Hometown Heroes
180 Years after Lewis and Harriet Hayden escaped from Lexington, the heroic couple are honored by that city with a memorial statue.
On June 19, 2025, 400 people, including Lexington’s mayor and Kentucky’s governor, gathered to unveil a larger-than-life statue honoring Lewis and Harriet Hayden. The monument was the result of more than five years of organizing and fundraising by a group under the umbrella Lexington’s Freedom Train in “an effort to memorialize our cruel history of slavery and to help us heal from it.”
At the time of the unveiling, the group had raised $600,000 while still seeking $275,000 to landscape the adjacent park and for educational initiatives. Joel Strangis was among those introduced at the ceremony. Three speakers, and many committee members, acknowledged the inspiration they received from Joel’s 1999 book: Lewis Hayden and the War Against Slavery, still Hayden’s only full-length biography.
Joel and Diane Strangis with their grandchildren after the unveiling of the statue in Lexington.
