Boatman hopes stone brings wake of healing

As the Harriet Tubman biopic makes waves at theaters nationwide, Don Victor Mooney hopes the stone he retrieved from Goree Island, Senegal, brings a wake of healing.

Goree Island was one of many slave ports on the coast of West Africa, where Africans were put on ships and sent to the Americas as slaves.

Mooney, of Queens, N.Y., is president of HR 1242 Resilience Project. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat from Africa, Mooney continued up the Eastern Seaboard. Along this corridor, frequented by freedom-seeking slaves on the Underground Railroad, Mooney weaved in and out of Maryland's Eastern Shore marshes to Delaware creeks and canals before crossing the Delaware Bay to Cape May, N.J., and eventually arriving at the Brooklyn Bridge.

Goree dedicated the stone to Harriet Tubman at her gravesite in Auburn, N.Y., in commemoration of 400 years of African-American history under the theme: 400 Years, Resilience, Faith, Healing and Partnership. The stone is being gifted to the State of New York. 

For more information, go to www.HR1242resilience.com and www.goreechallenge.com.