Bristol’s Harriet Tubman Monument Will Be Celebrated Saturday

The African American Historical and Cultural Society of Bucks County will host a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of the Harriet Tubman monument at Lions Park at the wharf in Bristol Borough off Mill Street.

The event will take place on Saturday, June 25 at 10 a.m. There will be a brief ceremony at the monument, led by Deal Wright. He is the current president of the society.

The late Sidney Taylor, president emeritus of the society, will be acknowledged. “He was maybe one of the most important ones in getting the monument done,” said Louise Davis, 80, a lifelong resident of Bristol Borough.

Then, attendees will go to the Community Baptist Church at 225 Radcliff Street, which is less than two blocks from the statue. The program will continue there where a proclamation will be read from Bristol Borough Council.

Davis, who portrays Harriet Tubman, will tell some Harriet Tubman life-stories. “I’m a relative of Harriet Tubman,” she said. “She did not have children. She did have brothers and sisters and she had a father. It is through the father that I’m related to her. My great grandfather and her father were brothers. I’m a third cousin. When they say, ‘descendant’ — that throws it off.”

People will sing some of the Underground Railroad songs.

Davis said one of the reasons for having the program is to acknowledge the fact that the whole area made it possible for the statue to be there.

“We’re very much aware that there was great input from the state,” she said. “We did get money from the state that helped us put the statue up.”

Bristol Borough Council, Bristol Township Board of Supervisors, schools, churches and individuals contributed to the cost of the monument.

“It’s important to note that we did not chose Harriet Tubman because she was a relative, but because of the extent of her involvement in so many ways in the life of this country,” she said.

In addition to being the key leader of the Underground Railroad, she was a nurse, soldier and keeper of indigent people. “She worked with the suffragettes to assure that some would get the right to vote,” Davis said. “She worked hard. It was the votes for the white woman that she was working with.

“Her contribution to the country in many ways was not acknowledged,” Davis said. “She represents the unstoppable determination in light of many obstacles to make sure that people were treated equally and more in the spirit of our Declaration of Independence.”

Sculptor Jim Gafgen of Morrisville made the statue of Harriet Tubman. William Smith did the original drawings. Gafgen also was the sculptor of the Robert Morris statue in Morrisville.