[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 128 (Saturday, August 4, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1743]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   REAUTHORIZATION OF UNDERGROUND RAILROAD EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL 
                                PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 3, 2007

  Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2707 
reauthorizing the activities of the Underground Railroad Educational 
and Cultural Program through FY 2012.
  Passed in 1998, the original amendment to the Higher Education Act of 
1965 authorized the Secretary of Education, in consultation and 
cooperation with the Secretary of the Interior, to make grants to 
nonprofit educational organizations established to research, display, 
interpret, and collect artifacts related to the history of the 
Underground Railroad.
  I commend my colleague Representative Kucinich for his hard work on 
this issue and this legislation.
  Since its passage, the program's centerpiece in Cincinnati--the 
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center--has become a nationally 
important cultural center and valuable education resource center, 
reaching more than 160,000 school-age children and their teachers who 
have toured the Freedom Center. The changing exhibitions as well as the 
pre- and post- visit teaching curriculum have offered valuable 
opportunities for our children to learn from and be inspired by the 
lessons of the history of the Underground Railroad.
  I am also proud of Amistad America, an initiative based in New Haven, 
Ct., which has been able to receive funding from the Department of 
Education through The Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural 
Program. By bringing together local organization advocates, educators, 
and historians, the Amistad America recognizes and honors the 
historical and educational significance of the Freedom Schooner Amistad 
Ship.
  In 1839, 53 Africans were illegally kidnapped from Sierra Leone and 
sold into the transatlantic slave trade. The captives were brought to 
Havana, Cuba, aboard the Portuguese vessel Tecora, where they were 
fraudulently classified as native-born Cuban slaves then sold to 
Spaniards Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montez, who transferred them to the 
coastal cargo schooner, La Amistad.
  While being transferred from Havana, Cuba, up the coast in the 
Amistad, the African captives revolted after 3 days and ordered the 
schooner to head east back to their native Africa. On the evening of 
the rebellion, the Amistad was secretly directed back west and up the 
coast of North America, where after 2 months the Africans were seized 
and arrested in New London, Ct.
  The captives were jailed and awaited trial in New Haven, Ct. The case 
became historic when former President John Quincy Adams argued on 
behalf of the enslaved Africans before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning 
their freedom.
  This summer the Freedom Schooner Amistad, a recreation of the 
original Amistad embarked from New Haven on its first transatlantic 
voyage to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the 
transatlantic slave trade.
  The journey is an opportunity to call to public attention the evils 
of slavery, the struggle for freedom, and the restoration of human 
dignity. As with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, each 
of these institutions remind us that even the darkest hours of our 
Nation's history can ultimately provide the tools for change.

                          ____________________