Endorsement of the Creation of the Harriett Tubman National Park

WHEREAS, the Ad Hoc Committee for the Harriet Tubman National Park, whose members include leaders of the NAACP branches throughout the State of Maryland, has proposed the creation of the Nation's first full service national park to be dedicated to the memory and spirit of a person of African descent; and

WHEREAS, the Harriet Tubman National Park would be American's first National park and full service vacation destination of special interest to people of color throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, the Harriet Tubman National Park located in Dorchester County on Maryland Eastern Shore, would include Harriet Tubman's birthplace, as well as extensive wetlands, farmlands and waterways (including parts of the Choptank River and the Chesapeake Bay) to which enslaved people adapted in their escape from bondage by way of the Underground Railroad; and

WHEREAS, the Harriet Tubman National Park would be a full service destination offering educational research and family recreational activities to include dramatizations of the Underground Railroad, instruction in oral history and genealogical research, tours featuring wildlife observation and environmental and historic interpretation, and traditional outdoor recreational activities featured in national parks; and

WHEREAS, the Harriet Tubman National Park will reveal how those persons escaping slavery creatively used the wetlands and waterways for protection from slaveholders for shelter and sustenance; and

WHEREAS, the Harriet Tubman National Park would be designed to the highest standards of historic preservation, educational value, environmental and wildlife protection and economic and land use planning; and

WHEREAS, the Harriet Tubman National Park will be the nearest recreation-based, full service national park to one-quarter of the U.S. population; and

WHEREAS, among the greatest of Americans, Harriet Tubman deserves the highest level of public recognition that can be bestowed by the United States Congress and the Department of the Interior, including the legacy of full inclusion of all Americans in preservation and conservation.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People endorses the creation of the Harriet Tubman National Park; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED,that the NAACP will recommend to the United States Congress and the Department of the Interior the creation of the Harriet Tubman National Park.