Twenty years ago, Joan Southgate set off on a journey, during which she retraced the steps of the Underground Railroad from Southern Ohio to Canada. When she returned, she and local writer and historian Fran Stewart wrote a book, IN HER PATH, about her walk and the Underground Railroad in Ohio. Southgate also started an organization called Restore Cleveland Hope to continue telling the stories of the heroic Freedom Seekers who escaped and those who helped them. HOPE was Cleveland's code name on the Underground Railroad.

Join NOBS, Fran Stewart, and Restore Cleveland Hope board member Jeanne Van Atta, as they recount Joan Southgate's 519-mile walk from Ripley, OH, to Canada, and onward to the creation of her dream: the restoration of the historic Cozad Bates house. Southgate’s walk and her book were the beginning of this dream, which has culminated most recently with the opening of the Underground Railroad Interpretive Center in July 2021. It is a journey worth taking.

Zoom link will be provided before the event.