Journey to Freedom: Harriet Tubman Still on the Move, part 1 by Maria Dintino

Moderator’s Note: This post is brought to you by a collaboration by FAR and Nasty Women Writers written and hosted by Maria and Theresa Dintino. This post originally appeared on their website on Feb. 20,2024. It has been updated to reflect recent events. the post is subtitled: Nasty Women Writers: Breaking the Bronze Ceiling – Statues of Real Women in Public Spaces

It’s quite fitting that the 9-foot bronze statue of Harriet Tubman, named Journey to Freedom is still on the move, as was Tubman for much of her life.

Since 2020, the statue has traveled around the country. It’s currently on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, in Historic Mitcheville Freedom Park. The monument will remain on Hilton Head through April 2025 and from there be transported to Vienna, Virginia.

Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women’s suffrage (Wikipedia).

The Beacon of Hope, Cambridge, Maryland

While sculptor Wesley Wofford’s Journey to Freedom continues its travels, his second statue of Tubman has been permanently installed in Cambridge, Maryland, a few miles from where she was born. The Beacon of Hope, erected in 2022, the bicentennial of Tubman’s birth, resides in front of the courthouse.

A Higher Power: The Call of a Freedom Fighter, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Sculptor Alvin Pettit and his design for a permanent statue of Harriet Tubman in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia is one of the cities of significance in Tubman’s remarkable story. It’s where she ended up in 1849 after fleeing slavery in Maryland and where she orchestrated subsequent trips to free others.

Because the traveling Journey to Freedom was so well received in Philadelphia, sculptor Wofford was targeted to create a permanent sculpture for the city. Yet, after locals demanded a transparent and inclusive process for the selection of an artist and design, an official call went out. Cherelle Parker, new mayor of Philadelphia had this to say about  selected sculptor, Alvin Pettit, and the statue:

“Harriet Tubman was a beacon of light at a dark time in our nation’s history, and she helped Black people find freedom through the Underground Railroad…Her recognition and this work of art in her honor, created by an artist of color, is overdue and welcomed. Hundreds of thousands will see this sculpture every year outside City Hall. As the first ever woman mayor of Philadelphia, and as a Black woman, I am thrilled that the first piece of public art to be approved under this administration will be this statue of a Black woman who fought for freedom here in Philadelphia — Harriet Tubman”(https://theurbannews.com/lifestyles/2022/a-new-beacon-of-hope/).

Shadow of a Face, Newark, New Jersey

Architect Nina Cooke John stands with the Harriet Tubman monument she designed (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

In June 2021, Newark, New Jersey’s Mayor Ras J. Baraka announced that a Harriet Tubman monument, designed by artist Nina Cooke John, would replace the statue of Christopher Columbus that was removed the previous summer. The park where this rather vast monument has been installed was renamed Harriet Tubman Square on Juneteenth, 2022.

John’s sculpture of Harriet Tubman, Shadow of a Face, was unveiled on March 14, 2023. At the unveiling, Mayor Baraka shared:

“In a time when so many cities are choosing to topple statues that limit the scope of their people’s story, we have chosen to erect a monument that spurs us into our future story of exemplary strength and solidity. In a country where the overwhelming majority of monuments are testaments to white males, Newark has chosen to erect a monument to a Black woman who was barely five feet tall, but had the visage and power of a giant…We have created a focal point in the heart of our city that expresses our participation in an ongoing living history of a people who have grappled through many conflicts to steadily lead our nation in its progress toward racial equality. Harriet Tubman Square and its interactive centerpiece sculpture, Shadow of a Face, represent our past, present, and future”(https://www.archpaper.com/2023/03/nina-cooke-john-designed-harriet-tubman-monument-unveiled-in-newark/).

Breaking the Bronze Ceiling

Considering what Tubman confronted and accomplished in her lifetime, it’s not surprising that she has generated a solid number of monuments. What continues to surprise and dismay is that so many other worthy, notable women are blatantly missing in public spaces in cities around our country.

But again, there is momentum and a movement to break the bronze ceiling. Take a look at some of our previous posts on this issue:

Woman Writer, Educator and Activist Mary McLeod Bethune: Standing Tall in the Hall

Justice Ginsburg Day: Honoring the ‘Judicial Giant’

Breaking the Bronze Ceiling: One Inspiring Sculpture at a Time!

Visibility Matters: A Statue for Mary Wollstonecraft

Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso: “A Personality with A Thousand Faces” Now in Bronze

Virginia Woolf: A Bench of Her Own, With Room for You

Part 2, tomorrow