'Walking Artist' To End 265-Mile Underground Railroad Trek In NYC

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Back in 2019, "walking artist" Ken Johnston set off on what he described as a low-key journey: tracing a 142-mile path of the Underground Railroad between Maryland and Philadelphia on foot.

Soon, inspired to experience more of the history, Johnston's final destination grew another 123 miles away — to Harlem. Then, when the coronavirus hit, it grew again, this time by a nearly year-long pause.

But this Sunday, 265 miles and 469 days later, Johnston's "Walk to Freedom" will finally come to an end.

"This was supposed to be a low-key walk and it just grew around me. Something told me to just keep going," Johnston told Patch. "We're ready to finish this walk."

Johnston made it to New York last weekend, when he crossed what was once a ferry route used by freedom seekers between Perth Amboy, N.J. and Staten Island with the help of a police boat.

On Saturday, he will pick up where he left off on the North Shore of the island and cross into Brooklyn, where he will walk from the Brooklyn Bridge, to Weeksville Heritage Center in Crown Heights and then to the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan.

On Sunday, he'll head uptown to the site of Seneca Village, the former 19th-century African-American settlement in Central Park, and end his journey in Harlem at the Harriet Tubman Memorial.

Putting The "Movement Back in Civil Rights Movement"

The walk, which Johnston completes in segments on the weekends, is far from his first go-around at tracing history with his footsteps.

Johnston started walking long distances back in 2017, when he says working a regular 9 to 5 desk job made him crave a sort of "deeper movement."

"I just felt my life slipping from me," Johnston said. "Instead of my eyes looking two or three feet in front of me to look at a computer screen, [I wanted] to look 200 yards ahead of me at the tree tops, or things on the ground that are 10 feet away."

His walks — first in his then-home state of Massachusetts and later in Puerto Rico and Ireland — soon became a way to honor the history of the grounds beneath him. In America, he most recently walked 400 miles from Alabama to Tennessee to commemorate the 50th year since Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

"I’m trying to put movement back in Civil Rights Movement," he said. "The walks have turned into sort of a performance piece...It's making communities aware that this trail, or this part of the walk I’m covering, is something that’s part of their history."

This time, Johnston hopes walking the path of freedom seekers from 170 years ago can be a symbol of how far we've come, and how far we still have to go.

"Things have changed tremendously, yet there is still a struggle for freedom," Johnston said. "This is to bring people together to hopefully remember the history."

A Path Walked Before

Johnston's "Walk to Freedom" began as a replication of the path Harriet Tubman walked in 1854 to rescue her three brothers from a plantation in Poplar Neck, Md.

When she arrived, there were nine people waiting to be rescued, Johnston said. She was able to lead all nine to freedom in Philadelphia in just four days.

For Johnston, the trip from Maryland to Philadelphia, where he now lives, took several weekends stretched between the end of 2019 and start of 2020, including several stops at historically-significant landmarks along the way.

It was then he decided he wouldn't stop there.

"The spirit of the walk, the story, the history, all of it blew up around me," he said. "I got to the end and I wanted to just keep going."

Johnston worked with historian Debbie Anne Page to plan out a new leg of the journey from Philadelphia to New York based on how freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad would travel through New Jersey, still a slave state until 1865, at the time.

The New York section is based on paths they would take through Brooklyn with the help of abolitionist networks, and to avoid slave-catchers in Manhattan, Johnston said.

His plans to stop in Weeksville and at Plymouth Church, known as the "Grand Central Depot" of the Underground Railroad, are to pay homage to those safe havens in the borough.

The 15 to 20 mile stretches Johnston walks in a day are another ode to the historical accuracy, he said.

"My walks are also about the sensory experience of actually walking the many miles and days that Freedom Seekers had to travel to reach freedom," Johnston said. "Many of the communities that sponsored fugitive slaves...were strategically chosen based on their proximity of about 12 to 15 miles, a distance easily made by horse and carriage, or an 8 to 10 hour night walk if no other means of transportation was available."

One Person At A Time

Though sometimes a solitary activity, Johnston says his walks are really a community effort.

For this walk, Johnston has been joined by family members, including most often his brother Keir Johnston and Keir's dog Xela, who they affectionately nicknamed "Xela the Walking Dog to Freedom."

Neighbors from each of the towns or cities he walks through will also often join Johnston for a stretch of the walk.

"It's walking and engaging with communities one individual or one small group at a time," he said.

This weekend will be no different. Johnston said those who are interested can join him for any part of the walk through New York City by checking his website, which he updates with approximate schedules.

Or, keep a look out for Johnston's blue-and-white "Underground Railroad Philadelphia to Harlem" sign, which he fastens to his backpack as he walks.

"Come walk a couple of blocks with us," Johnston said. "We’re ready to finish this walk and say, 'Hey, that was wonderful, I can’t wait to do it again."