One of the greatest American abolitionists deserves more than just a civic driveway, but for now this is the only L.A. County street that honors Harriet Tubman (c. 1822-1913). Born Araminta Ross on a Maryland plantation, Tubman was kept as a slave until she escaped to Philadelphia in 1849, five years after she married a free black man named John Tubman and rechristened herself “Harriet”. Although she did not create the network of escape routes known as the Underground Railroad, she remains its most famous “conductor”, having led around 70 people to their freedom. After serving as a spy and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War, Tubman moved to Auburn, NY and took up the cause of women’s suffrage. Harriet Tubman Way was dedicated in March 1993 thanks to the efforts of civil rights activist Caffie M. Greene (1919-2010), founder of Concerned Black Women of Lynwood.
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