Senator Chris Van Hollen paid tribute to former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman at a ceremony on the campus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
The Maryland Democrat told the historically black college that it was important to mark the incredible story.
He said hoped legislation in Washington will soon allow a statue of Tubman in the nation’s capital.
President Obama slated her image to replace that of President Andrew Jackson on the twenty-dollar bill.
Van Hollen stood in front of the Frederick Douglass Library named for another famous former slave from the Eastern Shore.
Douglass became a famed abolitionist, writer and diplomat.
Van Hollen was joined by UMES President Juliette Bell along with actress Eunice Lewis Seagraves who portrayed Tubman’s life as a slave in Dorchester County.
