HELP SAVE THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE'S UNDERGROUND RAILROAD NETWORK TO FREEDOM PROGRAM

THREE FORWARDED MESSAGES

1. Alan Spears, Associate Director - Diversity, National Parks Conservation Association to Henry Burke
2. Henry Burke's response
3. Additional comments by Henry Burke

Please forward your comments to Henry Burke - E-mail: burkeh@charter.net

Thanks

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Message #1

07/28/04

Mr. Burke,

It was a great pleasure to chat with you today. I'm looking forward to working
with you more closely on securing a $1.5 million funding increase for the Park
Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program (UGRR-NTF).

Here's the run down on where Diane's program is at today...

The current budget allotment for the program is $482,000.

This amount fails to cover salaries for Diane and her crew let alone provide
support for programmatic expenses. If there are no changes to the Fiscal Year
2005 federal budget for the Park Service Diane expects the UGRR-NTF to receive
the same amount or perhaps a little bit less.

In addition to the base line operating expenses the UGRR-NTF was also supposed
to receive $500,000 every year from which to make grants to members of the
Network. That money was received in one year (2002) and then stricken from the
budget by the government in 2003.

So essentially, the Network to Freedom program is in limbo without the
wherewithal to provide assistance in any meaningful way.

My group, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has worked with
Diane and her staff to identify the financial needs of the program and came up
with the following...

To bring the program up to adequate levels of funding and help it survive,
Congress needs to authorize a $1.5 million increase to the UGRR-NTF's annual
budget raising to the total from $482K to roughly $2 million. Of the $1.5
million, $500K would go towards re-establishing the grants portion of the
program. The remaining $1 million would be added to what's already there to
support program operations (salaries, travel, web site, brochures, publications,
awards, conferences, etc).

To date, we've received one letter of support from Congressman Rob Portman and
Congresswomen Stephanie Tubbs Jones. But Mr. Portman doesn't seem to be willing
to invest huge amounts of time in this endeavor. He may, in fact, have a much
closer, stronger relationship with the Freedom Center than with the Network.

We've also had conversations with Elizabeth Belleville in Senator Dewine's
office. They expressed great interest in the program's funding needs and hinted
at doing "something" to help last spring (February to April 2004) but nothing
ever materialized.

The inside the Beltway scoop on this issue is that this is a program that few
people understand and no one has taken responsibility for handling. The Director
of the Park Service and her immediate subordinates (several levels above Diane)
don't seem to care about the program and won't support it at an increased level
unless they get pressure from Congress to do so. Congressional leaders won't ask
for more money for the Park Service until they hear from the Director that the
money is needed. So they dance around the issue as Diane and her colleagues
whither on the vine.

It doesn't help matters either that natural allies of the program in Congress
tend to confuse the Freedom Center with the Network to Freedom. They hear about
Oprah's gift of three million and think everything is peachy!

The FY 05 budget will be finalized most likely in a big omnibus bill in
September. We need to work diligently throughout August to ensure that community
supporters and allies in the Senate and in the House of Representatives are
prepared to act on this issue once they get back from the summer recess after
Labor Day. Any calls or articles you generate would be helpful.

In the mean time I will ask our media outreach director to push some press
attention your way. We also have an electronic activism component to our web
site that you and your friends and colleagues may use to generate letters to the
editor or messages to your representatives asking for their support of a funding
increase for the Network.

Log on to our site www.npca.org

Scroll to the bottom of the homepage and click on the site map marker.
Find and click on the Ten Most Endangered Parks line
and then click on the Underground Railroad to access the templates.

Please find attached a PDF of the Portman/Tubbs Jones letter, the NPCA alert one
pager on the issue, and a listing of Network sites by congressional district.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the
issue or my message.

Cheers!

Alan Spears
Associate Director - Diversity
National Parks Conservation Association
1300 19th Street N.W. #300
Washington, D.C. 20036

202-454-3384 p.
202-659-0650 f.

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Message #2

Dear Alan,

I read your information with great interest! I represent the opinion of a large informal group of professional independent local researchers who share an unfavorable view about what the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center appears to be doing! In our opinion, they seem to be mis-representing African American history and the history of the Underground Railroad in the United States by attempting to create an entertainment style museum.Our primary motive for history research is based on education. We scrutinize each others research to eliminate mistakes and misconceptions as much as possible. We are interested in promoting the most accurate possible of history.

To be frank, we have found, what we believe to be some mistakes, in some Underground Railroad information disseminated by Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program (UGRR-NTF). This is no big problem if the UGRR-NTF is willing to work with us and consider our suggestions and comments. I think this would be good for UGRR-NTF and I think it would be good for us, because there is a great deal of useful educational information at the local level that can be and should be used to educate the public .
In our view, African American history is too serious to become a subject for entertainment. It seems practical to me for the UGRR-NTF to consolidate and coordinate our research.

I will draft an e-mail message to U.S. Senator DeWine's office and to Ohio State Senator Joy Padgent's office. Meanwhile it would be expedient for you to connect me with the highest possible media sources so I can explain, from the view point of a local Underground Railroad history researcher, why UGRR-NTF needs continual adequate funding.

Looking forward to working with you!

Sincerely,
Henry Robert Burke

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Message #3 (Additional comments)

In my view perhaps we should support the National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. I know we don't agree with many things they have done in the past, but at the present time, I am in a position to negotiate some favorable terms for our support. My negotiation point is to create a board of historians to help them make policy decisions and to review the accuracy of history portrayals. This board could be selected from a consensus by all the local historians and history groups who wish to participate. I believe that this can be accomplished if we can devise a way to prevent squabbling among those who participate. I think between us we can handle this task.

Please let me know what you think so I can get to work. Time is critical! I have a window of opportunity to do my part while the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is focusing on its grand opening! One thing I need is a demonstration of support (in the form of e-mail messages) from all the local history researchers that we can get. I will leave that part up to you! Please let me know your views as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
Henry
E-mail: burkeh@charter.net