HARRIET TUBMAN’S HOME CHURCH TO GET $100K IN FED FUNDS

A historic Black church in St. Catharines, Ont., is getting $100,000 of federal funding. Salem Chapel BME Church was designated a national historic site in 1999 as the home congregation of Harriet Tubman. Tubman was a leading figure in the abolitionist movement of the late 1800s. She helped African Americans escape from slavery as a conductor on the underground railroad, smuggling them from the united States to Canada. Still an active church, Salem Chapel launched a Gofundme campaign in September 2017 for an emergency restoration. That campaign closed last week, having surpassed its goal of $100,000. Chris Bittle, federal member of Parliament for St. Catharines, tweeted that the federal money “will ensure that Tubman’s story can be told for generations to come in a place she called home.”