HARRIET TUBMAN BOOSTERS NEWSLETTER

Laurel Ullyette, President

Anne Mlod, Vice-President
Beth Cuddy, Secretary
Laura Marquart, Treasurer
Rosemarie Romano, Historian

From the Harriet Tubman Boosters President..

Happy New Year and welcome to the first edition of the
Harriet Tubman Boosters Newsletter! Since 1953, when it
was originally founded, the Harriet Tubman Boosters
(HTB) organization has been dedicated to sharing the life
and legacy of one of our countrys most important citizens.
Although the HTB is not affiliated with the Harriet
Tubman Home, we fully support the Home in a number of
ways. The Boosters have supported efforts to bring the
Harriet Tubman National Historical Park to Auburn
through attendance at the Harriet on the Hill lobbying day
in Washington D.C. and by writing letters to our
representatives in Congress. We are overjoyed that the
Department of the Interior Secretary signed the land
transfer agreement on January 10th, formally establishing
the Tubman Historic Park.

January 2017

Donna Adams, Board Member

Pauline Copes Johnson, Board Member
Barry Kahn, Board Member
Deidre Johnson-Stanford, Board Member

LIKE us on Facebook:
Harriet Tubman Boosters
FOLLOW us on twitter: @TubmanBoosters
VISIT our webpage:
www.harriettubmanboosters.org

Mark Your Calendars!

Wed, Jan 25th 6:00 p.m. - January HTB meeting
Sat, Jan 21st noon - 2:00 p.m. - visit our table at
the Womens March in Seneca Falls
July 2017 - Strawberry Stroll for the Tubman 20

Our commitment doesnt stop here, though! We are

working with Celebrate! Diverse Auburn to develop a
Harriet Tubman Memorial in downtown Auburn. As part
of our focus on education, we are again supporting the
Harriet Was Here artist-in-residence songwriting project
with fourth grade students at Genesee Elementary School.
Visit our webpage to read more about this project and
listen to the wonderful songs the students have created!
The Harriet Tubman Boosters meet every month (usually
the fourth Wednesday) from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. at the
Thompson Memorial AME Zion Church at 90 Franklin
Street. The entrance is on the side of the building near
Capitol Street. We hope you will consider joining us at our
meeting on January 25th as we start another year dedicated
to honoring Harriet Tubman and her many contributions to
our country and community.

Laurel Ullyette

We are proud our lobbying efforts helped

lead to the decision by the U.S. Treasury to
replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill
with Harriet Tubman.

If your membership renewal is due in January, February or March, or expired in 2016,

you will find a renewal form enclosed with this newsletter. Thank you for your continued support!

Harriet Tubman Boosters, Auburn Schools,

and First Niagara Bank Partner

Last year we continued our involvement with Harriet

Was Here (HWH), a project engaging students, teachers
and communities in conversation, reflection and
exchange of information about the geographies of
Harriet Tubmans remarkable life. Harriet Was Here is a
project of John Brown Lives! and the Gilder Lehrman
Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and
Abolition at Yale University. Since 2013, the folk duo
Magpie has worked with fourth graders at Genesee
Elementary School in a song-writing residency that
incorporates student driven inquiry and research using
primary source documents, field trips to historically
significant sites, videoconferences with scholar Kate
Clifford Larson, the creation and performance of student
songs, and events
connecting families
to student learning
to excite children
about Tubman and
the history she
made in their own
backyard. HTB
has supported this
project in a number
of ways, including
the purchase of this plaque, which is located on the
downtown branch of the Key Bank building (formerly
First Niagara). We also applied for and received a Finger
Lakes Community Arts Grant to pay for the 2016
Magpie residency. Visit www.harriettubmanboosters.org
to learn more about this project and listen to the songs
students created and performed!

There are many myths about Harriet Tubman

and one of the most common is
Harriet Tubman rescued 300 people in 19 trips.
Fact: According to Tubmans own words, and
extensive documentation on her rescue missions,
we know that she rescued about 70 people
family and friends during approximately 13
trips to Maryland. During public and private
meetings during 1858 and 1859, Tubman
repeatedly told people that she had rescued 50 to
60 people in 8 or 9 trips. This was before her
very last mission, in December 1860, when she
brought away 7 people. Sarah Bradford
exaggerated the numbers in her 1868 biography.
Bradford never said that Tubman gave her those
numbers, but rather, Bradford estimated that was
the number. Other friends who were close to
Tubman specifically contradicted those numbers.
We can name practically every person Tubman
helped. In addition to the family and friends,
Tubman also gave instruction to another 70 or so
freedom seekers from the Eastern Shore who
found their way to freedom on their own.
Source:
Scholar Kate Clifford Larson
Author of Bound for the Promised Land

Congratulations to Pauline Copes

Johnson, longtime member of the Harriet
Tubman Boosters, who will be inducted
into the Auburn/
Cayuga NAACP
Hall of Fame on
January 27th for
her tireless
dedication to the
local branch.