Newburgh Free Library unveils Sojourner Truth statue honoring Hudson Valley abolitionist

Newburgh Free Library unveiled a bronze statue of Sojourner Truth on Thursday at its Main Library at 124 Grand Street, turning the downtown branch into the latest public stage for one of the Hudson Valley’s most enduring freedom stories.

The sculpture, titled Sojourner Truth: First Step to Freedom, was created by New Paltz-based artist Trina Greene and shows Truth in 1826 walking toward freedom with her daughter, Sophia, a small bundle of possessions in hand. The work is on loan from SUNY New Paltz and will remain on view at Newburgh Free Library from April through October before moving to its permanent home on the SUNY New Paltz campus.

The Newburgh stop is the third and final temporary installation in the exhibit’s tour. Before arriving in Orange County, the statue was shown at the Ulster County Office Building and Kingston City Hall, bringing Truth’s story through some of the same county sites tied to her life and legacy. The library said it hosted the work in part because a previous Harriet Tubman installation drew a strong response from the community, making the branch a natural place to present another Black freedom narrative in public view.

The unveiling drew speeches, performances and a special UJIMA presentation, along with a crowd that included Rep. Pat Ryan and Barbara Allen, a sixth-generation descendant of Sojourner Truth who traveled for the event. The ceremony gave Newburgh a visible public-memory moment centered not only on a historic figure, but also on the question of which names and stories are elevated in local civic space.

Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in Ulster County and spent her childhood enslaved there before becoming an abolitionist, women’s-rights advocate and public speaker. In 1828, she successfully sued to free her son Peter from enslavement, a case widely described as the first time a Black woman won such a lawsuit in the United States. Her arrival in Newburgh ties Orange County’s present-day cultural landscape to a wider Hudson Valley effort to mark Truth where she lived, struggled and made history, from county observances of Sojourner Truth Day to the historical marker recognizing her courthouse victory.