Linda Harris took her first Harriet Tubman walk in 2020. The pandemic was raging, and although conventional wisdom urged us to shelter indoors, Harris’ spirit compelled her to do otherwise. She needed to breathe. Since 1987, Harris had owned and operated a DC-based real estate management company, but she felt ready for a “second act.” By 2018, Harris had begun attending jazz workshops and taking piano and voice lessons, hoping to break through as a jazz vocalist. She went on to release two albums and performed on national and international stages. A thrilling highlight was an opportunity to sing with the New York Jazz Academy in front of 15,000 people at the Panama Jazz Festival. But even as she embraced her inner Ella, COVID slowed Harris’ roll. And far worse than that setback was a deepening sadness: After nearly three decades of marriage, Harris’ husband left her. She remembers this as “the lowest point in my life.” In 2019, Harris turned the real estate business over to her son and began walking. And then she walked some more.
It became apparent to me that I was not going to feel good again unless I did what Harriet did to find freedom. Getting outside, getting in nature, walking the way our forefathers walked—that’s the answer.
Each and every day of the pandemic, Harris used walking through parks and wooded areas to cope with the craziness in her life. She trained for months and built her stamina up to the point where she was able to walk 20 miles a day for six days—an experience, she says, that changed her in a magnificent way. Meanwhile, a voice from history called her from the pages of a book her father gave her when she was a child. It was Harriet Tubman’s. “It became apparent to me that I was not going to feel good again unless I did what Harriet did to find freedom,” Harris says. “Getting outside, getting in nature, walking the way our forefathers walked—that’s the answer.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc_SjpsGct4
She put a post out on Facebook saying that she wanted to walk the Underground Railroad, and seven women joined her in retracing Tubman’s route from Cambridge, Maryland to Philadelphia. Along the way, Harris learned not only about Tubman but also about herself. As Harris went on other Tubman walks, she began to heal, grow, and reshape the course of her life. In 2020, she entered a “third act” when she became Director of Programs and Events at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge, Maryland. In addition to directing her time and talent to the educational center, she also started a GoFundMe page, which has raised over $7500 for the museum so far.
Harris also started giving walking tours that told the story of Tubman’s escape to freedom. These tours incorporated "code and signal songs” performed with a guitarist named David B Cole. In 2022, Harris released her fourth album, I Got Shoes. And in 2023, Harris and Cole were married; evidently, they’d made much more than a musical connection. “You just can't plan for this stuff,” Harris says. “But what I have learned is that when you have passion and care about other people, the most wonderful things happen.” Harris, now 67, shares her thoughts on the lessons of Harriet Tubman, the blessing of aging, and what embracing the power of the ancestors can do for us all.