Gateway to Freedom International Memorial

The Gateway to Freedom International Memorial sits right on the Detroit RiverWalk in Hart Plaza, marking almost the exact spot where thousands of freedom seekers once stood before crossing the river to Canada. Sculptor Ed Dwight — who also became the first Black astronaut candidate accepted into U.S. Air Force astronaut training — won a national competition to design it, and the finished bronze group shows eight larger-than-life figures preparing to board a boat, led by a conductor modeled on George DeBaptiste, the Detroit abolitionist who really did run that ferry.

Dedicated in 2001 during Detroit’s 300th-anniversary celebrations, the memorial has a direct companion piece across the water: the Tower of Freedom in Windsor, Ontario, by the same sculptor, depicting the same freedom seekers’ arrival on the Canadian side. Detroit’s Underground Railroad operated under the code name “Midnight,” and the city was one of the network’s largest terminals before the Civil War.

On our radar as a free, always-open stop that turns a walk along the riverfront into a genuine history lesson, and one that pairs naturally with a look across the water toward its Windsor counterpart.