Editing Harriet Tubman Day

{{Short description|American holiday observed on March 10}}

|image =Harriet Tubman c1868-69.jpg

|observedby = United States ([[New York (state)|New York]])

'''Harriet Tubman Day''' is an American holiday in honor of the anti-slavery activist [[Harriet Tubman]], observed on March 10, and in the U.S. state of New York. Observances also occur locally around the U.S. state of Maryland. After [[Juneteenth]] became a federal holiday, there are growing calls for this day to also be observed at the federal level.

The holiday was approved as Public Law 101-252 by the 101st Congress in a joint resolution on March 13, 1990. The law was considered and passed by the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] on March 6, 1990 and then was

considered and passed through the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] on March 7, 1990.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.harriettubman.com/day.html|title=Harriet Tubman}}</ref> U.S. President [[George H. W. Bush]] gave Proclamation 6107 on March 9, 1990 proclaiming the holiday.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=1823|title=Proclamation 6107 - Harriet Tubman Day, 1990|access-date=2016-04-22|archive-date=2016-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184705/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=1823|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In February 1995, Christ Episcopal Church, Great Choptank Parish, in [[Cambridge, Maryland]] celebrated (via a "service of song and word") Tubman's nomination, the previous year, to the [[Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church in the United States of America)|liturgical Calendar of Saints of the Episcopal Church]]. The parish is the home of Dorchester County's Harriet Tubman Coalition. Final approval of naming her a saint occurred at the 1997 General Convention,<ref>{{cite news|title=Harriet Tubman honored as a saint|date=February 20, 1995|author=Somerville, Frank P. L. |work=Baltimore Sun|location=Cambridge, MD}}</ref> and Tubman is now commemorated together with [[Amelia Bloomer]], [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], and [[Sojourner Truth]] in the [[Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church in the United States of America)|calendar of saints]] of the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]] on July 20. The [[Calendar of Saints (Lutheran)|calendar of saints]] of the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] remembers Tubman and Truth on March 10 which is also her date of birth because she was born in March.

| [[Maryland]] || Louis C. Fields, President of the African American Tourism Council of MD is the founder of Harriet Ross Tubman Day of Remembrance in the State of Maryland in year 2000. Fields requested former State Senator Clarence Mitchell IV (C4) to introduce legislation to have the State of Maryland designate and annually recognize March 10 as officially Harriet Ross Tubman Day of Remembrance in the State of Maryland. The resolution passed both the House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate in March 2000. Annually, Fields hosts the Tubman Day celebrations across the State of Maryland and on a date closest to March 10, Fields hosts the annual Harriet Ross Tubman Day in Annapolis at the Maryland General Assembly. Annually, the Governor of Maryland issues the State's Harriet Tubman Day Proclamation proclaiming March 10 as Harriet Ross Tubman in MD. Also, each year Fields selects a deserving person to be the recipient of the Harriet Ross Tubman Lifetime Achievement Award presented in the Maryland General Assembly. The program includes an annual Tubman lecture (2016-Dr. Dale Green, MSU professor) and the reading of the Governor's proclamation by a United States Naval Academy Midshipman. President Barack Obama designated a part of Dorchester county as a National Harriet Tubman Park.

Past Tubman Day Awardees include...

2016-Janice Greene Curtis, Tubman re-enactor, storyteller.

2015-Dr. Ruth J. Pratt, educator.

2014-Marsha Jews, Planner, Media personality.

2013-Barbara Tagger, NPS administrator.

2012-Senator Barbara Mikulski.

2011-Dr. Clara Smalls, educator.

2010-Delegate Adrienne Jones.

2009-Bettye McLeod.

2008-Verda Day-Jones, actress (deceased) & Louise Webb-historian.

2007-Dr. Kay McElvey, historian, educator.

2006-Wylene Burch, educator, museum founder (deceased).

2005-Delegate Hattie Harrison & Delegate Ruth Kirk (both deceased).

2004-Rachel Hall Brown, educator, author, (deceased).

2003-Evelyn Townsend, educator (deceased).

2002-Addie Richburg, UGRR advocate.

2001-Dr. Thelma Daley, educator, Vice-Chair NCNW.

2000-Dr. Joanne Martin, museum founder

update

2017: The March 2017 Maryland Tubman Day program will be held in Annapolis, Maryland to coincide the grand opening of the Harriet Tubman Museum & Discovery Center in Cambridge, Maryland on Tubman Day, March 10, 2017. A Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Conference is held in Cambridge during June each year.

Source: Lou Fields, Founder, Tubman Day in MD.

2016: Governor of Maryland [[Larry Hogan]] issued a proclamation which was read by Midshipman from the [[U.S. Naval Academy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usna.edu/NewsCenter/2016/03/usna-midshipman-presents-governors-harriet-tubman-day-proclamation.php|title=USNA Midshipman Presents Governor's Harriet Tubman Day Proclamation}}</ref> A symposium is held on March 10 at the [[Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway (Maryland)|Harriet Tubman Byway]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://harriettubmanbyway.org/tubman-day-symposium-set-for-march-10th|title=Tubman Day Symposium Set for March 10th|date=8 March 2016}}</ref>

| [[New York (state)|New York]] || The holiday is a legal observance in the state. As of 2003,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://womenshistory.about.com/od/harriettubman/fl/Harriet-Tubman-Day-March-10.htm|title=Harriet Tubman Day: March 10|access-date=2016-04-23|archive-date=2016-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404143802/http://womenshistory.about.com/od/harriettubman/fl/Harriet-Tubman-Day-March-10.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> the holiday was made official in the U.S. state of [[New York (state)|New York]]. The bill was sponsored by State Senator [[Michael F. Nozzolio]], and was passed as Bill #A2087.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/15/nyregion/metro-news-briefs-new-york-harriet-tubman-day-proposed-as-holiday.html|title=METRO NEWS BRIEFS: NEW YORK; Harriet Tubman Day Proposed as Holiday|newspaper=The New York Times|date=15 February 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=A2087&term=&Memo=Y|title=An act to amend the general construction law, in relation to the designation of Harriet Tubman day}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2015/s2038|title=Senate Bill S2038

|date=3 October 2015

[[Image:Harriet Tubman.jpg|left|thumb|''[[Harriet Tubman]]'' (photo H. B. Lindsley), c.&nbsp;1870. A worker on the Underground Railroad, Tubman made 13 trips to the South, helping to free over 70 people. She led people to the northern free states and Canada. This helped Harriet Tubman gain the name "Moses of Her People".<ref name="13-70">Larson, p. xvii.</ref>]]

'''Harriet Tubman''' (born '''Araminta Ross'''; {{circa|1822}}<ref name="Larson, p. 16">Larson, p. 16.</ref>{{snds}}March 10, 1913) was an [[Americans|American]] [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], [[humanitarian]], and an armed scout and [[American Civil War spies#Union|spy]] for the [[United States Army]] during the [[American Civil War]]. Born into [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved families and friends,<ref name="13-70">Larson, p. xvii.</ref> using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the [[Underground Railroad]]. She later helped abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]to recruit men for [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|his raid]] on the [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia|Harpers Ferry]]. In the post-war era she was an active participant in the struggle for [[women's suffrage]].

==References==

{{reflist|30em}}

* {{Official website|http://www.harriettubman.com/day.html}}

{{Harriet Tubman}}

[[Category:1990s establishments in the United States]]

[[Category:Harriet Tubman]]

[[Category:Public holidays in the United States]]

[[Category:Recurring events established in 1990]]