family spoke yesterday to Sandys Secondary School students on the importance of education and heritage.

Nettie Washington Douglass impressed upon the students the need to learn their history and to always "Keep your eyes on the prize''.

Ms Washington Douglass reminded the students that there was a time when black people weren't even allowed to obtain an education.

"We need to be about the serious business of the education of our people,'' she said. "Even through picking cotton and nursing white babies, the slaves kept their eyes on the prize.'' Ms Washington Douglass is the great-great granddaughter of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the great granddaughter of Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington. Her mother was Booker T. Washington's granddaughter, and her father was Frederick Douglass' great-grandson.

Ms Washington Douglass informed students that Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute, where she was born, and funded it in the same manner that the founders of Sandys Secondary did -- out of his own pocket and through fundraisers.

She also told them that Frederick Douglass founded the newspaper the North Star, which campaigned against slavery before and during the American Civil War. He was also a leading adviser to American presidents.

She also paid tribute to the founders of Sandys Secondary "who saw a need in their community for the education of their people''.

"Education is an important component to achieving success, success in terms of creating and maintaining a lifestyle,'' she said. "With education comes knowledge, with knowledge comes better choices, and better choices keep you from making stupid mistakes.

"Slaves and slavemasters understood the importance of knowledge.'' Toward the end her speech she told the students that should they make something of themselves and become rich, they should remember to give back to the community and never forget where they come from.

She then presented Sandys principal Melvin Bassett with an official certificate from the city of Atlanta.

After leaving the stage, Sandys student Jonakia Bean, 14, told her peers: "I would like to leave you with these two quotes from Frederick Douglass: `Where there is no struggle there is no progress', and, `Power concedes nothing without demand'.'' She added: "Make your ancestors proud.''