In the U.S. state of New Jersey, a monument honoring abolitionist hero Harriet Tubman has been unveiled in Newark, replacing a statue of Christopher Columbus that was removed in 2020 as racial justice protests erupted nationwide in response to the police murder of George Floyd. Washington Park has been renamed “Harriet Tubman Square.” 

Newark, March 11 (RHC)-- In the U.S. state of New Jersey, a monument honoring abolitionist hero Harriet Tubman has been unveiled in Newark, replacing a statue of Christopher Columbus that was removed in 2020 as racial justice protests erupted nationwide in response to the police murder of George Floyd. Washington Park has been renamed “Harriet Tubman Square.” 

Among the guests at ceremony were rapper Queen Latifah, who is from Newark, and Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece Michele Jones Galvin.  Jone Galvin said: “Many call her an American heroine.  In our family, we simply refer to her as 'Aunt Harriet.'  She is Harriet Tubman, greatest conductor of the Underground Railroad.  Aunt Harriet said: 'I reasoned this out in my mind.  There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death.  If I could not have one, I would have the other.  And no man should take me alive.'”