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Managing Editor SPRINGFIELD Although some people might be aware of some of the historical highlights of the city -- from the Armory to Duryea car to the GeeBee planes -- one local professor has spent years uncovering a forgotten history of Springfield: the community's role in the Underground Railroad. Professor Cecelia Adams Gross was honored on Wednesday with the Dorothy Jordon Pryor Award for her community service at Springfield Technical Community College. Gross took the opportunity to announce the beginning of a campaign that will create a self-guided walking tour, the African-American Heritage Trail, through downtown Springfield of sites significant in the fight against slavery. Gross started her research work while teaching at Simon's Rock Early College in Great Barrington and continued it since becoming a member of the STCC faculty in1983. Her students have been assigned to the task of pouring through primary sources in libraries and archives to re-construct the lost history of African-Americans here. "African-Americans played a considerable role in the development of this part of the state," she said. Speaking in a conference room that over-looked the Armory museum, Gross noted that one of the members of the Daniel Shays group that tried to storm the Armory was a freed African-American. Her research has shown that Springfield was an active stop in the Underground Railroad and the African-American Heritage Trail will trace that part of the city's history. The Underground Railroad was an effort prior to the Civil War by people opposing slavery to provide shelter to escaped slaves on their way to either "free" states or Canada. The slaves would be hidden and fed in private homes and businesses. After the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850, assisting escaped slaves could result in a $1,000 and up to six months in prison. An anti-slavery group in Springfield was formed in 1850 with the members making this commitment: "That we here pledge ourselves to our fellow citizens to stand by each other in determined resistance to this law and to fugitives from the South to protect them from their pursuers, and we will if necessary suffer the consequences." On the tour will be the site of two wool warehouses owned by noted anti-slavery activist John Brown. Brown lived in Springfield from 1846- 1849. The federal government later executed him after his failed attack on an armory in 1859. He was attempting seize enough weapons to arm an insurgent group to free the slaves. Gross and the college are now working to seek permission to place informational plaques on various buildings in the downtown area and have developed a map that would guide people to these locations. Gross said that she hopes to have the plaques all up in time for the college's 40th anniversary next year. Additional plans for the Heritage Walk include creating an audio tour of the Trail that can be downloaded to an iPod as well as a web site on the STCC server that has information about the African-American history of the area. Gross noted that when she was attending school African-American history began and ended with inventor George Washington Carver and activist Booker T. Washington. In high school the only African-American name she came across in English class was the poet Langston Hughes. Her perspective changed when she attended Howard University and grew into a passion when she began research work on W. E. B. DuBois while teaching in Great Barrington. By incorporating the historical research into her classes, she has inspired many of her students several of whom spoke at the event on Wednesday. "Springfield will be a better place with the African-American Heritage Trail in place," Tina Taylor, a former student, said. Gross described her on-going research and advocacy as " a life-long commitment and one I intend to honor." She noted with a smile that she had recently discovered an Underground Railroad site on U.S. Route 7 in Vermont. "We have something to do this summer," she said. | ||||||
