Following the Underground Railroad: #FreedomWalk2026
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
by James Voorhees
Harriet Tubman leans forward, leading a child to freedom. The statue, Journey to Freedom, stands on a trailer behind a red truck. In front of it, on a beautiful May day, Tony Cohen, co-founder of MoCoLMP, his beard more salt than pepper, dressed in t-shirt and jeans, wearing a brown trilby and black-rimmed glasses, speaks into the mike: “We are going to start walking.” #FreedomWalk2026 begins.
The walk is taking Tony and his fellow walkers through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Albany, and Rochester. They will cross into Canada at Niagara Falls on July 1 and end the walk in Toronto on July 4. The statue of Harriet Tubman will accompany them all the way.
More than a year before, in the winter of 2025, Tony considered the state of the country. With its history under attack as it approached the sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, he was not content to sit around and watch. He had to do something. He decided to do what he had first done 30 years before: He would follow a route of the Underground Railroad to Canada.
The plan came together over the following year. After Tony addressed Coming to The Table’s National Gathering in June, they offered to support the walk. CTTT is a national organization dedicated to racial reconciliation. The people and resources provided by CTTT’s local affiliates are at the center of the walk and are key to its success.
The Journey to Freedom statue of Harriet Tubman was created by Wesley Wofford in 2019. Wofford is an activist sculptor who tries to “bring to light forgotten stories from our shared history.” This was his first monumental sculpture. It stood at Tony Cohen’s Button Farm Living History Center over the summer of 2023. When Tony found that it might be available for #FreedomWalk2026, he jumped at the chance to include it. The Woffords readily agreed.
By the end of 2025 the basics of the walk were set. A core team from CTTT had been formed to organize the walk and an outline of the key components were set. Tony and the walk’s companions would walk six or seven days each week, averaging 12 miles a day. Part of the journey would be travelled by other means that the Freedom Seekers had used, like horse and buggy or train. The walk would be organized around base stations that the walkers could go to each night. Communities along the way could organize activation days on weekends for gatherings, lectures, or service projects.
There were many details yet to be worked out, but the main gap going into 2026 was financing. Paul Tukey, a founder of the Potomac Trust, volunteered to help with this. Tall, blond, tousle-haired and energetic, Paul had helped find funds for Montgomery History and the Scotland community in Potomac.
He approached the task of funding #FreedomWalk2026 with characteristic energy and fervor, making calls almost daily. He had a fundraising plan by the end of February. By the end of March, he had created a logo for the walk and scheduled numerous events for the statue, due to arrive from North Carolina in mid-April, He also found a growing list of donors and created the idea of having people pledge contributions for the 750 miles walked. So far, the list of contributors includes AARP, Heritage Montgomery, the Kingdom Fellowship AME Church, Potomac Trust, Ruppert Landscape, and Shulman-Rogers.
MoCoLMP has supported #FreedomWalk2026 from the beginning. Tony asked us to help at the pre-walk events with the statue in April. We readily agreed to set up and staff a table at each to provide information about the walk.
Tony started #FreedomWalk2026 at the Sandy Spring Slave Museum on May 4. Appropriately, given their history as opponents of slavery, Quakers have been generous in providing the walk with accommodations, food, and whatever else is needed.
Starting the walk in Sandy Spring. Photos by Jim Voorhees
As I write this, #FreedomWalk2026 will soon move to New York City, where it will be the focus of a Memorial Day celebration at the Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem. From there it will go to upstate New York, crossing over to Niagara Falls, passing through Aurora, home of Harriet Tubman during the last decades of her life, and Rochester, where Frederick Douglass lived for a time. Washington Revels’ Jubilee Voices will sing in Niagara Falls the day #FreedomWalk2026 crosses into Canada.
Not everything has been set. There is much yet to be done, and there is still time to contribute. You can sign up to be a Companion Walker to join Tony on part of the walk. #FreedomWalk2026 also has a wish list; not all needs have been fulfilled.
#FreedomWalk2026 is about connecting with our history and understanding it. That history is not a fairy tale. It is a story of real people with all their faults, foibles, and virtues. Parts of the tale still hold us captive and will continue to enchain us if we bury the story or sprinkle it with glitter. We will be free of them only if we look at our history clearly. In that respect, Tony Cohen’s #FreedomWalk2026 is a journey to freedom.
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