PRINTER'S NO. 3523
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
2505
Session of
2024
INTRODUCED BY D. WILLIAMS, SAPPEY, T. DAVIS, HILL-EVANS,
McNEILL, DONAHUE, VENKAT, PIELLI, HOWARD, GUENST, PROBST,
SCHLOSSBERG, GIRAL, KINSEY, HANBIDGE, KHAN, HADDOCK, SANCHEZ,
MAYES, CEPEDA-FREYTIZ, CURRY, OTTEN, KIM, BOROWSKI, CIRESI,
DALEY, O'MARA AND BOYD, JULY 23, 2024
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON TOURISM AND ECONOMIC AND RECREATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT, JULY 23, 2024
AN ACT
Designating the month of September of each year as
"International Underground Railroad Month" in this
Commonwealth.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Short title.
This act shall be known and may be cited as the Underground
Railroad Month Designation Act.
Section 2. Legislative findings and declarations.
The General Assembly finds and declares as follows:
(1) Freedom seekers courageously traversed miles of the
Underground Railroad while facing unimaginable hardship and
trauma.
(2) They risked their lives to escape a system of
slavery that was commercialized, racialized and inherited.
(3) Through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, people were
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forcefully abducted from their homes, enslaved in the
American colonies and exploited to work in the production of
crops, such as tobacco and cotton.
(4) The Underground Railroad covertly operated as a
network of places, routes and people that assisted African
Americans who were enslaved to escape to freedom.
(5) The term Underground Railroad was used
metaphorically as "conductors," which included a racially
diverse group of abolitionists, transported and guided
"passengers" traveling along the routes.
(6) "Station masters" hid the freedom seekers at
"stations" which included homes, barns, churches and
businesses.
(7) Freedom seekers who arrived at the safe houses were
referred to as "cargo."
(8) The Underground Railroad traced across this
Commonwealth in a clandestine network that helped African
Americans realize freedom in this Commonwealth and elsewhere.
(9) This Commonwealth was a strategic and historic
location of freedom through the Underground Railroad.
(10) Sites associated with the Underground Railroad can
be found in every county in this Commonwealth.
(11) The freedom seekers and those who assisted them in
running the Underground Railroad were integral to the freedom
and advancement of African Americans in the past, as well as
today.
(12) Under life-threatening circumstances, freedom
seekers equipped themselves with literacy, knowledge of
astronomy and the natural world and many self-taught skills
that proved vital to their fight for freedom.
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(13) Although the Commonwealth passed a law in 1780 that
gradually eliminated slavery, the existing 6,000 enslaved
people in this Commonwealth remained enslaved and the
enslaved people's registered children would be enslaved until
their 28th birthdays.
(14) Although a person could no longer legally import
enslaved people, they could buy and sell those who had been
registered after 1780.
(15) Freedom seekers often banded together to raise
money to buy the freedom of their fellow freedom seekers.
(16) The Commonwealth continued to tolerate and profit
from the labor of enslaved people for decades and many
Commonwealth cities enacted legislation that restricted and
oppressed free people of color.
(17) Freedom seekers supported their families and
communities through the trades, retail, media, ranching,
mining and the legal and legislative fields.
(18) They further went on to serve in the Civil War and
play active roles in the abolitionist movement and women's
suffrage movement.
(19) The Underground Railroad was the first nonviolent
movement in our country's history, preceding by generations
the phrasing that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., popularized
during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
(20) The Underground Railroad is a historical
development that demonstrates to future generations the
American values of faith, commitment and national unity,
transcending narrow and sectarian interests for the greater
good.
(21) "International Underground Railroad Month" honors
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those who sought freedom through the Underground Railroad and
provides an opportunity for an open dialogue that illuminates
the hopes that arise from freedom for all people.
Section 3. Designation.
The month of September of each year shall be designated as
"International Underground Railroad Month" in this Commonwealth.
Section 4. Construction.
Nothing in this act shall be construed as requiring an
employer to treat the month of September as a legal or official
holiday or to provide paid leave to an employee solely by virtue
of the month being designated under this act.
Section 5. Effective date.
This act shall take effect immediately.
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