Francis Bok - Work As An Abolitionist

Work As An Abolitionist

Jesse Sage, associate director of the American Anti-slavery Group, and Jacobs persuaded Bok to move to Boston to work with the AASG. He was initially hesitant to leave his new friends in Ames, but according to Bok, the people at AASG were persistent. He arrived in Boston on May 14, 2000, AASG helped him find an apartment. A week after moving to Boston, he was invited to speak at a Baptist church in Roxbury and was interviewed by Charles A. Radin of The Boston Globe. Two days after his speech in Roxbury, Bok was asked to meet with supporters of AASG on the steps of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. He returned to Washington on September 28, 2000, and became the first escaped slave to speak before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Francis was invited to Washington again in 2002 for the signing of the Sudan Peace Act and met with President George W. Bush. It was during this trip to the White House that Bok became the first former slave to meet with a U.S. President since the 19th century.

Francis Bok has spoken at churches and universities throughout the United States and Canada and he has helped launch the American Anti-Slavery Group's website iAbolish.org at a Jane's Addiction concert before an audience of 40,000 on April 28, 2001. Perry Farrell was a key early supporter of the iAbolish movement. Bok has also been honored by the Boston Celtics and was chosen to carry the Olympic Torch past Plymouth Rock prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics. His autobiography, Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity and My Journey to Freedom in America, was published in 2003 by St. Martin's Press.

Bok currently lives with his wife, Atak, and their two young children, Buk and Dhai, in Kansas. He is now working in the AASG's first extension office in Kansas. He also works with Sudan Sunrise, a Lenexa, Kansas based organization that seeks to work for peace and unity in Sudan.