National park may soon honor new face of $20
AUBURN, N.Y. — Harriet Tubman’s upcoming debut on the $20 bill is just half the good news in the upstate New York town where the Underground Railroad conductor settled down and grew old.
A long-sought national historical park here honoring Tubman could be officially established as early as this summer. The move would give a boost to preservation efforts at her old home and church just as the former slave is poised to replace President Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill.
“It’s about time,” Judith Bryant, Tubman’s 80-yearold great-great-grandniece said of the recognition as the first African-American on U.S. paper currency. “People who don’t know about her will now.”
Bryant stood beside a simple headstone describing Tubman as a “Heroine of the Underground Railroad,” a phrase that resonates personally with the Auburn resident. Bryant’s great-great grandfather was Tubman’s brother and was among the dozens of slaves she guided north to freedom.
Tubman had been free for a decade in 1859 when she bought a parcel of land on the outskirts of Auburn, about 25 miles west of Syracuse. She was given a good deal by fellow abolitionist Sen. William Seward, who would later become President Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of state. She settled long-term in the area after the Civil War, during which she served as a spy, a scout, a cook, a nurse and, famously, a leader in a military raid.
She married for a second time, spoke out for women’s suffrage, grew potatoes and apples, took in boarders and continued to spend her time and scarce money helping others. She was able to establish a home for the aged next door to her house before she died in 1913. Accounts of her age at death vary, though most put it between 91 and 93.
Tubman had family in the area and some latterday relatives like Bryant still live in the small city.
Tours of Tubman’s property are now run by the nonprofit Harriet Tubman Home.
The old brick house is closed for remodeling, but people can visit an interpretive center and walk through the home for the aged, where she died.
The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park would encompass that 31acre site plus the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church about a mile away where Tubman worshipped. The weathered clapboard church is boarded up now and offers sanctuary only for neighborhood birds.
The park could be formally established this summer once the church land is sold. Parks officials say they will then work with the Harriet Tubman Home and the church to improve the sites.
The design of the new $20 bill with Tubman on the front is expected to be completed by 2020.