[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 74 (Wednesday, June 10, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1089]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD NETWORK TO FREEDOM ACT OF 1998

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. TED STRICKLAND

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 9, 1998

  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to see the House of 
Representatives take up the National Underground Railroad Network to 
Freedom bill. This legislation will allow the U.S. Park Service to 
initiate public-private partnerships in order to interpret and 
commemorate the many sites and stories that make up the Underground 
Railroad.
  The spirit and history of the Underground Railroad cannot be confined 
in a single museum or monument or National Park. Underground Railroad 
sites are scattered across my district in Southern Ohio, where slaves 
escaped the states to the South by crossing the Ohio River into 
freedom. Ohio has the longest border with slave states of any other 
free state in the union. Many families in Southern Ohio took great 
risks in order to help their brothers and sisters from the South shed 
the shackles of slavery. Most of these people had never even met the 
fugitives they harbored, and never saw them again.
  The Underground Railroad Network to Freedom bill will establish a 
national list of the sites and trails where these daring rescues took 
place, so that future generations can learn more about the courage and 
fortitude of the passengers and conductors on the Underground Railroad. 
I look forward to the implementation of this bill, and I would like to 
thank my colleagues from Ohio, Representative Stokes and Representative 
Portman for their hard work on this important legislation.

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