Harriet Tubman monument officially on display in Newark
NEWARK, N.J. -- A monument of Harriet Tubman was unveiled Thursday in a square named after the abolitionist.
Big names from Newark gathered to celebrate Tubman's fearless contributions to American history.
The monument honors a woman who risked everything to free enslaved people, all while a bounty was on her head.
"She went and got us over and over and again," Mayor Ras Baraka said of Tubman. "This monument is about us, that in our story Moses was a Black woman, ragged clothes with a Bible and a shotgun."
Newark native Queen Latifah's voice was part of the experience, telling the story of the key figure of the Underground Railroad.
"We want people to know, to feel, to understand, what was at stake and how incredibly brave Harriet Tubman was," Latifah said.
The monument, called "Shadow of a Face," sits where a Christopher Columbus statue once stood.
"There is nothing patriotic in looking away from our nation's original sin," New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy said.
Nina Cooke John, the artist who created the monument in Harriet Tubman Square, said she wanted it to be interactive.
"Not everyone learns best by seeing or reading, so adding additional components, including the audio, makes for a fully-layered experience," Cooke John said.
A descendant of the freedom fighter was also at the ceremony.
"Something to be learned by her compassion, and her wanting to do something so courageous," said Michele Jones Galvin, Tubman's great-great-great grandniece.
Residents in Newark also a part of the experience are able to tell their own stories with tiles.
"This has all of my initials, my birth year, and also my logo, because just as this monument is going to stand the test of time, so will that tile," Tiffany Salas Chiifani said.
Baraka said the monument near an Underground Railroad stop not only represents Black history but also American history.
