct Park will be reinstalled Wednesday, more than a month after it was toppled over on Sept. 15.

Organizers will hold a ceremony with multiple speakers, including Assemblyman Harry Bronson, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, and Presumptive Mayor Malik Evans, among other community leaders.

The circumstances surrounding the vandalism of the statue have still not been announced. This is not the first time a statue of Douglass was defaced, as a statue in the Maplewood Rose Garden was torn off its pedestal and damaged last July. It was later replaced.

The statue is one of 12 total statues across the Rochester area, but organizers say this particular piece is significant because it is next to the building where Douglass published The North Star and The Frederick Douglass Newspaper, two anti-slavery newspapers.

Wednesday’s ceremony is set to start around 1 p.m. in Aqueduct Park.