Forward Movement in Proposed National Parks Honoring Harriet Tubman CAMBRIDGE, MD (wypr) - There's new momentum involving proposals to create state and national parks that would honor the Maryland-born heroine, Harriet Tubman. WYPR's Donna Marie Owens has been following the story and filed this report.

It's a week-night at a community center in the town of Cambridge, and folks are discussing news of the day. While conversations in this rural Eastern Shore community often center around farming and the Chesapeake Bay, lately, the talk involves Harriet Tubman.

Efforts to create national parks to honor the legendary Underground Railroad conductor got a boost recently thanks to a new, long-awaited study from the National Park Service that took nearly a decade to complete. It supports two proposed sites, one in Maryland where Tubman was born in 1822; and a second location in Auburn, New York, where Tubman spent her later years after escaping bondage and freeing others.

"Congress authorized and directed the National Park Service to undertake this study in 2000. And on November 19th, we released it for public comment, the study report, with a comment period running until December 19."

That's Bob McIntosh of the National Park Service. He traveled from Boston to Cambridge for a public meeting Monday that drew residents like Donald Pinder, president of the Harriet Tubman Organization.

"Since this has gone beyond talk, it's actually in writing and actually in a booklet that most people can see and review. It just tells us we're really moving forward and the time is getting near so that this can actually be a physical and visual concept."

But not everyone is firmly behind the proposals. The proposed national park in Maryland would span some 11-thousand acres in Caroline, Dorchester and Talbot counties, and also include a 17-acre state park. But because both public and private lands would be utilized, some are worried about property rights.

"I certainly don't have any problem with there being a Harriet Tubman park. I don't want to be railroaded into it."

So says farmer Milton Malkus, whose people own about three-thousand acres on the Shore, and grow soybeans, corn and wheat. The land, he says, has been in their family for more than 100 years.

"We try to take care of it. That's part of our heritage. We're making a living from it. Therefore we have to take care of it. And we'd like to pass it on if we so choose, whatever our children wanna do with it, is up to them."

McIntosh said the federal government will not take any property by imminent domain, and landowners have a choice to participate. Those who do will be compensated.

Cambridge Mayor Victoria Jackson Stanley, the first African-American and first female elected to office here, believes the community will ultimately rally around the plans.

"Everyone I have spoken to, and maybe I haven't spoken to everyone, but everyone I've spoken to is just very excited, very happy that they've finally realized the importance of Dorchester County and the kind of people that come from this, she is just one of many."

There's still much more to this process beginning with the public comments. National Park Service officials must compile and review comments. Marci Ross of the Maryland Office of Tourism Development, explains.

"Once that input is collected, the National Park Service will finalize the report and then deliver it to Congress. And with that delivery, it is the state's hope that the legislation to authorize the Harriet Tubman national historical parks in New York and Maryland will come to fruition. And then we will finally, finally have a national park which will be a great tribute to Tubman."

Tubman park legislation was introduced by Maryland Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski in July, along with their Senate colleagues Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer of New York. But because a new Congressional session convenes in January, will have to be re-introduced.

I'm Donna Marie Owens, reporting in Cambridge on the Eastern Shore, for 88.1, WYPR.
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