Proclamation Andy Beshear Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky WHEREAS, In Kentucky, many freedom seekers demonstrated resistance and determination to break the bonds of enslavement and courageously jeopardized their own personal safety for others, including heroes such as Henry Bibb, Josiah Henson, Addison White, Juliet Miles, Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, Elijah Marrs and Lewis and Harriet Hayden; among others; and WHEREAS, Thousands of refugees fled to Camp Nelson with their families and enlisted as Union soldiers to escape bondage and help end slavery in the United States permanently; and WHEREAS, Underground Railroad Conductors such as Delia Webster, John and Matilda Fee, John Rankin, John Parker, Calvin Anderson, Washington Spradling, Bird Parker, W. H. Gibson, Arnold Gragston, Elisha Winifred Green, Rev. Chapman Harris, William Harding, George Washington Carver, Harriet Beecher Stowe and others saved the lives of many families escaping slavery and strengthened the abolitionist movement; and WHEREAS, The Commonwealth of Kentucky seeks to recognize the inspiring efforts of Kentuckians and people from around the world who have committed to documenting and sharing the Underground Railroad story through the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Sites of Memory Designation; and WHEREAS, The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom acknowledges the significance of the Underground Railroad, and all those involved, for its contribution to the eradication of slavery in the United States; and WHEREAS, The Underground Railroad helped lay the foundation for a more comprehensive civil rights movement that followed; and WHEREAS, International Underground Railroad Month provides an opportunity for worldwide dialogue about continuing forms of slavery, such as human trafficking, and the ongoing discrimination that Black Americans face; and WHEREAS, International Underground Railroad Month illuminates the hope of freedom for all people; NOW, THEREFORE, I, ANDY BESHEAR, Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, do hereby proclaim September 2020, as INTERNATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD MONTH in Kentucky. DONE AT THE CAPITOL, in the City of Frankfort the 20th day of August, in the year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty and in the 22 th year of the Commonwealth. /'.>- . <. /1 n, /1.n .