February is Black History Month, and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center offers a lineup of free programs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday this month.
Throughout February, the park’s experts and special guests will lead special programs focusing on Tubman and her pivotal role in the struggle against slavery.
A highlight comes this Saturday, February 9. At 3 p.m., Tubman biographer and scholar Dr. Kate Clifford Larson will speak about Tubman’s strong faith and spiritual influences and how they can be interpreted for the 21st century, in a program called “This Far By Faith: Harriet Tubman’s Spiritual Journeys to Freedom.”
Each Friday this month, ranger-led programs begin at 10 a.m., noon and 4 p.m., and at 2 p.m., visitors can watch a National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom movie as part of the program “Fighting for Freedom: Lewis Hayden and the Underground Railroad.”
On Saturdays, the schedule of programs include “The Park in Pictures,” “The Instrumentalities of War,” and “The Songs of Enslaved People,” in which guests are encouraged to participate in songs used to by the Underground Railroad’s freedom-seekers.
And on Sundays in February, Ranger “Mama Mary” Dennard holds “Story Time with Mama Mary” at 11 a.m. Some Sundays will also include a 3 p.m. program detailing three important women in Harriet Tubman’s life: her mother, a biography author, and a famous women’s suffragist.
For details on all of the park’s Black History Month programs, click here.
The park—managed in partnership with the National Park Service— has been open for almost three years now, operating daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It has hosted visitors from 70 countries and territories and all 50 states. It includes an exhibit hall of displays, a gift shop, and an information desk.
-Meg Walburn Viviano
