#FreedomWalk2026 Begins!

and continues today...

Our walk from Maryland to Canada began on Monday, May 4. After walking from the Sandy Spring Friends Meeting to the Sandy Spring Slave Museum, we met in a large room that was packed with around 100 local high school students and community members to share the history and vision behind #FreedomWalk2026. We then spent time at the museum, taking in the exhibits and talking to people about this pilgrimage.

A couple hours later, Tony stood in front of the statue moments before we began to walk. He was wearing a Star Wars t-shirt and reminded us that today has become Star Wars Day: “May the Fourth be with you.” He noted that our history wasn’t a long time ago, and it wasn’t in a galaxy far, far away. It’s all here, right now, waiting for us to repair and heal. The rebel alliance is working against the forces of darkness to bring light to the world. “So, welcome rebels!”

He concluded his comments with, “So much planning went into today and the only thing I wasn’t ready for was this moment.” Then his tears began to flow.

“Let’s walk!”

We began with 25-30 walkers, many intending to walk just a mile or a few miles. After about six miles, just four of us remained. Jason, who flew in this morning from Texas to join us on the only day that worked for him and then flew back home at the end of the day, Vince, who lives near Sandy Spring, where we’ve been staying, and Tony and me. At about the 7-mile mark, we experienced our first angry driver who screamed “Get off the f**king road! We considered it an opportunity to practice patience and compassion. Our first day ended, appropriately enough, on Harriet Tubman Lane in Simpsonville, MD.

I’ll be utilizing the Relive App to record the route of our daily walks. These will show viewers where we walked and include photos to highlight certain places and people we encounter along the way. Each video is under 2 minutes in length. To watch our first day’s walk, CLICK HERE.

On our 2^nd day, we were driven to where we stopped walking yesterday. There is a cave above the road. Tony heard stories about Freedom Seekers crawling into this cave beneath major spider webs that covered much of the entrance. The white people trying to find them, even if they had barking dogs sniffing at the entry, saw the webs and knew that no one could be in there, so left without finding those inside. I found references to this story online, including a young man who read about it in a book in his high school library.

One of the truly magic aspects to this pilgrimage is encountering people, places, and organizations along the way that we were not aware of. Freetown Farm was just such a place. Jonathan, the director, happened to see us as we stopped to read the signs at the entry. He gave us a tour of the whole amazing facility and the work they do to farm sustainably and work especially with children to teach them these skills.

He then told us about the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center, just up the street, that was once the only school where black students could learn and graduate. Opened in 1949, it closed in 1965 when Athelton High School opened and was integrated as a result of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.

The Cultural Center, led by Howard County Recreation & Parks, opened in 2022. Corey, the director, gave us a tour of this building. And he shared the history of the school and the transformation into its current incarnation. His grandparents graduated here. They raised $10 million for the renovation and creation of the center with an amazing array of historical artifacts. These two stops added three hours to our planned walking time. Flexibility is clearly key!

You can watch our second day’s walk HERE.

Each day brings new surprises, new learnings, and renewed commitment to shining a light on ALL our history, the good and the terrible and shameful. More to come…