Washington,
Jul 30, 2007 -
Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program passed the House of Representatives today.
“During one of the darkest eras in our history, a group of courageous Americans, both Black and White as well as free and enslaved, bound together to form what would be known as the Underground Railroad,” Kucinich said. “Amazingly, the railroad moved hundreds of slaves northward each year.”
The Underground Railroad Educational and Culture Program Act of 2007 would provide competitive grants to non-profit organizations around the United States to research, display, interpret and collect artifacts relating to the history of the Underground Railroad.
“This program sheds light on one of the most important and courageous social movements in history while preserving and interpreting artifacts found from this critical era,” Kucinich said.
Federal funding for the education and preservation of the Underground Railroad was first awarded in 1999. In the last eight years, more than $15 million has been appropriated to seven different institutions.
“In Ohio, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center has delivered highly interactive learning experiences for more than 130,000 school children from around the country. This is an important effort to educate citizens across the country and around the world about the Underground Railroad movement in America,” Kucinich concluded.
The Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program has eight co-sponsors: Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).
