We’re thrilled to announce that Underground Railroad Education Center has been named a recipient of a 2020 AARP Community Challenge grant, one of six grantees selected in New York. We’ll use this generous grant to provide the foundation of our new”Sow We Grow” Year-Round Accessible Indoor Intergenerational Food Gardening Project at our Historic Site and Community Gardens.

The Black Lives Matter movement was founded in 2013 in response to the exoneration of Treyvon Martin’s murderer. Exhausted by the cruelty and injustice which black people face from the system, the organization was built on the principles of inclusivity, acceptance, improvement, and humanity in order to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.” However, the overt and repeated lack of recognition towards Black female victims – and even for its three queer, black, female founders – begs the question of whether this movement is truly about all black lives, or rather just black male lives.

Trayvon Martin. A 17-year-old Black boy murdered on February 26, 2012 while walking home from a 7-eleven in Sanford, Florida. His killer? George Zimmerman, a white man who served as coordinator of the neighborhood watch. The video of Trayvon’s murder sparked national outrage.

The Young Abolitionist Leadership Institute is one of our core programs. For several weeks each summer, local youth come together at the Myers Residence to steep themselves in the past, present, and future, and leave better equipped to become agents of change for a more just world. Here’s what we’ve been up to this summer!

UREC Black Lives Matter Statement Underground Railroad Education Center stands in solidarity with the ongoing peaceful movement for social and racial justice. Our solidarity is implicit in our efforts to…

Slave. Master. Among the many rocks we can turn over to see the dark side of our country’s racist past and present, the very words we use to tell the story of our history are ones that are hiding in plain sight. Language holds power, and our beliefs and prejudices are embedded in it; we must look more closely at the words used to describe the institution of slavery in America.