Philadelphia “walking artist” Ken Johnston headed to Texas on June 18 to start on a 51-mile walk in a state where Juneteenth started, writes Valerie Russ for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Around 2,000 Union troops, under the command of Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, made their way to Galveston on June 19, 1865, to announce the decree that declared freedom for enslaved Black people in Texas.

While it was speculated that news of the Emancipation Proclamation had traveled slowly to Texas, it was actually a matter of people in power keeping knowledge from Black people that they should have been freed over two years earlier.

“When the order was read, over 250,000 Black people were freed across Texas,” said Johnston.

Johnston describes himself as a “walking artist.” He has previously made several long-distance walks to mark civil rights, the Underground Railroad, and abolition history.

To document his travels, he founded Our Walk to Freedom.

In Texas, he met with his longtime friend and Texas native Frank E. Thompson Jr., who joined him on the Juneteenth Emancipation Walk.

The friends started their walk on Juneteenth from La Marque to Houston, with the aim of doing at least 12 miles a day to arrive at their destination on Monday.

Read more about Ken Johnston and the story behind Juneteenth in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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