• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About The Charity Report
    • Editorial
    • The Charity Report: Frequently Asked Questions
  • Bespoke Research About Charities
  • Contact The Charity Report
  • Log In

The Charity Report

your independent source of news in the charity sector

Become a Subscriber
  • Photo Essay
  • Features
  • News
  • Headlines
  • Literary Circle
    • Books Reviewed
    • Reading Now
    • Reading Next
    • Literary Circle Review Panel
  • Book Shop

Local museums: “Curiosity is at the heart of equity.”

(September 23, 2020) Continuing our focus on local museums and historic sites, this week we are spotlighting the John Freeman Walls Historic Site Historic Site and Underground Railroad Museum, located in Lakeshore (formerly Puce) Ontario. Consisting of several buildings and displays, the museum commemorates the life and work of John Freeman Walls and his wife Jane King Walls, who, after escaping American slavery themselves, settled in Puce and turned their home into a terminal on the Underground Railroad, where they assisted many other refugees achieve their freedom. This history is well known by those who have lived in the area for years. However, for visitors, local museums and historic sites ground history in time and place.

This gives white settlers in particular the chance to observe and compare the parallel track of their own ancestors to that of the Walls’ and the fugitive slaves. Rather than wondering ‘what would I have done?’, becoming curious about the history of our own families lets us situate ourselves in the history of social justice, determining our point of origin, and opening up choices for our own future trajectory.

“Curiosity is at the heart of equity,” says Nneka Allen, whose ancestors include John Freeman Walls and his wife Jane King Walls, who are featured at this historic site.

Feature Photo

A wagon with a false bottom, in which refugees could conceal themselves. Thinking of families and strangers holding one another, filled with fear and anticipation, huddled in this dark, rattling compartment, brings a physical reality to visitors’ experience of the site. (Photo courtesy of Anna Walls.) 

The John Freeman Walls Historic Site log cabin, built in 1846. John Walls and his wife Jane lived and brought up their nine children here, and it is a focal point of the museum. (Photo courtesy of Anna Walls)

Freedom Bell, on display. (Photo courtesy of Anna Walls)

Historic plaque commemorating the site. (Photo courtesy of Anna Walls) 

The Peace Chapel entrance. Built in honour of Rosa Parks, who made annual visits to the chapel, it hosts a cross built of bricks from the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. (Photo courtesy of Anna Walls)

The shared grave of John and Jane Walls, located in the Walls family cemetery. About 40 others - family, friends, and fugitive slaves- are buried here alongside them. (Photo courtesy of Anna Walls)

John Walls and Jane King Walls. Even after his arrival in Canada, John Walls never allowed anyone to take his photograph, in case it was seen by slave-catchers and used to recapture him. The likeness was made by the Detroit-Windsor Police composite artist, based on a description by Aunt Stella and Frank Walls. (Photo courtesy of the John Freeman Walls Historic Site and Underground Railroad Museum)

Published in 1980, this novel by Dr. Bryan Walls tells the story of John and Jane Walls’s sojourn to the area, and their subsequent work with the Underground Railroad. In recognition of this contribution to Black History, Dr. Walls received the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario. (Photo courtesy of Anna Walls)

A young girl sitting atop a wagon at the museum. (Photo courtesy of Anna Walls).

Related

Amherstburg Freedom Museum: Commemorating the Underground Railroad in Canada, September 16, 2020

Filed Under: Photo Essay Tagged With: John Freeman Walls Historic Site, John Walls, Underground Railroad Museum Canada

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe and download your intelligence reports

For $360 a year or $35 a month, you will receive exclusive up to 10 comprehensively researched intelligence reports.  Reports available to subscribers now include:

  • Community Giving: The Growth and Giving Priorities of Community Foundations (January 2021)
  • Who Give and Who Gets: The Beneficiaries of Private Foundation Philanthropy (December 2020)
  • Charity Sector Employees: Employee Stats, Industry Compensation and Salary Averages for 2018 (September 2020)
  • Where Wealth Resides: The Funding of Philanthropy (July 2020)
  • The Cost of Conflict: How we measure the global failure in Syria (June 2020) 

Subscribe and download now!

Books of the Week

How to lose everything: Unimaginable and uplifting

February 18, 2021 By Literary Circle

The Art of Logic: Arriving Just in Time

January 28, 2021 By Literary Circle

Undercurrents: Channeling our outrage

December 18, 2020 By Literary Circle

What Bears Teach Us: The push and pull of co-existence

December 9, 2020 By Literary Circle

When More is Not Better by Roger Martin: ‘Has the familiarity of my grandma’s wisdom’

December 8, 2020 By Literary Circle

Takaya: What a lone wolf teaches us

December 2, 2020 By Literary Circle

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Footer

About

The Charity Report is an independent voice in the charity sector. Our job is to provide knowledgeable well-balanced, well-researched information to people working in the charity sector. We showcase the work of charities within the context they are operating, provide analysis of sector wide trends and ask tough questions when we have to. We offer news in the form a free website, a series of intelligence reports for subscribers and bespoke research for any organization seeking individualized information.

Learn more.

Recent

  • Great Women Authors: 10 of the best
  • Why we experience ‘Zoom fatigue’ and what can be done about it
  • CCA announces additional funding for arts organizations
  • Participation in the arts makes Canadians healthier
  • Looking for an alternative to performative webinars on race?

Search

Copyright © 2021 The Charity Report · Log in