Underground Railroad Tour

Twenty members of the WVUP community participated in “Flight to Freedom: Ohio’s Underground Railroad Tour,” on Friday and Saturday April 7 and 8. The trip was sponsored by the WVUP Social Justice Program with funding from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.

Traveling by Park Tours chartered bus, the group stopped first on Friday in Ripley, Ohio, to visit the John Rankin House and the John P. Parker House, both former homes of active “conductors” on the Underground Railroad and now National Historical Landmarks.

John Rankin was a Presbyterian minister who from 1822 to 1865 assisted hundreds of escaped slaves in their trek to freedom. Many members of the tour group walked the 433 steps on the path that led freedom seekers up the steep hill to the Rankin House.

John Parker, a former slave who had purchased his freedom with money he had earned from an apprenticeship, assisted many slaves in the 1800s to escape from the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. The group’s tour of the Parker House Museum was given by Betty Campbell of the Ohio Historical Society.

While people in the Parkersburg area were being drenched with storms Friday and Saturday, the tour group enjoyed sunshine both days, with temperatures near 80 degrees on Friday. After the stops in Ripley, the group traveled on to Cincinnati, where they had the option of spending some leisure time at the Kenwood Town Centre Mall after checking in at the Quality Hotel and Suites.

Group members were surprised to run into Abraham Lincoln at the hotel – one at the entrance… several in the lobby….and yet more Abe’s emerging from the elevator! The Association of Lincoln Presenters happened to be staying at the hotel, so Abraham Lincoln was everywhere!

Saturday morning the group spent three and a half hours touring the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. One of the highlights in the Freedom Center was the film “Brothers of the Borderland,” which had been produced in Ripley, Ohio, in 2003, with Oprah Winfrey serving as a documentary host. The “movie-quality” film portrayed the Rankin family’s role in rescuing a freedom seeker. Ironically, the Parkersburg group again ran into the multitude of Abraham Lincolns who were also touring the Freedom Center.

Debbie Richards, Executive Assistant to the President for Policy and Social Justice, served as the group leader. Special thanks go to Allen McNulty for taking numerous pictures during the tour and for providing each group member with a CD of his photographs.