Bill Seeks to Save Underground Railroad
The secret network of churches, back roads, caves and other sites that made up the Underground Railroad, which helped slaves to freedom, would be preserved and linked under a bill approved Tuesday by the House.
“This legislation can really foster a sense of racial harmony,” said Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who sponsored the bill with Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio). Stokes described the Civil War era network as a “dramatic protest against slavery” worth preserving.
The bill, approved, 415 to 2, authorizes the National Park Service to spend $500,000 a year to link the sites, produce educational materials and enter into partnerships to commemorate the route.
One such partnership would be with the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a proposed $80-million museum in Cincinnati that organizers hope to open by 2002.
A 1995 park service survey documented nearly 400 sites associated with the Underground Railroad in 29 states, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. But it also found that many were in danger of being lost or destroyed.
Rep. Marshall “Mark” Sanford (R-S.C.) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) voted against the bill.
A similar bill is pending in the Senate.
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