Bikers follow Underground Railroad
April 15, 2007By: ROBERT McCLENDON
Staff Reporter
Press-Register
Sixty-six-year-old Yuji Komoto's tiny frame urged his bicycle forward through Mobile's downtown Saturday. He was on his way to Canada.
Almost a century and a half after slavery was abolished, Komoto, who is from Japan, and 15 American companions are making a 2,100-mile trek from Mobile to Owen Sound, in Ontario, Canada, that follows the trip made by escaped slaves who made their way north on the Underground Railroad.
The journey marks the official opening of the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route, a string of mostly country roads connecting historical landmarks related to the legendary network of safe houses used to harbor fugitive slaves.
The troop of intrepid bikers following that path began Saturday in downtown and met for a send off ceremony at the Africatown Welcome Center -- a featured location on the route -- in Mobile's Plateau community.
Alvin Justelien, of the Adventure Cycling Association, which mapped out the route, said Africatown was a logical fixture to include on the trip.
"It just makes sense, considering it was the last place where a slave ship ever landed in the United States," he said. "There are so many landmarks associated with the Underground Railroad, you couldn't possibly hit them all. But there are some very important stops that you can't miss."
The Cycling Association and The Center for Minority Health at the University of Pittsburgh partnered to create the route.
Mario Browne, a project director for the center, is among the cyclists making the journey. He said the center got involved to help promote a healthy lifestyle.
"This route presents the perfect opportunity to combine fitness and education about our cultural heritage," said Browne, who is black. He also said it is a chance to get more minorities involved in cycling.
Norman Peterson, a 39-year-old nurse, said he has been biking for 24 years, but the Underground Railroad trip was special to him.
"Being an African-American male, to walk in the same footsteps of the men and women who made this trek, it's unbelievable. It's very important to me," he said. "The things Harriet Tubman and the other people on the Underground Railroad were able to do with so little support, it's inspiring."
Fleeing slaves on the Underground Railroad were told to follow "the drinking gourd," a code word for the Big Dipper, to find their way north. Historians say many of them followed rivers upstream until they got out of the South. The bicycle route follows a path many of them may have used, starting in Mobile, then moving north through Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. The route then turns north east through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York before ending in Canada.
Komoto said he was looking for adventure after he retired in Japan. He hopes to find it on his cycling journey. The group was to spend the night in Mobile before leaving today.
His enthusiasm was clear as he spoke, mixing Japanese when his English failed him.
"Many Japanese do not know American slave history," he said, adding that he is excited to learn more about those who escaped. "It will be difficult. But compared to their trouble, their struggle, we should not complain."
For more information on the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route, go to adventurecycling.org.
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