Vine Street home will be honored as historic site

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit to visit campus for event

In 1858, Wilson Bruce Evans and Henry Evans helped bring runaway slave John Price from Wellington to Canada. In 1998, the Evans' home is bringing Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt from Washington to Oberlin.

Babbitt will visit Oberlin on Tuesday to participate in a ceremony observing the designation of the Evans' home as a National Historic Landmark.

OHIO was instrumental in the decision to confer landmark status on the Evans home.

The Evans home, located at 33 East Vine Street, was built in 1854-1856 by the Evans brothers. The brothers, freeborn African Americans, were leading abolitionsists. Both participated in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue of 1858. The daring rescue earned national attention for Oberlin and landed the rescuers in jail. The Evans brothers published a newspaper while in prison, using a press constructed from bits and pieces.

The home is still in the hands of the Evans family. Although it remains closed to the public, Babbitt will be given a private tour. Babbitt will also deliver a speech on the importance of the Evans brothers. The public event is part of a national observance of the Underground Railroad.

Word of Babbitt's visit traveled fast.

Vice-President of College Relations Al Moran said, "When the President heard, he asked Babbitt if he'd have a meeting with students on race."

The conversation is one of many cabinet officials will be having with students around the country as part of the President's Initiative on Race.

"They want a small environment just to chat with students," Moran said. "Babbitt wants to meet with students and not open it up."

Babbitt will sit on a panel Tuesday afternoon with College President Nancy Dye, Professor of Religion A.G. Miller, senior Melody R. Waller and sophomore Salina Kirk. The students were selected through the Honest Conversations program. The audience will consist of students enrolled in Professor of African American Studies Adrienne Lash-Jones's course "African-American History Since 1865" and Oberlin High School students. The discussion will be broadcast on local cable.

"I thought it would be a good opportunity for them to interact with a high government official," Jones said.

Some students are busy planning a different sort of interaction with Babbitt.

"We're not protesting him, but we may be birddogging him," said Ohio Public Interest Research Group (OhioPIRG) Campus Organizer Eileen Brancale. Brancale said Babbitt is against an Endangered Species Act supported by OhioPIRG.

"We haven't made plans yet," Brancale said. "We'll be there."