Indiana Freedom Trails Symposium

In partnership with Indiana Freedom Trails, Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program hosts a one-day symposium focused on strengthening efforts to identify and preserve Indiana’s Underground Railroad history and heritage.

The Underground Railroad—a network created in the late eighteenth century to aid freedom seekers escaping enslavement—brought together people of all races, ordinary and extraordinary, united in a common cause. Indiana Freedom Trails, Inc. was founded in 1998 with a mission to locate, identify, verify, protect, preserve, and promote Indiana Underground Railroad sites and routes as part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The group is dedicated to research, education, interpretation, and reverence of Underground Railroad heritage, recognizing the increasing popularity and interest in this important aspect of American history.

The symposium on October 18 aims to give attendees the opportunity to network with other individuals, groups, and organizations preserving Underground Railroad heritage in Indiana, raise awareness of national and regional resources, re-establish sustainable operational groundwork for Indiana Freedom Trails, and identify stakeholders for future programming.

Speakers include Dona Stokes-Lucas of Indiana Freedom Trails, Inc.; Eunice Trotter, director of Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program; Barry Jurgensen, Midwest Regional Manager of National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, National Park Service; Dr. Cheryl LaRoche, archaeologist, historian, and author of Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance, and Connie Haas Zuber, retired executive director of Fort Wayne’s ARCH, Inc.

Tickets cost $25 for both the general public and Indiana Landmarks members. Box lunch is included with admission.

Host or Publisher Indiana Landmarks