A Journey In Our Footprints

A Journey In Our Footprints is planned to be installed in 2025-2026 along the Louisville River Walk and will feature the footprints of four Black Louisvillians. The footprints represent enslaved people walking along the edge of the river seeking to cross the Ohio to begin their journey to freedom. The installation of sandblasted and/or painted footprints will begin at 4th and River Road and follow the river walk to the On the Banks of Freedom public art installation between 9th and 10th St. that was unveiled in June 2021.

The footprints were contributed by:

Elmer Lucille Allen – artist and the first Black woman chemist at Brown-Forman.
Malik Barker – a grandchild of the late University of Louisville educator J. Blaine Hudson, who was a leading figure in Louisville’s Black community.
Nigel Blackburn – whose family name holds significance (even though it is unknown if he is related to the Blackburns who escaped enslavement in Kentucky) and who was part of the Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center (YVPRC), and who participated in ideation for creating A Journey In Our Footprints.
Brianna Wright – Wright ran a successful campaign for Jecorey Arthur’s Metro Council bid. Arthur was the youngest Black councilmember elected to serve. Wright is also Hannah Drake’s daughter.

The same sets of footprints are featured as part of On the Banks of Freedom.

To create the stencil for the footprints, Josh Miller and Hannah Drake painted the bottoms of the four individual’s feet and had them walk on large sheets of paper at Roots 101 African American Museum. The footprints were then digitized by Miller to create the layout and to generate the files for the metal stencils created by Stoneworks Lettering and Rockerbuilt Studio.

Photos by Josh Miller and Brianna Wright