Whereas American abolitionist John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut;

Whereas John Brown and his family rented a house in Akron, Ohio, between 1844 and 1854;

Whereas John Brown worked in Akron in business with Colonel Simon Perkins, the son of Akron's founder, on a wool farm;

Whereas John Brown harbored escaped slaves in his Akron home on their journey north on the Underground Railroad;

Whereas John Brown used his wool warehouse in Springfield, Massachusetts, as a station for the Underground Railroad;

Whereas John Brown taught escaped slaves and freed men farming;

Whereas John Brown used his wool business to travel and conduct antislavery activity;

Whereas, in response to the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, John Brown organized a group called the League of Gileadites in Springfield, which he encouraged African Americans to train in arms to fight against the Fugitive Slave Law;

Whereas, in 1855, John Brown traveled with his sons to Kansas to assist antislavery forces fighting to ensure the Kansas territory would become a free-State; and

Whereas, from October 16 to 18, 1859, John Brown initiated a slave revolt and captured the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia: Now, therefore, be it