Underground Railroad Free Press
News & views on the Underground Railroad • Volume XVII, no. 93, January 2022
Published bimonthly since 2006, we bring together organizations and people interested in the historical and the contemporary Underground Railroad. Free Press is the home of Lynx, the central registry of contemporary Underground Railroad organizations; Datebook, the community's event calendar; and the Free Press Prizes awarded annually for leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge, the community's highest honors. Please visit urrfreepress.com for more.
2022 Free Press Prize Nominations Now Open
The Underground Railroad Free Press prizes honor outstanding contributions to contemporary Underground Railroad work in leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge. The prizes promote awareness and appreciation of contemporary Underground Railroad work to the general public, officials, governments and key decision-makers by publicizing prize winners’ work. As the Underground Railroad was an international enterprise, prize eligibility includes individual and organizational nominees from any nation.
The Underground Railroad Free Press Prize for Leadership recognizes outstanding present or past individual leadership of a contemporary Underground Railroad entity or cause, or leadership within the Underground Railroad community as a whole.
The Underground Railroad Free Press Prize for Preservation recognizes a significant restoration of an Underground Railroad safe-house or route, discovery or rediscovery of important Underground Railroad sites, significant promotion or advancement of the methods of Underground Railroad site preservation, or significant preservation or restoration of Underground Railroad art, music, or literature.
The Hortense Simmons Underground Railroad Free Press Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge recognizes significant additions to Underground Railroad knowledge, and may be awarded for a single contribution such as a landmark publication, a body of work or arts, or for creating or advancing a collection.
Go to http://urrfreepress.com/#Prizes for a nomination form and procedure. The three prizes are announced in the September issue of Underground Railroad Free Press.
Joseph McGill to Be Featured in Historic Sotterley Webinar
On January 26, Underground Railroad explorer, preservationist and all-around publicist Joseph McGill will take Historic Sotterley's virtual stage presenting "Journeys for Change" in which he will discuss the struggles, challenges, and triumphs of his work. Mr. McGill has been visiting sites across the country for over a decade, sleeping in structures where enslaved people lived. His stays preserve their culture and bring awareness to their lives and stories. He has slept in Sotterley's slave cabin twice. Sotterley and McGill have been working together for the past ten years.
Register at https://event.webinarjam.com/register/51/lpkygbm6 to view the webinar.
This presentation is a part of Sotterley's Common Ground Initiative and made possible by support from Maryland Humanities and the Maryland Heritage Area Authority. Historic Sotterley was the 2021 winner of the Underground Railroad Free Press Prize for Leadership for its groundbreaking work in reuniting its Black and White descendants of the slavery era.
Joseph McGill, Jr. is a history expert at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, and founder and director of The Slave Dwelling Project. Previously, as a field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Mr. McGill worked to revitalize the Sweet Auburn commercial district in Atlanta, Georgia, and to develop a management plan for the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area. He served formerly as executive director of the African American Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and director of history and culture at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina. He has also served as a National Park Service park ranger at Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston.
Mr. McGill was the 2021 winner of a Network to Freedom award for his work. See the next article here.
Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Announce Awards
The National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program has announced the 2021 winners of its awards. These are similar to the three annual Underground Railroad Free Press Prizes for leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge, the oldest Underground Railroad awards, and complement the Free Press Prizes for a different set of accomplishments.
The Network to Freedom awards recognize notable accomplishment in research, promoting social change, and support of the Network to Freedom. Free Press commends the National Park Service and its Network to Freedom program for instituting these well deserved awards.
The 2021 Frederick Douglass Underground Railroad Legacy Award was presented to Joseph McGill, founder and executive director of the Slave Dwelling Project for helping to preserve over 150 slave dwellings in 25 states by conducting programs, lecturing and spending nights in the dwellings. (See our article on Mr. McGill above.)
The Network to Freedom's Wilbur Siebert Award for Exemplary Underground Railroad Research was awarded to Ser Boxley of Natchez, Mississippi, for preserving the Forks of the Road slave markets, which were recently added to Natchez National Historical Park.
The Robert G. Stanton Award for Network to Freedom Partners was presented posthumously to Roane Smothers (1955-2021), an urban planner, for securing grants to ensure that Ohio's Clemens Farmstead and Indiana's Union Literary Institute remain intact for future generations, and for getting the two sites included in the Network to Freedom.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Announces College Scholarship Contest
Cincinnati's National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is sponsoring a contest that will award three scholarships to high school seniors in the class of 2022. The theme of the contest is “What kind of ancestor will you be?”
The contest announcement asks of applicants, "The actions you take today and tomorrow can be a model for future generations to follow. You have the power, so how will you use it? We challenge you to reflect upon the example you wish to set for others and determine a course of action that will make it happen. Your actions speak volumes. What do you want to say?”
Submissions include a two-minute video, current school transcript as proof of 2022 graduation, and a letter of recommendation from an educator, coach, or youth leader, all submitted by email to aharris@nurfc.org by April 1, 2022. Contest winners will be announced on Juneteenth, June 19, 2022. The top three and honorable-mentioned submissions may be posted to Freedom Center media sites.
As The Freedom Center strives to be inclusive, applicants needing accommodations to participate will receive assistance. Those needing assistance uploading a video, with sign language, or with a foreign language email aharris@nurfc.org.