Nebraska teacher stops in Lombard during 500-mile slavery awareness walk

Barry Jurgensen was prepared to do a lot of camping when he began a 527-mile journey on foot last month from his home in Nebraska to Chicago.

Yet, over the 32-day trek, he had to stay outside only two or three times.

"There are people all along the way that have invited us into their homes, fed us, let us use their showers, washed our clothes," he said. "It's been a true Underground Railroad experience."

Jurgensen, a history teacher, was inspired to take the lengthy trip - which he termed Walk Forever Free - after viewing what he says was a shocking and eye-opening exhibit about modern-day slavery and human trafficking at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

"I couldn't stand by knowing that slavery still existed and do nothing," he said.

His walking route loosely follows in the footsteps of two teenagers, Eliza Grayson and Celia, who made stops at Underground Railroad sites during their escape to freedom in the late 1850s. The girls were born into slavery in Virginia and used for sexual purposes when their owner moved with them to Nebraska.

This week, Jurgensen has been passing through the Western suburbs, taking breaks in DeKalb, St. Charles and Wheaton. He made a stop Friday at the Peck Homestead in Lombard, an Underground Railroad site that is part of the National Park Service's Network to Freedom.

On Saturday, he will complete his walk in Chicago, his beard grown out, his skin sunburned, his mind filled with thoughts of new ways he can continue to raise awareness about slavery in the future.

"The likelihood of (Eliza and Celia) stopping here, we don't know for sure, but for me, to know that this history is being preserved is so important," Jurgensen said during his visit to the Peck Homestead. "It helps me kind of imagine where the girls went. Chicago was in sight and that was security, that was safety. I think of my family at the end, my wife and my kids are waiting, and I get to see them. That's kind of my freedom."

Jurgensen said one of the most moving moments of his trip was when a sex trafficking survivor shared her story with him after a presentation he made in Iowa.

"It really made it more real," he said. "It is everywhere, and the only way we're going to see it is if we're diligent and we open our eyes to realities of this horrific social injustice."

For the last 50 miles of his journey, Jurgensen is being joined by Robert Benz and Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., co-founders of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, which works to educate youths, particularly kids who have been sexually abused or come from broken families, about human trafficking.

Morris said he is the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington, two men born into slavery who used knowledge to empower themselves when they became free men. He urged residents gathered at the Peck Homestead Friday to consider ways they contribute to modern-day slavery, particularly with the products they purchase.

"Are we complicit in allowing slavery to thrive and exist because we want products so cheap?" he said. "Think about your footprint and how your seafood, the chocolate industry, the garment industry, the rugs that we stand on, you can go on and on, there's slave labor usually somewhere in the supply chain."

Benz and Jurgensen added that children need to learn about slavery at a young age because that is when they are most vulnerable.

"We need to educate our children on how to prevent the growth of slavery today and we have to look at history for inspiration, like the story of Eliza and Celia and how they achieved their freedom," Jurgensen said. "It was a multiracial network of people, both men and women, that helped them escape. We have to use that inspiration today because modern-day slavery affects all of us."