In honor of Women’s History Month, the women of GirlTrek chose to honor the bravery of Harriet Tubman by retracing her escape from slavery to freedom on a 100-mile Underground Railroad route. The route runs from eastern Maryland into Delaware and took the group five days to complete.
As stated in their Instagram bio, GirlTrek is the “largest public health movement for Black women and girls.” The main mission of GirlTrek is to encourage Black women to get active and change their lives by simply walking. The 10-person group that assembled for this challenging demonstration of admiration included members hailing from Sacramento and New Orleans. The group, along with women who joined the effort along the way, documented their journey via social media using the hashtag #HarrietsGreatEscape.
Co-founder of GirlTrek, T. Morgan Dixon shared, “We will show and prove that 2018 is about radical courage and unshakeable sisterhood. Harriet Tubman saved her own life first and then went back time after time to save the lives of others giving us the blueprint for the work GirlTrek does today.”
Following Tubman’s example, GirlTrek members have first transformed their own lives and serve as examples to inspire each other as the organization grows. GirlTrek has been honoring the historic plight of Harriet Tubman since 2013, the 100th anniversary of Tubman’s reported death.
They have chronicled their efforts online using the hashtag #WeAreHarriet. “What would Harriet do?” was the question that co-founders Dixon and Vanessa Garrison asked themselves as the inspiration for the formation of GirlTrek. Their interpretation of the answer to this question: “Walk towards the light. Walk to freedom,” spawned a new movement of Black women who are health conscious and just as committed to taking care of themselves as they are to their communities. Garrison remarked in a press conference, “If Harriet Tubman could walk herself to freedom, we can certainly walk ourselves to better health.
We salute you, GirlTrek and are sure that the spirit of Harriet Tubman is also beaming with pride.