The Freedom Walk makes its final stops this weekend in Windsor and Amherstburg.
The walk team has travelled by foot, boat, and rail from Maryland to Niagara Falls, where they crossed the Rainbow Bridge. From there, the team has been making its way to Essex County.
The journey retraces the Underground Railroad to Canada. The group brings with them the Harriet Tubman Journey to Freedom statue.
This is the second time historian Anthony Michael Cohen has made the Freedom Walk. He first made the journey in 1996 after completing research on the path taken by many escaping slavery.
"One of the reasons we did Freedom Walk 2026 was to tap the pulse of America and Canada," said Cohen. "We crossed into Canada on Canada Day to thank Canada for keeping its doors open."
The group was at the John Freeman Walls Historic Site and Museum in Lakeshore on Friday morning before coming to the Sandwich First Baptist Church in Sandwich Towne.
Irene Moore Davis, Assistant Curator of the Amherstburg Freedom Museum and President of the Essex County Black Historical Research Society, said it's very symbolic to have the journey end here.
"The Detroit River was one of the most important crossings into British North America for people seeking freedom from slavery," said Davis. "Detroit was known as midnight; this area was known as dawn. People even living in slavery in the South knew that if they could get here, their chances of crossing over into freedom were immensely better."
The final stop on the walk is the Amherstburg Freedom Museum on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"Bringing Harriet here is certainly a crowd pleaser. A lot of people relate to her story, and she's certainly the most famous representative of the Underground Railroad, so it's really special that this sculpture is here in our community," said Davis.
The large bronze sculpture, designed in 2019 by artist Wesley Wofford, has travelled throughout Canada and the United States to mark the important places along the Underground Railroad.
