As part of Underground Railroad Month, the organizing USCAN committee, led by chairman Dewitt Lee III, has organized a Northstar Day Emancipation Walk that will commence at Broderick Park (foot of Ferry) on Sunday, September 25. The day will get underway at 5pm with a number of special events, performances, and ceremonies. Then, at 7pm, participants will take a walk to, and across, the Peace Bridge. The walk will not officially enter into Canada, but will be more symbolic in its gesture of unification and solidarity.
“We are excited this year to have a wonderful program to commemorate the Underground Railroad here in Buffalo at Broderick Park,” said Lee. “In Canada, this year is the first time that we got a chance to celebrate the passing of Bill 75 – The Emancipation Month Act and for it to flow right into Underground Railroad Month, bringing the connection between the USA and Canada into the conversation.”
In recent years, the city of Buffalo has worked harder to preserve and recognize the freedom fighting people and historic places that have come to symbolize this region’s significant part in the Underground Railroad.
“As the founder and co-author of the Emancipation Month Act, I choose Buffalo as the place to commemorate the journey of our ancestors from the US to Canada because this community is so committed to honoring those who came before us and preserving the spaces where they traveled,” said Lee. “We are also coordinating the Emancipation Walk, across the border to the Canadian side of the bridge and we have several Buffalo businesses onboard to ‘Walk, the walk’ with us.”
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