For Immediate Release: August 18, 2000

Contact: Cathy D. Nelson 614-868-1246

Freedom Celebration To Honor Underground Railroad Movement

COLUMBUS, Ohio - During the 2000 Lights of Freedom Event, a daylong celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation's 138th anniversary Sept. 22 in Gallipolis, the new National Underground Railroad National Millennium Trail will be officially dedicated.

The designation of the National Underground Railroad Trail honors the escape of fugitive slaves to freedom in the North and the efforts made by the various groups of people who worked together for their cause. Sixteen of America's most historic areas have been designated as National Millennium Trails by the U.S. Department of Transportation under a collaborative initiative of the White House Millennium Council, the Department of Transportation and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. They formed a partnership to create a nationwide network of trails connecting American people with their land, their heritage and their culture.

Other trails designated Millennium Trail status include the Civil War Discovery Trail, which thematically connects the Civil War battlefields, military routes and sites of historical significance across 27 states, and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, which runs from Georgia to Maine and is the longest natural public thoroughfare in the world.

The date for the celebration was chosen because President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Sept. 22, 1862, giving freedom to the slaves in the rebellious South. Gallipolis is the site of the annual Emancipation Proclamation Day, which has been held there for 137 years.

Cathy Nelson, founder of Ohio's Friends of Freedom Society Inc., and society members, are the designated leaders of the National Underground Railroad Initiative. This was a result of their impressive record of documenting more than 600 Ohio sites that were part of the Underground Railroad Movement. Nelson also helped with the documentation of Underground Railroad sites in other states including Kentucky, New York and Indiana.

2000 Lights of Freedom Celebration

The daylong event will include an opening welcome address at 10 a.m. with remarks by state Rep. John Carey Jr. and U.S. Rep Ted Strickland's wife Frances at the French Art Colony, an historic home used as a center for the arts. Also at the French Art Colony, will be an Underground Railroad Exhibit, the Ohio UGRR Traveling Quilt and slave artifacts on display by Freedom Time from Morehead, KY. by A walking tour of historic homes in Gallipolis will begin at 10:45 a.m., departing from the French Art Colony. At 1 p.m. Patricia Thomas Wilson will give a special performance for 4th- grade Gallia County students of the historical drama, "Escape of Jane," written by Henry Burke of Marietta.

A lecture by Cathy Nelson on Ohio's role in the Underground Railroad will be held at 3:45 p.m. Both of these events will be held at the historic Ariel Theatre.

The unveiling of an Underground Railroad historical marker and evening reception at the John Gee Historical Center will be held from 6 to 7 p.m., with special historical portrayals including a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, and remarks by Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.

The reception will be followed at 7:30 p.m. by a presentation for the public of "Escape of Jane" at the Ariel Theatre. A candlelit procession to the Ohio River from the theatre and remarks by U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland will conclude the celebration. All of the day's events are free.

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