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March 2018 Volume 13, number 71

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS® Independent reporting on today’s Underground Railroad community

urrFreePress.com Trump Threatens Underground Railroad Sites by National Park Service Budget Cuts, Park Sell-offs, and Firing 2,000 Park Rangers

The Trump Administration’s 2017 to protect and restore them from air and 2018 budgets for the United and water pollution. In This Issue States Department of the Interior and Trump's 12-percent cut to the De- the Environmental Protection Agency partment of the Interior will halt or The Trump administration's attitude (EPA) have seriously cut protection, on parks could imperil the National impede park construction programs, maintenance and operation of na- Park Service's Network to Freedom land acquisition, historic preserva- tional parks in virtually every state program. 1 tion, staffing and visitor services. including all cases of Underground Railroad sites and programs located Says the National Park Conservation The rediscovery of a sunken ship in within National Parks and National Association, "The budget proposal Alabama fits with one family's hand- Monuments, and, in some cases, pri- comes as the Park Service faces many ed-down story about their origin. vate-sector grantees of the National challenges, exacerbated in part by Park Service's Network to Freedom years of underfunding. They include 1 grant program. The president's pro- a $12 billion deferred maintenance Take advantage of the Free Press priz- backlog, reduced staffing that has posed budget for the 2019 federal fis- es and annual survey coming up. cal year beginning on October 1 of made it harder for parks to handle this year also proposes cutting 2,000 record-breaking crowds, and reduc- National Park Ranger positions. tions in visitor services and interpre- 1 tive programs essential to the park Trump's proposed 31-percent EPA visitor experience." Five generations of Kentucky's Brans- budget cut would make it impossible ford family have worked as guides at for the EPA to enforce the Clean Wa- John Garder, Director of Budget and Mammoth Cave since 1838. ter and Clean Air Acts within parks Please see Parks, page 3, column 1 2

Free Press Prize Nominations Now Open The new National Civil Rights Trail It's that time of year again. Do you know of a person or organization doing debuts.

great things for the Underground Railroad? Submit a nomination for one of the three annual Free Press Prizes. It's easy. Visit "Prizes" at our website. 2 Have Your Site or Program Listed Something on your mind? Drop us a Join 160+ others at Lynx, the Underground Railroad community nexus. line at [email protected].

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They Knew It: Found Alabama Shipwreck Proves Family Story By Sandra E. Garcia and Matthew Haag This article originally appeared in the January 26, 2018, edition of and sailed across the Atlantic to the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta The New York Times. Permission to reprint requested. in Alabama in 1860. But after the slaves were unloaded, the crew — fearing that they would be caught, and then imprisoned or ex- Lorna Gail Woods had heard stories of the Clotilda since before ecuted — burned the ship, and its wreckage was never found, so she could speak. In the evenings, her grandmother would hold many people doubted the story. her on the porch and tell her the tale of how her great-great- grandfather came to Alabama on the last known to “My grandmother would tell us the story so we wouldn’t forget come to the United States. and so that we could continue to tell the story,” Woods, 69, said over the phone in a warm, Southern cadence. They were brought by force, her grandmother would tell her, by an American businessman who just wanted to win a bet. Her But the story of the lost Clotilda — sometimes spelled Clotilde — great-great-grandfather Charlie Lewis was the oldest of 110 would only grow, eventually giving scholars one of their most slaves bought in , chained in the hull of the Clotilda Please go to Shipwreck, page 3, column 2 123

Underground Railroad Free Press 2 From Slavery to Freedom to Exclusion to Inclusion, Five Generations of One Family Have Bettered Mammoth Cave National Park The following account is excerpted from curious including wealthy touring Euro- Running on Empty: Along an Epic 12,000- peans. The first Mammoth Cave Guide Mile Road Trip America Has Its Say on Eco- was Stephen Bishop, a slave who began nomic Inequality, Free Press publisher Peter Michael's 2015 book. work in 1838. Shortly afterward, the enslaved Materson Thursday morning we showed up at the Bransford began work here, the first of park's hotel to wait for the bus to take us five generations of the same family at to the "new" entrance to the cave, an Mammoth Cave, and the great-great- opening in a hillside discovered in the Cave Guides Materson and Jerry Bransford grandfather of today's Jerry Bransford. In 1800s. The new entrance, ancient of a peculiar and sad situation that hap- course, is several miles from the huge counties. pened too often across the slave states, main entrance used since aboriginal times While we were waiting, National Park Materson Bransford was first "owned" by and within walking distance of the hotel. Service Guide Jerry Bransford came up his white father, and then by his white Early for our bus time, we toured the visi- and introduced himself. Mr. Bransford is half-brother. The five-generation line is tor center's very well done displays that a fifth-generation Mammoth Cave Guide Materson, Henry, Louis, David and Jerry included a detailed map of the 400 known who descends from Materson Bransford, Bransford. Well into the twentieth century miles of Mammoth Cave and a three- one of the original guides when the cave when the cave was privately owned, dimensional model of the part of the cave first became commercialized for tours in many other related Bransfords also below the hotel. Unlike some of the 1838. Ranger Bransford had begun telling worked at Mammoth Cave, the men usu- world's other long caves involving us the fascinating story of the tight rela- ally as cave guides, the women as domes- branches of one long main horizontal or tionship between the cave and his family tic help in the enterprise's hotels and vertical tube, Mammoth Cave consists of when our bus was called and off we went kitchens. In the late 1800s, white guides a fairly localized maze of interlinked for our tour. A few hours later after we began to be hired but through the 1930s tubes collectively coming to 400 explored returned, we spoke to Mr. Bransford most of the guide staff were local black miles and counting. Imagine lace, ran- again and heard the rest of his uniquely people including the Bransfords and a de- domly woven. There are several other American story. scendant of Stephen Bishop. cave networks like this not far from Mammoth Cave that are hypothesized to Quite a story it is. Native American arti- When an unmarried eighteenth century 100th Anniversary actually be part of the Mammoth Cave facts dating back ten thousand years have owner died, he willed his cave property system, with their connections just not yet been found in the cave. Early European and company to his nieces and nephews, discovered. Spelunkers are continually settlers mined the cave's potassium ni- specifying that, when they were gone, the exploring the mapped extremities of the trate deposits used to make gunpowder entirety was to be auctioned. When the Mammoth network and adding to its during the War of 1812. In the 1830s the last of them passed away in 1929, the auc- known mileage. The cave as currently cave became commercialized for guided tion never took place as the Kentucky known underlies parts of three Kentucky tours that in mounting numbers drew the Please see Five Generations, page 4, column 2 New National Civil Rights Trail Covers 100+ Locations in 14 States One of an occasional series on Underground Railroad sites and people On January 1, the 153rd anniversary of the Places where activists successfully sought Emancipation Proclamation, the U.S. Civ- equal access to public education, public il Rights Trail was officially announced to transportation and voting rights comprise the public. The Trail comprises a collec- the Trail's theme, “What happened here tion of churches, courthouses, schools, changed the world.” museums and other landmarks, primarily Schools stretching from Topeka, Kansas, in the Southern states, where activists to Little Rock, Arkansas, to Farmville, challenged segregation in the 1950s and Virginia, to South Carolina represent the 1960s to advance social justice. The Trail and the Tennessee building now a restau- end of racial segregation in public educa- is overseen by Travel South USA, the as- rant and entertainment venue that at- tion, triggered by the Supreme Court's sociation of tourism departments of the tracts civil-rights pilgrims. landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Edu- 14 southern state governments. cation decision used later by courts to Most blacks in Deep South states were The Civil Rights Trail got its start after dismantle other forms of segregation. prevented from registering to vote. A vot- former National Park Service Director ing-rights march in Selma, Alabama, that F.W. Woolworth lunch counters in Jonathan Jarvis encouraged the identifica- turned violent on the Edmund Pettus Greensboro, North Carolina, and Nash- tion of surviving landmarks where major Bridge emboldened Congress to pass the ville, Tennessee, where sit-ins by black events of the civil rights era occurred, 1965 Voting Rights Act. Visitors now college students in 1960 inspired a wave Georgia State University then identified walk across the bridge daily. of similar nonviolent demonstrations, are 60 sites, and southern state tourism direc- featured on the trail. The Greensboro Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the most visi- tors added 40 more. store is now a major civil rights museum, Please go to Trail, page 3, column 3 43

Underground Railroad Free Press 3

Parks Shipwreck detailed looks into the lives of Africans Appropriations for the Association, states who were brought to the U.S. to live in ® that, "The Administration’s proposed Underground Railroad Free Press bondage after an Alabama businessman Independent Reporting on budget is a non-starter for our national attempted to smuggle slaves from Africa Today’s Underground Railroad parks, our environment, and our cultural to the United States without being heritage, and should be dead on arrival in Peter H. Michael, Publisher caught. [Slave importation had been out- [email protected] Congress. Agencies like the National Park Service and EPA cannot take care of our lawed in the United States since 1808.] 301 | 874 | 0235

treasured landscapes and historical [In January], the story that Woods’ family Underground Railroad Free Press serves as the nexus of landmarks with further cuts to what are the international Underground Railroad community, — and many like hers in , the already shoestring budgets. The deep cuts maintains its central registry, calendar and surveys, historic neighborhood of about 2,000 on and publishes its free eponymous newsletter at Un- to the Department of the Interior and key the shores of the delta just north of Mo- derground Railroad Free Press, 2455 Ballenger Creek EPA clean water and enforcement pro- Pike, Adamstown, Maryland, 21710. bile — had passed down for more than grams demonstrate how irresponsible 150 years became much more real. Free Press is distributed by email. Send new subscrib- this budget is. The cuts to land acquisi- er email addresses and changes to the email address above. Back issues are available free at our web site. tion, water restoration and historic That month, Ben Raines, reporter for preservation programs are nothing short AL.com, published an article in which he We welcome news articles and letters to the editor. All rights to submissions including emails and letters of alarming. Cutting this funding fails to told of finding the charred wooden re- will be treated as unconditionally assigned to Free recognize how essential these programs mains thought to be the Clotilda. Press for publication and copyright purposes, and subject to our unrestricted right to edit and comment are to protecting national parks, our natu- ral resources and our cultural heritage. " “We know exactly who was on it. The editorially unless otherwise agreed with authors. names of all the slaves that were on it, the Free Press accepts tasteful nonpolitical advertising Cuts are now impacting land acquisition captives who were on it, were all record- which we reserve the right to reject for any reason that helps to protect parks from devel- ed,” Raines said in an interview. “It is the that in our sole judgment is not acceptable. Submit advertising in pdf, jpg or text formats. Visit our web- opment within their borders. Entirely only group of people brought into the site for rates and layout specifications.

eliminated in the Trump budget is fund- country through slavery where we know Contents of any Free Press issue are protected by cop- ing for the National Heritage Area pro- exactly where they were brought in, tak- yright and may not be used in whole or part for any gram, Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and en from in Africa, and ended up in the reason without prior approval of the publisher. Un- derground Railroad Free Press is a registered trademark. Everglades restoration, local input and United States.” environmental review. Archaeologists who visited the site said Blogger, author and National Parks that based on the wreckage's dimensions Trail preservationist Audrey Peterman (Lega- and contents — including charred timber, ble leader of the movement, is represented in cyOnTheLand.com) puts it well: "The as- and iron drifts — the remnants were most several states. His birthplace and gravesite are sault of the Trump administration on our likely those of the slave ship. just steps apart in downtown Atlanta. His first publicly-owned lands—suggesting that church in Montgomery, Alabama, is where he “This is the proof we needed,” Woods they view them mostly as assets to be led the successful bus boycott after the arrest said. “I am elated because so many peo- converted to currency—is glaringly obvi- of Rosa Parks. The Memphis church where he ple said that it didn’t really happen that ous. As we wrestle with the cynics who gave his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” way, that we made the story up.” try to shift the ground under our feet, the speech the night before his assassination at the public lands provide us with a founda- Woods and other descendants said they Lorraine Motel is a popular destination. The tion upon which we can ground our- were ecstatic about the news but still motel, expanded into the National Civil selves. Our park rangers are examples of coming to terms with it. While the Clotil- Rights Museum, is the most visited restored the best of the human spirit. Please take da had always been at the center of fami- civil rights landmark in America. The Mem- action today to protect our national parks ly lore, the common bond among neigh- phis museum will be the focus of the 50th an- and publicly-owned lands from those bors in Africatown, they previously had niversary of the death of Dr. King this year. who only see the "price" they can pro- to accept the story on faith. Four major museums were built to interpret duce, but miss their true value." About 10 of the 100 or so descendants of the movement. U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Atlan-

the Clotilda slaves who still live in Africa- ta championed construction of the National

things you can town gathered on Wednesday to discuss Museum of African American History and

what should be done with the wreckage if Culture, which opened to great acclaim in do at Free Press it proves to be the Clotilda. Washington, D.C., in 2016. The Birmingham

Civil Rights Institute, now the centerpiece of a Click on links at urrFreePress.com to: Should it be removed and restored? new national monument, faces the park where

Subscribe Should it stay where it is and the land be police used fire hoses and dogs in 1963 to ter- Join the Community or View Lynx protected? Should the wreckage be rorize student demonstrators. The Center for placed in a museum? Make a Free Press Prize Nomination Civil and Human Rights is a major attraction

Read Underground Railroad Surveys “We want to tell the rest of our families in downtown Atlanta. The Mississippi Civil

about what happened over 150 years Rights Museum, which opened in Jackson last View or Add to Datebook ago,” Woods said. “We want to get some month, is the newest. Submit News, Letters, Articles or Ads answers.” List an Underground Railroad Site For details of the dozens of sites and inter- Rate an Underground Railroad Site Lavon Manzie, a Mobile councilman who views with foot soldiers and tour guides at some of the landmarks, visit Civil- Please go to Shipwreck, page 4, column 1 RightsTrail.com. 45

Underground Railroad Free Press 4

Shipwreck Five Generations represents Africatown, said the possible Congressional delegation persuaded the restriction that dwellings may be owned discovery of the Clotilda is welcome federal government to purchase the in the future only by descendants. In news in a part of Mobile that is often property for a national park. In Septem- Mammoth's case, about 2,000 people overlooked. Last year, an artist painted a ber, 1936, five years before it would be of- were run off their ancestral land instead. mural of the slave ship on a wall in the ficially designated as a national park, the Homes, farms, small businesses, church- neighborhood, a sign of the Clotilda’s Mammoth Cave property was placed un- es, schools and cemeteries—their entire continued resonance in the community. der the operation of the National Park heritage—had to be left behind as they Service. Until then, many black guides were forced off. Manzie said the Clotilda slaves repre- continued working at Mammoth Cave in- sented what was best about his state and It took until the twenty-first century be- cluding eight Bransfords who were America. They came against their will fore Mammoth Cave National Park grandchildren and great-grandchildren of and did not know English or understand would mend its ways on race. Materson Bransford or of early Materson American culture. Still, he said, they relatives. In 2004, three-quarters of a century after transform ed Africatown into a thriving Louis Bransford saw the writing on the community of agriculture, schools, But the National Park Service had other wall and retired on his own terms, Joy churches and community centers. ideas. One by one in the late 1930s, black Lyons, who was in charge of hiring and guides were told that they would not be “It’s a story of resilience and self- training Mammoth Cave guides, had an hired by the federal government when preservation,” he said. “If you consider idea. Lyons looked into who the modern- Mammoth Cave became a national park. the circumstances of what these individ- day descendants of the Bransfords might In the 1990s former National Park Service uals had to learn and grow from and then be, discovered Louis's grandson Jerry Director Robert Stanton, the first black to reach the highest of success they can nearby, and offered him a job as a uni- head the Park Service, reflected that "It achieve, it is an amazing story.” formed Seasonal Park Guide. Just retired, would have been very doubtful that the Jerry Bransford unretired and signed on Woods remembers the story of how her Park Service would hire them in technical with the National Park Service. Mr. great -great-grandfather Charlie Lewis or semiprofessional positions such as Bransford, a dignified and well-spoken came on the Clotilda. As a child, Woods park guides. African Americans might man, is a retired photographer of Dow lea rned that Lewis was the oldest slave have been hired for maintenance, but the Corning Corporation, past president of on the ship, and that he was known as National Park Service and most agencies the NAACP chapter of Hardin County, chief of the Tarkbar Tribe. moved very slowly on improving their Kentucky, and Deacon of Little Zion Bap- “Charlie only spoke the African lan- employment practices until major civil tist Church in nearby Glendale. guage, so he passed the story down to his rights and equal-employment laws were son Joe Lewis,” Woods said. She said that passed in the 1950s and '60s." In our long conversation, Mr. Bransford said that going on seventy years later the he learned to read and write at the Old In 1939, Louis Bransford, grandson of few buildings that the park service did Union Baptist Church in Africatown and Materson and grandfather of Jerry, re- recorded the story. not demolish are nearly gone to decay tired as the last of the cave's black guides. with a very few preserved only for tourist The Old Union Baptist Church has served As author and former Mammoth Cave gawking as a last look at an obliterated as a hub for the community. Several employee Joy Lyons puts it in her book, way of life. Old maps show the locations Making Their Mark: The Signature of Slavery slaves who arrived on the Clotilda were of cemeteries but most have not been founding members of the church. at Mammoth Cave, "The day Louis Brans- tended for years and have gone back to ford walked to the office and turned in Liston Portis has lived in Africatown for nature, with descendants cut off from be- his key to the iron door guarding Mam- ing able to visit the graves of their ances- 55 years and sees the story of the Clotilda moth Cave's entrance marked the end of tors. Mr. Bransford knows the location of as the history of the town. 101 continuous years of Bransford guides his ancestors' cemetery and, having re- “I was very excited and happy that they at Mammoth Cave. His departure sym- blazed an old trail, periodically makes his found the ship because I had heard about bolized not only the end of an era, but the way through the deep local forest to clear the ship all my life,” Portis said. “For end of a way of life." and tend the graves. When the National someone to locate it, it makes our story When the National Park Service made Park Service learned of his devotion, it real and true.” Mammoth Cave National Park official on asked him not to look after the cemetery Portis, a retired juvenile detention super- July 1, 1941, Superintendent R. Taylor any longer but so far has not outright visor, is not related to any of the slaves Hoskins hired an all-white crew. Thus the prohibited it. There are over a dozen old who arrived on the Clotilda. But he said long mutually beneficial association be- cemeteries in the park and it is hard to he knows the story because churches and tween the local black community and see how any harm could be done by let- schools in the community reinforce it. Mammoth Cave was severed. ting volunteers, especially descendants, maintain them. “It is very important to know from Things got even uglier. Using eminent whence you come,” Portis said, “especial- domain, the government began buying The callousness practiced by the National ly in the African-American community up eighty-two square miles of land sur- Park Service at Mammoth Cave National because we were not reading and writing, rounding the cave and evicted 500 fami- Park since 1940 amounts to the worst of so our stories passed on molded us.” lies, both black and white, many of whom heavy-handed bureaucracy and unfeeling community relations. But Jerry Bransford “To actually see our history and know had lived there since before Kentucky is upbeat. Of those he works with at the where we come from specifically,” Portis statehood in 1792. In such cases, the Na- tional Park Service has the option of al- park, he says, “They are decent people added, “it gives credence to our story.” lowing people to stay, perhaps with the here, and I try to reciprocate.”