Seventy new jobs and over $3 million dollars in tourism dollars each year. That's what Cayuga County Tourism officials say a Harriet Tubman National Park will bring to Auburn and Cayuga County.
Members of Congress and civil rights leaders will launch a new effort today to establish a national park at Harriet Tubman’s former home in Auburn, 100 years after the death of the anti-slavery pioneer. Congressman Dan Maffei will announce at a Capitol Hill news conference today that he is introducing the House version of legislation to establish two Tubman national parks.
Photo from GreenerPasture.com
New York Senators Charles Schumer, and Kirsten Gillibrand are working with Maryland Democratic Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski to sponsor the Senate bill.
House and Senate bills over the past five years tried to establish national parks at Tubman’s former homes in Auburn and Maryland, but never advanced to a full vote in either chamber.
The members of Congress will be joined on Capitol Hill today by leaders of the NAACP, National Organization for Women, National Urban League and National Council of Negro Women in an effort to persuade other House and Senate members to move the bill forward.
Tubman, who died at age 93 is buried in Auburn's Fort Hill Cemetery.