Jerry Gaines, executive director of the
National Underground Railroad Museum in Maysville, talks with minority students from the
UK Chandler Medical Center during a recent tour.
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LEXINGTON, KY (Aug. 16, 1999) -- Minority
students at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical recently toured Underground
Railroad sites in Maysville and Augusta, Ky., and Ripley, Ohio. The field trip was part
of the 1999 Pre-entry Program -- a weeklong series of events allowing incoming minority
students in the colleges of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, allied health professions and
nursing to prepare for success in their graduate health career programs.
"The program gives students a chance to meet some of their future colleagues and
classmates and to participate in some activities before classes begin," said John
Wiggs, student development director in the Medical Center Office of Minority Affairs.
"The tour was added this year and was a real successful and meaningful experience for
the students."
The tour was led by Jerry Gaines, executive director of the National Underground
Railroad Museum based in Maysville, which was one of the central routes of escape that
fugitive slaves followed while trying to make their way across the Ohio River to freedom.
The Paxton Inn in Washington -- a village now incorporated by Maysville -- and the
historic Phillip’s Folly in downtown Maysville, were two sites on the escape route
that the group toured.
As students stood in underground quarters used as a hiding place for former slaves,
Gaines called on the students to remember their ancestors' struggles as they embark on
their medical education.
"Think of those who have come before you and the obstacles they have overcome and
you will find strength to achieve your goals as future doctors, nurses, researchers and as
healers," Gaines said.
Across the river in Ohio, the group traveled to the Rankin House, which sits high on a
hill overlooking the area. The home, now a state memorial and national historic landmark,
was the work of the Rev. John Rankin and Ohio’s contribution to the antislavery
movement. Students retraced the route of escaping slaves by climbing the "stairway to
liberty," a replica of the steps slaves used to reach the Rankin home and safety.
"It was a trip we found to be very beneficial and definitely will plan to take
students on again," said Anna Allen Edwards, director of Medical Center Minority
Affairs. "A student told me after holding shackles once used for bondage, that his
struggles in graduate school didn’t seem so insurmountable anymore."
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