News Release

“Day of Healing” Bell Ringing Remembrance

NPS Photo

News Release Date: August 21, 2019

Contact: Bill Fischer, 570-340-5244

SCRANTON, Pa. – On Sunday, August 25, 2019, Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) invites the public to help commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first landing of enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America, which occurred at Point Comfort in what is now Hampton, Virginia. For four minutes, beginning at 3:00 pm, attending children (up to age 10) will assist in this “Day of Healing and Remembrance” by ringing the bell on Steamtown NHS’s Illinois Central Railroad (IC) #790 steam locomotive. The bell ringing is to honor those first enslaved Africans and 400 years of African American history. Bells are symbols of freedom. They are rung for the joy, sorrow, alarm, and celebration experienced in each of our lives. This symbolic nationwide gesture is to capture the spirit of healing and reconciliation while honoring the significance of 400 years of African American culture. The day is also the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service (NPS), which cares for the extraordinary historic and cultural sites that are pivotal parts of the American narrative. Fort Monroe National Monument, an NPS site, is the location where those first enslaved Africans landed and rightly so is the epicenter for this remembrance. NPS parks often serve as places of healing and reconciliation, and this day our sites honor four centuries of the African American experience.

Steamtown NHS was established to preserve, interpret, and protect the history of steam railroading in America. It furthers public understanding of railroading’s role in U.S. industrial and technological growth, as well as being an important avenue for societal movement, especially during the Great Migrations of African Americans from the rural South to the industrial urban centers in the North during and after World Wars I and II. Although Steamtown NHS’s IC #790 was built for freight service and did not typically haul passengers, the Illinois Central Railroad ran from New Orleans to Chicago and served as a major conduit for those Great Migrations north.

The Steamtown NHS program in the museum complex begins at 2:50 pm with opening remarks, so please plan to arrive at the Visitor Center by 2:45 pm. For more information about this event, contact Park Ranger Flor Blum at 570-340-5316.


Located in downtown Scranton, Pa., Steamtown NHS is open daily from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. From I-81 follow exit 185 (Central Scranton Expressway); then follow the brown and white signs to the park entrance at Lackawanna Avenue and Cliff Street (GPS: N 41.41, W 75.67). General park information is available by phoning [phone] during regular business hours, or by visiting the park website anytime.

www.nps.gov/stea


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