DVDs Awarded in Honor of President's Day

I am pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 President's Day contest I hosted here on gather.com.

April L., Janet B., and Alta B. will receive copies of the public television documentary Safe Harbor, A Story of the Underground Railroad on DVD. The DVD, produced by Main Street Media in collaboration with the Harry T. Burleigh Society, includes the one-hour documentary, music from the Underground Railroad, and commentary from historians, including a Lincoln prize winner and a Pulitizer Prize nominee.

Safe Harbor is an incredible story of strength and determination told through the eyes of the freedom seekers themselves and the people who risked everything to help them. From free black communities to middle class white society, in small villages and on farms, they defied race and gender to do the right thing. Through their collective actions, tens of thousands of people found freedom and the nation eventually abolished the institution of slavery.

Narrated by Charlotte Blake Alston, a Philadelphia based African-American storyteller and recipient of Pennsylvania's Artist of the Year Award, the program uses character voices, images, documents and diaries create a vivid account of the years leading up to the Civil War. An original music score features spirituals arranged by Harry T. Burleigh, a turn-of-the-century composer whose grandfather was a former slave and conductor on the Underground Railroad.

A companion web site includes resources for teachers, an online travel guide, interview transcripts and images from the film. The program was supported, in part, by The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development; The Pennsylvania Humanities Council, The Federal-State Partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities; and The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to everyone who left thoughful comments.

The Underground Railroad is a great example of how ordinary people can work together to bring about positive change.

James Oliver Horton, an author and historian who teaches at George Washington University, said the movement was nothing short of astonishing. "When you look at the abolitionist movement and you look at people who are pressing to rid America of its most obvious contradiction -- human bondage in the land of freedom -- those people were some of the most patriotic people you could possibly imagine," he said. "They took their responsibilities as citizens seriously, and as far as blacks were concerned, they took their responsibilities as citizens seriously even when the Supreme Court said that they weren't citizens. They loved the country, and they wanted the country to be what it could be, and they realized that it would never be that if they did not step forward to risk everything to make America be what it said it was."

Regardless of which candidate you support for the office of President of the United States, do so with enthusiasm and the belief that your vote can make a difference.