Gov. Walz declares March 10 Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Day
This week, Governor Tim Walz signed a proclamation declaring Thursday, March 10, 2022, as Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Day in observance of the 2 hundredth anniversary of her delivery this month.
In a tweet Thursday, Walz wrote the declaration is “to honor her legacy and dedication to freedom and rededicate ourselves to the timeless ideas she upheld.”
“After escaping from slavery herself in 1849, Harriet Tubman led a whole lot of enslaved individuals to freedom by means of the Underground Railroad. She turned referred to as the “Moses of her Folks” by means of her social and political activism to assist make sure that our nation all the time honored its promise of liberty and alternative for all,” reads the proclamation.
Tubman additionally served as a scout, spy, and nurse to African American troopers through the U.S. Civil Battle. After the conflict, she bought a 25-acre farm to ascertain the Harriet Tubman House for Aged & Indigent Negroes to take care of these in want.
Tubman fought for girls’s suffrage and human rights till her dying on March 10, 1912. She was buried with navy honors in Fort Hill Cemetery in New York.
Anika Bowie, founder, and CEO of Run like Harriet, which consults and coaches Black ladies to run for political workplace, pushed for the proclamation with the assistance of Toshira Garraway, founding father of Households Supporting Households Towards Police Violence, and different civil rights organizations, together with the Minneapolis NAACP, Black Civic Community, Candy Potato Consolation Pie, and the Planting Seeds Rising Justice Institute.
Supporters rallied on the State Capitol on Thursday afternoon to induce others to take up Tubman’s work.
“[Tubman] would’ve been nice if she made one journey on the Underground Railroad. However she went again 19 instances. She went again to get people who have been left behind. We, as a group, have gotten to cease leaving our brothers and sisters behind,” stated Rev. Darryl Spence with New Hope Baptist church.
Past the proclamation, group and political leaders launched laws they hope will get handed within the upcoming legislative session. “I need to guarantee that we not solely honor Harriet Tubman with a proclamation,” stated Rep. John Thompson (D-67A). “We’ve been getting proclamations and resolutions for the reason that 1800s.”
He continued, “We would like some work to be finished to take away systemic racism and to honor our brothers and sisters who have been captured and introduced right here to slavery. Honor them by first admitting, then apologizing, then repairing the hurt that’s precipitated over and time and again to African American group all through this state.”
Thompson authored invoice HF3850 to ascertain the Minnesota Migration Act, which would supply funding to review and develop reparation proposals for descendants of chattel slavery who reside in Minnesota.
Garraway, whose fiancé Justin Teigan died following an encounter with St. Paul police in 2009, can also be pushing for the passage of HF717. The invoice would lengthen the statute of limitations for in search of redress to police officer actions to 5 years.
“[Harriet’s] spirit is a lot in my coronary heart,” Garraway stated, reiterating historic abolitionist’s 19 journeys. Likewise, Garraway has turn into the voice for a tragic fraternity, lending her help to different family of police violence as they navigate their grief, being below the general public eye, and navigating the justice system.
“It retains us going to know that we are able to observe in her footsteps,” she stated.