Tubman crossing commemorated, thanks to students
It took months of lobbying and writing dozens of letters — even promising home-baked cookies to get Harriet Tubman the recognition she deserves.
But ultimately, the persistence of students from two St. Catharines elementary schools paid off.
Friday, the Niagara Parks Commission unveiled commemorative panels that will be placed along River Road in Niagara Falls, recognizing the point where Harriet Tubman led a group of escaped slaves across the Niagara River to freedom in 1856.
“It’s amazing to know that we have made a difference in our world,” said Alexa Wynands, a Grade 5 student at Lockview school, following a ceremony to unveil the panels that highlight Tubman’s life and particularly her efforts to help fellow escaped slaves.
Teacher Linda Chown worked at both Lockview and Harriet Tubman schools in St. Catharines last year while her students were involved in the campaign, writing letters, creating posters, and an online petition that garnered hundreds of signatures, hoping to convince the Commission to add signs to commemorate the location of the old railway International Suspension Bridge where Tubman and the escaped slaves crossed the river.
“It was here at this location that children asked Niagara Parks to establish a commemorative interpretive panel recognizing the bravery, determination and faith of Harriet Tubman,” said the Commission’s vice-chair Joan Andrews.
“I’m pleased to say that one year from the day on which we were first contacted with this request, we are here to celebrate the unveiling of the two commemorative plaques.”
Chown said seeing the fruit of their labour “is an amazing thing for” the students.
“You never know what the outcome is going to be. You write the letters and you wait and see, but it’s all about the kids,” she said.
“In their letters to the Niagara Parks Commission, they were offering them home-baked cookies.”
The Commission ultimately agreed to hear from a delegation of students during a meeting last fall. And after an “amazing” presentation by students at that meeting, Chown said the Commission voted unanimously in support of the commemorative plaques.
Chown said she didn’t know if the students made good on their promise of home-baked cookies.
“It was neat to see the collaboration. Those teams of students came together,” she said.
The schools received an e-mail from the Niagara Parks Commission that said, “we know what future people will be in our marketing department,” Chown added.
In addition to the unofficial job offer, the students’ efforts also earned them Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for group youth achievement during a ceremony in March.
But the real accolades came Friday when the plaques were unveiled.
“It was definitely worth it,” said Lockview Grade 5 student Bennett Epp, after seeing the signs his classmates worked for being unveiled.
Rochelle Bush, a “descendant of African-American freedom-seekers,” said Tubman likely crossed into Canada at many other locations, prior to the construction of the suspension bridge.
But during that crossing in November, 1856, slave hunters were likely hot on her tail, hoping to cash in on thousands of dollars in rewards for the apprehension of the escaped slaves Tubman was helping.
“It’s not hard to imagine that parties of slave catchers were crawling all over new York state, hoping to collect the $3,100 reward if they returned all three African-American males to slavery.”
Guest speaker Kate Clifford Larson, an expert on Tubman and author of Harriet Tubman: Bound for the Promised Land, said the woman known as “the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad,” is now finally “getting the accolades and recognition she has long deserved.”
Larson said “Tubman rose from the most horrific of childhoods to battle the forces that enslaved her.”
“She challenged her friends and foes alike to confront the inhumanity, degradation and brutality of a system that denied people of African descent their right to full lives in freedom, exposing the truth that if anyone in a community remained shackled, the whole community is bound and chained,” she said.
“Tubman earned that biblical name Moses, and she can now rightfully take her place among North America’s most famous and historic figures.”
Larson said Tubman has inspired “parks, museums, statues, books, cartoons and most recently and most excitingly, these plaques here on this bridge.”
St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley said Tubman, who lived in St. Catharines for about 10 years, “became a powerful force in the abolitionist movement here.”
“The students had the idea to recognize Harriet Tubman’s bravery, determination and faith in an interpretive panel,” he said.
The panels will be erected in the next few days on River Road, just north of the Whirlpool Bridge.