BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — People taking in a nice fall day Wednesday evening at the Broderick Park are giving their stamp of approval to the proposed change to “Freedom Park.”
“I think it’s a great idea due to the fact that we had a great soldier Harriet Tubman to come and cross Canada to bring the slaves across these waters to be Free from the United States,” says Cynthia Smith, a Buffalo resident.
The reason behind it?
The President of the Friends of Broderick Park George Johnson tells 7 News reporter Yoselin Person the park marks the final stop of the Underground Railroad.
He says that those enslaved who had escaped from southern states passed through on their way to freedom.
“And they chose to cross this river anyway that they could as oppose to going back to slavery, and so we only find it fitting that this park has to be named Freedom Park,” Johnson says.
Johnson says the Broderick family fully supports the push for the new name.
“We’re also going to make sure we recognize the Broderick family and what Broderick did,” he says.
Johnson even says calling it “Freedom Park” echoes the reason why many New Americans, refugees come to Western New York for a better life, and others agree.
“I come to this park, and I watch the way from my car where different nationalities come and looking at their happiness and gladness,” says Smith.
A spokesperson from the City of Buffalo says in a statement:
“The city is supportive of the community’s wishes.”
“Knowing that our ancestors passed across the water to get to freedom it has a meaning that’s relevant to the name now,” says Omar Reese, a Buffalo resident.
Buffalo Common Council will be scheduling a public hearing in the coming days that way from what Friends of Broderick Park say the process of the name change will go forward.
