Oscar-Nominated Director Launches National Signature Campaign for Harriet Tubman to Receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Los Angeles, CA, June 18, 2015 --(PR.com)-- A national signature campaign to request that Harriet Tubman be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom was launched today by Oscar®-nominated director Dianne Houston (“Tuesday Morning Ride”). The campaign aims to collect 100,000 signatures before July 9, 2015. The petition requests that Ms. Tubman be recognized for her “tireless efforts and singular success in single-handedly liberating over a thousand African Americans held in slavery; and for her guidance in the engineering of the Underground Railroad, which was instrumental in securing the freedom of thousands more African American slaves; and for her personal sacrifices made to secure the total abolition of slavery in the United States.”

“I have begun a petition on the White House petitions site to ask that Harriet Tubman, the personification of the love and importance of freedom, be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Barack Obama,” says Houston, whose latest film, RUNAWAY ISLAND, premiered at the American Black Film Festival in New York City.

Almost 200 signatures have been obtained so far. The petition can be found on the White House website at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/posthumously-award-harriet-tubman-presidential-medal-freedom.

Houston is set to make a film about the noted abolitionist and humanitarian. The idea for the film began with Houston’s love of “the amazing work of this spectacular woman, Harriet Tubman,” or as she later became, Harriet Tubman Davis.