Philadelphia Man Completes 400-Mile Walk to Freedom
posted by Jacqueline Leibman | September 20, 2022 | In NewsAccording to NBC News, on September 10, Kenneth Johnston of West Philadelphia completed his over 400-mile walk along the Underground Railroad, which he named the “Walk to Freedom.”
Johnston, an African American man, began his journey back in July in honor of “Harriet Tubman and her work of freeing enslaved Black people.” His trek took him across New York and into Canada.
The first stop on his journey was the Harriet Tubman Memorial in Harlem, New York. He then walked through the Hudson River Valley, across central New York, and completed his journey at the British Methodist Episcopal Church. The church is significant, as it was the same church in Ontario, Canada that Harriet Tubman attended.
Of his experience, Johnston told NBC News, “I was amazed. It was an incredible journey walking across New York state, particularly from Albany to Buffalo … visiting many of the known Underground Railroad communities.”
During his living history experience, Johnston said that “he felt a spiritual connection in certain places he stopped” such as the African burial ground in Kinderhook, New York, where more than 500 Black bodies were buried.
Johnston also visited sites such as the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center, and the Cataract House, a “hotel that employed many of the enslaved people as waiters.”
This was Johnston’s second Walk to Freedom. In December 2019, Johnston walked 140 miles from the shores of the Choptank River in Maryland to Philadelphia, replicating the experience of Tubman as she endeavored to rescue her brothers in 1854.
Photo courtesy of Craig James
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.