>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made on May 4th in Montgomery County, Maryland.

That was the site of the first steps of Freedom Walk 2026.

Freedom Walk is a 750 mile pilgrimage retracing underground railroad routes, followed by Americans who were trying to flee slavery in the 1800s.

Now the walk is stopping in communities along the journey, which will eventually end in Toronto on July 4th.

This week, Freedom Walk is coming through Rochester on Saturday, Memorial A.M.E.

Zion Church will host a Freedom Walk event.

There are other events happening that we're going to be telling you about.

There's a nine foot tall bronze sculpture of Harriet Tubman that's on display, so nothing can quite capture.

Of course, the urgency and the fear of the Underground Railroad when it happened.

But Freedom Walk aims to shine a light on the scope and the scale of the journey, and to bring us back to our history there.

And we're going to talk about it with our guests, including the founder, historian and founder of Freedom Walk 2026, Anthony Cohen.

Welcome.

Thank you for being here.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> And next to Anthony is Judy Wellman, executive director of the 1860 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum.

Thank you for being here.

>> Oh, thank you for having us.

>> Across the table.

Norm Strothers is a tour guide for Akwaaba The Heritage Associates.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you and Christine Ridarsky historian for Rochester in Monroe County.

Great to have you.

Thank you for being here.

>> Thank you.

Evan.

>> So when did you first hear about this?

Christine Ridarsky.

Because this sounds like the kind of thing that if somebody hadn't created, you might have created.

This is a great idea.

>> Well, I have to credit Judy Wellman from the 1816 Farmington Meeting House Museum for bringing this to my attention initially and allowing us to get involved here.

We're delighted to be able to host here in Rochester.

>> And this has been a journey that started May 4th.

And I'm going to ask the guy who created this here, Anthony Cohen.

Well, first of all, where is home for you?

>> Uh, home for me is Germantown, Maryland, which is about 20 miles outside of Washington, D.C.. Uh, and, um, it's in the heart of the Underground Railroad.

Um, kind of Genesis.

Uh, so, Marilyn, was a slave, slaveholding state.

Um, our border, northern border was the Mason-Dixon line.

Uh, the delineation between, um, bondage and freedom.

Freedom in the North.

And people came through our county, uh, started their journeys from our county and gained the first assistance on some lines of the Underground Railroad from the very place where I live.

So that's how I got interested in it 30 years ago.

>> And now culminating with July 4th and the 250th birthday of this country.

Yes, you're on a journey here.

Um, is this your first time in Rochester?

>> Uh, no.

It's not the first time.

Uh, was in 1996, uh, passing through on my first walk.

>> Okay, so how many times have you done Freedom Walk?

>> Uh, Freedom Walk, uh, is its own unique thing.

So this is the first time, but I followed the Underground Railroad, uh, in various places three times.

>> So the first time you did it.

I mean, you're a historian.

You you know a lot about it, but what are you learning the first time you do it?

>> So the first time in 1996, um, I was a budding historian.

Um, I had just completed a year before, um, my senior project, uh, as a returning student at American University.

And, um, I looked at the Underground Railroad.

Um, I was given the, uh, assignment of writing a paper on some part of African American history that had gone unrecorded.

And, um, so I chose the Underground Railroad and then had to figure out, you know, how do you document something?

Uh, which by its very nature was not supposed to have been known.

And, um, so, uh, six months of, uh, poring over old newspapers with runaway notices, court records of people who had been tried and convicted of, of aiding and abetting in escapes.

Um, uh, what were known as slave narratives, first hand accounts of the people who made the journey and kind of pulling all that together.

Um, and, uh, things like the, the roads, uh, the, the natural resources, um, rivers, streams, canals were mentioned in, in many of these accounts.

And so the infrastructure of the Underground Railroad began to reveal itself.

And then I just decided over a two month break to walk one of these routes and see where it would lead.

>> And you walk the whole thing.

>> I walked the whole, well, kind of so, so walking was my primary modus.

Um, but I also did, in addition to foot, I did boat rail.

Um, I was able to get um, a buggy ride for, for part of it when I went through Lancaster.

>> Okay.

But there's no like Hertz rental cars for a section.

>> There's no Hertz rental cars.

But, but here's the thing.

Every schoolchild knows today that the Underground Railroad was neither underground nor railroad.

Um, that, you know, that's a metaphor.

Um, but actual railroads were used.

Sure.

Um, and so, uh, when I reached Philadelphia, I was speaking to some school kids about a man who arrived in Philadelphia in a crate.

Henry Box Brown shipped from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia.

And they were so wrapped in the story and asking me all the details, a lot of which I didn't know, because I'd never been in a crate.

Um, but then it gave me an idea.

And so I had friends help me construct a box.

I was put inside of it, smuggled on an Amtrak train, and sent from Philadelphia to New York to get a sense of what that journey would have, would have been like.

So, uh, that was my other mode of transportation crate.

>> And what was that like?

>> Um, it was horrifying and humbling.

Um, one of the things, um, this journey in the box is supposed to be two hours, but we missed the first train.

Um, and then we had to wait for another train.

So it ended up being a six hour journey.

Um, on the hottest day of the year thus far, it was 99 degrees when we reached New York City.

Um, the box was mislabeled and almost not taken off the train when it was on the platform, a vehicle pulled up and the fumes started filling the crate.

Um, it was just one shock after another.

But what I learned from it, um, two things that adrenaline was the chief fuel used to power the Underground Railroad.

And when I felt danger was at hand, um, I just went into stay quiet.

Don't move.

Kind of kind of survival mode.

Um, the other thing, um, I gained was a sense of the desperation, um, that these were people who.

Yes, wanted freedom.

Um, but more often than not, they were pushed onto the Underground Railroad and into that system because they were learning that at a moment's notice, they were going to be sold or separated from their family or, uh, some desperate thing was going to befall them.

Um, so it was a really, um, dark, um, passage, if you will, in addition to all the Kumbaya and everybody helping everybody else out that we think of it as today.

>> I deeply admire the fact that you were willing to do that.

And I think, um, obviously the circumstances are different.

The stakes are different.

>> Absolutely.

>> Um, and, but just to have even a few hours of experiencing what the desperation must have been like to endure something like that.

I don't know how you replicate learning or teaching that.

>> Um, well, um, uh, at the time that I did that, um, I don't think there was really a name for what I did.

Um, in the ensuing years, um, I began to be described as an experiential or experimental historian, and now it's actually a thing.

And so I kind of chuckle at the, you know, looking back 30 years, because that wasn't my intent.

Um, but that space that I've moved into and actually enjoy being in and also seeing other people, uh, being be in that space as well.

>> I mean, to that point, we got an email this morning from a listener named Alex after we teased this program and he said, I love this idea.

Our brains are wired for anecdotes over hard data.

I couldn't tell you what I got on my U.S.

History Regents, but I can tell you exactly how a guy I once talked to waiting for a flight home said of his grandmother's quirkiness.

I mean, she grew up in slave days.

This is not ancient history and impacts almost everything in modern America.

I wish our education system were set up to allow for a long term class trip like this.

To follow the full path.

>> Alex, that is beautiful.

Thanks for sending that in.

And, um, very emotive.

Um, it isn't long ago and there's something I always say about Harriet Tubman, who most people seem to know.

Um, when she was born in 1822, Thomas Jefferson was still alive when she died in 1913.

Ronald Reagan had been born.

>> Amazing.

Yeah.

>> The past is hardly the past.

Um, and, um, you know, I think, uh, we experienced the past, uh, the best and most forcefully when we can find our little way into it, whether it's through our family history, the history of our communities, um, or even occasionally when you luck out, you know, a line or two in a, in an old crusty textbook.

>> Sure.

Yeah.

Uh, before we, we talk about what's happening in Rochester this week, let me just ask you, um, a couple other points here.

You chose to end this on July 4th in Canada.

Um, intentionally tell me about that.

>> Yeah.

So, um, Freedom Walk 2026 was in part a reboot of the, uh, of the first walk on the 30th anniversary.

Um, uh, commemoration of the nation.

Also the commemoration of Montgomery County, Maryland, which was established in 1776 or as old as the nation minus a few months.

And so I wanted to do something that would speak to the time that we're in now.

Um, and that was really inspired by just the past year.

Um, where, um, history has come under attack from the highest levels of government, um, um, signage, uh, is being taken down.

Um, um, some old tired narratives are being peddled.

Uh.

For example, um, uh, uh, everything from Southern lost cause of a narrative to even, um, who owns American history.

Um, we talk about the founding fathers, um, who I Revere in so many ways, but not in all ways.

Um, I refer to them as our founding framers.

They had this great idea of, um, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.

Um, but I also think they knew well that each generation would have to renew those, um, core values, would have to strive them themselves to achieve them.

And I think we've come to a point where, um, our country in so many ways is so divided.

Um and um, in, in many instances we've lost our ability to speak with one another.

Um, and I think that, um, that was one reason that I wanted to do, um, this Freedom Walk at this time, um, not only to follow the routes, the paths of history, whether it's Underground Railroad or all the other history we're discovering along the way.

Um, but also to ask Americans today, what do you see for the next 250 years?

Um, and, um, we asked people in these gatherings just to shout out words and, you know, it's stuff like, um, equity and, um, a level playing field and, um, equality for all and the end of poverty.

And, and I can just go on and on.

But, you know, we then say, um, to those people that the future is theirs, that, you know, this is square one.

We start from here.

And so that's what the walk was meant to do.

Um, inspire, provoke question.

Uh, probably question more than provide answers.

>> Well, I think the questions you're asking are more interesting than some of what I see on, um, various platforms that I think speak to the division that you're talking about.

So one example recently is, um, people are sharing polling on, uh, the political divide on the question of are you on the 250th birthday of the country?

Are you proud to be an American?

And there is a pretty big political divide and answers to those questions.

The reason I don't think that question is all that interesting is, um, I, you know, or do you love the country?

I think being honest about hard things is an act of love.

I think when my partner tells me what I need to improve, it's because she loves me and I do need to improve.

And I think hearing criticism is actually a gift.

Yeah, but not to many people.

And the very act of bringing up some of the painful parts of the country around the 250th birthday seems to offend some.

So, I mean, if you were on that survey and they said, well, you know, let's let's see what Anthony Cohen thinks.

Uh, are you proud to be an American on the 250th birthday?

How would you answer that question?

>> I would say I'm a proud to be, um, born in America and I'm proud to continue the path of becoming an American.

Um, I don't think being an American is something that just conveys with citizenship or, or birth in a certain place.

Um, it is, um, what the value of freedom is, by the way, 300 and what, 50 or so million people in our country, 350 million different versions, definitions for freedom.

Um, so, um, where, where are those points?

Uh, where, where, where our hearts and our spirits cross intersect with, with others.

Um, that is what I am proud to be part of.

Um, this ongoing experiment.

Now, sure.

Every experiment is supposed to come to an end, right?

You need the result, right?

And, um, and, um, a more just, uh, a nation is always the goal for me, but, um, you know, I think some people answer the other way because there has often throughout American history been a litmus test.

Um, who, who is an American who has a right to call themselves that, um, um, patriotism without questioning, uh, questioning is what gets us further questioning is what, um, uh, engages us in our, in our fellow with our fellow citizens.

So question, question, question, question.

That is what is going to, make America a great, a great nation.

>> Yeah.

I think criticism, self-reflection, those are acts of love.

Absolutely.

Anthony Cohen historian and founder of Freedom Walk 2026, uh, is with us in studio.

And, uh, let's talk about what's happening here now here.

So I'll start with you, Anthony.

Let's go around table and I want all of our guests to kind of talk about maybe what they're involved with or let people know, what do you want people to know that's actually happening in Rochester before you depart for your next stop?

>> Yes.

Well, first of all, um, uh, in case no one got the memo, Rochester, um, is a place where people know their history.

Uh, they're steeped in it.

It's all around.

Uh, it's commemorated on the landscape, which is something that I've noticed as I've been traveling.

Um, this 30, 30 years later from the first time, um, people have a greater reverence, uh, for the past and what it means in their own communities.

Um, in order for Freedom Walk to actually reach Rochester, we had to reach out to local, um, organizations and historical societies and just amazing knowledgeable people who you'll hear from, uh, if, if, if I ever turn over the mic and, um, and, um, that's the thing that's most striking American history is on the rise and it's on the rise here, uh, and doing very well in Rochester.

>> Well, Christine Ridarsky do you agree with that?

>> I like to think so.

You know, I, I personally always think there's more that we could be doing.

You know, there is there are so many stories here in Rochester.

I mean, you know, just around abolition and the fight for freedom and civil rights.

The we know the big names, right?

We know the Frederick Douglass and the Susan B Anthony's.

Um, we're getting to know people like Austin Stewart, who was here well before Douglass was.

Um, but there are so many more people.

And I think that an event like this and having Anthony come through with Freedom Walk can help bring attention to that so that we can continue to tell more stories.

>> So some of the events, Judy and, um, Judy and Norm are going to tell us a little bit about that.

Judy Wellman is the executive director of the 1860 16 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum, and for people who've never been there, by the way, tell people what the museum is now.

>> Well, it is a fabulous place.

And if you'd like to find it, drive by.

It's at 230 Sheldon Road in Farmington.

And we just did a huge exterior restoration of the roof and the clapboards and some of the windows.

We're working on a project to finish restoring that 1816 building, which is probably the single largest, um, pre Erie Canal building in Western New York.

And it was also the center for 25 different Quaker meetings all across Western New York, Canada and Michigan.

So people were constantly going back and forth across the border, which is one reason it became such an important underground railroad node and network.

And there are lots of stories about lots of wonderful people.

The Edmonson sisters, Austin Stewart, came there in 1815, and your very own Doug Curry, who does Blacks and Blues, is going to be a re-enactor for Austin Stewart tomorrow night.

We have a program coming up at 7:00.

Well, actually 2 to 5 tomorrow afternoon.

We'll have the meeting house open, including inside, which is not yet finished if you want to see it in its real state right now, this is the chance.

And then Farmington Friends meeting across the street is going to have from 5 to 7 a dinner, a light with Mark's Pizzeria is going to bring us some pizza.

We'll have salad.

We had people out picking strawberries yesterday for strawberry shortcake.

And then from 7 to 9, we're going to have a fabulous program, including Doug Curry there as Austin Stewart and Peter Grassi, who works for Lyons National Bank, has been growing a beard for several weeks so he can show up as General Gordon Granger.

And Tony is stopping at the Farmington Meeting House on Juneteenth, especially because General Granger is the one who announced Juneteenth with proclamation number three in Galveston, Texas.

75 7000 black troops.

And he grew up in Sodus and Phelps, which are near the Farmington Meeting House.

So we're welcoming General Gordon Granger home.

And Peter Grassi is going to say a few words as General Granger.

We're also featuring songs by William Wells Brown.

Some of you may know him.

He escaped from slavery in 1834 from Lexington, Kentucky, worked as a steamboat steward on the Great Lakes, helped a lot of people cross from Buffalo, but he lived in Farmington in the mid 1840s, where he worked as an anti-slavery lecturer, wrote his autobiography, which has a preface by one of the Farmington Quakers, and compiled a songbook.

So Farmington Friends Choir and all of us who are there are going to be singing some of William Wells Brown's abolitionist songs, including one called freemen awake to the tune of the My Country, Tis of Thee, and it's a play on the irony of declaring this country to be the land of the free by singing the songs that everyone knows the hymn, but by using different words to say yes.

Three, 3 million enslaved people are still part of this country and still claim that even though the dominant culture doesn't.

So I think it's just going to be a really thoughtful and exciting program.

And I was thinking about this, Evan and Christine and Norm, especially if you ask anybody, ask your audience three people from the 19th century that they remember that they think are important.

They're not going to come up with Roscoe Conkling.

They're going to come up with Susan B, Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, all of whom had roots in this area, all of whom were connected in some way or another with Quakers and all of whom Quakers had this idea that there's that of God and everyone.

And I think the voices of these people.

Thank you so much, Tony, for amplifying them.

Ask us all to think about that ideal of what it means to be an American.

We're all committed to this revolutionary war that created this country.

But the ideal was that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and we'd say women too, are created equal, and that we're endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

All of these people ask us to think about what that meant.

It's an ideal.

We never reach it.

We're always exploring it.

If we're doing our due diligence as civic, our civic responsibilities, um, they all ask us to think about what that meant in the past and what it means in the future for us right now.

Where do we want to go?

Who do, who do we count as having been endowed by everyone?

Um, so thank you all for doing all this well.

>> And Judy, maybe along those lines, Sidney watching on YouTube says, notice that to be truly free, it was necessary to go to Canada.

How ironic.

The land of the free wasn't really free.

That's from Sidney.

>> Oh, absolutely.

And there often you find newspaper articles in Rochester newspapers talking about how they went to Canada, to Queen Victoria's Dominion so they could be free and feel free.

It is certainly ironic, isn't it, because that's who we had just separated from in terms of the revolution.

>> Uh, so Norm Strothers, the floor is yours.

Tell us what some of the things that are happening this week.

>> Well, this week we've got, uh, an array of things that are going on that will be sharing some of the.

>> Tributes to the Freedom Walk and freedom in general.

Uh, we'll be going back and forth from Farmington and the Macedon area and back up to Rochester on Friday to, um, see, see and hear Tony once again speak, uh, his feelings on what this Freedom Walk means to him, what he has experienced.

And we also have some special guests who will be appearing on the 20th Saturday at Memorial AME Zion Church.

Um, the special guests are Sojourner truth.

We'll also have Harriet Jacobs.

We'll also have Harriet Tubman and Anna Murray Douglass.

They will be at the church and they will be speaking to the audience about their experiences in struggles for freedom.

>> Um, what do you hope that the public will will do to engage?

I mean, are you confident that people are going to find you?

>> They will find us.

All they have to do is follow the Harriet Tubman traveling statue, and they will easily find us at 549 Clarissa Street, the statue will be on display there in the parking lot, and that will be one way to get through the door is to see the statue and then come in and hear and see all of the other fine things that are going on in this historically significant church, black church in Rochester.

>> Yeah.

Can you tell us a little bit more about what you hope the public understands about the historical significance of the church?

>> Well, number one, it's the oldest black church in Rochester.

It will be celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2027.

Um, so a lot of history has taken place there.

Uh, some of the freedom, uh, the freedom fighters that have come through the church, either visiting and or as members are, um, of course, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman has made several appearances at the church to speak and also to attend service.

Um, we also have had, uh, some significant people who have fought in the community for the recognition of getting freedom, uh, in the foremost, of everyone's mind.

And it's still continuing.

Now.

J.W.

Thompson, who is the main contributor to the Frederick Douglass Monument that sits in the Frederick Douglass Mall at Highland Park.

Now, uh, the first black publicly displayed monument to be shown in America was right here in Rochester.

Um, and the, the person, the brainchild of this was J.W.

Thompson, who was a member of this church Memorial A.M.E.

Zion.

So things like that.

I'm hoping that people will come out, recognize and, and understand the significance and the importance of the struggle still goes on.

And we in the community are still getting out there to bring forth this struggle.

And, um, emphasizing freedom.

One other thing, uh, Memorial A.M.E.

Zion has some stained glass windows that tell a story of the freedom struggle and the fight continues.

Those stained glass windows, which are located in the sanctuary, will be on display.

And we have our church historian who will be giving some talks on those stained glass windows.

Austin Stewart, Austin Stewart was a leader at the Church of.

It was African Methodist at the time, but he was the one that wanted to start and, uh, had a lot to do with the Sabbath schools that were run for the African or people of color, uh, who could not go to school comfortably in the public system, things like that.

I'm hoping people will come observe and take away with them and pass it on.

>> Judy, did you have your hand up here?

>> Yes.

I wanted to add something to Norm's discussion.

Robin Knowles, the church historian.

She's also a member of the 1816 board, as is Doug Curry.

And the two two of the most important, exciting windows.

One is of Harriet Tubman and one is of Susan B Anthony.

And the money for those was raised by an amazing woman named Hester Jeffrey, who was a nationally known suffragist and a friend of Susan B Anthony, Susan B Anthony's last public speech was in that church a month before she died.

Hester Jeffrey gave a eulogy at Susan B Anthony's funeral and that that memorial stained glass window is the first public monument to Susan B. Anthony anywhere in the country, and it's in the Memorial AME Zion Church.

I'm so proud of that.

Your whole group and everything you have done and continue to do.

>> Fantastic.

Thank you.

So after we take this only break, I've got some feedback from the audience and we're going to talk a little bit more about experiential learning and everything that's happening this week with, uh, this remarkable Freedom Walk 2026 that is on its way to Toronto.

It started in Montgomery County, Maryland, on May 4th, July 4th.

Two months later, it will conclude on the 250th birthday of the country in Toronto, tracing one of the roots of the Underground Railroad coming through Rochester this week and will come right back with that on Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson on Friday.

No Connections.

Were honoring Juneteenth with special programing in the first hour.

I see you with Eddie Robinson someday.

Will we ever be free?

Juneteenth with Opal Lee.

And then the second hour special programing on the Freed People.

A story of Juneteenth that is coming your way on Friday.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Bob Johnson Auto Group.

Believing an informed public makes for a stronger community.

Proud supporter of Connections with Evan Dawson focused on the news, issues and trends that shape the lives of listeners in the Rochester and Finger Lakes regions.

Bob Johnson Auto Group.com.

>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson David writes on the Underground Railroad hiking near Ithaca, New York.

Some 30 years ago, a friend and I came across the remains of an old farmhouse in the woods and a note tacked to a tree, evidently put there by a local historian, about how that house and the tunnel we soon found there played an important role in the Underground Railroad that led us to searching out Harriet Tubman's home in Auburn, then across the border to Saint Catharines, Ontario, where the little church she attended at the end of the Underground Railroad was still active.

There's so much important history in your area, and it needs to be highlighted so that everyone knows it.

Um, when I'm struck by, I want to ask all of you a little bit about this here, because part of what David is describing there is this moment where he's on a hike.

Christine, and something happens and it leads him on this historical journey.

And, um, this is not anything against school or textbook learning, but that's another example of being on your feet, finding something and being really compelled by it.

Getting outside of a classroom.

How do we, you know, sort of balance?

Most of us are going to have to learn in classrooms.

That's the way it is.

But experiential learning can be really powerful.

What would you say about it?

>> You know, that's absolutely why I am so engaged with local history and I'm so passionate about it because, you know, I have I've seen young children who have, you know, told me at the start of something that they have no interest in history whatsoever until I, you know, take them somewhere and show them something and they can make a connection to their own lives.

You know, we talk about, you know, Main Street used to be Buffalo Street and there used to be wild animals roaming in the street.

Um, the Landmark Society used to do this wonderful program called Walk the Walk where, and in its early days, it was actually a walk where you would visit different sites in the community.

And there was a young girl I was mentoring at the time that I took to that, and she saw a performance by someone portraying Harriet Tubman.

Little girl had no interest of history until that.

And then she asked me to take her to the library to learn more about Harriet Tubman.

And I think it's these local Connections and people becoming of aware that their own community had these types of Connections.

It's the way I mean, we're hearing it in the comments.

We're already receiving, and that is why something like Tony's Freedom Walk is so important and why I'm so delighted to have this happening here in Rochester.

You know, I sent out a message to my colleagues in the library yesterday sharing information about this.

And several people wrote back to me and said, you know, thank you so much for sharing this information.

This is so important that we can have these experiences.

So, you know, I really hope that people will come out either to Farmington tomorrow or to Rochester Saturday morning and have the opportunity to interact.

You know, this gathering of women that Akwaba is doing at the at the AME Zion Church, I think also really helps to highlight what it takes and what it took to allow the Underground Railroad to operate.

You know, this is not we hear about people like Harriet Tubman and we talk about singular individuals.

But these things don't happen in singularity.

You know, they happen through networks and people collaborating to make these things happen.

That's how the Underground Railroad operated.

And boy, have I been amazed in working with Tony's team and the local people at how this has come together.

People coming out of the woodwork responsible for housing and food and, you know, this this really shows what community can do when they come together.

>> And Anthony Cohen, as the founder of Freedom Walk 2026 here, what would you say about David's experience in the woods that day?

And that led him on his own journey of historical sort of discovery there?

>> Well, um, he got out of the classroom and into the world and that's where we find history.

Um, and I think, uh, there was also a bit of magic in the, in the air, a note from a historian tacked to a tree.

Um, it sounds like quite a, quite an adventure.

Um, but that is what, Freedom Walk 2026 is trying to, to find.

One of the things we decided or, uh, actually first me, I decided was I wanted to do the walk again, but I didn't want to do it alone.

Um, that I wanted to, um, amplify what would be discovered along the route.

I gathered the most amazing team, um, to figure out how to do that, how to get the widest reach.

And one of the things we decided was that every week of the walk, even though walking was occurring on a daily basis, 12 to 16 miles a day, that we needed a home base.

So we established a week long base station in different cities.

Rochester is one of the base stations, and by establishing a base station that that gives us a place to anchor ourselves, to get a sense of the community, to learn its history, but most importantly, leading up to that arrival and that residency, get to, um, work with the local community to create what we call community activations.

Um, and those have been everything from walking tours, to dramatic presentations, um, to, um, visitations of historical sites, um, and not even for the walk TLAMs edification.

It's to spread the word and get the communities that were passing through involved in their own history.

And I don't want to sound arrogant, they're already involved, but getting more people involved who may not have heard the stories that are right underneath their, their noses in their own backyards.

>> I do want to enforce that.

That's really helped all of us get together.

And I'm thinking of the big list of people who are sponsoring these programs, including one we forgot to mention, which is tonight at 530 in Macedon at the Erie Canal Park.

Tony and the crew and the Wesley Wolford's huge statue of Tubman will be there for a community band concert starting at 530.

So we hope to see you all there as well.

But we have co-sponsors from people like the Wayne County historian and Finger Lila, the Finger Lakes and Memorial A.M.E.

Zion Church and Farmington Friends, and the Greater Rochester Community of Churches.

And, um, and that's only probably half of what we have listed.

So many people have come together.

Oh, Monroe Community College, we owe them a huge thanks for putting you all up for a whole week.

Yeah.

So it has been a huge community regional effort and we hope we can keep it going.

>> And can I also ask Norm if you can weigh in on David's note about this experiential learning that he had and, and what comes to mind for you with a story like that?

>> Oh, not quite that flowery and great, but, uh, I was not really a history fan.

Um, as I was growing up and, um, what struck my interest was local history, especially local history when it comes to black folks living in Rochester.

I'm a native Rochester in my family comes from Culpeper, Virginia, and here is where I found out more about my history and family history.

Because of the history that lies here in Rochester.

Um, lo and behold, I met someone that, um, kind of extended that, that taste of interest that I had in history.

And that is the lady that I'm now married to.

Um, and I tell people her name is Shirley, but she's really, uh, reenactor that goes by the name of Anna Murray Douglass.

And she just enlightened me and Akwaaba The Heritage Associates also enlightened me with a lot of local history that really sparked my interest.

And that's why I focus on that right now.

>> Well, speaking of an act, reenactors, Susan B Anthony is often voiced by Barbara, who is on the line now calling in, hello, Barbara.

Go ahead.

>> Hi there.

Uh, I just wanted to, uh, remind folks that, uh, living history is often one of the best ways to, uh, get folks interested.

And especially with youth, like the gentleman said about how as a kid, he wasn't that interested.

But, uh, you know, seeing a person in person portraying history is often the catch basin for a future interest.

And, uh, if anybody wants Miss Anthony to show up, all they have to do is call the Susan B Anthony House here in Rochester.

And I hear there's a really good woman who appears.

>> Well, Barbara, thank you.

And, uh, she is everybody has said that she is very good.

She's very good, isn't she, Christine?

>> She is very good.

Yes.

And I hope that Susan B. Anthony might attend some of our events tomorrow and Sunday.

Saturday?

>> Uh, anything you want to add, Anthony?

>> Well, I if she's still on the line, I'd like to ask her how she became interested in Susan B Anthony story.

And then, uh, transforming herself.

>> Barbara.

>> Well, it's a big, long story.

Too long for this program, but it had to do with, uh, a principal at Jefferson Middle School when I worked there, I was a middle school counselor.

He asked people to come dressed as someone in African American history.

And this was way back in the 80s.

I wasn't that familiar.

I knew some things and I thought, Holy cow, I'm a six foot blond white woman.

How the hell am I going to do this?

And so I kind of learned more.

And, uh, I ended up, uh, wearing a simulated costume at the time as opposed to the real one I have now.

And, uh, I was going home towards the 19th ward and realized I was passing, uh, Madison.

And I knocked on the door and Lori Barnum, who without her, we wouldn't have the Anthony house.

She opened the door and I said, hi, I'm home.

>> Wow.

I'm.

>> And and she grabbed me in.

And it's been history ever since.

>> Barbara.

Wow, what a story.

Uh, thank you, by the way, Barbara, for the work that you do.

Go ahead.

Judy.

>> All of these comments raise an.

In two interesting points.

One is people in Rochester have impressed me so much because you probably heard the term intersectionality.

People are interested in equality and justice for everyone.

So Susan B Anthony is an ally for people of color and LGBTQ people have been strong allies for women's rights and black history rights.

And the Farmington Meeting House with three three major movements, initiated this movement in the 19th century.

One was abolitionism in the Underground Railroad.

One was work with Seneca people for Haudenosaunee land Rights, and one was work for women's rights.

And it still continues, as Barbara suggested.

Actually, Barbara and Christine both are also on the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse board representing all of these movements.

And I think the other thing that binds us all together now is that this isn't just about the past.

As Tony was saying, it's about the future.

What kind of world do we want to create that we want our children to live in?

That's one in which everyone is respected and heard.

>> Barbara, thank you for that phone call.

I really appreciate it.

Let me squeeze one more note in.

Tom writes to say, um, what a wonderful program.

Please wish your guests a peaceful Juneteenth.

And he's asking, what does Juneteenth mean to your guests?

So that's probably a whole hour, Tom.

But, uh, I will ask Anthony Cohen, um, what does Juneteenth mean to you now?

>> Um, Juneteenth means well, my mother's side is from Texas.

Uh, and, uh, she, um, grew up, uh, two blocks from Emancipation Park where Juneteenth has been, you know, um, celebrated for, for, for, for a century.

Um, but Juneteenth really to me means homecoming.

Um, it means, um, um, one of these hopefully continuing, uh, maybe, uh, um, um, what's the word?

Uh.

Continuing to find freedom.

Um, and, um, with the holiday itself, which has been, celebrated, uh, in Texas forever, finally gaining national status and becoming a national holiday and embraced so quickly by Americans and so voluminously.

I mean, there are celebrations everywhere.

Um, I think it's really special and, and speaks to the desire of, of, of freedom by Americans today.

>> Judy, what does Juneteenth mean to you?

>> Well, Juneteenth is new to me and it reminds me of the importance of spreading the word.

How did I, as a white young girl growing up in a working class neighborhood, ever know about that without the the kind of willingness of people to share.

So I hope we can share for all of us the ideal of freedom and and of justice for everyone.

>> Norm, what does Juneteenth mean to you?

>> Uh, Juneteenth.

Um, means a lot to me.

Um, my complexion often will confuse people as to what is he where does he come from?

And, um, I really felt it, uh, when I visited Ghana and the greeting that I got over in Africa was welcome home.

And I said, yes, this is home.

And then I come back to Rochester and come back to this country and I get the same type of welcome, but in different, different ways.

Uh, Juneteenth helps to solidify and, and get me to, um, to really feel that we are.

Who we are, but we have to continue to be who we want to be.

>> Christine Ridarsky.

>> Yeah.

Like Judy, I'm a white girl who, you know, was raised without a lot of this knowledge.

So for me, Juneteenth really is about the people who have been willing to share their heritage and their history and their experiences and to help educate me.

And I'm so grateful to the people like Norm and Tony.

Um, you know, Dr.

David Anderson, some of the people who have taken me under their wing and helped to teach me the things that I was not, you know, exposed to as a youth.

And I also think it provides some hope for the idea that we can continue to expand freedom.

>> So let's wrap up by asking Anthony Cohen about the remainder of your journey here.

So we know what's going on in Rochester.

When you depart Rochester on your way to Toronto on July 4th, what are your remaining stops here?

>> Um, so we'll continue west, uh, following, um, uh, the path of the Erie Canal, Mohawk River Valley, um, fingers crossed, but it looks like we are going to gain passage on, uh, canal boat, uh, making its return trip for the 200th of the canal.

Um, uh, we're going to, uh, finally reach Niagara Falls and do events there.

And in Buffalo.

And then we, we made an interesting decision.

We decided we were going to cross into Canada on July 1st, which is Canada Day.

Um, and that was motivated by our desire to, uh, show the love, uh, to our neighbor.

Um, uh, who, um, did so much in the cause for freedom.

Um, through the Underground Railroad story.

And then, um, conclude the project on July 4th in Toronto of all, of all, of all places, um, and, um, you know, we're at a time where, um, relationships, international relationships between our countries and others are very important and can be improved upon.

And so that's our goal.

>> Well, I greatly appreciate you spending time on this program today educating our audience, coming to Rochester and doing everything that you've done for years to educate the public.

It is really remarkable.

It's been great meeting you.

Thank you.

Anthony Cohen is a historian and founder of Freedom Walk 2026 Judy Wellman from the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum.

Have a great rest of the week here.

Thanks for sharing stories here.

>> Thank you.

Hope to see you all.

>> Norm Strothers tour guide for Akwaaba The Heritage Associates.

Thank you Norm.

Thank you and Christine Ridarsky.

We always learn so much for you from you as a historian.

Thank you very much for being here.

>> Thank you.

We hope to see everyone this weekend.

>> And everyone have a, um, have a. I'm going to echo Tom's words, have a peaceful Juneteenth.

Whether you're seeing all these wonderful folks or not.

And we'll be back with you next week on member supported public media.

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