National park honors Harriet Tubman

Sites where Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman lived and worshiped in Auburn, N. Y., officially became a national park on Tuesday, adding to growing recognition for the abolitionist and activist.

The Harriet Tubman National Park commemorates her post- Civil War advocacy for women’s suffrage and other causes. It includes her home, a home she helped establish for elderly and indigent African Americans, and the historic Thompson Memorial A. M. E. Zion Church and rectory, located near the cemetery where she is buried.

A memorandum, signed by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell during a ceremony, established the park as the 414th unit in the National Park System.

“She’s a true American hero because she didn’t just secure the blessings of liberty for herself, she risked her life to secure it for others and passionately fought to change her country to secure it for everyone,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D- N. Y., during the ceremony with other New York lawmakers, community and church members.

Born on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Tubman was enslaved for 30 years before escaping in 1849 to Philadelphia. She then returned to Maryland to lead hundreds of slaves to freedom in the North over a 10year- period and became known as “Moses” by African American and white abolitionists.

A sister site in Cambridge, Md. — the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park — became a national park in December 2014 and its visitors center is expected to open in March.

“I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger,” she’s been quoted as saying.

Her legacy has received greater attention in recent years. In April, the U. S. Treasury Department announced a plan for Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson as the portrait on the $ 20 bill.

Jewell said she can “hardly wait” to go to the ATM and find Tubman’s likeness on a $ 20.

Auburn resident Judith Bryant, Tubman’s great- great- great grandniece, said she was thrilled to see the park finally come to fruition.

“I’m just happy that it got done on President Obama’s watch,” she said. “It’s truly significant for the country.”

MIKE GROLL, AP Harriet Tubman’s residence in Auburn, N. Y., is now officially the 414th unit in the National Park System. She will also be on the $ 20 bill.

AP