In September, eight Black women walked 116 miles to retrace Harriet Tubman’s path on the Underground Railroad from Cambridge, Maryland to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. In a year of deep social unrest and racial injustice, the women were inspired to walk “to encourage healing during these turbulent times”.
We Walk With Harriet (art by Joy Wertz Houp) 
(Monica Williams Samuel, Joann Yelverton, Diane Wilson, Pauline Heard-Dunn, Jennifer Bailey, Kim Smith, Tracy Clark, and Linda Harris)
In an interview with the Washington Post, the eight women (Jennifer Bailey, Tracy Clark, Linda Harris, Pauline Heard-Dunn, Monica Williams Samuel, Kim Smith, Diane WIlson, and Joann Yelverton) recount how they were strangers before they departed on their 100+ mile journey of discovery. The D.C.-area women (ages 38-65) connected through the groups GirlTrek and Outdoor Afro and trained for long-distance endurance walking before beginning their trek on September 5.
The women shared updates from their six-day hike on their Facebook group, We Walk With Harriet, and recounted the historical sites they passed and the kind strangers who brought them lunches (and at least one knee brace), and who cheered them along the way, culminating in nearly 200 supporters lining the street in Kennett Square, PA, at the end of their journey. Their walk garnered significant local media attention, which helped them amass more than 9,000 Facebook followers and raise nearly $6,000 for the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge, MA.
In the weeks they spent training and walking together, the women bonded over a sense of purpose and a way to connect with their ancestors. They learned more about Harriet Tubman’s journey while trying to decipher the exact path of her Underground Railroad with guidance from historians who helped map the route they ultimately took. The women averaged 20 miles of walking a day and were accompanied for parts of their journey by others inspired to follow in Harriet’s steps and meet the We Walk With Harriet travelers.
“There are very few words to describe this experience. It was this spiritually driven walk with Harriet for freedom. One of the most powerful aspects is this ripple effect that we’ve created, with people showing up and trying to find us.”
Kim Smith (to the Washington Post)
What is especially inspiring about these women is not just the path they took, but the fact that their journey is far from over. A month after they finished the 116 miles, they met again to journey from Kennett Square to Philadelphia to visit the House of William and Letitia Still, abolitionists and conductors on the Underground Railroad. In 2021 they will make a 54-mile trek from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, to mark the 56th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday protest march and in honor of the late Representative and activist John Lewis.
We Walk With Harriet’s next fundraising goal is to raise money to establish Camp Harriet, a retreat program for kids and adults to promote walking and the legacy of Harriet Tubman. Follow We Walk With Harriet on Facebook to keep up-to-date with their planned walks and exploration of Harriet’s history, and donate to their GoFundMe campaign to support the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge and Camp Harriet.