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The Trailblazing Women Speaker Series presents 'The Extraordinary Harriet Tubman: From Slavery to Freedom and Beyond'

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Tue, Apr 25th 2017 05:05 pm

As part of the "Trailblazing Women Speaker Series," Dr. Judith Wellman will present, "The Extraordinary Harriet Tubman: From Slavery to Freedom and Beyond" at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 27. The program will be held at the future home of the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center at the Niagara Falls Amtrak Station, located at 825 Depot Ave. W., Niagara Falls.

The Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Commission will present this program in collaboration with the Association for a Buffalo Presidential Center, the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, and the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area. The program is part of the Trailblazing Women Speaker Series presented in celebration of Western New York's connections to Trail Blazing Women in the Centennial Year of Women's Suffrage in New York State.

The goal of the series is to expose the citizens and communities of Western New York to the life stories of remarkable women who have made great contributions to the quality of life locally and nationally.

The Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center 's location is important to sharing the stories of the Underground Railroad, the themes and issues of freedom, and establishing a sense of place for visitors and locals alike. The Heritage Center is directly across from the Niagara Gorge, where the first suspension bridge once spanned the 800 feet across to Canada. The suspension bridge, built in 1848 and rebuilt in 1855 to incorporate rail traffic, provided a means of passage for freedom seekers escaping slavery in the U.S. to freedom in Canada.

Harriet Tubman crossed the suspension bridge on multiple occasions, bringing formerly enslaved persons across the border to freedom in Canada.

Attendees will have the opportunity to experience the stories of Tubman and her courageous journey while standing across from the Niagara Gorge, where this history happened.

This program is also the kick-off program for the Heritage Center. Following this program, the Heritage Center will continue to provide heritage, arts, cultural and educational programming to the community prior to and once the center opens in March 2018.

Working to discover extraordinary people and places in time, Wellman specializes in finding historic sites in New York relating to the ideal of equal rights for all people, with a special focus on the Underground Railroad, women's rights and African American history. She is professor emerita at the State University of New York at Oswego and principal investigator for Historical New York Research Associates.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, visit, www.niagarafallsundergroundrailroad.org.  

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