Joan Southgate is a friend and mentor. She is funny, quick-witted, and always eager to learn as much as possible. She grew up in Syracuse, New York, a historical hotbed of abolitionists. Her childhood was filled with special guests at her parents’ home, including visits with celebrities such as Paul Robeson, George Schuyler, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ethel Waters, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Because she was too young to realize their importance, she still felt happy on such occasions. Joan’s grandparents were friends of Harriet Tubman, and her mother knew “Aunt Harriet” as well and would tell stories about her.
Joan benefited from a happy childhood in elementary school, as she tells it, the teacher’s pet. She was the only Black child in the classroom. She remembers the lessons about slavery and being sad about the stories that were told. American slave families traveled miles seeking freedom. As an adult, these stories still bothered Joan, and she asked herself what she could do to honor their memory.
At 72, she decided that she could walk one of the Underground Railroad trails in Ohio. She wanted to learn more about the people who helped: fellow enslaved, free Blacks, free whites, and Native Americans. During that 519-mile walk, taken over two summers, Joan discovered stories from relatives of the people who shared a united purpose to end slavery during the Underground Railroad. Joan’s beautiful story of that walk is found in In Their Path.
Joan is a retired social worker and community organizer. She founded Restore Cleveland Hope, a grassroots organization in 2003 to develop the Underground Railroad Interpretive Center at the Cozad-Bates House in Cleveland, Ohio. She won the Ragdale Foundation’s 1996 Frances Shaw Fellowship and completed a memoir, Bout Time.
Today, at 96, it is Joan’s wish that we keep sharing these incredible stories of cooperation for all people. The Yocum African American History Association (YAAHA) hero scavenger hunt has assembled nearly limitless stories of collaboration and shared history that make American history a source of pride for all. It is with great pleasure that we present One American Story: The Joan Southgate Scavenger Hunt of Heroes in Joan’s honor, coming in 2026.