Email 7

Date: June 14, 2002

Dateline: CLEVELAND

My good friend, Clara, is amazing in her ability to save and send personal bits and pieces that are, like the kids say, right on time. She is always walking around the corner to leave me just what I need. Here is part of what was recently tucked into my mailbox:

"Bound Noth Blues" by Langston Hughes
Goin down the road, Lawd,
Goin down the road.
Down the road, Lawd,
Way, way down the road.
Got to find somebody
To help me carry this load.

Roads in front o me,
Nothin to do but walk.
Roads in front o me,
Walkan walk an walk.
Id like to meet a good friend
To come along an talk.

(Perfect, because I have had so many good friends not only help me carry this load but to lift me to soaring for two whole months. Langsons rhythm of walking is just right but I have to say there wasnt nuthin bout blues in this joy filled journey.)

I am home!!! At the end of my journey. No, not the end, this wonderful adventure can only continue because of all that I am learning and because of all the good friends involved. Old friends, who worked so hard to help me plot, plan and lay out the course. New friends who opened their homes and their hearts throughout Ohio. And the children, all of the children (at home and abroad) who shared their wisdom and joy.

Weather: The morning was overcast and threatening. But it did not rain on me, the sun came out for our walk down E. 105 from Bratenahl to Ciizens Academy, Nik and Jeremys school.

Where I walked this week: Beside Lake Erie on route 6 from Huntington Park through Bay Village, Rocky River, Lakewood to H. Barbara Booker School on W. 67th Street, across the Lorain/Carnegie Bridge, across E. 9th, Burke Airport, up North Marginal Rd to Bratenahl. IM HOME!-- this is just where I did 14 months of training for this grand walk. I am in my own neighborhood, How lovely to walk on familiar ground: down East Blvd. to Lake Erie, up the bike path ramp and out along the shaded streets of Bratenahl Village.

The safe houses I stayed in: this last part of my journey was arranged so that I would not have to be driven long distances to reach my starting point each morning. I stayed with wonderful families in Bay Village, Lakewood and Bratenahl. And I walked without a driver leading me because I was safe and sure on the sidewalks of my hometown.

What I learned about the Underground Railroad: Kayln Browns mom, Victoria, from Sheffield Lake arranged a guided tour by the park ranger of the Burrell House that will be open to the public in August. The home was willed to the Township and is being beautifully restored. The exciting part was finding that it has a direct connection to the Oberlin King House that Bill Johnson (old Cleveland friend, and driver for four days) and I stayed in with Jerry and Jan DeMarinis. The full name is the Burrell/King House, it is the same family of abolitionists. So escaping slaves would be housed in Oberlin and then guided to safety at the Sheffield Township home where they would sometimes stay several weeks to rest and be cared for and to help out on the farm as part of a free community, before they completed their journey to true freedom in Canada.

The people I met: Not only was I on home territory I was surrounded by old friends. All of my drivers from Oberlin on have been Cleveland friends, many from Shadybrook/Laymens Retreat, Gwen Dwyer, Bob and Shirley Mindheim, Linda and Carla Durnbaugh.

Who walked with me: Janice Cogger came and drove on Saturday the 25th when the walk was joined by Charles See and eight young men from his Community Re-Entry group plus Roberta Foster and a busload of very young children, members of the Young African American Reclamation Project. And my friend Ann Pratt (we worked together as organizers at Senior Citizens Coalition in the eighties) and her husband Ken Esposito and their son Eliot drove down from Connecticut to join the walk for a day. Plus our friends Sue Lacy and Kate Frye from Bath, Ohio. What a glorious group. This huge group really attracted the attention of all the people working on their lakeside Bay Village lawns.

One thing I really want you know about my week: The walk down East 105th Street into a loud, cheering, streamer waving, group of Citizens Academy young scholars was breathtaking. And that was just the beginning. The room was filled with pretty, bright, white chairs, signs, and the sweet smiling faces of all the people I had missed. The childrens choir sang Mr. Beasleys rhythmic, powerful medley of We Shall Overcome, Freedom! and Before Id Be a Slave. It was an arrangement that made the old familiar so sound completely, inspiringly new. There were speeches from the Cuyahoga County Commissioner, and city councilmen (mine is councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott), and a poem (Harriet Tubman Didnt Take No Stuff recited by third grader, Anaya Walker wow), Perry presented an exquisite mounted clear plaque declaring me the winner of the first annual Citizens Academy Citizen Of The Year Award.

My son Rob, his wife Candace and their two-year-old daughter Irene had come in from Memphis to walk the last few miles. And Teci, my hard-working daughter/coach/email handler/database supervisor/cheer leader, flew in from Atlanta to welcome me and to see the faces of and exchange hugs with my huge group of hardworking Cleveland friends she had been working with through phone, real mail, email and fax for over a year.

Oh, and there was a big cake decorated with the map of Ohio and the IN THEIR PATH! route.

Sonya Pryor-Jones and the Parent Family Organization plus Perry, Dana, Ms. Cottom (Jeremys teacher) Ms. Hamilton (Nikolas teacher) and all of Citizens Academy had obviously worked hard on this heart-warming welcome.

Needless to say my struggle through joyfully grateful tears made my words feel disjointed and babbling. Why is it so hard for me to accept the two-word phrase, Thank You, as adequate? Did I say Thank you loud enough? Often enough? Clearly enough? There should be something more elaborately sparkling to say to all of the family, neighbors, old friends and new/old friends who have given me so much IN THEIR PATH!

All of the love, praise, tears-of joy, and rounds-of-applause echoes resoundingly back over the miles, back over the centuries to cheer each of the strong, bright, brave slave families and each of the strong, bright, brave abolitionist families. THEY CAN HEAR US!

It has been an extraordinary, transforming, glorious journey that has filled my heart and my soul with more ideas for honoring all of those unnamed, unknown courageous American slaves who have given all of us Americans so much.

I thank you. I thank them.

EVERYONE IS INVITED TO COME TO A CONVERSATION WITH JOAN SOUTHGATE AT CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY AT 1;00PM SATURDAY JUNE 15TH. Bring your questions and comments, your friends and your families, well have a good talk about the walk.

And next week I will be speaking at Baylor Medical School in Houston TX...Nope I am not walking I will fly this time:) As Always IN THEIR PATH!

Joan Southgate