Pauline Copes Johnson, who is the great-great-great-grandniece of Harriet Tubman, has died at age 98. The Harriet Tubman A.M.E. Zion Church, located in Auburn, New York, announced Johnson’s death on Dec. 8.
Pauline Copes Johnson discovered she was related to Harriet Tubman when she was 25
Johnson, a member of the Harriet Tubman A.M.E. Zion Church, lived in the town where Tubman stayed after escaping slavery in Maryland, according to The Grio. In a 2013 interview with The Grio, Johnson said that she was 25 when she learned that she was related to Tubman. According to Johnson, her family didn’t tell her about her relationship with Tubman because they feared retaliation from former slaveholders.
“It was a secret because the confederates wanted her, and although she was dead, they would come after the relatives,” Copes Johnson said in an interview with theGrio. “They thought I’d give it away because I was very young then.”
Tubman purchased a home in Auburn after she arrived in the city in the 1850s. The freedom fighter freed her family and over 70 other people from slavery.
Pauline Copes Johnson led several projects honoring Harriet Tubman
After learning about her relationship to Harriet Tubman, Johnson initiated several projects to honor the freedom fighter. Traveling around the country, Johnson educated students about Tubman. She also aimed to designate Tubman as the face of the $20 bill. Additionally, Johnson served as a docent at Tubman’s Auburn home.
Johnson told The Grio that she’s happy to continue Tubman’s legacy: “I don’t think it was a terrible thing to live up to her legacy. I think that was meant for us to do,” she said. “I don’t think they do enough [in schools]. I think Black history should be celebrated every day of the year, every single day because on my part I’m trying to establish that. Otherwise I think people should know about ancestors, where they come, how they were treated.”