Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center

Announcing our summer hours! Beginning today, June 1st, we are welcoming visitors from Tuesdays through Sundays, 10am to 5pm. Plan your visit now and buy your tickets online: https://bit.ly/NFUGRRtix Masks are required of all visitors.

This Friday, join the Heritage Center’s Baldwin scholar, James Ponzo, PhD, for a discussion of the 1965 debate between Baldwin and Buckley on the topic of race in the United States. Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro? $5 For non-members, FREE for members. Reserve your space now: bit.ly/ugrrff21 Members must register an account with us before reserving tickets: bit.ly/nfmemreg

In remembrance and to raise awareness of our 215 indigenous children who were discovered in a mass grave onsite of the Catholic Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Niagara Falls natives Ken Cosentino and City Councilman Bill Kennedy had the Falls lit orange.

"According to Blight’s 2001 book Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, a commemoration organized by freed slaves and some white missionaries took place on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, S.C., at a former planters’ racetrack where Confederates held captured Union soldiers during the last year of the war. At least 257 prisoners died, many of disease, and were buried in unmarked graves, so black residents of Charleston decided to give them a proper burial." https://time.com/5836444/black-memorial-day/?amp=true

BEYOND HER YEARS: A Los Angeles toddler has been accepted into Mensa the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world. Kashe Quest is just 2 years old and has an IQ of 146.

Check out some of the new items in our Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center gift shop! You can also order right here online --> https://shop.niagarafallsundergroundrailroad.org/ Even before COVID-19, research showed that museums focusing on African American history and civil rights receive less funding than other museums. Less than 8% of philanthropic support goes towards investing in communities of color. So your support is much appreciated! Your museum memberships, ticket sales and gift shop purchases go directly towards supporting our important work.

Join us at 7:00 PM on Fridays in February for virtual discussions related to Black history and the ways in which history can help us take action in the present. Register today: bit.ly/nfbhm21 $5 for non-members Free for members* Registration required... *Members must make an account before registering for tickets: bit.ly/nfmemreg

Matt McKenzie, Niagara University '21, leads an inspiring discussion with other student activists. Want to enact meaningful change on your campus? Join us for this invigorating discussion panel about campus organizing and student empowerment! Register now: bit.ly/nfbhm21

Malcom X's Daughter Wants Schools to Teach That "American History Is Also Black History"

Black history is a lesson in resiliency and inspiration. Step into the past with us to honor the ancestors of today's Black Lives Matter movement. One of our trained facilitators will be live tonight at 7pm EST. Register now: https://bit.ly/fctour10 Freedom Conversations are sponsored by a Humanities New York Action Grant.

AT&T, in collaboration with the Albright-Knox, the Buffalo History Museum, the Buffalo Museum of Science, Explore & More The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Children’s Museum, and the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center have created the AT&T Virtual Field Trips program. The program will provide the opportunity for regional public and charter school students to experience free virtual field trips that are fun, memorable, and safe. The AT&T Virtual Field Trips program offers both prerecorded videos and live virtual educator-led tours for students in grades K through 12. Some of the virtual field trips include downloadable materials for teachers and interactive kits for students. The program is limited to Title 1 schools in WNY. Learn more here: https://www.niagarafallsundergroundrailroad.org//att-virt/

Morgan State University Graduate Yoganada Pittman named the first African American Chief (Acting) of the United States Capitol Police

Melissa Holmes- WGRZ "Good Neighbor" is in honor of Black History Month. This week they're celebrating Niagara University senior Matthew McKenzie; an activist and organizer who will be leading a powerful virtual panel this Friday at 7pm via our Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center!! REGISTER FOR THIS VIRTUAL EVENT HERE: https://www.niagarafallsundergroundrailroad.org/abo/events/

Have you ever heard of the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898? Also known as the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington Coup of 1898, this was a mass riot and insurrection carried out by white nationalists in Wilmington, North Carolina on Thursday, November 10, 1898. In this video learn more about this important often untold part of American History.

Harriet Tubman documentary "A Walk in Her Shoes" by Metra Lundy, which our Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center Experience Center Specialist Saladin Allah appears in, was chosen among hundreds of films worldwide to be screened in the 8th Annual 2021 Socially Relevant Film Festival held Virtually MARCH 15-21. A Walk in Her Shoes is a full feature film that shares one woman’s intimate story of personal discovery, empowerment, and triumph. In a quest to overcome... one of the biggest obstacles of her life, Metra Lundy simulates a walk to freedom by re-tracing the steps of the great American heroine, Harriet Tubman. In doing so, Metra discovers who she really is. You can watch A Walk in Her Shoes Trailer at this link and the documentary in its entirety via the festivals website here: https://www.ratedsrfilms.org/

Amidst the shock of the events of Wednesday which occurred in Washington, DC, and across the country, it has been said that this is not America. However, these events are not an aberration. Beginning with the first colonizer and the first enslaver, violence has long been embedded in American history. Though this is our reality, so too is hope. We carry with us the legacy of those who stood up to oppressors and abusers. Each generation continues that legacy, feeding it with ...their own hopes and dreams, shaping our world to be a safer, more just, place. In moments such as these, we remember the activists who have come before us and those that take a stand now. We will continue to shape a better world together. Image: Poor People's March at Lafayette Park and on Connecticut Avenue. Warren K. Leffler, U.S. News & World Report / U.S. Library of Congress

Virtual Freedom Conversation tours start October 10th! Register today: http://bit.ly/fctour10 Our new virtual Freedom Conversation tour will last approximately 60 minutes. All tours will be hosted via Zoom and participants will be sent a password upon registration. We are offering two tours per week. Rooted in stories of the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls, these tours spark conversation and offer a space to consider the relationship between race, human rights, and free...dom. They are led by trained facilitators and are a way to foster empathy, increase knowledge, and encourage action. Freedom Conversations are sponsored by a Humanities New York Action Grant.

Who was John Morrison? Did Harriet Tubman cross into Canada from Niagara Falls? Join our trained staff tomorrow at 2pm EST for a virtual guided tour that answers these questions and more! Register now: https://bit.ly/fctour10 Freedom Conversations are sponsored by a Humanities New York Action Grant.

Early voting in New York begins TODAY, October 24th. Visit your local board of elections website or call their number to find out where hours and locations for early voting. In Niagara Falls residents can vote early at the Saint John de LaSalle Center. Hours vary by day.

Start the new year off with a dose of inspiration. Join one of our trained facilitators for a conversation about freedom seekers of the past and present. Tonight at 7pm EST, register now: https://bit.ly/fctour10 Freedom Conversations are sponsored by a Humanities New York Action Grant.

Book a Virtual Group Tour today: bit.ly/ugrrvgt Our visitor experience specialists discuss the challenges and triumphs of freedom seekers and abolitionists in Niagara Falls. We link past to present and encourage participants to take action against modern day injustices.

Melanie Camp of AM Buffalo showcased our awesome Niagara Falls National Heritage Area Niagara Falls Murals project on location of our Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center here in the city of Niagara Falls. Check it out!

The story of slavery is a tale of resistance stretching hundreds of years. As people in the United States reckon with this history, so too are people in Britain where new education guidelines deem accounts of oppression and exploitation ‘divisive’ and ‘harmful.’ Some might claim that these stories of oppression are in the past, or that nations like the US or Britain solved the issue of racism with civil rights struggles in the 1950s-70s. That may be a comforting thought for some, but is it the truth? Does the government have the right to keep this history out of schools? Read more: https://www.theguardian.com//real-black-history-government

Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian author whose work focuses on amplifying the work of other African authors. In making the stories told by other authors more accessible around the world, she is bringing Africa to the world. Towards this end, she developed an app that brings those stories to people in both ebook and audio format. Is there something you do to amplify the work of people around you? Learn more: https://brittlepaper.com//building-thriving-institutions-f... One Read app on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details

Are you a student of color and interested in private high school but think it may be beyond your reach financially? Learn more at https://www.edcowny.org/oishei-hs-scholarship! Education Collaborative of WNY

It was not uncommon during the 1960s for Black churches, bastions of Black power and community, to be put to flame by white supremacists. This was particularly prevalent across the US southern states. When three Black churches in St. Landry Parish, LA were burned to the ground over a period of 10 days in 2019, many in those communities drew the connection to the church bombings and fires of the 1960s. Since their churches burned, these communities have focused on healing and rebuilding. Read more: https://www.theadvertiser.com//louisiana-histo/5749270002/

West African men from now-former French colonies were drafted by the tens of thousands to serve during the Second World War. Treated unequally and subjected to segregation within the military, Black men served to liberate France when they themselves were not liberated. Hundreds were captured and sent to German camps. For all this, these men did not even receive their promised pay. After the war, they confronted French authorities in a Senegalese town named Thiaroye. These authorities reacted violently and put up to 300 men in the ground for the crime of being Black and asking for the pay promised them for years of service. Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com//senegal-thiaroye-france-/

The deadline to complete the 2020 US Census is TONIGHT. Census counts are used to determine federal aid to states and local communities. Buffalo could lose up to $1 billion due to low response rate. Make sure you are counted! Complete the census online: 2020census.gov/en.html More info on Buffalo response rate: https://spectrumlocalnews.com//buffalo-s-2020-census-respo

School desegregation after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education did not happen all at once, nor did it happen immediately. Though the court’s judgement ordered the desegregation of schools, there was no specific timeline in which this had to be accomplished. Even in schools that did desegregate, housing discrimination and white flight led to school districts that were de facto segregated. These racially imbalanced schools were therefore inherently unequal. It would take pressure from parents and activist organizations, and more court cases, to meaningfully integrate. Learn about school integration in Malverne, New York: https://www.theatlantic.com//firsts-desegregation-/616451/

What does the right to vote mean if eligible voters are denied access to information, registration materials, and the vote itself? Misinformation, limited access to registration and ballots, and confusion of officials result in the widespread voter disenfranchisement of the nearly 750,000 people in jail in the United States. Most of those people are eligible to vote, but far too few are registered or even fully aware of their rights. If they are aware of their rights, there exist so many barriers that few actually succeed in voting. Read more: https://www.pbs.org//voting-nearly-impossible-for-eligible

In the Nazi Germany-occupied statest of Europe, resistance movements operated within cities and across the countrysides. With the threat of concentration camps and death looming over them, thousands of resistance fighters in Poland worked together to spread information and disrupt German forces. August Agboola Browne was one such freedom fighter, believed to be the only Black person to join the Polish resistance. He distributed newspapers, traded electronic equipment and "sheltered refugees from the ghetto." Against all odds he survived the war and continued to live in Poland until 1956 when he emigrated to Britain. Learn more about Browne: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54337607

Would you play one of these guitars? Why? Why not? There are many different ways of reconciling the past and healing. Freeman Vines listens to the wood he uses to make guitars on land not far from the plantation where his enslaved family once lived and worked. Learn more about Freeman Vines: https://www.nbcnews.com//why-artist-built-guitars-out-tree

Who do you picture when you read the word cowboy? If you’ve seen any old western movies, the picture that comes to mind might be something like this: white men, hats low over their faces, holsters sitting jauntily on their hips as they strut through town. That’s the Hollywood version, and as with many other topics Hollywood handles, it is the whitewashed version. In reality, up to a quarter of all cowboys were Black folks. Many were previously enslaved and had escaped to the west to begin new lives. Black Heroes of the Wild West by James Otis Smith presents some of these stories in comic book form. Read more: https://www.nytimes.com//black-heroes-of-the-wild-west-jam

Are you registered to vote? You have until Friday, October 9th to register in New York state. Visit the state's website for more information: www.elections.ny.gov/VotingRegister.html