INSPIRE! Newark's Underground railroad Exhibition

Newark Honors its Underground Railroad History with A Symbolic Monument of Harriet Tubman

“Slavery is the next thing to hell.” 

— Harriet Tubman (1855)

Welcome to this exhibition!

In 1998, United States Congress acknowledged that “The Underground Railroad, which flourished from the end of the 18th century to the end of the Civil War, was one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement during its evolution over more than three centuries.” Those expressions of freedom happened in Newark, too. 

Shadow of a Face, A Harriet Tubman Monument by artist and architect Nina Cooke John celebrates the history of the Underground Railroad movement in Newark. The Underground Railroad was the organized network of like-minded Black and White abolitionists activists who helped enslaved people in their search for freedom. Rising over two stories, the Tubman monument is a symbol of Newark’s civil rights heritage, which dates to the city’s Black abolitionists’ public struggles to end slavery.

The monument is built near the former home of Governor Marcus Ward (a Newark native), who secured New Jersey’s ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution. More importantly, the monument is sited in an area that once was an African American enclave—a symbolic reminder that despite vested interests in slavery in the city, Newark’s free and enslaved Black activists fought fearlessly to abolish the institution.

It is only the eighth of public monuments in New Jersey that honor women as leaders, Shadow of a Face celebrates Tubman as the stellar face of the Underground Railroad movement. She was a courageous humanist, soldier, Union Army spy, racial justice crusader, nurse, philanthropist, women’s right advocate, and an extraordinary guide to freedom. 

But she did not act alone.

Be inspired and inspire!

- Noelle Lorraine Williams, Curator and Researcher, Inspire! Newark's Underground Railroad