Church Creek, MD - The National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program has partnered with the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program to interview living descendants of Underground Railroad participants. The mission of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, a social-justice research center based at the University of Florida, is to encourage civic engagement by studying the past and making it relevant to today.
The project will increase awareness of both the Underground Railroad and the Network to Freedom, while increasing appreciation of public history and the relevance of memory studies. Under the guidance of the Network to Freedom, Samuel Proctor Oral History program staff and students will conduct interviews with living descendants and their families to preserve vital stories. The program will create video and audio recordings which will be stored by the National Park Service and the University of Florida Digital Collections at George A. Smathers Libraries.
The Network to Freedom will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary this year. It includes more than 700 locations in 39 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The organization serves to honor, preserve, and promote the history of resistance to enslavement through escape and flight, and serves an inspiration to people worldwide. Through this mission, the Network helps to advance the idea that all people deserve the right to freedom from oppression.
Underground Railroad (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Tags: network to freedom
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service