; Whereas, in 1847, soon after Missouri outlawed all education for both freed and enslaved Black Missourians, the school was dismantled by the police; Whereas, in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Meachums’ home was a waypoint on the Underground Railroad, where they helped countless enslaved people escape to Illinois, where slavery was outlawed; Whereas, after John’s death in February 1854, Mary Meachum continued their tireless abolitionist work educating and freeing enslaved people; Whereas, on the night of May 21, 1855, a small group of enslaved people were captured by enslavers and law enforcement, giving up Mary Meachum’s name as the arranger of the escape attempt and listing her home as the rendezvous point where they began their journey; Whereas Mary Meachum was arrested and charged with slave theft under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850; Whereas, following a long series of heroic, selfless, and historic fights for the freedom and education of enslaved people, Mary Meachum passed away in St. Louis in 1869; and Whereas, in 2001, the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing was dedicated as part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, a congressionally mandated program of the National Park Service that honors, preserves, and promotes the history of resistance to enslavement through escape and flight: Now, therefore, be it