John J. Hanrahan

Any travel experience can enlighten the traveler. Exploring US civil rights history or the places graced by the presence of the great American champion for social justice, Frederick Douglass, through travel can be life changing. The US civil rights movement and the connections of Frederick Douglass in Maryland are the focal points of my first two books. Traveling Freedom’s Road: Frederick Douglass in Maryland is my second book. The first, Traveling Freedom’s Road: A Guide to Exploring Our Civil Rights History, combines sharing the history of the civil rights movement with detailed travel advice on how and where to understand that movement through travel. Traveling Freedom’s Road: A Guide to Exploring Our Civil Rights History was selected as the best nonfiction travel book in the 2022 Best Indie Book Awards competition. In 2023, the book was selected as the best book in the African American History/Culture category by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. I grew up in Cranston, Rhode Island. Better known as Jack, my undergraduate degree is from Boston College and I earned two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. from Indiana University. My career in marketing took me to Chicago (Leo Burnett Company), Atlanta (The Coca-Cola Company), and New York City (Hanrahan Media Services). My wife and I retired to Charlottesville, Virginia where we volunteer with several community service organizations. For over a decade, I have volunteered at the Legal Aid Justice Center and with the Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. I also serve on the board of directors of the Friends of the Library. Though my career was not in travel or history, I have had a lifelong love of both. These book projects provide a chance to publish practical travel guides packed with important history and inspiring stories. Both books are filled with accounts of men and women ... both well-known and those less familiar ... who fought for equal justice and gave meaning to the words of the nation's founding documents. Thank you for supporting these projects ... and make these life-changing journeys!