Bill Aims To Reconnect Underground Railway ‘Stations’

A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress on Thursday aims to reconnect the houses, barns and cellars that once made up the Underground Railroad that spirited slaves to freedom in the North.

The bill by Reps. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, would create a network of the Railroad’s “stations” and put it under the guidance of the National Park Service.

A similar bill was introduced by in the Senate on Thursday by Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill.

Portman’s great-great-grandparents were Quaker abolitionists in the years before the Civil War and used their West Milton, Ohio, farm to hide slaves who were escaping to the north.

Ohio figured prominently in that network because it bordered slave states, and today it has more railroad sites to be preserved than most other states with 39.

Portman said many of the places where slaves hid on their journey, such his family’s farm, still exist, but continue to deteriorate and may be lost forever.

“The Underground Railroad is as much a part of our history as the Liberty Bell,” said Charles Blockson, a historian at Temple University who attended a press conference about the bill.

Blockson said most of the history of the Railroad comes from the stories of the participants, and the physical evidence that remains needs to be preserved.

The Portman-Stokes bill does not set aside money for the sites, but it would direct the Park Service to assist local organizations with requests to find money and other resources for the restoration and operation of the sites.

“It is our hope that many of the lesser-known sites will come to life under this legislation,” Portman said.