PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN

Saturday, May 9, 2015; Station Hope Block Party, St. John’s Church, Church Avenue between W. 26 and W. 28: Joan Southgate tells the audience of the role of Cleveland, which had the code name “Hope”, in the Underground Railroad that “brought freedom seekers to freedom.” Southgate brought attention the history of the Underground Railroad by walking the 519-mile route from Ripley, Ohio to St. Catherine’s Ontario in 2002 at age 73. The Underground Railroad, once traversed by Harriet Tubman and others as they guided those escaping slavery in the Southern United States, included St. John’s Church among the Station Hope destinations.